Gao Wu: If this BOSS isn't nerfed, is it even playable?

Chapter 150 The Candle Illuminating the Nine Netherworlds

With a slight clicking sound, the huge canvas hanging directly in front of the darkroom gradually revealed its true form, starting from the top.

Lin Ye stared intently ahead, his entire attention focused on what lay before him.

Chang Siming's voice, along with the appearance of the image, slowly echoed in the empty, dark room.

"The 'Candle Illuminating the Nine Netherworlds' painting takes the Zhulong (Candle Dragon) from the mythology of the Great Xia Dynasty as the core of contemplation, using its supreme power of opening its eyes to represent day and closing its eyes to represent night to temper the spirit."

"To visualize this image, one must construct in one's mind the magnificent image of the Candle Dragon coiled in the Nine Netherworlds, swallowing Yin and Yang."

"Gradually comprehend the profound principles of the universe, such as the cycle of day and night and the alternation of light and darkness, so that the spirit can see through all things like a dragon's eyes and the will can be as unshakable as a mountain."

His voice seemed to carry a guiding power, giving everyone a preliminary understanding and anticipation of what was about to happen.

However, the entire picture has not yet been fully unfolded.

What appeared on the screen was merely a vast, boundless sky and a majestic, divine peak that seemed to pierce the heavens.

The main body of the Candle Dragon was not even visible, with only a few enormous back scales appearing faintly in the clouds and mist at the mountain peak.

Even though it's just the tip of the iceberg, it still shakes people's hearts!
"Well!"

A muffled groan, barely suppressed, suddenly rang out in the silent, dark room.

Immediately following was a dull thud as the body collapsed to the ground.

Chang Siming seemed to have expected this, and simply sighed softly.

Outside the dark room, several instructors who were on standby quickly entered and skillfully carried out the pale-faced, unconscious student.

A cold voice sounded at the doorway.

“Zhou Kai, your mental strength is not up to standard. You forced yourself to observe. Deduct 10 points.”

This scene sent a chill down the spines of all the students who were still conscious.

Sure enough, some people, hoping to get away with it, forced their way in despite their insufficient mental strength.

"Never force it."

Chang Siming's voice rang out again, carrying a hint of admonition.

"There is no need to read the entire 'Illumination of the Nine Netherworlds'. With your current mental strength, as long as you can roughly remember some of the scenes and use them for visualization afterward, it will also have the effect of tempering your spirit."

"If you have a strong enough mental capacity, you can try to read the whole picture and remember as many details as possible. This will be of great benefit to your subsequent visualization."

His words awakened everyone present.

They were still caught up in their obsession.

What they should do is not to obsess over the picture, but to understand its imagery and imprint it in their minds as an "anchor point" for their future spiritual practice.

Once they understood this, many people's tense minds relaxed a little.

The scroll continues to slowly descend.

After counting the breaths.

A giant mental visualization diagram, over thirty meters high and fifty meters wide, was finally presented in its entirety to everyone!

With the help of cutting-edge projection technology, the precision and color of the entire painting have reached an outrageous level.

The curtain in front of me seemed to disappear, turning into a huge window.

On the other side of the window, everything looked so real!

boom!
An indescribable aura of desolation and dominance from the primordial era seemed to transcend endless time and space, rushing out from the painting!

"Uh……"

"Pfft!"

Then came a series of muffled groans and the sound of someone falling to the ground.

Several more trainees, upon seeing the full image, could not withstand the terrifying mental pressure, their eyes rolled back, and they fainted instantly.

The instructors came back in and carried these people away one by one.

This time, the number of points deducted was less, but it was still a significant punishment.

The once lively dark room now has fewer than 30 people left.

Those who remained were all exceptional individuals with mental fortitude far exceeding that of ordinary people.

Lin Ye endured the terrifying pressure that seemed to crush his soul, his eyes fixed on every corner of the giant painting.

What he had to do was to imprint all the key points and details of the entire painting deep in his memory before he could completely give up!
On the scroll is a magnificent crimson dragon whose grandeur defies description.

Its body was incredibly large, wrapped around the towering peak that stretched from heaven to earth, and the exposed part alone was enough to blot out the sun.

The painting mainly depicts the dragon's head, followed by its body and tail, which are hidden at the end of the picture, making it impossible to imagine just how huge it is.

On the dragon's head, every crimson scale seemed to burn with an inextinguishable divine fire, flowing with a magma-like luster.

The dragon, Zhulong, climbs atop a mountain, its head bowed, gazing down at the world below. Its half-open, half-closed eyes become the core of the entire painting.

Its left eye opened slightly, and a dazzling golden light burst forth, tearing through the thick clouds and illuminating half the sky as bright as day.

Its right eye is also half closed, and endless darkness and shadow spread out from the right side of the picture like a tide, submerging the other half of the earth and forming an eternal night.

In this painting, light and darkness are clearly distinct yet coexist perfectly.

Beneath the divine peak lies the unfathomable depths of the Nine Netherworlds.

There was a churning, black abyss where countless twisted, tormented, and even desperate phantoms floated and wailed, as if it were a collection of all the negative emotions in the world.

However, neither the light of day nor the shadows of night could fully penetrate that abyss, and the light of the Candle Dragon seemed unable to illuminate that dark place.

The entire painting, with its striking composition, embodies the supreme artistic conception of the phrase "illuminating the nine netherworlds."

"call……"

Chang Siming's voice also sounded hoarse and tired.

Even he had to endure immense mental pressure every time he viewed this painting.

According to my ancestor, the "Illuminating the Nine Netherworlds" painting has three images.

"The first sign is what you are seeing right now: a dragon's body coiled around a mountain, marking the division of day and night!"

"You only need to remember this feeling, and try to remember the details, and you can use the first image to visualize and temper your spirit."

"But if you can withstand the pressure and concentrate your divine senses even more, you will have the opportunity to see the second phenomenon—the dragon's roar in the nine netherworlds, the rotation of yin and yang!"

"According to my ancestor, the key to the second symbol lies in the dragon scales."

"And the third image is the illumination of eternity, the great way is simple!"

"The key lies in the longan."

"Perhaps there are deeper meanings hidden in the whole picture, but that's all I know for now."

"The training camp lasts for thirty days. Everyone will have the opportunity to come and observe every day. As long as you can successfully construct the first image in your mind, you can practice visualization anywhere."

"Please remember this mantra: Candlelight governs the night, divine eyes penetrate the netherworld, one thought brings light, one thought brings eternal night!"

"Silently reciting the mantra can stabilize the mind and resist the mental pressure brought by this picture."

As Chang Siming finished speaking, someone else in the dark room couldn't hold on any longer, stood up unsteadily, and voluntarily left the dark room.

Lin Ye didn't know if they had already completed their memories or if their mental strength had reached its limit.

He no longer has the time or energy to think about these things.

He simply followed Chang Siming's instructions and silently recited the mantra repeatedly in his mind.

A refreshing sensation suddenly rose from the depths of his consciousness, clearing his mind, which had been somewhat chaotic due to the immense pressure he was under.

Just at this moment.

"Groan——!!!"

A dragon's roar, seemingly from the primordial beginnings and resounding throughout the heavens and earth, exploded in his mind without warning!
Lin Ye was startled.

The scene before his eyes suddenly changed!

The once still painting came to life!
The enormous whiskers of the Candle Dragon swayed slightly in the fierce winds atop the Divine Peak.

The half-open longan seemed to have begun to open and close extremely slowly.

Every barely perceptible blink causes a dramatic shift in the light and darkness of the world.

The ever-changing landscape, with its seas turning into mulberry fields and all things changing, flashed before his eyes like a revolving lantern.

The only constant is the eternal cycle of day and night.

In modern scientific terms, day and night are simply the rotation of a planet.

But at this moment, Lin Ye comprehended a profound meaning of the Great Dao that could not be described in words within this simple cycle.

This is not an illusion!
Lin Ye was absolutely certain.

What he saw and heard was the false illusion that Siming spoke of that needed to be resisted and eliminated.

Rather, it was the "imagery" of the painting itself that he truly felt through observing "Candlelight Illuminating the Nine Netherworlds"!
This is the first image of the visualization diagram that Chang Siming mentioned!
The dragon's body coils around the mountain, dividing day and night!
Lin Ye forcibly stabilized his mind, which was almost shattered by the dragon's roar.

Following Chang Siming's instructions, he repeatedly recited that mantra in his mind.

As he silently recited the mantra, wisps of cool thoughts emerged from the deepest part of his consciousness, resisting the terrifying pressure from the primordial chaos.

He seized this precious moment of respite and devoted all his energy to the vivid painting that had come to life before him.

The crimson dragon scales flowed with a magma-like luster, and the patterns on each scale seemed to contain some kind of profound truth of heaven and earth.

The half-open left eye emitted a divine light that illuminated half the sky, and wherever the light reached, all things flourished.

The darkness that spread from the tightly closed right eye swallowed up the other half of the earth, and under the shadow, everything fell silent.

Lin Ye exerted all his strength to imprint these core points and key details little by little in his sea of ​​consciousness, gradually perfecting them.

When Chang Siming's grandfather, the Martial Saint Chang Weiting, saw the original painting in the ancient ruins, he must have used a similar method to bring back a part of the essence of this amazing scroll to Earth.

As the imprint in Lin Ye's sea of ​​consciousness gradually became complete, a series of notification sounds rang in his mind. [Ding! You have completed the imprinting of the first image of the mental visualization technique: "Illuminating the Nine Netherworlds." This image will appear in your sea of ​​consciousness, allowing you to enhance your mental attributes.]

[The maximum number of Spirit Points that can be obtained under the current Imagery Realm is 500!]

As your understanding of the imagery in "Illuminating the Nine Netherworlds" deepens, the spiritual attribute boosted by this technique will gradually increase, up to a maximum of 1000 points!

The moment Lin Ye received the system notification, he felt a sense of relief.

He discovered that even without looking at the huge holographic projection in front of him, a slightly blurry image that needed a lot of detail to fill in had already been deeply imprinted in his mind and could be retrieved at any time.

This saves so much trouble!

Others who wish to visualize it must exert great effort to recall it and reconstruct it little by little in their sea of ​​consciousness; if they make even the slightest mistake, the effect will be greatly diminished.

But for him, it was as if he possessed a high-definition movie that could be played on a loop in his mind at any time.

However, Lin Ye was not satisfied with this.

The more carefully he observes and the more profoundly he understands the "Candle Illuminating the Nine Netherworlds" painting before him, the clearer the image imprinted in his mind becomes, and the richer the details become.

This will be absolutely beneficial for improving one's mental strength in the future.

[Ding! You have cultivated the visualization technique "Illuminating the Nine Netherworlds," gaining a +0.02 increase in your Spirit attribute!]

[Ding! You have cultivated the visualization technique "Illuminating the Nine Netherworlds," gaining a +0.03 increase in your Spirit attribute!]

[Ding! You have cultivated the visualization technique "Illuminating the Nine Netherworlds," gaining a +0.05 increase in your Spirit attribute!]

As he gazed at the scroll, system prompts began to gradually ring in his mind.

The notification sounds weren't frequent, far less frequent than when he was practicing the "True Explanation of the Two Elements of the Great Void," which was like a screen-filling barrage.

But Lin Ye understood that this meant his mental strength, which had always been his weakness, had finally begun to truly begin to cultivate and grow.

He had a more direct understanding than anyone else of how important mental strength was to a martial artist.

Whether it's crystallization or shadow scales, these temporary skills all consume his mental energy.

This weakness will finally be quickly addressed after today!

Time passes slowly.

Ten minutes have passed since the "Candle Illuminating the Nine Netherworlds" painting was fully unfolded.

At this moment, the once lively dark room has dwindled to just fifteen people.

Lin Ye also felt a tremendous pressure, as if the sky were collapsing and the earth were splitting, frantically draining every bit of spiritual energy from his sea of ​​consciousness.

Whether it's practicing cultivation techniques or visualizing mental images, according to the system's assessment, it doesn't fall under the category of being out of combat.

Therefore, his out-of-combat health regeneration mechanism is completely useless at this moment.

He couldn't simultaneously expend his mental energy to maintain observation and use the mechanism to recover.

Lin Ye quickly made a decision in his mind.

He understood that spiritual practice should not be rushed, but the opportunity to view the "Illumination of the Nine Netherworlds" was truly rare.

If the ghost wants to come back next time, will it have to spend its precious credits?

We must take advantage of today being free to imprint as many details as possible into our minds!
Having figured this out, Lin Ye forced himself to stay alert and glanced at the others who were still holding on in the dark room.

He saw Dongfang Zhen sitting cross-legged there, his face no longer showing the relaxed ease he had before, but instead a focus he had never shown before.

In general, each person can only practice one set of cultivation techniques at a time.

But there's no fear of having too many visualization methods.

Each visualization method has different imagery and principles for cultivating the spirit. By observing different visualization diagrams, one can alternately increase spiritual power using different methods, which is extremely beneficial.

This was also reflected in Lin Ye's system feedback.

The spiritual attributes he can obtain through cultivating spiritual visualization techniques have an upper limit.

If Lin Ye also possesses another set of mental concepts, the two do not conflict, and the mental attributes that can be increased will only be more.

Another twenty minutes or so passed.

At this moment, in the dark room, besides Chang Siming, who was acting as the guide, there was no one else present.

Only five people remain.

Lin Ye, Dongfang Zhen, Zhang Daoxuan, Wei Shuying, and another young man who had previously kept a very low profile, but whose level was also LV31 under Lin Ye's system marking.

Dongfang Zhen and Wei Shuying were the two most relaxed among them. Their breathing was steady and their eyes were bright, indicating that they could obviously continue for quite a long time.

Zhang Daoxuan and the other young man were slightly inferior, but they were still as steady as a rock.

Lin Ye sighed softly to himself.

He could clearly sense that he was in the lowest tier among the five.

He... is about to collapse.

That mental pressure, like a slow, agonizing torture, was cutting away at his will bit by bit.

If we continue like this, it might really damage our soul.

Without further hesitation, Lin Ye slowly stood up and walked out of the dark room.

When he stepped out of the dark room and returned to the quiet meditation hall filled with fragrance, the heavy mental pressure suddenly disappeared.

He exhaled a long breath, rubbed his forehead, and tried to calm his stinging mind.

He saw many trainees who had come out early resting outside, some sitting and some lying down, all pale-faced and listless.

Several instructors dressed in the uniforms of the Qiming Generals Training Camp were taking notes in a notebook beside them.

Upon seeing Lin Ye emerge, one of the instructors looked up at him and quickly scribbled a few lines on his notebook.

If nothing unexpected happens, what's recorded there should be his duration of perseverance and his ranking among everyone.

Lin Ye didn't care about this.

He stood there for a moment, closed his eyes and regulated his breathing, feeling his mental energy begin to recover at an extremely fast speed after he was freed from that terrifying pressure.

However, just when everyone thought he would find a place to sit down and rest like everyone else...

Not long after Lin Ye left, he did something that left everyone puzzled and even shocked.

He... turned around and walked back to the dark room!

That's right. During this mental visualization class, neither Chang Siming nor the instructors stipulated that students could go back in after leaving the classroom.

Everyone who came out did so because they were completely exhausted and could no longer hold on.

In this situation, their souls are already in a state of extreme exhaustion and cannot recover in a short time, so naturally they would not think of going back to suffer again.

But Lin Ye went back just like that.

"What is he doing? Is he trying to make one last desperate attempt?"

"Are you crazy? You've only been out for a few minutes, how much mental energy could you possibly recover? Going in is just suicide!"

"Perhaps it's... a feeling of resentment."

The students resting outside watched Lin Ye's retreating figure and whispered among themselves.

The instructors who were taking notes also stopped writing, and a look of surprise appeared on their faces.

They then looked at each other and shook their heads slightly.

It's all for nothing.

For martial artists, the depletion of mental energy is far more troublesome than the consumption of physical strength.

This thing takes an extremely long time to recover.

Those with weak mental strength will be exhausted after just one observation, and it may take several days to recover.

Even for someone with a strong will, it takes at least a day to fully recover.

They had never seen anyone come out and, before they could even catch their breath, go back in.

Inside the dark room.

Lin Ye looked at the Candle Illuminating the Nine Netherworlds Diagram again, but this time, he felt much more relaxed because his mental energy had been fully restored.

He sat down cross-legged in his place again.

His action caused Dongfang Zhen and Zhang Daoxuan, who were not far away, to turn their heads slightly and cast surprised glances at him.

However, the two quickly regained their composure and focused all their attention back on the magnificent scroll in front of them.

Time passes minute by minute.

At the foot of the mountain, in front of the Jingsi Hall, Yin Liulan, Nie Cang, and Su Yunjin stepped inside.

"Instructor Yin!"

Several instructors responsible for taking notes immediately came forward.

Yin Liulan glanced at the exhausted students in the hall who were still recovering, and frowned slightly.

"It's almost four in the afternoon, and it's still not over?"

The lead instructor was Zhou Yan, who had previously been responsible for guiding Lin Ye and the others into the camp.

He saluted Yin Liulan and replied, "Report: The afternoon visualization class starts at 1:30. Most students can hold their positions for an average of about ten minutes."

"But a few people with exceptionally strong mental power are still inside."

A look of surprise appeared on Yin Liulan's face as he walked toward the tightly closed entrance to the dark room.

"I'll go in and see who's left."

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(End of this chapter)