The ancient return was exposed by his sister's live stream.

Before Chen Siyao could explain, Yang Wanqing started tirade again: "Yaoyao, why are you like a ghost! You disappear in a flash! Then you reappear in another flash!"

"I..."

"And why can't we get out of this martial arts training hall! Did Master punish me for slacking off and not practicing properly?!"

"Listen to me..."

"I just improved my cultivation level! I'll just slack off a little bit! It's only for one day!"

Chen Siyao looked at her best friend speechlessly.

This girl's logic chain is always...something happened →did I do something wrong →my master is punishing me.

"When did my brother ever punish you?" Chen Siyao asked.

Yang Wanqing was taken aback.

"This is the realm of consciousness," Chen Siyao said. "It's not a real place. Your body isn't here. Of course you can't get out."

"Consciousness...space?"

"The helmet." Chen Siyao pointed to her temple. "After you put on the helmet, your consciousness was projected here. The Martial Arts Pavilion itself is a physical entity, but you are not. Your physical body is still sitting in the chair in the pavilion."

Yang Wanqing's brain processed the information for three seconds.

"So...it wasn't Master who punished me?"

"no."

"Did the helmet send my consciousness in?"

"right."

"Then how do we get out?"

"Close your eyes. Feel the location of your actual physical body. Just withdraw your mind from it."

Yang Wanqing closed her eyes. Two seconds later...

She disappeared too.

On the attic balcony.

Yang Wanqing suddenly opened his eyes and ripped off the helmet from his face.

Breathing. Heartbeat. The wind is blowing from the other side of the bridge.

The real world.

She stared at the dark silver helmet in her hand, her mouth slightly agape, before finally managing to utter a single sentence after several seconds.

"Master! That's so cool!"

Chen Hao sat opposite him; his tea was almost cold.

"Is this the legendary two-dimensional world! Virtual reality!" Yang Wanqing held up the helmet with both hands, his eyes shining.

"It's not anime/manga," Chen Hao shook his head. "It's just a space within the sea of ​​consciousness. It's merely a projection of divine sense."

"That's amazing!" Yang Wanqing examined the helmet from all angles. "The feel is just like the real thing! The vision is too! My toes hurt when I kicked the door from inside!"

"You kicked the door down?" Chen Hao raised an eyebrow.

Yang Wanqing shrank his neck. "...I didn't kick him more than a few times."

At this moment, Chen Siyao also stepped out. She took off her helmet, placed it on the table, and looked at Chen Hao.

"Brother. This helmet... allows a person's consciousness to connect to the Martial Arts Pavilion."

"That's right," Chen Hao said. "From now on, you won't need to go to the Jade Void Hall to practice in the Martial Arts Pavilion. Just put on the helmet, and your divine sense will automatically connect to it."

Chen Siyao picked up the helmet and looked at it again.

"The level of sensory fidelity... is too high," she said. "The three-dimensional spatial sense, tactile feedback, simulated circulation of spiritual energy... it's all there. It's almost indistinguishable from actually standing in the Martial Arts Hall."

Yang Wanqing had already put the helmet back on his face.

"I'll go in and take another look..."

His body went limp again.

Chen Siyao: "..."

She glanced at Chen Hao. Chen Hao's expression was almost like that of someone looking at a puppy chasing its own tail.

That night.

The two of them took turns wearing helmets to enter and exit the martial arts pavilion, and they stayed up until midnight.

Yang Wanqing arranged for a master swordsman to spar with her in the martial arts pavilion, and she practiced for two hours.

Chen Siyao was studying the formation structure of the Martial Arts Pavilion inside, and could virtually arrange the formation.

Until the early hours of the morning.

The two finally took off their helmets and sat on the balcony, their faces beaming with excitement; neither of them was sleepy anymore.

Chen Siyao looked at the helmet in her hand and suddenly asked a question.

"Brother, will this helmet still be usable after we bring it back to Earth?"

Chen Hao was tidying up the tea set. He paused for a moment.

"Not yet."

Why?

"Divine senses must traverse interstellar distances." Chen Hao placed the teapot back on the table.

"From Blue Star to the Thirty-Three Heavens, there are boundary walls and star seas in between. Divine sense projection requires an anchor point... a relay device that can cross the boundary walls."

Chen Siyao frowned.

"I call it the Void Sea Landmark. It's made from Boundary Stones. The Martial Arts Pavilion will serve as the spatial anchor point, and the landmark will act as a transit station for divine sense."

Chen Hao said, "At that time, we will wear helmets on Blue Star and use our divine sense to pass through the coordinates and directly arrive at the Martial Arts Pavilion."

Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing exchanged a glance.

The two had the exact same expression; they hadn't understood a single word.

Boundary wall. Graduation scale. Spatial anchor point. Transfer station.

That's incredibly professional.

But Chen Siyao gleaned a crucial piece of information... this virtual sea level doesn't exist yet.

"Brother, how long will it take to refine this Void Sea Standard?"

Chen Hao thought for a moment.

"About six months."

Half a year.

Chen Siyao didn't press for details about whether it could be done. Her brother only mentioned the timeframe, without saying "trial run" or "uncertain."

That means it can be done.

Half a year... that probably includes repeated trials and adjustments. Even for an older brother, transmitting divine sense across interstellar distances is not something that can be accomplished overnight.

"So during this time..." Chen Siyao put the helmet back on the table.

"I go to the Eight Trigrams Furnace every day," Chen Hao said. "You guys continue exploring the other parts of the Jade Void Temple. There's still so much to see here."

Yang Wanqing clung to his helmet, refusing to let go. "Master, can I use this to practice in the Martial Arts Pavilion every night for the time being?"

"what ever."

"Yay!"

Chen Siyao stood up. "Qingqing, it's time to sleep. We have to go to the Tianji Array Sect tomorrow."

"Play for another five minutes..."

"Going to sleep."

"……All right."

Yang Wanqing reluctantly put down his helmet and followed Chen Siyao into the inner room. After taking a few steps, he turned back.

Goodnight, Master.

Chen Hao nodded.

The sound of their footsteps disappeared into the inner room.

The balcony became quiet.

Chen Hao sat back down in his chair. He neither looked at the moonlight nor drank his tea.

He was looking at the Boundary Stone in the Qiankun Bag.

Thirty-seven. Two were used to make the helmet. Thirty-five remain.

The Void Sea Standard... is more than ten times more complex than the Consciousness Helmet. There are far too many problems to solve.

The issues include the attenuation of spiritual consciousness across boundaries, the stability of spatial anchoring, and the load problem of multiple people connecting simultaneously.

Six months... that might be a conservative estimate.

But Chen Hao did not mention this uncertainty.

There's no point in saying it. Just do it.

He carefully put away the Qiankun bag, got up, and went back to his room.

Starting tomorrow... the Eight Trigrams Furnace will be the place he spends the most time in every day.

Tushita Palace, Eight Trigrams Furnace

When Chen Hao put a Boundary Stone back into his Qiankun Bag, the furnace fire in the Tushita Palace was still burning.

He stood in front of the Bagua Furnace, staring at the dancing golden-red flames inside, his mind deducing the array structure of the Void Sea Dimension Marker.

Transmission of divine consciousness across interstellar space.

These four words sound simple, but they involve things like boundary refractive index, spatial attenuation coefficient, and the loss curve of spiritual consciousness in a vacuum—each a separate and complex problem.

The consciousness helmet provides point-to-point, close-range projection. The straight-line distance from the pavilion to the Jade Void Palace is no more than thirty li.