Chapter 365: Hidden Rules (1/3)

Translator: Strivon

Luo Nan wasn't in a hurry to start on the initial formulation of the direction, just as a standard artist was never pressed to put his pen to paper. This was especially true in his case, where he wasn't facing a blank sheet of paper, but rather a deep and complex starry sky.

Luo Nan flipped through the loose-leaf notebook in his hands and found a blank page. He wrote solemnly with his pen:

The first item starts with me. Push myself, and others shall be pushed as well.

Looking at his current circumstances, the simplest and smoothest option he had available when it came to truly revising the Life Sketches should lay with external clairvoyance. Driver Qin was an excellent example. With the degree of detail in Driver Qin's Life Sketch, the answer was simply placed before his eyes.

But Luo Nan was fully aware that this wasn't enough. He lacked the link of a self-reference. It was extremely hard for him to see the flaws within his own work. The initial version of the Life Sketch had been affected by Luo Nan's level of understanding at the time. He nearly lost the space to add a further step in detail. There was a lesson to be learned from this.

But something must be known. Observing the self through clairvoyance was what made cultivating difficult. That was what it meant to know one's own limitations. Gym Master Xiu had emphasized this to him last night using similar words, and Luo Nan had mentioned very early on that he was no expert in making 'self-portraits.’ He wasn't being modest.

Of course, looking at the situation from a different perspective, high consumption often represented high gains. Though such a method of doing things promised great difficulty, it was a process with set standards and principles. Only when one polished themselves to become clear could they shine clearer upon others. This was the essence of the root receptacle, root nature, and root trigger technique of subdivision.

Luo Nan chose a road where the beginning was rough but the latter was easy. To get on this road, he would need to climb the steepest peaks. Only in this way could he solidify his foundation and avoid the fatal danger of the uncontrollable growth caused by Formatting Theory to the greatest degree.

Luo Nan paused his pen for a moment, before writing down more words.

Second item: Observe first, then replicate in multiple dimensions.

Luo Nan was using drawing techniques to take a picture of the living starry sky. It didn't matter whether it was speed-sketching or drawing; they both used techniques that weren't baseless or imaginary. They needed one to truly observe the subject.

There was nothing much to say. Luo Nan's target of observation was none other than himself. This wasn't a simple tracing of his own reflection. Instead, it required him to study his body and soul frame in lucidity. Luo Nan needed to grasp its form, its soul, and match it with its star atlas-transformed form.

There existed all sorts of elements, many of which involved the mental plane. The number of ideas were numerous and chaotic. To accurately chase them down was no easy task. The only way to advance might be to look at the many different perspectives, the many different levels of the Body Gear and God Gear, the visualization diagram, and the root receptacle, root nature, and root trigger. And then find the highest common factor among them.

This undoubtedly would increase the amount of work Luo Nan had to do, but he already resigned himself to doing things the hard way, not the easy way. He had chosen the steepest path, so he didn't mind carrying a bit more burden.

Luo Nan's mind remained slightly active with thoughts upon writing these two lines. The thoughts seemed clear, but they weren’t. It was hard for them to fully form. Luo Nan just subconsciously spun his pen and used his other hand to lift yellow page after yellow page doused with sweat.

His gaze streaked across his loose-leaf notebook, and he ran his eyes over the dozen or so pages of information filled with his insights. A moment later, he casually thumbed through his previous writing. This included a limited number of drawings.

If he hadn't recorded his insights, the amount of meaningful content in his loose-leaf notebook would be small, though the notebook itself was thick. The most valuable thing within should be the two psychic drawings he made.

One drawing was a bit small. It was the outline of the Wraith Sign he had drawn back at school a while back. It was quite abstract.

The other drawing was now a tangled mess thanks to a highlighter, but the overall composition contained crucial details. It was much more concrete, containing rich symbolic meaning within.

Yes, it was the prison sketch. Luo Nan had been confined to a detainment room on Ship Lanshan. He had drawn this diagram under the catalysis of insight. From this, he was able to comprehend the mysteries behind the phrase 'my heart’s a prison' and truly obtain supernatural powers.

My heart’s a prison?

A jolt suddenly went through Luo Nan's mind. The obscure thoughts suddenly shone bright. Since I have to make revisions, how can I let these points escape me?

He moved his pen on the spot, forming words on the same sheet of paper as before.

Third item: Scale the key links down.

The three principles were arranged in order on paper, an expression of the scope shrinking in succession. After a substantial level was touched upon by the third principle, Luo Nan could start doing work.

'My heart’s a prison' played the special role of a nexus within the course of Luo Nan's research in Formatting Theory. If Luo Nan truly wanted to get started, it was quite appropriate for him to choose this node.

Having gone through many impacts and experiences that honed him, the current Luo Nan bore a crystal clear idea rising from the bottom of his heart: In essence, 'my heart’s a prison' and Formatting Theory itself might be the manifestation of some kind of enforcing rule. As with the incident back at Frost River Reality, Luo Nan had sensed such things from the depths of the mental plane. It was an inconceivable order frame, internalized within the structure of his body and soul, ultimately achieving results.

Following this recent period of time when he learned techniques from Gym Master Xiu, Luo Nan found a suitable explanation in oriental metaphysics.

Unity of heaven and man.

There were also similar words within classical scriptures of the Dao. For instance, "Man follows the earth, the earth follows the heavens, the heavens follow the Dao, and the Dao follows nature."

All right. He had to admit that there were far too many meanings from the words of oriental metaphysics. There were often many different sorts of interpretations, requiring one to bite the words and chew the characters, nailing them down one by one. It was quite easy to be pulled down into the gutter by them.

He just used this sort of image to casually draw the typical visualization diagram in his notebook. It was none other than the composition formed from a tetrahedron, an inscribed sphere, and an outer-scribed sphere.

Here, the inscribed sphere symbolized the Self-Format, the outer-scribed sphere symbolized the Heaven and Earth Format, and the tetrahedron in the center represented the Societal Format.

Looking from a perspective of a pure cultivator, Luo Nan could put a temporary hold on the Societal Format. He needed to put more of his attention on the relationship between the Self-Format and the Heaven and Earth Format.

Of course, this topic itself was far too large. It was incompatible with his principle of scaling down.

Luo Nan simply gave up this avenue, no longer sparing any additional thought to the overall frame. He just sculpted over the details. In other words, he gave up the logic topic of how to form the Heaven and Earth Format and chose the next diverging path. That is:

"How can the Self-Format be used to reflect Heaven and Earth's creation?

...It seemed like this scale was still too large. Then Luo Nan could only continue downward in his selection. Luo Nan's mind grew clearer and clearer as he went down in level, and the basis of his selection grew more and more definite as well.

He shouldn't even be thinking about fundamental theories and such matters. Right now, he had yet to reach the level of forming a theory to explain phenomena.

Discovering the problem. Observing the phenomenon. Gathering data. Then summarizing it all into a basic logic. This was everything he could do from now to the near future.

If Luo Nan wanted to start from the basic phenomenon, there was one fact that was extremely clear: What was the most substantial benefit Luo Nan gained after comprehending 'My heart’s a prison'?

A low rattling cry rang out within the quiet bedroom.

The answer was the dark chains.

The inconceivable instantiation of this form had aided Luo Nan in going into the out-of-body state, and had subdued a clone of the Human-Faced Arachnid. It accumulated gains from every instance, seizing Luo Nan and placing him onto the fast lane for uncontrollable growth.

Then, why was there... Oh, Luo Nan gave up on the 'why.’ Right now, he simply wanted to know just what sort of form, just what sort of changes, did the dark chains have after the star atlas transformation. Just what would be different if he pulled it out from the middle of the Format Pyramid!

This was none other than his first work in observation.