69: Chapter 69 Enlightenment Kaleidoscope 69: Chapter 69 Enlightenment Kaleidoscope The events that occurred in Sheep Village seemed to have gone unnoticed; only a few scattered vehicles passing nearby experienced a bit of a jolt.
But the drivers didn’t pay it much mind; after all, in the hustle and bustle of daily life, no one had the time to care about such minor disturbances.
After a massive upgrade yesterday morning, Zhang Xiaoman returned to the small woods in the afternoon.
He took advantage of the residual energy near the Space Node, which hadn’t yet dissipated, and used it to conduct a thorough experiment with his skills.
Among them, Zhang Xiaoman mainly focused on the “Sand Soldier Appearance” skill, testing various aspects including tenacity, strength, speed, and explosive power.
The results were quite satisfying.
There’s a reason why “Sand Soldier Appearance” is classified as a Blue Level skill.
Although these summoned Sand Soldiers were condensed from the Earth Element, they looked just like real people, with weapons and armor as hard and sharp as the real deal.
Furthermore, when hit, the Sand Soldiers could almost ignore most of the damage.
They were much like the zombies in Resident Evil; what would be lethal penetrating wounds for normal people didn’t affect them in the slightest.
It must be said that Zhang Xiaoman now had a very decent shield; in the face of certain dangers, even if he couldn’t overcome them, he could use the Sand Soldiers to hold the enemy off and then withdraw at his leisure.
This undoubtedly greatly increased his safety and filled him with confidence for his upcoming hunting plans.
On the other hand, Zhang Xiaoman also tested the Invincible Skill, Mountain River Suppression, multiple times.
He found that this skill was quite different from the game; it couldn’t resist control effects.
The skill description also made it clear: it provided immunity to all damage, but said nothing about resisting controls.
That is to say, if Zhang Xiaoman were struck by a powerful force and knocked out of the Sword Array range, he would be unharmed by the first impact but could likely suffer from a secondary collision.
So this so-called Invincible Skill actually had certain disadvantages.
Even from the time the skill was cast until the Flying Swords hit the ground and took effect, it required about two seconds.
And to avoid such a situation, the first step was to get the timing right and the second step was to combine it with another one of his skills—
Life Tai Chi: immune to all control effects.
Zhang Xiaoman had tested this, and ‘all controls’ indeed included push forces.
As for his other skills, possibly because they were currently at a low level and the enhancements were not yet significant, Zhang Xiaoman had not felt they provided much of a boost to himself.
However, he acknowledged the potential of these skills and believed that in the future, with the System’s upgrades, they would also become good supports for him.
In the morning, Zhang Xiaoman routinely took part in the daily lottery, but this time he once again won a technology-side item:
[Enlightenment Kaleidoscope]
—Standardized equipment of the Star Alliance.
This was a White Quality item, and it looked like a white cylindrical tube, similar to the kaleidoscopes often played with in childhood, but it appeared a bit more sophisticated.
Zhang Xiaoman picked it up and looked into it, but he couldn’t see anything.
“How do you use this thing?”
He held it carefully and pondered for a while, eventually finding a round button on the other end.
After pressing it, he heard a slight “zzt” sound as a cover was opened, revealing the display screen inside.
Zhang Xiaoman randomly tapped on it with his finger, and the screen abruptly lit up.
Then text appeared, accompanied by a pleasant female voice.
“System initializing, please wait…”
“System initialization successful!
Connecting to Star Network…”
“Star Network connection failed, would you like to use offline mode?”
Zhang Xiaoman looked at the interface that lacked any prompt buttons and tentatively spoke out, “Yes?”
As his voice trailed off, another prompt emerged from the Kaleidoscope.
“Authorization approved, offline mode enabled, welcome to the Enlightenment Kaleidoscope…”
“Important notice: This product is provided by the Star Alliance for the spiritual power training of new students at Starry Academy.
Please carefully read the instructions before use.”
“Spiritual power training?”
No sooner had Zhang Xiaoman voiced his confusion than he heard a soft “click,” and the once plain white cylinder suddenly emanated gleaming white light from its seams, as if it were coated in a layer of magical luster.
“Enlightenment Kaleidoscope activated, timing program ready.
Observation will commence and the focus system will initiate synchronized timing.”
“Friendly reminder: When observing the Kaleidoscope, ensure you are in a safe environment.
Please confirm your surroundings first.”
Zhang Xiaoman glanced at the white cylinder in his hand that radiated beautiful light, somewhat puzzled by what it meant by a “safe environment.”
But then he looked around.
Currently sitting on the sofa at home, this hardly seemed like a “danger zone,” right?
With that thought, Zhang Xiaoman slowly brought the Kaleidoscope’s viewing end up to his eyes, peering inside with curiosity.
There, was a profound view of space.
Right after Zhang Xiaoman pressed his left eye completely against the Kaleidoscope, the scene within abruptly changed.
Instantly, the stars began to pulse, and Zhang Xiaoman felt like he was hurtling through them at an indescribable speed.
Countless stars whipped past, their dazzling light like a sky full of fireworks flickering before his eyes.
In just a moment, his entire body was soaked with sweat.
Then, as the frequency of the changing images grew higher, an immensely powerful impact struck Zhang Xiaoman’s brain.
It was as if bolts of thunder exploded within the sea of his consciousness, throwing his mind into chaos.
At this moment, Zhang Xiaoman felt as if a giant hand had reached into his brain and grabbed hold of his nerves, frantically pulling at them as though to yank them out of his body, causing him excruciating pain.
Time seemed to slow down; what was merely a few breaths felt like several minutes to Zhang Xiaoman.
During this time, with every passing second, he was enduring the torments of spiritual anguish.
Zhang Xiaoman promptly collapsed onto the couch.
Despite having slept through the night, he now fell deeply asleep once again.
And from start to finish, the time elapsed was barely less than seven seconds.
“Observation detected as concluded…
Star Network connection not detected, observation record cannot be uploaded…”
The voice inside the Enlightenment Kaleidoscope spoke again.
Though its new master had already fallen asleep, it continued to dutifully report the results of the session.
“Congratulations, you have set a new personal record.
Your training duration this time was 6.66 seconds.”