Chen Yu slowly gained consciousness the next day, his head throbbing with a strange sensation that wasn't quite pain but something else entirely, a feeling of power thrumming through his skull like electricity through wires. He sat up carefully and started looking around the room, scratching his head in confusion, yawning a little as his mind struggled to fully wake.
Then he looked down and almost died of fright.
His body was lying there on the bed still sleeping soundly, chest rising and falling with steady breaths. Chen Yu scrambled backward in shock, or tried to, his mind not quite processing what he was seeing or how it was possible. "What the hell is happening to me?" he yelled, only to realize the words made no sound at all because he didn't seem to have any mouth or lungs or even a body for that matter.
He looked at the hands that he'd used to scratch his head just a moment ago and realized there was nothing there at all, no flesh or bone or substance of any kind. He could feel a ghost of his hand, yes, the sensation of fingers and palm and weight. But he couldn't see anything when he looked down at where his hands should be. In fact, how was he even looking around without eyes?
Chen Yu started panicking, his thoughts racing as he forced himself to look closer at the body lying on the bed. As he stared at it, really stared, he noticed something strange. His body seemed to be tied by thin chains of different colors that wrapped around it like spider silk.
Red chains were the bigger ones, thick as rope and glowing faintly. White chains were smaller and thinner, almost translucent. As he inspected it more closely, he could see that his body was still breathing, still inhaling and exhaling in a steady rhythm that suggested peaceful sleep.
He sighed in relief, though without lungs or air it was more the mental sensation of relief than any actual breath. Slowly he started moving closer to his body, approaching it cautiously the same way he did when trying to take control of his clone in the mindscape.
His consciousness drifted toward the sleeping form and he felt himself beginning to merge with it again, his vision fading to black slowly and then gradually regaining light as if waking from a deep sleep.
His eyes snapped open, his real physical eyes this time. He knew instantly he was back in his physical body because it felt completely different from that other state.
Unlike when he'd been floating free, he suddenly felt like he was buried under chains upon chains tying him down and restricting his movement. As he moved his hands closer to his eyes to examine them, they felt like they were moving through thick mud, every motion requiring effort.
His hands felt unfamiliar now, foreign in a way they'd never been before. The body he was in didn't feel like his anymore, or more accurately, his body had stopped being fundamental to his existence in some way he couldn't really articulate.
He lay down quickly and closed his eyes, trying to re-enter that strange floating state he'd been in before.
It took a while, his consciousness struggling to separate again, but slowly he managed it. He sat up from his body and looked around, no longer terrified now that he understood what was happening. He seemed to not have any kind of physical form in this state.
Like a floating nothingness that could perceive and think but had no actual substance.
He looked around his small room and started to move, experimenting with this new state. It didn't feel like he moved from point A to point B in any normal sense.
Instead it seemed as if point B became point A the moment he thought about moving to a certain location, space collapsing in ways that defied normal physics. "Space" didn't seem to have any constraint on him while he existed like this. He moved closer to his desk and the talismans that were scattered across its surface. Curious, he tried to "touch" one of them.
Just as his consciousness made contact with an Ice Arrow Talisman, a stream of information surged into his mind like water breaking through a dam. Some of it was his own knowledge about the talisman and its creation, memories of how he'd drawn each line and channeled spiritual energy into the patterns.
But another type of information seemed to come from the talisman itself, knowledge embedded in its very existence. Some of the information seemed to bounce back though, as if his current state couldn't contain it properly, like a big beach ball pushing away a smaller one. The information that did get through was fragmented and incomplete.
Created in the Heavenly Crystal Sect, by █ █ █ █ █, in the World of █ █ █ █ █, at the age of 22.
Probability of deducing Tier 2: 60%
Probability of deducing Tier 3: 0.00001%
Probability of deducing Tier 4: 0%
Probability…
The information gave him deeper insights on the history of how this type of talisman had been created originally, knowledge that should have been impossible for him to access. Some names were blocked out completely, hidden behind some barrier, which made him curious about what they might reveal. Slowly, carefully, he tried to probe deeper into the name of the person who had first created this talisman design.
▛e▜ ▙█g▘Sage of the…
Right when he was about to understand that hidden information, he felt a huge presence suddenly gaze at him from somewhere impossibly far away. The gaze seemed calm and curious rather than hostile, but its sheer magnitude made Chen Yu feel like an ant being observed by a human.
A voice that seemed to make the world itself shake and vibrate with every word originated from that distant being, though Chen Yu couldn't understand what was being said even though the words didn't seem to be in any language at all. Instead each word gushed with natural laws and intent, fundamental truths about reality compressed into incomprehensible sound.
Something seemed to block him from actually understanding those words though, some protective barrier between him and that terrible knowledge. He knew instinctively that if he understood even a single one of those words, he would cease to exist completely, his consciousness torn apart by concepts too large for it to contain.
Looking up, or what passed for up in this strange state, Chen Yu perceived something beyond the physical world. Another presence was staring back at the first being, positioning itself between them as if protecting him from whoever or whatever that distant entity was. A feeling told him this protective presence was the heavenly consciousness of this world itself.
The two existences seemed to communicate with each other in ways Chen Yu couldn't perceive or understand, concepts and information passing between them that existed on a level far beyond his comprehension.
The otherworldly being seemed to take one last glance at him, its attention focusing on Chen Yu for a brief moment that felt like an eternity, and then it withdrew its presence from this world completely. Feeling that being finally gone, Chen Yu felt relief flood through him even though he had no body to feel it with. If he'd been taken or inspected directly by such a thing, he would have lost everything, his consciousness scattered like dust in a storm.
The Heavenly Consciousness seemed to turn its gaze toward him then, and Chen Yu felt that attention settle on him with weight despite its immaterial nature.
The gaze seemed full of confusion and slight interest, as if it couldn't quite figure out what he was or why that other being had been interested in him. But slowly, carefully, it also seemed to retract its attention and return to whatever it normally did.
This confused Chen Yu because he didn't understand why it hadn't interacted with him directly even though it had clearly been interested. He threw that question out of his mind for now, filing it away as something to investigate later when he understood more. Right now he wanted to understand his current state better and what he could do with it.
Chen Yu was still feeling residual fear from that terrifying encounter, keeping firmly in mind to never get close to any of that hidden information again, at least not until he was strong enough to contend with beings that could destroy worlds.
Deciding to explore more while he had the chance, he started moving through the walls of his room as if they weren't there at all, passing through solid matter like it didn't exist and going outside the inn. No one seemed to see him at all, people walking right through the space he occupied as if he wasn't there.
There seemed to be some kind of panic happening among the people outside as they looked up at the sky with fear and confusion written across their faces. Chen Yu tried to listen to what they were saying, curious about what had caused this commotion, but he wasn't able to hear anything at all.
It seemed that in this state he couldn't hear sounds, only perceive things visually in this strange way that didn't actually involve eyes. Floating closer to the panicked people, he noticed that they seemed to have the same colored chains on their bodies as his own physical form had, those red and white bindings wrapping around them. Some people seemed to have fewer chains than others though.
The ones with fewer chains appeared to be cultivators based on their bearing and the way others deferred to them. One man in particular had the least amount of chains of anyone Chen Yu could see, still numerous enough to cover his body but significantly less than the common people around him. The man was looking up at the sky in an imposing pose, his stance radiating authority and power. If Chen Yu remembered correctly, this was the Captain of the outer ring guards, a cultivator who'd reached at least the Qi Refining stage.
Just as Chen Yu moved a bit more than fifty meters away from the inn, testing the limits of how far he could go, something yanked him backward like a rubber string stretched to its breaking point. He was pulled back with tremendous force toward his physical body, unable to resist or slow down, crashing right back into his sleeping form with a jarring impact.
He sat up with a sharp gasp, his physical lungs sucking in air as his heart pounded against his ribs. Slowly he took deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down as his racing heart gradually returned to normal.
After he'd calmed down enough to think clearly, he felt a surge of excitement building in his chest despite the lingering fear.
He didn't fully know what that state had been or how he'd achieved it, but he knew with absolute certainty that he'd just gained a power that would make him independent from many of the constraints of the physical body. The implications were staggering if he could learn to control it properly.
The only issue was whether he could access whatever powers that state gave him while still remaining in his physical body. Otherwise it would be much harder to use effectively since he'd be limited to that fifty-meter range.
Chen Yu tried to enter that state again but this time staying within his body instead of separating from it. His mind seemed to split into two distinct parts, yet somehow staying as one unified consciousness. It wasn't that hard or foreign to him since it was similar to how he connected to the mindscape while staying in his physical body, just a different application of the same basic principle.
Getting up from the bed, Chen Yu started to move around and experiment with his body in this merged state, testing what he could and couldn't do while maintaining this dual consciousness.
He was able to gain the same information when touching the talisman, the probabilities of deducing the next tier flowing into his mind just as before, but not its history or the names of its creators. It seemed like there were restrictions on his powers in this combined state, limitations that prevented him from accessing the deeper knowledge that had nearly gotten him killed moments ago.
Still, even with those restrictions, this was incredible. The potential applications were endless if he could master this ability.
Thinking of something, Chen Yu closed his eyes and entered the mindscape again, his consciousness diving into that familiar white void...