Chapter 1854: Clarity

Whoosh!

Opening his eyes after what felt like a long time, a slightly exhausted expression appeared on Valyr’s face as he turned to look at Zenith.

“Am I even doing it right?” he asked, sounding as if he was starting to doubt himself. “I’ve been trying to sense the existence of Origin Essence for almost two weeks straight, yet I haven’t even caught a single whiff of it.”

“That’s normal.” Zenith reassured him. “Keep in mind that we’re in a place where time is highly dilated compared to the actual universe. Even with the orb of True Origin Essence, it’ll still take a while to finally sense it.”

Hearing those words, the young man thought about how much he wanted to tell the former that he felt like he was not making any progress in sensing Origin Essence whatsoever.

But after reminding himself about how it would take him five years in the worst-case scenario to finally sense the existence of Origin Essence, Valyr immediately set those thoughts aside as he took in a calming breath.

At the same time, he thought about the attempts he had made in sensing Origin Essence over these past couple weeks.

With Zenith’s advice of letting the universe pass through him, the young man attuned himself to become one with the surroundings, allowing himself to appear in the middle of what seemed to be an unending dark ocean.

After he had confirmed that the dark ocean corresponded to the entire Void Core, Valyr then proceeded to try and look for the existence of Origin Essence, correlating the orb of white energy he had seen into something that would take on a tangible form.

At first, he felt as if he was making progress, especially after he felt like his connection with the Void Core grew stronger the more he searched through the dark ocean.

But, as he continued to explore more and more of what the dark ocean had to offer, the young man began to feel as if he had taken a wrong turn somewhere.

After spending a couple of days trying to look for the thing that corresponded to Origin Essence within the dark ocean, Valyr took a quick break as he assessed his surroundings.

After that, he thought back to the words of advice Zenith gave him, getting the feeling that he might eventually figure out something as long as he interpreted its words the right way.

And so, for the next couple of hours after that, the young man pondered over the being’s words in detail, gradually coming up with various thoughts and perspectives on its words that would possibly allow him to sense the existence of Origin Essence.

Then, once he felt like he had amassed enough hypotheses to test while scouring the dark ocean, the young man returned with his search…

Only for the feeling that he had taken a wrong turn somewhere to grow stronger.

Eventually, after a week had passed since he started his attempts at sensing Origin Essence, Valyr gave up on the notion that the Origin Essence would take on a tangible form within the dark ocean.

Instead, he began to look at it from a more abstract perspective, leaning more heavily into Zenith’s words of advice.

With that, he kept his body and mind fully open as he tried his best to follow the being’s words to the letter.

And surprisingly, he began to make actual progress after doing that.

Although he wasn’t sure if it was indeed Origin Essence since the feeling he got only lasted for a fleeting moment at most, the sheer contrast the feeling gave off compared to the dark ocean was at least telling him that he was looking in the right area.

Continuing to hone in on this unique feeling, the young man eventually began to sense it more often over the next few days.

However, in the days that followed after that, the times where he got that unique feeling slowly began to dwindle.

By the time two weeks had passed since he started his attempts, the frequency in which he felt like he’d stumbled upon Origin Essence had returned to its original value of zero.

In other words, Valyr’s progress in sensing the energy had pretty much gone back to square one.

“…Sensing Origin Essence isn’t reliant on one’s comprehension, right?” As thoughts of his attempts over the past couple weeks continued to linger in his mind, the young man asked Zenith a question.

The latter looked back at him with a slightly raised eyebrow. “Why would it be reliant on comprehension?”

When he first heard Zenith’s question, Valyr thought about how trying to sense it from an abstract perspective worked, so he thought it was a good idea to approach it similarly to how he deepened his comprehension over concepts.

But when he thought about it a bit more, he soon began to ask himself the same question.

Why would it be reliant on comprehension?

It made sense for concepts to be reliant on comprehension since the quality of one’s comprehended concept relied greatly on it.

However, what reason would a type of energy like Origin Essence have to be reliant on comprehension?

“I don’t know if you misunderstood something, but sensing Origin Essence has never been reliant on comprehension.” While the young man was still in pensive thought, Zenith decided to clear up the confusion he felt. “It’s just pure affinity.”

“Some are more attuned to its existence, while some are less attuned,” it continued. “However, no matter one’s affinity towards Origin Essence, it’s only a matter of time before someone senses its existence.”

Valyr faintly nodded as he remained silent.

Noticing how the young man still seemed to be deep in thought, Zenith decided to give him a few more words of advice on how to sense Origin Essence faster.

“Think of you and Origin Essence as the same entity,” it said, immediately catching the young man’s attention. “Although it may not seem like it, Origin Essence exists throughout the entire universe.”

“Origin Essence exists throughout the entire universe…”

Although the young man did not know why he decided to fixate on this single line, the moment he thought about it, he felt like the fog blocking him from making any progress had dissipated quite a bit.

Realizing that this might just be the breakthrough he needed, Valyr attuned himself to his surroundings once more as he focused his senses inward.

Whoosh!

Returning to the vast and dark ocean that signified the Void Core, Zenith’s words of advice began to linger in his mind as the gears in his head furiously turned.

‘Body and mind fully open…’

‘Origin Essence exists throughout the entire universe…’

‘Let the universe pass through me…’

Word by word, the being’s advice began to act as anchors in Valyr’s head as he slowly narrowed down the existence of Origin Essence within the abstract space.

Sweeping his gaze over the dark ocean with a calm expression, the young man continued to repeat Zenith’s words in his head as the unique feeling from before had appeared once more.

Honing in on that unique feeling with the new approach he had just come up with, the young man began to feel excitement well up within him after noticing that the feeling he got became more frequent as time passed.

Eventually, Valyr began to sense the feeling almost constantly, turning into a sort of background noise that he had come to accept.

And on one fateful day, just as he thought that it’d be a while before he got it…

The young man had finally sensed the existence of Origin Essence.

Hope to see you there!