Chapter 109 - The Church’s Secrets

Guy retreated his head out of the pool and reentered multiple times to confirm that his sight was true and not an illusion like before. He even extended his hand in and felt the immediate vicinity. It all felt real enough to him. Maybe it was an elaborate illusion, however, it was far too advanced for him to confirm it.

As a child, Guy often wondered how the television worked. How was it possible to get such elaborate visuals compressed inside a small metal box with a window in it? One possible theory he had was that there were small people inside the box enacting and playing things out. But that warranted the question: how was the box able to hold so many different people? Where did they sleep? What did they eat? Did they leave the box after the work was finished?

Anyways, for a moment, Guy felt like one of those small people living inside the television. This was because the place where he peeked out from and into The Church happened to be the exact same place where the visuals surrounding the black hole were being played out for Markus to see.

"Could it be that the images and visuals shown to Markus originated from my core space?"

It was a valid hypothesis. The elusive mist that persisted within his core space upon his initial entry could create extremely lifelike illusions. It could also go as far as highjacking the five human senses. Maybe, the mist from before replicated the singularity through Guy's memories of watching various documentaries and projected it for Markus. Furthermore, Markus expressed that he felt as if he was pulled into the vision; he felt as if he was personally experiencing the event. This could mean that Markus was extracted into Guy's core space!

"So my core is basically a FIVR (Full-Immersion Virtual Reality) chamber," Guy muttered with an awkward smile.

It would be a revolutionary phenomenon if that were true! Because the process in and of itself was completely different from |Soul Imprint| and definitely more effective. Based on Al's explanation, |Soul Imprint| is limited by the fact that it can only transfer insights and information that the user has personally witnessed or experienced. No lie, deception, or misrepresentation can be transmitted through a |Soul Imprint|. So essentially, it would have been impossible for Guy to imprint intimate knowledge of a black hole into his student.

As he grew increasingly excited at the prospect of developing an ultimate cheat-like ability, another theory started to gnaw away at him.

"What if... 'I' believed it so vehemently, that 'I' perceived it to be 'my' truth!" Guy surmised. By "I", Guy was referring to his other personality. The man he now dubbed as the "other guy", no pun intended.

"It could also be possible that the 'other guy' was so involved in the knowledge that he created a false experience through sheer force of will!"

If that was the case, then the technique would still be classified as |Soul Imprint| yet with an expanded scope. For one, the revelations Guy's incarnation of the technique provided were far more realistic and involved. It was also possible to tweak the way the information is transmitted with Guy's method. The general application of the |Soul Imprint| technique simply planted the packets of knowledge into the recipient's mind. However, Guy's |Soul Imprint| encouraged the target to personally witness the information and formulate their own insights. In essence, this negates the possibility of mental contamination in the recipient by separating the transferrer's personal biases and opinions from the knowledge.

Secondly, if Guy's assumption was true, then having the extremely delusional "other guy" steering the |Soul Imprint| procedure could allow him to transmit information that he hasn't personally experienced. This meant that he could even transmit abstract and unfamiliar concepts such as quantum physics, viral mutations, and complex numbers, to his students.

"All that aside. What does this all mean about my cultivation?"

That was the question Guy wanted answers to in the first place. The only reason he dared to access his core through |Introspect| was to take a closer look at his cultivation method. Guy knew for a fact that he hadn't been following any particular cultivation method, so then how did he manage to break through into a higher realm?

At this point, Guy had fully entered The Church and assumed a seat at the back of the dais. He noticed that at the benches, there were three more faint corporeal figures next to Markus. Right after Markus was an extremely faint and misty form of Kano. After him, there were the equally faint forms of Jean, followed by Dora.

"It's the order in which they truly recognised me as a Teacher with great influence in their lives," Guy concluded.

He approached Markus' figure and inspected it curiously. When he had assumed the persona of the "other guy", he acted very familiarly and with practiced motions. Everything just seemed instinctual to him. But that wasn't right! Working through instinct is fine when it comes to sports. But with pedagogy and science, one cannot ride through with unexplained theories.

Guy remembered that to enter Markus' core space, he had grasped at the rope extending from the corporeal figure's navel. Following the same method, Guy reached forward and grabbed the rope tight.

Instantaneously, he could feel a strong suction followed by a familiar disorienting traversal. But unlike before, his motion was cut short and he was pulled back. Immediately, Guy found himself back where he was in The Church.

Guy frowned and tried again, only to face the same rejection. Seeing as there wasn't an adverse reaction, he kept trying a few more times.

"Is it because I am not wearing the mask?" He muttered as he grasped the rope one last time. Unlike before, though, this time his trip followed through and he found himself in the dark environment from before.

"Why did it work this time? Do I have to keep repeating it multiple times for it to succeed?"

Guy returned to The Church and tried the alternate strategy of pulling Markus in. He grasped the boy's corporeal figure, causing the inanimate form to liven up.

"Master, you called me?" The boy's figure vocalised.

"Huh? Why did it work the first time?"

"I'm not sure what you mean, Master."

"I was trying to access your core before. I had to repeat it multiple times before succeeding. However, the process of pulling you into my core space worked right away."

"Oh. Actually, before, I experienced a nagging feeling. I didn't know what it was; I thought it had something to do with my cultivation. It kept repeating so I sat down to meditate. As I did so, this suddenly happened."

"So it's through meditation!"

"Is there anything you need, Master?" Markus' figure asked.

"Hmm... Not really. Wait-" Guy quickly interrupted. "Can you try moving around here?"

Markus' figure frowned for a while before speaking up, "I can't seem to move. Where is this place exactly?"

"That's also what I'm trying to figure out. Can you go and ask Jean to meditate with you as well?" Guy instructed. After hearing Markus' affirmation, Guy dismissed him. To release him, Guy mentally urged Markus to exit his meditative state.

After waiting for a sufficient duration, Guy repeated the invitation process and grasped Markus.

"Master!" The boy's figure exclaimed.

Guy moved over to Jean and did the same. However, since her figure wasn't as clear as Markus', her reaction after entering The Church was choppy and blurred.

"T..cher La..ks!" The girlcalled out. Her figure fidgeted and flickered.

"Jean, can you hear me?"

"Y.., I ..n!" A hazy reply followed.

"Can you look around? What do you see?" Guy asked.

"It's bl..ry I ..n't s.. a..y..ing," She answered.

Guy hummed and then proceeded to dismiss his two students once again.

Although the method wasn't properly scientific, the interaction had yielded Guy a lot of valuable information. It was still in need of further testing, but Guy could surmise that The Church's range wasn't limited to his immediate vicinity and that he could utilise it to interact with his students spiritually as long as the two parties were meditating. This was insane!

"It has a conference call feature!" Or as the "other guy" would put it: "remote sermon feature." There was still some need for stress-testing the boundaries of this feature, but as it stood it was definitely game-breaking.

In addition to this, Guy figured that the student's cultivation realm could also play a key role in the effectiveness of this feature. For one, the distance that can be covered could be limited by the cultivation realm of the recipient. After all, Markus was close to Foundation Establishment while Jean had just started her journey. It could also affect the clarity of the recipient's presence in The Church. Maybe Jean could have a better visual if she was of a higher realm?

"All of these warrant thorough experimentations, however, I am sorely lacking a sufficiently large testing batch to do so," Guy commented with a bitter expression.

Guy could possibly accumulate a few more students from the village, however, most of them at the school-going age were too young to walk the path of magehood. And, Guy couldn't think of a plausible ground to influence their lives enough, such that the RoK recognises them.

He could just as easily go around recruiting random folks and teaching them magic, but that wasn't Guy's mantra.

"I'll just have to make do with what I have..."

Yet, all things considered, there was still one question of Guy's that had gone unanswered. How were The Church and the white room at his core space related to his cultivation?