Chapter 133: Out-of-Body Consciousness

Sensing the condition of everyone’s bodies, Le Kai frowned slightly. It seemed he had thought things would be simpler than they were. The warriors had been cultivating a widely known foundational technique in the army—the Berserk Wolf Art. The people of the War Wolf Empire all emphasized physical cultivation, and nearly every technique bore the character “wolf” in its name, a clear sign of just how deeply they worshiped the Great Snow Wolf Emperor.

Although the Berserk Wolf Art sounded impressive, it was in fact merely a body-tempering method known throughout the War Wolf Empire. Even commoners could easily find a copy to practice. Most citizens of the empire had cultivated it from childhood, and after joining the army, they were exposed to an evolved version of the technique. Its influence had long since become deeply ingrained.

For the seven men to suddenly abandon a technique they had cultivated for decades and instead practice one that was entirely different and extremely extreme, disaster was almost inevitable.

The martial spirit of the seven soldiers now revealed itself. Even as the backlash made them spit blood repeatedly, they still gritted their teeth, took another pill, and resumed their cultivation without hesitation. They carried themselves with the determination that they would either succeed or die trying.

“Sister Xianxian, will this become dangerous if it continues? Things seem somewhat different from what we expected,” Le Kai asked worriedly.

“Danger is inevitable,” Xianxian replied. “But the current intensity is still within what they can endure. Their bodies will simply suffer.”

“This isn’t a solution. We’ve been too aggressive. Is there a better way? Our goal is to help them improve, not torture them.”

“There is, actually. With the strength of your spiritual cultivation, you can completely control and guide them, forcibly completing the excavation and alteration of their meridians.”

Le Kai stared at her in surprise. “Spiritual power can be used that way?”

“Of course. When spiritual power is cultivated to its ultimate level, consciousness becomes almost tangible. It is even possible to cooperate with that consciousness, leave the body, enter someone else’s, and seize control of their mind.”

“Body possession? Does such a realm truly exist?”

Le Kai paused briefly, then felt relieved. Wasn’t his alchemy-obsessed master himself someone who had lived for several thousand years? If one cultivated to the ultimate level, then rebirth through possession probably was not merely a myth.

“Would doing this have any effect on them?” Le Kai remained deeply concerned about the aftereffects.

“It would have some effect. They must trust you completely before your consciousness can enter them. If they resist or hesitate in any way, both sides could suffer backlash. Given the strength of your spiritual power, if that happened, even if you survived, they would certainly die beyond any hope of recovery.”

Le Kai was startled, and at last understood how terrifying spiritual power could be.

When he explained his idea to everyone, he had not expected them to raise the slightest objection. Le Kai had saved all their lives; if he wanted to harm them, there would be no need for him to resort to tricks.

For safety’s sake, they began with the strongest among them—the Spear God.

In truth, true possession was not nearly as easy as people imagined. At the very least, one had to reach the Golden Core stage, and even then, only someone at the level of Alchemy Fanatic might have a chance. An ordinary person could not even stabilize their own soul, so how could they project their spirit from their body and enter someone else’s to seize control?

Although Le Kai’s spiritual power was already comparable to that of a two-star martial artist, he still could not directly guide it into another person’s body. What he relied upon was the consciousness network constructed by Xianxian.

Ten people had already been linked together, sharing information with Xianxian. Adding Le Kai would not affect it.

The consciousness network was like a local area network. The people connected to it were individual computers, while consciousness itself was the flow of data.

When the Spear God completely opened his mind, it was as though a computer had enabled remote access and handed itself entirely over to another person. Through this strange method, Le Kai accomplished the separation of consciousness from the body—a feat that countless superexperts would never even dare imagine.

The sensation was exceedingly strange. Le Kai felt as though an intangible version of himself was leaving his body and entering the Spear God’s.

The Spear God’s consciousness had withdrawn into his own mental space. When he saw Le Kai, the outsider, he smiled gladly, as though they had simply met in the real world. There was no awkwardness whatsoever.

Suddenly, Le Kai felt a violent jolt and realized in shock that he had changed positions. He had taken control of the Spear God’s body.

The Spear God’s consciousness had become an existence within Le Kai’s mind, much like Sister Xianxian. The positions of host and guest had merely been reversed: the owner could only observe from the sidelines and could not interfere.

At that moment, if Le Kai had harbored any malicious intent, the Spear God would have been utterly powerless to resist. No wonder Xianxian had said that trust was the most difficult requirement. If there were any discord between the two consciousnesses, a series of reactions and collisions would occur.

To control another person’s body and enter their consciousness was equivalent to entering the most secret part of their existence. Every secret would be within reach. That was the greatest problem of all. Everyone had secrets, and exposing one’s deepest privacy so nakedly before another person required immense courage.

Le Kai might appear carefree, but he respected every individual absolutely and would never pry into anyone else’s secrets.

“Leave everything to me. No matter how dangerous it becomes, don’t get agitated or act rashly, and above all, don’t try to help. Otherwise, both of us could be in danger.”

Le Kai solemnly instructed the Spear God through their shared consciousness.

After all, this was his first time carrying out such a mysterious and dangerous procedure, and he had no wish for anything to go wrong.

The Spear God nodded. “Do as you must. My life was given to me by you, Boss. Even if you took it now, I would have no complaints.”

“Your life isn’t worth much. I wouldn’t want it anyway. Though this process is dangerous, it is also a rare experience. Watch carefully. It will benefit your future cultivation immensely.”

Le Kai was naturally extremely familiar with the Berserk Battle Method, so he was not worried about making a mistake. The first thing he did was examine the Spear God’s body.

As befitted a martial artist, all the meridians throughout his body were unobstructed. However, his vital energy had been circulating along the prescribed routes for many years, forming an ingrained pattern. That was why he repeatedly made mistakes when practicing the Berserk Battle Method. Le Kai, however, had no such concern.

After confirming that the Spear God’s body could fully withstand the violent vital energy produced by the Berserk Battle Method, Le Kai began preparing to expand his meridians.

The Berserk Battle Method required meridians that were direct, broad, and unobstructed. It used several channels that were usually neglected. Even martial artists focused primarily on the main meridians through which vital energy circulated. As for the extraordinary meridians, they were merely somewhat better developed than those of ordinary people. Most ordinary people had countless blocked meridians, whereas martial artists possessed meridians that were clear throughout their bodies.

What Le Kai now had to do was enlarge those narrow meridians and establish fixed routes for the circulation of vital energy.

The task appeared simple, but it was actually extremely dangerous, because this was not his own body.

Once he had confirmed that everything was ready, Le Kai drew upon the vital energy in the Spear God’s dantian and began guiding it forward slowly. At first, he did not allow the energy to become violent. If he had, that raging force would have torn the meridians apart instantly and caused severe damage. That was precisely why the Spear God and the others had been spitting blood without end.

Le Kai adopted a comparatively gentle approach. He gathered the vital energy within the Spear God’s body and began expanding the meridians required by the Berserk Battle Method.

The vital energy swelled, like an immense current forcing its way through a narrow tube. The sensation of swelling was, in truth, better described as tearing. What left Le Kai speechless was that he was the one experiencing the tearing pain.

If Le Kai had not endured countless trials and agonizing hardships since childhood, that pain alone would have thrown his mind into chaos. Once his mind became disordered, his vital energy would naturally run wild.

The Spear God had already experienced this several times, so he was deeply worried. Yet Le Kai’s performance left him dumbfounded. In the face of such excruciating pain, Le Kai merely grimaced slightly. His vital energy did not waver in the least as he continued advancing with unwavering determination.

Was this man even human?

The Spear God was astonished. He could not tell whether Le Kai had been born with dull pain receptors or simply possessed extraordinary endurance. Faced with agony comparable to being flayed by knives, he behaved as though nothing had happened.

“Once you’ve been in pain long enough, you get used to it. There’s nothing strange about that,” Le Kai said calmly.

Although controlling another person’s body through consciousness was an extremely peculiar sensation, it was correspondingly much more difficult. He could not manipulate it as naturally as his own body.

However, Le Kai’s spiritual power was several times greater than the Spear God’s, and the precision of his control was something a spiritual simpleton like the Spear God could never match.

His progress was slow, but unwavering. He gradually enlarged the meridians, then divided off a portion of his spiritual power to repair the ruptured channels behind him. For someone like Le Kai, who could divide his attention ten ways at once, this was no difficult task.

The process continued for an entire day. By the time Le Kai’s spiritual power, already ten times stronger than the Spear God’s, was nearly exhausted, he finally completed the work.

The Spear God now had to continue circulating his vital energy to stabilize the meridians. Only after they had been completely reinforced could he begin using the Berserk Battle Method.

This aspect had indeed been insufficiently considered. Not everyone possessed spiritual power and pain tolerance as formidable as Le Kai’s.

Following the consciousness network, Le Kai returned to his own body. He immediately felt exhausted, and his head spun so violently that he nearly collapsed.

Li Yan hurriedly supported him and asked with concern, “Did it work? How do you feel?”

Le Kai grinned. “I’m fine. It should have worked. I’m just a little tired and need a good rest. Hurry and help me back to the stone bed.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the world began spinning around him, and a wave of nausea surged upward. The sensation was much like motion sickness in an ordinary person.

Li Yan was alarmed. She quickly helped Le Kai up, laid him on the stone bed, and arranged him into a proper cultivation posture.

Everyone was deeply moved by the sight.

Xianxian said, “You all saw that, didn’t you? Le Kai has poured every ounce of effort into helping you. I hope none of you will disappoint him. Apart from Wu Meitian, Rambo, and the Spear God, the rest of you should follow the method Le Kai just used and slowly expand your own meridians. That will also reduce his workload.”

Everyone agreed in unison.

They had all witnessed Le Kai’s every movement through the consciousness network. Following his example was not difficult. The pain, however, was truly enough to make a person collapse.