Chapter 13: Consciousness Strengthening

Su Chen breathed in deeply, allowing his shock to slowly subside.

Finally, Su Chen said, “Is that so? That’s truly a pity. Who knows if there are still even any Arcana Race individuals still with Origin Blood left in them. If I could find one and pluck out their Origin Energy Eyes and use them for myself, that would be best.”

Because his emotional state was still turbulent, Su Chen accidentally made a small mistake - he called those microscopic eyes his Origin Energy Eyes out of habit.

Patelocke didn’t notice this. He shook his head, “I don’t think there are still any Arcana Race individuals with Origin Blood still in them. The famous ones have all died; otherwise, any one of them could bring massive changes to the structure of this world. Think about it - the Bloodline Extraction Instrument, the Origin Energy Temple, the Consciousness Converter Instrument, Sark’s Nuclei are all precious treasure to the Intelligent Races. These are all the brainchildren of different Arcana Masters with Origin Blood. If even one still existed, he would definitely change the world!”

“Change the world......” Su Chen muttered to himself, a strange expression appearing on his face. “Yes, I think that would be the case as well.”

He glanced at Patelocke. “Let’s hypothesize for a moment. If there was still an Origin Blood Arcana Race individual left, do you think I would be able to dig out his eyes and transplant them as my own?”

“Of course not,” Patelocke replied. “Life’s composition is incredibly complex; how could such a simple and barbaric method possibly succeed? If you chopped off a person’s arm and gave it to another person, it would be able to attach itself?”

“Of course not. Not unless the other party had some kind of Origin Skill that let them assimilate it.”

“That’s right, and eyes are an even more complicated matter. Where did you get the idea of plucking out the eyes of an Origin Blood Arcana Race individual to give yourself this microscopic sight? That’s a stupid idea. You aren’t a stupid person,” Patelocke said, somewhat baffled.

“It’s not a bad thing to be a little foolish from time to time,” Su Chen replied indifferently.

He didn’t say anything else, instead lowering his head to inspect the metal block again.

Suddenly, he thought of something.

He didn’t have enough consciousness power at the moment, but didn’t he have a bunch of Spirit Sobering Medicines on hand?

Spirit Sobering Medicine was mainly used to stimulate and recover a person’s consciousness power, acting as a protective screen. During the stimulation process, however, it would also increase a person’s consciousness power.

But because these medicines were too expensive, many tens of thousands for one vial, he had never dared to use them on himself. He simply needed too many resources for his experiments.

But now, he was lacking in consciousness power, so Su Chen was reminded of them.

Thankfully, the Immortal Temple had just altered their demands and they required less vials of Spirit Sobering Medicine. Thus, he was given a little more room to work with.

This ‘little more room to work with’ was to his benefit; it was perfect for him to use to raise his own strength.

Upon thinking of this, Su Chen immediately began to concoct more Spirit Sobering Medicines.

After concocting nearly a thousand Spirit Sobering Medicines, Su Chen was already so familiar with making them that he could do it with his eyes closed.

Not long after, a Spirit Sobering Medicine had been finished.

Su Chen tilted his head back and gulped it down.

Spirit Sobering Medicine could recover a person’s consciousness power, protect their mind, permanently increase a person’s consciousness power, and a host of other effects. However, for Su Chen to only use it to increase his consciousness power was quite extravagant.

As the Spirit Sobering Medicine began to take effect, his consciousness power did in fact increase.

Of course, this increase was only temporary; once the medicinal power subsided, most of the increase would disappear, with only a small trace left behind.

But Su Chen didn’t mind. All he wanted was this temporary increase.

Su Chen tested it out and discovered that even though his consciousness power had increased, he was still quite a ways away from reaching a point where he could give it physical substance. Thus, he ingested two more consciousness medicines.

He drank three vials of Spirit Sobering Medicines, essentially trading a hundred thousand Origin Stones for a brief period of happiness. Yet Su Chen didn’t mind at all.

As he constantly converted and absorbed the medicinal power, allowing it to soak into his mind and strengthen his consciousness, Su Chen could feel his mind becoming clearer, and even his vision seemed to grow sharper.

“So raising your consciousness power can have this kind of effect,” Su Chen muttered.

He could feel his ability to think and see had both increased dramatically.

No wonder those Arcana Masters were all great inventors; their wisdom and their profound understanding of the natural world didn’t just rely on their microscopic eyes but even more on their powerful consciousness.

After ingesting all three vials of Spirit Sobering Medicine, Su Chen tried again to stretch out his consciousness. This time, he could feel his consciousness forming tendrils as they reached out through the air.

Su Chen controlled those consciousness tendrils and allowed them to slowly enter the metal block. As if his gaze could bend around corners, he could see that within the metal block was an isolated space packed with those black dots of light. However, because the metal block had somewhat degraded over time, more than half of those black dots had already dissipated, and not many were left.

Even though he didn’t know what those black dots of light were, Su Chen still instinctively knew that he should gather them as quickly as possible.

He retracted his consciousness and then stood above the metal block, beginning to try and coax the black dots of light back into the metal cube.

However, these dots of light were pretty mischievous; even though Su Chen’s consciousness tendrils could touch them, his control was still somewhat awkward. It took a long time before he was finally able to bring the black dots of light back into the metal block.

Once he finished that, Su Chen felt his vision suddenly blur.

He knew that this was because he had expended too much of his consciousness energy.

After ingesting another vial of Spirit Sobering Medicine, Su Chen left the room.

Every one of the dissipated black dots near the mouth of the well also needed to be taken back in.

Su Chen forced all of the black dots back into the metal block by drinking those Spirit Sobering Medicines like water. Then, he resealed it and returned to his room.

He reawakened Patelocke, who yelled in shock as soon as he appeared, “How did your consciousness power suddenly increase?”

“Oh, I drank a few Spirit Sobering Medicines,” Su Chen replied.

“You tried to control the microscopic substance?” Patelocke instantly guessed Su Chen’s intentions. He laughed, “It seems like you didn’t believe me. How did it go? Did you fail?”

Su Chen shrugged. “I didn’t lose anything anyways. At the very least, my own consciousness power went up.”

“That’s true. An increase in consciousness power is extremely useful. At the very least, you won’t have to worry too much about any rebound that might occur when using Fata Morgana in the future.”

Su Chen understood this point. Consciousness rebounds were primarily directed at the mind; if a person’s consciousness was strong enough, they would be able to protect their mind from being injured.

Fata Morgana was an extremely powerful control-type move, but Su Chen used it sparingly because of the rebound that might occur if he failed. But as his consciousness power increased, the rebound would decrease correspondingly.

Because Spirit Sobering Medicines were so expensive, and Su Chen didn’t know what level his consciousness would need to reach before he was protected from this backlash, he had never tried drinking them before. Rather, he placed most of his focus on researching a Fata Morgana without any backlash.

But now, Su Chen’s way of thinking was very different.

“That’s right,” Su Chen said. “But this is just a temporary increase in the end, and it will subside soon. Patelocke, is there some kind of technique that can increase both the amount of consciousness power I have as well as my control over it?”

Even though Su Chen had cultivated his consciousness power in the past, it was only a side effect of cultivating Fata Morgana. Otherwise, it couldn’t have only increased such a small amount even after all these years.

And now, he really needed a technique that could increase his consciousness power.

“You want to learn a technique that can allow you to increase your consciousness power?” Patelocke said with some surprise. “You’re a human. Why would a human need such a high consciousness power?”

“As a researching human, the high consciousness power will help me multitask better, making my experiments more effective,” Su Chen replied.