Entering Stillness

"The changes are huge." Chen Yuan stared at the status panel, a hint of delight on his face. "My strength has increased by around 38,000 kilograms—more than doubled."

"Eh? Why has my Consciousness Strength reached Planetary Level Peak? And my Brain Domain Width has increased by 2 points as well."

Consciousness Strength was generally tied to one's realm. For example, when one's realm rose by one rank, Consciousness Strength would also rise by one rank from its original foundation.

When Chen Yuan had been an Intermediate War General, his Consciousness Strength had been at Planetary Level First Rank. Later, after ten days of cultivation following his consumption of Jade Marrow, he broke through to Advanced War General, and his Consciousness Strength naturally rose with the tide, reaching Planetary Level Second Rank.

"Normally, after breaking through to War God Level, my Consciousness Strength should be at Planetary Level Third Rank." Chen Yuan curiously studied the line of data. "But it has actually risen to Planetary Level Peak. The difference is more than a hundredfold."

"And the increase in Brain Domain Width... could it all be related to the Meditation Method?" Chen Yuan recalled what had happened while meditating through the agony. "I remember that under that extreme pain, I unexpectedly entered a state of Deep Sleep."

His gaze moved downward. When he saw the Meditation Method's latest status, Chen Yuan's pupils suddenly contracted. "This is... the Entering Stillness realm?!"

"I broke through the Meditation Method's limit!" Chen Yuan could not hide his surprise. At the same time, he noticed the description after the Meditation Method reached Completion Level. "So the changes in my Consciousness Strength and Brain Domain Width all came from the Meditation Method's breakthrough."

Chen Yuan immediately queried the system for detailed data from before and after the Meditation Method's breakthrough.

[Hibernation Method: Crystal Meditation Completion Level: Brain Domain Width +1, Consciousness Strength increased.]

[Successfully subdued mental pain and achieved the state of "clear skies for ten thousand miles, no stray thoughts arising." Mental Realm broke through to Entering Stillness: Brain Domain Width +1, Consciousness Strength greatly increased.]

"So that's it. The 2 points of Brain Domain Width came respectively from the Meditation Method reaching Completion Level and the breakthrough into Entering Stillness." Chen Yuan came to an understanding. "The increase in Consciousness Strength was the same, but the main boost came from breaking through to the Entering Stillness realm."

From Deep Sleep to Entering Stillness, this counted as a major realm breakthrough in Star River Emperor. Under the worldview of Swallowed Star, the Mental Realm represented Consciousness Strength.

Therefore, when Chen Yuan broke through into the Entering Stillness realm, his mental level underwent a qualitative leap. His Consciousness Strength naturally surged, reaching Planetary Level Peak in one stroke.

"It seems this is the greatest gain from this breakthrough: 2 points of Brain Domain Width, along with an increase of more than a hundredfold in Consciousness Strength." Chen Yuan closed his eyes and felt the changes in his mental power. "And after entering stillness, my mental power seems to have undergone an essential transformation."

Before Entering Stillness, his mental power had been vague and elusive, difficult to control. Only after reaching the third stage of Deep Sleep could he barely mobilize it to affect others, which was the origin of the "Hypnosis Technique."

But after breaking through to Entering Stillness, aside from the leap in his mental level, he had truly gained control of this power.

After repeated experiments, Chen Yuan discovered that this mental power had two applications: inward and outward.

Inwardly, he could use his mind to sense the condition inside his body, similar to Internal Vision but even more precise—because he could even sense the condition of individual cells!

"I remember something similar being recorded in Cosmic Professional Player. With powerful mental perception of cells, one could ultimately gain complete control over the entire body!" Chen Yuan sensed the cells throughout his body and tried to control them, but the cells did not respond at all.

He pondered, "It seems I'm still at the perception stage and can't control them yet. But this is a clear direction. If I continue working at it, one day I'll be able to control my cells. When that happens, my force exertion will definitely improve significantly."

After studying his Internal Vision ability, Chen Yuan began trying the second application of mental power—external release.

"Releasing mental power has an effect similar to divine sense. It can sense things within a certain range."

"But unlike divine sense, within the range of my Mental Radiation, I can also hypnotize people from a distance." Chen Yuan carefully sensed the range of his Mental Radiation. "With me at the center, everything within a radius of 500 meters is within my perception."

"This power is too terrifying." Chen Yuan opened his eyes, traces of shock still lingering in them. "Through remote hypnosis, I can directly hypnotize anyone whose Consciousness Strength is below Planetary Level Fifth Rank without making any contact."

"In theory, I could even make every student in the Training Camp slaughter one another." Chen Yuan took a deep breath and suppressed the agitation in his heart. "I must be careful! 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 strong that Chen Yuan had felt a little afraid of it just now. But after subduing that fear, he fell into thought again.

"So the best application for this ability is on the battlefield! Through Mental Radiation, I can cause enemies within range to slaughter one another." Chen Yuan thought to himself. "For me, the best place to use it would be in a monster tide. While killing large numbers of enemies, I could also farm a massive amount of Kill Points."

Unfortunately, monster tides were already rare in this era, because the Monsters' high-end combat forces had almost all been wiped out.

Those that remained alive had almost all hidden in the depths of the ocean, not daring to show themselves again.

Nowadays, it was already difficult to find traces of King Level Monsters in the Wilderness Zone. The strongest Monsters were only Commander Rank—targets deliberately left behind by Earth's upper echelons for Martial Artists to gain real combat experience.

Otherwise, with Earth's current military strength, sweeping across both land and sea would not be difficult.

Even so, the number of Monsters in the Wilderness Zone was still steadily decreasing. Chen Yuan estimated that in a few more years, once Monsters became too scarce to hold practical combat value, it would be time for humanity to reclaim the Wilderness Zone.

Gathering his thoughts, Chen Yuan focused on the panel again—more precisely, on the Meditation Method section.

"The Hibernation Method is good, but it is only an entry level Meditation Method. The system rates it only B-grade." Chen Yuan pondered. "Since it is possible to reach the Entering Stillness realm in this world, then an Entering Stillness-level Meditation Method should also be optimizable."

The Optimization System was not omnipotent. Every optimization had to conform to the fundamental laws of this world.

Abilities such as the Mental Realm and Hypnosis Technique had corresponding existences in this world—Consciousness and Illusion Technique. That was why Chen Yuan had been able to optimize a Deep Sleep cultivation method with similar effects.

But that was merely Deep Sleep. Its level was too low to prove that every realm in Star River Emperor could be achieved in this world.

This breakthrough in the Mental Realm, however, precisely proved the feasibility of an Entering Stillness cultivation method and pointed the system toward a direction for optimization.

Chen Yuan had long planned to try optimizing a cultivation method for the next stage after the Meditation Method reached Completion Level. To that end, he had collected a large number of ancient Earth texts—all publicly available online, and Chen Yuan had downloaded every one of them without spending a cent.

Since these ancient texts were all written in classical Chinese and not very long, Chen Yuan had already browsed through them in his spare time. In any case, the task of understanding them could be handed over to the system.

Now that he had broken through to the Entering Stillness realm ahead of schedule, it was equivalent to illuminating the road ahead. Everything was ready.

Chen Yuan immediately attempted it. "System, optimize the Hibernation Method. Optimization direction: a cultivation method suited to the Entering Stillness realm. Effects: increase Mental Realm and Consciousness Strength."

"Optimization task creation failed. Reason: Meditation Method lacks a corresponding meditation object."

"It failed?" Chen Yuan's heart tightened. He had thought that an Entering Stillness-level Meditation Method did not fit this world's laws.

Fortunately, after seeing the reason for the failure, he let out a sigh of relief. "So it lacks a meditation object."

Just as the meditation object for the Crystal Meditation Method was a crystal ball, an extremely ordinary item, its threshold was low and suited the requirements of entry level meditation.

But an Entering Stillness Method was different. This realm already possessed extraordinary characteristics and required a powerful meditation object to achieve it.

"So I need to determine a meditation object now. It should be powerful enough, and it will serve as the core of the Entering Stillness Method." Chen Yuan paced back and forth through the room in thought. "What should I use as the meditation object?"

"Unfortunately, the meditation object cannot be a person. Otherwise, it would become a form of god worship and unconsciously turn me into that person's soul slave. Otherwise, I really would have liked to try meditating on Luo Feng." A trace of regret flashed through Chen Yuan's eyes. Luo Feng was the most precious treasure in this world.

"If it has to be an item, then what is the most precious thing on Earth..." Chen Yuan thought for a long while. He considered the Insect Nest, Ancient Ruins, and all kinds of natural treasures, but none of them felt quite right.

"Wait, I've got it." Chen Yuan suddenly stopped, his eyes growing brighter and brighter.

Because he suddenly realized that the most precious treasure on Earth was not any of those natural treasures...

"...but Earth itself!"