In a room on the first floor of the castle, Richard sat cross-legged on the wooden frame of the bed. He could clearly feel his body sink bit by bit, like a stone falling into the water, rapidly plunging to the bottom. However, his consciousness was getting lighter and lighter, like a feather flying in the wind, rising rapidly.
He could also feel his body vibrate. It was a type of cell-level vibration caused by the separation of the consciousness from the body. Richard could clearly feel the planet's warm magnetic induction lines passing through his body, carrying energy, and accelerating the separation process.
Buzz.
The vibration quickly reached its limit, and his consciousness began to drift out of the body moved by his spiritual powers.
But suddenly, Richard felt an invisible force take his consciousness and push it back into the body.
"Huh? What's the matter?" Richard was taken aback for a moment, as this had never happened before. After pondering for a while, he controlled his consciousness to stealthily leave from the side of the body. However as soon as it started to sneak out, the same force that had hindered it appeared once again, pushing the consciousness back into the body.
It felt as though he was on a seat, and someone next to him was staring. The moment he tried to get up, this person would immediately rush forward and press him firmly down on the seat, making sure that he could not move at all.
It was… annoying.
Richard was not angry, yet he felt puzzled as to what was happening. What could be the reason behind it?
He had succeeded many times before without the help of anesthetics, and there were no obstacles. Why was it not working in the castle?
Could it be that there was something in the castle?
Richard thought for a while and decided not to give up so easily, to try again.
He calmed down and chose a point directly above his body. Following this, he tried to move his consciousness out.
That familiar feeling surged again. A force appeared, pressing firmly on the consciousness that was about to break out of his body. It was trying hard to push the consciousness back in.
Richard mobilized his spiritual powers to resist this force with all his might. The moment he used his strength, he heard a bang, as if he had turned over something. Since he had pushed too much, his consciousness suddenly broke free of the body and went directly through the roof to a room on the second floor. Richard was a little surprised to find Pandora curled up in a corner of the room. She was frowning, directing her large amethyst eyes at something down in his room.
"This is…"
Realization dawned on Richard, and he figured out two things.
First, Pandora could not see him. In that case, presumably, Gregory should also not be able to see his consciousness.
Second, Pandora knew that there was something strange in his room, and this was probably the reason why his consciousness had almost failed to get out of the body just now. What could it be?
As he thought this, Richard controlled his consciousness to quickly move down and return to his room. He looked around and was taken aback.
Richard discovered that there was another consciousness beside him.
It actually could not be regarded as a consciousness, but something similar to a consciousness.
Compared to his solid consciousness, the other party looked like it was made of very thin mist, and there was no transparent tape connecting it to a body.
This meant it was an independent entity, something that existed independently of a body. It was suspended in the middle of the room, moving occasionally to reveal a female face. Her image was too vague for Richard to determine her age.
"What…" Realization dawned on Richard. It was clear that this had been the thing that had prevented him from getting out of his body. However, why was it trying to stop him? What exactly was this thing?
A soul? A ghost? A spirit?
Thoughts quickly ran through Richard's mind. The next moment, he noticed the other party slowly approaching. It tentatively stretched out two arm-like things and shook them quickly before him. He sensed a faint wave of consciousness.
Richard analyzed it carefully. This being was saying something like, "You… I… Okay… Go back… Danger!"
What?
Richard was still wondering about what it could mean, when it drifted to the back and reached out to grab the transparent tape that connected his body to his consciousness.
Richard suddenly sensed extreme danger, a strong foreboding. If the transparent tape was broken, his consciousness might never return to his body, and he might become something similar to that being.
Swoosh.
He used the spiritual powers he had enhanced through long-term meditation to throw a powerful blow, and an invisible power quickly flew to the spirit.
Boom!
The spirit had yet to touch the transparent tape when it was hit by a strong force. His spiritual powers struck it, and it bounced hard against the wall. Richard realized that the other party could not penetrate the wall. Instead, it was stopped by the wall, stunned by the impact. It took a long time before it could move again.
Perhaps it had a different density and therefore did not penetrate walls?
Could it be that although this thing appeared similar to his consciousness, it was a completely different existence? It was like… filtration in an experiment. At first, the impurities and the solution were mixed together, but after passing through a filter, in this case the wall, the solution could pass through, but the impurities were intercepted.
Could it be that, since it had lost the connection to a body, it had gotten weaker and weaker, its energy had decreased, and it had become what it was now? Richard was somewhat uncertain.
There were still many things that he did not understand about this world. Although he had done some research, and there were small breakthroughs, he obviously needed more time to study souls and dragons to find scientific explanations. All he could do now was make basic guesses.
While speculating, Richard noticed that the spirit had awakened from a state of dizziness in total panic. Its two arms-like things swung wildly. Through spiritual fluctuations, it continued sending more vague information, "Don't… kill… I'm… afraid… I dare not…"
Richard was also about to communicate with it through spiritual fluctuations, yet he did not expect the entity to suddenly float out of the door and quickly drift away from the castle.
"Gone?" Richard muttered in his mind.
Richard shook his head. He did not waste any more time. Instead, he controlled his consciousness to float directly to the sky, rising to a height of hundreds of meters, and began to absorb the energy from the astral projection.
A large amount of energy was absorbed and stored in the magic source within his body. After smelting the energy, it became the mana he needed to perform magic.
This was the cultivation process of a wizard. It was a tedious, boring, and yet unavoidable process.
After setting aside some of his energy to watch out for the spirit body that had just fled, he used the rest of his energy to meditate with all his might.
Thus, the energy in his magic source grew rapidly.
Sitting in a room on the second floor, Pandora's eyes flashed. She slowly tilted her head to look into the distance. She had sensed that something she disliked had left.
However, that thing had obviously been staying in the castle for ages. Although she was disgusted by it, she hadn't been able to drive it away. Why would it…
Pandora tilted her head slightly and looked down, her eyes flashing.