What’s the point of cultivating immortality if you don’t have money?

Spirit Realm.

A mental world jointly created by the Ten Great Sects.

As the exam officially began, Zhang Yu felt his consciousness being pulled out of his physical body and transported to another world.

A gentle breeze lightly caressed his hair, and his buttocks felt the hard sensation of sitting on a chair.

When Zhang Yu opened his eyes, he found himself in an ordinary classroom.

Inside the classroom sat dozens of students of similar age from various high schools.

This was the Spirit Realm, a mental world distinct from the real world.

The Spirit Realm could be considered a real world, or it could be considered a false world.

It is called a real world because everything one experiences here can be indistinguishable from the real world.

It is called a false world because all the matter in this world does not exist in reality. It is like a dream, an illusion, and even everything seen, smelled, touched, and felt in this world can be artificially controlled.

Zhang Yu knew that his physical body was still on the bed in Songyang High School, only his consciousness had come to the Spirit Realm.

Like the students around him, he was randomly selected from the many students in Songyang City participating in the exam to be in this classroom.

He glanced at the classroom environment, but Zhang Yu couldn't distinguish any difference from reality.

He thought, "I hope I don't get stuck here halfway through the exam, ending up with all the high school students in the city trapped in a virtual online game."

A place similar to a virtual network world—this was Zhang Yu's understanding of the Spirit Realm after learning about some of its information.

It was just that Kunxu used immortal techniques to achieve this.

Of course, Zhang Yu also understood that he still knew too little about the Spirit Realm, and his understanding was definitely one-sided, but it was enough for him for now.

In front of everyone, a thin man wearing an owl mask was standing behind the podium, looking at them.

Li Xingyu scanned the examinees before him.

In the next moment, from his own perspective, each examinee's number, name, and high school appeared above their heads.

"Sigh, I hope this finishes quickly so I can get off work early."

As a Soul Cultivator from Mangshan High School, with no physical body and only a soul remaining, Li Xingyu was long accustomed to his daily life in the Spirit Realm.

Because of the special nature of Soul Cultivators, they didn't need to participate in this Dao Heart exam. Instead, they were caught by the teachers to be proctors.

Thinking about his remaining 45 hours of work today, he couldn't help but sigh.

Suddenly, as he was inspecting the examinees, his gaze froze and he looked towards Zhang Yu's direction.

"It's him?"

Li Xingyu remembered that at Li Xuelian's art exhibition that day, this security guard was the one who stood out and triggered the anomalies in the Heavenly Human Martial Arts Diagram.

"From Songyang High School?"

"Interesting. I'll record his exam process. Maybe I can sell it to the principal as a good piece of research information."

After paying a little attention, Li Xingyu took a few steps forward. With each step, several identical copies of him split off. By the time he took the tenth step, there was a Li Xingyu standing in front of every examinee.

This kind of Spirit Realm clone technique was commonplace for Soul Cultivators like Li Xingyu.

Zhang Yu looked at the proctor wearing the owl mask in front of him, and speculations arose in his mind.

The strength of one's will is a manifestation of Dao Heart. To determine the Dao Heart level, one generally tests the strength of one's will.

Therefore, the Dao Heart exam mainly tests willpower, at least in the Qi Refining stage.

However, there are many ways to test the strength of each person's will. To avoid examinees from conducting targeted training in advance, causing errors in the test, the specific questions for each Dao Heart exam are different.

According to what Zhang Yu knew, the higher the level of the exam, the more resources are invested in the Dao Heart exam, and the more complex the exam content the examinees experience in the Spirit Realm.

After all, more complex and diverse experiences can more accurately detect the condition of the examinees.

"This is a monthly exam..." Zhang Yu thought. "Based on previous experience, it shouldn't be too complex."

At the same time, Li Xingyu reached out to him, and in his palm, there was something that looked like a mobile phone.

"Take this."

At the same time, all the Li Xingyus spoke at once: "Today's Dao Heart exam content is very simple... Pain."

"For the next sixty minutes, the controller in your hands can adjust the pain level on your body at any time."

"During these sixty minutes, the higher the pain level and the longer it is maintained, the higher your ranking will be."

The Dao Heart exam is scored according to ranking, so the specific score not only depends on oneself but also on the level of other examinees.

The Songyang City Dao Heart monthly exam, for example, is scored according to the ranking of all high school students in the city.

The real college entrance exam, on the other hand, is scored according to the ranking of all college entrance exam candidates in the entire first layer of Kunxu.

"Also, if the pain level exceeds your tolerance and causes you to faint, your consciousness will immediately exit the Spirit Realm, and your score will be treated as 0."

After explaining the content of the exam, Li Xingyu pointed his finger, and a 10-second countdown appeared in the sky of the Spirit Realm.

"Timing starts in 10 seconds."

Zhang Yu looked at the controller in his hand that resembled a mobile phone and saw that the screen displayed pain level 0, pain level 1, pain level 2, pain level 3...

The only two buttons on the controller represented up and down, which could continuously adjust from pain level 0 upwards or downwards, changing the pain level he felt at any time.

Zhang Yu felt pain all over his body just looking at it.

Which bastard came up with this exam question? Is the person who set the question going to die?

Don't tell me there are fire-burning level, chicken-severing level, and slow slicing level in these pain levels...

Are we having our own little Saw horror show in Songyang City?

The thing Zhang Yu hated the most was suffering, and what he hated even more was someone forcing him to suffer.

Unfortunately, since he came to Kunxu and embarked on the path of cultivating immortality, he had been constantly suffering, eating mouthful after mouthful.

At this moment, Zhang Yu felt disgusted. The resistance in his heart reached an extreme.

Noticing this, Zhang Yu's eyes narrowed, and he thought to himself, "But then again, as a high school student cultivating immortality, studying, cultivating, and taking exams are my duties. If I suffer more now, I can earn more money in the future."

"I love studying, I love exams!"

After cheering himself up, Zhang Yu felt a little more energetic, and the pain controller in front of him seemed a little more pleasing to the eye.

What is will? What is thought? What is Dao Heart?

The Dao Heart teacher talked about many things. From ancient times to the present, some people worship gods, some worship demons, and some worship people... establishing various different thoughts, and using different thoughts in conjunction with mental cultivation methods to improve Dao Heart and willpower.

The latest novel is first published on [Liǔ Qī Shū Bā].

In Zhang Yu's understanding, will is the ability to endure hardship, and the stronger the willpower, the more hardship one can endure.

Using thought to enhance willpower is a way of thinking that tells oneself that there are benefits to enduring this hardship, so that one can endure even more hardship.

At this moment, Zhang Yu was using some small thoughts to comfort and encourage himself, hoping to get a better score later.

Zhang Yu had many such small thoughts, and everyone had many.

However, Zhang Yu did not yet possess truly long-lasting and systematic thoughts, nor had the school's Dao Heart class taught him.

That was something that each student needed to establish by combining textbooks, personal experiences, and their own cultivation techniques.

The strength of will displayed by cultivators can be used to score their Dao Heart level.

The thoughts in the hearts of cultivators can be combined with mental cultivation methods to improve their Dao Heart level and further enhance their will.

Thought is the core, will is the manifestation, and mental cultivation method is the method. The combination of these three is a cultivator's complete Dao Heart.

In the next moment, as the countdown in the sky completely reached zero.

The many students present began to operate the controllers, some letting out a scream, some with distorted faces, some taking a cold breath...

When Zhang Yu adjusted the pain level to 1, he felt like a steel needle had pierced into his palm.

He quickly used the level 1 Basic Heart Refining Method taught in the Dao Heart class, trying to stabilize his spirit.

Emptiness, nothingness, egolessness... the Basic Heart Refining Method is a mental cultivation method that stabilizes emotions, maintains calmness, and gradually enters a meditative state.

Through long-term practice, the Dao Heart level will rise, and willpower will become stronger and stronger.

This level 1 Basic Heart Refining Method was the mental cultivation method that the original Zhang Yu had learned before Zhang Yu came to this world.

But because he had been busy improving his magic power, physical strength, Zhou Tian Qi Gathering Method, Healthy Body Thirty-Six Forms, and Freehand Combat all along, he had not yet had time to improve this mental cultivation method.

At this moment, when Zhang Yu used the Basic Heart Refining Method, he felt his heart gradually calm down, and his tolerance for pain seemed to be much stronger.

Immediately, he increased the pain level to level 2.

Hiss!

Zhang Yu felt like his other hand had also been pierced by a steel needle.

But he could still endure it.

So Zhang Yu increased the pain level one level at a time. When the pain level reached 37, he felt like 37 steel needles had been pierced through his hands and feet.

At this moment, Zhang Yu's face was distorted. No matter how hard he tried to use the Basic Heart Refining Method, he couldn't feel even a little bit of calmness.

"Peaceful mind and calm breath! Peaceful mind and calm breath! Peaceful mind and calm breath!"

Quiet your mind and focus your spirit, silently endure, silently persevere, dripping water pierces through stone... the Basic Heart Refining Method must be combined with this kind of thought system to maximize its effectiveness.

This is also the norm for improving Dao Heart. Only when one's own thoughts and mental cultivation method match can the effect of improving Dao Heart be the best.

But what peaceful mind and calm breath, quiet your mind and focus your spirit, silently endure, silently persevere, dripping water pierces through stone... this set of things simply did not fit Zhang Yu's personality.

At this moment, he just wanted to immediately! right away! kill the person who set this Dao Heart exam question.

Just as Zhang Yu felt that he had reached his limit, the content of the Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art suddenly appeared in his mind.

Fist, palm, leg, spear, knife, sword...

One figure after another suddenly appeared in his mind, carrying the killing intent to break through millions of troops, the fighting spirit to never regret dying nine times, the courage to move forward without hesitation... these were what suited his heart.

Although Zhang Yu, whose Dao Heart level was insufficient, had not truly mastered the Heavenly Martial Heart Refining Art.

But at this moment, just recalling the thoughts in this martial art made Zhang Yu suddenly raise a surge of momentum in his heart.

He was like a small soldier following behind a peerless martial general. Seeing the majestic posture of the martial general in front of him, he mustered up courage and cheered up his spirit.

At this moment, the pain of those steel needles piercing through his body was not so unbearable.

A grim smile appeared on the corner of his mouth: "After I climb up, I must beat the person who set this question to his knees and beg for mercy."