Chapter One: Heaven's First Floor

  Whitefish Bay, inside the cave mansion.

  The thick stone wall seems to isolate all the sounds outside the stone room, and the sound of the waves and the sea breeze cannot be heard at all, leaving only a quiet atmosphere, which is the most suitable for the cultivator to calm down and practice.

  Shen Shi was sitting cross-legged on the bed, quietly looking at the Ling Xiao Sect's "Star Luo Gong" secret formula in his hand, while his right hand was lightly holding a bright and shiny small stone, which was the Ling Jing.

  His gaze carefully swept over the Xing Luo Fa, and he put it aside, deep in thought. According to the Xing Luo Fa, because humans' physical bodies are indeed too weak, when they first start cultivating at the Lian Qi realm, human cultivators should only cultivate once a day, that is, absorb the spiritual energy from the Ling crystals into their body only once a day, and gradually progress step by step. Later, after their cultivation has deepened, they can increase the number of times they absorb the spiritual energy from the Ling crystals. Otherwise, if they are too impatient, the spiritual energy entering their body will be too much, too strong, and their physical body will easily be unable to withstand it, which would be extremely harmful.

  "Because of the backlash from the flesh during the day, the spiritual power dissipated before it could enter the body. This shouldn't count as a cultivation attempt, right?" Shen Shi furrowed his brow and carefully recalled the events of the day. He looked at the spirit crystal in his hand, which was still shining brightly with an unblemished luster. It's worth noting that if a cultivator had absorbed spiritual power from it, the crystal's radiance would weaken and dull. The more times the crystal was used to absorb spiritual power, the dimmer its color and light would become, making it easy to distinguish. Once a spirit crystal had been used by a cultivator, even if only once, it usually couldn't be sold on the market for a good price to buy various spiritual materials.

  After repeated consideration, Shen Shi still decided to try to cultivate again. Anyway, in the morning star hall, Wang Hou Shixiong had already told them clearly that the flesh and blood backlash was actually just that, no more than the fact that their own flesh and blood were not very coordinated with their spiritual power. To solve this problem, there was no shortcut to take, it was just a matter of diligently cultivating several times, enduring the suffering of flesh and blood backlash several times, until the flesh gradually adapted to the spiritual power, then they could naturally start cultivating.

  It's better to suffer a short pain than a long one, whether it's sooner or later, you'll have to eat the bitter fruit anyway... Shen Shi comforted himself with these words in his heart, then took a deep breath, closed his eyes, clenched his fists and grasped the crystal tightly in his palm.

  The Xingluo Fa Jue started again, but without the assistance of those strange arrays in the Chenxing Hall, Shen Shi clearly felt that he couldn't quickly calm his mind and focus his spirit. It took him several times longer than during the day to slowly settle his mind and feel the faint glow of spiritual energy within the Ling crystal.

  The remaining task, just like what he had done before in broad daylight, was to concentrate his mind and spirit, and pursue that faint light in the darkness. After much effort, he finally managed to grasp a wisp of spiritual energy. At this time, Shen Shi already felt his body starting to tremble slightly, and his spirit was unusually fatigued. Although he had not yet absorbed the spiritual energy into his body, and there were no signs of his physical body rebelling, for some reason, he felt like he was about to collapse.

  He had finally managed to grasp that thread of spiritual energy, and Shen Shi was reluctant to give it up easily, so he continued to endure the discomfort in his body and tried to absorb this thread of spiritual energy into the palm of his hand.

  This faint wisp of spiritual energy, under his control, slowly approached his physical body. Just as it was about to merge with the flesh on his palm, Shen Shi's body suddenly shook violently. A severe pain, as if it were going to tear his body apart, burst forth from every corner of his torso, causing him to collapse instantly. His entire person went limp and he fell to the ground with a loud "thud", directly crashing down from the bed.

  The flesh rebellion has finally reappeared.

  Shen Shi's whole body trembled, and he actually started convulsing on the ground, his face turning deathly pale. The pain was beyond his expectations, and for some reason, this backlash was even more severe than before. In addition to the intense pain throughout his body, a splitting headache appeared in his head, which had not occurred during the day. It felt like his entire brain was about to explode, making him suffer unbearably, almost to the point of banging his head on the ground.

  This pain is almost unbearable, making one feel like they'd rather die than live. The intense agony is suffocating, and although it's barely tolerable, the unprecedented torment in his head is ferocious and impossible to defend against. Shen Shi was caught off guard, clutching his head on the ground, unable to hold back his screams as he frantically kicked his legs and rolled around.

  Fortunately, this intense and terrible pain did not last for too long, and after a while it gradually subsided. Otherwise, Shen Shi really wondered if he would die from the pain alone.

  This road of cultivation is indeed arduous and winding.

  Shen Shi lay on the ground, for a moment he was too weak to get up, and all he felt was exhaustion and weakness throughout his body. Mentally, he was even more exhausted, as if he had died once and come back to life again, far worse than when he was in the Morning Star Hall during the day.

  His eyes stared blankly at the stone wall above his head, and Shen Shi felt a little bewildered. Was this an unexpected turn of events? Didn't they say that the pain of physical backlash would gradually weaken with increasing cultivation? How did it end up getting stronger here instead?

  Or, even if there is no spiritual energy entering the body during the day, it can still be considered as having practiced once. If one practices again at night, isn't that what the Star Luo Fa Jue calls "having great harm"?

  Thinking and thinking, Shen Shi was really too tired, and he actually fell asleep in a daze on the ground. Only when he was half asleep and half awake did his mind, which had gone completely blank, suddenly flash with an idea, as if he had remembered something, but then immediately forgot it. It seemed that this thought was important, but when he tried to recall it carefully, he couldn't remember anything at all.

  April 17th, sunny.

  Shen Shi slowly came to from his sleep, feeling a dull ache all over his body. After thinking back carefully, he gradually recalled the events of the previous night and couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat again.

  This path of cultivation is indeed not a joke, although it's still unclear why the physical backlash of last night's pain intensified, and symptoms of severe headache appeared that hadn't been there before. However, Shen Shi decided to be even more careful in his future practice, and also planned to find an opportunity today to ask Su He Shixiong about his situation.

  Last night, I fell asleep directly on the ground. When I got up now, my body felt stiff all over. Hurriedly exercising in the stone room for a while, I slowly recovered. Conveniently using the cloud token to close the Starlight Pearl above my head, I saw a ray of sunlight falling from the skylight. Shen Shi suddenly let out an exclamation and cried: "It's bad!"

  He hastily tidied up his clothes and rushed out of the stone gate, yesterday he had promised to meet Haixing girl in Hongbang village at this time today, but now he was terribly late.

  He secretly lamented in his heart, thinking of how he had asked others if they would get up so early the day before. Shen Shi couldn't help but feel a flush rise to his face, but there was no other way now, and he could only hurry over as quickly as possible. As for asking Su He or the other senior brothers about the strange phenomenon of the physical backlash, he would wait until he returned earlier today to go find them.

  Rushing out of the cave, Shen Shi quickly walked towards the direction of Qingyu Ji. After just a few steps, he heard the stone gate of the neighboring cave suddenly open, and Sun You walked out. His first glance caught sight of Shen Shi, his eyes lit up, and he stretched out his hand to beckon him over.

  Shen Shi stopped in his tracks and waited for him to run up, looked him up and down, and smiled: "Where are you going?"

  Sun Youzheng also opened his mouth and asked the same question. The two looked at each other and smiled, both with a hint of embarrassment. They walked side by side, and Shen Shidao said, "I'll go to that Hong Bang Village."

  Sun You glanced at him and said, "You're still really doing that shrimp peeling thing? How many shrimps did you peel yesterday?"

  Shen Shi shook his head and said, "There are only five of them. Let's try again today. Mainly because there aren't many suitable tasks on the side of Bai He Tang. By the way, did you guys find any tasks after returning yesterday?"

  Sun You hesitated for a moment, then glanced around stealthily, seeming somewhat guilty, before speaking in a low voice to Shen Shi: "He Xiao Mei and Jiang Hong Guang haven't found anything satisfactory yet, they said they'll go take another look today. After all, the Bai He Tang side is said to often have new tasks issued. As for me," he dryly chuckled, saying in a hushed tone, "I went to the Ling Shou Dian, and took on the task of feeding the beasts."

  Shen Shi was taken aback and said in surprise, "Didn't we ask about this task yesterday at the White Crane Hall? I remember that sister clearly told us that the animal feeding task was already full."

  Sun You coughed and said, "Hmmm... it's indeed full of people, that senior sister didn't deceive us."

  "What made you go in?" Shen Shi asked him.

  Sun You's face grew increasingly awkward, and after hesitating for a moment, he lowered his voice and said: "My younger uncle isn't at the White Crane Hall, is he? He's familiar with one of the senior brothers from the Spiritual Beast Temple, so I asked him to help out..."

  Shen Shi looked at him for a long time without speaking, then shook his head and walked away with a smile. Sun You didn't know why, but he felt a bit guilty, so he ran to Shen Shi's side with a hint of embarrassment and said: "Shen Shi, actually I did ask my little brother-in-law yesterday if it was possible for both of us to go feed the beasts together, but he said that being able to take one more person was already a huge favor from that senior brother, so there was really no way."

  Shen Shi turned his head, shook it and smiled: "Sun You, don't worry too much, I didn't think of anything else. You have Xiao Shu to help you, that's a good thing, I can only be happy for you, this is not a big deal."

  Sun You grunted and his face seemed to still be a bit concerned, saying: "You really didn't take it to heart?"

  Shen Shi smiled and said, "Things in this world can't be taken at face value. Nothing is completely fair and equal. It's nothing."

  Sun You finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the two chatted all the way, unknowingly walking to Qingyu Village again. Here, Sun You had to go in another direction to the Ling Shou Temple's beast feeding place, while Shen Shi went alone in the direction of Hong Bang Village because there was only one place with no other young people passing by.

  All the way to Hong Bang Village, Shen Shi saw a girl's figure squatting on the ground at the village entrance from afar, with a large basket of bamboo cages beside her, which must be full of ghost-faced shrimp.

  As he walked closer, Shen Shi's heart skipped a beat. The sea star girl's face looked gloomy, like a volcano on the verge of eruption...