Volume 1: The Millennium Stream Chapter 54: Defying the Heavens – Mastering Space

Constructing spatial arts within a Yin-Yang Pill was no task that could be accomplished overnight. Yet everything inside the pill was compressed, allowing it to serve as a matrix for the art’s embryonic form.

He began by building the first three domains of the spatial art. This time, unlike before, he had to create molds rather than the art itself. There were tens of thousands of energy structures, which meant he had to devise tens of thousands of mold designs. The task was far more complicated, and it took him much longer.

A full month passed before he had finished the molds for the first three domains. But Sun Zikai, a genius by nature, had also found a clever solution to the challenge of the fourth domain. There would be countless spatial coordinates in the future; he couldn’t possibly make a separate mold for every one. So he turned stillness into motion and disorder into order. The number of energy structures in the fourth domain could vary, from a single one to tens of thousands, each created to give a coordinate its own distinct identity.

He made a region and filled it with thirty thousand panels. This took little time, since all he had to create were the panels, not molds. The panels were energy knots that constantly shifted shape, but there were only twenty possible forms in total: one set of ten, and another set symmetrical to it. Sun Zikai numbered the ten panels in the first set from one to ten. For any new location, he could assign a “code.” If, for instance, he chose “three-three-one,” the first three panels would shift from motion into stillness and form that code. The corresponding panels in the other set would form its symmetrical counterpart. In this way, he would have two distinct spatial arts: one for going and one for returning.

But he couldn’t be expected to remember the code for every location. So, building on the original four domains, he created a fifth. The fifth domain was an information storehouse. Whenever Sun Zikai recorded a location as “three-three-one,” the fifth domain formed a special energy mark. Much later, when he thought of that location again, the fifth domain would provide the corresponding code directly to the fourth, allowing him to pass through at once.

The fifth domain went beyond the limits of spatial arts. As Sun Zikai brought the idea to life, he realized he must have created something extraordinary. Yet his mind was always full of such wild notions. Only later did he gradually understand that, after tempering his mind again and again, his already exceptional intelligence had risen to a whole new level. His mind was no longer that of an ordinary person.

Creating the fifth domain cost him another full month, but against all odds, he succeeded. He named the fourth spatial domain on Jiang Yujin’s bracelet “Four One Six Five Five Four Two Three Eight Nine One.” Since it already had a unique code of its own, Sun Zikai could only make do by adding his own code to it.

He had assumed there would be so many locations that he would need thirty thousand panels. Now he realized that even ten digits could be arranged in more than 3.6 million ways. He would never use them all.

At last, it was time to test the results. Sun Zikai designated a spot inside the house as “one,” then walked to a spot in the courtyard and designated it as the symmetrical counterpart of “one.” At a thought, energy passed through the five domains of the spatial art inside his Yin-Yang Pill. The process was swift. When it was complete, a spatial art appeared before him—but it needed a medium, or it would dissipate at once. Sun Zikai had no choice but to take out a talisman sheet and imprint the art onto it. Then he gathered the energy throughout his body into the form of his blood-vein structure and instantly traveled into the house.

It had worked, but Sun Zikai was far from satisfied. Even at this speed, the process felt too slow. Besides, he couldn’t visit every place in person to mark its counterpart, then return. Just as he was thinking this, inspiration struck.

First, he had to abandon the idea that spatial points must come in symmetrical pairs. The house and the courtyard were two different places—why should they have to be symmetrical? Did the spatial art in the house really need a corresponding point in the courtyard before it could send energy threads outward?

He immediately severed the symmetry between the house and the courtyard and assigned the courtyard the code “two.” On the foundation of the fifth domain, he copied it completely to create a sixth. When the spatial art activated, the fourth, fifth, and sixth domains would activate together. His current location, “one,” would be displayed by the fifth domain; his destination, “two,” by the sixth. When the results from the two domains reached the fourth, a miracle occurred: two codes appeared on it, and the “one” panel instantly sent an energy stream outward. It curved at the courtyard’s location and returned to the “two” panel in the fourth domain.

Sun Zikai did something else as well. He shaped his blood structure into an energy mold and bound it to the spatial art. Now, with only a thought, he could gather an energy body within his Yin-Yang Pill. He formed that body and touched the fourth domain of the spatial art from within the pill.

Another miracle followed. Without any intermediate process, he appeared in the courtyard. With another thought, he was back in the house. Using neither talisman sheets nor any visible art, he had relied on the energy response of the Yin-Yang Pill inside his body to make a direct exchange between two spaces. His Yin-Yang Pill had become both the starting point and the destination; only his physical body had come along for the ride.

He did not stop to celebrate. He immediately erased all the codes, then marked his own body as “one” in the fourth, fifth, and sixth domains. The fifth domain sent the code “one” to the fourth, but the sixth had not yet sent its code. As a result, the fourth domain’s panel was incomplete. It sent energy threads outward, but rather than shooting out in straight lines as before, they spread in concentric rings. This, too, happened in an instant. A slight smile tugged at Sun Zikai’s lips. Feeling the rings in the fourth domain, he chose a rough location, and at a thought, he was transported thirty miles away.

This was a barbarian territory he knew all too well. He had succeeded. A few hundred paces ahead stood a tree. He watched it as the fifth domain inside his Yin-Yang Pill remained set to “one,” while the fourth emitted rings of energy.

In an instant, he found the ring corresponding to the tree’s location and traveled to its side. He gathered a mark of his blood-vein energy and pressed it into the bark, creating a unique energy imprint. Then he teleported ten miles away. At a thought, he was back beside the tree bearing that special code.

He laid one hand against the bark, poured his energy into the tree, and formed his blood-vein structure within it. Then he teleported again—this time taking the entire tree with him, a hundred miles away.

Half a stick of incense later, Sun Zikai appeared in the house. This was the most astonishing ability he had created to date: spatial power.