At an altitude of ten thousand meters, a cloud shaped like a blanket shot swiftly into the distance, streaking across the sky with a long tail trailing behind, roaring past like the legendary somersault cloud that could cover 108,000 li in a single flip.
Riding the clouds and mist!
Feng Lin stood atop the cloud, feeling as though the entire earth lay beneath his feet, the heavens and earth boundless, allowing him to roam freely.
This was an utterly novel experience—riding the clouds and mist, soaring across the world.
Humans walk on land, fish swim in water, birds fly in the sky... All beings in heaven and earth possess their unique abilities, yet also their own limitations. Fish cannot survive on land, humans cannot fly in the sky, and birds cannot live in water.
Everything has its order; this is the natural law of nature.
Now, Feng Lin used his mental power to command the clouds, lifting himself into flight, unknowingly breaking through this life barrier as formidable as a natural chasm, gaining a part of the essence of transcendence.
Just one step away from shattering the human limit of a hundred years of life and death, he would become a true transcendent being.
Feng Lin was immersed in the thrill of high-speed flight, unable to tear himself away. Gazing into the distance, clouds, mountains, rivers... all the wonders of heaven and earth lay before him without omission, allowing him to experience the boundless grandeur of nature.
Since ancient times, flight has been humanity's greatest dream. The sky is too vast, the universe too immense, boundless and infinite, filled with endless human imagination, leaving behind myths and legends like Chang'e flying to the moon and Wu Gang cutting the osmanthus tree. Later, as humans lost their transcendent powers, though civilization regressed significantly, they never stopped moving forward, creating technological marvels like airplanes and spacecraft to soar through the heavens and the cosmos.
But flying with one's physical body has always been an obstacle difficult for ordinary people to overcome.
And now, Feng Lin had achieved it—commanding the clouds with his mind, flying with his flesh.
Was this the essence of riding the clouds and mist?
After his mental eruption, Feng Lin instinctively unleashed this flying ability. Now, as he savored it carefully, he gradually understood the nature of using mental power to control objects and fly.
Mental power was an extremely pure, formless force that could drive all things.
After awakening his mental gene and strengthening it to two points, Feng Lin's mental power had grown immensely, capable of both expansion and contraction. At its largest, it could move objects weighing over a ton; at its smallest, it could control tiny cloud particles, condensing them into a solid form to lift himself up.
He now felt as though he was stepping on clouds, like treading on cotton, springy and resilient, never sinking.
Was this the same as the cloud-riding abilities of the sacred immortals and buddhas in legends?
Perhaps the techniques were more refined, but the essence might be entirely the same.
Feng Lin fell into contemplation.
In ancient times, there was a saying that a person could not lift themselves with their own hands.
But in this mythical era of awakened transcendent powers, that saying no longer held true.
Material forces were bound by mutual interaction, making it difficult to lift oneself with one's hands.
But mental power had no such constraints, arising without cause, formless and intangible, capable of breaking through this limitation, like an invisible hand lifting Feng Lin himself into the air.
The cloud, like a flying carpet, streaked across the sky, speeding toward Huaxia City, leaving a white trail of cloud behind, rushing past like a jet fighter.
Feng Lin, while savoring the joy of flight, familiarized himself with his new abilities.
As his mental gene continued to strengthen, its range of application grew broader, enhancing both its large and small aspects. For now, he could only control clouds, but in the future, he might be able to manipulate microscopic air particles, flying through the void with his physical body alone. Then, flight would become even freer, no longer requiring the aid of clouds.
But that step was still far off, not worth worrying about for now.
Feng Lin flew at high speed, but suddenly felt mentally fatigued, and the cloud beneath his feet began to disperse.
Not good—my mental power is almost depleted!
Feng Lin was startled. It seemed riding the clouds and mist couldn't be used casually; it consumed too much mental energy. In such a short time, he was already reaching his limit.
He quickly pressed down the cloud, slowly descending toward the ground, sighing inwardly.
His current abilities were still too weak. Though it was called riding the clouds and mist, it might be more accurately described as crawling on clouds.
It seemed that truly free flight was still a long way off.
Recognizing this fact, Feng Lin wasn't too discouraged.
You can't get fat by eating just one mouthful.
After all, he had already seen the path ahead. As long as he took it step by step, steadily and surely, he would naturally reach his destination.
Feng Lin checked his life attributes.
"Name: Feng Lin Vitality: 92.8 Original Genes: Stone Monkey Gene: 10; Mental Gene: 2 Basic Genes: Ape Gene: 10; Stone Embryo Gene: 10; Adrenaline Gene: 1; Spirit Gene: 9; Telekinesis Gene: 6; Spiritual Gene: 8 Gene Potential: 268%"
After awakening and strengthening his mental gene, Feng Lin found that his vitality hadn't increased much. After breaking past 90, the growth had noticeably slowed.
After all, the mental gene only strengthened a person's spirit, offering little boost to the body.
At the same time, a vitality of 100 was the limit for interstellar cultivators. Not to mention breaking through, even approaching it was extremely difficult.
Even if Feng Lin continued to strengthen his mental gene, his vitality would hardly undergo a massive change, unless he broke through the bottleneck in one fell swoop and became an elite cultivator.
Cultivation was a long, arduous journey, each step fraught with difficulty.
Feng Lin felt this more and more. After landing, he began testing his newly acquired abilities.
Mental energy spread out formlessly, like a gentle breeze brushing over hills and rivers, sensing everything around him.
His perception range had greatly increased, now extending to a radius of two kilometers centered on himself. Every blade of grass and every tree was within his awareness—ants crawling on the ground, mosquitoes flying in the sky...
Nothing escaped detection.
After the three mental-type genes evolved into the mental gene, both spiritual perception and telekinetic control had greatly enhanced. Only the spiritual consciousness remained unclear in terms of how its abilities had changed.
The human mind was truly miraculous, holding infinite potential. As Feng Lin gradually mastered it, the abilities he could unleash would become increasingly astonishing and unpredictable.
What pleased Feng Lin most was that with mental power, he now had a means of long-range attack, complementing his Stone Monkey abilities. With both close and distant combat options, he would have no weaknesses.
This was especially important for Feng Lin, who was preparing for the interstellar college entrance exam.
Geniuses from across the universe would gather, competition would be fierce, and any slight flaw could be exploited by others.
After establishing the Mythical Gene Association and awakening his mental gene, the Spring Festival had already passed.
Tomorrow was the start of school. Feng Lin boarded a hovering car, speeding toward Huaxia City.
His eyes were calm, as if glimpsing the future scene—vast and magnificent, infinitely splendid.
Tomorrow was a new day, and tomorrow was a new beginning.