Entering Stillness

"Such a massive change." Chen Yuan stared at the attribute panel, his expression tinged with joy. "My strength has increased by about 38,000 kilograms—more than doubled."

"Wait, why has my consciousness intensity reached the peak of the Planetary Level? And my brain domain width has also increased by 2 points."

Consciousness intensity is generally tied to one's cultivation realm; for instance, if one's realm rises by one tier, the consciousness intensity typically increases by one tier on the original foundation.

When Chen Yuan was an Intermediate War General, his consciousness intensity was at the first tier of the Planetary Level. After ten days of cultivation following the consumption of Jade Marrow, he broke through to become an Advanced War General, and his consciousness intensity naturally rose accordingly, reaching the second tier of the Planetary Level.

"Normally, when I break through to the War God Level, my consciousness intensity should be at the third tier of the Planetary Level," Chen Yuan noted, eyeing the data with curiosity. "But it has actually soared to the peak of the Planetary Level. The gap between those two is over a hundredfold."

"And the increase in brain domain width—could it all be related to the meditation method?" Chen Yuan recalled the experience of meditating through intense pain. "I remember that under extreme agony, I unexpectedly entered a state of deep sleep."

As his gaze shifted downward to the latest status of the meditation method, Chen Yuan's pupils suddenly constricted: "This is... the state of Entering Stillness?!"

"I've broken through the upper limit of the meditation method!" Chen Yuan could hardly hide his surprise, simultaneously noting the description following the perfection of the meditation method. "So, the changes in my consciousness intensity and brain domain width both stem from this breakthrough."

Chen Yuan immediately queried the system for the detailed data regarding the breakthrough.

[Hibernation Method: Crystal Meditation perfected: Brain domain width +1, consciousness intensity increased.]

[Successfully conquered mental pain, achieved the state of "Clear Skies, No Distractions," mental realm broke through to Entering Stillness: Brain domain width +1, consciousness intensity surged significantly.]

"So that's it. The 2 points of brain domain width came from the perfection of the meditation method and the breakthrough into Entering Stillness, respectively," Chen Yuan realized. "The increase in consciousness intensity is the same, though the primary boost came from the breakthrough into the Entering Stillness realm."

From deep sleep to Entering Stillness—in Star River Emperor, this is considered a major breakthrough in realm, and in the worldview of Swallowed Star, the mental realm represents consciousness intensity.

Therefore, as Chen Yuan broke through to the Entering Stillness realm, his mental level underwent a qualitative leap, and his consciousness intensity naturally rose with it, reaching the peak of the Planetary Level in one fell swoop.

"It seems this is the greatest gain from this breakthrough: 2 points of brain domain width and a more than hundredfold increase in consciousness intensity." Chen Yuan closed his eyes, sensing the changes in his mental power. "Moreover, after Entering Stillness, my mental power seems to have undergone an essential transformation."

Before Entering Stillness, his mental power was ethereal and difficult to control; only after reaching the third stage of deep sleep could he slightly mobilize it to influence others—which was the origin of his "Hypnosis Technique."

But after breaking through to Entering Stillness, beyond the leap in his mental level, he had truly mastered this power.

Through repeated experiments, Chen Yuan discovered two ways to utilize this mental power: internally and externally.

Internally, he could perceive the state of his body, similar to the effect of "Internal Vision," but far more precise—he could even sense the state of individual cells!

"I remember a similar situation recorded in Cosmic Professional Player: by using powerful mental perception on cells, one can eventually achieve full-body control!" Chen Yuan sensed the ubiquitous cells within his body and attempted to control them, but the cells remained unmoved.

He pondered, "It seems I am still at the perception stage and cannot yet control them, but this is a clear direction. If I continue to work hard, one day I will be able to control my cells, and at that point, my explosive power will surely see a significant increase."

After studying his internal vision ability, Chen Yuan began to test the second application of his mental power: external projection.

"Mental projection has an effect similar to divine sense, allowing me to perceive things within a certain range."

"But unlike divine sense, within the range of my mental radiation, I can also perform remote hypnosis." Chen Yuan carefully sensed the range of his mental radiation. "With me as the center, an area with a radius of 500 meters is within my perception."

"This power is terrifying." Chen Yuan opened his eyes, a trace of shock still lingering in his pupils. "Through remote hypnosis, I can directly hypnotize anyone with a consciousness intensity below the fifth tier of the Planetary Level, without needing any physical contact."

"Theoretically, I could even make the trainees in the entire Training Camp kill each other." Chen Yuan took a deep breath, suppressing the agitation in his heart. "I must be cautious! This ability must never be abused. The ability itself is not wrong; what is wrong is the person who abuses it."

This power was so great that Chen Yuan felt a moment of fear, but after subduing that dread, he fell into deep thought.

"So, the best application for this ability is on the battlefield! Through mental radiation, I can cause enemies within range to kill each other." Chen Yuan mused. "For me, it would be best used during a monster horde; while inflicting massive casualties on the enemy, I could also farm a huge amount of Kill Points."

It is a pity that in this era, monster hordes are rare, as almost all the high-end combat power among the monsters has been wiped out.

Those that remain are mostly hiding in the depths of the ocean, not daring to show their faces.

Nowadays, it is difficult to find traces of King-level monsters in the Wilderness Zone; the strongest monsters are merely Commander Rank—those are specifically left by Earth's high-level officials as targets for Martial Artists to gain practical experience.

Otherwise, given Earth's current combat power, sweeping across the land and oceans would not be a difficult task.

Even so, the number of monsters in the Wilderness Zone continues to decline. Chen Yuan estimates that in a few years, when monsters become so scarce that they lose their value for practical training, it will be time for humanity to reclaim the Wilderness Zone.

Withdrawing his thoughts, Chen Yuan focused his attention back on the panel, specifically on the meditation method section.

"Although the Hibernation Method is good, it is only an entry-level meditation method; the system only rates it as B-grade." Chen Yuan pondered. "Since it is possible to reach the Entering Stillness realm in this world, then a meditation method for the Entering Stillness level should also be optimizable."

The Optimization System is not omnipotent; any optimization must conform to the basic laws of this world.

Abilities like mental realms and hypnosis have corresponding existences in this world—consciousness and illusion techniques. It is precisely because of this that Chen Yuan was able to optimize a deep sleep cultivation method with similar effects.

But that was merely deep sleep, a level too low to prove that all the realms in Star River Emperor could be realized in this world.

However, this breakthrough in his mental realm proved the feasibility of an Entering Stillness cultivation method and pointed the way for system optimization.

Although Chen Yuan had long planned to attempt to optimize the next stage of the cultivation method once his meditation method was perfected, he had already collected a large number of ancient Earth texts for this purpose—these materials were publicly available online, and Chen Yuan downloaded them all without spending a cent.

Since these ancient texts were all written in classical Chinese and were not very long, Chen Yuan had already browsed through them in his spare time; in any case, the work of comprehension could be left to the system.

Now that he had broken through to the Entering Stillness realm ahead of schedule, it was as if his path forward had been illuminated; everything was ready.

Chen Yuan immediately made the attempt: "System, optimize the Hibernation Method. The optimization direction is a cultivation method that conforms to the Entering Stillness realm, with the effect of improving mental realm and consciousness intensity."

"Optimization task failed. Reason: The meditation method lacks a corresponding meditation object."

"It failed?" Chen Yuan's heart tightened, fearing that an Entering Stillness-level meditation method did not conform to this world's worldview.

Fortunately, after seeing the reason for the failure, he breathed a sigh of relief: "So it's just missing a meditation object."

Just as the meditation object for the Crystal Meditation Method was a crystal ball—an object quite common, hence the low threshold and its suitability for entry-level meditation—the Entering Stillness method is different. This realm already possesses transcendent characteristics and requires a powerful meditation object to be realized.

"So, I need to determine a meditation object, preferably one powerful enough, to serve as the core of the Entering Stillness method." Chen Yuan paced back and forth in his room, thinking. "What kind of object should I use as a meditation object?"

"It is a pity that the object of meditation cannot be a person; otherwise, it would turn into a form of deity worship, unconsciously turning me into the other party's soul slave. Otherwise, I would really like to try meditating on Luo Feng." A trace of regret flashed in Chen Yuan's eyes; Luo Feng was the most precious treasure in this world.

"If it must be limited to an object, what is the most precious thing on Earth..." Chen Yuan pondered for a long time, considering the Insect Nest, the Ancient Ruins, and various treasures of heaven and earth, but they all felt slightly lacking.

"Wait, I have it." Chen Yuan suddenly stopped in his tracks, his eyes growing brighter and brighter.

Because he suddenly realized that, on Earth, the most precious treasure was not those treasures of heaven and earth at all...

"...but the Earth itself!"