Chapter 8: The Way of the Wizard and Awakening of Secret Power

By the campfire, Avia cautiously extended her right hand. It looked somewhat ethereal, yet it was caught firmly by Wang Yu’s hand, which radiated a pale violet glow; there was no passing through.

"Yes!" Avia cried out in delight, then looked with a touch of embarrassment at Wang Yu, who had fallen into deep thought.

"It seems your hypothesis was correct. Your right hand only appears ethereal; in reality, it has merged with the Void. As long as I coat my hand with the projected power of the Void, I can touch yours."

Wang Yu concluded after a moment of contemplation.

"Right? It’s wonderful. I’ve had this ability since I was very young, but the moment I used it once, I was marked by some entity."

"That thing hides within my mental palace and the projections of the Void. Once I use that ability again, it drags me into the Void."

"But now it’s fine! Although my ability isn't as potent as it once was, I no longer have to worry about being pulled into the Void!" Avia was overjoyed.

The nightmare that had plagued her since childhood had inexplicably crawled into Wang Yu’s body and been crushed to pieces, and the path of the wizard, which she had thought forever closed, was now reopened. How could she not be happy?

"That is indeed good news. Let’s test it out."

"If we go by the terminology of that old wizard, Yego, this ability to awaken from the Void is something every seeker on the wizard’s path learns first, and it is the one most likely to be pushed to its ultimate limit."

"The old wizard’s notes mention that wizards call this 'Arcane Power.' Yours seems to be of a healing nature. I’ll make a cut, and you try it."

As he spoke, Wang Yu took out a small dagger he had scavenged and opened a shallow wound on his arm.

"Alright... but tell me, Wang Yu, can you not feel pain?" Watching the bright red beads of blood drip from his arm, Avia couldn't help but ask.

Her actions, however, did not cease; she channeled her Arcane Power toward him.

"No, it hurts. I’m a normal person," Wang Yu replied, sounding a bit puzzled.

"Oh, I see..."

The mental palace acted as a bridge for psychic energy, connecting to the Void, and energy from that abyss was channeled into Avia.

The ethereal right hand, which had caused her so much trouble, now served as the perfect conductor.

Existing simultaneously in the Void and in reality, it allowed the Void energy to flow through her hand with perfect smoothness and zero loss.

As the power activated, Avia pressed her palm against Wang Yu’s wound. The violet radiance turned into a liquid, pouring into the gash and spreading evenly.

These energies autonomously materialized, becoming new skin and flesh to mend the injury.

In less than a minute, the wound on Wang Yu’s arm was fully repaired, leaving no trace of its existence.

"Truly miraculous. The utility of your Arcane Power far exceeds my initial expectations."

Wang Yu watched as the Void energy autonomously twisted reality to become a part of his own body. It felt extraordinary, and he sensed that Avia’s ability was far from limited to this.

"Is... is that so? I... I feel a bit dizzy. The mental strain is quite high; I need to... sleep for a while." Having completed the minor repair, Avia was already suffering from overexertion.

One could see faint violet light spots lingering on her forehead—a sign of the Void’s influence. If a wizard did not use psychic power to shield their mental palace, they would be twisted by the Void, their minds turning to madness and their bodies to monsters.

"Get some rest." Wang Yu patted Avia’s shoulder and helped her lean against the horse, Toret.

"Good... night." Exhausted by the drain on her spirit, Avia mumbled a sleepy farewell and drifted into a deep slumber.

Looking at the clouds on the horizon, now tinged with the faint light of dawn, Wang Yu shook his head. "Good night? It’s almost daybreak."

He took out the old wizard Yego’s notes. Successfully grasping Avia’s ethereal hand meant that Wang Yu had made contact with the Void.

He had successfully channeled Void energy into himself, allowing him to touch her hand like a glove.

But merely channeling the energy was not enough. A wizard’s true power lay in using that energy to warp reality, making the world run according to their will.

Of course, this was the old wizard’s understanding, and Wang Yu was merely mimicking the motions. He knew too little; even the path of the knight, which he understood relatively better, remained only partially grasped. There was much to learn in the future.

However, he knew that one must focus on the present; the power one can hold in one's hand is the only true power.

To abandon what one can grasp now in favor of a potential future seemed, to him, both undesirable and foolish.

And so, the next step was to follow the guidance in the notes, truly step onto the wizard’s path, and awaken his own Arcane Power.

He calmed his heart, emptied his mind of distracting thoughts, and imagined an eye within his body.

He looked at the world through this "inner eye."

This was a meditation method Wang Yu had devised himself. Meditation was a metaphysical concept, yet not entirely so; there was no fixed method, as everyone found what worked best for them.

The goal was the same: to perceive one’s own psychic energy and, through one's own method, manifest it. The first step to becoming a wizard was to use this manifested energy to construct a mental palace within one's mind.

As the "inner eye" was manifested by his psychic energy, Wang Yu successfully viewed himself from a different perspective.

It was as if he were in the third person, watching himself meditate with closed eyes from the viewpoint of an observer.

He then lowered his perspective, moving from his position above his own head into his body. In an instant, a different space appeared before him.

"Is this the mental space?" Wang Yu thought.

It was a marvelous realm. Beneath his feet lay an endless lake, clear as a mirror, reflecting both himself and a deep, boundless starry sky—magnificent, dangerous, and mysterious in its hue.

Looking up, Wang Yu beheld the spectacular expanse of stars.

It was a grand sight constructed by countless stars; different bright luminaries were arranged across the sky, the infinite heights radiating an indescribable, brilliant light.

What should have been a dead, dark void was here a place of extreme, terrifying charm, as if countless entities were whispering and roaring in madness upon it.

When you look up at this magnificent starry sky, you might feel as though you are staring into a true abyss.

It was too vast, too empty. What appeared to be bright colors were, in reality, merely pathetic filler in an endless, dark, and silent space.

Whenever one realized this, one could not help but feel that it was not above, but below—that one was falling into a dark, silent abyss. Such a feeling was enough to drive one mad.

Of course, Wang Yu simply thought the starry sky looked quite nice. He knew it was the Void—a background layer that existed everywhere, woven into the reality of the world.

Psychic energy was the bridge between reality and the Void, and that starry sky was the reflection of the Void within the human mental space. To commune with this sky was to commune with the Void of the world.

"Truly magnificent. I seem to hear something... is this the precursor to the madness the old wizard spoke of?" Wang Yu thought silently.

"No, this is not a hallucination, nor a sign of madness. Something in this starry sky is truly screaming."

"Such a strong sense of déjà vu. Madness, infinity, the unknown—the 'background layer' of this world feels a bit Lovecraftian. No wonder wizards fall into madness."

Wang Yu felt something shrieking in the starry sky. The madness it radiated was like a lethal virus, infecting anything of order that did not belong to the chaotic essence of the Void.

That thing was likely the root of a wizard’s madness. Clearly, it was not something Wang Yu could investigate yet, though it could not affect him either; his will was sufficient to render him immune to anything that might compromise his spirit.

"Two earplugs, please." In the mental world, a soul with self-awareness was incredibly free; a simple thought could manifest whatever one desired.

Two earplugs appeared in his hand. He inserted them, and the annoying noise from the stars vanished instantly.

He nodded with satisfaction. The next step was to construct his mental palace.

He would build a fortress of his own in his mental space—the safest and most comfortable place he could imagine. This would become the cornerstone for carrying his spells.

More importantly, it would serve as a sanctuary against the erosion of the Void.

Only by staying within their mental palace could a wizard safely channel the power of the Void; otherwise, they would be exposed and eroded into something indescribable.

He imagined his favorite place within his mental space. Wang Yu knew his willpower was strong enough.

Protection was not the primary concern, so functionality and comfort became the focus of his construction.

As he manifested his memories into reality with psychic energy, threads of Void energy descended from the infinite galaxy above, pouring into this illusory realm.

With the falling starlight, the illusion gradually became real. The once-ethereal appearance solidified, and finally, it became a true existence within Wang Yu’s mental space.

The mental palace existed in the duality of being and non-being. It was real, yet it existed only within the mental space.

It was not false; it was a tangible reality, existing not in the material world, but within the sanctuary of the mind.

The facade of the mental sanctuary within Wang Yu’s consciousness was nothing more than a door—a plain, white wooden door, utterly unremarkable.

Upon it sat a tarnished, verdigris-coated metal handle, with a set of keys dangling from the lock, worn and weathered by the passage of time.

With a faint smile, he bypassed the key entirely; he knew well that the lock was broken, and the key served no purpose. He simply pulled the handle.

He stepped through the threshold, entering a space that appeared to be a door leading to nowhere, yet he walked into it all the same.

A bright, white-walled bedroom greeted him, dominated by a wooden loft bed, though in truth, only Wang Yu ever slept there.

A desk stood cluttered with miscellaneous debris; Wang Yu had never once sat there to do his homework.

A bookcase held a collection of volumes he despised—dense, moralizing tomes—their thin layer of dust a testament to how long they had gone unread.

In the corner sat an air conditioner, his lifeline during the summer, and beneath it, a guitar—one of the few talents he had carried over from his past life.

He sat on the bed with a smile and strummed the guitar twice. The tactile sensation was identical to the one he remembered, though it had been so long since he had played that the resulting melody made him wince.

Leaning back against the familiar, comfortable bed, Wang Yu felt a genuine sense of joy. This was his favorite place, the bedroom he had inhabited since childhood, a sanctuary where he always felt an innate sense of peace and ease.

Satisfied with the mental sanctuary he had constructed, he reached out and picked up a notebook from the desk, flipping it open to reveal his old, handwritten notes.

Such ugly handwriting, yet so unmistakably his own. It was time to awaken his arcane talent, and this notebook would serve as the cornerstone.

It seemed a casual choice, but in truth, everything in this room was a manifestation of void energy and Wang Yu’s own mental power. The walls, the bed, the desk—theoretically, any of them could serve as a conduit for the void.

According to the old mage, the first spell constructed within one’s mental sanctuary would trigger the awakening of an arcane talent, with the void bestowing a unique, singular ability based on one’s affinity.

Such a talent would consume the least amount of energy, cause negligible erosion, and generally possess the highest potency compared to any spells constructed thereafter.

The old mage had claimed that this talent was a testament—a proof of the bond forged between oneself and the void.

It was a special, spell-like ability, a kind of "newcomer’s bonus." It functioned less like a traditional spell and more like a superpower; Avia’s ability was of this very nature.

Wang Yu held the notebook and leaned back, his thoughts drifting toward the boundless space outside the window. Using his mental power as a medium to commune with this projection of the void, he drew down pinpricks of starlight.

The external void seemed to stir with excitement; another existence had cast itself into their midst, and the mad, chaotic entities began to churn.

The galaxy outside seemed to come alive, swirling and rotating as the stars flowed together into a collective presence.

It was as if a myriad of starlight had converged into a colossal eye, peering at this new member who had come to borrow power from the void.

Its gaze pierced the window of Wang Yu’s mental sanctuary, fixing upon him as he sat on the bed.

Wang Yu looked out at the spectacular starry sky and the living, sentient eye, watching as a pale purple halo gradually illuminated the sky and the window. He found it beautiful.

"Wow… it’s been so long since I’ve seen a sky like this. It makes me nostalgic for my last world. I must find a way back soon."

Clutching the notebook, he watched the shocking, frenzied scene outside, finding it truly magnificent.

The mental sanctuary was a projection of his willpower, and because Wang Yu’s resolve was unshakable, his sanctuary stood firm as stone.

Countless streams of void energy cascaded down like a purple waterfall, flowing over the architecture of his mind.

The madness contained within that radiance was enough to drive any wizard to insanity, yet it could not stir Wang Yu’s will in the slightest.

The giant eye outside seemed to sense the solidity of this new member, and with even greater fervor, it poured its madness and energy into Wang Yu’s mental space.

His entire mental realm began to glow with the brilliance of a star-filled sky.

He did not know if this was normal; he knew too little.

He did not know if every wizard’s awakening was like this.

But that did not hinder him from continuing. He thought, imagining the void energy being guided by his hand, warping reality itself.

The external energy was drawn through the mental barrier, refined into a controllable stream, and poured incessantly into the notebook. The pages began to emit a faint purple light.

A spell—his arcane talent—began to take shape under the infusion of void power, coalescing within the notebook.

The energy grew denser and brighter, while the entity outside continued to pour its madness into his space.

In truth, Wang Yu’s affinity for the void was not particularly high, but it mattered little when the entity outside was flooding his space with such relentless power.

It was likely some powerful creature of the void, its energy source inexhaustible.

A normal wizard would have succumbed to madness long ago, but Wang Yu’s indomitable spirit turned this outpouring of chaos into the very nutrients required to forge his talent.

The light on the notebook grew scorching, and the purple flashes forced Wang Yu to close his eyes; it was simply too blinding.

Under the weight of the massive void energy, the talent slowly took form, shaped by what the void deemed most suitable for him.

"Wait, why is it what the void thinks is best for me, rather than what I think is best? That’s not right..."

"The old mage’s books didn't mention this, but I feel that an arcane talent should align with my own desires to be truly correct." A thought sparked in his mind.

Why follow the path the void dictated? Should he not set the direction himself? No sooner thought than done, Wang Yu began to steer the massive void energy, molding the talent according to his own will.

The vast energy seemed stubborn, resisting his guidance as it sought to complete its formation autonomously.

But Wang Yu’s willpower was the ultimate glitch; the immense energy was irresistibly pulled toward the direction he desired: growth, physical enhancement, and compatibility.

Wang Yu was not a greedy man; he simply provided a nudge, and the talent began to take shape on its own. After all, he did not truly understand the profession of a wizard, and doing what he could was enough.

Finally, as the massive energy poured in and gathered within the notebook, a word manifested upon the page.

His talent was complete. "Ripple"—the word, shimmering with purple light and stardust, glowed upon the pages of his notebook.

At the same time, Wang Yu opened his eyes in the real world, a satisfied smile playing on his lips.

Above, the entity in the starry sky, realizing that Wang Yu’s mental space had vanished, let out a howl of fury and madness, its chaotic intent echoing through the void.