Chen Yan's thoughts stirred.
His figure quietly withdrew from that mental Training Ground and returned to the familiar nursery.
The nursery was still quiet and peaceful. If he listened closely, he could hear his grandmother washing and chopping vegetables as she cooked.
Based on past experience, every time he used the Image Projection Scroll, the paper that served as its medium would run out of energy and be destroyed beyond reuse.
So each time, Chen Yan had to draw a new one.
But this time, things seemed different.
Just as he thought the paper would fade away as usual, he sensed clearly that the Training Ground had been preserved in its entirety, without the slightest change, deep within his mind!
It was like a three-dimensional model he could call up at any time. As long as he wished, he could "summon" it again whenever he wanted.
"Huh? This time... the scroll didn't disappear?"
Chen Yan froze for a moment.
Then he glanced at the seemingly plain Myriad Phenomena Painting Brush in his hand and understood.
"So it's the brush's effect."
"Not bad, not bad. That'll save me a lot of money on paper."
"I can use the savings to buy more Beast Milk powder!"
The thought had barely crossed his mind when he suddenly realized something. His eyes lit up!
If the scroll could be kept indefinitely and used whenever he wanted, wouldn't that be like... a portable space?
A high-end storage ring with a customizable interior that could be used again and again?
And if he could draw different objects, or even different environments, and preserve them as scrolls, wouldn't that mean...
He could mass-produce these special "spatial storage devices"?
One scroll, one independent little world!
A huge business opportunity shimmered before Chen Yan's eyes.
If he sold this thing, wouldn't warriors and tycoons all over the world fight tooth and nail to get one?
Yet his excitement lasted only a few seconds before quickly cooling.
Chen Yan took a deep breath. His little face grew calm and grave, a seriousness far beyond his years.
"No. Absolutely not."
He shook his head to himself, immediately rejecting the tempting but dangerous idea.
He understood better than anyone that possessing a treasure invited trouble.
This miraculous ability, powerful enough to overturn existing storage technology and even touch the laws of space...
If it were ever exposed, it would bring him neither wealth nor status,
but endless covetousness, scrutiny, and mortal danger!
By then, not only would he become a target for everyone, but his family would also be dragged into the maelstrom.
Until he had absolute strength enough to ignore every rule and protect everything...
Any careless action would be playing with fire, putting both himself and those he loved in danger!
"Strength... I still need to get stronger."
Chen Yan clenched his fist.
For now, the most important thing was still to develop quietly.
He carefully put away the Myriad Phenomena Painting Brush. His plans for the future had become clearer and more resolute.
"All my current skills are stuck at the Mastery level..."
Chen Yan looked inward at the system panel, silently calculating.
At his current pace, even if he trained hard every day without fail, spreading the effort across all his skills would earn him a mere 10 proficiency points per skill each day.
At that rate, even Meditation Method and Divine Sense Differentiation, his fastest-progressing skills, would need nearly a thousand days of accumulation to break through to the next sequence!
After getting used to the thrill of his skills advancing at breakneck speed, this snail's pace left Chen Yan feeling unsettled and frustrated.
"I have to think of something..."
Chen Yan furrowed his little brows.
He paced back and forth, gazing out at Jiang City's nightscape, now returned to order, while his mind raced.
Suddenly, he stopped. A detail he had overlooked sprang to mind.
"Right!"
"The Spirit Race's invasion passage was destroyed, but how could such an enormous amount of energy simply vanish?"
"According to the conservation of energy... bah, according to the laws of the supernatural, there must still be a huge amount of pure mental energy left in the city, especially near the passage ruins!"
The instant the thought came to him, it was like a spark hitting a pot of cold oil—the idea erupted in his mind!
Let's do it!
Chen Yan didn't hesitate for a moment. He immediately sat cross-legged, focused his mind, and activated Divine Sense Differentiation.
A formless, intangible wisp of divine sense slipped silently from Chen Yan's body,
like a wisp of smoke no one could notice, deftly avoiding the sight of every surveillance camera and patrol,
and sped toward the No. 3 Underground Ecological Experimental Base on the outskirts, now sealed off under heavy guard.
However.
Just as his divine sense clone was about to reach the edge of the ruins,
it seemed to slam into an invisible, unyielding barrier!
A vast, scorching presence, radiating unquestionable authority,
enveloped the entire area like a tangible force, inspiring awe in all who sensed it.
Chen Yan's heart tightened.
His divine sense cautiously "reached" forward.
At the center of the ruins, the old man sat cross-legged with his eyes closed.
The space around him seemed to warp. Streams of silver energy, invisible to the naked eye, surged into his body in a tremendous, almost predatory torrent.
It was Grandmaster Wang!
The old grandmaster clearly knew exactly what he was doing. At that moment, he had claimed the lion's share, refining the Spirit Race's most central and purest source energy!
Before that vast aura, Chen Yan's divine sense was as tiny as a speck of dust.
He immediately held his breath and focused, not daring to make the slightest move.
He was afraid that even the tiniest disturbance would draw the attention of that powerful figure.
"Welp, I really did come too late."
"I couldn't even get a hot bite of shit."
Chen Yan felt helpless, almost amused.
He was still too young after all. He hadn't considered that if he could absorb this energy...
how could a grandmaster possibly let it go?
But was he really going to go home empty-handed?
No way!
If the big shot got the meat, surely he could trail behind and sip the soup, right?
His divine sense clone immediately changed tactics!
Like a sneaky little mouse, it skirted the outermost edge of the immense aura's reach and began circling around.
Carefully, he extended his mental tendrils, specifically picking up the scattered wisps of energy that had been drawn over to Grandmaster Wang but were too far away to catch his attention.
To a grandmaster, these scraps were mere leftovers. To Chen Yan, though, they were a feast!
I'm gonna... eat, eat, eat!
A thread of cool, pure energy entered his divine sense clone.
[Absorbed scattered Spirit Race mental source energy! Mental Strength +58!]
[Skill "Meditation Method" proficiency +120!]
[Skill "Divine Sense Differentiation" proficiency +120!]
A string of system notifications rang out like heavenly music!
"Energy's like bugs in a rice jar. As long as you look hard enough, there's always some to be found..."
Chen Yan's spirits soared. He controlled his divine sense clone and worked even harder, digging for treasure in the "rubbish heap."
This little bit of effort was more than ten times as efficient as a whole day of training at home!
Just as he was enjoying himself, gathering scraps and watching his mental strength rise rapidly,
an exceedingly faint thought slipped into the depths of his consciousness along with the energy he absorbed.
It wasn't energy, but a piece of... information?
A broken, fragmented image suddenly exploded in his mind!
Endless darkness, and a gigantic starship... spanning the sea of stars!
Before you continue