Chapter Ten: The Realm of Blade Winds-Cellular Universe(The Path Lit by a Pale Lantern)

“What is going on here?” After the joke had passed, Zhou Yi leaned against the mountain wall, taking deep breaths. Song Hai squeezed in beside him, asking.

“It’s talent!” As he spoke, Zhou Yi’s gaze settled on Song Hai. “Honestly, it’s hard to imagine that someone with such remarkable talent as you could end up a beggar!”

“How did you manage that?”

“Heh!” Song Hai scratched his head and grinned foolishly. “I just drifted along, I guess?”

I wasn’t praising you, you fool!

Song Hai’s innocent smile swept away the rest of Zhou Yi’s thoughts like a flood. With a powerless sigh, Zhou Yi pointed at Song Hai and said, “Don’t you feel any difference between your body now and before?”

“Difference?” Song Hai was taken aback, about to ask what talent he supposedly had, but Zhou Yi’s words immediately shifted his focus.

Thud! Slap!

Song Hai stood up in the cramped wind tunnel, stretching his arms and stomping his legs. After a bout of exercise that left him exhausted, he approached Zhou Yi, puzzled. “I don’t feel anything wrong. Still pretty nimble! Why, is there a problem?”

Looking at Song Hai’s sincere eyes, Zhou Yi felt an urge to curse, unsure whether to speak or not.

He stared at Song Hai.

“Hey… What’s wrong with you?” After a while, Song Hai fidgeted under Zhou Yi’s gaze, twisting himself uneasily.

“Whew…” Zhou Yi exhaled deeply, feeling a headache. He spoke weakly to Song Hai: “Don’t you realize your strength has increased a lot?”

“Really?” Song Hai was even more surprised than Zhou Yi. After exclaiming, he hurriedly examined himself.

Thud! Thud!

After another round of fumbling, Song Hai’s face shone with delight as he turned to Zhou Yi. “Hey, Yi, look, I’m much stronger now! My strength really increased, but why?”

Zhou Yi was beyond words, watching Song Hai’s antics as if witnessing someone dance atop a blade mountain—such terror, such a feeling!

Same people, different fates.

“Hai, do me a favor!” Zhou Yi suddenly thought of an idea and turned to call the excited Song Hai.

“Huh? What is it?” Song Hai obediently came over.

“Well, your talent allows you to split the knife wind and absorb its energy to strengthen your body. So, I need your help.” Zhou Yi explained briefly, smiling at Song Hai.

“Huh?” Song Hai was still confused. What was this about splitting knife wind and absorbing energy? What nonsense was that?

“What talent?” Not understanding, Song Hai asked—like a proud elementary school student.

“It’s a bit complicated to explain. You’ll understand later!” Zhou Yi brushed it off casually. The truth was, he had no clue what exactly Song Hai’s talent was or what it did.

All he knew was that Song Hai’s talent could separate the wind from the blade energy and absorb the latter, making it his own.

“So…”

“Alright, stop asking. You’ll know in time!” Zhou Yi cut him off, directing Song Hai to sit with his back to him.

“Now, take off your shirt!”

“Huh?” Song Hai was dumbfounded.

“If I tell you to take it off, just do it, don’t fuss!”

“Okay…” Song Hai complied reluctantly, like a shy girl, slowly removing his shirt.

“Good, just like that, hold still!” Zhou Yi’s eyes gleamed as he heightened his senses, focusing his mind to observe the changes as the knife wind struck Song Hai.

Song Hai, now shirtless, waited anxiously for Zhou Yi’s next instruction. But after a long wait, nothing happened, leaving him full of questions.

What exactly was Yi trying to do?

Time passed. Zhou Yi had no mind for conversation; a brand new discovery had captured all his attention.

“What is this?”

Perhaps it was because he stared too long, or had reached some threshold, but as Zhou Yi focused on the changes wrought by the knife wind on Song Hai, his vision suddenly blurred. When it cleared, it was as if he had entered another world.

It was a vast, white space. Standing on the ground, everything felt ethereal.

Countless tiny white gases filled the space, each shaped differently—some sharp, some angular—but overall, they resembled blades.

“Blades? Blade energy?” Zhou Yi muttered, suddenly realizing—weren’t these the blade energies within the knife wind?

If these gases were blade energy, then the surrounding space was wind. No wonder standing here felt so airy—wind, after all, is meant to drift!

So, he reasoned, he had entered the world of the knife wind.

“Hmm?” Before he could finish his thought, the space around him shifted. The blade energies suddenly stood upright, like people rising to their feet.

“Whoosh!” Before Zhou Yi’s eyes, the newly upright blade energies pointed their tips in one direction and then collectively flew off.

Boom!

It was a void, a space where nothing could be seen. As the blade energies arrived, the void seemed to collapse inward, like a pocket, sweeping up all the blade energies at once.

“What is this?” Everything happening before him gave Zhou Yi a strange sense of familiarity—not the kind born of experience, but the feeling of watching a theory play out.

“Oh!” As he thought, Zhou Yi realized—if this was the blade wind realm, the surrounding space was wind, and the floating blade energies were blade energy, then their attack targeted Song Hai.

That is, the reason the blade energies were swept up like into a pocket was that Song Hai’s muscles automatically absorbed them, pushing and pulling, drawing them in.

Connecting these thoughts, past and present, Zhou Yi began to form a basic picture in his mind.

“Huh?” Still pondering, Zhou Yi was startled by a sudden tremor and quickly sought its source.

All around was still white, the ground beneath his feet as airy as before. But now, the blade energies that had been absorbed suddenly emerged again, filling the space once more.

“Oh!” Watching the blade energies, Zhou Yi understood—this was a recharge. The blade energy was absorbed, but not the wind; after absorption, new blade energies appeared from who knows where, filling the space anew, endlessly repeating.