The burning sensation, the boiling blood, and the thundering heartbeats.
Qing Chen felt as if the world was collapsing, and his life was about to start burning along with it.
But soon, the burning sensation gradually started to disappear. With the breathing, the fire patterns on his cheeks were still there, just like Li Shutong, but the air that he was breathing in turned refreshing and not painful.
Lin Xiaoxiao reminded him by his side, "Guard your consciousness. Those forgotten pain would quickly sweep back into your mind, all the pain you had experienced, everything. That moment, if you couldn't get past this point, no one could help you."
Qing Chen's mind tightened because the pain that Lin Xiaoxiao mentioned just then were pouring into his brain:
When he first started to live alone, he accidentally cut his finger while trying to cook. He could remember every little detail as the sharp edge of the knife ripped open the skin.
When he was waterboarded, the ice-cold water drifted into his lungs, taking roots in there as if it was a poisonous ivy.
In the darkroom, the pain of thirst repeatedly hit him second after second.
And the night before his mom left.
Then the shadow left with a piece of luggage under the setting sun.
All these painful memories came rushing in like a wave on ocean water, crashing onto cliffs with all its might.
The waves were like knives traveling through the air, emitting empty cries and screams.
Qing Chen closed his eyes like he did when he was waterboarded.
He then sank into an infinite abyss of darkness.
Inside came a very gentle voice, "Come with Mom."
Qing Chen replied, "I had already walked this far all by myself, and as for the rest, I will walk it myself as well."
Almost instantly, he opened his eyes up again.
No wonder Li Shutong would say that he wouldn't be able to pass if he didn't survive the previous test.
It was all to prepare for this moment.
Qing Chen's breathing was now like a ball of fire.
That ball of fire seemed to have instantly burned away all his past experiences, and from now on, he had made his own choice. He wouldn't need regret nor turn back.
The rest of his life was in front of him.
Beside him, Ye Wan and Lin Xiaoxiao's expressions all had some changes. They looked into each other's eyes and thought about the same thing. They couldn't believe that Qing Chen could still maintain his consciousness even until now.
They also experienced such pain and knew exactly how it felt like when a lifetime’s worth of pain was rushed to one's mind and collapsed.
Only those who had faced every pain in their lives with indifference would step across that abyss of "Self Questioning". One had to give up his past and move on to the future.
Lin Xiaoxiao murmured, "Maybe because of Qing Chen's memory, so he probably never forgot about this pain in the first place…"
Human brains had their protection mechanisms, allowing you to forget certain events so that you could move on in life.
But the exact talent that gave Qing Chen infinite memory also gave him infinite pain.
Year after year, he was already used to remembering these events.
Qing Chen was never a spoiled child raised in a greenhouse. From a long time ago, he was already a believer in pain.
So, that abyss, he had already stepped over it.
Li Shutong slowly released his palm and exclaimed, "This step went much smoother than I anticipated."
For some reason, after knowing about what his teenager had, he felt sympathetic toward the boy.
No one knew what condition he was in during the years. When the others were admiring him of his talents, they never thought about the sufferings that came along with it.
The fire patterns on Qing Chen's face started to fade away, and he asked, "What does this breathing technique do?"
The reason he asked this was because he didn't feel any difference in his body from when he started.
He only felt refreshed and relaxed. The feeling of weakness from the past four days of starvation quickly disappeared.
"This is just an assisting technique," said Li Shutong, "This breathing technique's core was to understand its unique breathing pattern. You probably couldn't get used to it just yet, but after I guild you a few more times, you will eventually."
As soon as Li Shutong said so, he saw that the fire patterns on Qing Chen's cheeks didn't fade away but started extending.
He smiled bitterly and said, "I forgot that you can instantly remember the breathing pattern with your incredible memory."
It had to be said that Li Shutong felt truly useless. When his teacher taught him, it took more than 40 tries before he could barely start on his own. Not even one mistake was allowed in this process.
But this teenager in front of him did it with just one try.
Li Shutong changed the topic and said, "Well, since I don't have to spend any more time on this one, then let's get to the succession of the Knights. We'll talk about the uses of this breathing technique later."
"When the Knights just got funded, the founder found out about the secrets of genetic locks."
"According to his conclusion, when a human finishes eight of the Life and Death Stages, the genetic locks would be opened by itself."
Li Shutong continued, "At first, you would only become a member of the Knights after finishing all eight of them. By then, you would have opened your genetic lock and would no longer be considered among the ordinary."
"There were a lot of Knights back then. They too survived the Cataclysm and started this new era with the other surviving humans."
"But later, Knights started becoming rarer to see. Not because there was no one capable, but because one of the Life and Death Stages has to be done in the ocean. However, the entire ocean had long become a forbidden land. Before, the chances of surviving the ocean would be one out of ten, but now, it is zero out of ten."
Without the last Life and Death Stage, it is impossible to open the genetic lock."
“The talented Knight's leader at that time, Qin Sheng, invented the new breathing technique to assist with the process, and people later found out that if the technique is used when challenging any of the Life and Death Stages, one will be able to open a part of the genetic lock. So it is no longer a need to complete all eight before opening."
"Although a Knight who had only completed one Life and Death Stage would be incomparable to a Knight that finished all eight when most people finished just six, they already were more powerful than the Knights of the older generation."
"With the leveling system of the Inner World, "A, B, C, D, E, F", one would be considered Level A after completing the sixth."
Qing Chen was a little surprised. He didn't expect here to have a leveling system for The Extraordinaries.
He asked suddenly, "Teacher, then which level are you?"
Ye Wan answered, "Boss is on Level S."
Because Li Shutong already finished seven Life and Death Stages, just missing the final one.
"But what makes this breathing technique so wonderful that it could assist with opening the genetic locks?" asked Qing Chen.
He was excited because he already touched the gateway to the secrets of the Inner World, but he was still a little confused.
"You should know about Endorphins, right?" asked Li Shutong.
Although Qing Chen never forgot anything, he never dug deep into this area of study, so he just said what he found in his memory, "Just like Dopamine, it creates a sense of pleasure in human bodies, but it is also slightly different: After winning a lottery or playing a game, the body would produce Dopamine, but the sense of pleasure and satisfaction from sports and exercise would be from Endorphins."
Li Shutong shook his head, "That's how those unprofessional would explain. Dopamine couldn't bring pleasure directly to people, as it is just a medium for neurotransmission. Serotonin is the real transmitter of happiness. In simple terms, Dopamine does provide pleasure, but you have to understand that this pleasure is not true happiness. It is just a desire for more from addiction."
"Then what about Endorphins?" asked Qing Chen.
"Endorphins is a pleasure substance that only comes after pain. It combines with the Morphine Receptors in your body and acts as a natural painkiller, but that is just its core use," explained Li Shutong, "Ancestor Qin Sheng spent years of careful examination and found that after the Knights finished any of the Life and Death Stages, large amounts of Endorphins would be secreted."
"So he believed that Dopamine was a poison that keeps people in illusion, and Endorphins was the key to open the genetic locks."
"That's why the Knights got one more tenet: Great suffering begets great fortune."