A Glimpse of the Migrant Surge I

Fan Ning sat ramrod straight. After listening to Lord Viadlin's interpretation of the Noah People's "Theory of Luminous Refraction," he folded his hands on the table and remained silent for nearly ten minutes.

Then he tried to summarize: "The Convergence Point is above, while we are below. So, to put the Knower's abilities in the simplest terms, they use the haze of countless histories to obtain Hidden Knowledge, strengthen Inspiration, enter the Migrant Surge, and glimpse the will that lies beyond the world's surface?"

"At the same time, they can also draw upon certain mystical powers?"

"This time, you understood it quite accurately."

"How can one become a Knower?" Fan Ning asked.

"Do you want to see those different colors?" Lord Viadlin asked in return.

"Actually, those surfaces of the world that drift downward and accumulate aren't the cage binding you. On the contrary, to some extent, they protect you."

"The surface of the world defines the boundaries of what you can feel and perceive. Certain terrifying transcendental things are unconsciously rejected by your subconscious. But if you actively pry into the outer layers..."

"They might come out on their own?..." Fan Ning suddenly recited the words at the end of Professor Anton Conall's diary.

"Exactly. The two essential elements of a Knower are 'Hidden Knowledge' and 'Inspiration.' The two great dangers, meanwhile, are 'Aberration' and 'Lostness,'" Vyadlin said.

"When you first glimpse the will of the world, you may develop a sense of superiority, believing that you have seen the truth of the world. But as your exploration deepens, you will gradually discover that the essence of this world is unknowable. You will feel chaos, distortion, and helplessness within your heart. You will feel that the ignorant are the happiest."

"Where is the Migrant Surge?" Fan Ning continued asking about the previous question. "Or rather, how do I get to the Migrant Surge?"

"Is it in the sky?" Fan Ning lifted his head again and looked at the dense shadows of candles on the ceiling.

"I don't know," Vyadlin said.

"We don't know where the Migrant Surge is."

"...What?" Fan Ning froze. "Aren't you already Knowers? You don't know where the Migrant Surge is?"

"We can only dream of it. Or, more precisely, we can only 'borrow a path' there through dreams." Vyadlin smiled. "To glimpse the will of the world, study the Phases symbolizing divinity, and capture the Luminous Substance symbolizing Inspiration."

"Human perception is simply too limited. Even after the Convergence Point has repeatedly fallen and collapsed, we still cannot see its form. The only thing we can see with our own eyes is the surface of the world—the sediment that the Migrant Surge continually drifts downward and accumulates."

"Even those immensely powerful beings among the Knowers—the 'Deep Knowers'—can only see the Migrant Surge in dreams."

"So the way to become a Knower is the 'Dream Control Method'? Its purpose is to enter the Migrant Surge from a dream?" Fan Ning asked for confirmation.

He thought of Teacher Anton again.

It seemed that Teacher Anton really had glimpsed something he should not have while exploring the "Dream Control Method," and had ultimately become "Lost."

This explained one of his doubts, perhaps, but another question still had not been fully confirmed: the "Mystic Chord" in The Remnant of the Musical Scale.

As a great composer, Teacher Anton should have possessed a high degree of Inspiration. His "Lostness" was largely due to the "Mystic Chord" interfering with his mind. Of course, he still did not know whether there was a trap in that book, Sound Flow, Texture, and Dreams.

The Mystic Chord came from The Remnant of the Musical Scale.

And he should already have closed the loop on the entire story behind The Remnant of the Musical Scale. The code had been deciphered, and he had also taken the "Papyrus Symbol" from the art gallery.

So what was the Mystic Chord used for?

Was it merely an additional anti-deciphering measure?

Was this matter not over yet?

Unless he retrieved the confiscated original manuscript and that book in the future, he would have no chance of figuring this out.

But he felt that retrieving them from the Special Inspection Office might be even more difficult than deciphering the code itself.

"Fan Ning, what do you think you are made of?" Vyadlin did not directly answer Fan Ning's question about the Dream Control Method. Instead, he threw out a new question.

"Uh..." As a chemistry nerd in his previous life, Fan Ning was professionally preparing to recite the periodic table of elements, but he quickly realized that would not do. He tentatively gave an answer that worked in both Chinese and Western contexts:

"Body and soul?"

"More precisely, flesh, soul, and spirit," Vyadlin corrected him. "It seems I need to transmit some more low-level Hidden Knowledge to you."

"Flesh—the fleshly body, your foundation in the surface of the world. It can also extend slightly into the first layer, the Etheric Layer, which reflects your senses and physical condition."

"Soul—spirit and consciousness. The soul's conscious mind forms the second layer, the Emotional Body, reflecting your rational and emotional thoughts. The soul's subconscious forms the third layer, the Astral Spirit Body, reflecting higher transcendental emotions and thoughts. The Astral Spirit Body corresponds to the Astral Realm Layer, the mixed region where the surface and will of the world converge. This is where ordinary dreams can reach. If we wish to go to the will of the world—the Migrant Surge Layer—we must first borrow a path through here. A very small number of extraordinarily gifted ordinary people can rise to the highest point of the Astral Realm Layer while skillfully controlling their dreams in a Clear Dream. Only a thin membrane separates that place from the Migrant Surge Layer."

"Spirit originates from that trace of sacred spark refracted from Radiance. The 'Inspiration' spoken of by Knowers is the strength of the spirit. For ordinary people, the spirit remains screened off and mingled with the soul, which is why they call it the soul-spirit."

Vyadlin stared at Fan Ning. "Weren't you asking how to become a Knower?"

"In a Clear Dream, reach the edge of the Astral Realm Layer and use the independent power of your spirit to tear open that membrane. Then you will enter the fourth layer, the Migrant Surge Layer, and become a Knower."

"Caloen, I'll now draw upon my own power to let you experience a glimpse of the Migrant Surge. You will feel colors unlike those of the world's surface, and you may also experience terrifying and bizarre dangers. After that, you can decide whether you want to embark on this chaotic, insane path."

Fan Ning asked curiously, "Can an ordinary person also be consciously brought into a Knower's dream or the Migrant Surge?"

"Yes. This is actually Shared Dreaming. It simply comes at a high cost and lasts for a very short time. Even a powerful 'Deep Knower' among the Knowers would not maintain it casually for long," Vyadlin explained.

He took out a second small essential-oil evaporator and fitted it over another candle on the candlestick. It contained a colorless liquid.

"The secret fragrance just now was made from black locust, star-anise hydrosol, and apple-blossom essential oil refined through a Mystic Ritual associated with the Pool. Its purpose was to protect the mind. Now I'm adding marjoram, hyacinth, and lavender hydrosols to help you sleep."

He took out another small, completely black bottle with a dropper. When he opened the dropper cap, purple fluorescence surged out and diffused through a spherical space with a radius of ten centimeters around it.

"Finally, I'll add a little Luminous Essence Elixir of the Key Phase. It is the essence of Inspiration extracted from the Migrant Surge, so you won't exhaust all of an ordinary person's Inspiration the instant you enter the Migrant Surge Layer."

As he spoke, Vyadlin swiftly dripped four or five drops into the evaporator, then quickly closed the cap.

It was clear that the Luminous Essence Elixir was extremely expensive. Fan Ning felt that it was neither gas nor liquid, but more like a dense, glittering "light." After coming into contact with the hydrosol, the entire little bottle seemed to turn into a purple lamp.

Sweet fragrance mingled with a cool, subtle scent. Purple shadows enveloped the candle flame. Amid the chanting of the requiem from the gramophone, Fan Ning felt his mind sink into some quiet place, and his eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

"Caloen, pay attention to what you feel. The time you can ultimately glimpse the Migrant Surge will probably be only about one second, and it will also depend on the strength of your Inspiration." This was the last sentence Fan Ning heard in reality.

He had a dream. The objects in the room shook, bricks and stones fell, and everything teetered on the verge of collapse.

He poked his head out of the window and looked around at the brick walls, discovering that he was high up in some tower.

Fan Ning thought of how this scene resembled a dream he had once recorded. As a result, he successfully realized that he was dreaming.

The tower was about to collapse. In the Clear Dream, Fan Ning controlled himself as he leaped out of the window and flew into a sky filled with hazy mist and covered in flowers and plants. Yet he felt as though he were underwater. His heart raced, and he struggled to breathe. He would probably fall and wake up soon.

"You don't need to breathe, so you won't suffocate. Dive upward." Several muffled syllables from Vyadlin sounded in his mind.

Fan Ning's suffocating feeling suddenly vanished, and he desperately controlled himself to continue flying upward.

The sky grew darker, shifting from deep blue to black-blue. The plants growing in the air had twisted into indecipherable characters and scenes. He was already approaching the edge of the Astral Realm Layer.

He felt that something within him had been ignited. Once it burned out, he would fall into some other unconscious dream.

And the speed at which he was burning was as fast as a small handful of dry grass.

The sensation of being immersed in cool water remained. He felt that the space ahead had been torn open into a purple fissure, within which countless unrelated landscapes seemed to be piled together like a kaleidoscope.

"Keep your mind clear. Let your spirit look through," Vyadlin's voice sounded again.

Fan Ning strained to peer ahead, but he was not a Knower. His soul and spirit had not completely separated.

He tried to extend his head into the Migrant Surge Layer, while his body remained caught in the winding tunnel of the Astral Realm Layer.

Inside this tunnel, he lost both his hearing and sight. Countless scenes and concepts pressed directly into his mind, all fragments formed from his prior impressions and evaluations of the world's surface.

At last, a trace of his spirit finally reached into the Migrant Surge Layer.

He discovered that he had emerged from beneath a waterfall. Behind him, the rushing current continuously plunged down into the void below.

In the void of the dark night, sparse wastelands of varying sizes floated. Luminous Substance of different colors, each representing a different Phase, drifted through the space.

Far away floated an enormous, hazy, sprawling ring of dark blue-green mountains. Even farther beyond the ring of mountains stood a clear golden Radiance Tower that soared into the heavens.

He also sensed gazes coming from every direction. Nameless things far more powerful than he lurked, grew, and writhed in the darkness. The whispers ringing in his ears seemed to be crawling up his back.

He lasted for roughly three seconds in total.

Before his consciousness was about to collapse, he gazed from afar toward the presence slowly turning in the deepest void of the sky, above the dome of the Radiance Tower.

At that moment, he felt the boundaries of his senses blur and distort. He could only feel that It was separated from him by thousands upon thousands of curtains of light and darkness—indescribable and impossible to see. The concept of time had vanished. Around him stood his childhood self, his present self, his aged self, his dying self, and his former-life self, all trembling before the sublime.

The concept of the self disappeared. He felt that these observers were himself, but also his father, his teacher, and countless people he knew or did not know. They might even be nothing more than a tree.

At that moment, he was utterly certain that if those countless curtains did not exist, he would be annihilated into nothingness by facing reality directly, no matter where he was.

And yet he still sensed the intense summons from the presence atop the dome of the Radiance Tower.

This was not a feeling unique to him. It was simply because every person's spirit contained that sacred spark first scattered from the Convergence Point.

It was a longing engraved deep within the spirit, as well as an indelible attachment like fallen leaves returning to their roots.

At the end of the third second, his consciousness finally collapsed completely.

The room was brilliantly lit with every gas lamp turned on. Blue smoke rose from the extinguished candlestick, and only the last trace of the secret fragrance remained.

"What did you glimpse in the Migrant Surge?" Vyadlin asked as he cleaned the coarse salt from the redwood table. "Have you understood now that every Knower will face a journey of seeking filled with madness, chaos, and all kinds of unknowable dangers?"

Fan Ning could not recover his sense of self for a while. Countless faces and voices kept leaping through his consciousness—young, aged, noble, vulgar, joyful, anguished, holy, filthy...

After a long time, his pupils gradually regained their focus.

He spoke. The countless scattered voices finally merged into one.

His voice was low and clear, as though he were speaking with another self deep within his heart:

"The world is full of imperfections, but someone will eventually witness the Radiance."