Chapter 563 Method and Awakening
INSIDE ALEX"S MIND.
After the introduction of the Nascent Soul Breathing Technique and its methodology, the 3rd Dream Scene did not stop.
It went on to show Person 4 attempting the method by herself, which showcased the difficulty of the Nascent Soul Breathing Technique. It also showed the proper way to perform the technique, something that the spectating Alex was pleased to see.
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Person 4 took a deep breath as she immediately started the Nascent Soul Breathing Technique.
"Since I need to do it quick, then I will just absorb the Essence of the nearest thing to me!"
With all the duality concepts that she had comprehended already, the one that Person 4 was the most familiar with was the Ice-Fire Duality Concept.
Not only that, but the 2 objects highly related to the Ice-Fire Duality Concept was right in front of her.
Person 4 gazed as the Pure Yang Universe Flame floating in front of her and at the Pure Yin Cosmic Ice that was currently in her dantian.
One dilemma of anyone who uses the Nascent Soul Breathing Technique was the quality of the object where they get the Essence from.
Only objects with high quality can give more Essence to a pract.i.tioner.
This means that if a pract.i.tioner tries to breathe in Fire Essence just from a normal fire, the amount of Essence that he will get will be extremely low.
If that pract.i.tioner wants to get more Fire Essence, he must use fire with better quality.
This problem was one of the reasons why Person 2 did not teach the Nascent Soul Breathing Technique to others casually, as finding resources to provide the needed Essence was hard to find in the Universe.
But Person 2 was fine on giving the Nascent Soul Breathing Technique to Person 4, as he knew that she has the needed resources for her Essences.
These resources were exactly the Pure Yang Universe Flame and the Pure Yin Cosmic Ice!
One should know that these two objects are one of the rarest things in the whole Universe, and obtaining just one of them can be considered to be a great luck.
With that kind of rarity and quality, the amount of Essence that can be found inside them will surely be enough to satisfy Person 4"s requirement!
Now, she only need to acc.u.mulate enough Essence from these two objects, and then she can start with the next step.
Person 4 then closed her eyes as she strengthened her mental connection with these 2 objects
To start the Nascent Soul Breathing Technique, a pract.i.tioner must first use the insights that he had to connect with the object that he will absorb the Essence from.
In Person 4"s case, she used her Duality Concepts to fully connect with the Pure Yang Universe Flame and with the Pure Yin Cosmic Ice.
Person 4"s mind was tranquil as she slowly melded her mind and consciousness with the Pure Yang Universe Flame and the Pure Yin Cosmic Ice.
Person 4 felt extremely serene as she became more and more connected with the 2 objects. This state will continue until Person 4 has fully connected with the 2 objects.
"Hum....." Person 4"s body then trembled, as she suddenly felt like she was a part of the Pure Yang Universe Flame and the Pure Yin Cosmic Ice! Person 4 also realized that right now, she could feel all the changes happening inside the Pure Yang Universe Flame and Pure Yin Cosmic Ice.
"..."
All the sensations that Person 4 just felt right now made her realize that she… she felt one and whole with them.
Person 4 has done it, she had fully connected with them!
"There it is!"
When Person 4 felt that she had already fully resonated with the 2 objects, she opened her mouth, and then she took a deep breath.
"Woosh…"
This time, it was not only air that entered Person 4"s mouth.
If one will look closely, they will see that from there is a golden stream coming out of the Pure Yang Universe Flame and a bluish-white stream coming out of the Pure Yin Cosmic Ice.
Both of these streams entered Person 4"s mouth and started to coalesce inside Person 4"s body
.
These 2 streams were the Fire Essence of the Pure Yang Universe Flames and the Ice Essence of the Pure Yin Cosmic Ice.
Person 4 continued circulating the Nascent Soul Breathing Technique as she collected more and more of the Fire and Ice Essences.
After exactly 30 minutes of continuous Essence Breathing, Person 4 felt that she already reached the limit of the possible Fire and Ice Essence that she could absorb.
"Combine!" Person 4 uttered these words as she willed the Fire and Ice Essence to join together.
Person 4"s insights on Duality requires her always join two objects that were in duality in each other. In this case, she has to combine the Ice and Fire Essence so that they will fit her insights in Duality.
"Now then…"
Person 4 took a shaky breath as she felt slightly nervous. What she was about to do next will be dangerous, and it will require her utmost concentration to perform it.
Person 4 closed her eyes as she focused on inspecting her own soul.
Just by looking at it, Person 4 could see that even her soul was following the concept of Duality, as she could see that her original soul was the combination of her Yin Soul and her Yang Soul.
Person 4 gulped slightly as she slowly approached her soul.
Within the manual of the Nascent Soul Breathing Technique, there was a section there telling Person 4 the method that she can use to split off a part of her soul.
"My soul is now a piece of paper…" Using her imagination, Person 4 compared her soul to a piece of pristine white paper. She visualized this paper in her mind, and she made this paper somehow the representation of her soul.
Whatever Person 4 did to this imaginary paper in her mind, it will also happen to her soul.
Now that she had this image in her mind, Person 4 focused on the lower-right corner of the imaginary paper.
She then gritted her teeth as she decisively tore off a portion of this lower-right corner of the imaginary paper!
"Rip…." As she willed this thing to happen on the imaginary paper, Person 4 saw that a portion of her soul was also being torn off at this very moment!
It was as if the very act of tearing off a portion of the imaginary paper was also affecting her soul!
This was the power of the visualization that Person 4 had, but it will be only effective if Person 4 had complete control over her soul, which she also had.
As long as she completely tears of that corner of imaginary paper, Person 4 will also succeed on tearing off the portion of the soul that she needed to use.
"Ahhh!!!!"
But the problem was that this tearing off process was accompanied by a very excruciating pain.
After all, the mutilating the soul was akin to mutilating the body. It will always be painful.
But the pain from mutilating the soul was exponentially higher than the pain on mutilating one"s body. That was also the reason why the soul was kept inside the body. It was done in order to protect the soul from injuries and possible pain.
"Fk, fk, fk! Fkity, fkity, fk, f**k!"
Tears began to appear in Person 4"s eyes as she wanted the pain to go away.
She knew that if she stops tearing off her soul right now, the pain will be gone.
But she did not dare do it, as the manual mentioned that if Person 4 stops on tearing a part from her soul halfway through, she will immediately die.
This meant that even with the pain she was feeling right now, Person 4 has no choice but to continue what she was doing.
"Ah! It hurts! It hurts!" Person 4 wailed inwardly as the pain continued a.s.saulting her mind and body.
"Don"t black out, don"t black out, don"t black out…." Person 4 chanted these words as she knew that once she falls unconscious, she will immediately die.
"Don"t black out…"
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"Oh ho… So first, I must absorb the Essences that are related to Duality. Only when I do that that I can start performing the Nascent Soul Breathing Technique…" Alex thought with interest as the dream scene continued. "Hmm… although that part is easy, I can see from Person 4"s plight that soul-splitting is extremely difficult. If someone who looks as strong as her can be in this pain, then splitting of a soul fragment must be really painful…"
This thought made Alex slightly frown, as he was not really a fan of going through pain just to get stronger. He already had enough of that from the Abyss Magic, so he"s not looking forward to experiencing more pain.
But with the temptation of quicker cultivation right in front of him, Alex knew that he is bound to use this technique once he wakes up.
"Sigh… when will the 3rd Dream Scene end? I want to wake up already, so that I can start cultivating myself!" If Alex could just cultivate now, then he could have done it already. But because the current dream scene is still not ending, Alex has no choice but to lay immobile as he watched Person 4 continuously shout and moan in pain.
With the beautiful appearance of Person 4, Alex was slightly enjoying what he was seeing. But this enjoyment was of course just minor, as Alex was getting more and more impatient at this point already.
"Oh for goodness sake. I already know what to do regarding the Nascent Soul Breathing Technique, so I don"t need to watch any more of this dream! Come on, just end!" With time running down from the clock, the impatient Alex already had enough. If the 3rd dream scene will take a long time to end, then Alex will just speed it up.
"Shuo…."
Alex hurriedly gathered the remains of his mental power and willpower to shake his mind, which was his latest attempt to wake himself up. He also laced his mental power with some of his Abyss Energy and Immortal Qi, in hopes of making his mental attack stronger.
He then bombarded his mind with continuous blasts of his mental attacks, focusing most of it on his mindscape.
"Boom boom boom!"
"Come on, just wake up already!"
"Boom boom boom!"
"Argh!"
Alex"s latest attacks were laced with his impatience and tension, which was enough to do some dents on his mindscape. But even with this kind of power, Alex still found himself trapped in the dream. It was as if Alex was doomed to stay like this forever, a state that did not bring Alex any consolation at all.
"Hey, if I don"t wake up here, then how long will I stay like this? 1 more hour? Or 2 more hours? Argh, it will just depend on Person 4!" Realizing that he was still trapped even with all of his efforts, Alex could only sigh as he let go of his gathered power. He then let them dissipate inside his mind as he began to accept his fate.
If none of his abilities can get him free now, then there"s no more need for Alex to struggle. Struggling more at this point will just waste his remaining powers, so staying still is the best thing for Alex to do now.
"Sigh, I hope this dream scene won"t last that long anymore. Because if it is, then I will really go-"
But before Alex could even start to relax himself, the hollow voice from earlier made it appearance once more, this time, with the message that he has been waiting to hear.
[END OF DREAM SCENE 3. COMMENCING EXPULSION FROM THE DREAM REALM].
"!!!"
After the hollow voice made this announcement, the scenery around Alex shattered like gla.s.s as the dream suddenly ended, which plunged Alex back to the darkness of his mind once more.
This time around however, his return was accompanied by a sudden, ma.s.sive recovery of all his mental faculties.
"What the?"
Earlier, Alex"s mental faculties were only around 80% of the original, a state that is not good enough for him. But right now, all of his mental faculties have recovered back to 100%, which meant that Alex"s mind was now back to its peak state!
This recovery has allowed Alex"s thought processes to work normally again, with the pain and nausea inside his head already non-existent. His light-headedness all gone too, with only clarity and alertness present inside Alex"s mind.
"Hah! Finally!"
After this has happened, the previously lethargic Alex began to perk up, as his now fully-rejuvenated mind has realized what was about to happen next.
Alex"s torturously long dream is about to come to its end, and Alex is now all-set to be free from his mental prison!
"Hah, now I can get out of this s***y prison! Finally, I can enjoy reality again!" Alex shouted jubilantly to himself as the darkness around him began to fade. He then let out a snort, as the message from the hollow voice made him realize something. "Wait, so all of these dream scenes were caused by the Dream Realm? Tsk, so that"s why I can"t escape!"
"Huom…" As the darkness around him slowly faded, it was slowly replaced by light, which then filled Ale"s surroundings filled with a warm, comforting glow.
This change made Alex feel more relieved, as he, out of all people, knew that this light is an indicator that he was about to wake up.
"Hehehe, just a little more, and I will be seeing my allies again. Just a little more…"
With his mental faculties back to normal, Alex also felt himself regaining control of his body. This control of course included his eyelids, which Alex did not hesitate to use.
"Twitch."
With a small twitch from his face, Alex"s eyelids began to open, flooding his eyes with the light from the real world…..