"Everyone thinks they know themselves best, but how many people have really spent time exploring their own hearts? You humans face too many temptations every day, and your minds are always on external things, and most of you don't think about introspection. But the Sea of Consciousness Shadow Scroll will mercilessly reflect your entire mind, leaving nothing filthy behind." The book spirit pointed at Li Jia's heart and said, "You look like a little girl now. When you grow up, you look in the mirror and find that you are an ugly monster. It's really pitiful."
"There's nothing to sympathize with. But no one would be happy to see that their soul is like an underground tunnel." Li Jia shook his head, "At least I have been restraining these thoughts. No one knows the value of light better than those who recognize darkness. In this meditation space, at least I have the opportunity to change myself. At least I have the opportunity to illuminate my own heart, right?"
The book spirit nodded slowly: "I hope you are really as you say. As a soul reader, I hate losers the most."
"Loser? In the meditation space, what is success and what is failure?"
Li Jia seemed to be asking a very simple question, but Shu Ling's expression was unprecedentedly serious, which formed a strong contrast with her seductive appearance. "The Creator once told me that a successful person is someone who completely transforms himself. A loser is someone who is lost in the will of others and his own instincts."
"Transform yourself?" Li Jia was a little confused.
"Mortals have complex and fragile minds, while magicians have pure and open minds. The more powerful the magician, the more this is true. Even if it is a necromancer who is regarded as the source of evil by the world, or a battle mage who has killed countless people, his spiritual world must be a beautiful place."
"What does this have to do with power? Does the beauty of the spiritual world have something to do with the strength of the spiritual power?"
"Your mind is like an unprocessed ore, while the mind of a strongman is a piece of fine iron that has been refined through alchemy and hammered a thousand times. Which weapon will be more powerful?" The book spirit asked back using a metaphor.
Li Jia seemed to understand something, and he asked again: "What does it mean to be lost in the will of others and your own instincts?"
"Just like just now, you were attacked by the distracting thoughts in the wind. If this thought is strong enough, it will affect your thinking. If you lose your original heart... then the consciousness that is talking to me now will no longer exist. Some of these thoughts come from other people's views of you, and some come from your biological instincts."
Li Jia showed a shocked expression: "You mean, we will be affected by other people's views on us? What other people think of me and what they think of me will slowly affect me? But we live among people, so isn't what other people think of us important?"
"Whether other people's opinions are important depends on whether you are strong or weak. I have seen some of your memories. Being influenced by others is not unfamiliar to you, right?"
"Yes, I live for others most of the time. Be a good child, read good books, don't fall in love too early, get into a good university, be a humble, cautious, obedient, and well-behaved person, or be more open-minded, bolder, and make more friends with others... I have heard countless advices of this or that kind in my life, and sometimes they even contradict each other, leaving me at a loss as to what to do."
"For a magician, what kind of person I am is the most important. The purpose of training is to make me become that kind of person, whether it's a brave savior or a demon king of destruction. That's the path I'm looking for and I'll follow to the end."
"So that's how it is... What about instinct?"
"That's even easier." Shu Ling suddenly showed a charming and seductive smile, approached Li Jia, gently put her head on his shoulder, hooked his neck with one hand, stroked his face with the other hand, and asked in a tender voice: "What if I don't want you to learn those annoying magics, but want to do something more interesting with you?"
What's the problem? The painting style changes in an instant! Li Jia felt that his heart was about to jump out. He quickly broke free from the other person's hand, stepped back a few steps, stared at the ground, and said loudly: "Don't do this, don't do this, I know you are not her."
"But what if she said that?"
"I, I..." Li Jia stuttered.
"You see, this is one of the things you have to overcome, otherwise you won't go far." Shu Ling returned to his original posture with his hands on his hips.
"You, don't you feel embarrassed?"
"I'm a spirit, not a human. I don't have so many opinions about what's good and what's bad. Besides, my performance just now was extracted from the fantasy in your heart. Haha, who should be embarrassed?" The book spirit laughed, covering his mouth.
Li Jia grunted for a long time and asked, "What would happen if I really fell?"
"Most fallen magicians will lose their power or simply die. But some magicians will fall into a state of frenzy. They have no clear mind, but they still have magical instincts, which makes them very dangerous and difficult to understand. Such madmen usually cause great harm. In the history of the Dream Tower, there was a saint who became depraved and mad because his wife and daughter were brutally killed by his opponents. Because of him, an entire city-state fell into his frenzied sea of consciousness projection for three years. It took the masters of the Dream Tower and the Sword Tower a full six months to break through his domain and finally kill him in the sea of consciousness projection. And the people in the entire city-state had already died and turned into various undead creatures."
"It seemed as if he had gained tremendous power."
"It's just crazy and disorderly power. Don't desire that kind of power, just take care of yourself."
Li Jia shook her head and said, "I'm not crazy, I'm just curious. Tell me what to do."
The book spirit walked to the wall of the tunnel and patted the stone wall with his hands. Strangely, every time he patted the wall, there was no sound as it should have. Instead, the wall felt broken and turned into rising mist, as if the material that made up the wall was broken into extremely fine particles and vibrated.
As her hand left, all the particles returned to their original positions and became the original wall. Li Jia watched Shu Ling's movements, and then he tried to knock on the wall himself. It was hard and cold, just like the walls he had touched in the real world.
"Remember, all of this is not real matter, but your spiritual power. The torch is it, the strong wind is it, and it also protects the flame. The part of your spiritual power that you can control is still too weak to shake the other parts of your consciousness and subconsciousness. But as you practice, you will be able to do more and more things in this world. At that time, your most powerful force will be your imagination."
"It seems that you are powerful enough to interfere with my meditation space?" Li Jia asked.
The book spirit gently waved at the torch on the wall, and a cluster of flames separated from the flames as if alive. The flames danced in the air as the book spirit waved its fingers. After dancing for a while, the flames turned into a vivid fire dragon. The dragon was as long as a finger, shaking its head and tail while flying, baring its teeth and claws. Finally, the fire dragon circled the book spirit's body several times, and then turned into a stream of fire and plunged into the torch. The book spirit spread his hands and said, "If you do anything for a long time, you will become a skilled worker. I can't remember how many mage apprentices I have stepped into. The world at your level is simply defenseless to me."
"Will I be able to do that in the future?"
"Of course, this is just a little trick to broaden your horizons. You are a magician, and you should have a higher goal in your meditation space."
Li Jia thought for a while, concentrating on watching the torch. After a while, the torch suddenly trembled, and then the flame began to twist, as if some force was pulling them. This state lasted for a while, and then the flame suddenly surged up, reaching a height of nearly one meter, and burned all the way to the top of the tunnel. Li Jia stared at this scene in amazement, and whispered, "I obviously just wanted to separate a cluster of flames."
"Take your time. But I suggest you don't waste your recent achievements. Try to see if you can enter the tunnel ahead with this powerful torch."
Li Jia nodded, holding the big torch, and slowly walked into the fork in the road ahead. However, when he just put the torch into the tunnel entrance, the sound of the wind sounded again, and the flame swayed rapidly, and after a few seconds, it was completely blown out.
"This doesn't work?" Li Jia stepped out with the extinguished torch, then gathered other torches to light the fire again.
"Remember, this is a meditation space. You are limited by your own imagination." The book spirit said behind him.
Li Jia seemed to have realized something. He concentrated his mind again and imagined that there was a lampshade outside the torch in his hand. The flame on the torch was disturbed again and started to move without wind. Li Jia stroked the outer edge of the flame with his hand, like a wizard. Creating a barrier out of thin air seemed much more difficult than increasing the existing flame. Li Jia danced there for a long time like a bad magician, until there seemed to be a layer of shield outside the torch flame.
It took Li Jia a lot of energy to create such a barrier and maintain its existence, not to mention the physical strength consumed by constantly changing postures. He found that in this meditation space, the feeling of physical fatigue was no different from the real world. He panted and said to the book spirit: "I hope it works this time. I feel like my spirit is being drained."
Then, he carefully maintained the barrier and walked slowly into the tunnel step by step.
After a while, the light in the tunnel became brighter, and a new torch appeared on the wall of the fork in the road.