Gaia Consciousness

The bottom of Clock Space was exactly as Fang Xiu had seen it last time, transformed into a black mire. The casing of the Silver Clock had grown somewhat rusted, as though it had become ancient beneath the erosion of time and the years.

Fang Xiu wore a pure white robe. He did not even know whether it could be called a robe; it felt more like a piece of white cloth wrapped around him, making him resemble a saint from legend, or the image of God in the Bible.

"Is this the true form of my soul? Could it be that, deep in my subconscious, I think of myself as a god? Or as God?" Fang Xiu suddenly found it rather amusing and thought mockingly to himself.

At that moment, the white cloth around Fang Xiu also became somewhat stained, blackness corroding his body as spots of mold spread across it.

A vast amount of black power flowed upward like smoke. It looked like splashed ink in a landscape painting, wisps of black smoke winding upward around him. Fang Xiu had not known what it was before, but at this moment, he suddenly understood.

It was as if his meditation had deepened his connection with the Silver Clock. He could even sense the Silver Clock conveying—or telling—him something.

"This is the world's backlash, punishment for my breaking the rules. It is also the power of the World Origin's laws."

Fang Xiu could sense how powerful and terrifying this force was. If the Silver Clock had not been suppressing it, he would likely have already been reduced to ashes.

Fang Xiu looked at the Silver Clock. It had just descended from the heavens, suspended by a silver chain as it fell from the sky. Looking upward, Fang Xiu could see only a vast expanse of white. He did not know where the Silver Clock had come from, nor what lay beyond that endless whiteness.

The clock swayed back and forth. It had originally been a three-dimensional structure, but as it swung, it suddenly turned sideways. Fang Xiu abruptly realized that it seemed to have become a flattened paper clock.

Then the paper-like clock spun and compressed, forming a silver vortex. The beautiful silver vortex expanded, filling the white Clock Space. It then drew close to Fang Xiu and swallowed him whole.

Fang Xiu felt the world spin around him, as though his soul had returned to the womb. In his dazed state, he seemed to receive a piece of information from the depths of his soul, like an innate origin and ability of his own.

"Soul Domination!"

After an unknown amount of time, Fang Xiu finally awoke from that stillness.

Startled awake from his dream, Fang Xiu abruptly opened his eyes. In that single instant, he felt as though ten thousand years had passed. He felt as if he had been imprisoned in a cage from which he could never escape, nearly trapped there forever.

"What happened? Where did I go? What did I see?"

Fang Xiu sat on the bed. The sandalwood incense beside him still burned quietly, as though the time he had just spent in Clock Space had been nothing but an illusion.

"Soul Domination?"

Fang Xiu raised his head. At that moment, his eyes had completely turned into silver clocks. Even his pupils had vanished, leaving only the dial markings and clock hands ticking as they turned, as though they radiated an eternal, undying light.

Yet Fang Xiu discovered that his perspective had shifted to a strange angle, much like when death reset and he had retreated from the real world into the clock world.

In his eyes, the entire world had become black and white. Every building and every object was reduced to nothing but lines and structures.

Though Fang Xiu was sitting inside his room, his eyes could see beyond it, seeing the entire city.

He saw countless dense points of fire throughout Wei Port City, like the lights of ten thousand homes. But Fang Xiu knew that what he was seeing was not firelight, but—

"That is the light of souls! I can see everyone's souls."

He rose from the bed and stood on the floor. Silver light flowed through his eyes, like the most dazzling and beautiful gemstones in the world.

"So even in this magicless world, life possesses souls."

Fang Xiu lowered his head and saw the Saint's Ring around his neck. The light it gave off was as dazzling as a sun. Judging by the magical light it emitted, it was not all that different from the soul-light Fang Xiu saw.

"Are magic and soul power the same? Or are these two powers two sides of the same whole?" In that instant, Fang Xiu seemed to gain a certain realization regarding supernatural power, magic, and souls.

The moment Fang Xiu noticed the Saint's Ring, its beautiful and breathtaking magical light was enough to leave anyone entranced.

But at that moment, his eyes widened to their fullest. What he stared at was not the Saint's Ring at all, but beneath his own feet.

He could scarcely believe what he saw. A presence so immense that it occupied the entire horizon, vast as a Sea of Light, filled his entire vision. Compared to it, the Saint's Ring's glow was like the light of a firefly in decaying grass beside the bright moon.

Fang Xiu could not see how large it truly was. It had no boundaries and no end. He was like a minuscule speck of dust resting upon its surface.

Vast waves of souls rose and fell across its surface. Countless lights of souls clung to it. Everything in this world was rooted upon it.

It was the mother of all things. It was the truth of civilization. It was the source of life.

Fang Xiu could feel streams of warm white light surging up from beneath the earth and passing by him, filling him with incomparable warmth and familiarity.

The dazzling radiance was enough to instantly rob a person of all sight, yet Fang Xiu did not blink even once, as though he did not care in the slightest if this brilliant light burned or blinded him.

"So beautiful! So beautiful!" Fang Xiu felt that every beautiful thing he had ever seen was utterly unworthy of mention before this Sea of Light. Its beauty eclipsed everything in the world, beyond description and beyond words.

"What exactly is this?"

That enormous soul-light, those seemingly eternal and undying soul waves, spread to every point on the horizon and occupied the entire world.

Fang Xiu stood upon it just like someone standing atop a boundless ocean of light.

"This is...?"

Fang Xiu seemed to suddenly think of something—or sense something. His entire body trembled violently, his hands beginning to shake as his mind suffered a tremendous shock.

"Gaia Consciousness!"

Fang Xiu's eyes went blank as he uttered those words, one syllable at a time.

Fang Xiu felt as though he had witnessed the origin of the world, seen the beginning of life and the truth of everything.

Only after a long while did Fang Xiu close his Clock Eye and withdraw from those senses that resembled God's perspective.

Yet what he had just seen still struck Fang Xiu deeply, crushing and shattering his original worldview and everything he had learned from books since childhood.

"This world has no magic net, which means there is no foundation for supernatural nourishment to take root. But perhaps, from the perspective of souls, I can find another supernatural path that belongs to me alone."