Chapter 84: The World of Consciousness

“Compared to the understanding and application of energy by swordsmen, we mages can begin true cultivation of mental willpower as we advance to the Bronze rank. Unlike the vague meditations before, cultivating mental willpower is dangerous and difficult, as it delves into the fundamental levels of the soul. A slight mistake can cause mental harm—minorly leading to a decline in strength, and severely resulting in chaotic souls or even complete madness and destruction.”
“Therefore, mages from each faction generally possess unique methods passed down for cultivating mental willpower. Our faction inherits the meditation techniques of the ancient Arcane Masters. Thus, even if they are not very interested in alchemy, mages from our faction are usually quite skilled at creating artifacts through alchemy.”
“Now, I will guide you through your first cultivation of mental willpower.”
Then Mesel instructed Donald to enter a light state of meditation, following his instructions to proceed.
Donald was already very familiar with basic meditation and quickly entered the state, but the meditation method taught by his teacher this time was quite different from before.
Ordinary meditation involves entering a state of unconsciousness to sense mental energy, thereby guiding magic to flow and gather within the body. This new method, however, requires blocking all sensations in the body and allowing consciousness to enter the depths of the soul.
Following Mesel’s step-by-step guidance, it took Donald two hours before he inadvertently succeeded in entering the depths of his own mind—the so-called World of Consciousness, also known as the Sea of Consciousness.
His World of Consciousness was empty and pitch black, with only a beam of light resembling a star in the center illuminating an area of a few meters around it.
The beam was slightly taller than a person, but in the dark consciousness space, it seemed to reach the heavens—this was Donald’s own soul’s origin.
At this moment, Donald’s consciousness was in a state of slow thinking. He had only instinctive reactions to everything he saw, rather than thinking as he would under normal circumstances. This was because it was his first time entering the World of Consciousness, with his conscious mind still drowsy and now dominated by his subconscious.
Soon, a golden light appeared within the soul beam. The golden light gathered into the shape of a book, shining on Donald’s consciousness floating outside his soul. In an instant, like scenes from a movie, memories from past and present lives emerged simultaneously. Quickly, Donald’s conscious mind woke up from its drowsiness.

“The Book of Truth! Did you wake me up?” The golden book of light flickered as if in response.
“Hehe! You truly are my good companion!”
Once awake, Donald wandered around his own soul’s origin, and then he saw a transparent figure beginning to take shape before the pillar of light.
Eventually, that figure formed a person exactly like Donald, but it was actually Donald’s own soul consciousness projection that had formed instinctively after he regained consciousness. Since this was his own world of mental consciousness, Donald was like a god here—anything impossible in the outside world could be done here as long as he could think of it.
Of course, such achievements were illusory and could not be taken out of this world of consciousness. If he truly possessed the power of a true god, he could create tangible objects from nothingness.
The first step in the meditation techniques for transformation taught by Messel was to enter one’s own world of consciousness and then create a soul projection. But although Donald accomplished this so easily, other novice mages, even with the correct method, would need dozens or hundreds of attempts before they could grasp the technique.
Donald was able to do it so easily because the Book of Truth existed in his consciousness space, instantly awakening his dormant conscious mind. Moreover, he had read many descriptions of consciousness space in his past life; whether accurate or not, he felt they could be tried.
This idea actually aligned with the principles of consciousness space. Essentially, it was just a world imagined by Donald, but with the power of the soul as its foundation, it could also be considered a truly existing space.
Such a space was like drawing on a blank sheet of paper—whenever you could draw it, a real picture would form. But without the imagination to draw or the intention to do so, it would remain nothing but blankness.
After successfully forming his own soul projection, Donald began to carefully observe his consciousness space.
The first thing that caught his attention was the only source of light here: his own soul’s origin. With his soul-level intuition, he instinctively knew what it was.
On the pillar of light, besides the golden book of light formed by the Book of Truth, there were also various light points of different colors and brightness, scattered like stars across the pillar. If there had been more light points, his soul pillar would have resembled a brilliant galaxy.

Donald tried to project his consciousness onto one of the brighter golden dots, and soon he felt a complex pattern forming in his mind. Once the pattern was complete, a network of tiny silver lights emerged between heaven and earth. There was an area within that network that he recognized well; it seemed as though he could instantly arrive at any location within that area if he wished. Realizing this, Donald suddenly understood—it was nothing other than another manifestation of his first innate spell, Teleportation. There were only three golden dots on the soul pillar, all quite bright. They must be the three innate spells granted to him by the Book of Truth. Each dot existed on the outer layer of the soul pillar, indicating that these were abilities under Donald’s control. There were also dozens of silver dots, likely spells he had mastered himself. There were only a few red dots, and when Donald tried to sense them, he found they were innate spells and abilities bestowed by the Hunter class. “So this is how a spell appears at the soul level. Does that mean that as long as I can engrave the principle behind a spell on the soul pillar, I can master any spell?” But Donald’s soul projection immediately shook its head, abandoning this crazy idea. One must eat meals bit by bit and walk step by step to build a solid foundation. Then Donald thought that since this was a world of consciousness, he could do whatever he wanted. So he closed his eyes and imagined it, and soon the area illuminated by the soul pillar changed shape as if melting away, undergoing a dramatic transformation. Aside from the area where the soul pillar stood unchanged, the once empty void had now turned into a modern residence. The interior was comfortable and bright, with natural solid wood floors, high-tech appliances, and exquisite furniture. Even the bright afternoon sunlight streamed in through the windows. Apart from the absence of other people, it was exactly the perfect home Donald had dreamed of in his past life. Sitting on the leather sofa in the living room, Donald watched the 72-inch large-screen TV showing news from a certain day in his memory, feeling as though something was still missing. “Hehe! It would be perfect if there were some drinks and snacks!” As he thought this, several trays appeared on the coffee table in front of the sofa, filled with drinks and foods such as cola, chips, and chocolate.

While eating and drinking, he aimlessly switched channels, hoping to find a favorite program. But within a few minutes, Donald grew bored. The TV showed only fragments of programs from his past memories, and even the food and drinks he ate were merely illusions created by those memories. As a soul, he couldn’t have senses like taste. Even the warmth of the sunlight on him was just his imagination—there was no sun outside; only emptiness and darkness. As Donald’s mood grew more depressed, the scene before him changed again. All objects disappeared, and it reverted to a void filled only with a column of soul light. Experiencing his past life not only didn’t improve Donald’s mood but also dampened his will. Bored, he closed his eyes and left the world of consciousness. In the real world, Donald opened his eyes. Miesel, who was watching over him, immediately asked, “How was it? Did you feel the existence of the world of consciousness?” Donald took a deep breath, composed himself, and said, “The method you taught me is very effective. The world of consciousness is actually so interesting!” “What?” The old mage was shocked upon hearing Donald’s words, thinking he must have made some mistake in his practice. He quickly asked, “Tell me everything that happened after you entered the state of meditation.” Seeing the teacher’s upset expression, Donald somewhat surprisedly explained how he entered the world of consciousness, how he formed a soul projection, discovered the light points at the source of the magic, and created a room in his imagination. Of course, he deliberately omitted details about the Book of Truth and his past life. After hearing this, the old mage was completely stunned, muttering, “Impossible! How could this be? Entering the world of consciousness for the first time should be very difficult, right?” Donald replied, “Is it very difficult? I found it quite easy!” Miesel felt ashamed and explained the reasons to Donald with mixed emotions. According to the standards widely accepted in this world, if a mage could enter the world of consciousness, it meant he had officially broken through the Black Iron rank and entered the early Bronze stage. Mages who could form a soul projection in the world of consciousness were usually already at an advanced Bronze level, on the verge of breaking through to Silver, while most Silver-level mages only managed to form a soul projection. The more realistic the projection, the stronger the mage’s power.

Generally, only by reaching the Golden rank and having a foundation to grasp the superficial laws can one acquire the ability to create in the world of consciousness. Before that, no matter how much transformation occurred, it was merely a projection of one’s own soul. Yet Donald, having only just entered the world of consciousness, had already formed a clearly visible soul projection and even created a cozy space to dwell in. If other mages were to know of such talent and potential, even a Grand Golden Mage would surely feel ashamed! Thinking back to when he himself reached the Bronze rank, his teacher agreed to guide him, and he successfully entered the world of consciousness on his first attempt, receiving great praise for his talent, which was said to be rare even once in a hundred years. Now, his own disciple had achieved the creative ability typically reserved for Grand Golden Mages on just his first entry into the world of consciousness—what kind of genius was this? No, this could no longer be called a genius; it was a monster! Yet after experiencing shock, embarrassment, and other complex emotions at Donald’s performance, what Messel felt most was joy.