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A person is not made alone.

At first, only when the seeds of parents combine can a complete gene be formed, and from then on, they are nurtured in the mother’s womb, receiving flesh and blood through the umbilical cord.

In this process of forming flesh and blood, the nervous system, including the brain, develops, and eyes, nose, mouth, and ears are created. When the senses that receive various sensory stimuli in the limbs and body are formed, only then does a person see the world (perception) and see themselves in that world (self-awareness).

Therefore, most of a person’s mind is made up of bodily sensations. The shapes seen by the eyes, the sounds heard by the ears, the smells smelled by the nose, the tastes tasted by the tongue, the sensations felt inside and outside the body, and the reactions to those sensations, as well as the discernment and emotions that arise from the accumulated data in the mind. All these phenomena flicker in the mind bound by the body.

“For that reason, consciousness must be turbid and impure, and thoughts cannot be pure and free.”

“Then, Master. If one still wishes to transcend the body with thoughts, what should one do?”

“Hmm, if you insist… first, you must strip away the outer shell of the body that binds consciousness and thoughts.”

In a world as dark as blackness, Conra recalls the teachings of his master, Sophia.

In a void of silence where nothing is seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or felt, Conra floated in a terrifying and ambiguous stillness that made him doubt his own existence.

However, even in this stillness where the five senses are sealed, it couldn’t truly be silent. Even without new sensory information, the human brain already had accumulated data (subjectivity). Even if fragmented and altered, it had the influence to transform new sensory information whenever it was perceived.

Due to these fragmented sediments, people sometimes see illusions, hear tinnitus, recall familiar memories from something entirely unfamiliar, and finally dream of unknown landscapes while lying in bed, forgetting themselves.

The landscape Conra is experiencing at this moment is the same.

Colors he knows but doesn’t quite understand, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and spatial senses, all mixed chaotically like noise. A total chaos of meaning and meaninglessness, form and concept.

The sound of insects brushing past the tip of his nose, the scent of perilla leaves faintly passing by his ears. No, is this really accurate information? Conra currently has no ability to recognize ears or a nose.

Cognition that doesn’t mesh, perception that is baseless and absurd, intuition and logic all floating in the air, with no solid substance, only a jumble of images patched together haphazardly in the mind, squirming with a sense of reality.

Everything here originates from Conra himself, yet Conra himself is not here. But then, who and what is Conra? What is this place?

Just as he was about to forget himself and be consumed by inner illusions.

『Gal!』

A thunderous sound struck his inner being. Along with it, a flash of lightning. A flash imbued with jade-green and golden light momentarily swallowed the chaos that was consuming Conra’s self and split the boy’s blurred consciousness.

‘Ugh!’

The boy’s consciousness, awakened from confusion, vibrated violently at the sudden situation.

‘What am I…’

Once awakened, his consciousness immediately began to survey the surroundings. But with all five senses completely severed, there was no way any clues could remain. Just as his barely awakened consciousness began to fade again.

『It seems like you’re reaching your limit.』

A familiar voice echoed within the boy.

……,

……,

…….

“Gasp…!”

Suddenly, the boy opened his eyes and gasped for breath. Even amidst the overwhelming violence of sensations, his body desperately urged for oxygen.

Coughing and hiccuping, Conra focused on calming his diaphragm and bronchi to control his breathing. The irregular, rough breaths gradually became deep, long, and even, taking about the time to drink a cup of tea.

Finally understanding his situation, Conra sighed in disappointment.

“Damn it, did I fail again…?”

“But you lasted longer this time, senior.”

Maria, who had been watching, handed him a towel. Conra took it and realized his body was soaked in cold sweat. The crisis of existence he experienced while his senses were sealed had triggered his survival instinct the moment the sensory block was lifted.

Wiping off the cold sweat with the towel, Conra muttered.

“What’s the point of just lasting longer? I still can’t sense the energy or move my body in that state.”

The training Conra was undergoing involved completely sealing the five senses originating from the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body, and using only Qi Sense to detect the movement of energy and control the body. It was a training to reach the state of controlling energy and body purely with thought, named “御氣令身” (Yù Qì Lìng Shēn) by Sophia.

Having once experienced moving energy and controlling the body with thought alone in a state of sensory deprivation, Conra thought it wouldn’t be too difficult… but the training proved to be more challenging than he expected.

In fact, even the process of sealing the senses was not easy.

The sensory organs are divided into the right eye, left eye, right ear, left ear, right nasal cavity, left nasal cavity, taste buds, internal body sensations, and external body sensations. Each of these organs has crucial functions that cannot be overlooked.

Without the ability to distinguish light and dark, colors, distances, and outlines with the eyes; without the ability to distinguish loud and soft sounds, distances, tones, and timbres with the ears; without the ability to sense temperature, pain, and pressure on the body’s surface; without the ability to feel muscle relaxation and contraction, balance, and direction, humans would lose significant cognitive and motor abilities.

Each of these sensory information channels performs its unique role while interacting with other components of the sensory system to create more complex, high-level information that a single sense cannot produce.

Most importantly, it’s the brain’s function to receive and process this sensory information. If the brain loses the ability to process the concept of “left,” one might eat only the right side of a cake and think they’ve eaten it all, or even fail to understand the concept of “left.”

In other words, dealing with senses is also about dealing with the brain’s functions related to those senses.

For Conra, the past month’s training has been all about this word: senses.

At first, he blocked one of the five senses and went about his daily life. He ate, drank tea, drew, trained in martial arts, practiced spells, and slept with only his right eye blocked. Sometimes, he did tasks like drawing or carving wood or marble.

After blocking each sensory organ once, he then combined two sensory organs, went through all combinations, then three, and finally four.

This training had a clear intention. Namely, to learn how to compensate for the absence of certain senses with the combination of remaining senses and existing sensory information in the brain. And in the process, reduce dependence on specific sensory organs and strengthen control over the body and independence of consciousness.

Only after completing the training of leaving just one sensory organ could he finally proceed to the last training.

The time required for this was, strictly speaking, not short. Assuming one combination per day, it would take over 800 days. Wasting that much time just to stand before the main gate was unthinkable.

If Sophia hadn’t used the “雲燿明玄大法” (Vajra Pradosh Yoga) ritual to accelerate time, Conra wouldn’t have been able to complete all the training in just one month. However, while time acceleration shortened the required period, it also made the training more grueling.

“After going through such a tough process, I thought I was finally ready, but the result is like this… What would Master say?”

Seeing Conra’s despondency, Maria asked with a pitiful look.

“Master already said it would be difficult to solve quickly, right? That’s why she left a ‘thought’ to wake you up when you reach your limit.”

“That may be so… but I want to be of help to Master as soon as possible. Not left behind like this.”

“Master didn’t leave you behind because you weren’t helpful…”

Maria recalled what Sophia said when she left the two disciples in the rear, Strabenher.

‘Conra, listen well. What’s needed to become stronger isn’t just intense real-world experience. Once you’ve gained some insight from accumulating experience, you also need a calm process to fully internalize it.’

In other words, Sophia left Conra behind not because he wasn’t helpful, but because this was an important time for him to solidify his newfound insights.

‘But I understand how senior feels.’

From what she heard, Conra had never been apart from Sophia since leaving his hometown forest. Although he had explored the sky dungeon in Plymouth under Sophia’s supervision, that was more about testing himself, not staying in a safe rear area like this.

However, even Maria thought Conra’s current mental state was a bit inappropriate for training. Didn’t Sophia emphasize before leaving that the purer the thoughts, the more helpful they are in achieving success?

Thankfully, Sophia had injected a thought into Conra before leaving, or else he might have remained in a vegetative state with his senses sealed, either dead or driven mad by inner demons.

Moreover, Maria thought Conra had no reason to blame himself. Because…

“Master left you here more for my sake than yours.”

As she said, one of the reasons Sophia left Conra behind was for her second disciple, Maria.

‘It might be a bit dangerous to take Maria where I’m going now. But Maria is also at a crucial point where her foundation is solidifying, so I can’t let her rest from training. Since it’s come to this, Conra, you stay and take care of Maria’s training.’

Although Sophia took Maria in after Conra, she never neglected Maria’s education. She trained Maria’s body and martial arts but also taught her numbers, letters, philosophy, and culture.

Sophia believed that if one wanted to achieve something in the future, they needed to learn at least rhetoric. According to her, many noble children were rotting away as useless brutes because they didn’t learn this.

Such a Sophia wouldn’t leave Maria’s education to chance just because she had to leave. She entrusted Maria’s academic and cultural education to the clergy in Strasbourg while leaving the basics of martial arts to her senior, Conra.

‘Being too focused on overcoming the immediate hurdle isn’t good either. There’s surely something to learn while teaching.’

Thinking this, Maria opened her mouth, hoping to give her senior a break while also building her own training.

“Senior, I’m about to start my training. Will you help me?”

“Ah, yes. Let’s go.”

Conra, who had been lost in self-reproach, seemed to snap out of it upon hearing Maria’s words and changed his expression.

+++++

“Phew, thankfully, there’s been no trouble so far.”

Riding along the mountain path towards the capital Vienna, Sophia smirked. Her long-time steed, Jean Valjean, snorted as if to say, “Of course,” puffing out his breath.

Jean Valjean, with ancestors of Frisian, Iberian, Anatolian, and Kemermen breeds, was a blue-blooded warhorse. Perhaps because of this noble lineage, Sophia sometimes thought he might be a spirit beast that understood human speech.

Stroking the horse’s mane, Sophia reviewed her plans. While the rest of the group drew attention with large movements, she would head straight to the capital Vienna to cut off the head of the shadowy figure waiting for her.

This was entirely based on her intuition. With a highly developed upper dantian, two chakras in her head, and a bonded ethereal brain, her intuition went beyond mere guesswork. Add to that the agreement of her contracted spirit, Gabrielle, and it was a done deal.

{Indeed, the foresight of spirits is renowned. Even we dragons are curious about how it works.}

The spirit Drayg-Haegis spoke with interest. Even a dragon spirit praised the foresight of spirits, and the small figure of Gabrielle, sitting on Sophia’s shoulder, puffed out her chest proudly.

[……!]

“Yes, yes, Gabrielle is amazing…”

Half-heartedly praising the SD-sized spirit, Sophia stroked her horse’s neck and sighed inwardly at the chaos of managing both.

By now, they were nearing the capital.

Thanks to avoiding the main roads and traveling through hills and forests, they hadn’t encountered any major obstacles so far. The few obstacles they did meet were just small groups of stragglers or minor undead, mere breezes to Sophia.

But now, it wouldn’t be strange if something happened. The entire empire was in turmoil, and Sophia didn’t expect the capital to be any different.

Moreover, Sophia’s intuition told her that the event they were about to encounter would be the key to resolving this crisis.

Sure enough, a familiar smell and sound brushed past her senses.

“The smell of corpses, metal, and blood. Shouts, screams, groans, and the sound of flesh. The clashing and grinding of metal.”

{Northeast.}

As she calmly analyzed the smells and sounds, the spirit Lucas-Kukunis pointed out the direction of the source.

“It seems the corpses are trying to prey on the living. Come on, Jean Valjean, let’s hurry!”

Promising to reward him with good feed and grooming services if they saved the day, Sophia urged her horse. Hearing that delay would mean no such treats and only feeding the corpses, Jean Valjean put in extra effort.

 

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