As the rays of light fill the room, I awake from meditation.
"8:00 am" Calculating the time, I nod.
"Although tired, I'm better than earlier" standing up, I do a few aerobic exercises to loosen my muscles, while stretching to increase my flexibility.
Doing my morning routine, I get dressed and head outside by 8:30 am.
I had put on my white long robe for today, its cleaned and tidy, my green eyes give a strange feeling of being sucked into them when stared at, this is due to my high mental energy.
Although I do try to hold it back as much as I can.
My long brown hair still flows over my shoulders, split down the middle, green eyes and a stubble giving me a mysterious yet unkept look.
This body isn't considered handsome but isn't bad looking either, it would be considered above average.
Recalling last night I have a few new insights.
Although I had mainly focused on gathering and restoring mental energy, I didn't neglect studying in the back of my mind, having two thoughts at once isn't difficult.
I had done a few million lines of inquiry as to what happened in my dreams, trying to crack the mystery as to what sent me into the spirit world.
How do I know about the spirit world? Well, In this worlds myths and legends, there exists many folk lore about gods and devils, immortals and demons.
In the tales, they no longer reside along mortals but have transcended the worlds limits, entering another world, this world being the spirit world.
According to scholars; Heaven, Hell, Purgatory and the Abyss are merely small councils where these gods and demons gather, they supposedly reside in the spirit world.
Every now and again, there would be a weakness in space, allowing the spirit worlds residents to pull unsuspecting people to the other side, its the so called -spirited away-.
There are too many unknowns about the spirit world to make any conjectures, but I know what I experienced is vastly different from any of the legends.
First I replayed the nights process and I never left my room, I was never "Taken" to the spirit world by force.
Instead, the moment REM had started, I was truly in a dream, but I had dreamt about the spirit world.
Still active from the beforehand research, My brain had subconsciously gathered mental energy from my surroundings, it usually wouldn't do anything as I would be asleep and my mind blank, but it happened to coincide with my dream.
My mind had started to deduce a new Dao path, one that I've never heard of.
"The Grand Dao of dreams!"
Even now, I've gathered the basics. Dreams are false but also true! I had dreamt about the spirit world, so my dream had actually made me "Enter" the spirit world for real.
If I could control this process, would I simply need to dream to appear in someplace and I would materialise there?
Perhaps I could enter others dreams and attack them while they're defenceless!
Just thinking about it gets me excited for the possibilities.
"Combining darkness and dreams into cultivation, one is known to be active during nights while dreams are usually associated to sleeping at night"
Could such conflicting pathways be fused?
I begin preparing for my cultivation path, Using dreams as my main pathway and darkness as auxiliary.
"I'll need more research" stopping on this topic, I only use a small portion of my mind to continue deducing a way to cultivate dreams while the rest is focused on the upcoming exam.
Time had gone by quickly, I arrive at a huge open square which is the centre of the east district. Looking at the dial at the centre, Its 9:45AM.
The exam starts at 10AM so Im a little early, well so I thought but the huge crowd around me proves otherwise.
Glancing around, I see most people here are young, being in their mid twenties. Theres around two hundred people.
They gather in small groups depending on their social circles, most people here can be seen getting nervous as they look around.
A few have a proud and arrogant look as if this test will pose no difficulty to them.
"These must be veterans" I laugh inside, they are much older than the people here as its clear its not their first time taking the scholar exam.
"Its mainly nobles and upperclass civilians who are here" Nodding, I dont find it strange. The reason so is first you need the knowledge which is expensive, then the fee for the exam which is two and a half years of savings for a normal family.
I dont really fit in here, and its clear to those around me with a glance that I have no background to speak of, eyes can be seen secretly scanning me from time to time.
Hearing footsteps behind me, I slowly turn around. A young man with a set of long black hair and brown eyes walks up to me, no contempt can be seen, just friendliness.
"Hello friend, this ones called Callum, surname Davis, haha" Smiling he puts out his hand.
Smiling politely back at him, I also greet him.
"Lucas, Lucas Flynn" shaking hands, I feel a stream of saint force secretly gather on his palm, but he seems to realise something as he quickly removes it.
Looking at him, my left eye twitches and he seems to know that I understand his intent.
"ahh, sorry about that haha, its just a habit" wryly smiling, he coughs a few times embarressed.
What made me suprised wasnt the fact he tried to inspect my body, but more importantly on his saint force, although hidden deeply, I could sense a bit of the darkness element.
Waving my hand, I gesture to forget about it.
"Good, I really didnt mean any harm"
"Anyway, your young, even younger than me it seems?" He looks at me in suprise as he sizes me up.
As he sizes me up, I also secretly size him up, due to contact, I had also secretly sent down a stream of mental energy which covered him.
He must of noticed something fishy which is why he also removed his hand.
"Good instincts" I think to myself, but it doesn't matter how fast he was to let go of my hand.
Looking at the system interface infront of me, I laugh as I see a 3-D model of Callum Davis infront of me.
"I can also model others?" I subconsiously whisper
"Hmm?"
"Ah, I had dropped out of higher education as I had already finished with the studies so.." wryly smiling, we begin to get to know each other.
Callum is in a similar situation to me, he also has a humble background, studying hard for most his youth yet he actually stepped into the third stage of the Martial Artist realm at the age of twenty two.
"Dont mind it my friend, its not all about cultivation!"
"If you pass the scholar exam at your age, that in itself is praiseworthy" he says seriously.
I just nod, this is his first time participating too.
Most of the time its him talking, while I take the time to study his model.
"35 Martial Valves" I think to myself, his talent isnt half bad. His physique is strong and his saint force is robust that I might even think hes lying about being Martial artist of the third realm.
"As expected, he doesnt have any mental energy!" Magnifying his brain, I notice a blue sphere which is just an empty shell at the location where the mind palace doorway should be.
"So this is what the doors of the mind palace look like when locked"