Yu Lian felt he was sleeping peacefully.
Yes, in the ten months since the Battle of Sete had ended and he had led the last of the elite fleet on this great expedition, this was the soundest, most peaceful sleep he'd had.
Perhaps he had taken another step toward the truth of the Ninth Ring. Though his body was in a state of deep hibernation, and even his brain had gotten ample rest, he felt energetic and clearheaded. It was a novel experience, one he'd never had in either of his lives.
He suspected this might be a manifestation of his spirit and soul. In his battle with the Emperor, he had fought against multiple "Emperors."
Although His Majesty had fallen, not everything could be blamed on the war. As for Yu Lian, he genuinely admired the degree of Emperor Elisel's split personality.
Yu Lian thought that if he could understand, sense, and adapt to this feeling, then once he had mastered it completely, he might gain the wondrous ability to create spirit-and-soul clones.
Of course, at this moment, what he first needed to understand was the familiar whisper of life that stirred in the depths of his consciousness. It was a rhythm born of a new kind of life, washing silently over his mind like tides beneath the moonlit sky.
Yu Lian knew this sensation came from neither instruments nor supernatural spiritual perception. It was made possible by the subtle authority of his half-Dominator status.
His perception passed beyond physical barriers and touched the pulse of life gathering in a distant stretch of the void.
It was cold and orderly, yet carried a wild, exuberant force of evolution. It was utterly at odds with the forms of civilization found throughout the universe, yet somehow had become an intriguing, harmonious