Chapter One: Heaven's First Floor

  Sun You, sitting beside Shen Shi, looked much better than him at this moment. Although he also had a few points of fatigue, the overall expression was still more excited, but at this time, there were a few points of concern, staring intently at Shen Shi.

  Shen Shi let out a bitter laugh, shook his head, rubbed his forehead with one hand and said in a low voice to him:

  "What bad luck..."

  Sun You furrowed his brow, took a glance at Shen Shi's pale and somewhat frightening face, as well as the hair on his temples that was already damp with sweat, and said in a low voice: "Are you showing signs of physical backlash?"

  Shen Shi nodded silently, and Sun You's eyes showed a few more points of sympathy. At this time, many young people around had already stood up and walked towards the outside of the hall. Sun You also stood up, gently patted Shen Shi's shoulder, and comforted him: "This is not a big deal, it's just that you have to eat some bitter heads, and slow down your practice for a few days, it won't hinder you, don't worry."

  Shen Shi nodded and said, "I understand, thank you."

  Sun You smiled and stood up, intending to leave. After a moment's thought, he turned back to Shen Shi and said, "I'll wait for you outside."

  Shen Shi was taken aback for a moment, then nodded and said, "Good."

  Sun You nodded at him and turned around to walk out.

  In the grand hall, more than 400 new disciples, this one departure is half of the people gone, soon in the vast temple, still sitting on the ground mat, unmoving young men, scattered here and there, looks like there are still dozens of people.

  Shen Shi glanced around, counting the remaining young people in the Morning Star Hall, including himself. There were twenty-nine left. He gritted his teeth, feeling a slight recovery of strength in his body over this period, but at the same time, his mood was still low, and his mind was filled with thoughts of the intense pain earlier and the words "physical backlash".

  What is known as "physical backlash" is actually a rare condition that occurs when some people absorb spiritual energy into their bodies and cultivate it, resulting in sudden and severe physical pain that prevents them from cultivating. This strange phenomenon is not common, but nor is it particularly rare; generally speaking, out of dozens of people, one or two will encounter this situation.

  This anomaly only occurs in humans, even in the Ten Thousand Years Ago Tianyao Wang Dynasty era, many alien species including the demon race did not appear when they cultivated their own racial skills with the spiritual power of heaven and earth. After a long period of exploration and development of the Xian Dao for thousands of years, humans have also roughly figured out the reason for this flesh backlash.

  The reason is probably... The human body was originally not very coordinated with the spiritual power of heaven and earth.

  In the past, the demon clan was known as the chosen tribe of heaven, the descendants of the gods. They didn't need any medium to directly absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into their bodies with their physical bodies, and use it to cultivate various magical powers and demonic laws. Their talents were so strong that they were in harmony with the spiritual power of heaven and earth, which also created the brilliant era of the Tianyao Wangting for tens of thousands of years. Apart from the demon clan, other tribes had different degrees of coordination with the spiritual power of heaven and earth that filled the Hongmeng realms, some high and some low, the strong were powerful and fierce, while the weak were somewhat weaker, but all were stronger than humans who were completely isolated from the spiritual power of heaven and earth.

  It was just the Hongmeng world, where countless lives, perhaps including humans themselves, never thought that one day, a small crystal clear Lingyuan stone would change the fate of all races.

  The human race discovered the secret of Lingjing in a strange and mysterious way, and then found a way to absorb the spiritual energy from Lingjing into their bodies and cultivate it at an incredible speed that was hard to believe. Then, relying on the overwhelming population advantage of the human race, after a hundred years of brutal war, they turned from weak to strong, and finally overthrew and exterminated all the alien races that had once oppressed them, becoming the master of this world.

  There are countless powerful alien beings who, even in death, cannot comprehend how the seemingly weak human race could possess such terrifying power.

  After the glory has passed, it is the era of human beings. However, under the brilliance, there are still some small flaws surrounding human beings that cannot be shaken off.

  The flesh is counter-attacking, it's just such an inconspicuous but annoying thing.

  The human body, from the very beginning, was extremely weak and fragile compared to other races. In fact, during the period from birth to twelve years old, human children's bodies couldn't even withstand the slightest influx of spiritual energy, revealing just how frail humans were by nature.

  But once the time comes to start cultivating, many people will get stuck at this stage of sensing the spiritual energy in the crystal, and many people will feel only darkness when they first hold the crystal, without seeing any sign of spiritual energy. However, with the research and exploration of generations of extraordinary people, many methods have been found to assist in cultivation. The mysterious formation in the Morning Star Hall of Ling Xiao Sect today is one such method, which can help these young people pass this very important stage, and this is also one of the advantages of a large sect compared to a small sect.

  And after sensing the spiritual energy, it is the key link to absorb the spiritual energy into the body. The physical backlash mentioned earlier occurs at this time. When a human youth absorbs the spiritual energy in the crystal into their body, there will be very few people who, due to slight differences between their physical body and that of ordinary people, have an especially intense reaction to the heavenly and earthly spiritual energy. Once the spiritual energy enters the body, the physical body is like it's facing a great enemy, suffering unbearably, to the point where they are completely unable to cultivate further, as if the physical body itself wants to reject this foreign spiritual energy, so it's commonly known as "physical backlash".

  However, this name sounds a bit scary, but usually it's not a particularly serious problem. Just now when Sun You and Shen Shi were talking, there was only sympathy in their eyes, without any special worry, because everyone knows that the flesh backlash is painful, but it's just the human body's overreaction to this spiritual power. Generally speaking, as long as the young man with flesh backlash grits his teeth and endures a few more times of pain, his body will gradually get used to this spiritual power with time and increased contact with the heavenly and earthly spiritual powers. The frequency and degree of the backlash will gradually decrease until it disappears completely, and he can then cultivate normally.

  All past facts have already explained this problem, and the flesh's counterattack is only to delay a period of practice compared to others, and to bear some extra painful torture.

  On the high platform of the grand hall, Wang Heng's expression was as usual, and he didn't seem to have any anxious look. He just waved his hand, indicating that all the young men who were still in the Morning Star Hall should move closer and sit a bit forward.

  Shen Shi stood up and walked forward, sitting down on a futon not far from Wang Hou. At the same time, he glanced around, seeing that most of the young men beside him were unfamiliar faces, each with an expressionless and gloomy face. It was clear that everyone knew something about this cultivation method, but didn't show too much worry. Compared to their previous companions who had started cultivating smoothly, they naturally weren't in a good mood.

  Wang Du's gaze swept across the twenty-nine young men, and for some reason, it paused slightly on Shen Shi in the crowd. But apart from that, he didn't show any other unusual expressions, and after a moment of silence, he spoke calmly as usual:

  "There are signs of physical backlash on all of you, and I'm sure you're all aware of the ins and outs. I won't say more. Keeping you here, I want to talk to you about a few things."

  "The path of cultivation is long and arduous, not to be measured by gains or losses in a single day. The flesh's backlash is but a trivial matter; you should view it as ordinary tempering. In the future, diligent practice will naturally lead to progress on the path, no need to worry about the hardships and sufferings of these few days."

  Twenty-nine young men all nodded slightly, looking a bit better in complexion.

  Wang Huan said, "However, since you have the symptoms of backlash, coming to the Chen Xing Hall again will be useless. For the next few days, just cultivate in your own cave and remember that if the backlash is too severe, relax your spiritual crystal and calm your mind. After a few days, when your physical body gets used to the spiritual power, the abnormal symptoms of backlash will naturally disappear. At that time, you can start cultivating again."

  As soon as this was said, many young faces looked a bit ugly, but everyone knew that Wang Heng Shixiong was telling the truth. It's strange that no one could blame themselves for not being strong enough, so no one said anything.

  Wang Heng said up to this point, hesitated for a moment, his eyes flashed, and slowly said: "There is another thing, perhaps you don't know about it in your daily life, I'll also take the opportunity to tell you. In fact, this flesh backlash, sometimes it's not all bad."

  Including Shen Shi, as soon as they heard Wang Yun's words, they all showed a look of surprise on their faces. For a moment, they couldn't react in time. Could this physical backlash still be a good thing?

  Wang Heng looked at the expressions of these young people, and although his face was still stern and expressionless, his eyes softened slightly. He said: "Ordinary people, including many scattered cultivators, only see the flesh's backlash as a tribulation and suffering, but they don't know that there are distinctions within it. Our sect's ancestors have carefully investigated this matter, and up to now, we believe that although the flesh's backlash is indeed caused by the spiritual energy in the spiritual crystal entering the physical body and causing discomfort, about half of the people may indeed be so, but another group of people may be because they are extremely sensitive to the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, far surpassing ordinary people, and at the same time exceeding the limits of their physical endurance, resulting in a similar kind of suffering."

  Upon hearing this, many of the young men below the stage had already shown a glimmer in their eyes. Wang Huan cut off their expressions with his gaze and revealed a faint smile for the first time, saying: "As for the former, it's nothing to worry about; after enduring the bitter suffering, they can continue to cultivate without any difference from ordinary people. As for the latter, they are often more sensitive to spiritual energy, and after the initial suffering, they actually progress faster in their cultivation than ordinary disciples. In our sect, several talented heroes who emerged in the past were actually those who had suffered from physical backlash when they first started cultivating."

  At this moment, the young men below were no longer shining with excitement in their eyes, but rather seemed to be getting excited one by one, completely disregarding what Wang had said earlier about the fact that people who possess keen spiritual senses are still a minority. The nature of these young men was such that each and every one of them probably thought they were unique, probably thinking they were the most special one.

  Wang Heping said with a smile: "I'm telling you this, so that you won't be discouraged by the setbacks of this flesh and blood. The road ahead is still long, and no one knows what each other will achieve in the future. Do you understand?"

  "Yes, thank you for your guidance, senior brother!"

  This time, however, all the boys responded in unison with a loud and clear voice.

  Not long after, the remaining youngsters bid farewell and left the Morning Star Hall. Shen Shi walked among the crowd, feeling that his mood had suddenly improved a lot. In fact, thinking back carefully, it seemed that Wang Heng didn't explicitly say anything to them, but only mentioned a possibility. However, looking at the youngsters around him, each one seemed to feel that they would definitely have a great future ahead of them, full of confidence and spirit. Even the physical backlash they had endured not long ago was already forgotten.

  Shen Shi also couldn't help but smile wryly to himself, but as he walked out of the Chen Xing Hall, his heart couldn't help but fantasize a little about the future. Perhaps... he really was one of those rare people who were sensitive to spiritual energy.

  But what kind of person would be the sect's talented disciple who is extremely sensitive to spiritual power and has a physical body that reacts strangely, as described by Wang Xun?

  As Shen Shi's mind flashed with this thought, he was walking out of the Chenxing Hall and re-entering the bright light. Behind him, in the shadow of the Chenxing Hall, Wang Heng still sat in his original position, as if he had also been lost in thought.

  After a while, he slightly furrowed his brow, and a strange expression appeared on his face, as if he felt a slight toothache. He rubbed his molars, then hummed in annoyance and muttered to himself:

  "That pervert..."