If that was the case…
Richard used his mind to control his consciousness, making it drift down the bed and then towards the door. It effortlessly passed through the wooden door and appeared at the corridor outside. Dragging the long and transparent tape behind him, Richard turned around, drifted along the wooden stairs, and headed to the main hall on the first floor. Soon after, the main hall appeared before him.
Although it was already night time, the main hall had many candles and oil lamps and was thus very brightly lit, ensuring the activity in the palace didn't stop. At that very moment, many servants were working on their respective duties. They were preparing different experiment materials according to his specific requirements, like hydrochloric acid, alcohol or deionized water.
At the entrance of the palace, a few bodyguards were standing upright and guarding the place alertly. In comparison, as the Chief Bodyguard, Edward seemed to be slacking. He was leaning against a wall and reading a palm-sized book. He was very careful, so from time to time, he would look up and sweep his glance across their surroundings. Afterward, he would lower his head again and read.
Richard controlled his consciousness to approach Edward, the latter remaining totally oblivious. The prince checked the palm-sized book in his hands, and written on it were words considered improper in this world: Countess Elizabeth.
"Oh, of course he's been reading such books." Richard shook his head boringly after taking a few glances at it. He was not interested in reading this with Edward. He turned around and drifted towards a servant who was busy working.
She was a young lady around 18 years old, and her name was Angie. She was fairly good-looking, but there were many freckles on her face. Putting aside her looks, Angie was the smartest servant in the entire palace. Basically, she could pick up everything that he taught immediately.
Sometimes, Richard had thought of training her to be his assistant, so that she could also manage the other servants. However, he had not done that yet for various reasons.
In that instant, she was conscientiously preparing a sodium hydroxide standard solution, a task assigned to her earlier.
The first step she followed was using the scale to weigh solid sodium hydroxide. As Richard had reminded her before, she cleverly did not place the sodium hydroxide on papyrus before weighing it, since sodium hydroxide was deliquescent and would corrode the paper. She put the sodium hydroxide into a beaker and weighed them together. Afterward, she deducted the weight of the beaker to get the actual weight of the sodium hydroxide.
Then came the second step.
And the third.
Watching Angie carry out her task methodically without any mistakes, Richard nodded satisfactorily. He suddenly thought of something and reached to her table.
As expected, his hands went through the table's surface.
Richard frowned and focused on his spiritual power. After sensing that both of his consciousness "hands" were materializing, he gently touched the beaker on the table.
The beaker swayed, and it almost dropped down and broke.
Angie, who was busy working, had a fright. She hurriedly reached out to hold the beaker. She frowned slightly and glanced at the palace entrance puzzledly. After realizing there was no wind, she muttered to herself, "What happened?"
Richard could not reply to her, but he had discovered through this test what he could do in this state. He could affect the real world with his consciousness, but it was hard and the effect was minimal.
He frowned and pondered for a moment. An idea flashed into his mind. The tension on his neck increased, and he flew to his bedroom at lightning speed. In the blink of an eye, he passed through the second floor and many walls until he, at last, returned to his bed.
…
Richard's body was still sitting cross-legged on the soft velvet bed, completely unmoving. His chest was heaving up and down slowly, maintaining a normal breathing.
Richard's consciousness stopped beside his body. It then drifted down the bed and to the nearest wall. He focused all of his spiritual power and carefully drew something on the wall using his consciousness "fingernails."
Nodding at the drawing, Richard suddenly remembered his objective—testing the astral projection.
The separation of consciousness and body was obviously one of the functions of astral projection, but it was not the main one. According to The Writings of Monroe, astral projection was named as such because…
Richard looked up to his right. The next moment, he controlled his mind to rise rapidly, moving through the roof and eventually into open air.
Outside the sky was already dark, as though the entire world was being covered by a large tent. Around him everything was quiet. There was no sound, not even wind. It seemed like time had stopped.
However, Richard was aware that this was an illusion. He was not worried by the silence. Instead, he maneuvered his consciousness to drift upwards until he was at a height of around 100 meters from the ground.
Looking down from the sky, he could see the entirety of Blue Lion City.
He could see that this medieval world was not as prosperous as the Earth in modern times. As lamp-making materials were expensive, besides the palace, most parts of Blue Lion City were dark at night. He could randomly see a few brightly lit places, but those were mansions belonging to the aristocrats.
Richard watched silently. The entirety of Blue Lion City was beneath him, and it was an amazing feeling.
"Is this the power of a wizard?"
Flap, flap. A black bird came flying towards him from afar. It resembled a crow but was bigger in size. Richard could tell that it was a raven.
When the raven flew past him quickly, it seemed to sense something and turned its neck warily to look around. However, the animal flapped its wings and flew away after not discovering anything.
Following that, a brief and weak cry was heard.
Well?
Richard turned his gaze, only to discover that the raven had disappeared. In the distance, a vague and enormous figure, like a powerful predator, swept across the sky.
Was that an extremely large falcon?
Richard was making a guess, but he did not bother with it. He averted his gaze, calmed down and then looked above him.
He saw the dome-shaped night sky illuminated with dense countless spots. Those were not stars but energy transmitted in the form of starlight. It was the famous astral projection.
Astral projection.
Richard spread out his arms and attempted to absorb the energy, according to the instructions in The Writings of Monroe. The next moment, sunlight seemed to be shining on him, and his entire consciousness warmed up. A large amount of energy flowed into him consistently and quickly, spreading into his sitting body through the transparent tape behind his neck.
However, none of the energy that entered his body stayed. It slipped away from his body rapidly without stopping. Although energy kept gushing into his body, it was never retained since his body lacked a special structure that could store energy—a magic source.
The first life construction meant to separate consciousness and body, which involved astral projection and strengthening one's spiritual power. The second life construction was to store the energy of the universe. The third life construction was to convert the stored energy into powers and then perform magic.
As Richard recalled The Writings of Monroe, he relaxed his consciousness to absorb the energy in the dark sky. At that moment he felt like he was soaking in a warm spring. His spiritual power was becoming increasingly stronger, though he could not capture any energy.
Just like that, a consciousness was floating above Blue Lion City in the darkness. Like a king, Richard thoroughly enjoyed immersing himself in the overwhelming energy of the astral projection until…