Chapter 556: The Prototype of the Seventh Sense in Body Cultivation
After realizing that coming here early wasn’t a good thing, I followed Jiao Xiaoshuang’s recommendation and went to an upper level of the hotel called the Book Lounge.
Just as she said, there weren’t many people here, but there were tall bookshelves in rows, and the facilities were quite complete. As for the quality of the books inside… after I casually cataloged the content of one shelf, I found it wasn’t very high. Many were similar to those in the academy library, while only some popular magazines had relatively new content.
However, I didn’t come here to catalog these books.
Moreover, I still had an entire collection from the Witch Academy Library I hadn’t read yet. Sister Qiong was also about to finish uploading the research materials on the Grand Wisdom Enlightenment Spell, so I had more important information to review.
After I found a place to sit down, Jiao Xiaoshuang asked me if I wanted something to drink.
“Black coffee, less sugar.”
“Okay, I’ll go get that for you.”
Watching her leave, I took out my Box of Books and flipped through some blank pages. Knowledge Power wrapped around the Great Knowledge Tree and brought forth research materials about the Grand Wisdom Enlightenment Spell onto the blank pages.
The characters floated quickly because I read rapidly. To an ordinary person, my reading speed might seem like flipping through a book, but for me… it was still too slow!
My understanding and acceptance ability was still too slow, which limited my reading speed and prevented me from instantly grasping the information within the Great Knowledge Tree.
This was a serious problem I realized as the Great Knowledge Tree grew!
When it was still the Knowledge Tree, or even during its prototype stage as the Memory Shelf, I didn’t feel much. It was like having an auxiliary brain; I could instantly memorize whatever I thought of.
Although I could accomplish something similar now, in order to prevent an overload of information from impacting my perception, I had developed a sad “cognitive barrier.” When I sought the cognitive information I needed, even with the help of Knowledge Shadow, I had to take a moment to find it, and the information felt very unfamiliar after being converted into memory.
It felt as if it wasn’t mine.
There is, in fact, a rather blunt method to resolve this, which is to calm down and continuously consolidate this new knowledge.
Originally, this problem could have been solved this way, but with the speed of information acquisition increasing, I found my learning and understanding speed couldn’t keep up with the acquisition speed.
So, for me, the information of “having yet being unknown” would keep growing until it overwhelmed me.
This should be the trouble of happiness, right?
In fact, I had discussed this with several witch sisters, even with Sister Bai, but… no one had a good way to deal with it; they couldn’t even understand my situation.
The only enlightening conversation I might have had was when I talked to Sister Qiong, where I inquired about a question.
Can a cognitive firewall prevent an overflow of information when there’s no polluted information?
Sister Qiong answered that it could, but that’s another matter compared to preventing polluted information with a firewall.
I always regarded this means as a breakthrough for the difficult situation I encountered, and I tried to build this cognitive firewall. However, after practical testing, this naïve fantasy didn’t help improve my cognitive efficiency; it merely visualized how long I could last while actively absorbing a lot of information, and it also dispersed my attention.
To enhance this ability, I needed to return to the most primitive state: the level of life.
The level of life truly determines many things, such as the threshold limit for accepting information. This is why senior students have stronger learning capabilities; it’s not an illusion, but a real situation.
However, I still didn’t know of any external means to enhance this level of life. Although having more Magic Sources increased the speed of witch transformation, the rate of this increase diminished as I progressed. So even if I had tens of thousands of Magic Sources, the speed of my transformation wouldn’t be many times faster compared to students from the same year.
As the saying goes, “it’s better to rely on oneself than on others.” I frequently talked with Knowledge Shadow.
This action is essentially conversing with my inner self. Many things are known deeply within, but the conscious mind subconsciously overlooks them. Making the conscious mind aware of what it has already understood is also a form of progress.
“Teacher Xiao Han, your coffee.”
“Thank you.” I took the coffee and thanked her, reminding her, “I’ll be here reading for a long time, probably until tomorrow. If you’re free, you can leave first.”
“No need. Senior Xing Anlei asked me to follow you. As long as you’re in this hotel, I naturally won’t leave. If my presence disturbs your reading, I’ll keep my distance.”
“I don’t mind that, but you have the right to leave whenever you want. Alright, I’m going to read now.”
After I said this, I cast a dual inside-out silence spell over my vicinity.
Because later, while reading or pondering problems, I would debate with Knowledge Shadow. I knew what I was doing, but to others, it might look like I was a fool or a madman.
The dual soundproofing conveniently solved this trouble; outsiders couldn’t hear my rambling, and I wouldn’t be disturbed by external sounds.
I took a careful sip of coffee and then said, “Let’s continue. Don’t keep saying I need time; who doesn’t know I need time? Don’t be like a riddle person.”
“Riddle person… Do you think so too? How coincidental, others think of you that way too.”
“Let’s not discuss others now; let’s talk business. You look like you’ve already seen through everything, yet don’t want to say it directly?”
“I said, the answer to the problem is simple. You lack time, and the root of everything is that you don’t have enough time. You’ve enrolled for too short a period but learned too much; your qualifications are too shallow, your experiences are too limited, yet you possess too much. Your understanding of knowledge can’t keep up, but the speed of acquiring knowledge is too fast…”
“Am I supposed to calm down?” I asked.
“Let me ask you a question. What do you think receiving information is? It’s still about slowly reading, practicing, and accepting it according to your cognition. You’re too impatient, swallowing whole without chewing. What’s the difference between that and letting knowledge pass through your brain only to fall away? Do you remember? Oh… you don’t need to remember. You should ask yourself if you understand!”
At this moment, the information on my Box of Books suddenly halted because I realized I was indeed reading too fast, leading me to still find the content I had previously viewed to be information.
This feeling was strange, as if I had a book in my head that I could take out to read the information anytime, but once I closed the book, I forgot the content. Yet when others asked me, I could still recite it all.
“So… who are you pretending to work hard for?” Knowledge Shadow’s words cut straight to my heart without mercy.
“What should I do then?”
“Read slowly.”
“Slowly?”
“Yes, are you unsure of how to read? For these first few pieces of information, read them once, summarize them, organize them, extract the key information, and then rephrase it in your own words. What you’re reading now is Sister Mei’s initial definition given to the Grand Wisdom Enlightenment Spell, which is the main research direction of the Great Spellbook.” Knowledge Shadow, at that moment, felt like the strictest teacher, teaching me step by step how to read and how to truly understand the content, not merely read.
I took quite a bit of time to comprehend the introductory content that Principal Mei had written and the thoughts and ideas she expressed.
Previously, I would only skim over these unimportant and informal content areas, but the information from the Great Knowledge Tree made me subconsciously feel that this was my memory, even though their nature differed greatly.
I began to adapt to this reading method, but… the learning efficiency felt even lower!
“Don’t worry about that. Just tell me, is this high-quality reading and learning useful! What are you so anxious about? You claim you don’t experience inner consumption, but aren’t you just in an inner conflict now? Why fear that so much information is piling up? The Great Knowledge Tree isn’t just for show!”
“The Great Knowledge Tree is already the Great Spellbook; its rank is high, but you! You’re just a student who has been enrolled for half a year! A teaching assistant is merely one of your roles. All the witch sisters view you differently only because they are witnessing the rise of a genius. You’re merely rising, not already risen! None of this can give you a +buff! It won’t change the fact that you’re just an ordinary you!”
“Recognize the gap between you and the Great Spellbook, the teaching assistant, and your identity. Don’t get complacent; you can’t even settle down to read now!”
After being lectured by Knowledge Shadow, my head lowered even more because I knew this was true. Knowledge Shadow was fulfilling her role, guiding me at the most critical moment.
“High-quality reading, huh…”
“If your mind is chaotic, there’s another method that can solve this unconscious inner consumption in one fell swoop; it’s also considered a… transitional method.”
“What method?” I asked eagerly.
“What’s the main inner conflict you’re facing now?”
“The contradiction between the ever-growing shared information from the Great Knowledge Tree and my lagging ability to learn and understand.”
“Exactly… We can use the prototype of the cognitive firewall you constructed, combined with the sealing technique Sister Natalie taught us, to seal specific cognitions to influence you, thus creating a temporary state of no inner consumption.”
“That… seems feasible!” I suddenly felt a spark of inspiration, realizing this was indeed an excellent idea.
But as Knowledge Shadow mentioned, this was a transitional method. Sealing was ultimately just sealing; I would still have to face it—the root cause of my inner conflict.
However, I could choose not to face it at the beginning until I become stronger, at which point I could ignore it. It was like the Sword God of Ten Li Slope. If I couldn’t beat you now, I would first hone myself to become more determined. The past inner consumption would seem like a joke.
Just like when I was in elementary school, forgetting to bring homework felt like the sky was falling, but now, looking back, it was just forgetting to bring homework.
“Anyway, we can talk about that later. Right now, the sealing technique offered by Natalie doesn’t involve sealing consciousness or memory, so it might not be practical right now~”
“Then why mention it!”
“I’m just providing a thought! And it’s a practical thought! Just focus on your reading, read seriously, and read with high quality! Don’t waste my good intentions…”
“What good intentions…” I pouted but continued to read according to this method.
Perhaps Knowledge Shadow’s comments earlier showed me a way to cope with inner consumption, as I now felt less anxious while reading.
Indeed… the root of inner consumption was still that I hadn’t found a solution yet. Now that I found the method, even if it couldn’t be implemented, I realized the situation of inner consumption had decreased significantly.
It was clear… that consciousness was indeed quite miraculous.
Time passed bit by bit as I gradually deepened my understanding of the Grand Wisdom Enlightenment Spell.
From the project’s conceptualization to the research approach, I still hadn’t touched upon any real research content but was continuously reflecting on thoughts and frameworks. I could feel this was a collision of inspiration with Principal Mei that transcended space and time—a spiritual communication beyond my current cognition.
This was also a form of expanding thought, and this was the true “broadening of knowledge.”
Only when I saw through Principal Mei’s irrelevant concepts to the main topic could I finally put down the book in my hands and slowly close my eyes.
I felt as if I had been reading for a long time. According to my current reading speed and the unconscious comparison, I had already been reading for a day and night…
Then, I closed the book. I felt everything around me shatter, returning to normal, and the soundproof spell dissipated.
I stood up and walked a few steps, realizing my body didn’t feel numb from prolonged sitting.
Reaching the window, I watched the setting sun, bringing with it the last bit of stubborn sunset glow, about to sink between the distant skyscrapers.
“Well… judging by the time, tomorrow it will be… Huh?”
I instinctively glanced at the recorded time on the Earth Vein log. This preview lasted two days, so it should be the second night now, with half a day left until the auction begins tomorrow.
But as I looked at the nearby recorded date…
“Half a day? How could only half a day have passed?” I took out my phone, looking at the date on it—it really was half a day!
Today was still the first day since I arrived at this hotel!
But… how could this be possible?
I knew how torturous reading could be. How could one day and night of studying possibly convert into only half a day…
That was impossible!
I took my reading so seriously, trying to understand the content so slowly, yet I had absorbed so much. Even with this simple calculation, half a day wasn’t nearly enough!
“I told you the issue was time; the root problem is simply your time shortage. You just haven’t found the right way to study. When you study earnestly, even time will come around for you.”
“What in the world is happening!” I turned to look at Knowledge Shadow beside me, genuinely unsure of what was wrong. This was not an illusion, it certainly wasn’t!
I felt like I had grasped a fragment of an opportunity, perhaps… just at the moment I finished reading, something had shattered.
“Since you don’t know, then just let it be for now—it’s good for you. Just know that in this extraordinary world, anything is possible. If you believe you can achieve it, then you can achieve it. But… being able to achieve it and daydreaming are two different things. So focus on your reading; time will find you.”
“Time… will find me… No, you still haven’t said anything. What can’t you say? Can I even keep secrets from myself?”
“Right, I can’t say it because this is something only you can know and understand. This is an inner to outer metamorphosis of… life and seriousness. Just like a chick breaking out of its shell; only when you break through yourself can you possess the power and potential to grow.”
Knowledge Shadow seemed indifferent, “I am your subconscious. The subconscious essentially cannot be described with language; many things cannot be perfectly conveyed with words. Language is merely an imperfect expression of your inner thoughts, more so an expression of emotions. You can do it; I know what that is, so you should know what that is too!”
“I… seem to understand…” I looked at the Box of Books in my hand and then glanced outside, where the last bit of soft sunset was about to set.
But at that moment, the final light seemed to pause… I could still feel the sunset slowly fading away, but it had slowed down…
It was as if the entire world pressed slow motion for my thoughts…
“Yes, this is the power you should master. It’s time to define what it is. When you define it… that’s when you truly touch it…”
“Speak… take your time… seize that fleeting opportunity! Don’t miss…” Knowledge Shadow was guiding me step by step, but she seemed to realize she was becoming impatient and quickly quieted down.
What she wanted to say was to not miss this opportunity, as if I did, this kind of state wouldn’t come again!
And I could feel that I seemed to be going through a metamorphosis, as if even speaking became difficult.
Yet I still listened carefully to Knowledge Shadow’s words.
Define it!
Then… command it!
“Time flows, senses do not stagnate.”
“This is… the power of body cultivation… I seem to understand, this is the prototype of the Seventh Sense of Body Cultivation: Sense of Time…”
