Illusion and Reality

When Chen Chuan released his grip, he felt thick, murky seawater all around him, sinking deep within it. Beneath his feet, the sensation was supple yet firm, rising and falling with an uneven terrain. Looking down, he saw that the surface there was covered in swollen, ridged folds. He was standing right atop the creature's body. It was an entity whose complete form was virtually impossible to discern. Most of its mass was veiled by the pitch-black seawater, and only the section beneath his feet seemed to emit a faint luminescence produced by their mutual contact. At this moment, illusory signs of an invasive force began creeping across his second self. He could confirm that the intrusion was entirely borne by the second self, yet he had not been ejected from this scene. This indicated that it was not a virtual simulation field like those at the academy, but purely a communion between minds. He was merely interacting with it through the medium of the relic. Whether this entity was an illusion or genuine flesh, he had no way of understanding for now, but it certainly could not be judged by the scales and logic of the waking world. Just as the thought crossed his mind, a shadow drifted toward him without a sound. Emerging from the pitch-black sea, it gave no warning whatsoever. In this place, all of his senses seemed completely deadened; only when it drew right up against him did he perceive it—and by then, it was already colliding into him. In that split second, the external conditioning jin within his body snapped into action. A powerful, ferocious force thrust him sideways. Yet in that same instant, through the physical contact with his foe, he grasped its general contours and the trajectory of its subsequent surge of power. Yielding slightly with the force, he angled his body, drove an elbow upward to brace, and with his other hand swept the Xuejun Saber in an upward diagonal slash. With a sharp tearing hiss, the blade felt as if it sheared clean through a leathery hide, and a flash of bright light flickered before his eyes. He looked up. He was still holding the posture of that upward slash, but he was no longer submerged in that viscous sea. Instead, he was standing safe and sound inside his tent. It seemed that single stroke had severed the creature directly, immediately severing his mental connection. He pondered the moment. That had not seemed particularly difficult. According to Talu, the difficulty was supposed to scale progressively according to the combat power displayed by the challenger. However, his purpose this time was not training. Straightening his stance, he brought the Xuejun Saber closer. In the instant of that strike, he had indeed sensed something being absorbed into the blade, though it had been exceedingly faint—had he not been paying close attention, he wouldn't have noticed it at all. Still, as long as the method was proven effective, that was all that mattered. Time to continue. He flicked the long saber, returned to the great bone, and pressed his hand onto it once more. His second attempt presented a similar scene, but this time several creatures appeared all at once. This posed no challenge to him. Having experienced the first encounter, he was already thoroughly familiar with their attack patterns and intrinsic traits; prepared in advance, handling them proved even easier than before. Once his mind disconnected from the realm this time, he could distinctly feel that the Xuejun Saber had drawn in somewhat more than the previous attempt. Moreover, the saber hummed with a slight tremor, actively conveying a craving for this substance in response to his conscious inquiry. Since that was the case, he had no intention of stopping. Over the next hour and more, he made over a dozen attempts. The creatures he faced expanded from a mere handful to a pack, and then grew into hundreds and thousands. This was an entirely different matter from facing a solitary foe; the difficulty occupied a wholly different tier. By his estimate, this was likely the stage where Talu had met defeat. Battling this entity over an extended period clearly offered tremendous rewards. Not to mention combat experience, it would undoubtedly temper one's jin and technique to pure mastery. As for Chen Chuan, with every kill, the Xuejun Saber drew in a measure of substance. As these small gains accumulated, the spirit and mutated tissue within the weapon grew increasingly vibrant. After several more rounds, Chen Chuan noticed that another breed of creature had begun to appear. If the earlier entities resembled swimming fish, these newcomers were unidentifiable beasts armed with clawed limbs. Swift on their feet, they coordinated their movements with one another, proving far more troublesome to deal with than the previous creatures. Yet this still fell short of his limit. He remained able to handle them with composure. But after slaying another target that lunged at him, his gaze narrowed slightly when he saw a scattering of fragmented scales lying across the floor of the tent. It appeared what he had encountered was indeed tangible, not merely an internal mental exchange. A possibility crossed his mind. If that was the case, were he to be killed during that communion of minds, would he truly die as well? In truth, he had already sensed it: with each entry and exit, the world on the other side felt increasingly real, as if he had physically crossed over and come into contact with those horrors, and an inkling of danger had begun to prickle his awareness. Talu had never mentioned this. Was it because she had never reached this stage in the past? No. He lifted the Xuejun Saber and studied it. There was still a fundamental difference here: the predecessors of the Shan school likely possessed no weapon like the Xuejun Saber that could siphon something from that place. He suspected that the absorption by the Xuejun Saber was what had triggered this consequence. If so, he would need to exercise greater caution before attempting this again. Even so, the Xuejun Saber seemed to have derived considerable nourishment from it. He decided to test the outcome first and see if it made a difference. Closing his eyes, he focused his senses for a moment, then drew the blade and swung the edge outward. Wherever the flash of the blade swept, the empty air was rent open, leaving a brilliant fissure from which a radiant, blazing glow spilled forth. He lowered the saber, planted it into the ground, and sat cross-legged, circulating his mind to absorb the quintessence streaming from the other side. Yet this time, after meditating for only about ten minutes, he felt something approaching, followed by a cluster of entities fluttering out through the gap. A glance showed them to be the strange insects he had encountered before. With a faint glint in his eyes, an unseen force brought them tumbling down from above, smacking onto the ground in rapid succession. Reaching into his pack, he drew out a small decorative plant and set it before him. This was an insect-repelling flora produced by Green Origin Ecology, capable of driving off these bugs effectively. It had come as a complimentary gift when he ordered the tent. Since such insects were exceptionally widespread throughout Center City, almost everywhere one looked, items of this sort had practically become an essential for travel. From then on, he suffered no further disturbances. An hour slipped by quickly. Unlike the previous occasion, however, the fissure persisted, only gradually sealing shut after another twenty minutes had passed. Seeing this, Chen Chuan knew that beyond the Xuejun Saber's natural growth, the substance it had absorbed today had played a role. Since it was effective, he resolved to continue the practice next time. Although he felt a measure of danger, it was not something he couldn't handle. With his mind made up, he sheathed the Xuejun Saber, gathered the insect carcasses into a bag, stepped outside to pack away the tent, stowed it in the vehicle, and drove back toward the city. On the road, he considered that fissures were always sensitive matters. For safety's sake, it was best to choose a different location every time he tore one open. Perhaps he could head out to sea next time? However, the coastal waters were either corporate testing grounds or infested with combat organisms beneath the surface. Heading far enough out would waste far too much travel time back and forth. Then a thought struck him: there was an approach that could circumvent many complications, offering greater convenience and far less risk of detection. Up in the sky. If he could arrange to charter a small airship and practice up in the clouds, he could travel far enough in very little time, and any fissure he cut open would be virtually impossible for anyone to spot. He recalled that Pan Xiaode's family ran an airship enterprise; he could inquire with him. Having reached this conclusion, as soon as the Jiade car reentered the range of Center City's field, he contacted Pan Xiaode. The boundary credential connected swiftly, and Pan Xiaode's hearty, spirited voice came through from the other end. "Classmate Chen? No, I should call you Teacher Chen now! Teacher Chen, whatever you need, your student will see it done!" Chen Chuan chuckled and explained that he needed a small airship, giving the reason that he intended to conduct some specialized training in the sky. Pan Xiaode found nothing strange in this. Many fighters harbored peculiar habits and specialized training regimens. Besides, he had later learned of Chen Chuan's feat of leaping from the sky to cleave the Ferris wheel, which had filled him with immense admiration. Assuming Chen Chuan was looking to hone that same technique, he grew even more enthusiastic than Chen Chuan himself. "A small airship? Yes, yes, we have plenty! You want to lease one? That's too much hassle. I've got one ready to go. It originally belonged to my older brother, but when he enlisted in the military, he left it to me. Later on, I had a new one custom-built, so the old one has just been sitting there gathering dust. "If you don't mind it, take it and use it directly. Keep it as long as you like. I can provide the crew to pilot it, too." Hearing this, Chen Chuan thought it sounded ideal and said, "Thank you, then." "Why be so polite with me? I'll make the arrangements first. It should be settled today. If you're free tomorrow, head over to this address..." As he spoke, Pan Xiaode transmitted a location. Chen Chuan checked it and said, "All right, I'll head over tomorrow." With the arrangement made, he returned to the Xuangong Building. He reviewed the incoming reports from various quarters, found no unusual developments, and saw no messages from the academy's students. After browsing the Fringe Channel for a short while to check recent developments in the ring matches, he took a brief rest and headed to the training grounds to cultivate. Early the next morning, he drove the Jiade car out and followed Pan Xiaode's address to an airship hangar located southwest of Center City. Pan Xiaode was already waiting. Greeting him warmly, he led him inside. A spacious airship storehouse stood within, with a mooring tower outside on the wide, open grounds. Stepping in, Chen Chuan immediately spotted a silver small airship, roughly thirty meters in length, docked right there.