Chapter 226 - Reality
"No...a premonition! I know ...what energy to understand now!"
Xu Qing's frown turned upside down as she let out a breath of relief. She was sitting beside him keeping the bugs away while he slept, and he abruptly jumped up and scared her as well.
She stood up and took out a towel with which she started wiping off his sweat.
"What energy are you going to understand then?" she asked rather blandly.
Hao Xuan grinned, "Space energy!"
She asked curiously, "Why space energies?". That was an odd choice, to say the least.
Hao Xuan grabbed her by the shoulder, "Why not? I could cut, bend, or destroy space itself which would subsequently do the same to anything within that sphere of influence. Not to mention having the power to create rifts and portals at will, allowing one to transport entire armies with a single command. It goes on and on!" he excitedly explained.
Xu Qing didn't have a huge reaction even though she knew what that entailed.
To understand a type of energy, the cultivator must do one of two things.
One, either have an extremely high intelligence that could rival some of the other intergalactic species like the Sagax.
Or two, experience the energy in-person.
When it comes to understanding energies, comprehension plays a huge part in it. And 80% of the time, comprehension equates to intelligence. The higher the intelligence, the faster a cultivator can gain an understanding of the energy.
And there are some energies like Space, Void, Light, Sun, etc that have very high intelligence requirements to even begin to understand their intricacies.
The second, more common way is to experience the energy by surrounding yourself within it.
Taking space energies, for example, to understand them Hao Xuan would have to go to an area with an abundance of space energy. And only places like that are where space is unstable, which cannot be found just about anywhere.
"Good. If you want it then why not?" Xu Qing wholeheartedly supported his decision.
The sun set and Hao Xuan returned to his room to rest where he told Baracus about his decision.
"Are you sure about that?" Baracus's usually emotionless tone turned doubtful.
"Yeah, of course. I saw it in the dream. Armies of monsters pouring out from a crack in space like a tide. It was beautiful!"
He told Baracus about the dream and everything he saw.
His somewhat disappointed voice came from the watch, "....that's what you took away from the dream?"
"What else?"
"The lightning! What you're describing is a type of Chaos lightning. How in progenitor's name would you get "Space" energies from that dream?" he berated Hao Xuan like a teacher lecturing a foolish student. That was the first time he had actually cursed in a conversation.
Hao Xuan's face went slightly red from shame as he tried to explain his viewpoint, "I-I don't know. The lightning was cool and all but space is way more practical. I already have 2 other energies I can use to attack, a 3rd wouldn't be a good idea would it?"
"It's your body so you can do whatever you want with it....no matter how stupid it might be. How would anyone interpret that dream like that? The more I talk with you the less respect I have left..." Baracus's voice turned into a mumble near the second half of the sentence.
There was silence for a few seconds until Baracus spoke up again.
"Look, I have audio and video logs of the chaos lightning. Progenitor had visited the edge of the universe multiple times to collect samples. He interacted with the chaos and even managed to collect some of it for studies. I can show you the logs in augmented reality and you can almost experience it first hand. It will be like you were there yourself."
Hao Xuan's eyes almost popped out of his sockets, "What? Such a thing is possible??!"
"Of course!" he replied as a matter-of-factly, "Although I might not be able to use my full power, I can still do this much. Progenitor created me to help with his projects which were far more complicated than this little thing. But that's only for what's already in my database. I can't create something I've never seen."
"Hmm," he gave it some thought and couldn't come up with any downsides, "It doesn't hurt to give it a try. Do it, show me the edge of the universe!"
"Alright, it might hurt a little bit," Baracus warned him and started the process.
Hao Xuan laid back on his bed and closed his eyes. Streams of blue light could be seen traveling from the watch towards his brain all long his nervous system. The watch was connected directly to the nerve endings in his arms and could be used to directly connect to his optic nerves when needed.
At the start, there was a searing pain at the back of his eyes which slowly increased in intensity for a few seconds before completely vanishing.
The darkness subsided and Hao Xuan felt bright flashes of light in front of him.
Slowly, he opened his eyes and found himself floating in space. There was nothing behind him or below him, but to his front and above was the vast unending chaos.
It looked like a mix of thunderclouds and some kind of a liquid floating freely in space.
Hao Xuan extended his right hand and as it got closer to the chaos, a chilling sensation ran down his spine, making him quickly pull it back.
"This is a recording? I just felt something right now!"
"Its a mix of virtual and augmented reality," Baracus's voice echoed in his ears.
"I used the data from all the visits and combined them to make an interactable version. Your body believes that it is real. So if you get hurt here, it will hurt in reality as well. I have turned off a lot of things like the pressure and chaotic force exerted on all beings, as they would inconvenience you. You can't die here but it will be painful. Proceed at your leisure."
Hao Xuan looked down and could see himself like normal. If he didn't know it wasn't real he would never find out.
"The matrix wasn't so far-fetched then...." he mumbled, wide-eyed.