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Chapter 251: Dao Vision of Space
🕑 Added 2023-08-04 17:36:02 +0000 UTCJack floated in space. He was an incorporeal ghost, a figment of imagination that may or may not be real.
Endless darkness surrounded him on all sides. Stars shimmered in the distance, so far away that even an immortal’s lifetime wouldn’t be enough to approach them. The silence was almost deafening.
In this endless void, one figure stood alone. It was a woman with eyes the color of sunset and dark robes that floated soulessly in the absence of air. Her skin was pale, her features slim, and her long hair as dark as her robes as it fell over them.
Her gaze, however, was intense.
Jack inspected her.
Vampire, Level ??? (C-Grade)
Faction: Dead Lands (A-Grade)
It was the first time he read about an A-Grade faction, but that wasn’t the most shocking part.
All three of Jack’s Dao Visions so far had contained C-Grades. The bald man who’d easily annihilated a skyscraper-sized monster with a single punch, the bare-chested man who’d faced an entire city of cultivators, and now this woman.
However, there was something different about this one.
Maybe it was because Jack had begun to approach this level of power, or maybe her level was just higher than the others. Whatever the case, as he laid eyes on her, he felt a power of such volume it was incomparable to the two C-Grade men in the other visions. Her mere presence enriched the surrounding Dao. The world was bowing before her might, spontaneously manifesting Daos more compatible to hers in the emptiness of space.
Or, rather, it was exactly this emptiness that radiated in waves from the woman, coloring the world around her like the golden touch of Midas.
Facing her, Jack felt like he was back at the Integration Tournament, where he received the planetary overseer’s pressure as a mere F-Grade. She was a creature far above and beyond anything he’d ever experienced before—a God.
The only possible exception was Elder Sophina, who had never let her aura show in front of Jack. Old Man Spirit, too. Though Jack had seen him struck down by the heavenly tribulation, that was hardly a normal occurrence. His power remained an enigma.
Suddenly, the woman moved. She reached out towards the void with both hands. An expression of deep concentration was plastered on her face.
Jack instantly erased all other thoughts and watched with rapt attention.
The woman’s hands moved slowly, yet steadily. Like she was confirming her progress with every inch forward. At some point, she closed her fingers around nothing and twisted.
The world danced around Jack. Instantly, he was lost. The woman was simultaneously right in front of him and far away; he could see her from different angles, like he had eyes everywhere. Even he, himself, was warped, his limbs stretching and contorting without him feeling anything wrong.
He remained uninjured, but he couldn’t tell if that was part of the woman’s magic or a result of being an ethereal body in a Dao Vision.
However, he knew what she was doing; he could sense it clearly, a calling that emerged from the depths of his soul.
She was manipulating space.
Jack had a relevant Dao Skill, Space Walk, but he didn’t understand how it worked. He knew nothing about space. It was the System that guided him to use it. Jack simply willed it to happen, and then he suddenly broke through space to teleport up to a mile away.
This woman’s manipulation was far more elaborate. If space was clay, all Jack could do was punch it, while this woman shaped it freely into anything she wished.
He struggled to maintain his concentration while his body was warped beyond his control. The woman remained deeply focused. She moved her hands as if molding clay, making tiny movements that somehow destabilized the entire area. The rise of a finger could make her invisible, shrink her, or enlarge her. It could turn Jack into spaghetti or a donut.
Jack kept his Dao perception activated for as long as he could, but it was flooded. He was assaulted by tremendous waves of Dao. Not because the woman emanated anything, but because her every tiny movement created tsunamis in the ambient Dao, like it was such a delicate force that it responded to her prods with great exaggeration.
When Jack used the ambient Dao, it was like pushing an oar through sand. Every inch was an achievement. When this woman did it, her control was so precise that a gentle flick could upturn entire sand dunes, achieving the same results as Jack with a hundred times less effort. The Dao was bending over backward to accommodate her.
Due to all these Dao waves, as well as the rampant space manipulation all around him, Jack could understand very little. His Dao perception was overwhelmed and useless. He was lost underwater without a sense of direction. His only source of information was the curvature of light, which he could glimpse through the changes he witnessed in the woman’s form. Light always traveled in a straight line through space—so, if he saw it curved, that was because space itself was curved.
However, Jack had a feeling that, despite everything around him being warped, the woman herself was not. Through the multiple angles she showed him, he never saw her body change shape. She rested in an oasis of calmness amidst a storm that extended who knows how far.
Jack dared to look backward. All the stars were dancing as space rippled like a pond. His Dao perception was locked around himself, so he had no way of knowing how far the woman’s influence stretched, but something told him it was a large, large area.
Nauja had once called C-Grades Continent Crushers. Jack had never really believed that. Only now, sensing the power of what was undoubtedly a top C-Grade, did he really comprehend how long the road of cultivation was. And he was blown away by awe.
A gentle sigh echoed through the dancing darkness. “Still not enough.”
Suddenly, space was drawn back to its natural form like a spring uncoiling. Jack was warped in reverse so hard he lost his train of thought. He caught a glimpse of the woman’s dark brows creased into a frown. She was staring right at him—or, rather, through him. It didn’t feel like she could really see him, but more like she was inspecting something occupying the same space as him.
Jack felt her attention clamp down around him like a steel vise. He lost his breath.
The woman’s eyes shone like she’d figured something out, and her frown deepened. “My Dao belongs to me,” she declared, her voice a divine decree. “Begone.”
She waved a hand. Jack felt space collapse around him. For the first time, he was afraid for himself in a Dao Vision. He felt himself shatter.
In the next moment, he was alone in his cultivation chamber, sweating buckets, his heart racing. “What the hell?” was all he managed to say. Nevermind that woman’s extreme control over space and the Dao—how had she noticed him? He was in a Dao Vision. What the hell?
He didn’t even know that was possible.
Then again, what is a Dao Vision? he wondered.
It wasn’t fake images. Shol had confirmed that the bald man in his first Dao Vision was one of the Exploding Sun’s founders. Then, could the System be watching and recording interesting applications of the Dao to hand out later as Dao Visions? Was it watching him, too? Would someone see a Dao Vision of Jack Rust in the future?
And, if it was recording him, what else was it doing with those recordings? What else could it do? Could it steal his Dao?
The ramifications of the woman’s final words rained down on Jack. He felt vulnerable. Was the System watching his every move, recording him, and using those recordings for its own benefit? Was he just a mouse in its cage?
No, he quickly calmed himself, thinking back to what he already knew. It can’t be watching everything. When we were in the Ancient ruins, the System didn’t know about it until we scanned something. It didn’t see me in the Ancient Trial. When I later used the Life Drop to fight that chameleon, or against Old Man Spirit, the System couldn’t have seen me, because if it had, it would have set out a bounty for me like it did for the ruins.
So, it’s not watching at all times. But it can watch. The space woman showed me that. Come to think of it, she caught the System watching, so there has to be some kind of hint. Like a Dao camera…or something. Maybe it’s monitoring high-level cultivators when it thinks they’re about to showcase something interesting?
Then, it looks like I’m not that strong yet…or, at least, I wasn’t while in the E-Grade. Now… How could I know?
Jack spread out his Dao perception, scanning every cubic inch of air with his full awareness, but found nothing.
It can’t be watching all the time, he finally decided. But maybe, when I’m about to showcase my powers, it will…so I have to be careful with the Life Drop. Even when there is no one around, I cannot use it. Not unless I absolutely need to.
Jack finally raised his gaze. He remembered the words of Nauja’s father, the tribe chief: “Don’t trust the System.”
He must have known.
This thought then led him to the Black Hole Church. They were against the System. Against the Immortals, who created it. What more did they know? How did they stay outside the System’s surveillance?
And, in the end, what should he reply to their standing offer? The Sage had invited Jack to join them. Should he?
The more he learned about the System, the more he leaned towards yes…but he still knew very little. Could he discover more without aligning himself with a major force?
Then again, he’d already done that. He was a member of the Exploding Sun.
I have to ask Shol about the System and all these things, Jack resolved himself. The thought of anyone being able to watch and record him without his permission—even his Dao—was more unnerving than he’d like to admit. I suppose it is a fair trade for what the System offers me…but I must know the truth.
First, however, comes training. If I am to somehow escape the System’s surveillance, I will need the ability to use my full strength without it. Specifically, my Dao Skills. I should rely on the System as little as possible. I know it’s doable.
Between cultivating, sparring, and meditating to expand his Dao, Jack had almost forgotten about this part. He’d actually discovered it back on Trial Planet—the System helped him with his Skills and Dao Skills, making them far easier to use than they were supposed to be. In return, his mastery over these skills became incomplete.
The System accelerated his growth greatly to a point, with the price being that he cut corners.
The way Jack had found to combat this was to use his skills inside his soul world. The System didn’t have access—it was simply him, Copy Jack, and the Dao. Practicing there would teach him how to use his skills by himself, without the System’s assistance. He could slowly cut out the middle-man. It would also raise his mastery over his Dao Skills, and, by extension, their tier and power.
And the first one he would work on was Space Walk. It was a skill granted to him directly by his Class, but he didn’t have the first idea of how it worked. Thankfully, he now had a Dao Vision that could teach him about space—the first step to mastering his skill.
And who knows what other benefits it would bring him.
Therefore, Jack closed his eyes again, focused on the dark crystal sphere, and re-entered the Dao Vision. Space was an extremely useful Dao. He needed to understand it. And he would explore this vision until he did.
Comments
Alexikon
Space is one of the Daos that can eliminate one of Jack's weaknesses. With it he can probably develop a punch that hits targets far away.
