Chapter 504 - 501: Submerged Will

Chapter 504: Chapter 501: Submerged Will

The water level in the great lake of consciousness suddenly began to rise. A torrent of consciousness materialized from thin air, battering the two people within and leaving them dizzy.

The noisy voices continued to chatter all around them. The red points of light trembled violently, and the entire starfield quietly changed color.

"What’s going on?"

Zhou Dynasty saw the points of light suddenly converging and thought he had accidentally touched something taboo. He immediately looked at Li Luo, only to find Li Luo also staring blankly at the spiral arm, just like the other team members standing there in a daze.

He immediately rushed toward Li Luo. Just as he reached Li Luo’s side, the rampaging points of light swept him into the great lake.

"Huh?"

When he came to his senses, he had already merged with the lake’s water, the connection to his body now faint and tenuous.

’Damn it.’ Zhou Dynasty struggled to move, but in this torrent of consciousness, his commands couldn’t reach his limbs. His body had become incredibly sluggish.

Only a threadbare connection remained between his consciousness and his body. He was like a paralyzed man, his outstretched arm unable to reach Li Luo.

Zhou Dynasty was filled with regret. He hadn’t noticed the strange movements of these points of light in time, causing them both to become trapped in a quagmire of consciousness.

The free-floating consciousnesses weren’t deliberately trying to possess Zhou Dynasty’s body, but the sheer force of the torrent they created was enough to leave him on the verge of collapse. Only then did he realize he had underestimated the points of light in this forest all along.

While a few scattered specks of consciousness couldn’t overwhelm a person’s sanity, when they gathered together, they formed a powerful and terrifying tide.

Finally, Zhou Dynasty’s consciousness buckled under the pressure. Propelled by the tide, it broke free from his body and was sucked into a whirlpool.

He was swept along in a daze by countless points of light. Whispering conversations rustled around him, and a gentle, warm current enveloped him. Before he knew it, he had become one of them—another point of light.

When he was lucid again, he found himself in a river of stars.

And he himself had become one of the stars in that river.

"Did the convergence succeed?" a nearby voice asked.

"Almost."

The surrounding stars conversed calmly. Immersed in this river of stars, an unusually serene feeling filled Zhou Dynasty’s mind. It felt as if he would be safe no matter what happened.

But...

’This isn’t right! My consciousness was torn from my body, so what is there to be serene about?’ Zhou Dynasty quickly realized something was wrong. His form began to flicker violently, red light spilling from his body of light.

His reaction quickly resonated with the surrounding points of light. Sensing his anxiety, the once-calm points of light immediately began to console him.

"Don’t worry. The shell is unimportant. As long as consciousness exists, anything can serve as a body," the voices soothed.

"I just want my original body!" Zhou Dynasty said, his voice urgent.

"Just wait until the convergence is complete, then you can go back and find your body. By then, you won’t feel it’s so important anymore. All bodies in this world are like clothes. You may think they’re important when you’re wearing them, but once you take them off, they cease to matter."

The source of the voices was impossible to pinpoint. They simply continued to persuade Zhou Dynasty.

All he could feel were waves of reassurance washing over him from all sides, slowly calming his anxiety. The red light flickering from his form was distributed among the other points of light.

Zhou Dynasty couldn’t help but calm down, but he knew this wasn’t normal.

His problem hadn’t been solved; he had just been forcibly "cooled down."

The other points of light were like blocks of ice encasing a flame, forcibly suppressing his anxious emotions.

’Then what about my body?’ Every time the thought crossed Zhou Dynasty’s mind, his point of consciousness would flare with a dazzling red light. The light would then be distributed among the surrounding "calm" blue points and passed on to others in the collective.

As a result, his emotions fluctuated wildly. Swept up in the torrent of consciousness, he was unable to express his true feelings.

Meanwhile, countless rivers of stars flowed toward the same destination—the place the voices had called the "place of convergence."

Inevitably, Zhou Dynasty was carried along with the other points of light into this place of convergence.

Rivers converged into a lake, and the lake’s currents converged into an ocean. The points of light here were densely packed, and the noise was immense.

Zhou Dynasty drifted along, dazed and tumbling through the great sea, with no idea where he was.

"The convergence is complete. Prepare for departure. We’re going to fill the consciousness void," the surrounding voices discussed.

Hearing this, Zhou Dynasty’s focus sharpened.

Only then did he realize he was lying in a boundless sea of starlight.

Surrounding the sea of starlight was a thin, transparent membrane of light, which protected all the consciousnesses within. This was the very thing that allowed so many of them to gather in one place.

’Wait, this isn’t a membrane of light...’

’This is... a glass shell! I’m trapped in a glass sphere!’

This glass sphere contained all the converged consciousnesses. They existed within a starry sky, and that starry sky was itself trapped inside the glass sphere.

Zhou Dynasty could no longer suppress his shock. An active red light erupted from his form.

"The Eye of the Stars!"

Zhou Dynasty had never imagined he would find the Eye of the Stars this way.

Nor had he imagined that the first time he would see the Eye of the Stars would be from the inside looking out!

Soon, his shock was once again distributed among the surrounding points of light, and his consciousness gradually grew calm.

’I have to find a way back and tell Li Luo about this.’

Although Zhou Dynasty was somewhat disoriented, he still remembered the purpose of his journey: to find the location of the Eye of the Stars.

The only problem now was how to get this information out.

Just then, the points of light around him seemed to have heard his anxiety.

"Once the consciousness void is filled, the convergence will be released. You’ll be able to return to your body then."

These points of light seemed utterly selfless. No matter what questions Zhou Dynasty had, they would answer them.

’But aren’t these points of light supposed to be aligned with the Eye of the Stars?’

’He wanted to pass news about the Eye of the Stars to another faction, so why were they still guiding him?’

A sliver of doubt rose in Zhou Dynasty’s mind.

Just then, the surrounding points of light responded to him once more:

"Your way of thinking is too narrow. There should be no factions among consciousnesses. You are distressed because you cannot pass on information, and we can empathize with that. My duty is to eliminate your distress, otherwise it will spread to me and cause me to suffer as well."

"Try to feel it. What is everyone distressed about right now? If you could empathize, you would understand why I am doing this..."

The voice spoke a series of cryptic phrases that left Zhou Dynasty feeling lost.

"Your heart has thick walls. You are wary of us, so of course you cannot empathize. But that, too, is your choice."

"Even stars cannot truly understand one another, so how could we?"