"Dream Control Method" and "Waymarkers"

"Caloen, I never expected you to already have one foot in the ranks of Knowers."

Vyadlin toyed with a small essential oil vaporizer in his hand.

"Huh?" Fan Ning put on a surprised expression.

But he had not actually been surprised.

The pale gold [135/100] was still visible before his eyes. He had already guessed that the feeling of something brought by playing "Fantasy Impromptu" for himself overflowing past a bottleneck was what Vyadlin called "Inspiration."

That was, the strength of his spirit, though it could not yet be converted into tangible power.

And the method of activating it was to advance to Knower.

"Did you study the Dream Control Method with Anton?" Vyadlin asked. "In that dream of the tower attic, you noticed the unusual signs in an extremely short time and successfully tested the dream. And in the Clear Dream, your control ability was very good."

"What exactly is the Dream Control Method?" Fan Ning finally had the chance to ask in detail. "Looking at it now, that was indeed the case. Both he and I studied the Dream Control Method, though I did not know the term at the time."

"The first time I learned this term was when I was looking through the belongings Teacher Anton left me. I could roughly understand what it meant from the words themselves, but I did not fully understand the meaning or function behind it."

"When Teacher Anton first suggested that I record my dreams, he said it could increase my chances of having Clear Dreams and give me plenty of musical Inspiration I could not experience in reality."

"But he did say that if one practiced controlling dreams to the extreme, one might gain some even more wondrous revelation."

"Dreams are inherently unconscious and easily forgotten," Vyadlin said. "As I just mentioned, the place dreams reach is the Astral Realm Layer, the vague region where the world's outward form and will meet. Ordinary people with low Inspiration can often only wander through the Astral World by relying on their subconscious."

"So in most cases, only after you open your eyes do you realize you just had a dream. And only at that moment is the memory relatively complete; it will soon fade rapidly. Many people forget almost all of it after getting up and washing themselves. Only a very few particularly vivid dreams allow their main events or emotions to be remembered for a long time."

Vyadlin paused, turned around, and gulped down several mouthfuls from a porcelain cup. The cup was about as large as his face and contained fruit-flavored iced tea.

"But this can be changed, and that is by relying on the Dream Control Method!"

"Since this is how most Knowers get started, information on the Dream Control Method alone barely counts as low-level Hidden Knowledge. There are countless versions around the world with different details, but their main steps are broadly alike: remember dreams, test dreams, know dreams, control dreams."

"Make it a daily habit. The moment you wake from a dream, while forgetting has only just begun, recall as much of it as possible. The more details, the better, and record what happened."

"After some time, once you have accumulated enough remembered material from your dreams, you can attempt the second step: testing dreams."

"Summarize their common features and find the parts most closely connected to reality. When you encounter similar situations in reality, question yourself more often. Ask yourself whether you are dreaming."

"There are also common signs, such as disordered clocks, incomprehensible writing, fingers that can be bent back to the back of the hand, objects an outstretched arm can pass through... Frequently try such things and question yourself in reality, gradually forming a conditioned-reflex-like habit."

"Of course, do not choose dangerous things to test dreams. Using 'I can fly after jumping off a building' is absolutely inadvisable. Pain stimuli are useless in most cases too—dreams have all kinds of sensations as well."

"Once you form this habit in reality, if you reflexively question yourself in a dream one day and suddenly realize the truth, then you have successfully known the dream. Around ten percent of ordinary people can achieve this. According to Knowers, when ordinary people train their Inspiration to three times the average level, they can enter this kind of Clear Dream."

"At that point, only the final step of controlling dreams remains. You may become so excited after knowing the dream that you fall back into an ordinary dream or wake up in shock. You may only be able to hold on for a few breaths. Your control over yourself, the environment, and the people in the dream will not be entirely at will. Sometimes you cannot control your direction or speed while flying; sometimes the 'superpowers' you try to give yourself simply will not work. That depends on whether your Inspiration can continue to improve."

"Most ordinary people can go no further than this. Generally speaking, only when Inspiration reaches ten times the average level of ordinary people can the spirit separate from the soul, tear open the edge of the Astral World, enter the Migrant Surge Layer, and become a Knower."

"Based on my assessment of your performance in the dream just now, your Inspiration should be close to that multiple."

"Especially at the end, with my help, you maintained your glimpse of the Migrant Surge for a full three seconds. I had originally estimated one second."

"It seems you learned genuine musical techniques from Anton, causing your artistic Inspiration to far surpass that of ordinary people."

Fan Ning thought to himself, Could Caloen's talent or foundation really be that good?... No, wait. Could it be because I retained a vast amount of classical music in my memories after transmigrating? Or perhaps it was the combined boost of both...

He asked, "Then did something happen to Teacher Anton during the process of entering the Migrant Surge Layer and advancing to Knower?"

"Not necessarily. There are many possibilities that need to be verified." Vyadlin shook his head.

He raised the face-sized porcelain cup again and gulped down a mouthful of fruit-flavored iced tea. "You need to understand that experiencing Clear Dreams too frequently is itself dangerous. The Astral World is not entirely safe. Many nightmares and malicious thoughts, even indescribable things from the Migrant Surge Layer, can enter that region and easily cause mental harm to ordinary people."

"Age is another possibility. Once a person passes thirty-five, training Inspiration becomes far less effective than it is in youth. Their chances of advancing to Knower are greatly reduced. But Anton was actually unusual. As an artist of profound accomplishment, his Inspiration far exceeded that of ordinary people. Age was a possibility, but not a likely one."

"Another possibility is that while learning about the Dream Control Method, he also came into contact with some other Hidden Knowledge. Hidden Knowledge cannot simply be received at will. Without Mystic Rituals of the appropriate level for protection, knowing slightly higher-level Hidden Knowledge is tantamount to suicide."

"It is also possible that when he tore open the Migrant Surge and advanced to Knower, he lacked a suitable waymarker and ended up in a dangerous unknown region within the Migrant Surge."

"Or perhaps he encountered some other interference. There are too many possible reasons..."

Fan Ning frowned deeply as he thought. "For example, the Mystic Chord?... Or other Hidden Knowledge in that book, Sound Flow, Texture, and Dreams?..."

He suddenly caught another detail. "May I ask, what did you mean by a 'suitable waymarker' just now?"

Vyadlin stood up, took a small pure-black box from the dark lacquered oak cabinet against the wall, and set it on the table with a bang.

The little box appeared to be made of some kind of wood, but judging from how the table shook, it seemed extremely heavy.

"Every time Knowers enter the Migrant Surge to explore, we need to tear open the Astral World's edge from within a Clear Dream. Therefore, our landing points in the Migrant Surge are random."

"This creates enormous risk. The Migrant Surge is nearly infinite in size, and it does not contain only abundant Luminous Substance and tempting gifts. If you merely land in a barren Wasteland and gain nothing, wasting some of your Inspiration, that is still manageable."

"What you should fear is seeing indescribable things, arriving in unknown forbidden lands, or drawing an inadvertent glance from some dangerous Lord of Witnesses—Caloen, you must understand that They may not intend to harm you, but as long as They look at you once, or you look at Them once, you can easily become tainted by madness."

As Vyadlin spoke, he opened the wooden box and took out four sheets inscribed with mysterious symbols, laying them out in a row.

Each sheet was a dull yellowish-brown. Around the outside was a ring formed by several arcs of unequal lengths, while different symbols lay within.

These patterns had not been drawn on the sheets, but carved into recessed grooves.

"So, we need to rely on 'Drift Waymarkers' to make our exploration routes in the Migrant Surge relatively controllable and avoid risks as much as possible. Here are four waymarkers pointing to different locations..."

Fan Ning's heart suddenly began to race. He did not hear the rest of Vyadlin's words clearly.

These sheets were similar to the "Papyrus Symbol" he had ultimately retrieved from the bronze box in the art museum!!

What his father had left him was a "Drift Waymarker"!!