NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 340 – A Gate
The next day Rosha and Courtney head out together while Jason sticks around until Sunday rolls around. At some point between those two times, Peter managed to sneak out. Jason wasn’t able to pin down when, but he didn’t really try too hard, either. Sunday was a big day.
A day that had finally arrived. The only thing to note was a message from the System, but with that message, the number of active travellers plummeted. Sure, many of them stuck around. Not everyone needed to leave and some will be attempting to take advantage of those who left. In the end, though, when the five to one time ratio is dropped people flocked to the real world.
Even if NeoRealm felt exactly the same as their home reality, it didn’t feel the same. So as Jason steps out of his family’s apartment he is met with a crowded hallway...
Well, that is what he expected to find. Except, of course, all the nearby apartments had been cleared out by the government to try and figure out what was up with the corrupting powers fleeing the area. Still, it isn’t like they stopped ride service and so a quick call and Jason is off, riding towards the park he had gone to last time.
A nice quiet forest park with a gentle stream. The rock next to it had been perfect when he had first discovered that the power of this world was in chaos. Though what was in chaos, this visit was the park itself. Despite being out of the way, there was still a large number of people hanging around.
There are a few groups meeting up, but overall it seems Jason is very far from the only loner who had found this place. That, of course, made this a less than optimal location, but he had expected this outcome. There were only so many parks, even in a full sized arcology.
What was really the biggest problem for Jason was that someone had taken the spot on top of the rock. It was really a small thing and almost inevitable, but he had really liked that spot. Pettiness aside, there wasn’t really a good reason to change locations at this point. All the parks were going to be like this or private affairs.
So, in resignation, Jason chose a relatively peaceful location right up on the inner edge of a bend in the stream. Damper than preferable, but there was a decent sized group of elderly doing tai chi between him and the rest of the park. They had been a bit leery of him at first but once they realized Jason was just there to meditate an understanding was formed between them. After all, they hadn’t ended up in that location by accident, either.
Location situated, Jason is able to swiftly fall into a deep meditation. Though, unlike his previous times, he doesn’t go directly into cultivation. Within NeoRealm he has had ample time to go over his cultivation with a fine-toothed comb, out here? Not so much.
Jason can tell he stumbled into some deep and meaningful paths, but his actual cultivation is still at the most elementary level. So he meditates and allows his dantian to slowly come into his awareness. The outer shell, a defensive wall. Yet at the same time, it can act as a gate, allowing that which brings benefit in.
Within those walls are lush fields. While there are some pseudo-crops growing as if in a well cared for field, much of the center has been taken over. For there proudly stands a plant which now has both the characteristics of a vine and a tree. It stands tall, reaching upward in a way that, despite going beyond the wall, still stays within the center area.
A deep breath out and Jason focuses on that second thing he had noticed. His wall, the defensive barrier of civilization, allowing the farmland within to be peaceful. But now he can sense the gate-like nature of it. Of course, this always had to be the case or else he wouldn’t have been able to cultivate further.
Jason had seen cases of walled off dantians in his last life, though all born in that condition. Those people could not even take the first steps of cultivation themselves. With only a few being able to start through powerful relatives who either directly inserted power or used medicines to do it.
While on one hand pitiful as they never managed to advance too far, always being stuck behind whoever allowed them to advance in the first place. However, this state wasn’t without benefits. Though keeping out the power used to cultivate was bad, it also kept out harmful elements.
That last bit clues Jason into why his wall ended up like it did. From the start, he had been fighting against the rough and chaotic powers. The wall was just a more concrete visualization of this, allowing the process to be smoothers. Now, though, the second part of his walls has come to the forefront.
While the outer shell doesn’t literally have gates and in fact, can all act as a gate, the symbolism is clear. A fortified position through which the outside can be screened for who can enter. At the most literal level, this would mean filtering out any corrupting element that might try to enter. Though of course it goes deeper.
Not just good from bad, but also that which has beneficial meaning to it. To the point that just like in NeoRealm, his cultivation here isn’t taking in everything that is available. Not quite to the same extent, but the intent is there.
Beyond that though Jason notices another thing. A cycle between the fields and his walls. For as the walls protect and allow the good in, the fields in turn support the effort. Vague feelings of spiritual crops take up the entire outer area of the fields and those in turn provide for the wall.
