The Broken Halo

Chapter 328: 328: Offensive & Defensive Mental Techniques

All Simon could recall after opening his eyes was him trying his best to reach the bottom of his sea of consciousness.

Unfortunately, he found and saw nothing which meant that he’d have to try when he was stronger.

He could not recall the voice or the ring.

Everything felt normal to him, and he did not find anything strange.

As for Lilith, she did not sense anything strange because she could not access his memories without his permission.

If she could, she would have known all his secrets without having to ask him.

’I guess I’ll have to wait till I’m a Demon Lord or a Greater Demon at the very least.’

Simon lowered his mask after cleaning his face, but he could not help but frown.

’I’ll really need to add a cleaning rune or formation to this mask if I’m going to be wearing it all the time.’

He released a sigh, and three seconds later, Instructor Aphon clapped.

Clap!

The Initiates who were in their sea of consciousness were startled awake, while those who could not enter had varying expressions.

Some were disappointed.

Some were indifferent.

“I can see that some of you would most likely fail this class since you have no talent in the mind path, but don’t worry. They say hardwork pays… hopefully it does for you.”

The expressions of those who could not enter their sea of consciousness had dark and ugly expressions.

However, Instructor Aphon did not care about them at all.

He looked at Simon.

“Broken Halo fell into his sea of consciousness, and that is something that can happen to first timers or beginners who are not used to entering their sea of consciousness all the time.”

“Falling into your sea of consciousness and panicking is dangerous because it can overload your brain and you can die.”

“To avoid that, make sure that you remain calm all the time in your sea of consciousness.”

Simon’s lips twitched slightly because it felt strange hearing Instructor Aphon telling him to be calm when he literally had a skill called Fearless.

He ignored the snickers and mocking glances of his classmates as usual.

“Now that some of you have seen your sea of consciousness, congratulations. I can now teach you about some basic mental techniques.”

Instructor Aphon paused.

“I’ll first teach you a basic mental offensive technique, and some of you might even know it.”

“The basic mental offensive technique is called Mind Spike. To perform this technique, you’ll need to take out of your mental energy, condense it into a spike and launch it into your enemies’ mind.”

“Don’t worry, as long as a mental attack touches any part of your enemy, their sea of consciousness would be attacked.”

He paused again, then he began walking up the steps while sometimes looking to the left, then to the right.

“Although I said this is a basic offensive technique, it’s not a technique that can be mastered so easily.”

“This is where your energy control class comes into place, though…it might not actually help that much.”

“To improve your control over your mental energy or the water in your sea of consciousness, you’ll honestly just need to practice. You’ll need to understand yourself more and be more calm.”

Majority of the first years looked down with thoughtful expressions.

“Crafting a mind spike is easy cause you can choose to take as much mental energy as you want, condense it, then create a spike.”

“But just know that if you are foolish enough to do that all the time, you’ll run out of mental energy very quickly.”

He paused and began walking down the steps.

One of the Initiates sitting at the edge yawned softly without making a sound, but Instructor Aphon slapped his head.

Pa!

“What the-?!”

The boy held his head and wanted to curse out loud, but when he saw the cold gaze of their instructor’s dual gaze, he quickly swallowed his words.

Instructor Aphon continued the lecture with an indifferent gaze.

“The volume of your mental energy and size of your sea of consciousness depends on your age, life experience, and heart rank.”

“The stronger, older, and more experienced you get, the greater the size and depth of your sea of consciousness.”

One of the female Initiates raised a hand.

“Yes?” Instructor Aphon looked at her.

“Are there ranks to measure ones mental ability? Just like the heart rank?”

Instructor Aphon shook his head.

“No. There are no mental ranks.”

The female Initiate was confused.

“Then what is the point of a mental cultivation technique? Isn’t it to make our minds stronger?”

Instructor Aphon nodded this time around.

“Yes, you’re right, but that does not mean that there’s a mind rank.”

“Whenever you advance to the next major heart rank, there’s a qualitative difference in your demon heart and body.”

“And at the same time, there’s also a change to your sea of consciousness, but it’s not a drastic change. It’s only that your sea of consciousness would become larger and deeper.”

“There are mental cultivation techniques than can help you to refine your mental energy to make it sturdier and stronger. There are some that gives your mental energy a uniqueness. There are some that just helps to improve your control over your mental energy.”

“Mental cultivation techniques are important, but at the end of the day, it’s an individual’s rank in power, age, and experience that determines the size and depth of their sea of consciousness.”

“Do you understand?”

The female Initiate nodded.

“Good.” Instructor Aphon nodded, then he swept his gaze across the class.

“Now, let me talk about defensive mental techniques.”

He paused as he stood at the center of the teaching platform, then he spoke.

“The basic defensive technique I want to teach you is actually dangerous and should be done carefully or you might hurt yourself.”

The expressions of many changed.

“Your inner domain which is your sea of consciousness has a barrier that’s holding your mental energy. However, that barrier is actually fragile and can be broken quite easily…for many individuals.”

“Before a mental attack can reach your sea of consciousness, it has to break through your barrier.”

“To prevent this, the defensive mental technique involves creating waves and crashing them into your barrier so as to strengthen it.”