Chapter 7: Initiation (1)

At dawn, the cold morning wind swept across the forest. The air seemed filled with a light blue fog. The thick, dense canopy of the trees wreathed in darkness rustled as if the forest was slowly waking up.

In the sparsely populated forest, a piece of rotten wood that had been dead for an unknown time was lying on a thick layer of decaying matter, and it was almost completely decayed.

Amidst the silence, a faint light spot appeared and landed on the rotten wood.

The rotten wood suddenly turned into ashes silently, but the dust did not scatter with the wind. Instead, it gathered towards the light and gradually transformed into a human figure.

At first, it was just the outline of a human form made of ash. But soon, the mass of ash solidified, gradually taking on the color of skin. The features, hair quickly emerged, and he finally transformed into a man with sunken eyes and a high nose bridge. He had a bird-shaped tattoo on his arm, and he was dressed in a rough shirt and pants, looking like a tramp.

While in a daze, Zhou Jing’s consciousness had already landed on this body. He staggered forward, almost losing his balance and plunging headfirst into the decaying matter.

He quickly held onto a nearby tree and swallowed a mouthful of saliva, unable to conceal the shock in his eyes.

“Is… is this a material restructuring?”

Zhou Jing’s consciousness remained clear. While he was traveling, he saw the astral apostle’s birth process. It was as if a piece of rotten wood had been broken down into a human body.

As he stared at the tattoo on his arm, Zhou Jing’s expression changed. He suddenly bit the inner wall of his mouth ruthlessly and hissed in pain. He could taste the iron of his blood.

“Looks like I’m still made of flesh and blood, not wood.”

Zhou Jing smacked his lips, his mouth full of the tang of iron.

For something as complicated as material restructuring… Fine, he didn’t understand, but he was still shocked.

“Looks like this body is the Astral Apostle I created. It’s a carrier for me to travel in this world.”

Suppressing the surprise in his heart, Zhou Jing took a deep breath. Cold air instantly filled his lungs, and all his senses felt very alive.

Controlling the astral apostle’s body was no different from controlling his own body.

Hmm… It could not be said that there was no difference. This Astral Apostle’s senses were sharper, and he felt an unprecedented sense of power. It was as if he had endless strength.

” It’s probably because Agility Talent and 9 points of Physical Fitness… How powerful.”

Not only did Zhou Jing move his hands and feet without any sluggishness, but he could also even feel and move some muscles that he had never trained before.

He rippled his chest muscles a few times, something he had never possessed before. Then, belatedly, he remembered the existence of the interface and tried to call out in his consciousness.

Buzz—

The panel appeared, fixed in a certain area of his vision as if engraved on his retina. He turned his head, and the translucent panel followed suit. Even when it came into contact with the trees, it would phase through as if it were a virtual projection.

“It’s kind of like augmented virtual reality. I doubt others can see the screen floating around in front of me, right?”

Zhou Jing blinked and tried to operate it further. The panel then disappeared in his retina and appeared in his mind.

“This feels better. I don’t want others to see me doing something in the air…”

Zhou Jing heaved a sigh of relief.

After descending to the astral realm using an apostle, he realized that the interface panel had changed. The previous Character Adjustment, Input, and Map interfaces were all grayed out. Now, he could only display all the information about the astral apostle, Will Wood.

Compared to the original profile, there were two new sections available.

[Estimated time of stay: 5-7 days]

[Current synchronization rate: 10%]

“The synchronization rate starts at 10%, not zero?”

Zhou Jing took another look at Will Wood’s Specialty profile.

His personality was paranoid, cautious, and conservative. His alignment was lawful and righteous, and he pursued power and honor… As long as his actions matched these characteristics and he tried his best to act as Will Wood, his synchronization rate would increase.

It seemed that he would have to temporarily treat these traits as his standard of action… His real personality wasn’t like this, so acting and seeing this as a different person felt quite special… He was just not sure if he could do it.

Zhou Jing carefully observed his surroundings.

Every tree in the vicinity was about twenty meters tall and had lush leaves. Only weak rays of sunlight could penetrate through, making the forest appear dim. The ground was covered with grass, and the terrain was sloped gently. He didn’t think that he was in a continuous mountain range.

Looking out, other than the forest, there were no other landmarks where he could take reference from.

Zhou Jing suddenly realized a big problem.

Where am I?

He knew nothing about his current location and did not know which way to go. The interface indicated that he would have to stay for five to seven days. Who knew if he would be able to walk out of this forest… he didn’t even know if he could survive in the forest.

The astral apostles had the same physical needs as the main body. They also had to eat and rest to survive.

A gust of cold wind blew, freezing Zhou Jing to the bone. He shivered slightly.

According to the current situation, the option of “Freezing to Death” had an overwhelming advantage over “Death by Hunger” and “Death by Thirst.”

“The most important thing is to find Some kind of civilization first. Speaking of which, this Astral Apostle race is shown to be from the Terra race. There should be people living in this world. The problem is that I don’t understand the language here. How can I communicate with them…”

Zhou Jing was thinking about this when he suddenly noticed a light dot flickering at the bottom right corner of the interface.