After advancing to the advanced training phase, the initiate disciples were granted significantly more autonomous training time.
Previously, it had tested their patience to endure harsh training. Now, it was about testing their diligence in consistently cultivating without anyone ordering them to do so.
Accordingly, most initiate disciples either slightly reduced their training time or spent it meaninglessly.
However, a few initiate disciples threw themselves even more intensely into training during autonomous time, growing their abilities faster than before.
Baek Hyun, hailed as the top talent of this intake, naturally belonged to the latter group.
-Tatatak, tat!!
Baek Hyun's figure traversed the rugged Starpoint Mountain.
Thanks to climbing the mountain daily for the past two months to build stamina, his speed was incomparable to that of an ordinary person.
However, the person himself wore a deeply dissatisfied expression as he grumbled.
"Ugh, so frustratingly slow!"
No matter that his realm was low and he lacked lightness skill, having to run for so long to cover a distance he could reach in one step in the game was unbearably frustrating.
At least the Solar Body made his stamina nearly infinite; otherwise, he might have collapsed from exhaustion before even starting cultivation.
So frustrating—he needed to learn lightness skill quickly...
"Phew, somehow made it."
Baek Hyun settled at the summit of a secluded peak where not a single soul could be seen.
Starpoint Mountain, also called Blue Mountain, was far more rugged and vast than imagined.
Even the famously treacherous Mount Hua seemed like a child in comparison, both in height and width.
As such, even the Starpoint Sect, which made it their base, only occupied and managed an extremely small portion of the mountain.
In other words, most of Starpoint Mountain served as hidden retreats invisible to anyone.
'Perfect for secretly practicing martial arts.'
Baek Hyun slowly assumed a cross-legged position as he thought.
After two months of cultivation, he had achieved great success in all of Starpoint Sect's basic arts. Now, it was time to learn proper advanced martial arts.
'First, let's try a heart method.'
The internal heart method was one of the most crucial elements for any martial artist.
The Clear Mind Heart Method he currently used offered the side effect of stabilizing the mind in exchange for snail-like qi accumulation speed.
However, having now achieved great success in Clear Mind Heart Method, he could maintain a calm mind at all times even without operating it.
Having reaped those useful side benefits, it was time to graduate from Clear Mind Heart Method and learn a proper one.
So, among the countless supreme arts and ultimate techniques, which heart method should he choose?
Starpoint Sect's supreme heart method, the Supreme Unity Wood Divine Art, passed down only to the sect leader?
Not a bad choice. In fact, it was the best for someone like him who used Starpoint Sect martial arts.
If he didn't have the Solar Body, that is.
'With a Solar Body, there's no reason to bother with Supreme Unity Wood Divine Art.'
Storing pure yang qi in a human body was inherently a high-risk endeavor.
Yang qi was fundamentally hot and vigorous, invigorating the body.
But pure yang qi was dangerous in itself and could excite the user's emotions.
Using the already risky Starpoint Sect martial arts in an emotionally heightened state would be no different from drunk driving.
A righteous sect like Starpoint couldn't choose such a perilous path.
Thus, Supreme Unity Wood Divine Art didn't accumulate yang qi directly but stored wood qi in the lower dantian—easily convertible to yang qi—and transformed it during combat.
But he had no need for that.
The Solar Body was the sole constitution that could wield pure yang qi without any side effects.
For the Solar Body, yang qi was like oxygen, ever-present since birth.
The cheat-like advantage of the Solar Body was ignoring its side effects and taking only the benefits.
Considering that, the most suitable heart method was...
One Yang Divine Art.
The secret art of the Dali Kingdom's imperial family, once based near Yunnan Province. Among yang-natured heart methods, it handled the most intense hot yang qi.
This heart method had been the turning point that made him the overwhelming PvP number one.
As it inherently managed scorching hot yang qi, its synergy with the Solar Body was beyond perfect.
Being yang-natured, it harmonized seamlessly with Starpoint Sect martial arts.
However, its greatest advantage lay in expanding his usable martial arts to the Dali Kingdom's secret techniques.
His soul, love, and pride belonged to the Shoot the Sun Sword Art, no matter what anyone said.
Even after grinding Shoot the Sun Sword Art a million times, determined old veterans could exploit weaknesses and land hits occasionally.
But once he equipped Dali secret arts as supplements, his record became overwhelmingly dominant—bordering on unfair.
Switching his main heart method from Supreme Unity Wood Divine Art to One Yang Divine Art had ballooned his win rate from 70% to 90%.
That result alone made further deliberation unnecessary.
-Sssip, haaaaa...
Baek Hyun slowly exhaled as he began observing the meridians throughout his body where qi flowed.
Pathetically weak qi trickled through ridiculously small and narrow meridians toward the lower dantian in his abdomen.
For an ordinary martial artist, that would be it.
-Hummm...
But he was different.
The qi gathered in his lower dantian from his meridians soon extended toward the heart area, where the middle dantian was located.
At his current third-rate realm, no middle dantian existed in his heart.
Instead, there resided the hottest, most intense crystallization of yang qi in the world.
The Sun.
The incarnation of the world's most sacred and pure flame, gazing down upon all creation from the lofty skies.
Though still the size of a small bead, what was in Baek Hyun's heart was unmistakably the 'Sun'.
Solar Body.
It was no exaggeration or metaphor.
The heart of the Solar Body literally harbored a 'Sun'.
-Hummmm...!!
The Sun devoured the incoming qi from the lower dantian wholesale and soon converted a portion into yang qi, dispersing it through his meridians.
The yang qi spread throughout his body, burning away impurities and waste, infusing vitality into muscles and organs before gathering back in the lower dantian and flowing into the heart.
This process repeated infinitely.
Like an eternally burning sun.
Merely circulating qi tempered the body endlessly, while the qi transformed into ever-purer yang qi.
This was the outrageously powerful effect of the Solar Body in itself.
However, at this moment, Baek Hyun intended to take it one step further.
"...!....!!.....!"
Baek Hyun slowly recited the One Yang Divine Art formula in his mind and began directing his body's qi accordingly.
A formula far more complex and profound than the Clear Mind Heart Method he had used before.
Yet Baek Hyun's talent flawlessly executed the understood movements, following the intricate formula without a single error.
In that process, Baek Hyun naturally realized.
'Have I... been wasting this body until now?'
Thanks to the Solar Body, all impurities that should have accumulated naturally were purified clean.
No room for impurities in the Conception and Governing Vessels meant the Life and Death Barrier—normally opened via complete marrow cleansing—was already breached.
He simply hadn't utilized it until now.
No matter that it was for building foundations; he'd done nothing with a super premium stock guaranteed to skyrocket.
But those regrettable days were over.
-Woooong...!!!
As he continued directing qi per the formula, the faint residual qi in his body circulated with tremendous force, beginning to widen his major meridians and collaterals.
The overwhelming output of One Yang Divine Art was forcibly expanding his narrow meridians.
A perilously dangerous act that would cause qi deviation in an ordinary martial artist.
But Baek Hyun's meridians had long been cleansed of impurities meant for marrow cleansing discharge and steadily tempered by constant yang qi circulation.
His meridians endured the immense output without strain and expanded at astonishing speed, as if awaiting this moment.
-Hummm...
The change affected the Sun in his heart as well.
His meridians had originally been like rough, narrow mountain paths.
Through operating One Yang Divine Art, they improved to ordinary unpaved roads.
And per its mysteries, his entire meridian network transformed into a furnace producing extreme yang qi.
As a result, the Sun reached a point where it struggled to process the incoming qi for the first time.
It also experienced 'leeway' to do more than just disperse yang qi, also for the first time.
Like muscles growing from ample stimulation and nutrition.
With both need and material for growth met, what followed was obvious.
"Gahk, kuh...!!"
The Sun blazed fiercely.
Even Baek Hyun, who had harbored it in his heart his whole life, couldn't help panicking momentarily.
The Sun began fundamental growth.
No longer feeding only on qi from the lower dantian.
It voraciously sucked in dozens of times more qi through all meridians connected to the heart, then dispersed it body-wide at once.
As if it were another lower dantian itself.
In that process, qi output exploded once more, and purer hot yang qi concentrated, permeating every nook of his collaterals.
Just as even Baek Hyun's sturdy meridians neared their limit.
-Craaaack-!!
Brilliant rays burst in all directions, and simultaneously, Baek Hyun's body miraculously stabilized.
The Sun in his heart had narrowly completed its growth, rapidly adjusting and optimizing his body.
"Phew... that was a bit close."
Baek Hyun wiped the sweat pouring like rain from his body and sighed in relief.
The synergy between Solar Body and One Yang Divine Art was beyond imagination.
To think switching heart methods alone—not even consuming potent spirit pills—would cause such overload...
He'd nearly suffered qi deviation at a young age.
As Baek Hyun reflected slightly on his complacency and checked the changes in his body.
"..? What is this."
He couldn't help being startled.
A change had occurred in his body that he had never experienced in thousands of hours playing Dominating the World.
"Why has a middle dantian formed?"
Middle dantian.
The second dantian, attainable only by famed supreme experts.
Per game mechanics, unobtainable without reaching supreme realm—yet it clearly existed in his heart.
His realm had risen considerably from before, but nowhere near supreme...
How, exactly?
Facing an incomprehensible situation for the first time in ages, Baek Hyun—as a veteran of Dominating the World—immediately analyzed the cause thoroughly and soon reached a somewhat plausible conclusion.
'Could it be because of the Solar Body.'
The 'Sun' harbored in the Solar Body's heart normally received qi via the middle dantian and dispersed yang qi body-wide.
However, having obtained Solar Body as a special perk rather than legitimately, the required middle dantian hadn't existed then.
Thus, the most persuasive inference was that the Solar Body had created the middle dantian on its own during growth to the next stage.
'Information I'd never know without the perk.'
No matter how thoroughly he'd mastered the game, legitimately acquiring Solar Body before supreme realm was practically impossible.
Top-tier constitutions were endgame content after all, among the ultimate endgames.
Artificially gaining Solar Body required rare spirit pills, materials, and knowledgeable NPCs—conditions unimaginable in the early game.
Even he couldn't have known this function.
Anyway, enough gamer exploration for now.
'Shall I cultivate other martial arts next.'
Baek Hyun's eyes momentarily gleamed with brilliant golden light.