Realm Barrier

After his initial meditation studies, Suye discovered the significance of meditation for himself—it was to closely connect body and mind, allowing them to merge, enabling him to better perceive his body, and thus better perceive himself.

Suye realized that living in an age of information explosion, everything he had experienced in the past—whether studying, working, getting promoted, earning money, achieving success, or anything else—was almost entirely defined by the outside world, almost all of it external pursuit.

Clearly, he himself was the root of everything, yet he had never truly sensed or examined himself.

Through meditation, Suye reestablished the connection between his body and mind.

From that point on, Suye completely abandoned the mindset of external pursuit and turned inward, beginning to seek his true inner desires, to pursue his Original Intention.

After that, Suye's meditation ability advanced by leaps and bounds, and through rigorous training at the Inner Contemplation Center, he ultimately reached an extremely high level.

Suye wasn't opposed to Niedern's method itself, but he clearly understood that meditation methods involving fantasizing about external objects were very easy to start with, and for people who were relatively focused, there wasn't much of a problem.

However, the issue was that if the meditator's mind was too active and their thoughts particularly scattered, the fantasy process could easily go awry.

Suye had experienced a minor mishap back then, and after discovering it, he corrected it immediately, thus avoiding going down the wrong path.

On Blue Star, many guided meditations no longer used such overly illusory guidance methods; they mostly involved listening to soothing music, then starting from feeling the body, sensing the present moment—this was also the foundation of mindfulness.

Suye divided meditation into three realms.

The first realm: feeling the body, merging body and mind.

The second realm: divided into three minor stages—knowing oneself, affirming oneself, and examining oneself. This was also Suye's current realm.

The third realm: transcending oneself. But Suye had never seen such a person, because those who truly transcended themselves would actually be very humble, and would feel that they hadn't transcended themselves. However, one thing was certain: people who truly transcended themselves all achieved great things.

Pushing aside the stray thoughts in his mind, Suye first took a long breath in, then exhaled through his mouth, ensuring the inhalation and exhalation were the same length. After doing this three times, Suye closed his mouth.

Some meditation systems insisted on always inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth. Suye believed this method went against the body's natural laws and even weakened the nose's exhalation function, so he didn't choose this breathing method.

After that, Suye completely ignored Niedern's guidance and began using his most commonly used scanning meditation method.

Suye first focused his attention on his eyes, feeling the sensation in his eyes, then consciously relaxed them.

Next, Suye concentrated his attention on his brain, feeling his brain, letting it calm down and relax.

Then, starting from his hair, after feeling and relaxing, Suye slowly let his attention sweep down his body from top to bottom—scalp, ears, forehead, nose... all the way to the top of his feet, soles, and toes.

During this process, stray thoughts occasionally popped into his mind, such as the teacher's voice, worries about the future, Horton's revenge, and so on. But Suye didn't judge them, didn't get anxious, didn't conclude that his meditation ability was insufficient. He simply categorized them, determined what they were, and then cast them out of his mind.

At this moment, Suye knew he was meditating.

After this round of scanning meditation, Suye's body and mind became even more closely connected.

After that, Suye stopped perceiving his body and began to empty his mind, turning everything into nothingness.

Everything became empty and void, and Suye seemed to forget that he was meditating.

After a while, Suye still had his eyes closed, but his eyes moved slightly.

In some unknown place in the void, in a place only spirit could reach, a thought was born, as if another Suye had appeared.

This new Suye seemed like a transcendent being, standing at the peak of the world and the stars.

He existed, yet seemed not to exist.

He was independent, yet one with body and mind.

This was the spirit, or perhaps the soul, or a strange state of the superego.

This was his own god.

This newly born, strange spirit examined Suye in meditation, examined himself.

At this moment, Suye again knew he was meditating, but it was completely different from the beginning.

Observing the self.

Boom...

Suye suddenly felt the sky shake and the earth move, the world collapsing.

If he were still a beginner, Suye would have been jolted awake immediately. But his meditation realm was now extremely high; he only felt a fluctuation in his body, mind, and spirit, and soon returned to normal.

Before long, the shaking stopped.

Suye suddenly "saw" the color of the sky above the pitch-black world begin to change, slowly turning into a blue-black.

Countless fissures appeared in the blue-black Sky Curtain, as if a sky full of dark clouds had been pierced by a rain of arrows, leaving countless holes, with dense sunlight pouring down through them.

Even though his spirit was incredibly strong during meditation, Suye was still confused.

Hadn't Teacher Niedern said earlier that at most, one would see a dozen or so fissures? Why did it seem like there were billions or even more now? Suye also recalled Niedern's words: if your talent is insufficient, choose a close one; if your talent is strong, choose a distant one.

Suye thought it over. If he were rational, he should choose a middle one. But if he were even more rational, considering that Altar, it seemed he could choose the farthest one.

Suye decided to take the most rational path.

Suye suddenly realized that his meditation in the World of Gods was somewhat different from that on Blue Star.

On Blue Star, the mental state during his meditation, though transcendent and capable of examining himself, was essentially one with his body and mind, formless and intangible.

It was like an elusive train of thought.

But now, his spirit actually had a concrete form.

Beneath the blue-black Realm Barrier floated a small, Semi-Transparent figure, identical in appearance to Suye.

The humble Suye looked at himself, clicking his tongue in wonder, then thought for a moment, clenched both fists, straightened his right forearm, bent his left arm slightly, and thrust both fists forward.

"Fly!"

The moment the thought crossed Suye's mind, his Spirit Body immediately soared through the deep blue Sky Curtain, heading toward the farthest rift.

Suye felt light flicker before his eyes and Divine Radiance flash—in the blink of an eye, he had completely flown out of the dense divine light zone and entered a pitch-black environment.

A bit disoriented, Suye turned his head and saw that the region resembling a starry river had shrunk into an almost imperceptible point.

"That fast?"

Suye pondered for a moment, then continued flying forward beneath the blue-black Sky Curtain.

Suye felt as if he were about to transform into light itself.

At first, he could still see some tiny rifts, but eventually, there was only the solid Realm Barrier above and the endless darkness below, with no trace of divine light from the divine realm.

"Did I fly too far?"

Just then, a gentle voice rang out, carrying a mysterious charm that lingered around Suye's Spirit Body.

"Classmates, today's Meditation Class is about to end. I've already lifted the magic. Now, don't open your eyes suddenly—start imagining yourselves slowly returning to Plato Academy, back to this meadow. Then, slowly open your eyes, slowly..."

Suye immediately imagined himself leaving the Realm Barrier region and gradually returning to the grass.

Suye opened his eyes and found the sky dusky yellow, the sun about to set.

"Snore... snore..." A loud snoring sound rang out.