2 hours later, Mwana's spiritual energy finally shattered the walls of the second level and rose all the way to the peak of the third level. Even then, there was still enough energy left to surpass the 3td level but an even sturdier barrier prevented this. Due to the surplus of spiritual energy in his soul, Mwana was left with a bloated feeling as if he had overeaten.
After drinking a glass of water that did little to alleviate the uncomfortable feeling, he sat down on his bed and took out a thick red book. This book was a record Mwana had kept since he was 6 years old. It recorded the strange dreams he had since he was little and noted down a breakdown of some of his techniques.
The latest entry in this book was the [Green Dragon Mantra]. This mantra was the overall name of the inheritance he received from the visions of the Green Dragon. In total, Mwana had experienced about 6 dreams concerning the dragon which seemed to detail its life in reverse. However, he could not remember some of the earliest dreams experienced when he was 4 or 5 year olds. All he could remember about the first dream was that it was a great nightmare.
After his awakening ceremony, Mwana finally understood that the dreams spelled out multiple sections of a mantra. For example, the dream he experienced on the night of his awakening that involved the shattered planet with a heartbeat coming from its core represented the [Heart Section] of the Green Dragon Mantra. In the bloodline awakening pond, Mwana received the [Dragon Bone Refinement Section] of the mantra. In addition to these 2, Mwana had decoded a part of the [Spiritual Section] from some of the previous dreams he had recorded in the thick red book. In total, he currently had 3 sections: Heart, Bones, and Spirit.
The main technique he had decoded from the Spiritual Section was named the [Dance of Dragons]. It was a set of movements and chants that Mwana tried to replicate every morning before sun rise. Even little Pendo had been interested in this dance due to its interesting movements. When he reminisced on these moments, Mwana had some tears of happiness brimming in his eyes as he remembered even their mother joining them despite her weak body and sickly bones in order to motivate her children.
However, in the weeks Mwana had been practicing this technique it had shown almost zero effects. He stood up from his bed once again and tried to perform the movements in the dance but 2 steps in, he could feel something!
"Ha ha, it works, it works!" He was very excited but reminded himself to keep quiet as it was the dead of night.
"It seems the problem was that my soul was still in a semi-awakened state. Now that it has awakened and I have entered the 3rd level, I can finally feel the benefits of this technique. It is a pity that I could not decipher the entire [Spiritual Section] since I had that dream so long ago."
After training a bit more, Mwana finally got in his bed to sleep. It did not even take a few seconds for him to fall into deep sleep. The day had left him very fatigued.
'A dream!'
This time Mwana was self aware when he found himself in yet another dream world. His fear of these dreams had long been eroded and he decided to be more observant this time. He was standing in the void of space surrounded by many stars. However, everything was so far away which left him with a deep feeling of loneliness in the midst of vast space. As he looked at the stars, some of them flickered, brightened, and moved to form some vague patterns.
"The Green Dragon Mantra [Spiritual Section]! Is it a coincidence that it appeared after I was just meditating on it and lamenting about its incompleteness?"
Mwana did not hesitate and sat down cross legged in the empty space as if there was a platform beneath his feet. Unknown to him, his real body also sat up from the bed and adopted a meditative position. As Mwana meditated while viewing the stars, more of the [Spiritual Section] revealed itself to him. Suddenly things he could not understand before became much clearer. A name of a technique appeared as Mwana's consciousness sank deeper into the void – [Spirit Energy Channeling].
As this technique revealed itself to him in the illusionary world, his body in the real world started churning with spiritual energy. The stagnant energy in his soul started cycling at an extremely fast speed while violently assaulting the barrier to the fourth level. This was the effect of channeling spiritual energy through the body.
The moment the barrier to the fourth level shattered in the real world, Mwana's consciousness in the illusionary world felt itself sinking once again. To be more precise, Mwana was still seated cross-legged in space but a force seemed to have pulled away his eyes. His vision felt as if it was stretched to infinity, travelling light years in a short moment. When the sensation finally subsided, Mwana found himself above an open silver-walled hall. In fact, only his vision had arrived at this hall while Mwana's body remained in its original position light years away. He felt as if he had omniscient vision from viewing things so far away.
The silver hall had 6 pillars at each side forming a hexagonal shape. The walls forming the hall seemed as if they were made of some type of metal and multiple images of dragons were curved onto them creating a dazzling sight. Further, the surroundings were even more dream-like as the hall seemed to be on a cliff by the beach surrounded by crashing waves and a roaring mountain range of volcanoes.
"It seems this place is a volcanic island of some sort."
In the great hall, Mwana could see a group of large dragons. Their sizes were surreal being multiple times larger than the dragons Mwana had read about in legendary tales.
"Little Green, are you even listening?"
"Yes teacher, I'm listening."
Hearing the dragons speak, Mwana was a bit shocked. These were majestic creatures so his image of them always involved them roaring mightily, not talking in such a human-like manner.
"It seems this vision is actually something that happened, like a snippet of the past." Mwana could tell that the 'Little Green' in question was the Green Dragon he had always seen in his dreams. However, it seemed much younger now. While its size was still as large as in his previous dreams, the scales looked glossier and even its eyes looked livelier far from the image of ancientness it previously held.
"The dreams were indeed in reverse. They seem to be a chronicle of this dragon's life."
The Green Dragon was seated in the silver hall like a cat while receiving a lecture from 'Elder Silver'. Beside it, there was also an enthusiastic blue dragon that the elder kept calling 'Little Blue'. In the entire hall, there were about a dozen dragons listening to this elder dragon. Elder Silver was a Silver Dragon with Sword like horns and claws. The scales on its body looked like massive swords inter-layered together and they radiated waves of suffocating sword energy; the perfect image of sword law.
The lecture these dragons were receiving was not anything serious or important. It seemed to be ordinary life skills and some customs of dragons that Mwana did not understand. Elder Silver finished his lecture by talking about dreams and the importance of pursuing them. Mwana was a bit disappointed in this. He had thought that with the Silver Dragon seeming to be an expert in Sword Law, he would talk about similarly deep topics but instead the old dragon seemed to only want to talk about 'life'.
Once the lectures ended, Mwana felt his vision get pulled towards the Green Dragon. This dragon flew out of the hall but at some point, there seemed to be a glitch in Mwana's vision. He was still viewing the Green Dragon but it seemed older as if a few more years had passed.
"Looks like the vision skipped a bit into this dragon's future."
"So confusing."
"What is this vision trying to tell me?"
He did not have to wait long before the dragon came to a stop in front of a deep abyss in the ground. Inside the huge hole in the ground, there was only endless darkness and cold. Even though Mwana was not there physically, he felt himself shiver. To the right of this abyss were the endless waters of the ocean and to the left there was a mountain range of active volcanoes. It was a surreal but apocalyptic scene; calmness and chaos co-existing side by side. All around the abyss, Mwana could see dragons and other mighty creatures thought to be extinct in present times. They all surrounded the hole but did not dare go in as if plagued by anxiousness.