Vessel of Desire

Could learning new knowledge improve psionic power?

It sounded a little absurd, but not actually that absurd.

For Chosen Ones, improving their psionic power required nothing more than drinking more Elemental Potions and then lying down to sleep—these lucky people born with awakened psionic abilities saw their psionic strength and mastery grow with age, as though they already possessed the final form of their powers and merely needed time to lift the seals.

Quite a few people on the Terra Continent believed that Chosen Ones were actually the reincarnations of powerful psionic users from the past. Their memories might have been worn away in the Nether Sea—or perhaps within the natural psionic field between heaven and earth—but their powerful psionic abilities could still preserve a portion of themselves, helping them walk the path of psionics again in their next life.

Considering that Ian himself was also reincarnated, he felt this possibility was quite likely.

As for Sublimers who reached the Third Energy Level through the Path of Sublimation and awakened Life Psionics, they had to temper their bodies and wills through all manner of arduous training, raise their Sublimation rank, and drink more Elemental Potions if they wished to improve their psionic power.

For psionic users, Elemental Potions truly were like hot water. There was never any harm in drinking some.

Beyond that...

In general, it was extremely difficult for Sublimers to improve their psionic abilities. Resources, arduous training, Inheritance, and talent were all indispensable, and perhaps luck was needed as well.

Their only advantage was that Sublimers could learn from the experiences of their predecessors when cultivating psionic power, and could also reliably control the kind of psionic ability they awakened.

Granted, there were not many kinds to choose from, but having a choice at all was already good enough.

Thus, for nobles who lacked neither resources, talent, nor Inheritance, this was instead the most popular method of cultivation—they could deliberately awaken psionic abilities best suited to their bloodline Inheritance, achieving an effect greater than the sum of its parts.

Lastly, for Acquired Awakened, improving their psionic abilities required fulfilling their desires, as well as drinking more Elemental Potions.

—Why would someone awaken psionic abilities later in life?

Perhaps it was one moment of utterly unrestrained indulgence, one unforgettable misfortune, one heart-rending sorrow, one stroke of wildly ecstatic fortune...

Good, bad, sorrowful, joyful, blissful, despairing...

In an emotional upheaval so indescribable that an ordinary person might never encounter it even once in an entire lifetime, life itself might awaken psionic power.

Their psionic abilities came from intense desires and emotions, so naturally, their growth followed the same pattern.

For someone who awakened psionic power through revenge, their abilities would continue to grow throughout the process of revenge, reaching their peak once they killed their enemy, then falling into stagnation.

For someone who awakened psionic power through a desire for wealth, their abilities would continue to accumulate as their wealth grew, until the holder felt fully satisfied and no longer desired more.

Desire, dreams, and ambition—the power of psionics came from such yearnings.

The greedier a person was, the more sincere they were, the purer they were...

Or rather, the more rational they were while also being utterly obsessed.

The stronger their psionic abilities would be, and the deeper their potential.

After all, if an ordinary person content with modest wealth and an obsessed person desperate to become a Terminal Producer both awakened psionic abilities dependent on wealth, who would be stronger was obvious at a glance.

In the terminology of Terra's Sublimers, the psionic abilities of Acquired Awakened were essentially a 'Vessel of Desire.'

The greater the desire, the greater the psionic power could grow.

As for whether the end of that desire was a cup, a vat, a bath, a lake, or a sea...

Or even a bottomless Abyss capable of swallowing everything.

That depended on whether the psionic user could carry out their desires and dreams, reaching the limits of their own will.

Though it sounded rather like obsession, madmen could not awaken psionic abilities.

Those unable to command their own wills were merely prisoners of fate. Naturally, they could not become masters of their own destinies and wield the power sublimated from their own desires.

The essence of psionic power was a contradictory spiral: knowing something was impossible, yet stubbornly continuing to desire it—only such rational obsession could catalyze the first stirrings of psionic power.

With that in mind, if Ian's requirement for advancing his psionic abilities was 'learning more knowledge and discovering more novel things,' then it was not particularly strange.

Rather, in the City of Knowledge, there were probably countless people with similar desires who had gained psionic abilities.

It was simply that Ian's desire might have been more sincere and pure, so even 'the course of the future' was regarded as a kind of 'knowledge and novel thing' and thus glimpsed.

"Recently, I really have learned quite a lot of new knowledge... But if my psionic power advances too quickly, that probably isn't a good thing either."

After finishing his morning exercises, Teacher Hilliard had gone off to work. This should have been Ian's free study time.

But because he had once again experienced visions just now, seeing scenes of all sorts of inexplicable trees and desert oases, he could only sit at the entrance of his home and look up at the clouds.

As dawn gradually rose, the sky resembled a painting brushed with countless colors, shifting from golden red to pale orange and bright yellow, while pale cyan and deep blue spread around the edges—clouds without the slightest impurity floated across that backdrop, and the colors at the farthest end of the sky were so profound that faint starlight still flickered within them.

Watching such beautiful scenery improved Ian's mood considerably. Even the unceasing visions temporarily stopped, and he could not help muttering, "Generally speaking, people capable of awakening psionic abilities are quite intelligent, or at least have clear and logical minds."

"But the effects of psionic power are rather dependent on one's state of mind... When I'm in a good mood, it feels stronger. If I fall into despair, I can barely bring out any of its effects."

Psionic power.

As its name implied, an ability originating from the heart and soul was psionic power.

But despite that, psionic power was not an absolutely mind-over-matter force. Activating it pushed the brain to its limits, making psionic users excessively sensitive to everything in the outside world.

In other words, one's 'spiritual sight' became too high, causing malignant sensory crossover—resulting in situations like this, where one saw all kinds of illusions for no reason at all.

Frequent use of psionic power was dangerous not only because it consumed physical strength, but also because of the intense stimulation inflicted upon the brain. Illusions caused by excessively high spiritual sight could leave psionic users mentally exhausted and might even cause them to lose control.

To avoid losing control, and also to continue improving psionic power, many Sublimers had developed numerous potions to calm the mind, enhance psionic abilities, and suppress loss of control.

The stronger a psionic user was, the more rational and clear-headed they tended to be. But if they went mad, the contradictory spiral would lose balance, and the destruction they caused would be all the greater.

Ian himself guessed that his recent visions might have been an aftereffect of using his psionic abilities too often lately, as well as forcibly observing a great magical beast like the Mountain Tide Spirit.

But as Hilliard had said, it was also possible that his psionic abilities were becoming stronger while his brain development had failed to keep pace.

After all, aside from Chosen Ones, it was extremely rare among Acquired Awakened for someone Ian's age to possess psionic abilities.

Children's emotions appeared simple, direct, and extremely intense, but that was actually only an illusion—a cognitive error.

They found it difficult to remain happy for long, and their sorrow rarely lasted through extended periods. They did not yet know what true happiness, attainment, and achievement were, so naturally, they did not understand true despair, abandonment, and failure either.

Without such extreme emotions, psionic power could not awaken. And by the time someone could understand such emotions, their brain should have matured as well.

In other words, Ian alone was unusual because he had lived two lives, resulting in a mature mind while his physical brain could not keep up.

—Thud, thud, thud.

A burst of heavy hoofbeats approached from afar, so loud that even the surrounding clamor of voices could not cover them. Every impact seemed to shake the street.

Ian, who had been looking up at the clouds, froze. He turned toward the source of the hoofbeats, then frowned slightly. "Someone is galloping on horseback down Central Avenue?"

"Where did they come from? Who rides horses in the Southern Ridge? That's far too strange!"

It was no wonder Ian was so puzzled.

Terra Horses were creatures similar to, yet different from, Earth horses. Leaving aside ordinary packhorses, warhorses generally stood over 1.7 meters tall. They were extremely intelligent, and their bodies were covered with a layer of scaly armor. They were powerful omnivorous grassland predators, capable of hunting, but also of planting their favorite forage grass in fertile ground by digging pits to relieve themselves.

Biologically, Terra Horses were classified under the 'Dragon-Eyed Terrestrial Draconic Equine' genus... In other words, they were essentially gentle, tamable draconic beasts.

The Bison Mountains did not produce warhorses. After all, anyone who insisted on riding a horse through swampy forests had to have something wrong with their head. If one absolutely had to ride something, weren't Baisen bison better? Those massive creatures stood three meters tall and looked far more imposing! And if that still did not work, wild boars were also a fine choice. The Mountain Folk boar cavalry of Midra had made the Empire's pioneers suffer terribly back then.

He was somewhat curious, and he truly had nothing to do at the moment. Ian had just fed his younger brother and finished cleaning the house, so he felt no guilt about going to watch the excitement.

Before long, he turned through several street corners and arrived on Central Avenue.