Red felt himself being pulled out of his own body.

‘No, that’s not right…’

Rather than being pulled out of his own body, it felt as if his senses were expanding outside of the limits of his frame. It was as if his very being was transforming, fusing with his surroundings to become a higher life form.

It was an overwhelming sensation, both terrifying and fascinating all at once. Taste, smell, sound, touch, and vision all mixed into a single sensation that filled every part of his mind. As Red’s sense expanded, he started to notice the brand new world revealed to him.

A mixture of infinite threads of primordial energy surrounding everything around him. Every object, every leaf, every tree, even the air itself, was constructed by these threads. Colors his eyes couldn’t perceive, sounds that described the very fabric of reality. There was nowhere to turn his gaze to, for everything comprised this matter, even empty space.

At first, Red thought this was Spiritual Energy. Yet, further examination proved him wrong.

This was something else. A more fundamental force, unperceivable by common eyes, and something even most cultivators would not be able to witness for most of their lives.

These were the laws that dictated reality.

There were so many of them that Red couldn’t keep count. They appeared in different abstract forms, some more prevalent than others, some only flashing in his vision for a second before disappearing. Yet all of them had something in common: a complexity that surpassed human comprehension.

From afar, they seemed like formless masses of energy in constant flux, yet the closer Red inspected them, the more details he found. He saw forms and shapes that overlapped each other countless times over, conveying sensations and emotions that were impossible to put into words, and yet made all the sense in the world to him. All powerful laws and principles that dictated how things worked, impossible to distort and of infinite complexity.

All these things, now laid bare for Red to see.

‘An insight… So this is what the hawk was referring to?’

To witness this sight, it made every struggle the youth ever went through worth it.

Yet, he couldn’t let himself be dazed by the phenomenon. Even now, he could feel instinctually that his time in this place was limited, and he needed to make the most of it. He needed to comprehend something of value before it all dissipated into nothingness.

However, looking around himself, how could this be an easy task? Every single one of these laws contained an unlimited fount of knowledge, enough for one to spend an entire lifetime studying without making even a bit of progress. Some of them, even more wondrous than others, only showed themselves in his senses for a brief instant before disappearing.

Red wanted to learn them all. He never wanted something so much in his life before, and the fact he would be unable to at this moment frustrated him.

With no other choice, the youth started to inspect the prevalent laws around him, trying to comprehend what he could. The task felt like trying to empty the entire sea one small cup at a time, but Red still put his all into it.

Quickly, however, he noticed something. While these laws offered the same level of complexity, the youth felt himself instinctually able to comprehend some of them better than others. Some of the principles and sensations conveyed in some of them resonated and made sense to him, while in others it felt as if he was trying to read something in a language he couldn’t comprehend.

This revelation, in turn, made the decision of which law to focus on an easy one.

‘It will be you…’

This law, in particular, was one of the most abundant ones in his surroundings. The youth felt an unexplainable connection to it, and when he tried to comprehend it, it felt like expanding on principles he already held close to his own heart. It felt right.

He immersed his entire being into it. An innate understanding of certain principles was born in his mind, and it felt as if the youth knew them his entire life.

By the time Red felt his time in this world was over, he had barely scratched the surface of this law. Yet what he gained already was going to change his entire cultivation journey.

This, he knew for certain.

…

As Red’s sense returned to normal, he opened his eyes. No longer did the clouds from the formation surround him. In fact, the storm also seemed to have abated, and some rays of sunlight could be seen through the overcast sky.

The youth frowned in confusion and looked around. He spotted Aurelia’s image outside of the formation, staring at him with a complicated expression and with her arms crossed.

“You did it.” She said. “You opened your Spiritual Sea.”

Red nodded. “So it seems.”

“How did you do it?”

“You weren’t watching?”

Aurelia frowned. “I was afraid I would disturb the process if I tried snooping in.”

The youth was thankful that the woman was at least this considerate.

“I used my expanded awareness to help me coordinate my assault against the barrier.” Red said. “If I didn’t have that, I would have definitely failed.”

The woman grunted. “Of course, I should have thought of that. I suppose I didn’t consider the fact a mortal like you would have had a consciousness that strong without even having opened their Spiritual Sea.”

The youth looked at his surroundings once again. “How much time has passed?”

“A few hours.” Aurelia said. “I felt you broke through back then, but you seemed to be focused on something, so I chose not to disturb you.”

“A few hours?”

Red was surprised. Inside that world, he barely felt like a few minutes had passed by.

“Did you learn anything valuable in that place?” the woman asked.

“… You know about it?”

Aurelia snorted. “Of course I do. Sects force their disciples to open their Spiritual Sea without pills because of that. At the end of the day, though, whether they get an insight depends more on luck than anything else.”

“Did you reach that state, too?”

“I did, but you’re dodging my question. What did you learn there?”

“I learned about the Wind.”

“Wind? I suppose it does fit your cultivation art, so it’s not a bad choice.” She nodded. “How much did you learn, though?”

Red hesitated. “How would I know?”

“Bah! Don’t you know even the simplest Spiritual Art from that manual of yours? Just conjure a wind blade or something and show me!”

The youth frowned, but he didn’t rebuke her. He was also curious to try a Spiritual Art for the first time after all.

Before doing that, though, he decided to inspect his newly opened Spiritual Sea. The first thing he noticed after breaking through was how much more aware of his inner body he was, even without using his expanded awareness. It felt as if he could picture his entire spiritual veins in his mind with a single thought, which would make controlling Spiritual Energy a much easier task.

When he inspected his Spiritual Sea, he saw a softly glowing sphere at the center of his torso. No longer was the barrier there, and now Red had full access to this organ.

The youth tried to examine the insides of his Spiritual Sea, and what he saw made him surprised. It felt as if his mind had been transported to a different space. He was on the inside of a sphere, presumably the Spiritual Sea, except it seemed far bigger on the inside than on the outside. It felt about a hundred meters across, and Red was uncertain whether this was its true dimensions or just the perspective his mind offered him. The inner walls of this sphere seemed to be composed of a glowing blue barrier that dictated the limits of this space.

What caught his attention, however, was something else. Floating at the center of this space was a small mist of dark blue substance.

Red recognized it as Spiritual Energy.

The amount was so pitiful as to be negligible, yet the realization still hit the youth all the same. He could now store Spiritual Energy inside his body, and in turn, perform Spiritual Arts on his own.

“Are you done poking around?”

Aurelia’s voice dragged him out of his concentration.

Red looked at her with a frown. “I don’t have enough energy to do a Spiritual Art yet.”

She snorted. “Just gather it. We are still in the middle of a leyline convergence.”

‘Draw it in?’

The youth almost forgot he could do that now.

Indeed, just as the woman said, there was plenty of energy around him, which he could feel now more clearly than ever before. The problem was, however, that he still didn’t really memorize the Lesser Ring Realm circulation technique of the Storm’s Blessing manual.

Aurelia seemed able to guess his worries. “Don’t worry about circulation! Just draw in enough energy to execute a wind blade. I only care about your technique, not your power.”

Red nodded and followed her instructions.

This was his first time doing anything of the sort, so he wasn’t entirely sure how to accomplish such a task. He focused on his Spiritual Sea, which he could now clearly feel in the center of his torso, and like a muscle, commanded it to draw in the surrounding energy.

Sure enough, he felt something being drawn into his body. Spiritual Energy started to enter his body through his acupoints with an ease that Red had never felt before.

It was a world of different compared to his vein opening technique.

After thirty seconds, Red felt as if he had gathered enough energy in his veins to execute the wind blade technique Aurelia requested. This Spiritual Art was one of the simplest techniques out there, just like a fireball or an ice lance, and it was something that was spread to the public at large such that even the youth knew how to execute it.

That being said, its power still shouldn’t be underestimated, as any mortal would likely perish if they were hit directly by such a technique.

Red recalled the path he was meant to circulate the energy in and moved the current inside his body. The movement was somewhat sluggish at first, yet as this stream of energy passed through more and more acupoints, it underwent a fundamental change.

It started to become wind energy.

Once this happened, Red felt an instinctual understanding of how to proceed. He felt as if manipulating the energy became much easier and the speed at which it circulated through his veins became much faster. In fact, the youth even felt comfortable making a few deviations from the technique, circulating the energy through a different path in his veins to further refine it.

Once he felt the energy was completed, he directed it towards his right arm.

He raised his finger towards a tree. As the energy left his body, Red still felt as if he could exert control over it with the help of his Spiritual Sea, so he started to shape it into the form of a blade. The task went through without a hitch, and a large blade of condensed wind formed in front of him even faster than it did with a talisman.

A second later, the blade was completed, and Red released all its accumulated power.

It flew towards the tree, cutting it in half like butter. The energy of the technique didn’t even dissipate in its entirety, and clashed against another tree behind the first one, causing it almost to splinter in half as the condensed wind exploded.

Once Red saw the results, he nodded with satisfaction. At the very least, it seemed as if he had a handle on this basic technique.

He looked over at Aurelia. “How is it…?”

The youth trailed off as he saw the woman staring at him as if she saw a ghost.

“You… How much exactly did you learn in that place?” she asked.