Master of the Stars

The body was a mountain range with dense vegetation and thick soil. It can bear the rays of the sun and the rain of the clouds. It can resist storms and thunder.

Breath was flowing water. It twisted and turned, amassing the beautiful soul of the mountain range, giving life to all living things.

Here, the body was the foundation. It was the utmost, the decisive material structure. It was akin to a mountain range; there existed highs and lows, up and downs. Vital energy was the function decided by the body’s foundation. It was like the power of flowing water. It followed the form of the mountain as it flowed down, and warmth and coldness, yin and yang, can be seen.

The two conformed to each other, and nuances gradually grew clearer as the still state of mind intensified and the real and the virtual were manifested and discerned. There truly seemed to be a painting of mountains and rivers being unfurled before Luo Nan’s eyes. Within the rolling mountains, clear rivers snaked around as they followed the path of potential. In some places the waters remained in place. In some places they turned. In some places they split. The waters diverged completely in different places.

Having these differences allowed the sense of substance to become clearer.

Gradually, there were some places where the flow of water accumulated into something like a deep lake, a dark whirlpool. These were meridian points, and Xiu Shenyu wanted him to pay special attention to them. These nourished and grew the soul. These were fields of blessing.

Luo Nan’s consciousness gradually confirmed their locations and contracted them with his pre-established concepts of the body: top of the head, the chest, the lower abdomen, and even the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet....

There seemed to be a resonance among these meridian points, and they surged with dark life. Waves cut across, and the feeling of mist-like nothingness gradually retreated. Luo Nan’s perception toward his body was expressed anew, but this time it was with a completely new understanding than before.

It was like the ancient philosophical proposition: "The mountain is seen as a mountain; water is seen as water. The mountain is seen as not a mountain; water is seen as not water. The mountain is still a mountain; water is still water."

Luo Nan felt stupid when he heard Xiu Shenyu talk about these things, but when he truly experienced it himself, he felt he understood things quite clearly.

However, Xiu Shenyu was only talking about the first step. He had yet to discuss what they would do next.

Luo Nan’s focus lightened a bit, his thoughts wandering. He originally wanted to exit the still state of mind and ask Xiu Shenyu the know-hows for the next step, but the resonance among his meridian points made him recall Rui Wen’s marvelous technique of body and soul merging.

But after carefully comparing the experiences, Luo Nan ultimately found that they were different.

Luo Nan was far from reaching Rui Wen’s ability to merge body and soul as one. The resonance in his body only occured between a few meridian points. Each meridian point was a terminal point with lines connecting them, forming a fuzzy structure. The structure was a bit chaotic and complex. It was also somewhat familiar.

If slight adjustments were made....

The feeling Luo Nan perceived within his body was still quite unfocused. Luo Nan subconsciously viewed his body as a revisable painting. The terminal points were moved, and the connecting lines were merged. After a few adjustments, the fuzzy and chaotic structure became orderly. The structure became a central axis in the shape of a pyramid.

Luo Nan suddenly sensed that something was wrong. He wanted to open his eyes, but then a shout came cutting in from the outside world.

"Continue!"

The voice was heavy, and it pressed down against Luo Nan’s surging mind. Luo Nan’s mind shook a few times before eventually maintaining the still state. By now, the image of mountains and rivers had blurred and faded away, as a more familiar scene grew in its absence.

It was a pyramid rotating in the void. Precisely speaking, it was the Format Pyramid, the visualization diagram.

Luo Nan was rather bewildered by the sudden change in imagery. His perception toward his physical body was also affected, turning chaotic. But this situation did not last long. The chaotic information was absorbed by the rotating visualization diagram within Luo Nan’s still state of mind. It was neat and orderly, structured with rules, and it seemed to be the central axis. A single action spurred the bones, flesh, and even the hundreds of millions of veins. An action spurred a hundred actions, a thousand actions, ten-thousand actions. It possessed rules, and was not the slightest bit disorderly.

Luo Nan was familiar with this sensation. He went through the Archetype Format Guide Program in the complete version of the Frost River Waterway System back in Frost River Reality. He ignited the virtual form of the Format of Fire. The Format of Fire had acted as an axis as well. It had many connections in many directions. It was vaguely the same as his current experience.

The Format of Fire and the image of mountains and rivers were great, but they could not compare in meaning to the visualization diagram. Luo Nan had become accustomed to the continued existence of the visualization diagram by his side. The visualization diagram was the representation of Formatting Theory, the truth that Luo Nan revered.

Therefore, the visualization diagram occupied the most central location in his mind when it appeared. His other feelings just surged and fluctuated around the visualization diagram, and they might as well be annihilated to dust.

Luckily, Luo Nan was able to recall what his goals were tonight. Though he had somewhat deviated from his main task, the roots for the breathing technique still existed. His breathing tempo was only chaotic for just a moment before returning to calmness.

The image of the mountains and rivers already turned blurry by now, but Luo Nan could still feel the circulation and accumulation of vital energy. However, the trending path naturally disappeared without a trace. Only layers of rising steam were left, amassing together in a steady stream. They rose toward the central region of the visualization diagram, and toward the inscribed sphere.

Luo Nan’s visualization seemed to only be concerned with his body. The inscribed sphere contained his inner organs and the circulation of his blood and energy. Luo Nan’s vital energy symbolized the activation of his body’s functions, as lectured by Xiu Shenyu. As for what the convergence of vital energy represented, Xiu Shenyu did not say.

The visualization diagram rotated endlessly, and at the same time, layers upon layers of vital energy poured inside. The energy was great, and it seemed that a change was about to occur.

But there were no changes.... The center of the inscribed sphere was just nothingness, like a black hole. No matter how much vital energy was amassed, it was all swallowed by this sheet of nothingness. Its limits could not be seen.

At this time, Luo Nan’s mind followed the circulation of vital energy and entered the inscribed sphere. This was the first time he did this since he started studying Formatting Theory. His actions came automatically to him. Clearly, he was making great progress in visualization.

Originally, this was a good thing, but Luo Nan’s mind became stiff and sluggish when observing the scene from the inside. He was flooded with darkness, which he did not know was real or not, and it was hard for him to feel anything else.

Luo Nan’s current state of mind was absolutely unsuitable for entering a meditative state. Then, a deep cry came from outside. The cry suppressed the large upheaval that made Luo Nan leave his still state of mind. The cry pressed Luo Nan’s mind firmly in this space, and it allowed Luo Nan to see things more clearly.

Rattle! Rattle!

Within the abyssal space whose depth could not be seen, countless thick chains penetrated the sheet of darkness. They crossed and weaved. They coiled around each other. They formed a structure so complicated that it made one’s scalp feel like it was about to explode.

It was like an inescapable net. It was like a dungeon.

That’s right. The dark chains always came from the inscribed sphere of the visualization diagram. However, Luo Nan never thought that these seemingly endless chains, which could penetrate through layers of the void, could have this appearance, could have this shape, deeply hidden within the visualization diagram.

Luo Nan had felt his vital energy boil with great power, but now it was simply negligible vapor in the face of such a cavernous chasm. The enormous pressure pressed down upon the spiraling strands of vital energy.

A bit of light from a flame could be seen deep within the area of weaving chains. The light passed through the small chinks in the chains, but Luo Nan could not sense the slightest bit of heat from this light. The glacial chains sucked in what heat there was, leaving only a flicker of light behind. The light attracted a portion of Luo Nan’s mind, and it seemed neither close nor distant.

"My heart’s a prison."

Suddenly, Luo Nan recalled the leading words in the twenty-word secret mantra left behind by his grandfather.

The rattle reverberated once more, and Luo Nan was no longer able to control his mind. He was expelled from the still state of mind, and the image of mountains and rivers, the image of the visualization diagram, all faded away without a trace. Luo Nan felt a burning heat in his lower abdominals and nothing more.

Luo Nan blinked with vacant eyes. The first thing he saw was Xiu Shenyu.

Xue Lei was next to the gym master. He opened his mouth but was tongue-tied. It took a while before he said, "You, how did you sit up?"