Chapter 621: Memory Runaway

Half an hour later.

Inside a narrow, dim rocky crevice, Su Ming slowly opened his eyes.

He let out a long, turbid breath, the air carrying a faint hint of purple-tinged stench.

"How is it?" Lin Yu asked from within the Consciousness Sea.

"The medicinal power of the Qi Restoring Elixir has been fully absorbed." Su Ming lowered his head to glance at his left shoulder, "My Golden Core spiritual energy has barely recovered to three-tenths. The vibration damage in my meridians has improved somewhat under the gentle nourishment of my Ruo Shui spiritual energy. At the very least, it won't worsen from energy circulation in the short term."

On his right arm, the spatial cut that had previously been deep enough to expose bone was now covered by a thin layer of ethereal blue water membrane. It was a hemostatic film he had condensed from a minimal amount of Ruo Shui spiritual energy. Though movement still brought a dull ache, at least he would no longer expose his scent through blood loss.

"This counts as a losing deal." Su Ming calculated silently in his mind, "Two Qi Restoring Elixirs, if I were in the human realm, would have been enough to restore six-tenths of my spiritual energy. Here, the medicinal effect was actually suppressed by half due to that invisible life law."

He carefully shifted his body and peered out through the rock crevice.

The cloying, sweet fragrance of the mushroom forest had already faded considerably. The glowing grass leaves that had been frantically closing in earlier had retreated, seemingly confirming that there was no flesh and blood here for them to claim.

What had taken their place was a strange moss emitting a faint blue glow.

These mosses were spreading along the rock wall outside the crevice at a slow, worm-like crawling pace. Their fine tendrils probed gently through the air, clearly exploring whether this crevice still harbored any digestible "food" within.

"Don't worry about them for now." Lin Yu's soul body drifted unsteadily within the Xuantian ring, "As long as your breath-concealing array holds, these brainless low-grade plants won't detect you."

Su Ming nodded slightly and was about to close his eyes to continue nourishing his meridians.

But at that moment, Lin Yu's voice sounded again. This time, his tone was more than ten times graver than before.

"Disciple, your external injuries are temporarily stabilized." Lin Yu paused, and the ethereal blue luster of his soul body suddenly flickered unpredictably, "But on my end, a life-threatening problem has arisen."

Su Ming's mind tightened abruptly, and his eyes snapped open.

"Master, what's wrong?"

Lin Yu did not answer immediately. Instead, he let out a pained grunt.

Su Ming immediately extended a strand of divine sense into the Xuantian ring.

At the deepest part of the ring's space, the cyan light mass that Lin Yu had been fiercely sealing with his soul fire - the remnant memory fragments of Qingyan - was now in a violent state.

The cyan light was like boiling magma, madly charging left and right within the seal. The ethereal blue soul fire barrier that Lin Yu had personally laid down was now covered in dense, web-like crack patterns, as if it could shatter apart at any moment.

And Lin Yu's soul body was suspended directly above that light mass.

Both hands formed intricate hand seals, he was continuously pouring his own pure soul power into the seal.

"I've been forcibly suppressing this the whole time, afraid that this massive torrent of information would burst through the seal in an instant." Lin Yu's soul body trembled violently, "But now it seems, with this resonance triggered by the laws of the entire world, this old man can no longer hold it back."

Su Ming's gaze instantly turned deep and dark.

He understood very well what this meant. If the memory fragments were to forcefully break through the seal, that chaotic, disordered torrent of information would surge like a breached dam and severely damage Lin Yu's soul body.

Su Ming took a deep breath, quietly gathering the remaining three-tenths of his Ruo Shui spiritual energy to his throat in case of emergency, then asked, "Master, if you directly absorb this mass of memories right now, would you fall into a deep slumber like last time when you devoured the Wailing Woman Lantern?"

A brief silence fell within the Consciousness Sea.

Lin Yu's soul body hovered motionless in the void, his ethereal blue luster flickering several times, the veins on his hands forming seals standing out faintly. A full three breaths passed before he slowed his speech and spoke.

"Possibly."

Those three words weighed as heavy as a thousand jun.

Lin Yu did not meet Su Ming's eyes. His gaze was fixed on the violent cyan light mass below, his voice low: "Last time, at the ancient temple outside Qingshi Town, when I first devoured the resentful soul of the Wailing Woman Lantern, I slept for an entire month."

He paused, letting out a cold snort, as if concealing some emotional display.

"This Qingyan, at the very least, was a spirit race cultivator of the Soul Nurturing stage while alive. Converted to your human race's cultivation levels, that's a genuine Golden Core realm. The memory fragment mass he left behind, while small in size, contains an information density countless times higher than the resentful soul in that broken lantern."

Lin Yu's illusory finger traced an afterimage through the air, resealing a section of the barrier that was on the verge of collapsing, "Though I am now a half-step Ghost King, my soul body is a hundred times more resilient than in those days, I still haven't fully recovered to my peak. Forcibly disassembling and absorbing these massive memories - this process will most likely require deep meditation. As for how long... unknown."

Su Ming said nothing.

This wasn't a multiple-choice question at all. Since the seal could no longer hold, taking the initiative to refine was the only way out.

"Master."

Su Ming sat cross-legged, ignoring the bloody scrapes on his back from the rough edges of the rock, his spine ramrod straight. His tone was as calm as if he were discussing what to have for dinner tonight.

"Go ahead and refine it. I'll stand guard for you."

Within the Xuantian ring, Lin Yu's hands pressed against the seal paused slightly. He turned his head, and through the connection of the ring, those illusory eyes deeply looked at Su Ming.

"You little brat..." Lin Yu clicked his tongue, letting out a sound that was hard to tell whether it was a scoff or a sigh, "What I meant was, the worst-case scenario might be falling asleep, not that I'd definitely sleep myself to death. Don't put on that act of keeping vigil at my graveside."

He waved his sleeve, his tone turning stern once more: "Listen carefully! If this old man truly falls asleep, this damned rock crevice is absolutely not safe. You must find a deeper, more sealed underground cave before the concealment formation loses its effect. Lock your own spiritual energy fluctuations completely. Even if you encounter spirit race members, you must absolutely not casually use spiritual energy to fight back. Stay quiet, like a stone, and wait for this old man to wake up. Understood?"

"Understood." Su Ming gave a heavy nod, not wasting a single word.

He immediately sprang into action.

His left hand brushed lightly over the storage pouch, and seven white jade Formation Flags slid silently into his palm. This was the last of his formation supplies.

"Go."

Su Ming forced a strand of Ruo Shui spiritual energy thinner than a hair from his fingertip, controlling the seven Formation Flags to insert themselves at extremely tricky angles into the stone crevices at the entrance of the crack.

Due to his depleted spiritual energy, he couldn't use the conventional method of setting formations in midair, so he could only resort to this most primitive method of planting the flags directly into the ground.