Autophagy

So far, Song Lei's interest was piqued.

However, he was now left with a huge dilemma in his hands. Whether or not would he buy the next page was a big decision. Every page of the book seemed to be worth 1000 BCs, which meant that he would be able to buy five more pages with his current balance.

Considering that the pages could be devoid of any usable skills that he could train on, this was a huge gamble.

However, the probability of this being the case seemed low. After all, from where the page left off, Song Lei could guess that the next page would be about awakening the soul. However, he had already gone past that stage. What he needed was the further parts of the book.

"How many pages should I skip?" Was the question Song Lei asked himself. "Or should I skip any?"

He kept contemplating, however, couldn't come to a decision that he had absolute confidence in. Taking a deep breath, he decided to buy the third page instead of the second.

"Awakening one's soul is basic in concept. Although it requires a lot of effort and time, it isn't complex. Explanation of it shouldn't last longer than a page..."

After completing the transaction and taking the paper into his hands, Song Lei started reading once more.

"Those who have sleeping Luminescent Souls are asleep. That's why you have awakened your Luminescent Soul, your brilliance. The Sky God's praises are upon you, as it loves those who are beautiful in the soul."

"However, the journey of a shaman never ends. And you're only at the beginning. You should get ready to open your eyes."

"Eyes are the center of a human's body. It represents one's soul, shows their brilliance or foolishness. That's why you have to open them and look around. Look around and learn. Learn and guide."

"For you to open your eyes, you first need to close them. Only a closed eye can be opened after all."

"However, closing your eyes is not something that is done with your eyelids. You need to genuinely close your eyes. You should abandon the darkness that you see once you close your eyes. After all, that darkness, the lack of light is still something that you can see. In reality, once you close your eyes, you should see nothing. Not darkness, not light, not anything. Only emptiness."

"This is only achievable when you are inside nothing."

"What does it mean to be inside nothing?"

"In our world, there are awkward spots. 'Nothingness', as we name it. These spots are empty. They don't have anything inside of them. Which should normally be impossible. Neither aether nor the souls can enter it. Moreso, those who have tried entering through astral projection has been thoroughly swallowed, unable to go back to their bodies."

"With time, we came to peace with the existence of these empty spaces. After all, they naturally push away any living form from themselves. They only exist in isolated parts of the world, and don't harm anyone unless the person purposefully tries to hurt themselves."

"And we eventually came to understand that these empty spots were fine opportunities for us to experience nothingness."

"We used to try our best on understanding nothingness. However, not many could achieve this in their lifetimes."

"Fortunately, once we started practicing inside nothingness itself, we came to understand it much better."

"I'll teach you, however, you have to be careful before proceeding further. Nothingness is not a joke. A lot of people get consumed by it even before they realize what happens. Don't practice this if you don't have a very strong Luminescent Soul. As those who are weak can't even last half a minute inside nothingness."

"Also, as a shaman, I can't guarantee that you'll be able to keep your sanity once you open your eyes. After all, nobody can know what you'll see once you open them."

"Now that's out of the way, the first thing you have to do is to find yourself a nothingness."

"Nothingnesses' have different types."

"Some of them look empty and white. Even looking at them can give you chills and you will fall endlessly if you try to enter it in any way. Coming in direct contact with it exposes you to the harsh emptiness of non-reality, making you become angry and hateful."

"These types are never suited for training. Remember that you are trying to become a shaman, not 'nothing'."

"Another type is pseudo-nothingness. As opposed to a full-fledged nothingness, a pseudo-nothingness looks no different from any other place in the physical realm. A normal person would probably not be able to even realize they were in such a place."

"However, it is empty. It is devoid of substance. No aether enters it. Although it looks like it exists in the physical realm, it is completely empty in the spiritual realm. Those who enter have their Luminescent Souls extinguished and mixed into nothingness quickly."

"However, this 'quickly' is actually much slower compared to a full-fledged nothingness. Which makes them the perfect place for closing your eyes. A person with a strong enough soul can even last more than a minute inside them. As for me, my personal record is one and a half minutes."

Song Lei read through all the text without getting distracted. From the looks of it, the empty space on the 15th floor of the apartment was something that also existed in the Old World. Although it would be good to have Aston inspect that place slightly, he was currently busy with creating the soul fortress in room 1408.

'That nothingness in Isabel's mansion must have been the harsh one... Fortunately, I have a place that I can train in. And the fact that I can spend more time in there than the person will surely help...' Song Lei thought. He wanted to continue reading, however, he realized that the page was already over, which made him slightly depressed.

Now that he had already spent two thousand blood beads on it, he didn't want to stop reading in the middle of it. He would surely finish it and benefit greatly.

As he was about to buy another page of the guide, he felt something tugging at his mind.

'Someone is approaching this place,' Song Lei thought. However, he was calm albeit the unknown being that was approaching him. This indicated that this being probably had no ill intentions towards Song Lei. After all, if it did, Song Lei would've probably sensed it.

Putting aside the matter about shamanism, Song Lei got up and walked out of his room. He started descending the stairs to meet up with the unknown being.

Shortly after, when he came down to floor 12, he saw a person approach him.

From the lower part of the stairs, a young adult in his twenties was slowly stepping up. He had white hair, brown eyes, and dignified-looking facial features. He seemed distraught for a second when he looked at Song Lei first. However, seeing that Song Lei had no ill intentions, he calmed down.

As Song Lei's eyes washed over him, he felt like somebody was touching every part of his body.

As this person was experiencing the effects of Song Lei's high soul stat, Song Lei folded his arms in front of his chest and approached him.

Until Song Lei was a single step away from him, the guy didn't move from his place. He eventually snapped out of his daze once Song Lei got close enough.

"Sup'.." Song Lei said. "What's your name?"