Blind Spot
Chapter 340 - 314 Reconnaissance 2 (Thanks to Alliance Hierarch Lucky_gua)

Chapter 340: 314 Reconnaissance 2 (Thanks to Alliance Hierarch Lucky_gua)

"During the consciousness link, brother, you will temporarily lose yourself, so please ensure that your body is in a safe and relaxed state. Of course, if there is trouble outside, I will remind you to come back," Yserine reminded.

"Then I’ll have to trouble you, Yserine." Li Chengyi nodded.

He sat down on the ground next to Elsa’s bed, leaning against it.

The morning light outside the window shone on the hazy Miringbell Grass fog, as if illuminating the entire fog into a golden glow.

"Get ready, brother. Lower your guard, relax your consciousness," Yserine reminded.

"3."

"2."

"1."

Click.

In an instant, Li Chengyi’s vision went dark.

The darkness, like thick fog, surrounded him, impervious to being dispersed or illuminated.

But oddly, Li Chengyi felt very clear-headed.

Slowly,

as time passed,

the darkness around him started to brighten.

He was still sitting in the second-floor bedroom of the small building.

But Elsa was gone; he was alone.

Outside, the sunlight was still bright, and the room’s door was open. A woman’s voice floated in faintly.

But the voice was hazy; he couldn’t make out what was being said, only sensing cheerfulness and joy.

"Is this Elsa’s illusory consciousness?" Li Chengyi stood up and went to the window to look outside.

Outside was a vast expanse of white, blurry and indistinct.

He thought for a moment, reached for the window, and pushed it open forcefully.

Crack.

The window opened, and the outside white light shined in.

The dazzling light soon adjusted to Li Chengyi’s eyes.

He squinted and looked out the window.

"!?"

Outside was not a garden below but an endless white sea.

There were no other colors, just a pure white sea.

The sea was white, without fish, without waves, all calm and endless.

Li Chengyi looked up at the sky.

The distant sky was also a piece of immaculate white.

"Brother, all this is Elsa’s illusion. I suggest you immediately go find Tomira in her consciousness. The illusion’s changes are fast and could collapse into something different at any moment," Yserine’s voice echoed in his mind.

"Understood." Li Chengyi closed the window and turned to walk out of the room’s doorway.

At the second-floor staircase landing, just as he was about to go downstairs, his footsteps stuttered.

At the staircase entrance, a woman dressed in a white dress, her hands crossed over her abdomen, was standing silently in the way—blocking the only path up and down the stairs, unmoving.

Her face was a blur, impossible to make out, but other than that, he could see that her dress, patched with several pockets, was washed to fraying at the edges, clearly worn for many years.

The woman’s voice was still drifting from somewhere on the first floor.

But the woman at the staircase remained motionless, her blurred face facing Li Chengyi as he descended, as if silently watching him.

"Tomira?" Li Chengyi tried to greet.

"....." The woman didn’t respond, only turned and walked away silently.

Li Chengyi frowned slightly and followed.

The woman’s speaking voice became clearer at that moment, but the words turned into an extremely rapid blur, still impossible to understand.

The two, one in front of the other, passed through the first-floor living room and came to Tomira’s bedroom.

He pushed open the door.

In the room, a short-haired man in patient attire was lying and coughing on a bed in the corner.

Elsa was also here, giggling at a television drawn on the white wall.

The television made of black and white lines was actually moving, playing an animated cartoon.

Tomira walked to a chair facing the window and sat down in the chair.

The window was open, and a black eagle, half the height of a person, perched on the windowsill, watching the direction of the chair.

It opened its mouth from time to time, emitting the same girlish laughter as Elsa.

For a moment, the man’s coughing, Elsa’s laughter, the eagle’s laughter, and the animation’s buzz mixed together, like paint being stirred, fixed and repetitive, creating a tangled mass that left Li Chengyi standing at the doorway, feeling a vague sense of dread.

Gurgle.

Just as Li Chengyi was about to enter,

something seemed to bump against his heel.

He turned around to see a round tomato.

The bright red tomato lay there on the grey wooden floor, conspicuous and vivid.

"If I were you, I would never go in," a palm-sized brown squirrel said while squatting motionlessly on the stairs in the living room, staring at him.

Clearly, the tomato was thrown by it.

"Who are you?" Li Chengyi said, startled.

This was Elsa’s consciousness after all; everything should be her fantasies and illusions.

He was only able to come here thanks to Yserine’s special ability.

But now... there appeared to be another creature that seemed quite normal.

"Me?" The squirrel’s shiny black eyes revealed a touch of human-like expression.

"You can call me the Emperor of the White Sea, King of Thousand Waters."

"...." Li Chengyi looked at the brown squirrel, only the size of his own palm, and thought the other was joking.

"I am Elsa’s hero. I am her childhood companion," the squirrel answered.

"And the guard protecting this place."

It looked at Li Chengyi.

"Stranger, what do you want to do here?"

"I came to find clues about the Hall of Oblivion, the Twisted Book," Li Chengyi replied.

"I don’t know what the Hall of Oblivion is, but if you are looking for the so-called Twisted Book. Maybe I know where it is," the squirrel answered.

"! Are you sure?" Li Chengyi’s expression tightened.

"Of course, I’m sure. After all, I have no need to deceive someone who is about to die," the squirrel said seriously.

"About to die? What do you mean?" Li Chengyi felt something was amiss.

"This is Elsa’s illusion, and it’s also the region where her actual self is located at the edge of the Gate of No-Return," the squirrel answered. "Do you know the Gate of No-Return?"

"The Gate of No-Return?"

"Yes, the gate between cognition and incomprehensibility. It’s something every living being posses, it’s the boundary, the unfathomable membrane. Some call it the Soul-Flesh Boundary, others call it the Boundary of the Mind. It has many, many names,"

the squirrel said.

"But my favorite name for it is the Gate of No-Return."

"Who are you exactly?" Li Chengyi didn’t think Elsa could understand so much.

"I’ve said it, I am Elsa’s hero. The Emperor of the White Sea, the King of Thousand Waters. Of course, actually all of that is Elsa’s imagination. She hopes I’m a mighty hero who can rescue her from this damned cyclical suffering. But unfortunately....," the squirrel spread its hands.

"Breaking through the Gate of No-Return isn’t just about Sublimating oneself; there’s another method, which is to let one’s consciousness fall into a state of Chaos. In certain coincidental situations, one could accidentally touch and enter the edge of the Gate of No-Return."

"So where is this Twisted Book you speak of?" Li Chengyi asked.

"It’s in this house. It’s the only real thing here. Someone placed it here through the Gate of No-Return, hiding it here, thus driving Tomira’s family into Madness."

"The husband died, Tomira went mad, but the Twisted Book’s influence on her was so great that she had no choice but to madly transcribe whatever suddenly appeared in her mind. Unfortunately... no one could understand her."

"Are you saying that someone deliberately placed the Twisted Book here?" Li Chengyi’s heart chilled.

"Yes. I don’t know who he is, nor do I remember what he looks like. Now, if you’re going to look for the Twisted Book, I advise you to hurry," the squirrel said. "If you really can take that book away, it will be good for Elsa, for Tomira, for us all."

"You don’t know where it is?" Li Chengyi frowned.

"No. I only know that it’s in this house. In Elsa’s illusion, it’s been here for many years... Elsa herself has been trying to find it and then discard it. But she can’t... Even now, close to death, she can’t," the squirrel sighed.

Li Chengyi wasted no words, quickly scanning the living room bookshelves, where the only books were about geography, history, and tobacco-making.

After flipping through them, he quickly rifled through cabinets in the living room, flipping the sofa and peering into the fireplace.

He moved the display case and even searched behind its crevices.

Soon enough, the first floor had been searched through, and Li Chengyi swiftly rushed upstairs.

Quickly, in a bedroom’s nightstand drawer on the second floor, he found a book with a gray-white cover.

On the book’s cover was a twisting open hand with sharp nails and only four fingers, the palm full of bloody wounds.

Below it, a line of small characters clearly read: The Twisted Book. It was written in Black Sea Script.

"This is it!" Li Chengyi hadn’t expected to find his target so easily and immediately reached for the book.

Suddenly.

Hisss.

The moment before he touched the cover, his hand froze in place. A special sound from the Seven Spirit Holy Technique, like a breath of minty water, instantly cleared his mind.

"Yserine?"

Li Chengyi softly called in his mind.

No one answered.

His gaze grew colder.

He didn’t remember when he began to understand Black Sea Script, and moreover... Yserine couldn’t have remained silent from earlier until now.

So...

Hum!!

Suddenly, everything before his eyes began to twist wildly.

The Twisted Book rapidly faded and disappeared.

The nightstand and bedroom also silently began to display numerous cracks, and then...

Crash.

A crisp sound, and everything shattered.

"Brother! Brother!!"

Yserine’s anxious voice seemed to drift from a faraway place, reaching his ears.

Li Chengyi slowly opened his eyes.

He was standing at a window on the second floor, outside lay an endless expanse of the White Sea.

One of his feet had already stepped out.

He was just a little bit away from completely falling out, plunging into the White Sea.

Quickly pulling back his foot, Li Chengyi turned to look behind him at the room.

The bedroom was empty, devoid of anything.

There was no squirrel, no Elsa, and no Tomira.

Only he was here.

"Brother! There’s definitely a Twisted Book here! This book seems to twist everything that tries to approach it! It’s the only real thing in Elsa’s illusion here; you must be careful!" Seeing that Li Chengyi had finally awakened, Yserine immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"I understand..." Li Chengyi took a deep breath. "By the way, one question, can the Twisted Book be easily damaged?"

"...It shouldn’t be, after all, it’s one of The Fallen Clan’s sacred objects..." Yserine replied.

"Wait! You shouldn’t be...!?" Before she could finish, she realized something.

Boom!!

A splendid golden flame instantly erupted in the second-floor room.