Light Barrier

Falling.

More falling.

Continuous falling.

Bang!

Awakening.

Gu Shen opened his eyes and found himself standing in a vast expanse of wilderness, with bits of grass dancing with the wind. Dark clouds were weighing down on the sky, and the faint rumble of thunder echoed within the rain-filled clouds. The entire world was quiet, eerily silent, as though it were the end of the world.

This place…

Memories resurfaced and stopped at the finger that Senior Sister Luo had pointed at him at the end.

“This is a dream created by a mental-type transcendent.” A familiar voice sounded.

Gu Shen turned his head in surprise and saw the cherished sight of the white dress he had been thinking about. The hem of the dress swayed in the wind, revealing the girl’s delicate, rosy calves.

Seeing Gu Shen’s bewildered expression, Chu Ling stroked her long hair back from her temple and asked with a smile, “What’s wrong? Don’t you want to see me?”

“No, of course not. How is that possible?!” Gu Shen hurriedly waved his hand. He deliberated over his words and said, “I just never expected… to meet you here.”

He felt a twinge of disappointment. If this is a dream Senior Sister Luo Er cast on me, then is everything now just my imagination?

“Although this is a dream, everything that happens here will become your true memories,” Chu Ling said. “Reality and illusory are inherently two worlds with blurred boundaries. No one can depict the exact entity and form of the spiritual consciousness that controls our bodies… but it truly exists. And in such a dream, the consciousness can manifest itself concretely.”

Gu Shen recalled his first encounter with Chu Ling. The 000 train… Was that also a dream?

“As for why I’m here, it’s not the time to explain yet,” Chu Ling said softly. “Gu Shen, you only need to remember that even without Deep Sea, I can still have a ‘mind connection’ with you. Therefore…

“As long as you need me, I will appear.” She looked at Gu Shen. “I promise.”

Gu Shen looked at the girl in a daze. In this dream-transformed world, everything was so vast that he couldn’t see the end of the wilderness. The sea of leaves could drown the young man and girl, and the dark clouds looming above were practically collapsing on them.

In this world… a person was so small and lonely.

But with one more person, he was no longer small and lonely.

“Hiss…” Gu Shen felt a headache and whispered, “I remember now. The reason I came here is because Senior Sister Luo wanted to show me something. What is that something?”

Regarding this question…

Chu Ling only smiled without answering.

Gu Shen realized that the answer to this question… needed him to uncover it personally. He stretched out his hand and grabbed a flying blade of grass. Everything here felt so real. There was residual ice and frost on the blade of grass that had not completely thawed.

He clenched his hand.

The ice crumbled into water.

More and more blades of grass flew up. Some broke free from the cover of the ice and frost, while some stretched out their tender green shoots. Under the cover of the lightning, this gray and desolate world gradually turned green, like a painting brought to life with color.

In the era of turbulent electronic currents, such scenery was rarely seen. Nowadays, the steel jungles were full of cold and coarse monstrosities of buildings. Newly-sprouted spring grass would soon be trampled on, and fresh patches of land would soon be uprooted. Even in an undeveloped wasteland, it was difficult to see large expanses of continuous wilderness.

As this painting expanded, the desolation and dilapidation were swept away. The rumbling thunder intensified, as though an invisible tide were pushing closer and closer.

Gu Shen seemed to see nature reviving, breaking from winter’s grasp as spring arrived. Countless leaves and blades of grass swept in, scattering and shattering the frost and snow.

He subconsciously adjusted his breathing.

All sounds became clear, including his breathing. At this moment, time seemed to slow down.

An invisible force guided Gu Shen to sit down and transformed him into a tiny blade of spring grass in the wilderness. The moment he sat down, a thin layer of frost and snow condensed on his hair, but the wind quickly blew it away.

Many blades of grass were blown up.

But he remained unmoving.

At this moment, there seemed to be many words injected into his mind, but there also seemed to be countless consecutive virtual images, broken lines, and smeared colors.

With a roar from the sky, spring thunder rumbled.

Information was exploding in his mind.

The continuous drizzle wasn’t heavy, but it covered the entire wilderness. The raindrops did not bring coldness. Instead, they made people feel incredibly warm.

This was a spring rain that was bringing the entire world out of winter.

Grass fell, landing on Gu Shen’s eyebrows, shoulders, and hair.

The young man forgot everything, and his breathing became as steady as stone. In this dream, Gu Shen seemed to be dreaming even deeper, and his mental power was slowly increasing. With every passing second, he felt more calm and at ease.

The girl in the white dress beside him watched with a smile, accompanying him quietly.

Countless blades of grass whistled past and were struck down by the rain. Only when they landed beside Chu Ling did they turn into broken numbers. In this perfect real world, because of the existence of the girl, there was a small illusory area that couldn’t be touched or accessed.

…

An unknown amount of time passed.

Gu Shen slowly opened his eyes and sensed the changes within him.

He felt as though he had slept for a long time, and yet this dream world seemed as real as ever.

The fatigue from using the Ruler of Truth and not resting enough had been completely swept away. Gu Shen’s heart was now full of positive emotions similar to ‘spring revival’.

He finally understood what the something that Senior Sister Luo said could help him control transcendental power was.

This dream was more like a teaching session.

There was nothing better than experiencing something firsthand. This entire dream world, from the grass to the lightning, all living beings were teaching him… how to breathe.

It was a method of breathing that could only be understood through experience, not words.

“Unbelievable.” Gu Shen’s eyes became even clearer and brighter as he looked at Chu Ling with gratitude in his eyes.

During his deep slumber, he could feel that someone was always by his side.

“This is the Jingzhe that Gu Changzhi left for the Adjudication Bureau,” Chu Ling said gently. “There shouldn’t be a breathing technique more suitable for newcomers than Jingzhe across the Five Continents. As long as you master this breathing technique and frequently temper your mind, you can greatly reduce the probability of losing control.”

“Jingzhe…” Gu Shen clenched his fists, feeling a vast power contained in his body. His spirit was now exceptionally full, as though he had endless energy.

It felt as though there was lightning hidden in his spine.

Just like the word Jingzhe!

“The only shortcoming is that comprehending Jingzhe is very, very, very difficult.”

Chu Ling used three verys in a row and looked at Gu Shen with a somewhat complicated expression. “For most people, even if they have the chance to come to this dream world, they won’t experience the slightest resonance or enlightenment.”

Gu Shen looked down at the blades of grass on his palm. Is it really that difficult?

But his comprehension didn’t seem to have encountered any difficulties. Everything went so smoothly that it wasn’t an exaggeration to describe it as smooth sailing.

“Did you choose to mind connect with me because you were afraid I would encounter trouble?” Gu Shen smiled. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

Chu Ling said noncommittally, “Yes, but not entirely. If I hadn’t entered this dream world, after you finish comprehending Jingzhe, this dream would have ended.”

Chu Ling raised her head and looked at the end of the world after the spring rain. The distant dark clouds dissipated, the layer of clouds shattered, and even the horizon at the end of sight began to shrink.

This dream world had begun to collapse, but blurry symbols and code descended from the sky, causing the collapse of the Jingzhe Dream to slow down to an incredibly slow pace.

“But it shouldn’t end like this.”

Gu Shen was taken aback.

“Perhaps you can see something different.” Chu Ling’s tone was very serious as she looked at Gu Shen with anticipation in her eyes.

“Something… different?” Gu Shen looked at this newborn world with hazy spring rain and felt an unprecedented sense of ‘affinity’ in his mind. After comprehending the breathing technique, every blade of grass, every tree, every movement of the wind in the entire world seemed to be connected to his heart.

He could… hear the sound of everything in this world.

“Is this really just an illusory dream?” Gu Shen murmured. “Why do I feel like everything here is so real?”

Chu Ling held her breath, waiting for the rest.

“I don’t mean that this dream is real.” Gu Shen thought for a moment, raised his head, and said word by word, “Why do I feel that this dream might… come into reality?”

Upon hearing this, Chu Ling smiled.

Her facial features were really beautiful. When she smiled, the whole world seemed to brighten. “Yes, who said that this is a dream? Perhaps this wilderness can really come into reality.”

This idea was really daunting.

Gu Shen asked carefully, “Is it really possible to turn illusions into reality?”

“As long as you believe, it will definitely exist.” Chu Ling’s voice became incredibly firm. “Many things are like this.”

Her expression was earnest, and her voice was sincere. It mingled and spread with the rain, enshrouding the surroundings and bringing a sense of peace to those who heard it.

The world was slowly collapsing.

Gu Shen no longer looked at the grass, the rain, or the lingering clouds. The scenery in his eyes was no longer important. All that remained was this girl.

He saw something different in Chu Ling’s eyes than in those of others.

“Belief is more important than anything else.”

…

The concept of time in the dream world was incomprehensible.

It was clearly very slow to comprehend.

But the collapse happened so quickly.

Nothing seemed to have happened, but the end of the world was already in sight. The sky was collapsing, replaced by countless lines of garbled code.

“By the way, it only took you fifteen minutes to complete your comprehension, a feat never before achieved in the history of the Adjudication Bureau.” Chu Ling smiled in the darkness.

“Of course, even if you took a day, a week, or a month to comprehend, it doesn’t matter. The road ahead is still very long, and I will always be by your side. When you need me, I will definitely appear.”

This time, it was the girl who stretched out her hand, wanting to touch the young man.

This time, there was still no real touch.

Garbled code flew all over.

Darkness enveloped.

The dream shattered.