Chapter 218: The Island

Zhang Wenda didn't sleep at all that night. He waited until the crack of dawn, then immediately got up and headed for the training room.

When he arrived, the Soviet wasn't there. He had to wait until after 9 a.m. before the man came hopping in on his single foot.

"Teacher! I think something's gone wrong with my training!" Zhang Wenda then told him everything that had happened the previous night.

As Zhang Wenda looked at him nervously, the man spoke in a calm tone, "Are there any other problems? You can ask them all at once."

After a moment of thought, Zhang Wenda nodded forcefully. "Yes! There is one more thing. During my last mission, my inner self actually appeared."

Zhang Wenda then gave him a brief summary of what had happened during the Little Immortals incident.

He had actually planned to report this strange incident to him yesterday afternoon, but he had been delayed.

"You have it backward. It's not that a part of a thought wave comes from our Spiritual World, but that our Spiritual World creates the thought wave."

"As for your inner self appearing in someone else's thought wave, that's perfectly normal. I've said that the path of advancement is the path to mastering your own thought wave. Otherwise, did you think I had you constantly practice Meditation and learn to control your spirit just for fun?"

Hearing this, Zhang Wenda nodded thoughtfully. But then another thought struck him, and he immediately spoke up. "That's not right, Teacher. What about last night, then? I wasn't in anyone else's thought wave, so why did they appear out of nowhere?"

The man opened his eyeless sockets and stared directly at Zhang Wenda. "Are we really not in a thought wave? Think carefully before you answer. Are we currently outside of the thirteen great thought waves?"

Hearing this, Zhang Wenda immediately understood. Although Thought Wave Two was one of the great thought waves, it was still a thought wave.

At this thought, Zhang Wenda couldn't help but swallow. "So... you're saying that if I keep practicing, I could even summon that red, scythe-wielding monster within Thought Wave Two?"

'If I can really do that, my power will increase immensely.'

'If the only path forward is to increase my own strength, then this is the fastest way.'

"No." The Soviet shook his head. "That is not a monster; it is merely a part of you. This development proves that it's time for you to take the next step on your path of advancement."

Hearing this, Zhang Wenda became fully focused, eager to see what would happen next.

A bottle of strange liquid was presented to Zhang Wenda. He recognized it; Ouyang Shuangdian had given it to him to drink once before.

"Drink it."

Even though he knew what would happen, Zhang Wenda tilted his head back and downed it without hesitation.

When he opened his eyes again, the world had changed once more. His teacher had become a black stone statue, crouched in place.

Following the strands of silver hair, Zhang Wenda looked behind him and saw the head of a beautiful woman, one nearly as large as the entire room.

"Spying on me?" The moment Zhang Wenda spoke, the giant head burst with a POP, dissolving into a sky full of white dandelion seeds and vanishing before his eyes.

"Teacher, where should I go? Which way do I go?" Zhang Wenda was sure he had spoken, but he felt his voice coming from beneath the floor.

"Go find yourself. Face your true self. Only by truly understanding the kind of being you are can you truly master the power that belongs to you."

As the voice spoke, the training room door, now far in the distance, slowly swung open. Zhang Wenda walked toward it.

As he walked, Zhang Wenda felt like he was in a hall of funhouse mirrors. Parts of his body swelled and shrank, and all sorts of thoughts began to bubble to the surface.

Fortunately, this wasn't Zhang Wenda's first time here. As he focused on crushing those thoughts and notions, his surroundings began to normalize.

When he pushed open the door, a towering pink island appeared before him. He had seen it once before, but this time, it was much clearer.

The island was covered in all sorts of strange flora and fauna. Crystal balls containing tiny snakes were sandwiched between pairs of leaves. Jellyfish-like lantern flowers drifted in the air, and the leaves themselves were bizarre—some were triangular, others had round holes, but none of them were actually leaf-shaped.

No matter how strange everything was, it was all predominantly pink. For some reason, Zhang Wenda felt the place was deeply familiar, even though this was clearly his first time visiting.

After stepping onto the island, he discovered it was raining—a light drizzle.

Zhang Wenda squinted and looked up. Hovering above him was the head of an old woman, larger than a planet, weeping in despair. Her tears rained down from the sky, silently and evenly watering the entire pink island.

After a glance back at the pitch-black darkness behind him, Zhang Wenda walked into the pink forest to vaguely search for his so-called "true self."

It was quiet in the forest. No thought clusters appeared, nor did the physical forms of the three colors. The voices in his head, however, still piped up from time to time.

Zhang Wenda had been walking for about half an hour when he suddenly felt he was being watched. He looked over warily and spotted a pair of cute little eyes in a grove of heart-shaped trees.

Yellow: "Puppy! Puppy!"

Blue: "Be wary of the unknown life-form."

Red: "Kill it! It's hostile! Kill it!"

Zhang Wenda approached with extreme caution and saw a small, all-black dog lying there, wagging its tail at him.

It had no facial features and was completely black; only its silhouette suggested it was a dog.

Just as Zhang Wenda tentatively reached out to pet it, a figure only about as tall as his calf jumped out from beside him. Holding a basket, it loudly shooed away the Black Cat, which was twice its size. "SHOO! SHOO!"

The Black Cat was scared off and ran away, whimpering.

Zhang Wenda looked down and saw a Little Black Cat looking up at him. She looked a bit like Song Jianguo's cat—a small, one-eyed black cat with a blue eye.

Except this one walked upright, wore a cute blue dress, and could talk.

"Hello! Why are you here?" the little cat asked, holding her basket and wagging her tail as she looked at Zhang Wenda curiously.

"I'm here looking for someone," he replied. "What about you? Why are you here?"

The little cat stood on her tiptoes, holding her basket up high. "I'm working! I'm gathering things."

"What are these?" Zhang Wenda asked, looking at the fruits and plant roots in her basket.

"You don't know? Well, I do! I'll tell you."

The Little Black Cat then pointed a small paw at a little blue orb. "This is monoamine oxidase. It nourishes bones and stops bleeding."

Next, she pointed to a spiky yellow flower. "This is Serotonin. It calms the nerves and reduces agitation."

"And this one! And this one! This is an endorphin. It's medicinal too, but it's very dangerous. You can only use a tiny, tiny bit at a time. You mustn't eat it carelessly, okay?"