Chapter 28: Barrier of the Two Realms

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Su Ye realized the meaning meditation had for him after he underwent his basic meditation studies. Meditation linked his mind and body closer together and made them intertwined, which allowed him to more closely observe his body and, by extension, observe himself.

Su Ye realized that when he lived in a society with an explosion of information, everything he went through such as studying, working, being promoted, earning money, or being successful, were all things defined by the outside world. They were all external demands.

He was the root of everything, but he had never truly sensed and scrutinized himself.

After undergoing meditation, Su Ye’s mind and body once again established a connection.

From then on, Su Ye had completely given up on his thoughts on meeting external demand. Instead, he turned to look at his internal demands and started to chase after what he truly wanted, his original intentions.

After that, Su Ye’s meditative abilities improved quickly by leaps and bounds. He finally completed the bitter training of Vipassana Meditation and successfully reached an extremely high level.

Su Ye was not objecting to Niedern’s methods, but he knew that the visualization method of meditation was extremely hard to pick up at the start, and a person who had a higher level of concentration would have no problems picking it up.

However, a problem would occur if the thoughts of the meditating person were overly active and scattered. It was very likely that an accident would occur during the process of meditation.

Su Ye had had a small accident in the past, but he fixed it immediately after he noticed the problem. Only that way could he prevent himself from stepping down the wrong path.

On the Blue Star, many of the guided meditations stopped using such an overly fictitious guidance method. They mostly made use of soothing music, then started by getting people to sense their body and be in the moment. That was the foundation of mindfulness.

Su Ye split meditation into three levels.

The first level was sensing the body and linking the body and soul.

The second level was split into three smaller levels: Understanding oneself, validating oneself, and scrutinizing oneself. Su Ye was currently at this level.

The third level was surpassing oneself. However, Su Ye had never seen someone like that, as truly surpassing oneself would instead make a person extraordinarily humble. The person would feel that they had not surpassed themselves. However, one thing always held—a person who had surpassed themselves would always have extraordinary achievements.

After he tossed away the messy thoughts in his brain, Su Ye first took a deep breath. He then breathed through his mouth, ensuring that he spent the same amount of time breathing in as he did breathing out. Su Ye took three breaths like that before he shut his mouth.

Some meditation systems always supported breathing in through the nose and exhaling through the mouth. Su Ye felt that these methods went against the rhythm of the human body and would even weaken the breathing capabilities of the nose. Thus, he did not adopt these breathing methods.

After that, Su Ye completely blocked out Niedern’s guidance and started to use the technique of Body Scan Meditation that he most commonly used.

Su Ye first focused his attention near his eyes. He felt the sensation of his eyes, then consciously relaxed.

Then, Su Ye moved his attention to his brain, sensed his brain, got his brain to quieten down, then relaxed.

Following that, Su Ye started from his hair, and after he sensed it and relaxed, he got his attention to move slowly through his body from top to bottom. His scalp, ears, forehead, nose… Finally, to his heels, soles, and toes.

Throughout this process, he would occasionally have distracting thoughts, such as the teacher’s voice, his worry about the future, or Hutton’s revenge. However, Su Ye did not judge these thoughts, nor did he become anxious and deem that his meditation abilities were not strong enough. All he did was classify these thoughts, ascertain what they were, then he threw them out of his mind.

At this moment, Su Ye knew that he was meditating.

Through the Body Scan Meditation, Su Ye established a closer connection between his body and his mind.

Then, Su Ye no longer sensed his body. He started to empty his mind and turn everything into nothingness.

Everything turned into nothingness, and Su Ye almost forgot that he was meditating.

Sometime later, Su Ye still had his eyes closed, but they were now moving slightly.

In an unknown place in the nether, at a place only the mind could reach, a thought appeared. It seemed as though another Su Ye had appeared.

The new Su Ye was like a supernatural existence. He stood at the highest peak of the world and galaxy.

He existed, but also felt as though he did not.

He was independent but was also connected in mind and body.

This was, to the mind or soul, a strange state of surpassing oneself.

This was his own deity.

This was a strange, newly-born mental state. He was scrutinizing the meditating Su Ye, scrutinizing himself.

At this moment, Su Ye once again realized that he was meditating, but it was already completely different from when he first started.

Observing oneself.

Boom…

Su Ye suddenly felt the place shaking, the world collapsing.

If he was still a beginner, Su Ye would have been immediately jolted awake. However, now that his meditation was at such a high level, he only felt a ripple through his mind, body, and soul. He quickly returned to normal.

Soon after, the tremors stopped.

Su Ye suddenly “saw” the color of the sky in the pitch-black world change. It slowly turned dark blue.

Countless holes appeared in the dark blue sky. It was as if a sky of dark clouds had been pierced full of holes by the rain. Sunlight shone down through the holes.

Even though his mental state during meditation was extremely strong, Su Ye was still dazed.

“Didn’t Niedern say that I would see a dozen holes at the very most? Why does it seem as if there are millions of holes, if not more?” Su Ye thought.

Su Ye then recalled Niedern’s words: choose the nearest one if your abilities were not strong enough, choose the furthest one if they were.

Su Ye thought for a moment. If he was logical, he would choose a hole in the middle. However, if he was even more logical and factored in the sacrificial altar, it seemed as though he could choose the furthest hole.

Su Ye decided on the most logical path.

Su Ye suddenly realized that meditation on the World of Deities was a little different from that on the Blue Star.

On the Blue Star, even though his mental state during his meditation felt supernatural and he could scrutinize himself, it was contained within his mind and body, formless and without physical substance.

They were like thoughts that could not be captured.

However, his mental state now had a specific form.

Under the dark blue Barrier of the Two Realm, there was a small, translucent man suspended in the air, his appearance identical to Su Ye.

The little Su Ye looked at himself and gasped in wonder. He then thought for a moment, clenched his fists, and extended his right forearm. He kept his left arm slightly bent and pushed both his fists toward the front.

“Fly!”

With this thought, his mental body immediately flew under the dark blue sky toward the furthest hole.

Su Ye felt light flash past his eyes. There were flickers of divine splendor. He had flown out the concentrated Divine Light Sector in the blink of an eye and entered a pitch-black environment.

Su Ye felt a little unaccustomed. He turned to look around, only to realize that the galaxy-like sector had turned into a minuscule dot in space.

“Was I that fast?” Su Ye thought for a moment. He continued flying forward under the dark blue sky.

Su Ye felt as though he was about to turn into light.

At the start, he could still see a few smaller holes, but at the very end, there was only the solid Barrier of the Two Realms and the perpetual darkness under him. He could not see any Lights of the Divine Realm.

“Did I overshoot it?”

At this moment, a gentle voice rang out. The voice seemed to have mysterious power and revolved around the ears of Su Ye’s mental body.

“Students, today’s meditation class ends here. I have already lifted the spell. Now, do not suddenly open your eyes. Start to imagine yourself slowly returning to Plato Academy and onto this field. Then slowly open your eyes, slowly open…”

Su Ye immediately imagined himself leaving the Barrier of the Two Realms and slowly returned to the field.

Su Ye opened his eyes and realized that the sky had turned orange. The sun was about to set.

“Puff… Puff…” Loud snores rang out.