Chapter 25 – Concept integration
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Hello, Dear Readers!
Here is Chapter 25! We're close to the end of Arc 2 (Chapter 27), so be prepared for the change of 'scenery' in Arc 3. I'll be honest with all of you, I was hesitating as to where I was going with Arc 3, but by not writing anything this week, I guess my mind opened up and I found the right direction. So, all is right in the world^^.
Incidentally, I finished editing the whole Arc 1 (14 chapters^^). That was exhausting! I found several discrepancies and other mistakes, which I promptly rectified. I also added some disclaimers and other explanations here and there, to make it more easily understandable (Power system and organization system which I added in the 'special chapter'). I hope the new readers will enjoy all the changes.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the read! :)
Patreon announcement : If you feel like helping me sustain the pace of release for this novel, you can visit my patreon page and donate a bit of money. The first Tier starts at 1€ (Around 1.1$). From the second tier (2€ ) and up, there are advance chapters available.
I've also added my paypal link if you would rather use that platform. If you have any trouble with the latter, let me know, as it is my first time using it.
May you all reach Immortality and the Peak of Cultivation!
Calm Wanderer
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Mortal Realm, Capital Planet of the Hoborg Empire, Main Continent, Cloudmount City, Divine Fate Mansion.
As everything happened in his mind, only a fleeting moment passed by in reality, which allowed his consciousness to hold on without breaking. When he grasped her message, he immediately changed his decision, and instead of giving up, he decided to risk it. “High rewards comes with high risk. I will definitely succeed!” He thought.
He quickly recalled the content of the message. “Little fox! We don't have much time, so I'll be brief. You are currently condensing and integrating a Command. However, as a Mortal Layer Cultivator, your Sea of Consciousness can only hold a Concept, which is two level below a Command. The difference between the two is how precise one is compare to the other. Although I can't feel what you chose, you definitely tried to encompass a notion too wide. So, what you must do, is to take your Command and make it more precise to create a Concept. An example could be going from 'Strength' as a Command to 'Body strength' as an Intent and 'Punching strength' as a Concept. You go from wide-encompassing to very precise.”
“Again, as I don't know what is your Command, I can not help you more. But I'm confident you can do it. But if you feel you... Nevermind. Good luck.” He wondered for a second about what she wanted to tell him, but decided that he should not waste too much time, and instead started to think about how to go from Command to Concept.
“So, I started with Balance. It's true that balance could mean pretty much anything, so it shouldn't be too hard to find a more precise notion. Balance, Balance, Balance... What was I trying to balance? Mmmh... I remember talking about Kindness and Mercilessness... But it doesn't fit exactly. Maybe, good and evil? Still not it.” As he was immersed in his reflections, he did not perceive that each time his mind was on the verge of collapsing, some kind of energy appeared from his Sea of Consciousness to repair the cracks slightly. If he was aware, he would be able to feel a certain similarity with the Command he wanted to fit in his Mind. However, it seemed more real, as if the boy's understanding of the Balance Command was fake, or at least incomplete.
Of course, as he did not possess any Divine sense, his Sea of Consciousness would only be blurry for him at best, so he would not be able to find the source of that energy.
Back to the boy. As he seemed to arrive nowhere with his musings, he started to panic slightly, thinking about the time ticking away, with the danger of dying increasing every moment. He thought he could feel his mind reaching his limits, waiting to collapse. That mental image of his mind collapsing alarmed him to a point where he nearly gave up, as he determined that he had no chance of condensing a concept without dying. However, his mind made a surprising link between the collapse and the part about giving up, and made him recall the time when he was trying to balance the Law of Darkness and Light inside a single spell.
When his frightened psyche realized that he may hold a clue as to how to create a Concept that fitted him, he jumped on the possibility and tried many sentences to see if they matched. After a few tries, he finally found one that resonated with him. As soon as it was discovered, he started to condense and absorb it in his Mind. Unlike the previous failure where the 'Concept' was too big to enter, this time it felt to him as if it was created entirely for him, matching his Sea of Consciousness perfectly.
As the dangerous part was over, most of his fear left him. Nonetheless, he kept his focus on the task, since he knew that if it failed now, he would probably die of regret. Almost an hour went by while Bai Yue was gazing with nervousness at her student, despite being aware that he was out of danger.
During the previous event, she noticed that he was condensing a Concept, which amazed her at first. Indeed, Concepts were supposed to be touched upon at Rank 3 and most cultivators acquired theirs at the Peak of the same rank. As for herself, she was one of the greatest genius Cultivators of the Wanderer's Realm, as she condensed hers when she was only at the beginning of Rank 2. One might think that between a Level 2 cultivator and a Level 4 one, there was not too much discrepancies. However, that person would be mistaken. Indeed, there are two major evolution between the two. One is due to the Rank up with the Mana Cultivation and the second is the Level up in Law Comprehension, going from the Basic Level to the Familiar Level. The effect on Cultivators is so enormous that just in term of power, no number of average Peak Rank 1 would be enough to kill an average beginner Rank 2. That is even if the latter ran out of Mana, as one would need to have a strike on the Rank 2 level to harm his body.
Jumping Level to fight was not common, but it happened. However, jumping Rank to fight was almost impossible. And the Mind Power difference is similar. Which means that Rank 2 Cultivator had a lot more chance of condensing a Concept than Rank 1. And the same was true for Rank 3 compare to Rank 2.
Back to the situation. Bai Yue, after her surprise, noticed that something was very wrong about the condensing and integration. She could feel that the size of the Concept was more akin to a Command, and a faulty one at that. And as a Command could only be condensed at the Divine Layer, she understood the consequences it would have on the boy's Mind if he kept trying to integrate it.
However, she had one conundrum. Because he was not supposed to condense his concept that quickly, she never shared any information about it with him, which meant that he was blindly following his intuition to instantiate and integrate that faulty Command. That would be easy to remedy if she could just tell him what to do out loud or via her Divine Sense. However, if she did, she would break his enlightenment and he would probably lose most of what he just gained. The former being a kind of bubble that would burst if poked at with outside disturbance. Although he would retain a small part of those gains, it was nothing compared to directly condensing his Concept. After all, It was one of the requirements to reach the Immortal Layer.
She kept thinking, trying to find a solution, when she felt the Seal in her Sea of Consciousness activating itself. As it was connected to her, she could perceive a kind of resonance with the other Seal in the Boy's Mind. A few words started to appear in her own Mind, however, she knew it did not come from her. When she focus on them, they became clearer, and she understood that it came from Guang Yang. “The spirit of the two Seals are apparently feeling the danger he is in and are trying to help him. If I can hear his thoughts, maybe he can hear mine. I'll try to send him a message with what he should do.”
After making her decision, she focused her Mind on the Seal in an effort to deepen the connection between the two Seals and started to send her thoughts towards the boy. As she was not sure that he was receiving them clearly, she kept repeating herself over and over again, in the hope that he could benefit from this opportunity without being hurt.
After what felt like years to her, but was most likely closer to minutes, she felt a change in the shoddy Command he condensed. Although she did not understand how his Mind did not collapse already, she was still glad that he seemed to have received her message and that he passed the dangerous event without getting hurt. It felt to her as if a Peak Rank 9 Divine Mountain was taken off from her back, and she could breath anew. However, she was still not completely calm, as she kept her focus on her little fox, in case something wrong happened again.
Her worry were unfounded, however, as nothing dangerous cropped up during the condensation of the new Concept, which preceded its integration into the boy's Mind. And after almost an hour, his aura changed slightly when the former started to affect his whole being. The sensation she perceived from his aura piqued her interest, and despite having a clue, she wondered what was the precise sentence that he used to instantiate his Concept. However, she guessed that he was probably checking the changes to himself, so she chose to wait until he was done to ask him some questions. After all, a few minutes would not make a difference, would it?
In the boy's Sea of Consciousness. Guang Yang was finally done with integrating his new Concept with his Mind. As he was slightly curious, he started to check out that unknown 'thing' that appeared in his psyche. “So this is the so-called 'Concept'? It's... extremely useful.” As he fiddled with it, he noticed that his three Aspects, namely Body, Soul and Energy, seemed to transform with its integration, making them more harmonious with each other. It felt completely different to him compared to a Cultivation or Law Comprehension Breakthrough. It was as if he was more attuned to the three Realms and to the Laws. “It's a bit confusing, but I should ask teacher, instead of wasting time fumbling around. She would probably know a lot more than me about it.” He thought.
Before opening his eyes, he decided to check out his gains from his Law Comprehension's Level up. He could feel the huge effects the Realm's Laws sending energy had on him. His Mind Power had an enormous increase and his Sea of Consciousness healed up completely from the previous ordeal. The result was incomparable to his previous one, which made sense to him as it was only a sub-level up instead of a complete level up, like this time. There were several effects, such as feeling his thoughts becoming a lot clearer and faster, while comprehending Laws seemed a lot easier to him than previously. He also understood how to project Law infused Mana into objects and people. The latter to heal, for example. Although he couldn't attack from a distance, if he combined that skill with the right weapons, he could increase his combat power by a large margin.
The second change was on his three aspects. They were purified, which increased his combat power even more. He could feel that for the same amount of mana used, the result was a few times stronger than before his breakthrough. And that was before he reached level 4, which would help sync everything and improve his strength by several times again. He could also feel that, thanks to the purification, his future breakthroughs would be easier, at least until he reached Level 4, which corresponded to the Early Familiar Level. A metaphor used would be about how his own building became wider, but not taller. Although he still had to build it up, it would be safer and easier to do it.
The last change was a surprising but happy one, that was linked with the previous one. Indeed, his Mana Cultivation bottleneck seemed to loosen, and, although he did not break through right away, he could feel that it would only take a few days at most to succeed. Thinking about everything that happened, the boy felt ecstatic. Despite his maturity, he could not help but feel despondent previously, when he was stuck for a long time at the same level, without seeing a way to push past it. However, now, he felt a sense of freedom that he never experienced before. “Cultivation is amazing!” He thought while a smile appeared on his face.
When he finished taking note of everything, he opened his eyes, and as he expected, he found his beautiful teacher looking at him with what he found was a smile of relief. That realization warmed his heart, as he could feel how great it was for him to have someone who cared for him that much. As for his previous thoughts about how he was disappointed with her? Recalling those, he felt embarrassed at how childish they were. “My Realm! I'm so stupid. The only thing that matters is that she is always there for me. As for the rest, it shouldn't matter.”
Mentally shaking his head to disperse his wandering thoughts, he was about to open his mouth to ask her some questions about what happened when he was smothered in her warm embrace, stuck between her two heavenly peaks. [A/N: I'm trying to stay classy^^] Unfortunately, although the position was comfortable, as he was still a Rank 1, the need to breath quickly came to him. That made him panic a little and when he started to flail around a bit, Bai Yue instantly noticed the problem. As her cheeks gained a tinge of pink from her embarrassment, she pushed him away to let him breath.
When the boy stopped gulping for air, he looked at his teacher with a wry smile. “Teacher, I almost had my mind destroyed with what happened previously, but I survived. Did you want to finish the job?” When she heard the little boy tease her, the faint pink on her cheeks turned to a deeper red, and in her embarrassment, she flicked his forehead while saying. “It seems that your breakthrough made you a bit too cheeky. I believe some more training is needed.”
Although the flick was weak for her, it still hurt a bit for the fox, as he was much weaker than her. He then held his forehead in pain and begged for her forgiveness. As she noticed him repenting, a smile of amusement appeared on her face. She knew that it was his way of telling her that he was fine and to relieve her of her worry. At that thought, a trace of tenderness appeared in her eyes as she was gazing at his adorable face.
When the young 'criminal' realized that his teacher felt better, he sighed mentally in relief and decided that this time he would be able to ask her the numerous questions he had. “Teacher, I have a few questions about what happened.” She nodded. “Go ahead.” He silently reviewed how to phrase everything and when he was done he continued. “First, I would like to know what is a Concept and about the higher level of it? Second, why was it too big at first? Third, could you tell me more about my Concept?”
Preparing herself to answer his questions, she made him sit in front of him first, before starting her explanation. “Your first question was: 'What is a Concept?' To answer that, I need to quickly go over the difference between the Laws and the Concepts, Intents and Commands. The last three being the Level corresponding to the Mortal Layer, Immortal Layer and Divine Layer.”
“Laws are the raw elements that constitutes the Wanderer's Realms. That means that Water, Time and Light are Laws. However, to link all those Laws together and make them work, you need something to control them. That's where the three Concept, Intent and Command comes into play. Although I don't know if they are naturally or artificially created, the end result is still the same. An example of a Command would be Family, Blood or Strength.”
Guang Yang noticed something and asked her. “Teacher, does that mean we can control a part of the three Realms if we get strong enough? And was the Concept I have now created by me, or borrowed, or...” She cut him off before he could add anything more and said. “Slow down. I was getting to that part. So the Concept that the Cultivators condensed are actually copy of those that naturally exists in the 'wild'. To do that, you need to have a certain understanding of a particular notion which resonates with the already existing Concept. Once that is done, the latter will automatically appear and tried to integrate in your sea of consciousness. Of course, you are free to refuse to integrate it if that Concept does not fit you very well. However, you should note that it's very hard to condense one, so most cultivators do not hesitate to absorb any Concept that they instantiate, even if it did not fit them perfectly.”
“Now for you second question. You were wondering why it was too big. It's simply because you were trying to integrate a Command in your small sea of consciousness, which is usually a sure death, as Mortal Layer Cultivator are incapable of doing it. It would be like trying to fit a Grade 1 Planet in your pocket. Utterly impossible.” She added. “Before you feel proud of being able to condense a Command directly instead of the weaker Concept, let me stop you. You did not. At least, not a fully functioning one. What happened was that you had a vague understanding about a certain notion, which I guess had to do with 'Balance', and you tried to instantiate it from there. It would be like someone trying to revolutionize the field of technology after having watched a 20 minutes video about some broad concepts [A/N: concepts and not Concepts] on the Holo-Net. Completely foolish.”
Those remarks destroyed any lingering pride he felt. Indeed, his teacher hit the bullseye again, as, although he hid it well, when he heard the first part of her explanation, he did feel a bit cocky. That feeling did not last long however. When he saw her gaze that screamed 'I know exactly what you're thinking', he had a sheepish grin appearing on his face, showing her that he understood her implied message.
Seeing her thoughts getting across, she resumed her speech. “That was your second question. Now the third. About your Concept. Well, you need to know that every Concept are different, and thus have different effect. However they usually are self explanatory, since you would need to have a precise idea to condense one in the first place. Note that despite the niche effects, as they are connected to a higher Intent and even higher Command, they would still give you a slight effect from them.”
“Take the 'punching strength' Concept for example. That could evolve into 'Body Strength' Intent and 'Strength' Command. The weakest mostly strengthening your punches. However, you would get a slight increase in body strength, and an even smaller increase in the overall strength department. Of course, the last two would not amount to much, but an advantage is always good to have. Also don't tell anyone you don't trust about your Concept as it could be used against you.”
“Now tell me what your Concept is so that I can help you understand it more. And also to sate my curiosity.” That last sentence made her smile. He nodded and said with a grin mirroring hers. “You were right about the fact that my Concept came from the Command 'Balance'.”
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Patreon announcement : If you feel like helping me sustain the pace of release for this novel, you can visit my patreon page and donate a bit of money. The first Tier starts at 1€ (Around 1.1$). From the second tier (2€ ) and up, there are advance chapters available.
I've also added my paypal link if you would rather use that platform. If you have any trouble with the latter, let me know, as it is my first time using it.
If you enjoyed the chapter, don't hesitate to comment! ;)
Also, if you like the novel, and if you feel like it, you can also leave good reviews, ratings, click on follow and/or favorite (I feel like a youtuber now^^). It can make a big difference in visibility. Thanks a lot for those who have already done it!
Also, every constructive criticisms will be taken into consideration if I find them relevant.
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