The Mysterious Space

By the time Luo Zhe came to again, the stars had shifted and dawn had arrived. The sun was already high in the sky.

The streets below teemed with people hurrying past. Every so often, someone shouted, "Make way up ahead!" On the nearby road, car horns blared one after another.

Luo Zhe jolted and hurriedly scrambled to his feet.

His watch showed 7:15:37 a.m.

Frowning, Luo Zhe sat down cross-legged, his expression grave as he stared at the pool of dried, blackened blood on the ground.

"The article about the Genetic Energy Cultivation Method never mentioned that you'd throw up blood while practicing."

"And besides..." Luo Zhe reached beneath himself and pressed a hand against his lower abdomen, carefully sensing what was there. "Last night, I really did feel an intense sensation like an explosion."

Focusing all his awareness on the spot three inches below his navel, Luo Zhe carefully sensed every subtle change. Somehow, he felt a pull, like that of a black hole in the universe, exerting an overwhelming force.

Whoosh!

Luo Zhe felt as though he'd gone half-blind. The entire world turned gray and hazy. Then, just as his vision began to return...

He discovered—

A grayish-white space stretched out before him!

And he was standing right at its center!

It was a strange space, with very poor visibility. Luo Zhe stood at the center of a ten-meter radius, and everything beyond that was hidden from view, as if some invisible force had forcibly cut off the space past that point.

"Where am I?"

Luo Zhe stared around, dumbfounded. With what little he knew, he couldn't begin to figure out what kind of place this was.

"Damn it, the article never said practicing the Genetic Energy Cultivation Method would make you transmigrate! I only started practicing yesterday!"

"Am I really this powerful now!?"

But that made no sense...

Luo Zhe started practicing a basic set of boxing moves taught at the Dojo: straight punches, hooks, blocks... He finished the plain, unremarkable routine, but no spectacular scene unfolded. The space didn't shatter, and nothing else happened.

"Could I be dreaming?"

He reached out and pinched his arm as hard as he could.

Ow!

It hurt!

So this really was his body!

"I should've known better than to pinch so hard. Damn, it's bruised." He gently rubbed the bruise with his palm, trying to disperse the pooled blood.

"Wait!"

Luo Zhe suddenly realized that if this really was his body, then were all his parts still intact?

He hurriedly unzipped his pants and peered inside. "Buddy, you'd better be all right!"

Thank goodness! It was still there!

After checking himself over, Luo Zhe was sure this was his body. In other words, the space before him was real, too.

At the very least, he himself was really here!

Luo Zhe decided to investigate!

First, he looked around the small space. It was so tiny that he reached the edge after only a few steps. An invisible membrane blocked the boundary of the hazy space. Beyond it, he could just make out grayish mists drifting lazily about. Every so often, they floated up to the membrane and silently seeped through without so much as a ripple.

Luo Zhe also tried pushing against the membrane at the edge, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't advance even a fraction.

Even after enduring Luo Zhe's furious, embarrassed barrage of punches, the invisible membrane remained as steady as a mountain, keeping its silence without so much as a peep!

Maybe the membrane had once been a devoted TVB fan. It had taken to heart the line, "You have the right to remain silent, but anything you say may be used as evidence in court," and had faithfully embraced its role as a mute barrier.

(The membrane itself: Call yourself Chicken or Fly, I'm still me, a firework in a different color!)

Then Luo Zhe walked around the perimeter, confirming that the space's floor plan was a hemisphere with a radius of ten meters, enclosed by an invisible membrane.

"Am I really going to be trapped here to die?" Luo Zhe sat down cross-legged, troubled.

The tiny space was all gray and white. There was nothing else in it; it was as empty as a gray-white box, utterly silent and lifeless.

This little space was clearly a prison, and he was locked inside. Worst of all, there were no supplies whatsoever.

This was insane!

Something had gone wrong while he was practicing Genetic Origin Energy last night, and now he'd somehow ended up trapped here.

Could this be his zodiac year or something!?

But he was only twenty-one! Wasn't his zodiac year way too early!?

Time passed second by second, but the gray-white space remained unchanged, like the eternal starry sky. Luo Zhe raised his wrist to check his watch. It showed 9:18:33 a.m.

He'd been in this space for nearly two hours, but still hadn't the faintest idea how to get out.

This was way beyond anything he'd learned!

This question was outside the syllabus!

Dear teachers, I promise I'll study hard from now on. Please make sure I get out of here alive!

Please!

But strangely enough, Luo Zhe hadn't eaten for a full fourteen hours, from last night until now, yet he didn't feel hungry at all.

Although martial artists were far stronger than ordinary people, they were still human, and still needed to eat, drink, and relieve themselves. At most, their metabolism was much slower than that of ordinary people.

But in here, it was as if his body had stopped burning energy altogether!

No, to be precise, his bodily functions hadn't stopped. Luo Zhe could feel that his body was functioning normally.

His breathing, and even the punches he'd just thrown at the membrane, had consumed quite a bit of energy.

He hadn't noticed it before. His attention had been fixed entirely on the stubborn membrane, and he hadn't realized that after all that wild punching, he wasn't even breathing hard!?

It seemed the answer lay in this space after all.

Luo Zhe assumed the Five Hearts Towards Heaven posture and calmed himself, quietly sensing the slightest stir in his surroundings through his five points of contact.

The moment he entered a meditative state, Luo Zhe suddenly felt the whole world...

Light up!

Countless threads crisscrossed the space: red, blue, gold, and every color imaginable, dyeing the gray-white expanse into a multicolored patchwork. Between the threads, he could make out small clusters of transparent gas drifting through.

When the transparent gas floated near Luo Zhe, it was drawn toward the tiny whirlpools formed by the absorption of cosmic energy at the soles of his feet, the centers of his palms, and the crown of his head. Then, through those whirlpools, it seeped into his body.

"Ah—" A shiver rose from deep in his bones!

That familiar shiver felt exactly the same as it had when he absorbed cosmic energy yesterday!

This tiny space actually contained a vast amount of cosmic energy!

Even when Luo Zhe wasn't practicing, the dense cosmic energy spontaneously seeped into his body through his five points of contact, sustaining its energy needs. What's more, the excess cosmic energy in his body was quietly transforming into Genetic Origin Energy, slowly strengthening him.

Most importantly, this happened passively!

In other words, even if Luo Zhe didn't actively practice, the vast amount of cosmic energy in this space would keep entering his body, improving his physique and, in turn, increasing his strength.

At the thought, Luo Zhe's eyes lit up. If he could find a way to come and go freely, this space could become the perfect place to practice.

"Ha!"

With that thought, Luo Zhe stopped deliberately holding the Five Hearts Towards Heaven posture. He sprawled on his back and stared blankly at the gray streams drifting around ten meters overhead.

He'd been here for so long already. If there were a way to come and go freely, he wouldn't still be trapped here.

At least he didn't feel hungry in here, so he wouldn't become the first martial artist to starve to death. That would be humiliating.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration crossed his mind!

—He'd entered this mysterious space because he'd focused his awareness on the strange sensation in his dantian, felt an inexplicable pull, and then somehow found himself here.

Suppose he made a bold guess: this mysterious space he was in now was a hidden space opened up in his dantian when he practiced the Five-Heart-to-Heaven Cultivation Method.

Thinking back to the huge explosion he'd felt in his dantian while practicing the Genetic Energy Cultivation Method last night, Luo Zhe felt as though he'd discovered a whole new world!

Never mind whether this space really had been opened up in his dantian. If he followed that line of thought, then concentrating on his dantian here shouldn't send him into yet another space, should it?