Close Range

Ronan fell asleep, but not peacefully. The heat coursing through his body clung to him like a shadow. Even inside the comfortably tempered cabin, it refused to subside.

With his mind stretched too tight as well, he seemed to wake twice in the middle of it. In a daze, he checked the download progress, confirmed that the connection still existed and that the progress bar was still crawling along at a snail's pace, then fell asleep again.

Mm, had he gone back to Tree Hollow once too?

In any case, by the end, the boundary between dream and reality had quietly dissolved. Part of his consciousness entered dormancy, while another part remained highly active—or perhaps different regions of his brain took turns becoming excited...

Like that, Ronan gradually adapted to the state. His consciousness went from struggling and wrestling at first to accepting it as perfectly natural. It spread and extended at will, reaching everywhere and stopping nowhere.

After all, Ronan's Soul Power was formidable. Few could rival him in either the range of his perception or the depth of its layers. So long as he wished it, the entire Earth Time-Space and Cloud Top World could become a playground for his thoughts. Under normal circumstances, restrained by reason, he still had to exercise some caution. He also needed to cultivate himself and study disciplines such as Configuration, leaving him with little idle time to let his mind roam. But now, half asleep and half awake, he sought only comfort and ease. How could he be bothered with so much else?

For a time, Ronan's consciousness drifted freely—here in the east one moment, there in the west the next; diving beneath the sea, then climbing above the clouds. Supported by the Soul Cape built from the Water Condensation Ring, he