Nexus Grandmaster

True Self Meditation Art

In ancient times, Spirit was both the trigger and path of cultivation.

The first humans didn't possess mystical bloodlines like Demonic beasts. Neither did they possess godly physiques for that matter; that only started manifesting in few humans very recently as innate gifts. The earliest humans first discovered the path of cultivation when they accidentally utilized willpower to simulate divine abilities.

In those times, it was natural that the humans possessed high willpowers. After all, they were born weak and were competing for survival with apex predators, ones that had natural physical advantages and additional bloodline abilities to boot. In such an environment, the easiest mindset to develop was despair. But of course, the opposite was also possible. In this case, strong willpower was borne from an obsessive desire to survive.

From the pioneers who observed and analyze Demonic beasts in combat to create the first 'King Kong Fist' and 'Vajra Fist' utilizable by humans, the one indispensable thing required was Spirit. To bring out the best in these techniques, it was necessary to simulate the details of original as closely as possible, down to aura and mentality. In short, to execute 'Lion Claw' for example, one had to first grasp the feeling of being a lion. This became the principle that spurred the creation of many martial techniques based on Demonic Beasts.

Later on, humans moved to simulating non-living entities to create 'Mountain Smash', 'Layered Waves Palm' and so on. The more powerful and noble the original the simulation was modeled after, the more complicated it became.

Nowadays, most cultivators had a wide variety of cultivation methods to train in. Thus, less emphasis was paid to cultivating and grasping the spirit as it would be automatically grasped, albeit superficially, once one reached a certain level in a Cultivation Art.

"With your mindset and ingenious application of spirit, it's guaranteed you'll go far in cultivation in the future," Gao Weiguang said.

"Are Spirit and Qi not the same thing?" Fang Yu scratched his head awkwardly. He felt a bit uncomfortable with the praise, only because all he did was copy the common model of the solar system from his home world.

"It is, but not quite at the same time. You'll understand better in the future. For now, let's focus on your condition. If I was here with my true body, I'd conduct an in-depth examination to confirm if your situation is fine. Right now, I can only make some guesses."

Gao Weiguang continued, "Technically, you shouldn't be at risk of being possessed for now, but the god consciousness in the godshard you assimilated with might still be present. Right now, I'll give you a special meditation method that will allow you enter a self-examination state to introspect your condition yourself."

Following his words, he tapped a finger to Fang Yu's temples and a stream of information entered the latter's mind.

[True Self Meditation Art]

As Fang Yu assimilated the content, he subconsciously executed the method. His breathing and physiological vitals slowed while his psyche unknowingly simulated an infinite tunnel, thus allowing him detach from his physical body's external observation and activate his Inner View.

After an unknown period of time had passed, Fang Yu 'awakened', discovering that he was now in psyche form back in his Inner World.

"Wow!"

At the very center of his Source Space, there was a sun, burning steadily and lighting up a portion of the darkness. Surrounding it were vague apparitions of roughly-spherical celestial bodies. Some of them had barren surfaces and were pocked with craters. Others had rings of ice, rock or both.

"The solar system!" Of course, Fang Yu recognized the one-star universe he had simulated only a while ago. However, he was very surprised that it remained in his Inner World without dissipating since then.

He examined it in detail, realizing that this solar system was a bit more perfect than the one he visualized. Subconsciously, Fang Yu randomly remembered the dream he had where a Taiji diagram merged with the sun and perfected it.

"The Taiji diagram which merged into the simulated universe was formed from the nebula cloud and should contain the god consciousness of the godshard," Fang Yu analyzed. But for some reason, he had a gut feeling that the god consciousness wasn't lurking within the universe in his Source Space and was permanently gone.

"I can't be entirely sure though. When I regain my external lucidity, I'll tell Master all these details to have him analyze this for me!" Fang Yu decided. His attention left the sun to observe the planet apparitions. One of them in particular was shimmering, having established a peculiar mystical connection with the flaming sun.

A mysterious thought suddenly appeared in Fang Yu's mind. Without thinking about it, he mobilized the overflowing energy from the sun and directed it towards the illusionary planet, which he recognized as Mercury.

In a few breaths, it wasn't illusionary anymore, transforming from an apparition to a 'real' planet. As soon as this happened, a unique intrinsic property seemed to be added to the inner world, manifesting in the form of a mysterious chime.

To Fang Yu, as the sound of the chime echoed, the planet Mercury suddenly transformed in his view. A bridge that only him could see appeared around its place and exuded a suction force at his psyche.

Fang Yu was alarmed, but there was nothing he could do. Before he knew it, his senses blurred and his psyche appeared on the bridge. A mysterious mechanism was activated and the bridge carrying Fang Yu's psyche grew illusionary.

Less than a breath after, Fang Yu's psyche vanished from his Inner World.