Bai Jingshen took a deep breath. He stood in this unfamiliar environment, letting his situation sink in.
"AI, is there a mirror here?", he asked the unfamiliar gadget.
After a quick confirmation the one bent wall in this room completely turned into a mirror. By now Bai Jingshen wouldn't be surprised about every little thing anymore.
Observing himself in the mirror he saw the handsome body of a young man. Tall, muscular with sharp eyes. His raven-black hair orderly hung down his back, reaching his shoulder blades. Even with a wry smile on his face, he had a charm about him, that would slowly draw people in. Surprisingly, he looked almost like his own younger self.
Unfortunately, he had no explanation for this development. He became the white illusion emperor with the goal of reaching the Immortal Realm, but ended up in a completely different world. At the same time, this world was connected to a new world and even the Great Cultivation World. Surely, this was no coincidence, but Bai Jingshen didn't really care for what exactly happened. His mindset stabilized again, as he thought about the New World having Immortal Qi. Since the Great Cultivation World agreed in naming the New World's energy this way, there was certainly something special about it.
Bai Jingshen purposely let his emotions free reign for a few seconds. He felt loss, helplessness but also determination, confidence, and longing to see his family again. In the end his current situation was only another hurdle in his path. Bai Jingshen always knew he had to forge his own path and take it one step at a time. With all his previous knowledge he would reach the top again and be the strongest in three worlds.
After sorting out his emotions and regaining a calm mind, Bai Jingshen immersed himself in his mindset. He set cross legged on the ground, closed his eyes, and for the first time in this world began to circulate the White Illusion Cultivation Technique. This technique represented the core of all his White Illusion Arts. The more proficient a cultivator became in this technique, the faster his cultivation would progress and the profounder their illusion's would become. However, one of the biggest benefits this cultivation technique brought was something Bai Jingshen experienced right now. The premature opening of a Sea Of Consciousness.
A cultivator would strengthen their three treasures, essence, Qi and spirit, on the path of cultivation, before finally fusing them and becoming immortal. Out of those three, a cultivator's spirit was tied to their Sea Of Consciousness. Every cultivation technique was different, but most of them would only start to cultivate the spirit after achieving the Nascent Soul Realm. At that point a cultivator's mind was strong enough to open their sea of consciousness, gather their scattered spirit and forming a nascent soul.
Bai Jingshen's White Illusion Arts however provided the possibility of opening a Sea Of Consciousness at any time. However, this was by no means an easy feat. The practitioner had to have a thorough understanding of the White Illusion Arts, and especially of themselves. In his former life, Bai Jingshen only achieved this feat in the Golden Core Realm and always had to listen to his father bragging about how he achieved it in the Foundation Establishment Realm. However, this time around Bai Jingshen had a chance to succeed at the Body Refinement Realm.
Concentrating on his mind, Bai Jingshen could feel his emotions slowly gathering. His inner eye saw multiple clusters of mist appearing. Each cluster gave of a different feeling, as they started to pulse.
The mist's movement gave Bai Jingshen a slight headache but he knew he couldn't even flinch or his concentration would be broken. Slowly these clusters took on different colors. They seemed faint, looking like someone threw a drop of ink in an entire ocean, transparent and ethereal, ever moving.
Under Bai Jingshen's careful watch, these clouds began to shimmer in a raging red, a melancholic blue, a deep, analytical yellow, an even fainter gray, which almost looked like trying to hide, a deep, confident red, a nervous indigo color, and gently embracing them all, a calm, strong white. As Bai Jingshen observed further, new mist rather quickly appeared. His inner eye followed this new cloud as it turned a sunny yellow and happily danced through his mind.
Realizing that happiness over his impeding success almost destroyed all his efforts, Bai Jingshen quickly did his best to stabilize his mind again, leading to the white color also embracing the yellow one. Not letting any satisfaction come up at this critical point, Bai Jingshen slowly circulated his White Illusion Cultivation Technique.
Contrary to most techniques, which circulate Qi through a cultivator's meridians according to intricate patterns, which try to correspond to the world's laws, his technique also circulated Qi through the mind for an instance. Doing as such was incredible dangerous and could only be achieved with precise control over the White Illusion Arts. In his sect this was the reason why disciples needed a master by their side, as they learn to cultivate the White Illusion Arts. Therefore, only the most talented disciples would be allowed to cultivate the real White Illusion Cultivation Technique.
But with risk always came opportunity. This short instance of guiding Qi through the mind, was also the reason why the White Illusion Arts would allow practitioners to obtain an early version of the Sea Of Consciousness. Everyone knowledgeable about cultivation would happily trade their life for this opportunity, as gaining an early Sea Of Consciousness meant already strengthening their spirit in it's scattered state, bringing unimaginable benefits to a cultivator.
As Bai Jingshen began to circle his cultivation technique, every time it passed his mind it would incite all his clusters to pulse in unison. Slowly the clouds of mist would stop doing their own thing, as they began to synchronize with each other. Bai Jingshen carefully watched, as all the clusters drifted together at the center of his mind.
They began to attract each other and soon began to form a multicolored core. After this core formed, it still seemed a little dull and Bai Jingshen knew the most important moment had arrived.
Carefully, he began pushing his cultivation technique faster and faster, sending more and more Qi into his mind. His core, also known as illusionary core, greedily absorbed all of it until if felt saturated. It suddenly shone brightly like a small sun in Bai Jingshen's mind.
He almost felt physically blinded, but he stayed composed. He quickly gathered his strong will. Normally a will had to be tempered through hardships, but as an old man starting to cultivate form the beginning, his will simply was overwhelmingly strong
Without any problems he urged his will to form a barrier around his illusionary core, finally achieving the incredible feat of having a Sea Of Consciousness at the Body Refinement Realm.
At the moment he formed his Sea Of Consciousness, Bai Jingshen suddenly felt his spirit becoming one with the world around him. He seemed to rise into the air, feeling the many applications powered by Mana in his vicinity. Rising higher he felt the gently blowing wind, the continuous aching of steel beams burdened by the weight of those skyscrapers. He felt cultivators all over the city and at the end even a call from the vast sea of stars, as its' misght pressured his spirit into returning to his body.
Only after Bai Jingshen felt his mind returning to his body, did he break out into cold sweat. He just realized how careless he had been. Even though he didn't need to have Qi himself when circling his cultivation technique, but he still had to lend the Qi from his surroundings. Only, this world didn't have any Qi.
Luckily, it seemed the properties of Qi and Mana were very similar, or he didn't know what consequences his actions could have had. However, he could only draw this conclusion now that he had a deeper understanding of Mana after his short trip. He didn't have any assurance beforehand.
Well, there was no point in dwelling over the past now, so he threw it to the back of his mind. He allowed himself to feel a slight satisfaction over his successful cultivation. By forming the illusionary core, Bai Jingshen formerly entered the "first step" stage of his White Illusion Cultivation Technique.
Most techniques and martial arts had multiple stages. As your understanding over your own technique grew, you would gain multiple benefits, just like the illusionary core would strengthen your illusions immensely. But Bai Jingshen also knew that his cultivation journey just started, and he had a long way to go before even reaching the minor success stage.
Composing himself again, Bai Jingshen took a short pause, asking his AI for something to drink, before dedicating his attention towards the problem in his Dantian.