Chapter 13 - Star Body Projection

```In that case...

The next moment, with a thought, Richard controlled his entire consciousness to float down from the bed and drift toward the bedroom door, easily passing through the wooden door and appearing in the corridor outside. Then Richard turned, dragging a long transparent ribbon behind him, and floated down the wooden stairs toward the hall on the first floor. Soon, the sights of the hall unfolded before him.

Although it was already evening, numerous candles and oil lamps were lit in the palace hall, illuminating it brightly, ensuring that activities were not hindered. At this moment, many maids were busy at their respective work tables, preparing various experimental materials according to specified methods. Some were working with dilute hydrochloric acid, some with alcohol, and others with deionized water...

At the entrance of the palace, several soldiers from the Personal Guard stood straight, vigilantly on guard. As the Personal Guard Captain, Edward was much more relaxed, leaning against a wall, squinting at a palm-sized book using the palace's light. As he read, he was very cautious, occasionally raising his head to scan his surroundings before continuing to read.

Richard controlled his consciousness to approach, and Edward was completely unaware. Then Richard saw the palm-sized book in Edward's hand, revealing words that were quite outlandish for this current world: Countess Elizabeth...

"Ha, so it is that kind of book." Richard thought after glancing at it, shaking his head somewhat disinterestedly. He had no interest in continuing to watch Edward, so he turned and floated toward a working maid.

She was a girl about seventeen or eighteen years old, named Angel. Her appearance was decent, but several freckles on her face significantly diminished her beauty. However, ignoring her appearance, Angel was actually the smartest of all the palace maids, generally able to learn anything taught with just one explanation.

Sometimes Richard even considered nurturing her to be his true assistant, to help manage the other maids, but due to various reasons, he had yet to implement this.

At this moment, she was meticulously preparing a standard sodium hydroxide solution according to the tasks previously assigned to her.

The first step she took was weighing a fixed amount of sodium hydroxide solid using a balance. Because of a reminder from Richard before, she wisely avoided using papyrus to contain the sodium hydroxide on the balance tray, knowing that sodium hydroxide is prone to deliquescence and would corrode the paper. Instead, she placed the sodium hydroxide in a beaker and weighed it along with the beaker, then subtracted the beaker's weight to obtain the true mass of the sodium hydroxide.

Then the second step...

The third step...

Watching Angel work methodically, without making any errors, Richard nodded slightly in satisfaction. He suddenly thought of something, extending his hand toward her work table.

Without a doubt, his hand easily passed through the tabletop.

Richard furrowed his brow and, in the next moment, concentrated his spiritual power, feeling the "hands" of his consciousness becoming somewhat solid, and lightly tapped a beaker on the table.

With a sudden "splash," the beaker shook violently, almost falling off the table and breaking.

Angel, who was working, was startled and quickly withdrew her hands to steady it. Then, with a slight furrowed brow, she looked suspiciously toward the palace door, finding no wind blowing in, and couldn't help but mutter to herself, "What happened?"

Richard couldn't answer her, but from the previous action, he already knew what he could do now: influence the real world through his current consciousness, albeit with much effort and to a very slight degree.

Furrowing his brow in thought for a moment, Richard willed himself, and a huge pulling force emanated from behind his neck, swiftly pulling him back toward the bedroom. In an instant, he penetrated upward through the second floor's ground and several walls, returning to the bed in the bedroom.

On the soft velvet bed, Richard's body remained sitting cross-legged, motionless, his chest gently rising and falling as he maintained normal breathing.

His consciousness halted beside his body, then floated down from the bed, gliding to the nearest wall, focusing all his spiritual power to carefully carve a pattern on the wall with the "fingernails" of his consciousness.

Nodding at the pattern, Richard then remembered the main task of this test—Star Body Projection.

The separation of consciousness from the body was evidently one of the roles of Star Body Projection, but not its core part. According to records in the Monroe Chapter, the reason it was named as such was primarily because...

Raising his head to look upward, Richard, with a thought, floated swiftly, quickly passing through the roof, through the palace top, and landed onto the summit of the palace.

Outside the palace, the night had deepened, with the profound darkness blanketing the world like a canopy. Everything around was silent, devoid of any sound—even the wind seemed to have halted—as though time had frozen.

But Richard knew this was merely an illusion. He wasn't disquieted by the extreme silence, controlling his consciousness to continue floating upward, rising higher and higher, elevating to a height of a hundred meters.

Looking down from a hundred meters high, the entire Blue Lion City lay beneath his gaze.

Presently, this medieval-like world did not have the prosperity of modern Earth. Due to the expensive lighting materials, the whole Blue Lion City was mostly shrouded in darkness at this time of night, except for the palace; only occasional spots of light appeared, and they were locations of various noble residences.

Richard quietly gazed, observing the entire Blue Lion City below, feeling a slight sense of wonder.

"The power of a wizard?"

Then came the sound of flapping wings, as a black bird flew over from afar. It looked similar to a crow but was larger than an average crow; Richard recognized it as a raven.

The raven flew swiftly, and while passing by Richard, seemed to sense something, twisted its neck warily to glance around, but finding nothing, it eventually flapped its wings and flew far away.

Suddenly, a brief but faint screech was heard.

"Ah!"

Hm?

Richard looked over and noticed the raven's figure had disappeared, with a faint large figure swiftly darting past in the distance, resembling a powerful predator.

Was it a large falcon?

Richard speculated, but didn't pay it much mind, retracting his gaze, calming himself, then lifting his head to look upward.

At this moment, in the night sky resembling a canopy, countless points of light twinkled, but they weren't stars. They were the energies transmitted in the form of light from the stars, known as star body projection.

Star Body Projection!

Richard spread his arms open, attempting, as recorded in the Monroe Chapter, to absorb the energy into his body utilizing spiritual power. In an instant, it felt as if sunlight shone upon him, with the entire consciousness suddenly warming up, and massive amounts of energy quickly flooding in, continuously, then transmitting through the transparent ribbon behind his neck into his cross-legged body.

Yet all the energy entering his body was like a guest, not lingering once inside, quickly dissipating. Thus, despite the energy continuously flooding in, none of it was stored. This was precisely because his body lacked the special structure capable of storing energy—a Magic Origin. Constructing a Magic Origin was the second challenge of Life Remolding.

The first Life Remolding was responsible for separating consciousness from the body to practice Star Body Projection and strengthen spiritual power. The second Life Remolding enabled cosmic energy to be stored within. The third Life Remolding allowed the stored energy to become usable mana for spell casting.

Richard contemplated the Monroe Chapter's contents, expanding his consciousness in the night sky, continually absorbing energy. At this moment, it felt like lounging in a hot spring; although he couldn't acquire any energy, his spiritual power was continuously strengthening.

Thus, a consciousness floated above Blue Lion City, like a king, relishing the vast energies of star body projection under the night sky until...