Chapter 83 – Cultivation Method Upgrade: Heaven-Rank!

Directly controlling an enemy’s mystical arts and magical artifacts may seem ideal, but achieving this is far from easy.

An enemy’s magical artifacts and mystical arts are inevitably infused with their will and mana aura. To seize control, Mu Lin must expend divine soul power to wrestle for dominance over these items. Only by winning this contest can he truly “dominate” the enemy’s possessions.

However, due to the enemy’s inherent advantage—and the fact that both mystical arts and magical artifacts are heavily saturated with their aura—if Mu Lin were facing an opponent of the same cultivation level, completely dominating their mystical arts or magical artifacts would be extremely difficult. At best, he could only influence them slightly, causing them to deviate from their intended path.

While this is still useful, what truly exhilarated Mu Lin was the realization:

“I am not ordinary!”

“My divine soul cultivation has already reached the Spirit Pool Realm. The gap in higher realms means that even if Ji Xue stands before me, her flying sword will be under my control!”

With his Expert-level Domination, Mu Lin’s divine soul power finally found its purpose.

At the same time, after fully understanding the Domination ability, Mu Lin had grasped the advancements of his Vow-Power Heart Lamp.

Overall, he was quite satisfied with this upgrade.

“Domination, Transcendence… I wonder what characteristic the Vow-Power Heart Lamp will gain next. Unfortunately, that’s still far off. Advancing to Master Grade requires 8,800 proficiency points, huh?!”

“Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands… Proficiency Panel, how did you make an error? There’s an extra zero!”

Thinking his eyes were playing tricks on him, Mu Lin shouted incredulously at the Proficiency Panel.

As expected, there was no response, and the numbers on the Proficiency Panel remained unchanged.

Thus, Mu Lin was stunned to discover that advancing his Vow-Power Heart Lamp from 3rd Realm Expert to 4th Realm Master had become absurdly difficult.

“88,000 proficiency points? How is that possible?”

“This is only from the 3rd to the 4th Realm. If it’s already over 80,000 now, how much will it take from the 4th to the 5th Realm? This is the proficiency requirement for an Earth Grade Supreme cultivation method!”

Mu Lin began to doubt his very existence. Yet, no matter how much he refused to believe it, the numbers on the Proficiency Panel remained unchanged.

Fortunately, after merging with the Vow-Power Heart Lamp, Mu Lin had gained a wealth of information.

After some contemplation, Mu Lin realized with resignation that the proficiency requirement was correct.

88,000 points—this was indeed the progress needed for the Vow-Power Heart Lamp to advance from 3rd Realm Expert to 4th Realm Master.

At the same time, Mu Lin also understood that this was not the progress for an Earth Grade Supreme cultivation method—it was the progress for a Heavenly Grade cultivation method.

“I never imagined that the legendary phenomenon of a cultivation method ascending in grade would actually happen to me.”

Mu Lin had previously mentioned that each person’s physique, experiences, and insights differ, causing their cultivation methods to undergo changes based on individual factors.

This is akin to a thousand people reading Dream of the Red Chamber and deriving a thousand different interpretations.

Some of these changes are minor, almost indistinguishable from the original method. Others, however, are astonishingly significant.

Mu Lin now encountered the latter. Through his cultivation, the Vow-Power Heart Lamp had broken through from Earth Grade Supreme to Heaven Grade Low Tier, which was why its proficiency requirement had suddenly skyrocketed.

Of course, the reason Mu Lin was able to break through so easily wasn’t due to his extensive knowledge of cultivation. Instead, it had to do with the nature of the Vow-Power Heart Lamp itself, which accounted for a significant portion of the Cultivation Method’s advancement.

“The Vow-Power Heart Lamp is a truly miraculous Cultivation Method. Depending on the beliefs and desires used as fuel for its flame, its characteristics vary greatly. Some beliefs are weak, resulting in a Vow-Power Heart Lamp that can only unleash the power of an Earth Grade low-tier.”

“Yet, some beliefs are incredibly resilient, causing the power of the Vow-Power Heart Lamp to subtly surpass its inherent limits.”

“What I am cultivating now is the strongest belief of all—the belief in invincibility!”

Arrogance, in essence, is the desire to stand above all others. This belief, when framed positively, is nothing other than the invincible conviction of a Prodigy!

To firmly believe oneself invincible, capable of achieving anything—such a belief is naturally among the highest. The Vow-Power Heart Lamp cultivated with it is of exceptional quality.

However, cultivating the belief in invincibility is not entirely advantageous.

For ordinary Qi Refiners who walk this path, they must not only hold the unwavering conviction of their own invincibility within their hearts but also genuinely embody this path of invincibility in reality, never allowing themselves to be defeated by anyone.

A single defeat, even just once, can shatter their path of invincibility. In such cases, the consequences range from a stagnant Cultivation Level to a shattered Dao heart and the complete loss of all cultivation.

It can be said that the belief in invincibility is a double-edged sword. Success brings true strength, but failure can utterly cripple an individual.

Fortunately, Mu Lin’s situation was relatively favorable. Firstly, the challenging path of invincibility had transformed into exceptionally high proficiency, allowing him to avoid the need to engage in countless battles to prove his supremacy over others.

Secondly, Mu Lin’s belief in invincibility was never tied to the present moment.

He never considered himself invincible in his current state. Instead, he believed that with the Proficiency Panel, he would inevitably develop into a top-tier powerhouse in the future.

Because his invincibility was anchored in the future, even if Mu Lin suffered defeats now—even countless defeats—his Dao heart would not shatter.

Only if he were to encounter a Prodigy he could not overcome, a peerless genius whom he could never catch up to no matter how hard he tried, would his Dao heart and belief in invincibility truly crumble to dust.

“Aside from Prodigies, if I were to sincerely submit to a powerful individual, my Dao heart would also shatter… Thankfully, such a scenario is almost impossible.”

Incidentally, the hardest person to deceive is oneself. If Mu Lin ever harbored thoughts of weakness, retreat, or the belief that he could not overcome a challenge, even if he stubbornly claimed invincibility to others, his Dao heart would still shatter.

“The threat of a shattered Dao heart… Arrogance truly is a double-edged sword.”

He sighed inwardly, but Mu Lin did not regret his choice.

The Arrogance Heart Lamp indeed carried certain risks, but the abilities it granted were extraordinarily powerful.

The effect of Domination allowed Mu Lin to no longer be helpless against the Burying Heaven Power; instead, he could harness it for his own use.

Although Transcendence had not yet been activated, its ability to elevate one’s status and remain unaffected by external influences would enable Mu Lin to maintain his truest self in times of crisis. Both of these abilities were precisely what he needed most.

Not to mention, from the third realm Expert to the fourth realm Master, the characteristics of the Cultivation Method would undergo a qualitative transformation. Mu Lin was eagerly anticipating what kind of traits could be cultivated with 88,000 proficiency points, combined with the mindset of invincibility!

…

The dual advancement of the Vow-Power Heart Lamp took some time and left Mu Lin with a bountiful harvest.

However, he hadn’t forgotten that today, the “fruit” he intended to “harvest” was not the Vow-Power Heart Lamp, but rather—the Substitute Paper Figure.

Moreover, Mu Lin placed immense importance on this matter.

In fact, he even believed that even if the Heaven-Rank Technique, the Vow-Power Heart Lamp, advanced to Master level, it wouldn’t be as important as the Substitute Paper Figure.

This was partly because the Substitute Paper Figure was the core Spell brought by the Cultivation Method, and partly because it could accelerate Mu Lin’s cultivation!

And the latter was what he valued most.

“I hope this time I can awaken the trait I desire… No, this time I will definitely awaken the trait I desire!”

Knowing that belief could influence reality, Mu Lin firmly held onto his inner conviction.

At the same time, closing his eyes and seeing that the proficiency of the Substitute Paper Figure had already been pushed to its limit, Mu Lin was in no hurry to advance. Instead, he recalled information about Clone cultivation from his previous life, as well as the biological knowledge, human anatomy knowledge, and some theories of quantum mechanics that he knew.

After recalling all the necessary knowledge, Mu Lin finally picked up a small knife and stabbed it into his own arm.

“Pfft!”

(End of Chapter)