Psychic Power Awakening [Seeking Follow-up Reads!]

Ren Ze felt as though he had had an extremely strange dream. In the dream, it was like he had been locked in solitary confinement—no, it felt more like all five of his senses had been stripped away. There was nothing around him but darkness and dead silence, boundless and endless, to the point that he could not even feel his own existence.

He did not know how much time had passed. Just as Ren Ze felt he was about to go mad, he woke up.

No, not completely awake. His mind had awakened, but he could not control his body or make any sound. It felt like sleep paralysis.

So Ren Ze tried to move one of his fingers. He knew that as long as he could move even a single finger, he would be able to truly wake up.

"Phew! Phew..."

Ren Ze finally broke free from the dream. The instant his finger moved, he opened his eyes and gasped for breath...

"How do you feel? Are you okay?"

Before Ren Ze could properly process the endless desolation and deathly silence of that dream, or the lingering sensation of breaking free from sleep paralysis, Alice rushed in and hugged him so tightly he nearly suffocated.

"How do I feel? I haven't even had the chance to feel anything before you grabbed me... How long was I asleep?"

Ren Ze looked utterly bewildered.

"A full day and night!"

"I'm fine. Don't worry, I actually feel pretty good."

Only then did he notice that Alice looked somewhat haggard, with tear streaks still on her face. Ren Ze wiped them away for her and stroked her head reassuringly.

"Go on, you need to get some proper sleep. Oh, and Dr. Ashford, analyze my blood samples after fusion with the T-Virus as soon as possible. I want a detailed report."

Ren Ze pulled off the assorted monitoring wires attached to his body, gave the doctor his instructions, and left with Alice.

After taking Alice back to her room, Ren Ze began his sleep-inducing service. Once Alice had fallen asleep, he returned to the laboratory to wait for the doctor's findings.

"So? Do you have the results?"

Ren Ze asked.

"Based on our preliminary observations, the fusion was a great success this time. Your cellular strength, vitality, and all other indicators have increased dramatically compared to before."

"Oh? What about infectivity? Is the fused T-Virus stable? Could my blood cause an infection?"

Ren Ze asked what concerned him most at the moment.

"The fused T-Virus currently appears extremely stable and is not infectious. After all, the reason T-Virus infection occurs is that the host cannot provide sufficient energy, causing the host to lose rationality and crave flesh and blood, thereby continuously spreading the vicious cycle."

"Moreover, the T-Virus does not survive long in the air. Unless you directly transfuse your blood into another living organism, the possibility of causing a biological crisis is basically zero."

Dr. Ashford clearly had not expected what Ren Ze was worried about. In his view, there was no serious problem at all.

"So, if I gave someone else a blood transfusion, infection would still be possible?"

Ren Ze had a bit of a headache over this. Still, it was only a minor problem. In Swallowed Star World, it would not be much of an issue—the Earth in Swallowed Star World had become what it was because of the RR Virus. Compared to that, the T-Virus was child's play.

"Theoretically, it is possible, but we lack the relevant data to support it. Do you need live testing?"

"Forget it. We'll talk about it later."

After saying goodbye to the doctor, Ren Ze left the laboratory and headed to the training ground.

Ren Ze began carefully examining his physical condition, assessing the results of his fusion with the T-Virus.

"Hmm? That's not right... Is this inner vision?"

When Ren Ze focused his mind to sense the changes inside his body, he found that, unlike before when he could only vaguely sense the state of his cultivation, images automatically appeared in his mind.

He could clearly see his meridians, blood vessels, internal organs, bones, and more.

The true qi within his body flowed through his meridians like little streams, converging toward a vast circular space in the dantian region of his body, cycling endlessly without cease.

However, those little streams currently filled less than half of the meridians' capacity. Ren Ze could feel that after fusing with the T-Virus, his total amount of true qi had decreased drastically. He no longer had that previous sensation of being brimming with true qi. Right now, he felt as if his body had been hollowed out—weak as hell!

Ren Ze began circulating the Northern Dark Divine Skill. Very soon, he sensed a mist-like energy forming in his dantian and flowing along the cultivation route.

After curiously observing a full cycle of his true qi circulation through this miraculous perspective of inner vision, Ren Ze began testing the changes in his strength.

After loosening up his muscles and joints, Ren Ze came to a conclusion: his speed and strength had indeed increased noticeably. Unfortunately, he had not tested his defense or recovery ability. Ren Ze did not have a habit of cutting himself with a knife; he would spar with Alice later.

Unfortunately, there was no Punch Strength Tester here, so he could not directly gauge his current level of strength. Still, Ren Ze estimated that he had probably reached the high-level War General rank. Even if he fell short, it would not be by much.

He continued, finishing a full set of the Tianshan Six Yang Palm and Tianshan Zhemei Hand, running through Lingbo Micro-steps several times, and practicing a set of Nine-Layered Thunder Blade. Once he felt that he had initially adapted to his increased strength and speed, Ren Ze began cultivating the Yijin Jing.

"That's not right!"

As Ren Ze assumed the Yijin Jing stances, he felt the true qi in his dantian rapidly draining away. As he focused, he naturally entered a state of inner vision and discovered that the leaking true qi slowly dispersed from his dantian before spreading in every direction, merging into the muscles and bones throughout his limbs and body.

"No wonder I felt like I had lost so much true qi before. It seems I shouldn't practice the Yijin Jing too much before returning to Swallowed Star World. The concentration of cosmic energy in this world is far lower than in Swallowed Star World. If I exhaust my true qi and the T-Virus goes out of control, things will get seriously bad!"

Ren Ze was half delighted and half worried. He was delighted because he had not expected the T-Virus's body-tempering effect to be so overbearing. He was worried because the true qi naturally cultivated by the Northern Dark Divine Skill could not keep up with the rate at which the T-Virus and Yijin Jing consumed it. At this rate, he still could not rapidly improve his strength.

There was also the head-exploding warning for returning to Swallowed Star World...

He had no idea whether his current strength was enough.

Stopping his cultivation, Ren Ze continued using inner vision to explore the mysteries of the human body. One moment, he observed the vast dantian space; the next, he watched the path of true qi circulating through its cycles. Soon enough, he turned his attention to the Star Map in his mind.

"Hiss..."

It felt as though his entire soul shuddered. Then Ren Ze discovered in shock... that his consciousness had returned to that nightmare! The boundless void of darkness!

In his terror, Ren Ze could no longer maintain his state of inner vision and instinctively withdrew from that nightmare space.

"Hm?"

Ren Ze felt his consciousness return to normal, and his mind was shaken!

After going in and out several times, Ren Ze finally figured it out: that boundless dark void was actually his own spiritual world!

Unlike the endless dead silence and desolation he had felt in his dreams, Ren Ze did not know whether it was merely an illusion, but the spiritual world he had entered on his own this time, though still dark and silent, carried a faint, almost imperceptible trace of life.

"Mm, I'll call this spiritual space the Sea of Consciousness!"

After familiarizing himself with his physical condition for a while, Ren Ze remembered something. "What about Psychic Power? Where's my Psychic Power? It doesn't make sense that I can look inward and have a Sea of Consciousness, yet still can't release Psychic Power, right?"

Since thinking about true qi produced the effect of inner vision, what would happen if he focused his attention on other objects?

Ren Ze steadied his breath and focused his mind, fixing his gaze on the training equipment beside him. At once, an invisible force shot out from his mind and wrapped around an iron block. This invisible force could not be seen with the naked eye, but Ren Ze was very familiar with it. How could he not be? Whenever he sparred with Alice, day or night, he could feel it.

As Ren Ze adapted to his Psychic Power, he tried using it to control a dumbbell on the ground.

In the training area, a dumbbell flew through the air in an S-shape one moment and a B-shape the next, growing faster and faster. Ren Ze played to his heart's content. At this point, ordinary people could no longer see the dumbbell's trajectory clearly, yet Ren Ze could keep up with it. It seemed his dynamic vision had improved dramatically as well.

After playing for a while, his control over Psychic Power became increasingly proficient. With a thought, Ren Ze turned his gaze toward the other training equipment nearby. Soon, everything in the training area except for the fixed apparatuses floated off the ground, as though there were no gravity in space.

"Controlling so many things and keeping them afloat doesn't feel taxing at all? Then how much greater is my total Psychic Power than Alice's?"

Crack!

Ren Ze looked at a barbell floating in the air. Under his gaze, the entire barbell gradually bent from the middle until it snapped.

He slowly lowered all the equipment back to the ground, then Ren Ze tried closing his eyes and releasing Psychic Power to sense his surroundings.

Although it was not as direct as seeing with his eyes, he could form a rough panoramic image in his mind. His Psychic Power continued extending outward and soon penetrated the training area's walls. This was a corridor. Over there were one, two, three, four—four people! Living creatures were clearly distinct from dead objects in Psychic Power's perception, standing out in Ren Ze's mind like fireflies in the night.

When he tried extending it farther, at around a thousand meters, it began to feel somewhat strenuous, and his perception grew blurry.

Ren Ze withdrew his Psychic Power and opened his eyes. It seemed that one thousand meters was the current range within which he could precisely control his Psychic Power.

Since Psychic Power could make objects float, Ren Ze suddenly had a bold idea!

Flying on a sword! The dream in the hearts of countless edgy teenagers!

He did not have a sword, but he had a shield. That would do!

Returning to his room, he found the shield he often forgot about. Ren Ze stepped onto it, then slowly floated up!

Unfortunately, before he could celebrate, he lost his balance while his "skateboard" flew forward and immediately fell off.

He had to use Psychic Power to control an object while also maintaining his own balance. After practicing for an hour, he still had not mastered the technique of flying on an object. It was not that he did not want to continue, but he could clearly feel mental fatigue, so he withdrew his Psychic Power.

He had no corresponding cultivation method. It seemed he could only train his Psychic Power in the dumbest way possible—practice diligently every day, exhaust it, then let it recover naturally. Though inefficient, it was better than nothing.

He suddenly thought of how Alice had glared people to death through surveillance cameras in movies, and even burned satellite chips from thousands, or perhaps tens of thousands, of kilometers away. How had she done that?

Ren Ze shook his head and pushed those questions aside. Dragging his body, which felt utterly drained, he went back to rest.