1 Chapter 1: Dull Death
"Am I... going to die soon?"
Qin Feng stared blankly at the stark white ceiling, feeling dead inside.
Scenes from the past twenty years flashed before his eyes, yet his heart remained unmoved.
Born normally and raised in a typical family, he suffered from a rare condition: an inability to feel any emotion.
Qin Feng learned to laugh and cry, but he never truly understood the emotions behind those actions.
Complex and elusive emotions were methodically analyzed by him, transformed by cold rationality into an unremovable mask on his face. Yet, they could never fill the Galan's Cave in his heart.
He seemed to fit perfectly into society, so seamlessly that it was eerie.
Qin Feng, true to the name given by his parents, was like a fleeting and unpredictable breeze, drifting lightly through this world.
"!"
A sudden sharp pain in his chest pulled him back from his thoughts, causing him to break out continuously in cold sweat.
"Heart disease."
Qin Feng grinned, looking like a suffocated caterpillar, struggling feebly on the bed.
"Will die soon."
In a moment, his logical mind had given him an answer.
He lived alone in this small house that he had finally managed to purchase by paying the downpayment, and the only other source of activity being his mobile phone which was placed quietly by the bedside.
Look for help?
Not sure why, as the severe chest pain gradually turned numb, and all the cells in his body were wailing, Qin Feng's brain seemed to be telling him….
Eh, so what?
"Do I want to continue living?"
Qin Feng was still asking himself this question as his consciousness became blurred.
His rational mind was telling him, in order to survive, ordinary people should do their best to ask for help.
He originally also considered to do so.
But for some reasons, as he gradually felt the emptiness, coldness, numbness and death coming, he suddenly had a thought.
Death, seemed to be similar to me…
It was also this thought, that caused him to give up the last chance to survive.
It was unimaginable, Qin Feng's first sympathy was actually the opposite of life.
This was somewhat ironic.
In any case, death has descended, Qin Feng no longer had a chance to choose.
His spiritual body gradually left the shackles of his body, he left the material world where he had lived confusingly for twenty years and entered a boundless void.
Floating everywhere….
If there was no accident, he would eventually become similar to the numerous spiritual bodies in the river of myriad worlds…
If lucky, a trace of spirituality might remain, and was eventually sucked into an unknown material world, attached to a newly born soul, and completed an alternate reincarnation.
If unlucky, it would eventually disintegrate and dissipate, becoming a part of the boundless void.
However, unknown whether it is fortune or misfortune, coincidence or destiny, among the infinite possibilities, a ray of possibilities shone on Qin Feng's head and became a personal inevitability.
Had it been a second? Or was it tens of millions of years?
In any case, within this void, time held no meaning…
Until a stalwart existence beyond the concept of grandeur suddenly appeared, gently rippling through Qin Feng's gradually thinning spiritual body.
They met each other, the distance was just right.
The ripples gradually cleared Qin Feng's hazy consciousness, and he instinctively opened his soul's eyes, without any guidance he had opened his 'Spiritual Vision.'
Then he caught a glimpse, just a little glimpse of the tiniest corner of the rippling
In the next Planck time or even more abstract concept of moment which transcends all, a corner of indescribable truth poured into Qin Feng's spiritual body and began to manifest itself in the most profound way in his life…
Death death death death...
All kinds of death continued to emerge in his mind, his death, various kinds of death, some known to him, some unknown, from material death, death of concept, even the death of world.
Qin Feng was fortunate.
The him who had no emotion withstood the shock of the glance with the least burden using the coldest logic.
What came next was endless pain.
Qin Feng experienced various ways of death, even the most logical spiritual body began to be overwhelmed, until a glimmer of hope appeared.
"Despair."
That's right, at the most dangerous moment amidst the endless pain, finally caused ripples to form from within the Galan's Cave. A single concept was formed, allowing Qin Feng to experience, for the first time, his own emotion…
Despair.
It was this subtle emotion that made Qin Feng have an instinctive impulse for the first time…
End everything!
It was also this impulse that produced the first force.
Just like dominoes, leveraging Qin Feng's scattered unintentional comprehension of death, it began to spontaneously integrate into Qin Feng's soul in the most suitable way, a dense source of essence was formed within the only place that could withstand the burden, the Galan's Cave.
Only then did Qin Feng's soul, which was on the verge of collapse, begin to slowly mend the terrifying cracks that had appeared on his body.
When Qin Feng regained clarity, the great existence had long gone.
Was this a gift? Or perhaps charity?
Actually, it was neither.
Qin Feng had known everything through the knowledge that had integrated into his soul.
From the beginning to the end, he had always been sleeping, floating in the endless void, while listening to the maddening and frightening "lullaby" of the dream world.
Within the consciousness, an unspeakable name echoed – the blind idiot god, Azathoth!
Looking around calmly, Qin Feng had analyzed his current situation using the knowledge within his soul.
If he did not find a stable soul in a material world and leave the void, he would eventually fall into despair again.
That's right, after experiencing what just happened, Qin Feng has added a new variable into his considerations – despair.
This unquantifiable element made him quite at a loss, recalling the turmoil within his soul at that moment, he could not help but feel the impulse and curiosity that followed.
Was this what emotion felt like?
And what of the other emotions?
Qin Feng suddenly no longer wished for his consciousness to fall into silence, as a new goal had emerged before him.
He no longer desired death; he wanted to explore this truth until he understood emotions.
Feeling the vast emptiness of Galan's Cave in his heart, he glimpsed the essence hidden within.
Qin Feng realized that only by fully understanding it could he fill the deep void in his heart and truly experience those emotions.
With this realization, the truth began to transform, presenting itself in a form easiest for Qin Feng to comprehend.
[Sequence Pathway]
[Sequence 9: Sleepless]
[Sequence 8: Dark Priest]
██████
"This is… a new path for "Lord of Mystery"?"
Qin Feng said to himself thoughtfully, it was not that he had never read these famous novels or animations before, but looking back at what he had seen and heard, he had to say this was indeed a suitable way for him to understand.
Even as he looked through his memories again, those crazy truths turned into a general impression of what Qin Feng knew about the study of mysterious knowledge: potions, ritual magic, extraordinary items, mysterious languages, etc.
Certainly, from the traces he had concealed, Qin Feng realized that it was an instinctual evasion of the soul. Even though he could decipher what was intended, he naturally couldn't bring himself to end his life.
Based on Qin Feng's comprehension of the madness described in "The Secret", which he grasped even without deep contemplation, the transition from fantasy to reality made this understanding all the more problematic.
"The most urgent task tight now is to find a nearby material world to settle down."
Qin Feng thought, while his eyes searched back and forth in the void.
"Once the soul has stabilized, I can still use the high-level characteristics of the essence as a transit into other material worlds."
His soul was currently very weak. As a start of the journey, Qin Feng naturally would not set his sight on those huge realms exuding a terrifying atmosphere.
What he needed was an ordinary realm with certain development potential without being too dangerous.
Soon, Qin Feng's sight stopped on a ball of light not far away.
The ball of light exuded a faint glow. Its energy levels were within Qin Feng's expectations. It was not a realm where he could quickly become stronger but nevertheless a suitable camp.
"Then let this be it."
Qin Feng no longer hesitated. He approached the light ball with the help of the remaining essence in his spirit and then let the ball of light suck his soul into the world.
Within the endless void, only a looming phantom of essence was left behind, gently attaching to the surface of the ball of light, just like a small boat temporarily docked in a port, not knowing where it was going.
