The Mysterious Space

As Xiao Yu examined himself internally, he could faintly see all the meridians throughout his body. His dantian looked about the size of a fist, with wisps of drifting, cottonlike mist inside-the spiritual power he had painstakingly refined and stored there over more than ten years!

After carefully sensing it, he found nothing amiss. His total magical power had increased by about ten percent compared with the ninth level. Everything was normal.

Next, Xiao Yu sank his awareness into his mind. In an instant, he became a green ball of light, floating through a pitch-black space. This dark space was his sea of consciousness. It was small; after drifting around for only a short while, the ball of light he had become encountered resistance at its boundaries.

After exploring the surroundings and finding nothing wrong, he returned to the center. Suddenly, he seemed to notice something. "Huh? What is that? When did it get into my sea of consciousness?"

At the center of his sea of consciousness, a faint speck of light flickered ceaselessly.

Curious, Xiao Yu slowly approached and circled it several times, but found nothing unusual.

This definitely wasn't in my sea of consciousness before today. Could this speck of light be what caused the pain that made me pass out? With that thought, Xiao Yu slowly drew closer.

Aside from flickering, the speck of light had no effect on its surroundings.

It should be harmless, right? The ball of light Xiao Yu had become tried touching it to see what would happen. But the instant he made contact, his ball of light flickered and vanished without a trace.

Xiao Yu felt his mind reel for a moment. Then, to his astonishment, he found himself in an unfamiliar space.

The space was tiny, only about ten zhang long and wide. Gray mist surrounded it on all sides, and its ceiling appeared to be only about a hundred zhang high.

Xiao Yu was astounded. There was actually another space inside his sea of consciousness. Could this be the cheat granted to transmigrators?

"Hahaha! I've hit the jackpot! My cheat has arrived!" Filled with excitement, Xiao Yu began examining his surroundings.

Everything within the space was visible at a glance. Beneath his feet lay a patch of gray earth, and in the middle stood an object resembling an open book.

This "book" was about one zhang wide and half a zhang high, with a large, crooked character on each of its two pages.

Xiao Yu looked closely, but recognized neither character. They belonged to none of the ancient scripts he had studied.

Aside from that, there was nothing else in sight.

Then Xiao Yu examined himself. He had appeared here in human form. He pinched his left arm with his right hand. "No physical substance. It seems I didn't come here in my flesh-and-blood body. What appeared here must be a projection of my soul power."

He closed his eyes and sensed his surroundings. There was not a trace of spiritual energy in this unfamiliar space, yet he felt no stuffiness. The light was fairly bright, too, though he had no idea where it shone in from.

In his soul form, Xiao Yu walked toward the book in the center and took another careful look at the two large characters. He truly did not recognize them.

Then he went around behind the book. "Huh? This is..." Xiao Yu spotted a small gourd lying behind it.

He bent down and tried picking it up. Unexpectedly, he lifted it with ease, and could even feel it distinctly in his hand.

He held it before his eyes for a closer inspection. The gourd was one cun long and two fingers wide, small and dainty, exquisitely crafted. It was purple all over, its uneven surface carved with lifelike patterns of flowers, grasses, and trees. Feeling it carefully, he found it seemed metallic yet was not metal, and seemed wooden yet was not wood. He had no idea what material it was made from, but it was very light in his hand.

"Gourds are either magical implements and treasures or containers for storing things. I'll investigate its exact use once I get out!" The moment Xiao Yu thought of leaving, his vision went black with a swish, and he reappeared in the stone cultivation chamber, still holding the little gourd.

"Just thinking about leaving lets me get out, and I can even bring things from inside with me.

"What about going in?" With that thought, Xiao Yu sank his awareness into his sea of consciousness again and touched the speck of light with his spiritual sense. With a swish, he entered the mysterious space once more, bringing the gourd along. After several consecutive attempts, Xiao Yu confirmed that he could enter and leave freely, and could also bring objects in and out. He tested this with the magical implements he carried and miscellaneous objects in the room. As long as he touched the object he wished to take and silently thought, Go in or Go out, he could easily carry it between the two spaces.

First of all, this can at least serve as a large storage space! Xiao Yu thought with considerable delight. After all, the Storage Bag he currently used was the lowest-grade kind, with an interior only one zhang across. Counting its full height, this space was a hundred times larger than a low-grade Storage Bag.

"Next, let's see whether there's anything else here, or any other uses."

Xiao Yu immediately walked to the boundary of the space. Looking at the mist before him, he prodded it with a flying-sword magical implement. It felt as though the sword pressed against a solid wall, and nothing else changed. He then touched it with his hand and felt the same thing.

Afterward, he carefully made several circuits along the boundary, touching every spot he could reach. He could not pass through any of them.

Finally, Xiao Yu returned to the book in the center and examined it closely. It looked as though it was made of jade, crystalline and translucent. Apart from the two slightly raised characters, its surface was exceptionally smooth, without any other writing.

When he touched the book, a refreshing coolness shot straight into his heart, invigorating him. Even his thoughts seemed considerably clearer.

"There's something strange about this!"

Xiao Yu pushed the book, but it did not budge. He applied more force, yet it still remained motionless. Then he pressed both hands against it and exerted all his strength, but could not make it shift even a fraction.

Rubbing his chin, Xiao Yu circled the book several times. "There's definitely something strange about this book. That cool sensation felt very pleasant, and it acted on my mind. Could it have something to do with comprehension or thought?"

Suddenly, Xiao Yu's eyes lit up. "Could I try circulating a cultivation art and see whether it boosts my comprehension?"

He acted on the thought at once, silently reciting the basic cultivation art he had circulated countless times over the past ten years: the Fire Origin Art.

An astonishing sight appeared. Red points of light and thin lines lit up across his seemingly solid soul form. On closer inspection, they matched the meridians and acupoints used to circulate the Fire Origin Art exactly.

Xiao Yu clicked his tongue in wonder, then pressed one hand against the book.

Suddenly, the two large characters on the book flashed with dazzling golden light. The glare made Xiao Yu close his eyes involuntarily, but he immediately opened them again, afraid of missing something.

After shining for less than a breath, the golden light from the characters gradually softened, and the two large characters seemed to slowly twist and waver.

Xiao Yu continued circulating the art, watching for any further changes.

An incense stick's worth of time later, the characters stopped twisting, then vanished in a flash. Immediately afterward, a passage of glowing text appeared on each of the book's two pages. The passages were arranged symmetrically on the left and right. Xiao Yu looked closely.

"Isn't this the cultivation formula for the Fire Cloud Art?" He carefully read through the two passages. He found that the formula was largely the same as the one he practiced, with slight differences in only a few places.

"Could it be extrapolating the cultivation art, or optimizing it? I'll memorize it first, then try cultivating it later and see what happens."

Once he had memorized the slightly altered formula for the Fire Cloud Art, Xiao Yu stopped circulating the art and removed his hand. The glowing text on the book slowly dimmed and soon disappeared, but the original two large characters did not reappear either.

Then, as though remembering something, Xiao Yu circulated his spiritual power along the route used to cast the Fireball Technique and pressed his palm against the book again. This time, however, no matter how long he waited, the book showed no change whatsoever. He switched back to circulating the Fire Cloud Art, but the book still did not change!

"Could... could this only work once?" Xiao Yu's expression soured. Anyone who obtained something that seemed like an extraordinary treasure, only to discover after a brief moment of joy that it was single-use, would feel miserable.

Refusing to give up, Xiao Yu waited a while and tried again, but there was still no response. Then he returned to the outside world, took two spirit stones from his Storage Bag, and came back to the book, placing the stones on it. After observing them for a while, he found that neither the book nor the spirit stones had changed.

Xiao Yu then left the space, stood up, and lit a stick of incense in the stone chamber. Afterward, he took another incense stick into the space and lit it.

Next, Xiao Yu sat there silently, staring blankly at the incense. There was no spiritual power here, and he had entered in soul form, so he could not cultivate. When the incense was nearly burned out, Xiao Yu immediately left the space. The incense in the stone chamber was also nearly burned out, just like the one inside.

"It seems there's no difference in the flow of time inside and outside the space."