"I'm home."
Wu Huang entered casually and took off his shoes, placing them on a small rack beside the door. Then he put on a pair of slippers.
"Is no one here?" he wondered when he saw the place empty and heard no sound from inside.
He went up the stairs to the second floor and quickly checked the rooms. Seeing no one, he realized he was alone, so he simply went to his room.
He changed out of his uniform into a white shirt and a pair of comfortable pants. Then he sat on the bed and checked his phone for a while, not doing much else.
While he was doing so, a message arrived:
[You should already be home.I went out to take care of a few things and I'll be back tonight.You can do whatever you want in the meantime.I left food in the refrigerator. Don't forget to eat.]
The message ended with a smiling face emoji.
After reading it, Wu Huang replied:
[I'm already home. I'll eat later, thanks.]
Then he set the phone aside and lay down on the bed.
…
He stared into the empty air for a while.
"Why not?"
Bored and with nothing to do, he simply did the first thing that came to mind. First, he set a timer on his phone and placed it aside. Then he sat on the bed, crossed his legs, rested his hands on his lap, closed his eyes, and focused.
After entering meditation, Wu Huang's mind gradually calmed, and his consciousness slowly sank inward. The sensations of the outside world gradually faded until a complete emptiness took over all his senses.
Then he entered a strange space. There was no up or down, and there was no sense of time or space either.
The only thing present there was a kind of energy without form or substance that filled everything like uncondensed smoke. The entire space was full of this energetic mist, which from the outside looked like a vast, nebulous star cloud.
It wasn't an image that could be seen with the eyes, but rather a more direct and essential perception.
This space was nothing more than his inner world. His inner world was the purest manifestation of his mind: thoughts, longings, desires, fears, and hatred; emotions in their entirety were woven together in this place, creating a chaotic image.
And in the outermost layer of his inner world dwelled a strange energy. This energy wasn't large at all, and its presence was minimal: it was psionic energy. Its small scale and negligible impact showed just how weak it was.
Wu Huang then focused his mind and expanded his consciousness throughout the place. The cloud of stellar energy was his psionic energy. With a single thought, he calculated the entire volume of the energy.
"There's still a long way to go before I can enter the Condensation stage," he couldn't help but sigh.
There were three main stages before one could reach the Middle Stage: Concentration, Condensation, and Solidification.
The natural energy used for spiritual practice was like smoke inside the body: it lacked form and substance. In the first stage, the cultivator had to accumulate large amounts of this energy in the spiritual core until it was completely filled.
The second stage consisted of condensing that energy into spiritual droplets, similar to water. At that point, the energy became denser and could be used more freely.
The third stage was Solidification, in which numerous spiritual droplets were compressed until they formed a solid structure, creating a Spiritual Core.
Each stage required enormous amounts of spiritual energy that increased exponentially, and the time needed to advance between them was extremely long.
But even the Spiritual Core was only the first step toward being called a Psionite.
He tilted his head, dismissing those thoughts. He hadn't even entered the Condensation stage yet; thinking about such a distant future made no sense when he was still at the starting point.
He crossed his legs within his inner space and began moving his weak spiritual power outward.
The invisible, colorless energy extended outward and began to react with the surrounding energy. It slowly started to gather together, clustering bit by bit, and when enough had finally accumulated, he drew it into his body.
But as soon as it reacted, more than half of that energy escaped his control and dissipated into the air. In the end, less than ten percent of the natural energy he had attracted entered his body.
However, the process didn't end there. He began to accumulate his spiritual energy within that substance and influence it, gradually refining it until it transformed into spiritual energy. In the end, only a small portion truly managed to become spiritual energy and settled together with the rest inside his core.
"Two more points…" he couldn't help but sigh.
Just as he was about to continue, a sudden wave of dizziness struck him, as if the connection between his consciousness and the external perspective had abruptly snapped. The wondrous scene of the "inner world" immediately disappeared, and his consciousness returned from deep meditation to reality.
Wu Huang opened his eyes abruptly; intense fatigue and mental exhaustion nearly made him faint, and his temples throbbed.
"As expected… it's still too forced." He lay back on the bed, breathing with difficulty.
He looked at his phone and stopped the timer. The whole process had taken more than an hour, and even so, his spiritual energy had only increased from fifty-three to fifty-five. The practice in the gym during class had allowed him to gain a few points earlier, but even adding that, the progress was still painfully slow.
If it weren't for his studies, physical training, and all the other daily responsibilities, reaching the threshold of the Condensation stage probably wouldn't take him more than a month.
Moreover, spiritual power wasn't completely stable. Every day, a small portion dissipated naturally. Until a cultivator formed a Spiritual Core, that loss was inevitable.
That was why psionic practice was an extremely slow process that required patience and consistency.
The only major problem with doing this was that it left the mind extremely tired, so trying to do it again immediately would only be counterproductive. Although the pain was small and would fade with time, it would increase exponentially if done too frequently.
Once the feeling of exhaustion lessened, he stood up and stretched.
Then, the sound of the door opening could be heard.