Chapter 22

 Du Mingna finished speaking, not rushing into the next step.

 He glanced lightly at the hourglass on the table.

 After having Jia De close his eyes, he flipped the hourglass over to start timing.

 Generally, a child who has just started to touch "perception" can imagine an item in front of them within two hours, feeling like they really see its existence when they close their eyes, even if they are exceptionally talented.

 But Du Mingna remembered that the original body took only ten minutes to completely recall everything seen before closing their eyes.

 This is just the initial exercise of "perception," and there is a huge difference between this and the ability of powerful mages or knights to perceive things with their mental power.

 Du Mingna saw a look of effort on Jia De's face.

 The sand in the hourglass was still slowly flowing down.

 Du Mingna had used the hourglass a few more times and could now judge how much time had passed based on the changing ratio of sand in the hourglass.

 It should be more than ten minutes now.

 For a beginner, if they cannot receive timely hints, it is easy to lose focus.

 Even if the guide speaks again, it is difficult for beginners to keep up and continue with the perception exercise.

 "Jia De, tell me, can you see anything in front of you now? Even if it's just a small item?" "I...

" Jia De's voice was as hoarse as ever, "Teacher, I feel like I see you.

" The room was empty, and other things were placed in distant corners, making it difficult for Jia De to see directly.

 And Du Mingna was sitting directly opposite Jia De, occupying most of Jia De's field of vision.

 Therefore, for Jia De, if he wanted to recall what he saw before closing his eyes and try to visualize it in front of him while his eyes were closed, what he urgently wanted to imagine was Du Mingna's appearance.

 Trembling slightly, he said with a hint of fear, "But teacher, I only see your head.

" He still had his eyes closed.

 It was a strange scene that only he could vaguely see.

 In the not-so-large room, it was almost pitch black.

 But in this darkness, there was a blurry human head floating.

 The boundary between the head and the darkness was not clear, and the inside of the head was also varying shades of black...

 Jia De was not afraid of the head.

 He just felt that he had tried so hard to imagine the teacher's appearance, but could only imagine the teacher's head, and the image he imagined was quite different from the teacher's real appearance, making him feel sorry for the teacher.

 "My head?" Du Mingna was slightly stunned, then chuckled lightly.

 "You can see my head? That's good.

 Is my head clear to you now?" Jia De instinctively wanted to shake his head.

 But immediately, he restrained his impulse.

 Du Mingna didn't want him to open his eyes, so he was worried that moving his head would affect the current learning effect.

 "It's not clear, very blurry, like...

 thicker, denser fog.

" Jia De pondered for a moment.

 "Thicker and denser than being separated by thick fog.

" "Then try to perfect my head first, start from the features, oh, the eyebrows, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, how about that? If you feel like you're starting to forget my appearance, don't worry, just keep thinking.

 You will remember.

" Everyone can actually remember what they have experienced.

 What really determines whether a person can remember in the common sense is whether they can extract their relevant memories.

 This is why some powerful mages can accurately recall something extremely inconspicuous within their field of vision many years later.

 All the images have long been stored in the brain.

 Du Mingna's use of "guiding tone" in speaking to Jia De at this moment can help Jia De extract memories.

 Du Mingna has not practiced before, but he has received enough basic education for mages in the past, and he has enough talent to digest and absorb this knowledge.

 He is now fully capable of the role of "guide".

 Jard initially showed some impatience upon hearing Du Mingna's new request.

 But as he listened to what Du Mingna had to say, his emotions calmed down considerably.

 Just listening to Du Mingna speak to him made him feel like he truly possessed the ability to recall Du Mingna's face.

 Even with his eyes closed, he felt that the floating heads he could see in front of him became clearer.

 They increasingly resembled the real face of Du Mingna.

 The imagined face of Du Mingna that Jard had conjured up was starting to overlap with the real face of Du Mingna.

 At first, no matter how seriously he tried to imagine the corresponding scene, he felt that the imagined Du Mingna was getting closer to him.

 If he tried to make the imagined face of Du Mingna move further away from him, he found that the image he had just conjured up became more blurry.

 It was at this moment that Jard saw a glimmer of success.

 However, in that instant, he heard a faint, thudding sound.

 The sound did not exist in reality.

 But he heard it.

 After the sound rang out, he was startled, and his attention was instantly diverted.

 His eyelids kept twitching.

 He wanted to open his eyes.

 It was his subconscious reaction.

 But he remembered Du Mingna's instructions.

 Without Du Mingna's command, he couldn't open his eyes.

 So he tried his best to suppress his urge.

 But it was uncomfortable.

 Something gently tapped him, dispelling his unease one by one.

 He heard Du Mingna's gentle voice.

 "Jard, congratulations.

 You have just experienced 'perception resistance' for the first time.

 Now, open your eyes and relax.

" Jard's first experience of perception lasted for over forty minutes.

 Being kicked out of the state of perception due to "perception resistance" was much stronger than those who seemed obediently sitting in perception for a long time without any gains! Jard looked up at Du Mingna standing in front of him and slowly asked, "Perception resistance? What is it?" He seemed to be thinking hard, but he couldn't find the answer on his own, so he chose to ask.

 Du Mingna was even more satisfied.

 It's great when students actively engage their brains and are willing to ask questions promptly! This is much better than just listening to what the teacher says without further thought, or thinking but only getting stuck in their own thoughts without understanding and continuing to speculate endlessly! Jard truly deserved the "partiality" evaluation in his student profile.

 He may have poor handwriting, but his talent in cultivation is truly remarkable.

 Du Mingna even felt that Jard could perceive elements within a week.

 "Perception resistance is a protection mechanism of the human body.

 When you expend a certain amount of mental energy in perception, you will suddenly experience a strange sensation, like hearing strange sounds, your body trembling, and then you are forced to exit the state of perception.

 "What I just taught you is the basic knowledge of perception.

 "You also need to know that perception consumes a lot of mental energy.

 "Prolonged immersion in perception can easily lead to excessive mental energy consumption, and may even result in a state of being soulless for a long time after ending perception, where you have no feelings no matter what happens.

 "I once saw a person who became soulless due to excessive perception.

 "He accidentally knocked over an oil lamp, igniting his clothes, and the flames reached his hair, but he felt nothing.

 People shouted at him, but he couldn't hear them.

 "Others helped him put out the fire, rolled him on the ground, and kept pouring water on him, but he still felt nothing.

 "When he finally came to, he foolishly asked others why he was bald, with his skin red and swollen.

" Jard listened with a look of amazement on his face.

 A hint of fear was added to his expression.

 Clearly, he did not want to become so dull in his reactions due to perception.

 Not even temporarily! Du Mingna saw that Jard realized the seriousness of the problem, and only then did she breathe a sigh of relief.

 Jard had great talent, so she had to make him understand the dual nature of perception.

 Perception is also a prerequisite for meditation.

 Having a good perception will make it easier to enter a meditative state and eventually an introspective state.

 But if one becomes obsessed with exercising perception, it could really cause harm.

 Du Mingna wasn't too worried about Jard not being able to enter a state of perception without his guidance.

 After all, people with poor talent can practice all they want in private, but they won't achieve any results, let alone reach the state of "perception loss"! Having great talent but only superficial understanding is the most dangerous for self-preservation.

 Jard was currently in this state.

 Fortunately, Jard had ended his perception early.

 Du Mingna had expected to spend two hours guiding Jard to experience perception, but Jard had only spent a few minutes, so he still had time to continue with Jard and make sure he remembered not to practice privately when he got home.

 Jard always managed to extrapolate when encountering knowledge related to cultivation.

 Du Mingna's teaching was extremely comfortable.

 However, at that moment, someone hurriedly ran over.

 The person's footsteps were light and swift.

 Du Mingna's ears twitched slightly, instantly alert.

 His mental strength was strong, so he also had a certain level of perception of unusual environments.

 Jard immediately tensed his body.

 Du Mingna noticed that although he was still sitting in his chair, he could spring up at any moment.

 This child was a born warrior! Dora's exclamation came from the living room.

 "Dad?" The figure that entered from the living room did not respond to Dora's call but looked around and asked, "Teacher? Where are you? We have made a very important discovery!" Du Mingna responded to Daniel while recalling his teaching to Jard just now.

 He had indeed told Jard all the basic precautions for perception and even mentioned some advanced precautions.

 With Jard's current level of perception and the environment in Greystoke Village, Jard should not get into trouble due to perception.

 Many of the basic precautions for perception are related to things like perception resistance and potential harm to the perceiver during perception.

 The advanced precautions for perception are more related to the environment.

 For example, people living in a metropolis should focus on compressing their perception within a certain range when practicing perception, so as not to inadvertently perceive things further away and disturb other important figures in the city.

 When conducting perception in the wilderness, one must also consider the conditions of the wilderness.

 If there are only some ordinary wild animals around, expanding the perception range may only result in not being able to hunt them.

 However, if there are magical beasts, which are stronger than the perceiver, one might end up becoming a meal for the magical beasts.

 There are no other important figures in Greystoke Village who might be disturbed by perception.

 Du Mingna was the most likely person to notice others' perception.

 But if he found out that his student's perception range was so far-reaching, he would mostly be pleased.

 The only thing Du Mingna wanted Jard to remember was that if magical beasts came to Greystoke Village, Jard must absolutely not attempt to enter a state of perception.

 When Jard became stronger in the future and could hunt magical beasts, Du Mingna would consider lifting the ban on perception for Jard.

 But that was not for now.