There is only a fine line between genius and madness

As night fell.

At the peak of the mountain, spiritual energy was as deep as an abyss, as vast as the sea, accompanied by the auspicious purple  flowing from the east, endlessly.

Lin Huaian sat in his study, contemplating the half-written “Great Annihilation Heavenly Tribulation Mental Method” for a long time.

Finally, he threw aside his brush and paper in frustration, collapsing powerlessly onto his chair.

Too difficult.

It was just too difficult.

He had spent nearly two hours but had only conceptualized less than a tenth of the content.

Although he could ensure that this content could definitely be accepted and used by Su Yuan, Lin Huaian still felt the progress was too slow.

Not to mention, he was now facing a rather troublesome problem—

Su Yuan was only at the fifth layer of Qi Refinement.

In the original story, she killed a disciple in a blood sacrifice to become a demonic cultivator and directly advanced to Foundation Establishment.

Therefore, this mental method contained not a single word about the Qi Refinement stage.

In other words, what Lin Huaian had to do now was not just to convert the version of the Great Annihilation Heavenly

Tribulation Mental Method; he also had to continue writing the non-existent “Qi Refinement Chapter.”

Who could he even reason with about this?

There was nowhere to reason!

Lin Huaian had a headache, but after studying the mental method for so long, a faint idea had formed in his mind, he just needed an inspiration.

“I need to find a key…” he murmured.

If Lin Huaian’s thoughts were known to the world at this moment, the vast majority of cultivators would be so shocked they would be speechless, their minds going blank on the spot.

Even Ji Xin or Wang Qi, or even the current Saint Emperor, would not be able to remain calm!

Because all the cultivators in the entire cultivation world were practicing by using others’ mental methods, not a single person had ever tried to think about how the first cultivator created the method of breathing and guiding qi into the body, or how they created that very first mental method.

Lin Huaian, as a mere disciple, should have been honestly practicing various mental methods under the guidance of others at his age, but Lin Huaian was different.

Lin Huaian was actually thinking about how to create a mental method!

And he wasn’t just pulling ideas out of thin air; Lin Huaian had genuinely produced some workable thoughts!

In this seemingly unprecedentedly prosperous but actually extreme era where things would reverse, a cultivator who could create a Qi Refinement stage mental method could no longer be described as merely rare.

The Qi Refinement stage, as the first major realm experienced by cultivators, was of self-evident importance.

After all, the Qi Refinement stage was the very beginning of a cultivator’s entire immortal path.

The quality of the Qi Refinement mental method would directly affect the cultivator’s future!

Moreover, there were only so many mental methods in the world, and the advantages and disadvantages of most had already been thoroughly studied.

At such a time, any new mental method was incredibly precious.

It was no exaggeration to say that now Lin Huaian and Ji Xin were in a master-disciple relationship.

But if Ji Xin learned that Lin Huaian could create and perfect a mental method, and had even completed a tenth of it, their relationship would immediately upgrade to grandfather-grandson, or even ancestor.

The kind where Lin Huaian was Ji Xin’s ancestor.

In the entire Sacred Word Dynasty, there wasn’t a single cultivator who could create a mental method.

People knew that even a reincarnated Celestial Venerable would absolutely not have such talent!

But Lin Huaian was different.

Lin Huaian felt it wasn’t really that difficult.

Ji Xin had told him about the difficulty of creating a mental method.

The previous profligate Lin Huaian had believed him, but the current Lin Huaian, with his past life’s memories awakened, felt that Ji Xin was just making excuses for his own incompetence.

After all, this wasn’t the first or second time Ji Xin had done something like this.

What?

You say it’s really hard?

I don’t believe you.

If even a good-for-nothing like me can do it, why can’t you?

The previous profligate Lin Huaian had been deluded by Ji Xin and had never even tried.

The current Lin Huaian succeeded on his first attempt.

Whose problem was that?

It was self-evident, wasn’t it?

“I can’t substitute my own thinking for Lin Huaian’s,” Lin Huaian thought, closing his eyes slightly.

“I should try to think like the world’s first cultivator, the first immortal who conceived the Qi Refinement mental method.

I need to think about what they were thinking.

What was on their minds when humans first looked up at the starry sky?”

There was only one way for cultivators to guide spiritual energy into their bodies: through breathing.

Powerful cultivators could simplify this process, turning it into guiding qi into the body.

The mental method was responsible for instructing cultivators on how to guide the qi.

Although there were numerous and varied mental methods, their essence was still to teach cultivators how to breathe using their spiritual meridians and talents.

Lin Huaian was thinking about a different problem.

Because Su Yuan’s spiritual meridians were of the lowest grade, only above having none.

She had practiced an ordinary mental method for three years and had only raised her realm to the fifth layer of the Qi Refinement stage.

This meant that the mental method was wrong for her, and continuing to practice it would only be harmful.

So, Su Yuan couldn’t practice ordinary mental methods.

She needed to practice a stronger one.

There was none in this world, not even for Su Yuan herself who became the Great Demon Lord in the original story.

So Lin Huaian naturally thought that he should create one.

Lin Huaian didn’t know how terrifying this idea of his was, and even more terrifying was that he could actually do it.

Lin Huaian just felt that Su Yuan needed it, so he should try to do it.

After all, he would be relying on this girl’s support in the future.

‘What a headache…’

He sighed, not expecting to get stuck on the Qi Refinement stage.

All existing mental methods in the mortal world were derived from the basis of breathing and converting through spiritual meridians.

If Lin Huaian wanted to create a mental method that Su Yuan could use, he had to remove the prerequisite of using spiritual meridians.

The solution in the Great Annihilation Heavenly Tribulation Mental Method was to devour the cultivation of other cultivators.

Lin Huaian certainly couldn’t do that.

And Lin Huaian had a feeling that as long as he solved the problem of the Qi Refinement stage mental method, all subsequent difficulties with the Great Annihilation Heavenly Tribulation Mental Method would be easily resolved.

To make an analogy, other cultivators all knew that one plus one equals two and believed it deeply.

Only Lin Huaian was thinking that if he removed one of the “ones,” what could he put in its original place to still make it equal two.

Or working backward, under what circumstances could one plus one equal two?

If creating a mental method was still acceptable to people, now, everyone would think Lin Huaian was a madman.

Because this was defying the heavens.

Lin Huaian was trying to walk a path no one had ever walked before!

It could be said that regardless of whether this path was viable, Lin Huaian, who had this idea, would definitely go down in history.

But at this moment, Lin Huaian only felt his hair was about to turn white.

He still lacked an inspiration, a catalyst.

“Sigh…” Lin Huaian stood up from the rattan chair and only then realized that it was already midnight.

Outside the window, the sea of stars was brilliant, the night sky was clear as if washed.

He walked out of the room, sat quietly under the night sky, watching the changes of the mountains and seas.

At the peak of the first mountain, auspicious signs abounded.

This was the sacred ground of the Tianming Sect, the First Peak.

Purple qi came from the east for three thousand miles, lingering around the mountain peak endlessly.

The sea of clouds rose and fell, filled with spiritual energy so pure it was tangible.

It was truly worthy of being the First Peak of the Tianming Sect, worthy of the name of a sacred land.

Lin Huaian looked at the spiritual energy from his memories and suddenly felt a sense of loss.

He could no longer feel the presence of any spiritual energy and could only fumble through his memories.

Lin Huaian knew his problem very well: his spiritual meridians had collapsed, his meridians were shattered, and these two were the foundation of cultivation.

Without spiritual meridians, a cultivator couldn’t guide spiritual energy into the body.

Without meridians, a cultivator couldn’t maintain their cultivation.

This meant that even if Ji Xin used a supreme method to forcibly infuse spiritual energy into Lin Huaian’s body and raise him to Foundation Establishment, that state wouldn’t last for more than a minute.

Because his meridians were shattered.

Just then, Lin Huaian heard the faint sound of spiritual energy scattering nearby.

He walked quietly, trying not to make a sound, to the side of the wall and peeked.

It was Su Yuan.

Spiritual energy gathered around her like threads.

Lin Huaian could tell this was a sign of advancing in the Qi Refinement stage.

Su Yuan’s beautiful eyes were tightly closed, and the threads of spiritual energy around her grew brighter.

She formed a hand seal, and just at the moment of seeming success—

Countless threads quietly snapped.

She spat out a mouthful of blood, desperately clutching her chest, breathing heavily.

Her opened eyes were filled with terror and unwillingness.

“You’ve worked hard.”

At that moment, Lin Huaian walked over from a distance.

When Su Yuan noticed him, her expression became even more distressed.

“No, Senior Brother…” Su Yuan wasn’t surprised.

Senior Brother was such a powerful cultivator, he would definitely notice the abnormal fluctuation of spiritual energy here.

She wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth but couldn’t clean it completely, leaving a crimson streak that made her look somewhat more alluring.

“I really am useless.”

Lin Huaian thought, ‘At least you can still guide qi into your body. I can’t even do that now. I’m the real useless one.’

“Why is this happening?” Su Yuan’s voice was weak and tinged with a sob.

“Senior Brother has deliberately let me stay in this place full of spiritual energy.

Why do I still fail?”

“Because you are not suited to practice with the current mental method.

You are not even suited to practice with spiritual meridians,” Lin Huaian sighed, walked over to Su Yuan, and squatted down, motioning for her to get on his back.

“Senior Brother is already thinking of a way.”

‘Not suited to practice with spiritual meridians?

What strange words is Senior Brother saying?’

That sentence was basically the same as calling her useless, but Su Yuan’s face blushed.

Because if it was Lin Huaian, she would choose to believe him.

After feeling the familiar softness of the girl on his back, Lin Huaian stood up and sighed softly,

“Senior Brother actually has some ideas, but something is missing, so you’ll have to wait a little longer.”

Su Yuan didn’t speak, just clung tightly to Lin Huaian’s back.

She thought Lin Huaian was definitely just comforting her.

What kind of solution could Senior Brother come up with?

Could he create a second way of cultivation?

‘How could that be possible?

Although Senior Brother is very strong, he definitely isn’t strong to that extent.’

However, even though this was just to comfort her, Su Yuan still felt a bit of warmth.

“Thank you,” Su Yuan said.

Fatigue suddenly washed over her like a tide.

As she said this, she uncontrollably and slowly closed her eyes.

“Senior Brother…”

“I’m already researching a second path.

When the time comes, you… huh, fallen asleep?”

Lin Huaian was a bit helpless when he realized Su Yuan had fallen asleep on his back, but he understood.

Failing to advance in the Qi Refinement stage would indeed do that, leaving one mentally and physically exhausted.

“Sigh, I’ll just have to continue my research on my own,” Lin Huaian thought.

But unknowingly, an idea popped into his head—

Su Yuan, in her previous life, was a lone star of heavenly calamity.

Even though she looked useless, she essentially possessed power and talent different from ordinary people, or rather, a certain status in the immortal world.

An idea quietly arose.

Lin Huaian noted it in his heart, intending to sort it out when he got back.

Right now, the most important thing was to get this girl to bed.