Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2559: Space Rule Source

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Central Region, Central Academic City, Morningstar University District, Morningstar University Campus, Garden of Beginning, Time Vestige, Morningstar University 2nd Campus

Have you ever woken to find yourself suspended in pitch-black darkness wondering:

”Where am I?”

”What is this place?”

”Why is it so dark?”

”Am I enclosed inside something?”

If yes, then congratulations—you’ve realized the existence of space and begun your first steps into comprehending the space-rule.

How do I know? I know because that was exactly how my comprehension began. After following the card world’s space-rule stream to its source, I suddenly found myself adrift in absolute darkness. With no idea where I was—only the unsettling certainty that I was somewhere. And in that instant when I recognized I was somewhere—acknowledged it—that recognition alone meant I had already begun my comprehension of space-rule.

[You have begun comprehension of the space-rule.]

When that moment of confusion cleared, I caught the realization that I had reached the space-rule source. The source of all space rules across the myriad realms.

With each tentative movement in that pitch-black emptiness, I felt myself learning—slowly, instinctively. Every gesture, every shift of intention seemed to fill the void with a faint trace of my own presence, as though I were turning nothing into something and something back into nothing. Each action—no matter how small—expanded my understanding of the space-rule.

It wasn’t just movement. My thoughts had weight here. Every attempt to define the emptiness around me, to understand myself within it, to grasp how we interacted—each insight sharpened my comprehension at an astonishing speed. It was almost too easy.

[Your comprehension of the space-rule has advanced to Basic Mastery.]

That alone was enough to trigger my caution. Space-rule wasn’t as rare as time-rule among card apprentices, but it was still uncommon. If comprehension truly came this easily, wouldn’t more card apprentices master it? That was why I believed this simplicity in my comprehension of space-rule was because of my affinity for space itself.

Once I had defined the emptiness, myself, and the relationship between us, I pushed deeper—attempting to define us and our interaction from different ways I was inspired to in that emptiness.

The more I understood the space rule with respect to me and vice versa, the stronger my existence anchored within the space rule. It allowed me to impose orientation onto the void itself, up, down, right, left, north, south. I tried to redefine the emptiness and redefine myself, with every possible inspiration that came to me within that nothingness, growing my understanding.

[Your comprehension of the space-rule has advanced from Basic to Intermediate Mastery.]

Soon, I realized something subtle but unmistakable: with every increase in my understanding of the space-rule, both my own presence and the presence of the space-rule source grew more prominent. Or maybe it wasn’t that I and the space-rule source were growing together—maybe I had finally gained the clarity needed to perceive it.

Was that it? I couldn’t tell. When I entered the Blood Rule Source, I had already comprehended two blood-rule meanings. My foundation there had been far deeper than what I currently possessed for space-rule. Not to mention, the Blood Source had revealed itself to me from the very beginning, unlike the space-rule gradually and unfolding.

One thing, however, was certain—the deeper my comprehension of space became, the more I realized how much of it still lay hidden. The more I understood, the more I saw how much remained to be uncovered, defined, shaped, and mastered.

[Your comprehension of the space-rule has advanced from Intermediate to Advanced Mastery.]

[Having reached Advanced Mastery of the space-rule, you have arrived at the Space-Rule Bifurcation Point. Please choose one meaning of the space-rule to continue your comprehension.

Caution: Once you choose a meaning of a specific rule, you cannot choose another meaning of space rule until you achieve complete mastery over your current choice.

Note: Due to the card apprentice’s Myriad Primordial Souls, the card apprentice may select different rule meanings for each primordial spirit to comprehend. However, it is advised to select the same rule meaning for all primordial spirits until you forge your own Space-Rule Stream, to avoid complications.]

As soon as I reached advanced mastery and arrived at the bifurcation point, the void around me shifted. The pitch-black emptiness blossomed into a vast expanse of stars—an endless, glittering night sky stretching in every direction.

It didn’t take long for me to understand what I was seeing. Every ”star” wasn’t a star at all, but a celestial’s Space Stream Spirit, each one immersed in its own comprehension of the space-rule in the space-rule source. Each point of light represented a will, a presence, a spirit of countless celestials’ comprehension into the space rule, regardless of where they were in the myriad realms and what they were doing, all pursuing their own meanings of space.

At last, I was seeing the space-rule source in its true form. The realization struck me with a quiet awe. Surrounded by countless luminous space rule stream spirits, I couldn’t help but wonder whether I, too, appeared as a star to the other celestials’ space rule stream spirits—just as they appeared to me.

Maybe I wasn’t bright enough yet to be noticed from the far reaches of the space rule source like these celestials’ space rule stream spirits, but my presence was here all the same.

Once I had taken in the full view of the space-rule source, I finally felt the bifurcation point of the space-rule. And it was nothing like the bifurcation points of the rule streams back in the womb of the card world.

Here, every aspect and attribute of the space-rule was illuminated before me—each one a distinct point in the space rule source, representing a different meaning of space. Instead of vague choices with unknown outcomes, these meanings carried a clarity I hadn’t experienced before.

Unlike the card world’s rule streams, where I had no real sense of what each meaning could do or what path it might lead me down, the space-rule source offered me partial understanding. Enough to sense the essence behind each meaning. Enough to see what each path could become.

Only now did I realize what a tremendous opportunity I’d missed when I comprehended the third blood-rule meaning. Instead of connecting to the Blood Rule Source, I had chosen the safer route—comprehending through the blood-rule stream of the card world.

All because I feared the blood-rule slaves wandering the Blood Source.

That fear had cost me clarity, depth, and the insight I was now experiencing within the space-rule source when choosing a meaning at the bifurcation point. Still, I received some guidance from the blood rule stream spirit of the card world due to my friendship with Bloodette. I don’t regret comprehending the blood plague meaning of the blood rule.