Chapter 333: Practicing Meditation (1)

"Do you feel at ease now?"

"Let me think... at this moment, Mahjong is reading a book, Guan Xinyue is applying a face mask, Du Zhengyi is sleeping, my cat is also in the room, and the door is locked. So, yes, I am very much at ease right now."

"Do you have any secrets?"

"I have many, many secrets."

"Keep your secrets hidden, and forget about them for now."

"Okay," Luo Qi said with his eyes closed, "I have already forgotten them all."

"First, imagine your roots in the Mental World, imagine the source of all things. The world is a Tree of Life; in your consciousness, everything sprouts from the roots."

This was just another variation of an Anchor Point; Luo Qi knew that in different regions, Mind Mages would use different ways to explain the same concept.

In his imagination, he pondered the shape of Du Zhengyi within the Consciousness World, imagining what Du Zhengyi ought to be. He thought of the lakes of the Highland, emerald green and clear, hanging far away above the high plateau, formed by the melting snow from the high mountains. Whether it was a lapse in concentration or something else, he suddenly thought of Kanas Lake, then he thought of the Kanas Lake Monster, and then things spiraled out of control.

Deep in the lake, undercurrents churned, and the clear, emerald water turned murky in an instant, with shadows swaying within. He gradually made out the outline of that shadow, a blurry and ferocious monster; in a trance, he almost saw the monster's face. At that very moment, a torrential downpour broke over the lake, and gale-force winds whipped up the water, violently churning the vast surface. The Highland lake was gone; he felt as if he were in the deep sea. Fragments of memory flashed through his mind, one of which was a joke he had once made to Du Zhengyi. He had once said that Du Zhengyi was like the sea—either emerald or azure under the sunlight, but in the dead of night, the seawater was like a black Abyss.

His mind became chaotic, his chest ached, his blood pressure rose, and his pulse beat like the frantic drum rolls of a heavy metal drummer.

"Child." A voice boomed like thunder in his world, "Child, I want you to wake up."

Luo Qi jolted awake; he opened his eyes and gasped for air. Candles burned quietly around him, and he sat cross-legged in the hall. Four curtains created a relatively private space, and Mage Hashi sat cross-legged opposite him. Inside the curtains, several potted plants that Luo Qi was already familiar with were emitting a faint fragrance and a peculiar force field, driving away other irrelevant people like a Plague God. Their area was relatively quiet, and people avoided them from afar when using the hall.

"Sorry," Luo Qi said, "I'm sorry, I seem to have lost focus again."

To actually lose focus while meditating—he was indeed very embarrassed.

"I don't think you lost focus," Mage Hashi said. "The last time someone taught you to stabilize your mental world, they helped you set your World Tree roots. But I can feel that your source is very unstable. You were already in a state of meditation just now; the fluctuations in your mental world come from the anxiety in your deep consciousness. May I ask why this situation occurs? Are you unable to trust your own roots? Generally speaking, people do not doubt the roots they have chosen."

"I trust them completely, Teacher, you've misunderstood," Luo Qi said. "However, I also fully believe that my Anchor Point will completely disappear in the near future."

"I see. Is he a person?"

"Yes."

"Regardless of who it is, life is ultimately finite. Many people have set the person most important to them as the root of their consciousness. There is nothing to be embarrassed about; we are human, and of course, we love people most."

"Does Teacher mean that many people encounter my situation? But they didn't have a mental breakdown because of it, right?" Luo Qi asked.

"Yes. The departure of those who have passed away does not mean their existence has been erased. Our world is like a river of time; we are downstream, while those who are lost exist upstream," the Highland Mage said.

"Exist. I feel like you are talking about existence," Luo Qi said.

"Very good, you are a smart person and grasped the point easily. You must understand, he must exist. Because he exists, the root of the World Tree in your mental world exists," Mage Hashi said.

Luo Qi did not want to argue with him; it was different. To take a step back, if human quantum mechanics were correct and this world contained many parallel worlds, then if this world lacked Du Zhengyi but another world had him, Luo Qi would not be happy either. Because, yes, he was just a narrow-minded, selfish brat. But so what?

"What did you imagine your root to be just now?" the Mage continued to instruct him.

"A body of water."

"Next time, do not imagine a scene that easily triggers other associations or leads to complex consequences," the High-level Mage said. He pondered for a moment, then asked him, "In your Consciousness World, what do you imagine yourself to be?"

"A Slime," Luo Qi said, pouting.

"What is that?"

"An amoeba? Sludge? Oh, right, modeling clay, pottery clay," Luo Qi said.

"I understand, I understand. Very clever. You imagined yourself as a prototype; you can become everything, so you can control everything. You have a naturally excellent understanding of the Mental World; you have grasped the essence. Simple is everything," the High-level Mage said with a smile.

"Am I that amazing?" Luo Qi said, not quite believing it.

"Now try geometric shapes. Try to imagine your source, your Anchor Point, as a geometric shape. You can choose a simple one. Which geometric shape do you think it should be?"

"Hmm, let me think."

He closed his eyes again and took a deep breath, as if about to dive underwater. He successfully entered a state of meditation; this time, he was going to choose a geometric shape for Du Zhengyi.

Luo Qi almost immediately gave up on the triangle because he felt he wasn't sharp at all. The rhombus was also abandoned for the same reason. Finally, Luo Qi chose the righteous, "dumb" rectangle. After a while, the rectangle kept stretching until it finally snapped in the middle; his meditation failed once again.

Moreover, the repeated failed meditations brought a burden to Luo Qi's mental world. After the meditation failed again, he almost collapsed to the ground, clutching his head in pain.

The Highland Mage sighed and said, "Let's use a more basic method to solve your problem."

"Change the root?" Luo Qi asked. "I've heard that you can change pots when planting flowers, but I've never heard of changing roots. Besides, I've heard that even changing pots often leads to the plant dying."

"I'm not talking about solving the problem at the root; I want to solve your current meditation problem. I believe your source is right here. Go and call this person out. I think when your eyes see that he still exists at this moment, your mind will suppress those terrible subconscious thoughts, and perhaps you can gain a moment of peace. Once we can successfully conduct meditation, we can then solve those deeper issues."

"You mean you want me to call Du Zhengyi here to sleep? Then I might have to kneel and beg him just to avoid having my legs broken by him," Luo Qi said despairingly.