Chapter 140

[Evolution complete]

[Split I]

[Gained Trait: Consciousness Diversion]

*

Azure Jade Registration Center.

"It's almost 6 o'clock..." If it's past the next day, for those Awakened, and even for most Awakened, death should be the judgment.

The staff member glanced at Xie Ming across from them and sighed.

Wen Jing's legendary status makes her reputation unmatched among the younger generation of Awakened. It's no wonder that the academy's second-in-command personally came to see such a remarkable figure from the Ocher Soil.

Xie Ming remained expressionless, his gaze fixed intently on the ticking time.

It's only the second day.

He didn't believe Wen Jing was dead.

Consciousness is being pulled, torn, and peeled away.

Mental anguish is more agonizing than physical pain.

However, lacking the body's self-defense mechanisms, this pain does not cause Wen Jing to 'be unable to bear it' and interrupt the splitting process.

Willpower is the 'scalpel' used to segment consciousness.

Wen Jing was even calculating the time—she only had one chance, and after spending a thousand Skill Points, she had only evolved the ability to split her consciousness in two.

Therefore, to maximize the chances of success, the best time to escape is during the transition between day and night.

If she doesn't choose this opportunity with 'passive teleportation', but instead returns to the material universe when completing the Consciousness Split, there's no guarantee that the Light of Stasis won't re-ignite and seal her away during the anchoring process.

Moreover, this attempt cannot be prepared slowly. The longer she remains in this static state, the more likely her perception of time will be distorted, and the more likely she will miscalculate the time of day-night transition.

3, 2, 1...

Wen Jing counted down the seconds, completing the complete split at the last moment.

Two consciousnesses coexist in one body, and the originally complete spiritual world has spatial overlap, turning it into two worlds.

But these two worlds are not unrelated; they both still belong to her.

The feeling was strange, like being able to control your severed hand even though you can clearly see it's gone.

The fragmented spiritual entities began to function with consciousness, and time began to flow in one of the worlds.

One half of Wen Jing 'still,' but the other half of Wen Jing's spirit body, which has split off, can move.

But why wasn't she teleported away...?

Just then, the 'movement' of this Consciousness Split seemed to be sensed by Time Amber.

At the center of the floating island, the pale light intensified, instantly illuminating the surroundings as if it were daytime.

The ' Light of Stasis ' seeks to capture that newly emerged, unanchored consciousness once more.

The light subsided, returning to its original brightness.

In the newest and smallest floating island, the once complete pale alien insect now only has half a body left.

From every angle, she resembles a torn canvas, her shape irregular.

However, if someone were to measure the volume, mass, or even the number of molecules at this point, they would find that the lost half of the body is exactly the same as the remaining half.

In the underground world, the remaining half of the body was completely still, with the blood and internal organs' energy contained within the Spacetime Amber, without any change.

At the same time, in a mysterious palace, the sound of chimes rang out.

Half of the insect's body appeared out of thin air, and as time resumed its flow, Wen Jing's missing half of his body began to repair itself at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Chapter 140

"... Finally escaped!"

The relationship between consciousness, the spiritual body, and the physical body is not independent; it is not the same as the separation of the primordial spirit from the body as depicted in cultivation novels.

Otherwise, when Awakened travel from the material universe to the Ancient Wilderness times, they should leave behind human bodies in place instead of simply disappearing.

When sealed in the Spacetime Amber, Wen Jing's consciousness, spiritual body, and physical body were all locked in a state. It was only because of the panel that her consciousness got stuck in a bug, allowing her to think and utilize the panel to evolve.

Essentially, her consciousness, like that of the other Wilderness Beast around her, had been captured by the Spacetime Amber.

She evolved [Consciousness Diversion], splitting off a new consciousness that was not solidified. Then, by taking advantage of the principle that Awakened are passively transported during the alternation of day and night, she finally succeeded in taking away the spiritual body and physical body to which this consciousness belonged from the Spacetime Amber.

Now that they've arrived in another world, the static state has been lifted, and Wen Jing's various emotions have returned.

Even across time and space, another consciousness, still sealed away, is connected to her at this moment on a conscious level.

The feeling is wonderful, like watching two different screens at the same time, or like drawing a square with your left hand and a circle with your right... but neither of these can fully describe the specific feeling.

Wen Jing felt nothing when she was completely sealed in the Spacetime Amber, but now, as she experiences the flowing world again, even though her current situation is not good, she feels a strong sense of relief and lingering fear.

"In the end, there was still a one-second timing calculation error, and the newly split consciousness almost froze again."

Her half of her body rapidly grew and repaired under the [Restoration] property.

This division came at a huge cost.

At this moment, on the panel, all of Wen Jing's physical attributes have decreased by about half, from an average of over 800 points to over 400.

All the characteristics were present, but she could sense that special abilities like the Gravitational Field and the Ice Domain had been weakened in both strength and range.

However, not all panel values decreased; one value actually increased instead of decreasing.

[Species Level: 613→11772]

The leap in species level was so large that it jumped directly from three digits to five digits, becoming the largest value ever added to the Wen Jing panel.

In the past, her species level only increased slowly as her attributes improved; no such significant change occurred when she evolved into Gravity Silk or Devouring Spider King.

"Perhaps it means a huge leap forward from a species perspective..."

While Wen Jing pondered, his compound eyes scanned the surrounding environment.

The whole scene has a strong feeling of traveling back to ancient times, but it also has an eerie atmosphere.

She was standing in an empty palace. The floor was paved with neat, flat stone slabs, and eight blue stone pillars stood on both sides, with glittering bronze oil lamps hanging on them.

Behind the stone pillars, in front of the walls on the left and right, are two rows of chime bells arranged neatly.

Apart from the chime bells, the entire palace had no other furnishings, only two tightly closed wooden doors in front of and behind Wen Jing.

This is the world where she first 'escaped' from the Wilderness Weapon bronze artifact.

As Ancient Wilderness still bearing traces of civilization at night, Wen Jing was not strong enough to dare to venture into its depths.

She had planned to upgrade the Gravity Silk and then make an attempt, but unexpectedly, even though the Gravity Silk was upgraded, she encountered the crisis of the Spacetime Amber first. In the end, she was passively transported here by splitting her consciousness and taking advantage of the day-night cycle.

At that moment Wen Jing could travel randomly, but after careful consideration, she still chose a world with an anchor point, at least to have some basic understanding of it.

The palace was completely silent, so silent that only the sound of Wen Jing.

She didn't act rashly, focusing on repairing her body while remaining vigilant about the dangers around her.

However, once Wen Jing's missing half of her body became whole, she floated off the ground, her figure began to fade naturally, her presence rapidly diminished, and she entered an invisible state.

The shadows, which were neither clearly animal nor human, that had been seen when the bronze fragments disappeared, did not appear, and the entire palace remained completely silent.

Normally, Wen Jing would definitely explore this place.

But she didn't forget her own situation. She was at her weakest right now, and for the material universe, this was already the second night she had been away for too long. The most important thing now was to return as soon as possible.

Once the situation stabilized, Wen Jing, who had almost no interaction with the environment, became wary of his surroundings and attempted to move around.

The very next moment after spacetime began to fluctuate—

"Clang, clang..."

The first note rang out, and one after another, the chime bells moved on their own without wind, beginning to play the ancient music that Wen Jing had once heard from bronze fragments.

As the music played, white light shone through the gaps in the square floor tiles, forming concentric squares.

Between those squares, clusters of dark shadows emerged.

"It wasn't as easy as I thought..."

Wen Jing wasn't too surprised; in fact, it would have been surprising if she had returned safely.

She immediately went into battle mode, and her Gravitational Field spread outwards.

But the next moment, her heart tightened.

The extent of the Gravitational Field was hindered as it spread.

The weakening was not due to division, but rather stemmed from the palace itself.

Wen Jing's normal Gravitational Field is a sphere centered on her, but at this moment, its maximum range is restricted to a standard rectangular space.

The space is defined by the four nearest floor squares, from the floor at the bottom to the top of the palace.

The space beyond this is inaccessible.

If it were the old Wen Jing, she wouldn't have noticed so much, but after the second-level Gravity Silk, she could clearly perceive that she was now essentially in an independent universe.

"It severed spacetime?"

Wen Jing withdrew the Gravitational Field and switched to the Ice Domain, releasing Energy Pulse, but the results were the same.

Even though she could see the entire palace environment, she was in a different time and space from the world beyond the four floor tiles, and neither her domain nor her attacks could interact with it.

At the same time, the black mist emanating from the dozens of dark figures that had risen from the surrounding squares fell like flowing water, revealing their true forms.

Dozens of bronze statues, gleaming with new golden light and depicting animal heads and human bodies, came into Wen Jing's compound eyes.

At a glance, these bronze statues, which vary in shape, can be divided into three types based on their appearance.

It has a monkey's head and a human body, and holds a hammer or chisel.