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Zhou Ran first cultivated the spiritual mental cultivation method, "Qingyan Kongming Heart Sutra".

This mental cultivation method aims to purify the mind and illuminate the will. Once mastered, it can use the power of pure heat to cleanse the body and mind, burning away all impurities such as distracting thoughts, desires, and restlessness, leaving the mind and spirit clean, clear, and focused.

In layman's terms, it means strengthening mental power and improving concentration, thereby increasing the efficiency of cultivation and enhancing resistance to mental attacks such as demonic obstacles, illusions, and mental shocks.

The cultivation method is not complicated. It involves using specific incantations to visualize a tiny flame in one's heart, as small as a bean, yet clear and pure, untouched by dust.

Then concentrate all your thoughts on the flame, clear your mind of all distractions, and feel the temperature, light, and pure burning of the flame.

When the wisp of clear flame continues to burn on its own without requiring conscious concentration, one has entered the first stage of cultivation.

Of course, there is an even simpler method of practice—visualization.

The best way to learn this spiritual method is through visualization. Firstly, having a concrete image as an anchor makes it easier to visualize. Secondly, the image often contains the spiritual imprint left by the creator, so when observing it, it's like having a teacher guiding you into meditation, making it less likely to go astray and making the practice twice as effective.

However, the visualization diagram must be seen in person; seeing it online has no effect. The physical image wouldn't arrive until the next day, and Zhou Ran couldn't wait, so he simply installed the [Exquisite Heart] and practiced on his own.

At home, in the living room.

"The pure are without turbidity, the fiery are without cold, the empty are without attachment, the bright are without darkness..."

Zhou Ran lay on the sofa with his eyes closed, his mind sinking into the boundless darkness of his spiritual world, constantly reciting the mantra and imagining a bright lamp burning in his heart.

With the blessing of the [Exquisite Heart], he completed this step in just a few seconds.

A wisp of clear, transparent flame ignited in the dark spiritual world, pure and without a trace of impurity. The light it emitted was not dazzling, but warm and steadfast.

The light spread outwards like ripples, layer upon layer, diluting the originally thick darkness and making the spiritual world bright and peaceful.

As his concentration increased, the flame began to slowly expand and become more solid.

After half an hour.

Zhou Ran felt that it was about time, so he ended the visualization and withdrew from the meditative state.

As his thoughts dissipated, the pure flame within him did not disappear; it continued to burn silently.

Clearly, they have successfully gotten started.

After a brief moment of reflection, Zhou Ran immediately began to use his brain, filling his mind with a large number of wild and unrelated thoughts that were not related to cultivation. His thoughts were a jumbled mess.

Then, circulate the mental cultivation technique.

In an instant, the clear flames expanded, and all the trivial thoughts in my heart seemed to be thrown into an invisible furnace, burning away in an instant, leaving only a clear sky.

"It works well."

Zhou Ran was very satisfied with the initial attempt. Maintaining this focused state without distractions would greatly speed up the learning process.

But that's not the point. His main purpose in buying the "Qingyan Kongming Heart Sutra" was to suppress the side effects of the entries through Qingyan.

Using the "Wealth-Attracting Hand" too often can cause one to develop a strong kleptomania, which is a type of evil desire. The Qingyan Kongming Heart Sutra is specifically designed to control such desires.

In theory, practicing this mental technique can resolve the side effects.

Of course, theory is one thing, but whether it will come to fruition is another.

At present, the number of times the [Lucky Hand] has been used is far from enough to cause one to develop a kleptomania, so it is impossible to test it.

But it's always good to be prepared.

Next, Zhou Ran will test the effect of the mental cultivation technique on suppressing desires.

He opened his phone, found a recently popular short film to watch, and, being a high school student full of youthful vigor, quickly felt a strong urge to watch it.

Quickly circulate the Heart Sutra.

In an instant, the clear flames spread like wildfire, instantly reducing that burning desire to ashes.

Zhou Ran blinked and looked at his phone screen again. The video was still playing, and the girl was still shouting energetically, but he felt no desire whatsoever, as if he had entered a state of post-coital bliss.

I felt absolutely nothing.

Like watching a stone crash or a fish swim, it's pure, objective observation, without any distractions.

In this light, suppressing the thieving desires of the "Lucky Hand" should be a piece of cake.

Having successfully mastered the mental cultivation method, the next step is the "Nine Refinements of True Form" body-refining technique.

This body-refining technique is a balanced one, developing all attributes such as strength, speed, explosiveness, endurance, and resilience. It is divided into nine levels, and with each level mastered, the strength of the muscles, bones, skin, and flesh will increase.

Zhou Ran practiced the exercises in the living room, constantly striking various poses and controlling the contraction, stretching, and expansion of all his muscles. He used his muscles to drive the flow of qi and blood, and used the qi and blood to nourish his tendons and bones, progressing step by step to comprehensively strengthen his physical body.

The expert-level body-refining technique far surpasses the Thirty-Six Forms of Opening the Mind in both difficulty and energy expenditure. After practicing it only three or four times, Zhou Ran felt exhausted, as if his body had been hollowed out, and a strong feeling of hunger came from his stomach.

It took three large bowls of tonic medicine to relieve the hunger.

"As expected of an expert-level cultivation technique, the body-refining effect is too exaggerated. Normally, one bowl of tonic medicine is enough for cultivation, but now I have to drink three bowls to satisfy the deficiency."

Zhou Ran couldn't help but sigh, but this was undoubtedly a good thing; the greater the exertion, the more thoroughly the body was trained.

While his body was digesting the tonic, he closed his eyes and began cultivating the "Qingyan Kongming Heart Sutra". Once the tonic was fully digested, he got up and continued cultivating the "Nine Refinements of True Form".

This cycle continued until dawn, when I finally managed to fall asleep for two hours.

……

The next few days.

Qinghe City was calm and peaceful; nothing had happened.

The counter-terrorism department has received Wei Si's message and has begun to secretly monitor Shao Yichen and Wang Che, but Wang Che has not made any unusual moves for the time being, and Shao Yichen is going to school as usual, showing no signs of anything amiss.

This is destined to be a long project, and there will be no results in the short term.

The days passed by uneventfully.

Then one day, a news story spread rapidly throughout the city.

morning.

Zhou Ran walked into the classroom and saw that the students were gathered in a large group, with a boy in the middle talking mysteriously about something.

He leaned over and listened for a while before he finally understood what was going on.

A murder has occurred in the west of the city!

Last night, a family of six, including the elderly and children, was murdered in the western part of the city. What was horrifying was that all six bodies had been skillfully skinned, leaving only bloody, mangled corpses. The scene was extremely bloody and gruesome.

Even more bizarrely, the skins of all six victims that were peeled off had vanished without a trace, and the Foundation Establishment level police chief's thorough search of the crime scene and surrounding area using his divine sense failed to find them.

This is clearly not an ordinary murder case; it is either the work of a strange person or the work of an evil or demonic cultivator.

Some evil and demonic arts use human skin for cultivation.

For example, there is an evil technique called "Painted Skin Nourishing Soul Scripture". Practitioners need to constantly peel off the skins of others and wear them on their own bodies. They use the skin to nourish the soul and the soul to feed the skin, thereby creating painted skin monsters that only obey their commands.

Or they could refine the skin into ritual implements, such as human skin lanterns or drums...

For this reason, the police were worried about the impact and tried to block the news of the case. However, there were too many onlookers, and the news spread like wildfire throughout the city in just one night.

Logically, Zhou Ran should have learned about this explosive news through the local group chat immediately. However, he had been engrossed in cultivating the "Qingyan Kongming Heart Sutra" and "True Form Nine Refinements"—two expert-level cultivation techniques—and hadn't been paying attention to the group messages, only finding out about it now.

After a moment's thought, he took out his phone and sent a text message to Wei Si, inquiring about the details of the case. Such an unusual case would definitely attract the attention of the authorities.

At noon, Wei Si replied with a text message, indicating that it was indeed a strange incident and that they were looking for the murderous monster.

Zhou Ran's expression changed upon seeing the message. Didn't this mean that there was a strange creature roaming the city?

However, it's not a big problem; they'll probably be caught and eliminated or contained by the response team soon.

……

People are always forgetful, especially when life has to go on as usual.

The impact of the massacre and skinning case lasted for two or three days in the high school before being completely overshadowed by the busy academic and training schedules, and no one discussed it anymore.

Zhou Ran also forgot about the incident and continued to practice two expert-level techniques in his after-school time, so the tutoring class was temporarily closed.

He wasn't in a hurry to start the classes, but some people were.

Ming Shu's home, bedroom.

As a perfectionist and a perfectionist, Mingshu's bedroom is decorated in a minimalist style. The wardrobe is built into the wall with smooth, mirror-like doors that blend seamlessly with the wall when closed.

The walls were painted pure white, with no paintings, no photos, no stains, and not even a crack. The floor was made of light gray matte wood-grain tiles with neat, uniform patterns.

The off-white sheets were clean and wrinkle-free, and the quilt was folded neatly, like a block of tofu, and placed under the pillow.

The entire bedroom was devoid of any superfluous colors or randomly placed items, giving it an almost sickly neatness.

And at this very moment.

"Bottle, I have a task for you. Can I trust you?"

Ming Shu placed his hands on Song Ci's shoulders, staring at her with a serious expression, like a soldier entrusting his orphan to another soldier on the battlefield.

Song Ci was puzzled, but still nodded: "Go on."

Ming Shu hesitated, as if engaged in a fierce internal struggle, before finally making up his mind and delivering an explosive statement:

"I'd like to invite you on a date with Zhou Ran!"

"what?"