Once the meditation scroll began levitating in the air, Leo settled himself near the mat in an upright seated position that humans usually associated with meditation, and took a deep breath before focusing on the scroll.
The faint golden glow of the meditation scroll seemed to pulse gently at his gaze, as if it was alive and awaiting his command.
Following the instructions on the scroll, Leo formed a small pulse of mana near his palm and immediately, a red dot appeared on the scroll, as if acknowledging the pulse of mana he had created as the scroll responded with new instructions:
[ Begin circulation. Follow the path shown. ]
A diagram of Leo's exact mana circuit appeared on the scroll, resembling the intricate web of veins in the human body.
The red dot, representing the pulse of mana was currently near his palm, the place where he had manifested it first and from there it started to move slowly along the pathways drawn on the scroll, tracing a route through the body.
Leo focused intently, trying to replicate the movement of the red dot as he guided the pulse of mana through his own mana channels, trying to match the exact speed and path displayed on the scroll.
This task was more difficult than he had anticipated, as just within the first minute of trying to practice the mind meditation scroll, Leo took three wrong turns than what the scroll showed, which prompted the scroll to display an alert saying :-
[ Wrong Path, Please Retrace ]
With his mana circuit often branching into countless smaller routes from a single route, there were branches where a single path diverged into 10 different pathways and picking exactly the fourth route amongst the 10 as the red dot indicated was not an easy task, especially when performed at a set speed.
The meditation scroll was unforgiving in its demands as when Leo inadvertently sped up on a stretch of the pathway that had no branches, the scroll immediately displayed a warning:
[ Slow down. Your pace is too fast. ]
However, when the opposite happened and Leo hesitated upon reaching a complex intersection, unsure of which direction to take, his uncertainty caused him to slow down too much, and the scroll responded with another prompt:
[ Speed up. You are too slow. ]
This forced Leo to grit his teeth, adjusting his control over the mana pulse constantly, forcing himself to slow down and speed up as per the scroll's whims, which increased the strain put on his brain.
The pressure mounted, the longer he practiced and he could physically feel his temples tightening after roughly 15 minutes of practice.
Despite the discomfort, Leo forced the mana pulse forward, trying to keep pace with the red dot on the scroll. But as the minutes passed, the mental strain from this exercise started to become overwhelming.
Leo's head began to pound, the effort of maintaining the correct speed and path taxing his mind beyond anything he had experienced before.
However, unrelenting and uncaring, the red dot on the scroll continued to move, relentless in its pace, while Leo struggled to keep up.
This meditation was far more demanding than what Leo had imagined, requiring not just focus but a delicate balance of speed and precision. His mind felt like it was being pulled in different directions, the concentration needed to follow the pathways sapping his mental energy.
After what felt like an eternity, Leo's vision blurred, and the pounding in his head became unbearable, as he could feel the pulse of mana waver within him, his control slipping as exhaustion took hold.
Finally, unable to continue, Leo let the pulse of mana dissipate as he collapsed backward onto the floor, gasping for breath as waves of pain pulsed through his skull.
The scroll, sensing his cessation, dimmed its glow, the red dot fading away.
As Leo lay there, staring up at the ceiling, his mind reeled from the intense session as the headache he experienced was severe, causing throbbing at his temples as if his brain was trying to break free of his skull.
"This… is much harder than I thought," he muttered to himself, wiping the sweat from his brow, as he took a look at the room's clock and realized that he had only meditated for 40 minutes total and he had 5 hours 20 minutes of this hell still left.
Despite the technique being called 'Meditation' it wasn't really anything like the meditation that Earthlings did.
It was like playing a constant game of maze within one's own body and was nothing like breathing peacefully, while just focusing on one's breath.
"Who the fuck invented this satanic technique….. do they really expect people to do this for 6 hours a day?" Leo muttered, as in his dizzy state the filter over his thoughts and tongue got removed.
"This just proves that all the Grandmasters and DemiGods and Gods in the universe…. Every single one of them are fucking masochist bastards who love torture.
Mediation is torture and if they do this on a regular basis for years then they must really enjoy being tortured….
And it's not even inflicted torture.
It's voluntary torture.
That's a whole another level of sick–" Leo mumbled, as he tried to make sense of how anyone could endure this shit for 4-6 years.
Nonetheless, despite all his complaints, once his throbbing subsided a bit. Leo got back-up and formed another pulse of mana near his palms, as the meditation scroll detected the pulse and restarted their session.
This time Leo could only endure another 20 minutes of torture before his mind could take it no more, forcing him to take yet another 5 minutes break.
Although the scroll did say that it got easier with time, apparently that change was not fast enough, as Leo realized that he would probably struggle with this meditation method for days before he saw any tangible progress being made.
Unfortunately, until he did make progress, it was going to be masochist paradise till mental exhaustion routine.