Successful Astral Projection

After quite a while, Richard obtained about five milliliters of Ether. This amount was only 1% of a bottle of mineral water on Modern Earth, but in Richard's view, it was already enough.

He sealed the glass bottle containing the Ether with a wooden stopper to prevent evaporation, then wrapped it in dark linen to prevent oxidation from strong light.

Richard nodded in satisfaction, picked up the bottle, and left the Independent Laboratory.

When he reached the palace hall outside, sunlight was streaming through the windows onto the floor. Richard looked up and realized that the sun had already shifted westward. In other words, he had unknowingly spent the entire day in the laboratory. Yet he did not feel the slightest bit hungry. Instead, he felt mentally exhilarated and impatient to return to his bedroom and test the Ether he had just produced. He wanted to see whether he could truly unravel the so-called Life Reshaping, and whether the power of science could overcome the obstacles of the Spell System.

How exciting.

As Richard thought this, he was about to head upstairs when a voice rang out.

"Prince! Prince!" Richard raised an eyebrow. He did not need to guess to know who it was.

Turning his head, he indeed saw Edward jogging over. He stopped nearby, panting as he asked, "Prince, um... um, have you finished your research?"

"Yes, for now." Richard answered, then asked, "Nothing happened in the palace during that time, right?"

"No, no." Edward shook his head.

"That's good." Richard nodded and turned to continue upstairs. "I have something important to do now. Keep guarding the palace. Unless the palace catches fire, do not disturb me no matter what happens."

"This... then dinner..."

"You can eat it yourself."

"Prince!" Edward cried anxiously. "You haven't eaten anything since yesterday. If this continues, your body won't be able to take it..."

"I know my own body best. Going without food for a short time is not a problem. I'll eat breakfast tomorrow, so there is no need to worry. That's all." As he spoke, Richard had already gone up to the second floor and disappeared from Edward's sight.

Edward's expression was complicated. In the end, he could not help letting out a mournful sigh. "Prince, if you keep this up, I really won't be able to remain Guard Captain..."

Returning to his bedroom connected to the study, Richard did not immediately begin the experiment. Instead, he carefully studied the Chapter of Munro once more. Only after meticulously reviewing the section on "Astral Projection" and confirming that there were no mistakes did he make up his mind.

Night fell. Richard sat cross-legged on the velvet bed in his bedroom, took out the glass bottle of Ether, removed the stopper, held it beneath his nose, and began inhaling deeply.

As the air entered his lungs through his windpipe, Richard clearly sensed the changes in his body. Once he reached a certain threshold, he quickly sealed the bottle and placed it on the table beside him. Then he remained motionless on the bed, allowing the Ether to take effect rapidly within him.

In barely a dozen seconds, Richard felt a slight dizziness in his brain, followed by his body beginning to grow heavy.

Several dozen seconds later, his body felt as heavy as though it had been filled with lead.

After one minute, he could no longer move at all, yet his mind remained clear.

Recalling the records in the Chapter of Munro, Richard began imagining that his consciousness had no weight and was not bound by gravity. It could rise to the surface like a fish and soar into the sky like a bird.

In an instant, Richard clearly sensed his entire body beginning to tremble. It was not the shivering of muscles caused by low temperatures, but as though something were struggling to break free from within his body.

He continued using Mental Strength to control his consciousness, attempting to make it drift out of his body.

Bzzz!

Richard felt his heavy body shaking even more violently. It no longer felt as though he were sitting on a soft velvet bed, but as if he were seated in a carriage racing down a dirt road. Something unknown was about to leap uncontrollably from within him.

Bzzzz!

He did not know whether it was an illusion, but gradually, Richard felt the entire bed begin to shake, followed by the floor and the house, as if there were an earthquake.

But Richard knew very well that the plain where Blue Lion City stood had never experienced an earthquake since records began. The chance of one happening now by coincidence was practically zero. The most likely explanation was that his body was undergoing some special change due to Astral Projection.

Bzzzzzzzz!

The vibrations grew increasingly violent. Richard clearly felt some force roughly pulling at his body. Then he suddenly discovered that countless lines had appeared within his body—each line passed through his chest and emerged from his back, continuously vibrating and carrying intense heat, as though they were about to slice his body into thin sheets. The pain was unbearable.

Richard suddenly guessed that these lines might be mental manifestations of planetary magnetic field lines. His body was facing north while seated on the bed. If this world resembled Earth, then the geomagnetic north pole would be directly in front of him, while the geomagnetic south pole would be behind him. The geomagnetic poles were exactly opposite the geographic poles. The planet's magnetic field, starting from the geomagnetic north pole, would extend northward along the ground, pass through his body, and reach the geomagnetic south pole.

Then...

Just as Richard thought of this, he heard a crashing sound beside his ear, as though something had shattered. His entire body suddenly became light and floated upward. Then Richard felt his eyes open and saw the scene before him. This was not his physical eyes opening, but the "eyes" of the consciousness body that had floated out of his body. What he saw was slightly different from ordinary vision, but Richard still easily discovered that his consciousness body was floating above his physical body in the form of a cloud of white mist.

Yes, that was right. He was floating above himself.

It was a very strange experience. He clearly knew that the motionless person seated on the bed was himself, yet his consciousness now truly existed in another form.

"Interesting..." Richard muttered, quickly speculating inwardly, Is this a soul state? Or plasma? Or perhaps quantum...

There was too little information. After guessing for a long time, Richard still could not give the current situation a scientific explanation. He could only continue observing his surroundings with his mental "eyes."

Then Richard discovered that something like a transparent ribbon was growing from the back of his consciousness body's neck and connecting to his physical body, as though it formed some kind of link.

Richard tried moving away from his body. The transparent ribbon behind him automatically stretched, and no matter how far he went, it was not constrained by length. It appeared capable of extending infinitely.

Richard tried entering the study beside him. The moment he thought of returning to his body, the transparent ribbon at the back of his neck immediately transmitted an extremely powerful pull, dragging his consciousness body back beside his physical body as though teleporting. To shorten the distance, his consciousness body had actually passed directly through the wall.

This made Richard realize that his consciousness body could ignore any material object with physical form and easily pass through walls or other obstacles.