Jiang Xia released his Broken Dream Martial Soul into the outside world, covering the surrounding space and spreading outward with himself as its center.
Under normal circumstances, its range was only ten meters.
But when he extended the dreamscape using Spirit Detection as its foundation, he obtained a dreamscape that enveloped the surrounding thirty meters.
This was not merely a doubling of its area-it had increased a full eightfold!
Its planar area had increased eightfold. If spatial volume were taken into account, the figure would be even more staggering.
Of course, this was merely the form of extension that required the least effort from Jiang Xia.
By adding Soul Power, he could increase his dreamscape's range from ten meters to thirty meters, or even fifty meters at its limit.
Judging by what he felt, as he obtained more Soul Rings, both the effortless ten-meter range and the subsequent extension ratio could improve.
At this thought, Jiang Xia withdrew his second Soul Skill while maintaining his Broken Dream Martial Soul's coverage of the outside world.
Using Broken Dream's ten-meter radius as a foundation, he released his second Soul Skill, Spirit Detection, again.
This time, his Spirit Detection extended another twenty meters beyond Broken Dream's ten-meter radius!
At that moment, Jiang Xia felt as though all the pathways in his brain had opened up.
The combined Soul Power cost of releasing Broken Dream to cover a ten-meter radius and releasing Spirit Detection over a twenty-meter radius was lower than using Soul Power to boost either one alone to thirty meters.
Whether he extended Broken Dream based on Spirit Detection's range or released Spirit Detection based on Broken Dream's presence, their combined Soul Power consumption was not high!
At that moment, Jiang Xia felt that he actually had a brain.
He tried withdrawing Broken Dream while maintaining Spirit Detection's current range.
It held!
However, the Soul Power consumed per unit of time to maintain Spirit Detection increased.
It was the same as the passive consumption of maintaining normal thirty-meter Spirit Detection.
But!
"The instantaneous cost of increasing Spirit Detection's range to thirty meters has dropped by more than half!"
And the Soul Power he saved was enough to maintain it for quite a while longer.
Keeping his thirty-meter Spirit Detection active, Jiang Xia spread Broken Dream outward again.
Another ten-meter increase.
His Broken Dream now had a full forty-meter radius.
He withdrew Spirit Detection.
Broken Dream remained in place.
Moreover, its passive Soul Power consumption per unit of time was no different from that of normal Broken Dream with a forty-meter radius.
Yet it consumed far less Soul Power than directly extending Broken Dream to cover forty meters.
The proportion of consumption saved here was even higher than before.
If he continued using this as a foundation to extend Spirit Detection, the proportion saved might rise even further.
A brainstorm swept through Jiang Xia's mind, and he roughly calculated that there was a limit to this proportion of savings.
As his endless stacking approached infinity, the proportion he could save approached eighty percent.
After ten rounds of stacking, that proportion reached seventy-five percent.
"Stacking infinitely is obviously impossible. Ten times is enough. It'll greatly increase how long I can enjoy wide-range Spirit Detection and wide-range Broken Dream coverage."
In numerical terms, Jiang Xia, starting at full Soul Power, could expand Spirit Detection's range to its maximum and then withdraw it.
Using the Soul Power that would have consumed to stack ten times and expand Spirit Detection to the same range, he would not need to withdraw it immediately and could maintain it for another three minutes.
The same applied to Broken Dream.
Of course, this was not the most important thing.
The most crucial point was that this could break through the upper limit of his perception!
He could expand Spirit Detection to the maximum range he could normally achieve, then use that as a foundation to extend Broken Dream to its limit...
It approached an effect he could otherwise enjoy only after multiplying his Soul Power three or four times!
After repeated attempts, Jiang Xia felt that he needed to master this trick.
After all, those were three minutes he got for free.
Was three minutes short? It was already a long time, enough to do many things in battle!
After repeatedly testing his abilities and gaining a deeper understanding of his Soul Skills, Jiang Xia had nearly exhausted his Soul Power.
At this point, Han Tianyi spoke. "Well? Do you feel ready to start imitating now?"
Naturally, he meant imitating the transformations of all things within a virtual world like the Spirit Ascension Platform.
Jiang Xia gave a wry smile.
He explained to Han Tianyi everything he had just tested.
"I'm out of Soul Power now."
Han Tianyi was speechless.
Still, Jiang Xia had indeed combined his two abilities and discovered an extremely useful trick.
So only after Jiang Xia recovered his Soul Power did Han Tianyi construct an illusion of his own and have Jiang Xia imitate the changes in the primordial Qi within it.
Han Tianyi had a profound understanding of heaven and earth, and reproducing them one-to-one in an illusion was easy for him.
He demonstrated, one by one, how the primordial Qi of heaven and earth gathered and circulated.
Throughout the process, Jiang Xia kept Spirit Detection enveloping Broken Dream and the illusory space.
After completely capturing every detail of the changes in primordial Qi, he began reproducing them.
"Illusory Dream Imitation!"
Soon, changes in the primordial Qi of heaven and earth began appearing within his Broken Dream.
Han Tianyi, in turn, began inspecting Jiang Xia's reproduction.
"Good. No problems."
A trace of a smile appeared in Han Tianyi's eyes.
"There's no need to test the subsequent steps."
Faced with Jiang Xia's puzzled gaze, he explained.
"I already tested the subsequent steps for you in advance."
Han Tianyi pursed his lips. "When I went back to Heaven Dou City to keep an eye on the Soul Spirit manufacturing process for you, I also looked into the technology behind the Spirit Ascension Platform."
"I've already tested it. Within the illusion I constructed, data generated based on my understanding could indeed turn the illusory into the real when connected to real space through Spirit Ascension Platform technology."
"For me, it's an unnecessary extra step, but for you, it's a different matter."
"Your Broken Dream can easily invade other virtual worlds. You can absolutely imitate a vast number of basic abilities within the Spirit Ascension Platform in no time."
"The abilities you master will encompass all things!"
At this point, even Han Tianyi himself felt somewhat shaken.
The highest realm of illusion arts was to command the myriad Daos beneath heaven!
A vague understanding dawned in his heart.
But he still lacked Jiang Xia's foundation.
He had also been inspecting the changes within Jiang Xia's Broken Dream just now, but he could only probe them because of his high realm of spiritual power.
As Jiang Xia cultivated, even if he stopped resisting, it would become increasingly difficult for Han Tianyi to probe the situation inside his Broken Dream.
It would also be difficult to probe its essence.
Yet even so, Han Tianyi could still rely on his own comprehension to grasp the transformations of all things within a virtual world, then manifest them in reality through Spirit Ascension Platform technology.
This was far easier than directly comprehending the transformations of all things in reality.
Constructing something false was always faster than doing so in reality.
Meanwhile, Jiang Xia was also filled with one pleasant surprise after another.
This teacher of mine really was far too dependable!
"Teacher, can I master Spirit Ascension Platform technology now, then?"
Hearing this question, Han Tianyi's thoughts returned to reality.
He looked at Jiang Xia and pursed his lips.
"Take your time learning."
Why had I gone to the trouble of testing it for him? Was that really so hard to guess?
With technology that complex, how could it possibly be easy to go from a complete outsider to mastery, let alone reproduce the effects of an apparatus as enormous as the Spirit Ascension Platform using one's own abilities?