Chapter 240: The Road Ahead
Material Plane, High Tower Territory, Nightlight City, inside the secret room of the West Tower of the castle.
The composite Magic Array in the secret room had disappeared. Only a dream bubble the size of a person floated in the room.
Ace approached the dream bubble. Just as he wanted to observe it, the dream bubble suddenly burst, turning into a stream of information pouring into Ace’s eyes. Ace instantly felt extremely sleepy and slowly fell asleep.
In the dream, amidst pitch darkness, an existence shrouded in hazy light whispered to Ace.
“This world is not unique. I came here from a distant otherworld. The life level known as Hero in your world is called Level 1 Life.”
“Level 1 Life is also known as Supernatural Life. Reaching this level, lifespan is extended, and supernatural power is internalized, becoming an existence that truly relies on oneself for supernatural abilities.
Because your world is newly ascended, rules are manifested externally. Even if not a Level 1 Life, one can borrow the rule power permeating the world. But in the endless Astral Plane, only Level 1 Life is the true beginning of the supernatural.
The beginning of the supernatural involves a choice between two path directions. These two directions have different focuses but ultimately reach the same goal.”
“Level 1 Life cannot achieve equal emphasis on both body and soul. If one wants both, one will end up with nothing. Choosing the Path of the Mind or the Path of the Body determines your direction for a very long time, perhaps even for life.”
Ace listened earnestly, more doubts arising in his heart.
The crystal-clear creature came from another world, and he also came from another world. Does this mean there is a possibility of returning?
But after returning, if things and people have changed, is there a necessity to return?
If the Hero level is equivalent to Formal Wizard, which is equivalent to Level 1 Life, then how many levels of life are there, and how should I reach them?
While Ace was thinking, the hazy light continued to speak.
“Although the direction of the path is determined at Level 1 Life, the seed is already planted at Level 0 Life. Do you prioritize the soul or the body? Do you use the body to borrow the world’s supernatural power, or use the soul?
If you prioritize the body, you need to inject your will and spirit into the core of the physical body. For general creatures, that is the heart.
You must constantly temper and strengthen your heart, using external supernatural power to achieve the transformation of the heart. If you can achieve Will Injection into the Heart before Level 1, your path to Level 1 will be incredibly smooth.”
Ace in the dream pondered. Isn’t this the path of the Knight? According to the latest definition, Lesser Wizard Apprentice = Junior Knight Squire, and so on.
The condensation of the creed and the formation of Heart Force are incredibly difficult, but every Knight who found their creed naturally advanced to Senior Squire.
In that case, the Knight’s path has great prospects for development and should be vigorously developed as a supplement to high-end combat power.
The thought flashed by, and Ace continued to listen attentively.
“The Path of the Body is the choice of the vast majority of lives in the vast majority of worlds, because this path is safe. Moreover, at the lower stages of life, walking the path of flesh and bloodline can make your life longer.
Of course, some lives enjoy challenges and walk the Path of the Mind, which has greater risks and greater returns. The Path of the Mind is ever-changing, but the foundation is one phrase: inject the vitality of the physical body into the soul.
You need a powerful physical body to nurture a more powerful soul, thereby obtaining stronger power and more treacherous and varied means.
The biggest risk of this path is that if your physical body is insufficient to support a powerful soul, and you haven’t achieved a leap in life level before the body decays, your supernatural path ends there.”
The hazy light spoke coldly in an emotionless voice.
“If you want both stability and power, that is impossible. Although the Path of the Mind is difficult and dangerous, the greatest gain is not power and means. In the language of this world, you can obtain a Pseudo-Mental Imagery World Embryo in advance.
Your soul will open up a blurry space existing in illusion, a wondrous place capable of retaining the extensions of rules.
Although only extensions of rules, or traces of rules, not the rules themselves.
But to permanently retain traces of rules at the Level 1 Life stage is simply a gift from the world. If walking the path of the physical heart, the embryo of the Mental Imagery World only appears when one reaches the peak of Level 2 Life—what this world calls the ultimate Golden Hero of Great Heroes.
The Pseudo-Mental Imagery World Embryo is certainly inferior to the Mental Imagery World Embryo, but apart from being unable to manifest externally, being smaller internally, and accommodating fewer traces of rules, there is no difference.
With it, you can choose your own rule path at the Level 1 Life stage or even at the peak of the Level 0 Life stage!”
At this point, the hazy light suddenly stopped speaking, making Ace scratch his head in anxiety.
The Soul Sanctuary turns out to be the Pseudo-Mental Imagery World Embryo! Listening to the hazy light’s description, runes are traces left by rules or extensions of rules. This made Ace incredibly excited.
He had inadvertently clarified a question: What is a rune, and what is the essence of a rune!
If what this existence said is true, runes are extensions and traces of rules. Using analogical thinking from the bottom up: Lesser Runes are degraded versions of Soul Runes. Are Soul Runes degraded versions of higher-level runes? And is the endpoint of this reverse deduction the so-called Rules?
At this moment, a term popped into Ace’s mind: “Rune Rule Degradation Hypothesis”!
It still needs proof. It needs evidence from higher runes and even rules themselves, Ace shouted in his heart.
He seemed to have discovered the end of the Rune Path but lacked the necessary evidence.
“ The right to choose a path is the greatest right of a supernatural existence, even higher than life! Possessing a Pseudo-Mental Imagery World Embryo in advance means that your path to Level 3 has been pointed out; what is lacking is merely resources.
Knowledge related to the path is too profound, exceeding the scope of Level 2 Life, and thus exceeding the scope of your equivalent trade. It will not be provided here.”
Listening to the voice of the hazy light, although Ace had many doubts, he accepted it calmly. He provided food, and the knowledge provided by the other party far exceeded Ace’s expectations.
The hazy light continued:
“The Great Heroes of this world are Level 2 Lives. To advance from Level 1 Life to Level 2 Life, the key lies in Balance.
Whether it is injecting will into the heart or using vitality to nourish the soul, it inevitably leads to imbalance!
The key to advancement lies in rebalancing the soul and body. From imbalance to balance, that is Level 2.
All of this is preparation for the true birth of the Mental Imagery World.
The Mental Imagery World is the product of the union of soul and body, the intertwining of life and death, the merging of illusion and reality.
Its embryo is your cognition of the world; the mental image is the projection of cognition. Even if you walk the Path of the Mind, it is merely a pseudo-embryo. If balance is not achieved in resources, the final result is still the inability to cross that critical step, leaving only illusions like flowers in a mirror or the moon in water.”
Ace listened entranced. He thought of a saying from his past life: If one hears the Way in the morning, one can die content in the evening!
“Starting from balance to reach imbalance is the supernatural, and one must walk on the road of imbalance for a long time. But at the end, to go further, one needs to go from imbalance back to balance.
Can this situation be quantified? Can its laws be discovered through experiments, and then repeated on a large scale?”
Just as Ace was thinking, the hazy light continued: “As for the Abyssal Whispers, your soul has split before, and there is an Abyssal pollution source nearby, so you are more easily influenced. Now that your soul and body have ascended, you naturally won’t be affected by the whispers.”
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