Throughout the night, An Fei felt as if she had immersed herself into an incredible dream.
The instant her eyes closed, the world fell below her feet, revealing an infinite and limitless void that encircled her from all directions.
The voices of the ever-circulating currents of vitality and spiritual qi ceased to whisper in her ear, returning the young girl into a pause of absolute silence.
Towards her left and right, above and below her body, all An Fei could see was the encompassing darkness waving back towards her with a delightful smile splitting apart its countenance.
Similarly, her ears finally sighed in relaxation as it no longer was required to convey the sounds of the world to the young girl, for even the sound of her internal organs had been removed by the presence of the void.
An Fei could take a step forward to traverse an indeterminate distance, a step in the direction however she wished.
Unfortunately, the void remained static and omnipotent, and the young girl couldn’t determine whether she had actually displaced herself.
Her limbs did not move in accordance to the regular processes of human movement, nor did her body experience any change. All she had to do was to command with her mind, and her body instantly traversed the specified distance.
If she defined a single meter, her body would traverse forward a meter in the specified direction.
If An Fei dared to define a direction, she would manifest along the angle of displacement, but at a random position along the line of defined spatial coordinates.
And if she dared not define either, then…
It was plainly unfortunate to the extreme limits that regardless of how An Fei traversed the void, she similarly did not make any progress in reaching her destination.
The void was infinite, and she was attempting to cross it through the utility of finite quantities.
Basically akin to computing the dimensions of a vast, limitless ocean with a drop of water as the basis of reference.
In the dream, An Fei possessed the abilities of a superior entity, capable of remolding the entire universe as she wished.
Once her mind constructed an apt visualization of a concept, the simple command would initialize it before her within a blink of an eye.
Castles, houses, weaponry, foods, countries… everything the young girl dreamed of, she possessed in her two frail and slender hands.
Creation served as her fingertips, and destruction as her palms.
With a single wave of her fingers, the young girl constructed a bountiful world teeming with billions upon billions of living creatures; with a snap of her fingers, the world disintegrated into plumes of dust, which were then obliterated into nihility.
She could traverse immeasurable distances, and could toy around with the concept of existence with her bare fingers within the infinite and dark void.
Simultaneously, she could not travel beyond the void, nor could she possess absolute authority over existence.
She could create castles, objects, humans, and even worlds, but what was the purpose if the fundamental framework was a mere idea of falsehood?
She could traverse billions of zhang with a single step towards her front, but what was the purpose if there wasn’t an initial position to lead from? If she had no beginning nor resolution, wasn’t An Fei’s efforts and abilities quite literally, just a dream?
The young girl’s mouth dropped open in a blank stare of perplexity and confusion, her mind grinding to a literal halt in the emptiness of the void that had consumed her dream.
–
When An Fei had fallen asleep in the boudoir of the Sanctum, the cloud of golden light hovering above her body immediately leaped into action.
The cluster extended several threads that forced aside the bedcurtains, enclosing the young girl in a dense cocoon of brilliant golden light.
An Fei’s countenance immediately revealed a pleased and comfortable expression, her lips raised into a quirky grin as she unconsciously stretched due to the pleasant numbing sensation that raced through her body.
The cocoon of golden light’s surface revealed a gentle vibration, rippling and caving inwards due to a mysterious pressure.
The cloud of brilliant light gradually began to resonate with the cocoon’s fluctuations, enveloping the boudoir with an unusual and tensed atmosphere.
With each ripple that dashed across its surface, the golden cocoon shrank by a centimeter, contracting around An Fei’s body.
The radiance emitted from its surface increased with each contraction, transforming the dim surroundings into the middle of the day.
In just a few moments, the cocoon had withdrawn to reside a centimeter above the young girl’s delicate skin, the golden shell having solidified into a physical manifestation that encapsulated the young girl’s body.
The ripples raging across its surface increased in frequency and violence, and the divine essence forming the golden cocoon began to warp at an astonishing pace.
The cloud of golden light hovering nearby released a crisp shockwave of concentrated divine essence, releasing an orbital halo of light that permeated the atmosphere of the boudoir.
The cocoon hummed in response, the ripples and distortions on its surface converging into a singular entity.
Whoosh!
“AH!”
The cocoon trembled for a final time, before compressing itself into a single point.
The golden light penetrated through An Fei’s skin to coalesce near her heart, eradicating the coiled string of spiritual essence into fragmented threads.
The young girl’s eyes snapped open as she released a heart-rending shriek of pain, her back arching backwards in an attempt to avoid the agony.
The scarlet irises reflected empty pools devoid of light, and stared towards the ceiling with a dull gaze.
An Fei was still confined in her amusingly intricate and painful dream, and her physical body was to be consigned into absolute torture for the following hours.
The golden cocoon had vanished into the young girl’s body, an impossibly fine bead replacing the previous string of spiritual essence coiled around the heart.
The cloud hovering overhead hummed as melodious bells reverberated from inside, the golden light emitted from its formless body increasing in intensity.
Then, with neither the preparation nor consent from the young girl, the golden cloud plummeted downwards to pierce through An Fei’s heart!
Bang!
The Sanctum quivered in a myriad of emotions the instant the cloud had merged into the young girl’s body, the circulating current of divine essence agitated to a state of constant boiling and chaos.
The sky-blue crystal that constructed the walls, floor, and ceiling of the Sanctum simultaneously erupted with a dazzling radiance, the brilliant light bathing the entire mysterious plane into the bastion of the sun!
The dim lighting had been reversed into eternal day, even though both the sun and moon were neither present nor permitted entry into the sanctuary of peace and tranquility.
The golden cloud gathered near the young girl’s heart, forming a dense ring that encircled the miniscule bead positioned at the center of the dual valves.
The ring released a faint aura of serenity and tranquility, calming An Fei’s body into a relaxed and slumbering state.
The bead flashed with a barely perceptible brilliance, an invisible pulse of divine essence racing through the young girl’s body to establish connection with the Sanctum.
Tendrils of golden light extricated themselves from the crystalline structures to coalesce into a solid beam that hovered directly above the young girl’s body.
The pillar stood at the mighty height of seven meters in height, and three meters in diameter.
The surface of the pillar was decorated by a spanning sea of inscriptions of an unknown and archaic language, the symbols nullifying all light and existence within its vicinity as they released an independent aura of piety and forbearance.
Unlike the cloud of golden light and the initial stages of the cocoon, the pillar of divine essence was completely solid.
Each molecule integrated into the pillar had been fused to its neighboring particles with an unbreakable bond, compelled by the Sanctum to only exist as a solid pillar of divine essence, and never to dissipate.
The radiance emitted from the pillar fluctuated at an irregular rhythm, bestowing the boudoir into a bath of golden light reflected in an infinite quantity of independent hues.
The bead at the center of An Fei’s heart pulsed twice, and the surface began to reveal a dazzling radiance, capable of dwarfing the brightest star that dared to hang in the sky.
A final pulse of divine essence, and the ring gradually began to rotate with the bead serving as the central attraction.
Shua!
The pillar of solidified golden light sank into An Fei’s body, directly merging with the ring and the bead within her heart.
The solid structure boasting of incomparable durability appeared to vanish into the atmosphere as it passed through the young girl’s skin.
Centimeter by centimeter, the pillar descended as though a malicious tribulation dispatched by the heavens to torment its bearer to the bitter resolution.
At certain intervals, the pillar halted its descent for several moments, before resuming its journey, albeit with a slower speed.
When the pillar of golden light’s presence could not be detected any further, the Sanctum shivered with a giddy aura seeping from its structures.
The loose strands of golden light withdrew to their respective shelter, restoring the ablaze sanctuary to its tranquility.
Deep within An Fei’s chest, the infinitesimally small bead pulsed once with a powerful wave of divine essence, then twice, then a third time…
