Book 4, Chapter 51: Illusion And Reality
Book 4, Chapter 51: Illusion And Reality
After letting go, Chen Chuan sensed that he was in a sticky, dark ocean. He could sense a supple yet strong sensation from his feet, and it was rising and falling. When he looked down, he saw that whatever was at his feet was covered in bulging wrinkles.
He was currently standing on a creature.
He couldn’t see the creature’s entire body. Most of it was hidden in the dark water. Only the part where he stood on shone with faint light, and that was because they were in contact with each other.
At that moment, his second self turned faint; a sign of unseen damage.
He was sure that his second self was absorbing all the unseen damage. This meant that this wasn’t like the holographic domains in the university and was just a connection between their minds.
He was only in contact through the artifact.
This creature might be an illusion, but it could also be real. He didn’t understand it as of yet, but he was sure that he couldn’t figure it out using the logic and limits of the physical world.
While he was deep in thought, he saw a shadow quietly approach him. Since it came from the dark ocean water, Chen Chuan hadn’t detected any signs. None of his senses were working. It was only when the shadow swam into him that he felt its impact.
Chen Chuan instantly activated the body hardening-type refined force. A powerful force knocked him sideways, and he got a general gist of the creature’s shape and the trajectory of its subsequent attack.
By moving with the force, he turned his body to the side and jutted his elbow upward to block the attack. Then, with his other hand, he swung the Frost King Saber upward diagonally. With a wet squelch, he felt his saber cut through something tough, and bright light flashed before his eyes.
While remaining in his stance, Chen Chuan looked up, but he wasn’t in the sticky ocean anymore. Instead, he was standing in his tent.
It seemed that he had cut through that thing and severed their mental connection.
It didn’t seem like it was difficult to defeat the creature.
According to Talu, the difficulty would gradually increase based on the combat prowess he displayed.
Either way, his goal for coming wasn’t to train.
Chen Chuan straightened up and brought the Frost King Saber to his eyes. When he delivered the slash, he had sensed that the saber absorbed something, but it was too weak. If he hadn’t been paying attention, he wouldn’t have even noticed.
Yet it was enough to prove that this method worked.
So, he was going to continue.
He brandished his saber and returned to the spine.
The second attempt was similar to the first. This time, though, several things appeared. Even so, they weren’t a challenge to him. After their first contact, Chen Chuan also fully understood the creature’s method of attack and its characteristics, so he was prepared. This time, he managed to defeat it even more easily than last time.
After the connection was cut off, Chen Chuan could sense that the Frost King Saber had absorbed more of that something.
The saber was even giving off faint tremors when Chen Chuan probed it with his mind. This was a clear sign that it longed for this something.
If that were the case, he wasn’t going to stop.
Over the next hour or so, he connected to the spine more than ten times. In the beginning, the creatures he encountered were few in number. Later on, a horde came at him. Now, it was a swarm.
This was completely different from fighting against one creature. The difficulty was on a different scale. After some mental calculations, Chen Chuan believed that Talu was defeated at this stage.
If he fought against this creature over a long period of time, he was sure that he could gain a lot. Not only would he get experience, but also refine his refined force and technique even further, so it wasn’t as useless as Talu said it was.
Meanwhile, the Frost King Saber absorbed a little more of that something every time he killed the creatures. As the amount grew, its mental energy and mutated tissue got more active.
After a few more fights, Chen Chuan noticed something else. If the previous creatures resembled fish in the sea, what he saw later were monsters with clawed feet and bodies he couldn’t identify. They were not only fast, but also worked together, which made them much stronger than the creatures from before.
Even so, this wasn’t Chen Chuan’s limit. He could fight them. However, after killing these creatures, his gaze sharpened, because he noticed a lot of scattered scales inside the tent.
It seemed like the creatures had physical bodies, and the encounters weren’t something purely limited within the confines of the mind.
That made him think of a possibility. If he died during this mental battle, would he actually die?
He had already sensed that with each battle, the creatures from the other side became increasingly real, as if Chen Chuan was actually there and could physically touch them. At the same time, he started feeling a sense of danger.
Talu never mentioned this. Was it because she never reached this stage?
No. That wasn’t it.
He took a look at the Frost King Saber. The difference between him and the predecessors from Single Flow School was that they didn’t have a weapon that could absorb those things from the other world.
Chen Chuan believed that this was a consequence because of the Frost King Saber absorbing things.
If that were the case, he would need to be more careful when he challenged the creatures again.
Still, the Frost King Saber seemed to have gained a lot of benefits.
He should try opening a gap and see whether the spine-like bone had actually helped the Frost King Saber get stronger.
Chen Chuan shut his eyes to get a sense of everything for a bit. Then, he brandished his saber and swung outward. A gap tore open where the flash passed by, and bright light spilled out.
He plunged the saber into the ground, sat down, used Awakening Clarity, and started absorbing the quintessence coming from the other side.
After ten minutes or so, Chen Chuan sensed something coming over and flying out of the gap.
It was one of the strange insects he had seen before. His gaze sharpened, and the insects fell on the ground with a loud splat.
Chen Chuan grabbed an ornamental plant from his bag and put it in front of him. It was the insect-repelling plant from GreenSource Eco-Tech that could effectively chase away the insects.
It had come as a bonus gift when he purchased the tent, since insects were practically everywhere in Central City now, so the plants became necessary whenever someone left their house.
After this, he no longer faced any interference. An hour soon passed, but unlike last time, the gap remained. It only started closing up after another twenty or so minutes.
Upon seeing this, Chen Chuan knew that aside from the Frost King Saber growing stronger, what it had absorbed from the spine-like bone today had also contributed to the gap lasting longer.
Since it was effective, he decided to continue fighting the creatures in the future. Even though he could sense a certain degree of danger from them, they weren’t so dangerous that he couldn’t take them out.
He returned the Frost King Saber to its sheath and put the insect carcasses into a bag before collapsing his tent. Once he put everything back into his car, he drove back to Central City.
On his way back, he started thinking. Gaps were a sensitive topic in Central City. To play it safe, he had to switch locations whenever he opened a new gap. Perhaps he should go to the ocean next time.
But the ocean region near the beaches was filled with research labs from various companies and bioweapons. If he wanted to go there, he’d have to go far, which would take a lot of time...
Suddenly, he thought of something. There was another place where he could avoid a lot of trouble. It was convenient and not easy to see.
That place was the sky.
If he could rent a small airship, he could train in the sky and travel far distances within a short amount of time. The gaps he opened wouldn’t be noticeable either.
Pan Xiaode’s family owned an airship company, right? Perhaps he could help.
The moment Chen Chuan reentered Central City, he contacted Pan Xiaode.
The call went through, and he heard Pan Xiaode’s excited voice. “Chen Chuan? No, wait! I have to call you Mr. Chen now! Mr. Chen, how can I help you? I’ll definitely do it!”
Chen Chuan laughed and told him that he needed a small airship. As for the excuse? He told Pan Xiaode that he needed to undergo some special training in the sky.
Pan Xiaode didn’t find that the slightest bit strange. Different martial artists had their different preferences and training methods. Besides, after learning that Chen Chuan had descended from the sky and cut down Ferris Wheel, he had been really impressed, so he simply thought that Chen Chuan wanted to practice the same technique. He became even more excited than Chen Chuan was after hearing about it.
“A small airship? I have one. You want to rent it? That’s so troublesome. I have one right here. It was my brother’s, but he went to the military and left it for me. I ordered a new one for myself, so the old one has been collecting dust.
“If you don’t mind that, you can use it for as long as you like. I also have pilots you can use.”
Chen Chuan thought it was good and said, “Thanks.”
“You don’t have to thank me. Let me get some things ready. I should be able to get everything settled today. If you’re free tomorrow, come over.”
Then, Pan Xiaode sent him an address.
Chen Chuan took a look. “Sure. I’ll go over tomorrow.”
With this settled, he returned to the Arcane Palace and took a look at the messages he received from various parties. When he saw that there weren’t any abnormal situations and no student from the university had sent him a message, he checked the niche channels and took a look at the tournament. After resting for a bit, he went to the training room.
The next morning, he drove to the location Pan Xiaode provided and arrived at an airship factory located southwest outside Central City.
Pan Xiaode was already waiting there. He greeted Chen Chuan and brought him inside.
There was an airship warehouse there, along with a mooring point outside. The place was really spacious. Once Chen Chuan was inside, he took note of a small, silver airship, which was around thirty meters long, parked inside.