Eryndor didn’t immediately enter his Mind Palace. Suffice to say, he was scarred from his recent experience.

    Taking a moment to gather his thoughts, Eryndor gazed at the bag he had taken with him to hunt yesterday.

    Come to think of it, I seem to have forgotten to hand in the flowers.

    The valuable flowers he had collected yesterday while searching for beasts weren’t handed in at all.

    Swinging the bag of flowers over his shoulder, he left the room and exchanged it for contribution points from one of the agents.

    After a walk through the spaceship, he returned with a fresher and more stable mind.

    Taking a moment to refocus, he closed his eyes and entered the Mind Palace.

    This time he didn’t immediately head towards his abilities, but scrutinized every corner of the Mind Palace.

    After around ten minutes, he also left the palace to check if there was something wrong with the Mind Palace.

    After half an hour of detailed scanning of every inch of the Golden Mind Palace, Eryndor finally spotted a tiny crack.

    The lustre of gold around the crack also seemed to be a bit dull compared to the other parts of the Palace.

    This is such a small crack.

    Eryndor had no idea what to make of it. Had he almost died to a literal strand of smoke which escaped from such a tiny fucking crack?

    He remembered resorting to cultivation as his last straw, immensely thankful that the big circuit of practice technique came to him as easy as it did because of his bountiful mastery over passive cultivation.

    But he could also feel that something else might’ve been at play while he controlled it.

    It resulted in him only needing the briefest of consciousness he had left to control the Qi, and initiate its circulation.

    Power Systems are a counterbalance against Anomalistic abilities?

    Eryndor couldn’t help but have this thought. Else there was no way to explain how he was suddenly able to reverse the erosion.

    Even now, when he looked back on the experience, he couldn’t help but be thankful that he had increased his cultivation realm.

    Eryndor still remembered needing all the Qi he had to circulate through the big circuit before he could start resisting the identity erosion, else he would’ve surely died if it was any lesser.

    As to how he controlled all the Qi? He couldn’t do so even when he actively controlled it during his cultivation sessions after all.

    He reckoned it might be something to do with the strange help he had gotten, it felt like an instinct, but also not.

    Then, it must’ve been the appearance of the black smoke which awakened the ability in himself.

    The black smoke, dominated by the Eldritch subconscious, was easily able to take control of him for a brief moment and activate the abilities.

    It sustained the brunt of mind-reading the entire population, while his own mind bore only the residual strain.

    The actual pain which he experienced that day was a brief moment of identity erosion initiated by the Eldritch subconscious.

    But after all, it wasn’t Eryndor’s personal conscious decision to perform the mind reading.

    Meaning, he had just doubted his identity as a human, but not went against it to use the eldritch ability.

    This helped the part of the black smoke which was the Human subconsciousness to be able to overpower the Eldritch counterpart and retreat.

    But now?

    He had actively used the Eldritch ability to go against his human belief.

    It allowed the Eldritch subconscious, which was already more powerful, to overpower the Human subconscious, and break out of the seal.

    The only reason he could resist was by the virtue of his cultivation realm, which his human subconscious controlled and made use of.

    Yes, it was very likely the human consciousness which took reigns in controlling the Qi through the big circuit once he began the process.

    This meant that the eldritch subconscious—already struggling to erode Eryndor’s identity and resist the human subconscious residing in black smoke—was now also forced to resist the influence of the cultivation realm.

    It went above its ability to resist, allowing Eryndor to make a comeback, and absorb the eldritch subconscious in return.

    It was an extremely minute amount, sure, but what was its result?

    Addition of extraordinary proficiency in Cognitive Scrying.

    It was obvious the eldritch subconscious contained in even that tiny strand of smoke had enough mastery over its own abilities.

    But since it was Cognitive Scrying which triggered its release, it was that particular ability which got the increase when Eryndor absorbed it.

    Lastly, why was it able to control Eryndor the first time but not the second time?

    It might be because Eryndor was now more aware of his identity, more cognizant of his Eldritch nature. It gave his identity a heavier weight than before.

    This almost fits all the gaps of understanding.

    Eryndor didn’t think he had left anything to consider while concluding the nature of the black smoke.