Deep night time, there was no moon or stars in the sky today. The cell where Luo Feng was located was completely dark, with only a faint glow coming from the corridor outside the cell.
“Hu…” snoring kept echoing in the cell. It was clear everyone was already asleep.
Suddenly—
On the upper bunk on the left, Luo Feng, who had been lying there resting, suddenly sat up. He crossed his legs so that the soles of his feet faced upward, placed his hands on his legs with palms facing up, and kept his back straight.
“According to the article I saw in the Extreme House, the only gene energy cultivation method in the world is the Five Hearts Towards Heaven method. And those who meet the physical requirements of a martial artist can mostly begin gene energy cultivation.” Luo Feng took a deep breath. “The article says the first ‘sense’ is the hardest.”
To absorb strands of energy from the universe, one must first be able to sense it.
According to the article, this energy exists everywhere on Earth, and even in the vast universe. However, most humans are completely unable to detect it.
“As long as I can achieve ‘sensing’, absorption will be simple.”
“Genius-level people can sense it on the first day of training. For weaker talents, it may take a year or even longer just to sense cosmic energy.” Luo Feng adjusted his breathing and maintained the Five Hearts Towards Heaven posture. The five hearts refer to the soles of both feet, the palms of both hands, and the Baihui point at the top of the head.
“Hu… inhale…”
Luo Feng’s breathing gradually became steady as he controlled his mind and calmed himself.
“The body must relax. The Five Hearts Towards Heaven should be natural. The mind must be still, like a calm lake reflecting a mirror.” His self-control was strong, and gradually he completely calmed down, even his thoughts became still.
The cell was silent, his breathing almost inaudible.
One minute, two minutes… thirty minutes… one hour…
“Hm?” Luo Feng suddenly opened his eyes. “Where exactly is this so-called cosmic energy? Why can’t I sense it? My mind should already be extremely calm. Could it really be as the article says, that geniuses succeed in one day, while ordinary talents need a year or more?”
“Try again.”
He closed his eyes once more and tried again to sense the cosmic energy described in the article, present everywhere around him.
Relaxation, stillness.
These were the two most important aspects of the Five Hearts Towards Heaven method.
“Still wrong.”
Half an hour later, Luo Feng opened his eyes again.
He truly realised that the first step of gene energy cultivation, sensing, was extremely difficult.
“One last attempt. If it still fails, I will wait until tomorrow night. I hope it works.” He closed his eyes again and calmed his mind.
Time passed second by second. Ten minutes… thirty minutes… fifty minutes… one hour and twenty minutes…
“Why is it still not working?”
In this near-meditative state, Luo Feng’s thinking slowed down.
Gradually…
In this state of closed-eye meditation, the desire in his heart to sense cosmic energy faded. With time passing, he almost drifted into sleep. Even normal people would likely fall asleep after half an hour of doing nothing in the middle of the night, let alone Luo Feng who had already persisted for three hours.
In this near-sleep state, he had already forgotten about sensing cosmic energy.
“So comfortable.”
In this semi-sleep state, Luo Feng vaguely sensed a thread of energy slowly entering his body through the soles of his feet, the palms of his hands, and the Baihui point at the top of his head.
“What is this?” Luo Feng was still half asleep.
“This is cosmic energy!!!”
He suddenly woke up, eyes widening. The sensation from before vanished instantly.
He had not expected that he would only sense cosmic energy when he was almost asleep.
“I felt it, I felt it. That must have been cosmic energy.” He felt a surge of excitement. “According to the article, once one reaches the quasi-warrior level, most people can cultivate gene energy. Even if they do not actively sense it, the body will still absorb it at a very slow rate unconsciously.”
He realised that what he had just experienced was probably his body passively absorbing cosmic energy, but that rate was extremely slow.
“That feeling.”
He closed his eyes again and tried once more. His breathing became steady and his mind calm. His awareness focused on the five hearts, trying to recapture that faint sensation.
In a daze, he felt it again, yet also not quite.
Gradually, the feeling became clearer.
It was it.
A faint, extremely weak flow of energy drifted around him. Only when it reached his soles did a trace enter his body, at an extremely slow speed.
“This is cosmic energy.”
Focusing his awareness on the Five Hearts, his intention naturally guided the absorption. Instantly, the speed of absorption increased, nearly a hundred times faster.
At first, it was like water dripping through a crack in a pipe.
Now, it was like a small stream flowing in.
“Aah…”
A deep tremor spread through his bones as his whole body shivered. After entering his body, the formless cosmic energy was rapidly absorbed by his long-starved cells. The energy flowed continuously through the five channels.
Inside the cells.
As cosmic energy entered, it was quickly absorbed by the mitochondria, releasing a strange form of energy that was then absorbed throughout the cell. The cell itself began to undergo tremendous changes. Even the DNA blueprint underwent subtle modification, and the cells began to divide into two.
Time passed slowly.
Luo Feng’s body was constantly changing. Skin, muscles, bones, and even the deepest cells and genes all evolved. It was a form of life evolution and optimisation at the genetic level.
According to the cultivation method, since the human body had never consciously absorbed cosmic energy since birth, it remained in a state of hunger. The first absorption was the most intense and the one that brought the greatest improvement.
Across the entire Earth, and even the universe, this amount of cosmic energy was insignificant.
But for Luo Feng, it was the greatest improvement in his life so far.
Bone density increased, cells shrank in size, one cell split into two, muscle tissue was optimised, and his body weight increased naturally.
Life was truly miraculous.
In the brain region.
In the depths of Luo Feng’s brain, cosmic energy also flowed in, triggering changes different from the previous three awakenings he had experienced. This transformation was even more subtle, and he did not notice it at all.
xxxxxx
“Dong… dong… dong…”
Early morning. The sun had just risen, around five or six o’clock. The sounds of the detention centre rang out. Prisoners began to wake up.
Luo Feng, who had been sitting cross-legged for a long time, finally opened his eyes and smiled.
“As expected, the first deliberate absorption of cosmic energy takes the longest. It took almost two hours to reach saturation.”
He could clearly feel that his body now contained significantly more strength than before.
“Last night’s improvement seems even greater than the boost I got from fainting during the college entrance exam.”
“I estimate my punch force is around 1500 kg now, maybe even higher.”
As for the exact increase, only a proper test could confirm it.
“Breakfast time, breakfast time.”
Many detainees left their cells to eat.
Luo Feng jumped down from his bunk, washed up, and prepared to eat breakfast.
At that moment—
In the corridor outside, three inmates in prison uniforms walked past his cell. One of them said, “Bald Huang, I heard your cell has a new expert who injured four advanced martial arts academy students.”
“Brother Liu, he is very strong,” the bald strong man in Luo Feng’s cell quickly replied with a smile.
“Oh?”
The three inmates exchanged glances. One of them lowered his voice and said, “No mistake. Cell, age, strength, it all matches. Brother Zhou is talking about him.”