Chapter 6. Merging with the Magic Cube
In a dimly-lit room illuminated by an oil lump, Lin Xiang who was standing opened his eyes. He panted heavily and fear could still be seen in his eyes. His hair and clothes were drenched in cold sweat.
A painful sensation came from his throat, covering him in cold sweat in half a second. His body was still wracked with agony of his throat being ripped apart.
Even though Lin Xiang was no longer in the grassy plain, the after-effects of pain still remained.
Moments later, Lin Xiang finally recovered his senses.
His eyes looked at the familiar environment with surprise, before they reflected understanding. He let out a sigh of relief, 'In the end I didn't really die. I was killed inside that space and then I was kicked outside.'
Lin Xiang recounted that strange final scene on the grassy plains.
That one-meter tall rabbit was way too fast for him to handle. Although he managed to slash it once with his knife, it could only be considered to be a fluke. In turn, the rabbit simply slaughtered him.
Lin Xiang slightly narrowed his eyes. In this world, even the weak first-level vicious beasts have combat strength equal to ordinary peak 2nd Stage Martial Artists. It seemed that the white rabbit was at least at this level.
Even with a spear Lin Xiang would not have the qualifications to even trade blows with it.
'Ever since I came to this world I have been training hard in martial arts for several years, cultivated for three years and already achieved superhuman levels of strength and speed that are not possible for humans back on Earth, yet during my first life and death battle I still got owned by a rabbit…' Lin Xiang thought inwardly. However, he didn't feel humiliated and was only glad that he didn't truly die.
Perhaps he would continue to muddle over how painful it was when that vicious white rabbit was ripping out his throat, but at this time he was surprised as he realized that the mysterious sphere had disappeared from his hand.
Huh? Did it merge with his body?
Thinking about it, Lin Xiang inspected himself while searching for the mysterious sphere.
After a while he discovered that there seemed to be a new dimension inside his head. However, it was only empty space.
Lin Xiang called out inwardly for the mysterious sphere to appear in his hand, and he also called to go back into the dimension of the grassy plains, but there was no reaction.
He then searched around the room and soon found a small hand mirror. After looking at his own reflection, he noticed that now there was a small mark on his forehead. It was a dark-gray circle located in between his eyebrows.
Lin Xiang instantly realized that it must be the mark of the mysterious sphere. Fortunately, that mark was rather tiny and looked natural like a birthmark. It didn't look suspicious and only caused him to look more mysterious.
Lin Xiang tried to enter the dimension in his forehead, but as a result his soul force was only exploring empty space. He continued exploring his body and the empty space for a few minutes, but eventually stopped.
At that time he sat down and tried to recall everything that he remembered about the Pocket Hunting Dimension novel.
In that novel, the protagonist was able to enter a special dimension once every day. Inside that dimension he would hunt giant rabbits and other beasts that dropped orbs of light when killed. He seemed to be able to stay there for a full day or until he died while no time passed in reality.
The orbs of light that he got from the inside could then be used to rapidly increase his strength and cultivation.
The protagonist also had a special small dimension inside his mindspace which was used to store these orbs of light. The dimension in Lin Xiang's mind seemed to serve this very purpose.
Lin Xiang thought back to that novel, trying to recall everything, but unfortunately there was not much. He had only read the beginning of that novel and dropped it soon after because, even though it started as a fun and interesting storry, it got too terrible too quickly. The good and fun part about it was the cheat item, but just this wasn't enough for Lin Xiang to keep reading when the main character was incredibly retarded and unlikable beta cuck...
Lin Xiang let out a breath. If the mysterious sphere had the same function as the cheat in the Pocket Hunting Dimension novel, then it could be something incredible. He decided to call it the Magic Sphere.
However, first he needed to raise his strength by a lot if he wanted to take advantage of the Magic Sphere. As he is now he wasn't even able to kill a single rabbit inside the special dimension!
With this in mind, Lin Xiang thought of the Magic Cube. He wondered what Mo Eversnow's reaction could be to the Magic Sphere, if she knew something about it and if she even existed…
Lin Xiang's mind was buzzing with activity, but he soon understood that the best and only thing that he could do right now was to go to sleep and hope that the Magic Cube would bind with him.
He needed to raise his strength, and to that end he needed a powerful cultivation technique.
Lin Xiang changed his outer layer of clothes, meditated for a while to adjust his breathing and calm down his mind, and then slumped on the bed.
The bed that Grand Clarity Pavilion had prepared for its staff was very comfortable, more comfortable than any bed that Lin Xiang had slept on since he came to this world.
While chanting a heart mantra that he was well familiar with, his consciousness eventually drifted off. He fell asleep.
In his sleep, Lin Xiang had a strange dream.
He dreamt of a resplendent palace made of jade. Each pavilion was made of jade, its level of artisanship staggeringly high.
He had never seen such a beautiful palace even in movies back on Earth.
At one moment, the scenery suddenly transformed and the resplendent palace collapsed.
Countless figures had appeared in the skies above. From amongst the countless figures, streams of light shot out. The streams of light were beautiful to behold; however, when it descended upon the lands, it caused the lands and mountains to be decimated.
The lands were split apart while the skies were covered with demonic flames. A huge spell array covering a surface area of hundreds of li appeared out of thin air and a multitudinous number of mysterious symbols covered the entire sky.
A war on this scale was something that Lin Xiang could never have imagined. Because he was in a dream state and not fully conscious, he watched all of it unfold half-consciously.
Cultivators! These were cultivators of an unimaginable strength. This level of strength was something that those at the Physical Training Stage and Houtian Stage could not hope to compete against.
Every person within this imagery were beings that Lin Xiang would previously consider nothing but fantasy characters.
After that, the scene changed and turned into a world of snow and ice. A frightened looking beautiful woman held onto a one cubic-inch cube, facing off against ten thousand figures standing on the skies.
This woman was actually standing just less than three feet from Lin Xiang. Even though he didn't feel that it was reality, Lin Xiang was able to feel an extremely powerful yet gentle and holy aura radiating from the woman's body!
Seeing that the beautiful woman held a cube that looked exactly like the Magic Cube found in the stomach of the Goldback Pangolin, Lin Xiang snapped out of his trance.
Lin Xiang realized that he was dreaming and became conscious of everything. Watching the woman, he thought in shock, 'She must be Mo Eversnow!'
'Mo Eversnow' spoke a series of words, but the words spoken were vague. Lin Xiang could only make out two words – Magic Cube!
"Hong!"
An explosion!
The space itself was rent apart, the skies were twisted into a raging whirlpool with seemingly infinite power, sweeping up all of Heaven and Earth.
Everywhere the whirlpool reached, mountains would collapse and skies would crumble. The icy glacier was instantly transformed into nothingness and the ten thousand figures were reduced into dust. Their souls were fragmented and absorbed into the cube!
As for Lin Xiang, he found himself standing in the middle of the whirlpool, witnessing with his own eyes as everything was absorbed into the whirlpool. Everything around him was reduced to ashes while he himself remained unaffected.
This feeling was simply indescribable and unforgettable.
Lin Xiang felt himself drenched in cold sweat.
At this moment, he suddenly found that he had arrived at an incredibly large and dark space. Here, various specks of light hovered in suspension, resembling pieces of broken mirror.
The various specks were of varying sizes, some big and some small. The bigger ones were as big as a palm, while the smaller ones were only as big as a grain of rice. In the middle of all those specks of light, there was a sphere of light, which emitted a soft glow, a gentle and sacred glow.
Inexplicably, Lin Xiang felt that the atmosphere around this sphere of light was very similar to that of the woman he had seen earlier. No, it was exactly the same!
'This sphere of light must be Mo Eversnow's soul,' he thought.
Lin Xiang recalled that the woman had turned into a stream of white light and was absorbed into the Magic Cube right after the explosion happened…
Lin Xiang knew.
Mo Eversnow turned into a sphere of light, while the various specks of light should be fragments of souls of the various experts absorbed by the Magic Cube after they have been crushed by the spatial storm.
Brushing these thoughts away, Lin Xiang focused his eyes and peered into the dark space that was littered with countless specks of light.
After hesitating for a while, he extended his hand and gently touched a speck of light which was both the smallest and closest to him.
He assumed that this speck of light was especially prepared for him by Mo Eversnow, being so close to him. He did not dare to choose anything bigger either.
Upon contact, the speck of light instantly flowed into Lin Xiang's fingertip.
Lin Xiang had no time to respond at all as his head felt as though a heavy hammer had suddenly struck down on it viciously. He let out a cry and fell to the ground.
"Ahh!"
Lin Xiang tightly gripped his head; he felt as though there was something desperately invading his mind. The piercing pain caused Lin Xiang to wish he could crack open his skull and remove whatever was causing the pain!
He could not resist! Lin Xiang felt as though he was about to be devoured!
Right, the soul fragment was trying to devour his consciousness!
Lin Xiang snorted in disdain. Like hell he would let himself be devoured.
The thing threatening him was only a small fragment of a soul. In addition, its master had already perished. How could he lose to a minor consciousness that has no master?
Lin Xiang clenched his fists, his nails digging deep into his flesh and blood: I will not yield! I will not lose with an opportunity right before my eyes!
His goal was to become an unbeatable existence, how could he lose at the very first step just because of some pain?
Lin Xiang didn't know how to deal with that fragmented consciousness that had no owner, so all he could do was grit his teeth and persevere with everything he had.
Various disorderly images flowed into his sea of consciousness, causing him to undergo an inhuman amount of pain, threatening to render him unconscious.
However, he kept gritting his teeth, maintaining his hold onto the vestiges of his consciousness and holding on to his unwavering will. He knew he could not fall there. Especially not now that he received the Magic Cube and the Magic Sphere when his true journey would begin.
After an unknown amount of time, the severe headache faded.
At last, Lin Xiang woke up from his dream. He opened his eyes to see that it was early morning of the next day.
At that moment Lin Xiang's body was drenched in cold sweat and his bed sheets were soaked.
Observing all this, Lin Xiang felt excited. It was obvious that during the dream he had made contact with the Magic Cube and Mo Eversnow, and had absorbed his first soul fragment.
He owned the real Magic Cube!
As Lin Xiang thought of this, his face suddenly changed: these memories…
He learned a lot of new things!
Arrays, inscriptions, engravings, various bizarre symbols, mysterious characters, plain looking and powerful weapon techniques…
'After absorbing the memories of the ownerless soul, I learned many new powerful techniques from the Upper Realm. Let's see what I know,' Lin Xiang thought and concentrated on what he had learned.
What was certain though was that his knowledge was now certainly unimaginably valuable.
Although the soul was devoured by Lin Xiang's sea of consciousness, the memories were complex. They were not something that Lin Xiang could recall as and how he liked. Those memories needed to be further consolidated and integrated.
While doing so, Lin Xiang ignored the memories regarding arrays and inscriptions. These memories were a little fragmented and disorderly.
Lin Xiang held little interest toward engraving inscriptions at this moment.
There was something else that he desperately needed first, something he desired for… A powerful cultivation technique!
He kept searching through his sea of consciousness and finally held his breath as he found it: Body Transformation Formula – Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians!
It was a peak Body Transformation cultivation technique of the Divine Realm, the same one that Lin Ming practiced in the novel!