One hour later, the node space.

　　The old mage leaned on his staff and looked at him with satisfaction, "This one hour's gain is greater than the month I stayed next to the node in the first place! Thanks a lot, Ethan!"

　　"I should thank you too." Ethan was feeling mentally fatigued, "If it wasn't for you, I don't know how long I'd have had to fumble around to discover all these features of this thing, or even if I'd even realised it was possible."

　　"There is so much more to be discovered, and perhaps some that I wouldn't have thought of either." So said the old mage, "That's enough for today, I can see you're tired, don't worry, I'll let you sleep dreamless and undisturbed until tomorrow morning. Tonight when no one is around, I'll set up the spell formation, so your rest will go much smoother in the future. I remember that I also have items with similar functions, so when I look for them, I'll give them to you tomorrow so that even if you're not at the inn in the future, you can still use them to sleep peacefully through the night."

　　"Thanks a lot." Ethan was quite touched.

　　"Sort of a living expense I put here for you." The old mage said, "The cooking this noon was very delicious."

　　"Er, sorry!" Ethan then remembered that the old mage hadn't eaten tonight, "I've been too upset lately, it's inevitable that I've made a mistake, I'll order a takeaway for you."

　　"Actually, I won't starve to death if I don't eat." The old mage shook his head in embarrassment, "I'm definitely not asking you for food ......"

　　Ethan ordered a takeaway for the old mage, only to realise that Warm Heart Pavilion was not yet searchable on the map, so he downloaded a few more commonly used mapping software and reported it. Then he went down and instructed Elaine to be safe on night duty and told her not to leave it on too late, before going upstairs to his room under Elaine's constant dislike.

　　The old mage cast a spell on him and he fell into a deep sleep.

　　Magnificent and peculiar karst landscapes, brightly coloured plateau landscapes, endless sea waves, desert sand dunes stretching straight to the sky, the wind blowing through the bamboo sea seems to carry a clear aroma, the salt lake as a mirror on the earth reflecting the sky and white clouds ...... Scene after scene of the scenery once again into Ethan's dream, frame after frame of the beautiful picturesque just like that silent. The beauty of the picturesque was silently displayed in front of Ethan, leaving him puzzled and bewildered.

　　It is often said that when you think about something, you dream about it at night, and Ethan was indeed a lover of nature, but he had no time to think about it these days, and he had never even seen those landscapes.

　　He was troubled in his dreams as well--

　　Obviously maintaining the ability to think lucidly, he couldn't feel his own presence, nor could he control his movements, nor could he even do a very simple act of looking down and examining himself, nor could he have any effect on those images in the dream. It was as if someone had tied him up, put virtual glasses on him that could not be rotated, and placed those images in front of his eyes in a compulsory manner, while he could not even close his eyes.

　　He was therefore very resistant, and even a little afraid.

　　The next morning, he woke up and turned around, feeling groggy in the head, as if he hadn't slept all night, and his spirit was even more fatigued.

　　"The old mage is such a pit!"

　　He still had a slight impression of last night's dream, but it was only sporadic and had become blurry as well. He vaguely remembered how real last night's dream was, that the great beauty of the scenery could only be created by the ghostly work of heaven and earth, and exceeded the scope of his imagination. But he could hardly recall those clear outlines now, and it seemed to grow more and more blurred as he sat up in bed for a while -

　　That was the way with most dreams; they began to be forgotten when you woke up.

　　So Ethan rolled out of bed in a hurry and ran outside in his trousers and shirt.

　　As a qualified "research subject", of course, he had to report his situation to the big brother! In his mind, he was afraid that the big brother was the most likely person in the world to solve these strange troubles for him!

　　Ten minutes later, the old mage finished listening to his description.

　　"This situation is quite rare." The old mage narrowed his eyes and examined him, "I've already cast the Wei Sleeping Technique on you, medical grade, and it's impossible for you to dream naturally again! Obviously the space-time node is affecting you, there can be no mistake."

　　"Trouble?" Ethan asked nervously, in that case, wouldn't it be useless to take sleeping pills!

　　"Trouble! I can tell that your brain didn't get more than two hours of rest last night, if your dream was really as real as you say it was, and not an illusion attached to it. It's likely that your brain wasn't resting at all while you were dreaming, and your brain cells were activated in the same state as when you were awake." The old mage said, "An ordinary person's body is neither as fragile nor as strong as you think, so if you can't rest, you won't last long!"

　　"What then?" Ethan froze.

　　"You start by carefully describing how you felt when you had the dream, what happened in the dream and all that stuff, I need to determine why you had the dream first before I can do that." The old mage said calmly, smiling slightly, "And don't be too nervous, I don't think you can find anything in your entire body that would be hard for me to figure out, as long as I can figure out why."

　　"Okay."

　　Ethan could only mentally shout Big Brother's might.

　　"I remember being very conscious, but I couldn't move or change anything ...... I can't remember some of those images very well, but I still remember parts of them, and I think it must have had something to do with that space-time node, which gave me a view of the other world... ... "Bit by bit, Ethan said a whole lot in detail, then looked at the old mage with bated breath.

　　The old mage countered line by line, "First of all you can't guarantee if you were awake in your dream after you've woken up, in other words, everything you felt in your dream could have been an illusion given to you by the dream! Including the realisation that you're awake, that you know you're dreaming and so on."

　　"Secondly ......"

　　"This last point is also flawed. If you simply feel that the images in your dream are incredibly real and beautiful and you can't recall a clear picture of the dream, it's likely that you simply felt it was real and beautiful in your dream, and that the dream simply gave you a false perception that wasn't the case." The old mage said, "It's easy for a person to fool their perception."

　　"Not true!" Ethan frowned, "I remember certain images of it clearly, that could never have been a view created by my own dreams! Because it was just too strange, too beautiful, completely beyond my imagination!"

　　The old mage smiled in disbelief. Ordinary people in fact had a hard time understanding themselves, because it was impossible to concretise the concept of themselves, it all came from perception.

　　And an ordinary person's ability to perceive, the strength of their consciousness, and the ability to discern truth from falsehood was simply too fragile.

　　But he doesn't refute it.

　　Ethan mused, then said, "I remember at least two views. One is the endless forest of mountains. Because it was so treacherous and spectacular, I was overwhelmed when I looked at it, like a spike standing on the earth, hideous and looming! But in fact each mountain is ten thousand feet high, and each has its own characteristics, from the ecological environment to the surrounding human environment every detail is incredibly clear! I feel that if these are all views I've conjured up, my brain might have burnt out."

　　The old mage's face changed colour, his expression steeped in gravity, and he said, "There's another one, continue."

　　"And another one is a salt lake with a side of sky." Ethan said and fell silent, "Because ...... before my parents died they said that this summer holiday our whole family would go on a trip to the West Sea together, and I really wanted to see the Chaka Salt Lake, but in the end ...... I wasn't able to go. So I was very impressed with that lake. I remember that lake from a high altitude view presents a shape similar to a duck, the throat of the duck is built a very majestic and magnificent castle, there are still a few families on the tail, and the rest of the place is a mine for extracting salt ......"

　　The old mage pursed his lips and fell silent, thinking quickly, and after a long time, he actually came to a direct conclusion, "You did see the scenery of another world, obviously caused by the space-time node. But I didn't think that there was also my reason in there."

　　"Your reason?" Ethan froze.

　　"The forbidden land of Wanshan was once home to a colony of High People from the Indah state, whom the ancients called demons and who were constantly at war with mortals. And I was born on the shores of the Goose Lake, it is truly beautiful, we call it the Realm of the Celestial Gods." The old mage finished calmly and looked up at Ethan, "You saw the landscapes of my world, and you saw those landscapes through my perspective if I'm not mistaken."

　　"Your family turns out to have a castle that big?" Ethan was beyond surprised, the image of the old mage mending his clothes to the dusk glow was still fresh in his mind!

　　"...... I really don't know what to say about you, this isn't something you should be focusing on right now, is it?" The old mage was a bit helpless, "That castle if I remember correctly was the military garrison of the then Wolves of the Northland family of the Kingdom of Kano on the shores of the Goose Lake, and my family was one of the few families on the tail end of it, one of them. I come from a family of salt workers."

　　"Oh." Ethan nodded, "You said those landscapes were your perspective?"

　　"Yes!"

　　"How did you come to that conclusion?" Ethan thought this was ridiculous, more ridiculous than the time node mandatory slide show he was shown.

　　"Firstly, that castle completely disappeared a thousand years ago with the overthrow of the Kano Kingdom; secondly, Goose Lake was converted into a tourist attraction long after the expansion of the Iron Horse Kingdom, and it stopped producing salt a long time ago; and thirdly, many towns were established around the later Goose Lake, which had been set aside as a spaceport before I left. So there's no way you could have seen a castle, a few families and a salt mine, the image you saw was at least a thousand years old."

　　Ethan was dumbfounded.

　　Then the old mage smiled bashfully, "A thousand years ago, the Kingdom of Kano designated Goose Lake as a military restricted area, and anyone flying over it would be considered provocative and receive an air-to-air strike from the Wolves of the North."

　　Ethan was dumbfounded, "You ...... you actually lived for over a thousand years!"

　　"......"

　　"Then how did you ...... you fly up there?"

　　The old mage revealed a honeyed smile and shook his head, instead of answering, he said, "This problem is more tricky to deal with than I thought, the complexity of the space-time node is not something I can penetrate, and I still don't know what the cause is at the moment. But we can start with you yourself first, improving your spiritual power and resistance to deal with this situation."

　　He then took out a card the size of an ID card, "This is what I said I would give you last night. It's quite old, but I haven't used it much, and its functions are quite well preserved, it's an object used by mages to aid in meditation, it can quickly calm a person's mind and get rid of distractions, and it can also allow ordinary people to sleep better. It's just that this one doesn't seem to be able to cope with your situation anymore."

　　Ethan took it dully, the card was thin, thinner than an ID card or a bank card, probably about the size of a playing card, but it was hard and had a brassy colour throughout.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

　　"The spell I set up at the hotel last night apparently didn't work on you either." The old mage shook his head, "Next I will teach you a meditation method, it can improve your mental power, make your brain stronger and more resilient, during meditation it can allow you to quickly regain a better state of mind, and it can also increase your resistance to foreign invading forces. And this card happens to help you enter a better meditative state."

　　"No problem!" Ethan nodded gravely and heavily, then looked straight at the old mage and said, "Thank you so much!"

　　He felt that this meditation method was definitely not that simple!

　　Perhaps it hid the secret of becoming a god! It couldn't be said to be the inheritance of a certain great emperor from the desolate ancient times!

　　Thus, he began the process of learning the meditation method.

　　This was also his first contact with a magical civilisation, and being enchanted by an old mage before didn't count.

　　The meditation method was surprisingly simple, but Ethan felt that it was exactly in line with the truth of the Great Dao, and didn't underestimate it because of that, instead, he learnt it extraordinarily seriously. So much so that he learnt faster than even the old mage had expected.

　　Just as he was attempting the first step of the meditation method for the first time and was on the verge of succeeding, he suddenly heard a knock on the door from across the room.

　　"Knock knock ......"

　　Then came Elaine's cool voice: "Ethan, get up! Don't tell me you're still in bed!"

　　"Eh." Ethan was embarrassed, "Is the soundproofing so bad in a normal single room ......"

　　He looked at the old mage, who also looked at him.

　　To get out or not to get out?

　　At this time, he heard Elaine's voice again, "Ethan, open the door! You're still pretending you didn't hear me aren't you, it's ten o'clock, if you don't open the door I'm going to come in myself!!!"

　　It was actually quite a whisper, and basically didn't bother anyone, but the hotel was just too quiet in the morning.

　　"......" Ethan was helpless.

　　As he opened the door to exit the old mage's room, he was just in time to see Elaine with her universal card in her hand ready to swipe the door to his room right open. She was also carrying a bag of Xiao Long Bao and a tube of soya milk in her hand.

　　At once, Elaine froze.

　　The two looked at each other.

　　One was wearing gym shorts and a white t-shirt, sweat plastering his hair to his forehead, his cheeks slightly flushed, obviously having just returned from a morning jog.

　　The other wore big trousers, bare upper body, flip flops, hair messy, dark circles under the eyes deeper than yesterday s colour, temperament than before yesterday did not rest also looks dishevelled and tired, obviously ...... just sucked dry by the female ghost of Lanruo Temple essence.

　　Elaine subconsciously took a step back, looked at the door number above her head, and then looked next to her.

　　That s right ah!

　　The two looked at each other speechless.

　　After a long time, Ethan broke the silence and snapped, "Just ...... just got back from a run, huh?"

　　Elaine just stared at him blankly, not answering at all, when she came back to her senses, her first action was actually to stand on tiptoe and incline her head straight over Ethan to look into the room-

　　An old man with grey hair!

　　The expression on her face gradually changed from stagnation to shock, and she looked at Ethan fixedly for a long time before she shoved the buns and soya milk into his hand and said, "I brought you breakfast ...... ".

　　Without waiting for Ethan to explain, she turned her head and left!

　　Walking out two steps, she turned back, "By the way, the buns and soya bean milk are seven fifty, plus I eat ...... a total of thirty eight fifty, transfer it."

　　After saying that, she accelerated her steps.

　　Ethan opened his mouth, but actually didn't say anything, her figure disappeared in the entrance of the building.

　Ethan went back to his room, feeling mentally weak, and stayed sitting there for a while before going to wash up, then ate breakfast and changed into some clothes and went downstairs.

　　The couple had only gone out at this time too, and both were standing by the till talking to Elaine about something. The girl had a questioning gesture, while the guy's eyes kept flicking if anything towards Elaine, but with some detectable coyness.

　　Ethan walked over to them, nodded with them and asked with a smile, "Out and about?"

　　"Yeah, was about to ask how to get to the tube station." The girl turned her head and smiled sweetly at him, just like boys like to look at pretty girls, she also likes to look at handsome men, "Already asked though."

　　"It's good to ask." Ethan nodded.

　　"Well, looks like you didn't get much rest last night!" The girl saw the dark circles under his eyes on his face at a glance.

　　Hearing this, Ethan showed a look of embarrassment, while Elaine couldn't help but tug at the corner of her mouth.

　　Unexpectedly, these two small actions of theirs were caught by the girl, who then looked at Ethan and then at Elaine, and seemed to have made some associations.

　　Only to see her face blush slightly, she said, "Then we'll go out first, see you tonight!"

　　"Okay, see you tonight."

　　The girl who pulled the boy out of the door suddenly revealed a strange expression, then turned her head to her boyfriend and said, "That handsome guy is quite handsome, but it's a pity that his girlfriend is too pretty, haha, it's almost draining him dry!"

　　"Yeah!" The boy's face showed envy, such a pretty little girl!

　　Hotel.

　　Ethan looked at the couple's backs and couldn't help but be filled with envy and jealousy - why should people be able to sleep until almost eleven o'clock with their warm girlfriends in their arms, while they have to go into the night alone and still suffer from some kind of transcendent power!

　　Then the two of them were left in the hall.

　　Ethan couldn't help but feel doubly embarrassed at the thought of this morning's events.

　　Elaine kept her head down and didn't say anything.

　　Ethan realised that he couldn't let this embarrassment continue to fester, or else it would really be unmanageable!

　　So he pretended to be unintentional and asked, "What time was your shift last night?"

　　"A little after one, I closed the door and went to bed when no one was there." Elaine lowered her head and opened the backstage by herself, flipping to yesterday's check-in record, which showed the name of the couple just now.

　　The girl's name was Cynthia and the guy's name was Liam.

　　And there was no occupancy record for room 202!

　　"It's almost past one o'clock. Usually nowadays, if people are looking for accommodation very late, they book it online in advance, and if they don't, they'll call to get in touch, so they don't really have to stay open too late." Ethan nodded, and after a moment of silence, asked again, "So what time did you wake up this morning?"

　　"Seven o'clock." Elaine didn't look up.

　　"Did you have any guests last night?"

　　"Yes, two." Elaine returned coldly, then looked up at him and said, "You were up all night last night, weren't you, even the others could tell. I'd say shouldn't you pay a little attention? Rest earlier?"

　　"Eh ...... it's not what you think." Ethan hurriedly explained.

　　"Then which is it?" Elaine said, "Look you can't even walk down a flight of stairs!"

　　"......" Ethan was speechless, "You say how come your thoughts are so bad at such a young age! It's because I've not been sleeping well lately, I've been suffering from insomnia, and I've been having some nightmares at night, and it just so happens that that guest seems to know a bit about Chinese medicine and metaphysics, so I went to ask him for some advice."

　　Elaine slowly raised her head to look at him, her eyes narrowing slightly, then lowered her head again without saying anything.

　　After a while, until Ethan grew apprehensive inside, she sighed imperceptibly and spoke quietly, "Chinese medicine has its merits, but don't be too superstitious about it, or those charlatans who don't have a licence to practise, and don't go superstitious about metaphysics or anything like that. If you can't sleep, take melatonin, if you can't, take sleeping pills, and if you can't rest well, rest a little longer."

　　"Well I know." Ethan nodded obediently.

　　Elaine fumbled for her mobile phone and started ordering takeaway, while not even looking at him, she said, "I'll take a nap at noon today, and then it'll still be my shift, so you go and take a nap, sleep as long as you like. Tomorrow morning you'll come back to turn in your shift."

　　"Tough luck." Ethan fumbled with his phone as well, "I'll recruit a receptionist as soon as I can."

　　He posted a few more hotel cashier job postings online, then went out and printed out a few job postings to put up in front of the hotel, in front of the school, at newsstands, and the like, and by the time he came back, Elaine had already gotten her takeout.

　　The two guests from last night checked out, and Ethan went to clean up the room after dinner, then went back to the counter to switch shifts with Elaine.

　　It wasn't long before the old mage came down again.

　　This time he was still wearing Professor Chen's trousers but had on one of Ethan's white shirts, and as he walked up to Ethan he said, "It's okay if I go out for a walk, right?"

　　"It's okay." Ethan nodded, then looked him over carefully, "You won't get lost though, will you?"

　　"That's not so bad." The old mage smiled, "Not to mention the level of my transcendent abilities, our world also came from the level of civilisation you have now, and I was old enough then that I am familiar with the living conditions of this era."

　　Ethan froze, thus realising the clearly more advanced civilisation of the old mage's world than Earth's, and the depth of the old mage's seniority.

　　"So you must have no problem living in our world, right?" Saying this, he fished out a few hundred dollars from his pocket, "You're an old man, so you have no problem buying a new set of clothes when you go shopping, right? Wearing my father's all the time, that girl will probably get suspicious."

　　"Eh ...... okay." The old mage took it helplessly.

　　He hadn't bought his own clothes for an unknown number of years, and what he said about going out for a stroll was by no means going out shopping like an ordinary person.

　　The old mage had travelled around the kingdom when he was young, and then gradually spread his footprints all over the world, whether it was the Forest of Ten Thousand Mountains, which was regarded as a forbidden place for demons, or the Sky City, which was revered as the realm of the gods, he had been there! But about eight or nine hundred years ago, after he had received all the world's praise, he suddenly disappeared from the public eye.

　　He opened the scroll that had the ability to travel through time and space, and so, in search of more wisdom, he resolutely began to travel through time and space - travelling between the major universes to see the very different civilisations.

　　In his eyes, of course, not only spells, magic technology is called wisdom, there are also a variety of different cultures, the different ways of thinking of the people who grew up in different universes, the social environment and structure of different times, and even the differences between species and so on, in his opinion, are valuable treasures! Not only him, but also many other people in their world may have a great desire for this "knowledge that can enlighten them at any time".

　　Because even if they were to say that this knowledge would not help them in their magical attainments, there is absolutely no mage who would think that magic is the entirety of their life. Life is so complex, so long and so short, how to have a rich and full soul is the lifelong pursuit of many mages.