Chapter 16: Suffering Tempering Method

The Grass Hut Academy’s first official event filled Huang Weiguo with mixed emotions of surprise and delight.

The delight came from having a martial arts genius like Ma Ran among the academy’s members.

As long as education is enhanced and Ma Ran’s thoughts stay on track, with proper cultivation over time, he is sure to become an outstanding civilization guardian.

Even if Ma Ran is not adept at combat and won’t be assigned to the battlefield, just being a dedicated inner Qi researcher, he can play a significant role and create immense value.

The shock, of course, was about the "Outer Heaven Evil Demon" mentioned by the Black Rock Stele.

President Huang Weiguo promptly reported this intelligence to his superiors.

Meanwhile, Ma Ran returned to his dormitory after gaining approval.

Since he exited early, the strong-willed girl Su Qiangwei took his seat and participated in both rotations.

While others calculated for three hours daily, she calculated for six hours!

Due to excessive energy depletion, Su Qiangwei’s calculation efficiency was very poor in the last few hours.

The entire morning, she located the positions of four acupoints.

Her face turned pale, and she was taken for a check-up, filled with a bellyful of glucose solution.

The stubborn girl insisted she could still persist and requested to continue in the afternoon.

This request was decisively rejected by President Huang.

Calculating for six hours in the morning was already pushing her limits.

Continuing in the afternoon would be courting disaster!

No matter how strong one’s willpower, it cannot surpass the limitations of mortal flesh.

It’s not an iron body; the living flesh always has its boundaries.

...

Contrary to others’ speculations, after returning to his dormitory, Ma Ran did not continue cultivating inner Qi.

He fully immersed himself in the study of Enclosure Texts.

Enclosure Texts have only one function—creating illusions.

In terms of weakness, it indeed is weak, as it offers no enhancements to the human body.

Strength, endurance, agility, speed, spiritual strength.

Attributes one can think of, it doesn’t add anything.

Speaking of its strength, it is extraordinarily strong!

Because...

The illusions it creates are nearly flawless!

A top-notch Master Youwen can control visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and tactile senses comprehensively without dead angles.

Unfortunately...

The threshold for studying Enclosure Texts is very high.

It requires the practitioner to have strong willpower.

If one’s willpower is not firm enough to resist the erosion of Enclosure Texts, at the mildest, it leads to mental collapse; at worst, genetic breakdown, resulting in mutation into a bloodthirsty non-human life form, losing humanity and all human memories entirely.

This is an Extraordinary Route that cannot be generalized.

But it is also the "cleanest" Extraordinary Route in Ma Ran’s eyes.

Studying Enclosure Texts, bearing risks, and acquiring illusion techniques.

It is a thousand times cleaner than Black Rock Martial Arts or the superpower route!

Because the planet that created Enclosure Texts has been completely destroyed in civil war, with no back doors or dark hands left behind.

...

The afternoon activities arranged by Grass Hut Academy were relatively relaxed with a course on moral education.

The professor in charge of the lecture was a middle-aged man with the surname Liu.

This man had a square face, a full celestial forehead, brown-black eyes full of spirit, a loud voice, rich enthusiasm, and affability. His teaching was not only professional but also lively and attractive.

At the same time, Professor Liu appeared to be very understanding.

He knew everyone had just been exposed to supernatural abilities in the morning, and most had calculated the location of at least one acupoint, now eager to master the power called "inner Qi."

As long as the students didn’t cause a disturbance below the podium, even if they weren’t paying full attention to the lecture and were secretly trying to refine inner Qi, he would turn a blind eye.

During the second moral education class, President Huang Weiguo, on a tour, could not help but say: "Dear members, do not think this moral education class is useless."

"In fact, it is very important!"

"I believe you still remember, right?"

"I previously mentioned that Black Rock Stele Martial Arts is just the first Extraordinary Route mastered by Grass Hut Academy."

"The second route is called Superpower Awakening."

"Its entry threshold is even higher than inner Qi cultivation!"

"It needs to test your faith and belief in steadfastness!"

"The auxiliary role of moral education courses for Superpower Awakening has been proven."

"In about three days, Fulan Academy will support us with some instruments specifically used to detect related values."

"Those who fail the test will not qualify to tread on the second Extraordinary Route!"

"Professor Liu Binbing just informed me..."

"Some smart ones, like Ma Ran, have been attentively listening."

"Learn from them!"

Although the old saying goes "bite off more than you can chew," President Huang’s remarks clearly hinted that "inner Qi" and "superpowers" are not conflicting Extraordinary Routes.

Everyone present was young, who wouldn’t dream of dual Magic and Martial Cultivation?

Martial arts in one hand, superpowers in the other.

Just thinking about it makes one feel invincible!

Ma Ran, however, wasn’t too concerned about President Huang’s words.

In fact, he hadn’t been listening attentively to the class either; he was continually sketching Enclosure Texts in his mind.

However, with the dual advantages of the Academic Demon and acting skills, Professor Liu couldn’t see through Ma Ran’s act and thought he was genuinely paying attention.

"Brother Ran, did you hear? Superpowers!"

Sitting next to Ma Ran, Dong Huaiming shook with excitement: "Elder Huang just mentioned ’faith’ and ’belief’..."

"What he’s talking about, could it be the kind of telekinesis like in the movie ’Superpower Out of Control’?"

"If we obtain that kind of ability and further develop it..."

"Things like flying with a sword, immune to blades and bullets, cellular immortality, and brain domain expansion could all become reality!"

Hearing this, Ma Ran chuckled and shook his head.

"It’s not that simple."

Everyone knows the theory.

For instance, "electromagnetic mutual generation," a random middle school student can explain it clearly.

Many believe that simply successfully mastering a superpower like "thunder" or "magnetic field" could quickly lead to mastering the other.

Some even believe they can sense Earth’s magnetic field tracks, integrate with the planetary magnetic field, and thereby fly and escape the earth at speeds equivalent to Earth’s rotation.

In practice, however, it is as hard as ascending to heaven.

Before Ma Ran’s rebirth, everyone who had similar thoughts found themselves stuck at the stage of "mastering superpowers."

As for the "entry threshold" Huang Weiguo mentioned...

Rather than measuring specific values of "faith" and "belief," it’s more about measuring the strength of spiritual power.

Trying to enhance the members’ immunity to "superpower erosion" via moral education courses...

Ma Ran could only describe it as "not too far off track" as an evaluation.

This way of training spiritual power is indeed without side effects and effective.

But it is a gradual and continuous process.

In contrast, a more effective method in short-term training is...

"Suffering Tempering Method."