CHAPTER 86: SPIRITUAL CONNECTION

Chapter 86: Spiritual Connection

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In a dark space, devoid of anything, a certain figure floated.

There was no up or down, the only point of reference here was the figure of Zhu Rong, suspended there, unconscious.

No one knew how much time had passed before he finally woke up.

His mind was still foggy, and the sudden turn of events with that blood pearl was still unclear to him.

As he tried to sort out his mental confusion, he finally turned his gaze toward the space around him, and the moment he did, he immediately understood what had happened to him.

’Looks like the strain was too much, so much so that my mind decided to bring me here to avoid damaging my consciousness,’ he thought as he began to piece together what had happened.

Normally, a cultivator in his condition would’ve just passed out, or worse, died without even knowing it.

But for those with strong mental power, things like this could be avoided to some extent thanks to certain self defense mechanisms the mind develops over time.

One of those is exactly this, a state designed mainly to protect one’s consciousness, which, among all parts of the body, is directly tied to a being’s soul.

Damaging it would also mean hurting the soul itself, and he knew it’s not a pleasant experience.

Zhu Rong had, unfortunately, experienced that pain back when he still had his deformity, which at one point even hurt his mind, eventually leading it to develop this kind of mental defense mechanism.

That said, he looked around and had to admit that his sea of consciousness was different from the past.

It was empty, completely devoid of anything, as if it hadn’t taken any shape yet.

Other than him, there was nothing else, or almost nothing.

’Hmm, and where did that come from?’ he asked himself as his gaze landed on something not far away, so thin it nearly blended with the surrounding space.

It was a small sphere with a string attached to it, a bright red one, thin and long, so long that he couldn’t even tell where it led.

He only knew that it was connected to that red sphere.

He floated toward it, and once he got close, he had to admit it looked a bit like that blood pearl that had just tortured him.

’Could it actually be that thing? But how is it here? It already parasitized my body and now it’s trying to invade my soul too?’ he thought,

realizing that if it was already here, then it had already infected him to a large extent.

He didn’t know what to do,

right now, while being stuck here, he couldn’t do anything.

He needed to regain consciousness and see what was happening in the outside world.

He had taken the blood pearl from the cocoon, so it was likely that the creature inside had been disturbed and very likely might have already strat awakening.

If his body was still there by then, then only certain death awaited him.

Even though he didn’t know how much time had passed, the mere fact that he could still exist inside his sea of consciousness said a lot about his current state.

He understood he hadn’t completely lost hope of getting out of this situation.

At that moment, the small red sphere began to glow faintly, and seeing that, Zhu Rong was confused.

The presence of the sphere here was already alarming, but the fact that it seemed to be connected to something else made it even more concerning.

He wondered for a moment if he should try to check and see who, or what, was on the other side.

’Hmm... If things go wrong, I should be able to pull my consciousness back in time,’ he told himself, deciding to give it a shot.

He raised his right hand and touched the red sphere, trying to sense where the connection attached to this sphere was leading.

The moment his finger made contact, his vision changed, it darkened for a moment before returning.

When it did, his surroundings were no longer the sphere or his sea of consciousness, but a vast green expanse with a small clearing that seemed to be getting smaller and smaller,

as if he was moving farther and farther away from it.

’That... that’s the mine.’

It didn’t take him long to realize where that place was, but his vision didn’t stop there.

As if it were following a straight path, it suddenly shot forward, accelerating more and more, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish what was unfolding before his eyes.

First, the wide stretch of greenery, then a big mountain, around which the vast expanse began to thin out.

After that, it just kept going, it didn’t stop there.

Still, he managed to recognize the place clearly, it was exactly where he had died in his past life,

Mount Chijing.

Which made sense, since the vast forest that held the mine’s entrance ended close to the base of Mount Chijing, and that realization gave him a solid understanding of where this vision was headed.

The Lushan province was in the northeast of the human empire, and Mount Chijing sat near its far northern edge, just before the great Mountain Range.

’This might be a good chance to take a look over there,’ he thought, now knowing exactly where his vision was taking him,

and in fact, it didn’t take long before he got there.

After hundreds of miles, his vision reached the massive mountain range,

Long and majestic in its glory, standing like a giant wall shielding the three kingdoms from the threats of the icy lands beyond.

Just as he expected, his vision didn’t stop there. In fact, it soared over it at high speed, pushing forward faster and faster.

At this point, Zhu Rong found it harder and harder to make out where this connection was leading him.

The more he advanced, the harder it was to distinguish the surroundings.

At first, he saw a completely frozen land, like a forest at the foot of the mountain range on the far side, seemingly white and covered in snow, blending in with the landscape.

But then, further ahead, it all became too blurry.

He realized it wasn’t his vision that was failing, but that as he got closer to the destination, the speed of the vision increased more and more.

At this point, he wasn’t even sure how many miles had already gone by.