Chapter 65: The Ability of the Cosmic Light Fragments

Chapter 65: Chapter 65: The Ability of the Cosmic Light Fragments

PHEW.

Chen Sha exhaled a breath of stale air in his room. After breaking through to the Peak of Grandmaster Realm, his Qi Power was as mighty as dragons and elephants. His endurance had also grown immensely; he could run five hundred miles in a single breath without panting. He was only in his twenties, yet he now possessed over sixty years of True Qi within him.

"That Ancient Transformation Dragon locked up in the back mountain used the Qi Stealing Technique to plunder the Power of who knows how many hundreds of people," he thought. "After refining the pure essence and discarding the dross, he claimed to only have three hundred years of Power."

The discrepancy simply lay in the fact that the True Qi stolen by the Qi Stealing Technique inherently contained the varying qualities of different cultivators. Some True Qi was pure, while others were heterogeneous. After all, the Qi Stealing Technique was not like the Great Yellow Court, which could command thousands of Martial Arts without the risk of suffering qi deviation. Ancient Transformation Dragon must have undergone a grueling process of refinement to purge the residual auras of others’ Power. Through this method, out of a hundred percent of plundered Power, converting even ten percent into his own was considered a high yield.

"The Inner Strength drops I obtain from clearing stages behind the Southern Heavenly Gate are completely different," Chen Sha mused. "I don’t know how the Power drops are processed, but they are entirely composed of pure, unadulterated Qi Power, utterly devoid of the original owner’s personal aura."

He couldn’t help but mutter to himself, "With such a miraculous difference, no one in the world has fortuitous encounters like mine."

Having broken through to the Grandmaster Peak, Chen Sha looked at the fresh meal placed at his door. He brought it inside and ate a simple meal, finally feeling his stomach stop its hungry rumbling. Even those in the Grandmaster Realm needed to eat.

"Now it’s time to see what these most miraculous Cosmic Light Fragments actually are," he thought.

Chen Sha closed his eyes and gently tapped his glabella with two fingers. The towering and majestic Southern Heavenly Gate stood within his Sea of Consciousness, its pillars flowing with vast Dao Rhymes. Suspended above the gate’s lintel was a shining object reminiscent of a star. That was exactly the Cosmic Light Fragments, now merged into one.

As Chen Sha gently touched his brow, the starry Treasure Pearl suspended in his Sea of Consciousness vanished from his mind, reappearing between his two fingers. It was a Gemstone as bright as a star, faintly shimmering with multicolored streams of light.

"The annotation provided by the Southern Heavenly Gate is: input a strand of True Qi, and the Cosmic Light Fragments will manifest things," he recalled.

Chen Sha deliberated for a moment before finally deciding to follow the instructions.

WHOOSH.

A strand of golden-yellow True Qi acting like a small dragon fell from between his fingers onto the surface of the Treasure Pearl, instantly sinking into it.

In that brief instant, Chen Sha acutely sensed a drastic change occurring inside the Treasure Pearl resting in his palm. Subsequently, an intimate connection with the Treasure Pearl materialized in his mind. This profoundly mystical link made Chen Sha realize that with just a thought, he could unfold the spatial dimension of this Treasure Pearl right inside his room.

BUZZ.

With a shift of his thought, a dazzling white light instantly expanded into the surroundings.

Chen Sha didn’t know if he had entered the space within the Treasure Pearl, or if the Cosmic Light Fragments of the Treasure Pearl had expanded to cover his room. His own room remained before him, identical in every detail of its layout. However, the single greatest difference was the person standing in front of him with his hands clasped behind his back. The figure, dressed in a loose Daoist Robe, was looking at him indifferently.

"Is this a projection of myself that the Cosmic Light Fragments manifested inside the Treasure Pearl using a strand of my Great Yellow Court True Qi?" Chen Sha thought as he locked eyes with his own silhouette. He could sense that he could freely control this half-real, half-illusory figure. The figure itself was transformed from a strand of his True Qi.

"I am the Daoist Chen Sha," Chen Sha spoke.

"I am the Daoist Chen Sha," the True Qi silhouette spoke in perfect synchronization. It possessed no sentience and was merely repeating what Chen Sha had just said.

"I understand now. This Incarnation is fundamentally my True Qi. It’s like playing a movie; he will only perform the actions I’ve done and say the words I’ve said in this space," Chen Sha deduced. "And building upon this foundation, I can also act as an external force to forcefully manipulate his speech and movements. He is naturally a strand of my True Qi, so of course, I can make him do whatever I want."

Chen Sha was currently very powerful, having already reached the Peak of Grandmaster Realm. Yet, to say he could transform his own True Qi into an avatar was too fantastical; it was not something a human could achieve. What was truly miraculous was the Cosmic Light Fragments themselves.

"Let me test the strength of this True Qi silhouette," he decided.

With a thought, Chen Sha directly commanded the opposite figure to exchange a palm strike with him!

BOOM!

An incredibly terrifying wave of True Qi detonated like thunder, sending shockwaves between the two of them.

CRASH!

In the span of a breath, everything inside his Sect Leader’s room was reduced to wood chips. Vases shattered, and tables, chairs, and stools went flying in all directions.

THUMP, THUMP!

Both of them simultaneously took a step back. Unlike Chen Sha, who was completely unscathed, the True Qi Avatar’s figure became somewhat illusory and less tangible.

Comprehension dawned on Chen Sha. "He is formed from a portion of my True Qi and can unleash an attack at my peak condition. However, he relies on my True Qi as the condition for his existence. Every attack consumes True Qi. I estimate that after striking three palms, his True Qi will be completely depleted, and he will dissipate."

To verify this, Chen Sha willed the avatar to strike two consecutive palms!

BANG! BANG! POOF!

As expected, the True Qi silhouette dissipated. At the same time, everything in the surroundings suddenly shattered like bubbles.

BUZZ.

The scenery of Chen Sha’s own room was restored before his eyes. Inside the room, the vases, folding screens, tables, chairs, and stools bore no traces of damage whatsoever.

"So, what just happened was an illusion manifested by the Cosmic Light Fragments based on the surrounding environment?" he mused. Pondering this, Chen Sha formulated an idea for a further experiment.

After daybreak.

He inputted True Qi into the Cosmic Light Fragments once more, but instead of choosing to enter it, he left for the back mountain.

During the day, three people in total came to Chen Sha’s room looking for him. They were the Little Daoist who delivered meals, along with Song Yu and Lin Qingqing. The moment they arrived at the door, they had already stepped into the alternate space manifested by the Cosmic Light Fragments. Moreover, after these individuals entered, Chen Sha could actually sense his own True Qi Avatar inside the Cosmic Light Fragments interacting normally with them.

After the visitors had departed.

Chen Sha returned from the back mountain and re-entered his room. With a thought, the surrounding Cosmic Light illusions naturally dissipated, flowing like streams of light into a Treasure Pearl resting on the table in his room. He picked up the Treasure Pearl and entered it once again.

He saw that this time, the room was actually continuously replaying the scenes of the meal-delivering Daoist, Song Yu, and Lin Qingqing coming in, just like a film reel. Chen Sha stood to the side, akin to watching a live-action stage play.

Inside the room manifested by the Cosmic Light Fragments, the meal-delivering Daoist knocked and entered first, saying, "Sect Leader, it’s time to eat."

"Acknowledged," the True Qi Avatar replied.

A while later, Song Yu arrived. "Junior Brother Sect Leader, the one-month deadline is approaching," he said upon entering. "You need to decide which of the three you will accept as a Named Disciple."

"Acknowledged," the True Qi Avatar replied.

Then, Lin Qingqing arrived. "Master, Master! I finally mastered all the Seventy-Two Paths of Void Clarity Fist on the last day of this month!" she declared.

The True Qi Avatar still gave the exact same response, "Acknowledged."

Lin Qingqing left dejectedly.

Subsequently, the scene of the meal-delivering Daoist began to manifest all over again. Chen Sha watched the endlessly looping scenes around him. It was like a ten-odd-minute live-action play stuck on repeat, playing over and over again.

"Is this the underlying principle of the trial scenarios I undergo within the Cosmic Light Fragments?" he wondered.

Inside the Cosmic Light Fragments, wasn’t he doing exactly this? Fighting the scenario characters within the fragments time and time again, repeating the cycle until he defeated them, which broke the loop and signified he had cleared the stage. The only difference was that the origin of the power sustaining the Cosmic Light Fragments behind the Southern Heavenly Gate remained unknown. In contrast, Chen Sha had manifested this current scene using his own True Qi.

"Perhaps it is precisely because of this difference that Hong Qigong in the fragment scenarios behind the Southern Heavenly Gate is no different from a real person, even possessing inner thoughts," he deduced. "Meanwhile, my True Qi projection will only repeat the words I have already spoken."

The phrase "Acknowledged" was something Chen Sha had deliberately left to be recorded in the fragment beforehand.

"If that’s the case, should someone on the mountain take this Treasure Pearl down with them, everything they experience would unknowingly be recorded within the Cosmic Light Fragments. Although I cannot descend the mountain myself, I could find out exactly what happened during their trip by watching the scenes recorded in the Cosmic Light Fragments they bring back..."