Sin Becomes a God

Chapter 43: A Hypothesis That Pushes the Limits

The Russian knew there was no such thing as a free lunch. Although he didn’t know whether Lu Renjia was telling the truth or not, it seemed that those incredibly formidable defensive skills weren’t something that could be mastered overnight. With that in mind, the Russian’s analytical abilities—fifteen times greater than those of an ordinary person—began to work at lightning speed. Propping his chin in one hand, the Russian flashed a good-natured smile and asked, like a shrewd merchant, “I wonder which aspect of strength you’re referring to? Surely not analytical skills like mine—which are as useless as a chicken rib?” Sitting in the water, Lu Renjia rolled his eyes and teased with a laugh, “Do you really think what I, Lu Renjia, teach is some run-of-the-mill stuff you can buy at those martial arts schools in Chinatown? It’s at least on par with something like ‘The Heart of an Assassin,’ isn’t it? But that also depends on whether that kid has a natural talent for it…” “Heh heh… Don’t worry about talent… In any case, he won’t be any worse than Fox… Is it a martial art like *The Mighty Golden Fist*?” the Russian haggled. Lu Renjia shook his head helplessly. “You’ve got to let me see the person first, don’t you? I haven’t even seen him yet…How am I supposed to know whether I should teach him boxing or something else… Besides boxing, I’m skilled in many other martial arts… like this…” As he spoke, Lu Renjia’s Nine Yang True Qi surged rapidly to his fingertips. In an instant, his ten fingernails shot up to over ten centimeters; pale as jade, they shimmered with a faint metallic luster in the flickering candlelight. After breaking through from the late Second-Tier to the early First-Tier just moments ago, the Nine Yang True Qi within Lu Renjia’s body had grown more than three times stronger. In the film adaptation of *The Deer and the Cauldron*, Hai Dafu—also an early First-Tier martial artist—was capable of unleashing the *Bone-Melting Cotton Palm* to strike targets twenty to thirty meters away. Now, Lu Renjia could naturally project his true qi outward as well. The power of the *Eagle Claw Hand* had naturally increased exponentially. With a casual flick of his wrist, a sharp gust of wind whistled out. “Whoosh…” A gentle breeze swept toward a wooden table laden with food ten meters away, instantly extinguishing the flickering candle flames on it. Seeing this, the Russian curled his lip. “Snuffing out a candle with a single slap? Sure, your fingernails have grown a bit… but they don’t seem to be much use other than looking good, do they?” Little did he know that, no sooner had the Russian finished speaking than a series of faint cracking sounds came from the old wooden table. “Snap…” With a single sound, the entire wooden table snapped into five pieces, the breaks as smooth as a mirror. This martial art, as magical as a magic trick, left the Russian speechless for a long time. “You… are you sure you’re not a magician? All right… let’s wait until we meet him in person… but judging by how badly you beat up that repairman, Sloan already has a rough idea of your strength…so you’ll have to stay in the infirmary for no more than three days; otherwise, Sloan will get suspicious… I’ll teach you how to awaken the ‘Assassin’s Heart’… but I can’t guarantee you’ll master it… As you know, the ‘Assassin’s Heart’ is something you’re born with—otherwise, every member of the ‘Brotherhood’ wouldn’t be called a once-in-a-thousand genius…” “Deal…” Lu Renjia’s face lit up with a delighted smile. He’d been wondering how to find someone to teach him the “Assassin’s Heart,” so now that he had this Russian—a man who’d taken the “Assassin’s Heart” to a practical level—to instruct him, Lu Renjia was naturally overjoyed. Once the so-called deal was sealed, the Russian pulled a palm-sized black notebook from his pocket. “These are the notes I’ve compiled over the years based on my own ‘Assassin’s Heart,’ along with some research insights. I hope they’ll be helpful to you… If you can’t even figure out how to awaken your ‘Assassin’s Heart,’ I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do to help…” With such blunt honesty, how could Lu Renjia not see what this shrewd Russian was up to? He snatched the black notebook from the man’s hand and laughed, “Don’t worry. If I can’t awaken the ‘Assassin’s Heart’ within three days, my promise still stands… Likewise, if that boy isn’t cut out for martial arts, there’s nothing I can do about it either…” “Tsk, tsk, tsk… The former Soviet Union and China share a deep friendship… I trust your character. We’ll see how it goes…” With that, the Russian stretched and turned to leave. Looking at the crooked handwriting on the palm-sized black notebook, Lu Renjia couldn’t help but feel secretly relieved. Thank goodness the inscrutable “Evil God System” had arranged an identity for him—one that even included fluency in English. Otherwise, with his English skills—which weren’t even good enough to pass the CET-4—he probably wouldn’t have been able to make sense of it even with Jinshan Ciba’s help. With his Comprehension rising by two points, Lu Renjia’s current level of Comprehension was now equivalent to that of Feng Xifan in the world of the film adaptation of *The Deer and the Cauldron*—a formidable figure who had created the *Eight Wastes and Six Heavens Sword Technique* and the *Six Heavens Divine Art* all on his own. After carefully studying it, Lu Renjia couldn’t help but be utterly amazed by the contents of this diary. “Those who have elevated the ‘Assassin’s Heart’ to the ‘Application’ level are, as expected, no ordinary individuals… If this Russian guy weren’t hanging around in the ‘Brotherhood,’ winning the Nobel Prize in Medicine probably wouldn’t be a problem…” In this black notebook, the Russian had analyzed the process of the “Assassin’s Heart” emerging and being triggered from the perspectives of medicine and genetics. According to the Russian’s analysis, there were three ways to acquire the “Assassin’s Heart.” The first was through human genetics—this was self-evident. Take Wesley Gibson, for example, a young man with “Cross” bloodlines; Sloan had recognized at a glance that he possessed the innate talent for the “Assassin’s Heart.” As for this first method, Lu Renjia naturally chose to rule it out; his late parents had been nothing more than ordinary people in the real world. Unlike Wesley Gibson, he had never needed medication to suppress manic episodes since childhood. Besides, among the “Life Services” options in the “Evil God System,” there were so many incredibly powerful bloodlines; in Lu Renjia’s eyes, the “Assassin’s Heart” was nothing more than an E-rank skill. Even if he wanted to redeem something, wouldn’t he have to go for an A-rank bloodline? Fast-forwarding to Part Two, Lu Renjia read the Russian’s account and could only shake his head in resignation. The second way to activate “Assassin’s Heart” was through psychological trauma. According to the Russian’s description, such trauma typically occurred during childhood, and the result was either madness or genius. Fox was the prime example of this. As a child, he had watched helplessly as his parents were tied to chairs and burned alive by intruders who had broken into their home. Under such excruciating psychological trauma, he had somehow managed not to go mad. This not only demonstrated Fox’s terrifying psychological resilience but also laid bare his once-in-a-lifetime talent. “Phew… No wonder people often say there’s only a fine line between genius and madness. Fox didn’t go mad under those circumstances… If it had been an ordinary person, they would have ended up either an idiot or a madman…” Lu Renjia mused. As Lu Renjia turned to the final few pages, his eyes lit up. “Haha… It’s truly a case of searching high and low to no avail, yet finding it effortlessly… Although this method is wildly unconventional… it shouldn’t be a problem for me…” It turned out that the third method had been hypothesized by the Russians based on a report about a dive that pushed the limits of the human body. Without any diving equipment, the maximum depth an average person can reach is ten meters, while a professionally trained diver can reach fifteen meters. In 2003, Cuban free diver Pippin Ferreras set a record by free diving to 170 meters. To achieve this, the heart must contract to the size of a plum, and blood circulation to the limbs must cease so that blood can concentrate in the chest cavity, preventing lung failure. At the same time, Ferreras’s heart rate dropped to 10 beats per minute. He completed the entire descent and ascent in just 2 minutes and 39 seconds. A normal person’s heart rate ranges from about 100 to 150 beats per minute. The reason the “Assassin’s Heart” can produce physiological metrics more than ten times those of an ordinary person is that, once activated, it can instantly boost the heart rate to over 400 beats per minute, thereby triggering an excessive release of adrenaline. In the eyes of this Russian genius—whose analytical abilities far surpassed those of ordinary people—if it was possible to slow the human heart rate in icy waters, then conversely, could the heart rate be increased to 400 beats per minute in a scorching environment? Watching the Russian propose this third method of triggering “Assassin’s Heart” through his wildly imaginative speculation, Lu Renjia was eager to give it a try. “In Jin Yong’s *The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber*, Zhang Wuji was trapped inside Monk Shuobude’s ‘Qiankun Yqi Bag.’ He then suffered a strike from Cheng Kun’s ‘Phantom Yin Finger.’ As the icy-cold internal energy of the Phantom Yin Finger invaded his body, it triggered the supremely yang ‘Nine Yang True Qi.’ During the healing process, inside the nearly airtight ‘Qiankun Yqi Bag,’ the Nine Yang True Qi had nowhere to escape… Under those extreme heat conditions, the overwhelmingly powerful Nine Yang True Qi was equivalent to dozens of top-tier martial artists simultaneously channeling their energy into every acupoint in Zhang Wuji’s body… This is what allowed him to master the *Nine Yang Divine Art* to its highest level… Could it be that the extreme heat caused Zhang Wuji’s heartbeat to reach the intensity of the ‘Assassin’s Heart’? “If that’s the case… couldn’t I also use this method to cultivate the *Nine Yang Divine Art* to the pinnacle of mastery while simultaneously awakening the ‘Assassin’s Heart’?” Lu Renjia muttered to himself, growing increasingly convinced that the Russian’s outlandish conjecture was feasible. Just as Lu Renjia was eager to give it a try, he realized a very serious problem: he was currently in the world of *The Assassins’ Alliance*, and had no way of accessing the world of *The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber*. Perhaps the “Qiankun Yiqui Bag” held by the Monk Shuidao— “According to Master Jin’s description, the Qiankun Yiqui Bag held by the Monk Shuidao, while not exactly a divine weapon, is still considered a mysterious and extraordinary artifact…Swords and axes couldn’t scratch it at all… What a headache. Where am I supposed to find something that’s both breathable and airtight now…?” Lu Renjia scratched his head in frustration. Just as Lu Renjia was racking his brain, the Russian sneaked in carrying a pressure cooker. “Hehe… I know you didn’t eat much before that repairman beat you up—you must be starving, right? This is beef and potato stew I made using a recipe from your Chinese cuisine…” Seeing the pressure cooker in the Russian’s hands, Lu Renjia’s eyes lit up, and he snapped his fingers. “That’s it… Haha, I really am a fucking genius!!!”