Chapter 131: Breaking through the Beast Spirit Codex’s third stage!
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
A Catalyst-cla.s.s destroyer flew into the stars, carrying forty-seven internal division cadets into unfamiliar territory to explore the ancient ruins.
This wars.h.i.+p was designed especially for the training camp to transport their cadets. With a very s.p.a.cious interior, every cadet could not only have their personal cabin but also have plenty for a meeting room, dining s.p.a.ce, and other function rooms, allowing for leisure entertainment like chess and cards. The facilities available were comprehensive and luxuriously decorated, freely utilizing precious marble and top-grade metal alloy plates everywhere.
Xia Fei did not go around admiring the s.h.i.+p’s opulent designs and lavish decorations. He opted to shut himself in his room and focus on cultivating the third stage of the Beast Spirit Codex.
The breakthrough for this third stage was just right before his eyes. He could practically touch it if he reached out and grabbed on it, yet Xia Fei simply could not find a way to make this breakthrough. Every attempt only ended up in failure time and again.
Opening his eyes, Xia Fei gazed outside the window and decided to take a break before making another attempt.
Colorful meteors streaked past as quickly as they arrived, leaving behind beautiful trails that sparkled against the dark s.p.a.ce.
“Fifteen minutes. Another fifteen minutes.” Xia Fei had been quietly counting the time that pa.s.sed with each warp.
Different from the usual s.h.i.+ps, this specialized destroyer of the training camp would spend fifteen minutes every time they traveled through a wormhole, which was a lot more time than how long other s.h.i.+ps usually spent.
Even the Vampire, when fitted with the top-grade Black Mamba 130 warp engine would only need around ten minutes to travel through a wormhole, crossing a distance of about sixty thousand lightyears each warp. Meanwhile, this seemingly normal Catalyst-cla.s.s destroyer took fifteen minutes each time. Could its warp distance be even further than his Vampire’s?
Xia Fei shook his head vigorously. Thinking about such a question at this time made him feel very uncomfortable.
Cultivating the Beast Spirit Codex expended a lot of his mental energy, and it was different from physical strength. Mental exertion made the mind groggy as if being battered by thousands of waves that sought to submerge one in seawater; the constant rolling waves made it so that one would emerge feeling extremely tired and vexed from the entire experience.
Lighting a Hongtashan, Xia Fei tried to perk up as he did his best not to think of this s.h.i.+p’s engine issue. What he needed now was peace and rest. Thinking with his already depleted mind was not about to do him any good.
He took out a Snake Eye Berry from his spatial ring, placed it in his mouth, and chewed on it as if it were a peanut. A refres.h.i.+ng sensation surged in his body, alleviating the lethargy he was feeling by quite a bit.
Sitting down cross-legged, Xia Fei adjusted himself and got ready for another attempt to break through the third stage of the Beast Spirit Codex.
‘I refuse to believe that I still can’t open this door,’ Xia Fei stubbornly thought to himself.
The repeated failed attempts had instead roused Xia Fei’s compet.i.tive spirits. It was like climbing a mountain; one would be the most exhausted the closer they got to the top, but as long as they persevered, they would eventually be able to stand on its peak and be rewarded with a breathtaking view.
Mind control was a very strange technique. It allowed the user to transmit their brainwaves to the target’s heart forcibly and gain control of the target as a result.
Since Xia Fei had already mastered the technique from the second stage of the Beast Spirit Codex, ocular cognition, all he needed to do was overcome this hidden obstacle in his mind, then he could relay his brainwaves from afar through his gaze alone.
There was no way for the average person to understand just how powerful the Beast Spirit Codex was. The ability to transmit information through the eyes was an astounding technique; Mental ability users were only able to send information through their brainwaves because their seventh brain region had been activated with such an ability.
Meanwhile, a normal person could learn technique to control other living creatures with their mind alone through the Beast Spirit Codex, and it was considered to be a targeted mental technique. While mental ability users could use their brainwaves to control their own species, the Beast Spirit Codex enabled its users to control beasts.
It must be said that beasts and humans had a qualitative difference in terms of their brains, and the frequency of the brainwaves between the two was completely different. There were commonalities among the humans because their brains had the exact same structure and the same receptors.
However, beasts were not that easy to control. For example, if a beautiful woman were to wink at a man, most would understand it as an attempt at seduction, but would a person understand what it meant if a crocodile stared at them?
No. It was impossible.
Because the user and the target did not belong to the same species, it was completely impossible to understand the information being pa.s.sed.
The Beast Spirit Codex was precisely able to turn something thought impossible into reality via its unique technique.
In order to achieve this step of mastery, he would first have to cultivate ocular cognition, making his eyes able to figuratively speak, so as to transmit a signal which beasts could understand.
There was also a need to alter a human brain, to convert human brainwaves into special brainwaves that could affect beasts.
Xia Fei had successfully mastered the first step of ocular cognition, and now, he was learning the second step, which was to alter his brain.
Following what was written in the codex, every human’s brain contained certain biological structures that could generate and convert minute brainwaves, which permitted communication between them and beasts. It was just that, after not having been in use for ages, these organs had slowly deteriorated.
The Beast Spirit Codex provided a unique channel to forcibly reinvigorate these long-deteriorated portions of the brain that would affect beasts, allowing humans to establish a direct and effective connection with them.
The stage that Xia Fei was cultivating had not gotten to such a profound level yet. What he needed to do now was activate three unique points of his brain, and once these three points were activated, Xia Fei would be able to establish the most rudimentary communication with beasts.
Wave to someone, and that person would know that it was a gesture of farewell; flas.h.i.+ng a thumbs-up, and the person would know that it meant praise; accidentally showing a middle finger, and all that awaited would be a beating.
The third stage of the Beast Spirit Codex worked to help humans and beasts establish simple communication through body language. Even though there would not be much information that could be transmitted, it would at least allow beasts to understand the users’ intentions.
It was just that this simple exchange would not truly depend on body language, but on the users’ eyes, and that was what set the Beast Spirit Codex apart.
Language had a myriad of permutation, and the information transmitted through such a method would be bountiful. However, using just the eyes to send messages would not be as simple. It required the brainwaves, which were being transmitted, to morph into the sort that animals could understand before shooting them out, and the difficulty of this could only be understood by people who had really cultivated up to that level.
At this point in time, Xia Fei had already activated two of the three critical points in his brain, and activating the last part was all he needed to be capable of sending out messages through his two eyes, thereby breaking through to the third stage.
Going by the instructions in the Beast Spirit Codex, Xia Fei first had to acc.u.mulate wisps of energy in his brain and form a thread with these, which he then had to manipulate into flowing throughout his brain.
At the same time, that thread would constantly be drawing and gathering the energy in his brain, increasing over time until it was finally forged into a potent force.
Several minutes after, when Xia Fei felt that the energy he had gathered was sufficient, he would begin the final step, which was to destroy the exterior defenses at that point, striking at it with a large amount of his mental energy at once, thus activating it.
The thread of energy gave Xia Fei a head-splitting migraine as it swam faster and faster in his mind. The constant motion of that energy also disturbed the other structures in his brain, causing everything to begin to feel volatile.
Xia Fei shut both his eyes, gritting his teeth as he endured.
All of a sudden, that initially malleable energy that Xia Fei was manipulating became as sharp as a knife, and it shot to the right of his brain, homing in on that one spot.
An invisible explosion occurred in his brain, and though no sound was heard, Xia Fei felt like that strike was as unbridled as an atomic explosion.
The huge impact of that wave struck in that instant and spread across the whole of his mindscape. Xia Fei felt that it was unbearably deafening, like ten thousand bells ringing at once.
After the dust had settled, Xia Fei’s body slackened as he collapsed heavily on his bed.
The past usage of his mental strength weakened Xia Fei, and it was like Xia Fei had been completely drained by it.
After a short time, Xia Fei slowly opened his eyes and inspected his brain via his consciousness.
“There’s no need for you to look. You haven’t managed to breakthrough.” Phantom suddenly appeared and spoke to Xia Fei as he sat at the bedside.
Because Phantom was in his spirit form, he could examine every organ in Xia Fei’s body, and it was much faster and more accurate than the latter using his consciousness to sense his body’s state.
Xia Fei let out a heavy sigh and climbed out of the bed. His constant failed attempts had not dulled his perseverance, however; instead, it had made him even bolder, stoking his fiery determination within.
“This guy’s truly reckless.” Phantom sighed as he returned to the Moore Stone and ignored Xia Fei again. He was reputable for his obstinacy, and no one could stop him once he had set his mind onto something. Phantom did not care to try and dissuade him. Now that Xia Fei had made his decision, there was no way he would listen to anyone, unless it was to offer advice on how to make the breakthrough.
Xia Fei was vexed from the repeated failures. He had begun attempting this breakthrough two months before, and it was only a week ago when this juncture point had finally eased, though no matter how hard he tried, he simply could not proceed further.
In Xia Fei’s eyes, anyone who stopped him from making progress was an enemy, and there was only one outcome for anyone he viewed as an enemy: death.
There were plenty of stubborn people in this universe, but Xia Fei was probably the only one who would treat that point in his brain as foe.
Munching on another Snake Eye Berry to replenish his energy, Xia Fei intended to bear another tumultuous baptism as he attempted an unprecedented a.s.sault on this enemy impeding his improvement.
“I’m going all out.” Xia Fei seethed.
Once more pulling out a strand of energy in his mind, Xia Fei made it swiftly travel through that path in his brain. This time, Xia Fei was not in a hurry to attack that unyielding point. Instead, he tried to gather as much energy as he crazily could.
Xia Fei had already resolved that, since this enemy was so tenacious, he would have to be even more ferocious in his a.s.sault to tear down this formidable foe.
As for the price of such a reckless decision? Most of the time, Xia Fei was well aware of what was at stake, but the moment his madness took over, he would no longer pay heed to the cost of his actions.
It was hard to imagine that two extremes—composure and madness—could coexist inside Xia Fei. This was probably the instinct that warriors possessed; even the calmest warrior would not lose this madness that they hold within themselves.
The energy acc.u.mulated, and that trickle of energy slowly converged into a flooding river.
“Come!” Xia Fei had his eyes shut, his face appalling to behold.
This one a.s.sault was powerful, directed entirely to that impediment in Xia Fei’s brain which had plagued him for so long, figuratively sundering the ground as devastation abounded.
At last, he had successfully broken through the third stage of the Beast Spirit Codex!
The shockwave from this overwhelming attack ran wildly all over his brain, filling up every wrinkle and fold of it.
Exhaling, Xia Fei was rendered motionless and silent on top of his bed by the overwhelming exhaustion gripping him.
Phantom anxiously came running out of his Moore Stone; he stared at Xia Fei for quite some time before revealing a strange smile.
“Oh, he’s fallen asleep due to overexertion. Truly, he’s such a mad lad.”