Chapter 715: Testing Mental Power
The next painting showed the Sun Priest and Moon Priest standing on a massive altar.
The Sun Priest was waving his hand.
Below them were hundreds of naked beautiful women.
Even more shocking was that behind these women, more were gradually taking shape, as if being created by the Sun Priest himself.
The painting after that showed the Sun Priest conjuring a blazing sun out of thin air, lighting up the entire world.
Elbert kept flipping through.
The rest of the paintings showed them summoning weapons that blazed with light, along with massive palaces, mountains of flesh, lakes of wine, and more.
To put it simply: you could create anything from your imagination, enjoy endless beautiful women, and live a life of unimaginable luxury.
Elbert was shaken to his core.
Even a little disturbed.
Was any of this real, or was it just the sick fantasies of some old man?
"Elbert, let me tell you something."
Robert's big eyes held a strange look.
He said, "Just now, that old guy fantasized about a beautiful woman, and she actually appeared for a split second. I think if he'd had enough mental energy, he could have kept her there — basically pulled her out of another world."
Elbert pressed his lips together. "Robert, now's not the time to think about women. What we're dealing with here is a whole new understanding of reality."
Robert shrugged. "I'm an AI. Why would I think about women? I was thinking about it for you."
Elbert sighed. "Thanks."
Then he walked into the hospital room and looked at Hall, who was lying face-down on the floor, completely still.
He had to get Hall to tell him everything about this so-called other world.
But when Elbert scanned Hall's body data, he felt a wave of helplessness.
Robert shook his head. "This guy pushed himself too far. The water content in his brain has dropped below the minimum threshold. That's not easy to fix. He's probably going to be out cold for a while."
Elbert stared at Hall.
The man had clearly been too weak to move, yet under the influence of the hallucination, he had stood up, gone through a whole series of motions, and even released a bit of that strange power.
It seemed this so-called mental energy was genuinely powerful.
What Hall had shown was probably just the tip of the iceberg.
Elbert looked at the metal ballpoint pen lying nearby.
He bent down and picked it up.
"Robert, find somewhere quiet. I want to try this hallucination myself."
Robert grinned. "So you do want to find some beautiful women."
Elbert frowned. "What women? I just want to see if I have this so-called mental energy. This stuff doesn't just unlock extreme physical potential — it can actually change reality."
Moments later, Elbert arrived at a small island in the ocean, about a hundred feet across, dozens of nautical miles from Phantom Island.
A low hum filled the air.
The Celestial Pioneer's hatch swung open, and a small drone shot out.
Then the Celestial Pioneer climbed into the sky and disappeared into the clouds.
The drones hovered around Elbert in a full 360-degree formation, recording everything with no blind spots.
This was Elbert's way of making sure he could tell hallucination from reality — and of having footage to review afterward.
The small island was covered in low-growing plants, lush and green.
But something was different from usual.
Beneath the water surrounding the island, two massive shadows — each about a thousand feet long — were slowly circling, as if guarding their master.
Elbert stood at the center of the island, breathing slowly.
He held out his hand, and liquid metal formed into a black stand, about as tall as a person, level with his eyes.
He bent down, plucked a small green leaf from the ground, and gently placed it on top of the stand.
Then he stepped back two paces.
He slowly rubbed the metal ballpoint pen between his fingers and stared at the leaf.
"Robert, once I click the pen, the hallucination will probably hit me."
"But this time, no matter what happens, I'm not going to let it pull me in."
Elbert narrowed his eyes slightly. "I only want to do one thing — move that little leaf using mental energy."
The reason he thought this was possible was that when he had stopped the train before, he had also released destructive force through his imagination.
He just hadn't done it on purpose at the time.
Robert nodded. "Right. Start small — like, say, changing reality with your mind."
It had to be said: if anyone had overheard these two talking, they would have thought both of them had lost it.
Elbert's expression grew serious.
The hallucination this pen had put him through before had been wild and disorienting, pulling him in completely.
Even now, he still felt a little uneasy about it.
But the weight of all these mysteries, and his hunger to understand this unknown world and its unknown power, kept him going.
Click.
Elbert clenched his jaw and pressed the pen.
The next moment, his mind snapped to full focus, locked onto that tiny green leaf.
Just a hallucination. Bring it on.
Without warning, a white mist began to rise over the quiet little island.
It thickened fast, wrapping around everything near Elbert.
The only thing still clearly visible in his field of view was that small, delicate green leaf, about six feet away.
Out beyond the island, on the calm blue sea, a small wooden fishing boat came puttering along, its diesel engine trailing black smoke.
On board, an old man with a white towel draped over his neck, dark weathered skin, and a straw hat was singing a fishing song in a loud, clear voice that carried across the water.
"Raise the front sail and the stern lifts high, raise the middle sail and the bow swings wide..."
"The big boats and small boats have all sailed away, let the big fish go and your heart aches all day..."
"This old man casts his net out wide, to feed the little ones waiting inside..."
"Heave-ho..."
When he finished, the old man grabbed the water bottle at his waist, took a sip, and turned back with a smile. "Granddaughter, what do you think of the view out here?"