Chapter 1004: The Mirror of the Astral Plane, the Truest Self

After seeing Dewan off, Xia Duo began his exploration alone; the scenery of the Astral Plane was very monotonous, and as far as the eye could see, it was nothing but a silver void.

At the same time, because of its spiritual characteristics, it made Xia Duo's deep consciousness feel as if he were facing a mirror reflecting his true self, where every inner fluctuation was revealed without doubt.

Xia Duo was an independent individual who would always, due to certain unique personality traits, or rather, personality characteristics, subconsciously choose to ignore certain thoughts when performing self-analysis during Meditation Training.

Although he could trace his memories back to his subconscious and parse the specific information of his subconscious at a certain moment, if he himself did not want to trace them from the source, then these thoughts would never see the light of day.

But here, the silver void would not accommodate him; even the psychology he was most unwilling to face would be reflected truthfully and without error between the rising and dissipating of the Astral Wind.

In his repeated explorations, Xia Duo's perception and experience of the external Astral Plane itself did not improve much, but he had taken a step further in his inner journey of self-analysis.

In this process, he saw a more real version of himself, possessing all kinds of negatives—sloth, laziness, weakness, pride, evil, and so on.

In daily Meditation Training, he could indeed see some, and even analyze a thing or two, but this was just like an ordinary person writing a diary, always worrying about being seen by others and thus subconsciously glossing over their faults.

I think, therefore I am, but overemphasizing the self brings strong personal tendencies; this is not necessarily bad, as human personality lies precisely in this, but it also creates blind spots in thinking.

Once, Xia Duo arrogantly believed that if he could trace his memories, he could clear away all blind spots in his thinking and eventually reach a state of omniscience.

But in fact, as long as human nature remains, with its joys, angers, sorrows, and joys, along with its tendencies and repulsions, it is impossible to ever reach such a state.

A person's greatest enemy is oneself; this saying is truly correct!

Of course, understanding this does not mean that Xia Duo should abandon human characteristics; he had taken a step further on the path of knowing himself, not a step further on the path of abandoning himself.

Only by knowing oneself more clearly can one better perfect oneself, and this perfection does not mean eliminating negative emotions.

As the saying goes, "Isolated yin does not grow, isolated yang does not flourish"; negative emotions and positive emotions are actually different expressions of the same root of human nature in different things.

If there were no laziness, how could the meaning of diligence be embodied? If pride did not exist, what meaning would humility have? If there were no evil, one would not be able to recognize kindness.

Eliminating the negative will only lead to more serious and terrible consequences.

And so-called perfecting oneself is actually knowing oneself more clearly and gaining complete control over oneself.

A sage from Xia Duo's hometown once proposed a state—"follow one's heart's desire without overstepping the rules"; now, he could finally touch the edge of it.

In Xia Duo's view, the so-called "rules" are actually personal characteristics, or human nature and personality, while "following one's heart's desire" represents a high degree of freedom.

This is actually another description of "unity of knowledge and action."

If one has one's own norms in one's heart and practices them, then no matter what one does, one will feel at ease and composed.

Xia Duo's previous inability to look directly at his truer self during Meditation Training was actually a manifestation of an uneasy heart; this not only had hidden losses in terms of practical interests but would also affect the healthy development of the self.

……

Before performing Astral Perception, Xia Duo had never thought that the Astral Plane would bring him such a special opportunity; at first, he even had some regrets and even wanted to give up.

But in the end, the instinct of human nature, which originated from the heart and desired to achieve perfection, drove him to continue; it was also in this process that his understanding of himself became clearer and his personality more perfect.

Of course, it was because Xia Duo's current personality was already relatively mature and in a stage of development and perfection; if it were when he was on Earth, he might not have dared to look directly at his truest self like this.

Perhaps avoidance would have been his only choice.

Now, Xia Duo's Astral exploration was not just to find a Projection Plane for him to enter and study upgrade matters, but also a process of perfecting himself.

In a sense, Xia Duo, who had the potential for perception not inferior to a powerful Cleric, might be able to go further on the path of an Astral Mage than a Plane Scholar.

However, strictly speaking, Xia Duo was not a Plane Scholar; after all, the main purpose of his research was not to discover more Sub-planes, but to understand the essence of the Plane so as to better utilize his Personal Space.

It could be said that he was neither a Plane Scholar nor an Astral Mage, but he could also be both.

……

In the next ten days or so, Xia Duo spent almost all his time in the Plane Exploration Layer; long-term Astral Perception made his spirit become agitated, exhausted without knowing it, just like Dewan ten days ago.

But Dewan had Radiant Holy Power, which could maximize the recovery of physical strength and spirit, while Xia Duo had nothing, only relying on his tough body to hold on.

But as for specifically finding a Priest to take care of himself, he was not that extravagant yet.

If it weren't for Niya's interruption, Xia Duo probably wouldn't have known how long he could have kept up this state; this day, he was preparing to go to the Plane Exploration Layer as usual, but found that his Permission Level had been suspended.

No one else could do this except Niya; Xia Duo immediately went to find Niya and questioned her quite impatiently:

"Why did you suspend my Permission Level? I've almost found the Projection Plane!"

This was not an exaggeration; over these ten days, he had indeed made significant progress, from being very ignorant and confused when facing the Astral Plane at the beginning, to now, he could barely be counted as an old hand at the Astral Plane.

No worse than Dewan, who had been studying it for more than a year.

After all, he was an Arcanist and possessed a more powerful consciousness than Dewan; as long as he was familiar with the perception techniques, it was easy to catch up.

But Niya shook her head firmly, "I just received a Sending from Lady Greta; she is at Giles Tower. Although there are some surprises, it can be resolved properly soon. You don't have to work so hard anymore!"

Niya knew that Astral Perception, like the Projection Plane, also had the effect of real-time passage for the main body in the Main Plane.

But compared to the Projection Plane, where one can clearly perceive time and withdraw in time if it feels too long, when perceiving in the Astral Plane, the concept of time is relatively vague.

It is very easy to forget the specific time.

Although Niya had not seen obvious traces of time passing on Xia Duo these days, they were husband and wife after all, and she knew her husband's mental state very well.

The current Xia Duo was clearly a bit too fanatical.