Neji's spiritual body slowly emerged from the illusion, each step seeming to tread upon the string between reality and illusion.
The decades spent within the illusion collapsed in his Sea of Consciousness into countless fragments of memory, like dandelion seeds scattered by the wind, circling endlessly around the jade mirror.
He stared at those flickering images—the gaunt fingers beside his mother's sickbed, the cool morning dew on the bluestone slabs of the Daoist temple, the faded cinnabar annotations on the title pages of ancient books.
Every fragment of memory carried a weighty emotion, like ripe fruit hanging from a branch.
"Sever."
With a slight shift of Neji's will, a blade as thin as a cicada's wing suddenly condensed within his Sea of Consciousness.
As the blade passed through the memory fragments, it unexpectedly produced a crisp sound like clashing glass.
The severed fragments immediately turned into pale golden motes of light.
The joys and sorrows of the illusion, the bonds of his former world—all returned to nothing beneath this single stroke. Neji's spiritual body gradually became translucent, as though a piece of uncut jade had been stripped layer by layer of impurities, revealing its truest spirituality.
Until a core fragment blocked his blade, he paused. Illusory memories should not have possessed such texture.
Somewhat puzzled, Neji opened that resilient fragment. When he saw the memories within, his pupils began to tremble violently.
"Foundation Establishment?!"
Neji's shocked shout even cracked. He hurriedly finished watching the entire memory, only to find that this world's version of him seemed to have gained a deeper understanding of the Dao. During his time at the academy, the various Daoist classics were no longer as obscure as they had been in his previous life. He had once again sensed a trace of Dao opportunity within those