Chapter 12: Absorbing knowledge

While Shun Long was sitting peacefully in a cross-legged position atop his bed, an apocalyptic scene was taking place inside his spiritual space. The golden book had started vibrating inside his spiritual space, and with every passing moment, it was doing so even more intensely.

Every time the golden book vibrated, it was also slowly discharging some kind of heavenly aura which also nourished Shun Long's spiritual strength every time it came in contact with this aura.

Shun Long then noticed a rune that resembled a lock, as it slowly emerged from the cover of the golden book and it suddenly expanded and binded the golden book, almost as if the rune was trying to seal it.

The book then started struggling desperately as it was trying to rid itself from the rune, but the rune didn't let up at all, firmly wrapping itself around the golden book.

Just as the book was about to get suppressed by the rune, a tiny fluctuation came from the triangular stone that had stayed silent all this time, and a heavenly pressure radiated from it, that seemed as if it had come from the start of time.

Then the stone sent a small stream of blue light straight towards the rune.

The rune-lock that was suppressing the golden book instantly released it's hold as it tried to flee, but that tiny fluctuation from the triangular stone had already sealed time and space inside Shun Long's spiritual space, and the rune couldn't even move. It tried to instinctively vibrate and rid itself from the temporal restrictions that the little stone had placed around them, but before it could even do anything, the triangular-shaped stone instantly released a force that sucked the rune inside it, and then as the temporal restrictions retracted, as everything returned to normal.

The previously suppressed golden book instantly erupted with a burst of golden light, as for the very first time, its cover instantly opened to reveal a blindingly bright white page.

As soon as the white page was revealed, the book released a startling kind of force that tried to absorb Shun Long's spiritual strength inside it.

A person's spiritual strength was practically their consciousness. If their consciousness was lost or destroyed they would be practically dead.

They would turn into a vegetable, a body without a consciousness.

Shun Long tried to resist the force from the golden book by retracting his consciousness back to his mind.

''Fuck, what is this? Am I really going to become a vegetable after just reincarnating?''

He was terrified to see that his consciousness had already arrived in front of the white page, when the golden book instantly absorbed him.

His entire spiritual strength had now left his body, which had now turned into an empty shell.

Shun Long however was startled to see that he was not dead, but he was also shocked because he didn't have a corporeal body anymore.

Not just a corporeal body, he didn't have anything aside from his spiritual strength, his consciousness and his thoughts.

There was nothing in front of him, just endless white that covered everything as far as the eyes could see.

All of a sudden the scene in front of him changed..

A plant appeared right out of nowhere, one that he had never seen before, and yet, just by looking at it this time, a sudden influx of information appeared in his brain that told him everything about the plant..

How many stem cells the plant consisted of, how the plant would react in different temperatures, what are its leaves consisted of, how many years does it take for the plant to mature, what is needed for it to mature faster, what are the ideal conditions to nurture it, what are the plants properties and how it can be used, along with all of its special individual properties..

''My brain feels like it will explode any second now'' Shun Long thought as he suddenly felt that needles were piercing his consciousness... sadly this was only the beginning of his suffering

''AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH''

Shun Long suddenly roared, as billions of scenes flashed through his eyes, every scene including a plant that went from a seed to its full maturation stage until it changed again to another one..

Every scene made Shun Long feel that he was about to die from the pain and he couldn't even think anymore as information was practically getting crammed in his soul..

The pain was so intense that at some point Shun Long felt that it might be better if he just stopped enduring this and gave up .. then he wouldn't have to feel this pain he thought.

Although he had felt pain in the past, and although he had suffered from hunger and physical pain, by fighting, or having his underdeveloped muscles aching and stinging him after overworking himself or suffering injuries, this was a completely different type of pain..

The difference in intensity and quantity couldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as anything that he may have felt in the past. If all the pain he had felt in his past 20 years could be considered as a single drop in a bucket, then the pain he was feeling right now would be much more than an ocean..

And the worst part was that this was a pain coming directly from his soul.. a stab in your soul was thousands of time worse than a knife stabbing your heart. This was a type of qualitative difference that couldn't even be compared in the same breath with a flesh wound..

Just as Shun Long felt that he should perhaps give up and that he had already reached his limit, the triangular stone buzzed and a scene replayed itself in Shun Long's brain..

''That's right... It's better to suffer now and give it my all to become strong after this than give up and die and have people trample upon me in my next life and the next one after that..

No matter what I will not give up, I will rather break than bend.. let's see who is stronger, this pain or myself..... hahaha COME'' he roared in the end while laughing and his will was invigorated as he became clear-headed all of a sudden.

This was both thanks to the little stone, replaying in his mind the scene when he swore his oaths outside of the Blue Forest, as well as to Shun Long's will to endure this crazy inhumane pain.

But after a few hours, the pain was already so intense that Shun Long couldn't even speak, as his mind had finally reached a point where he just couldn't absorb more information and was already full.

This wasn't a matter of whether he was willing to endure more pain but whether his brain had any more mental capacity to absorb all this knowledge.

All of a sudden Shun Long started to feel that his mind was now absorbing a strange kind of energy that made his soul bigger and stronger as his spiritual strength was improving at an unbelievable pace.