Weapon System 55. Divine Arts and Truths (1)

He had arranged to meet Catherine at the city sports arena.

“My dear little master, you seem deeply preoccupied today!” Catherine greeted him with a gentle smile the moment they met.

“Yes! My life has changed so much in the past year, and today has been so utterly bizarre that I can hardly make sense of it—my mind is in turmoil.”

Catherine reached out to caress his smooth cheek, then took hold of his chin and bestowed a fragrant kiss. She asked, “There must be something you want to tell me, since you called me here, right?”

Thus, Zhang Mingjing earnestly recounted to her the events of his journey to the parallel universe earlier that day. Of course, he still made no mention of anything related to the five-dimensional space, not even a hint about the thought model coding of the temporal monsters.

Catherine listened in astonishment, but she believed every word Zhang Mingjing said.

“So, in three months, our enemies might not just be these monsters anymore, but also some terrifying giants from other universes.”

“That’s right.”

Catherine let out a long breath, then looked at Zhang Mingjing. “Darling, we ought to start preparing now, shouldn’t we?”

“Yes! But I have no idea where to begin.”

“There’s always a way!” Catherine said, and drew him into another deep kiss.

Having a girlfriend really was wonderful! After talking with Catherine, Zhang Mingjing truly felt much better. He resolved that he must protect those he loved, and everything he cherished—even if it meant sacrificing himself.

As evening fell, Catherine had to return to her unit. He kissed her goodbye and watched her leave.

Once she was gone, he crossed his legs, preparing to meditate.

At last, he understood: if he wanted to protect everything, the only thing he could do was to keep optimizing himself. For the first time, he became truly purposeful and proactive.

He entered the meditative realm, once again encountering himself, once again arriving in that vast, white, deep-consciousness world, once again opening the box, once again taking out his personality stone…

“What… what is this?” he exclaimed in surprise, for a whole layer of grime had vanished from the personality stone, and he could vaguely make out a very complex multidimensional structure within it.

At that moment, cracks began to appear in the white world, and the gentle whiteness peeled away like eggshells, soon turning to fine dust.

This meant he had broken through the restraints of this level, beginning to enter a new one.

Once the whiteness vanished, the boundless space became fantastical and bizarre, yet an unshakable focus separated Zhang Mingjing from the dazzling visions all around him.

For the first time, he felt a flow of consciousness utterly free of stray thoughts, and the space was filled with his own insight—he could clearly perceive even his most subtle thoughts and feelings. The sensation was truly indescribable.

At the same time, he perceived that many tiny particles in his body were being torn apart, releasing wondrous light of positive spin energy, illuminating his mind and body inside and out. This light seemed to merge with the positive spin energy radiating throughout the universe, allowing him to read information from the depths of the cosmos. These energies caused him no pain, only a sense of immense well-being.

Then, at last, the five-dimensional thought model spoke, sounding uncharacteristically excited, “Congratulations! You’ve leveled up again!”

“Heh, this time it feels completely different.”

“That’s because you’ve become entangled with the universe’s positive spin energy.”

“Entangled?”

“Exactly! Positive spin energy permeates every dimension, so you’re using this entanglement to receive information that transcends the three-dimensional universe.”

“That sounds almost unbelievable.”

“It is! This information will deeply optimize your body, reconstruct your molecular structure, and you’ll soon possess incredible power.”

“You’re making me excited! How can I describe what I’m feeling right now?”

“Haha… And this time, your personality model hasn’t just recovered—it’s been further refined, so your personality stone is more transparent than ever.”

“So that’s why!”

“This time, you’ve stepped onto the starting line of a new realm!”

“A new realm?”

“Yes! A true state balanced on the threshold between matter and energy.”

“I thought I’d already reached that before.”

“Previously, your body had nearly reached it, but your mind was still lagging far behind. Now, body and mind are in perfect sync, so you’ve truly arrived. Your latent potential is being rapidly unleashed—you are now a super-being in the truest sense! … I never imagined you’d break through the body’s material limits and enter a wholly new state.”

“No wonder I feel so comfortable—especially my mind, which is clear and spacious, without a single obstruction.”

“Haha! That’s the sensation of entanglement with positive spin energy. I feel an affinity for positive spin energy too, so I’m both joyful and anxious, as if I’ve come home and met long-lost kin!”

“Then perhaps I should congratulate you as well?”

“Let’s share in the joy together!”

“With this entanglement, your ability to receive higher-dimensional information and energy is fully awakened. From now on, you’ll be able to optimize your own weapon systems much more effectively.”

“Isn’t optimizing weapon systems your job?”

“It used to be, but you can do it yourself now. If you keep up your training, three months from now you’ll be able to handle those invading giants.”

“Wait—after all this, I still can’t beat them?”

“They have both advanced technology and internal cultivation, you know! And their innate hardware is a bit better than yours—at least for now. But you’re gifted and clever, surely you won’t lose confidence in yourself?”

Zhang Mingjing pondered, then scanned the information he was perceiving now, realizing just how unfathomable it was.

Though much of it remained beyond his grasp, he had a strong sense that if he could decipher it, he might achieve another astonishing breakthrough. Confidence suddenly surged within him.

…

Zhang Mingjing was now determined to be a man who would defend Earth, his family, and his beloved. Full of ambition, he returned home—it was already past six in the evening.

He had the AI inform Catherine and Jemily that there would be no training that night. He also allowed Yuhua and Chengxian to keep watching dramas late into the night.

As for the two pets—whatever kind of multidimensional olfactory senses they possessed, they could tell at once that Zhang Mingjing had regained his former character, and immediately became more affectionate, as if celebrating.

…

Back in his room, Zhang Mingjing began to ponder how to optimize his weapon systems.

The five-dimensional thought model was currently preoccupied, devoting itself entirely to perfecting the Defender’s combat protocols, and had no time to assist him.

Yet Zhang Mingjing was not the man he had been before. He now found himself capable of abilities once reserved for the five-dimensional thought model—such as coding certain energies to conform to his will. Truly, this was a signature trait of a super-being!

At that moment, the elders of five-dimensional space were once again astonished by Zhang Mingjing’s progress.

Elder A sighed, “I suddenly remembered a very important calculation the Destiny System has been running.”

“You mean the search for fissures between five-dimensional and six-dimensional space?” asked another elder.

“Yes! For ages, our research into spacetime has been guided by the notion that energy determines dimension. Today, I have a premonition that our way of thinking will lead us into endless new discoveries. We’ll achieve many inventions, but six-dimensional space will always remain out of reach.”

“I completely agree,” another elder said.

“Then from what perspective should we approach our research?”

“Perhaps we should learn from Zhang Mingjing.”

“Could you be more specific?”

“I have some data showing that over the past year, the energies entangled with Zhang Mingjing’s consciousness have been changing. Previously, he was entangled with negativity, with laziness, with isolation, with inferiority, with carelessness… mostly entangled with negative spin energy.”

“You mean, now he’s entangled with optimism, diligence, confidence, focus—in short, with positive spin energy?”

“But we are born as positive spin energy! Your data seems meaningless to us.”

Elder A now smiled. “Not quite. Zhang Mingjing’s greatest change this year is that the energies entangled with him, whether positive or negative, are decreasing. When he stopped being entangled with inferiority, he gradually let go of confidence as well. When he let go of laziness, he also released diligence…”

More than half the elders were taken aback. One asked, “You’re saying the energies entangled with his consciousness are steadily decreasing, so his awareness grows ever clearer, less disturbed, ever more enlightened—thus allowing him to sense higher-dimensional information?”

“Exactly!”

At this point, another elder suddenly understood. “I see now! We are born as positive spin energy, and so are naturally entangled with all positive spin energies. At the same time, we are instinctively wary and afraid of negative spin energies, never daring to relax our vigilance. But this very fear itself is a hidden form of entanglement—we are entangled with what we fear.”

“It’s not just fear of negative spin energy that creates entanglement; our attachment to positive spin energy also causes us to become more and more entangled with it.”

“In this way, our consciousness is riddled with countless entanglements, the interference grows, our minds grow ever murkier, and we simply cannot quiet ourselves enough to sense the information of six-dimensional space.”

The elders nodded as they discussed this amongst themselves.

Elder A concluded, “If we wish to break through five-dimensional space and find a wormhole to the sixth dimension, we must first learn to reduce all forms of entanglement, so that our consciousness is no longer excessively disturbed.”

…

What a worldview—what a way of seeing the world!

In the eyes of five-dimensional beings, there is no ‘everything,’ only energy. The elders’ many insights, by Earth standards, amounted to nothing more than having a mind free from distractions.

It seems that neither advanced technology nor higher innate dimensions necessarily makes a being any wiser than those of lower dimensions!

At this moment, Zhang Mingjing casually flipped open the “Five Great Master Arts” that Zhang Yidao had given him.

Today, he was able to decipher the book’s origins and secrets from the residual information it contained. He muttered, “Damn! Turns out Zhang Yidao just made this up… Oh, Zhang Yidao, should I praise your good intentions or your scheming? You really are something else!”

Suddenly, Zhang Mingjing turned to the page on the Grandmaster’s Divine Palm and was struck by inspiration.

He said to the AI, “Show me some old martial arts films.”

The AI prepared to project some very old martial arts movies onto the wall for him.