Chapter 7 New Spiritual Body
Lin Yao's eyelashes trembled, and then her beautiful peach blossom eyes opened.
His face was filled with disbelief. Lin Yao thought he would fall into eternal darkness, just like what was described in the original owner's memory:
Guides whose mental images collapse will eventually be swallowed by the fragments in their own spiritual sea, their consciousness will turn into stardust and dissipate, and they will close their eyes forever.
But what came to his nose was the hard, damp, moldy smell of the quilt, mixed with the fishy smell of the blood he coughed up last night. It was too real to be true.
"I... can actually wake up?"
He tried to move his fingers, but his fingertips touched the cold wall, and the blood-red flower on it was clearly visible.
His throat was as dry as if it had been rubbed by sandpaper, and every time he swallowed it was painful, but the pain was so clear that it made his heart beat wildly.
He struggled to sit up. All the muscles in his body felt like they had been taken apart and reassembled, and he was in great pain. However, the chaos in his mind dissipated, and his thoughts became surprisingly clear.
This is wrong. It's terribly wrong.
The original owner's knowledge base clearly stated: The mental image is the guide's second life. Once it collapses, the neural connection will be completely severed, and there will be no possibility of self-awakening.
unless……
Lin Yao's breathing suddenly stopped, and he almost rolled and crawled to his knees on the bed, his consciousness rushing uncontrollably to the sea of spirituality.
He was prepared to face nothingness, prepared to be cut by the remaining spiritual fragments, but what he saw was not the chaos he expected.
The gray mist has become much lighter, as if filtered by the morning light, revealing a bit of clarity, and even becoming lighter between each breath.
The cracked black soil disappeared, replaced by moist dark brown soil.
You can even see fine roots wriggling in the soil, and green grass visible to the naked eye growing and spreading.
And in the center of the soil, stood a small tree.
The trunk is only as thick as a bowl, and the bark is silvery white with rough texture, but it reveals a stubborn toughness.
The crown of the tree is like an open umbrella, dotted with tender green leaves with fine serrations on the edges, shining with a healthy luster in the sun.
What made Lin Yao's pupils shrink the most was the area near the roots of the tree trunk. There was a circle of faint, spiral lines there, as if it had been carefully carved by something. It was strange and familiar.
"Mountain banyan?" Lin Yao was a little hesitant to recognize it. This thing looked neither like nor unlike the tree.
His consciousness gently brushed across the tree trunk, and the touch from his fingertips was solid and full of vitality, which was completely different from the fragility of the peony branches.
This isn't any known psychic plant from the galaxy. This is...
Lin Yao suddenly remembered the strange spiral-patterned banyan tree seed that had puzzled him and his mentor before he traveled through time.
Did the seed come with him?
That’s right! Lin Yao remembered that before he crossed over, red light seeped out from the seed bag of the alpine banyan tree.
There was also the sound of seeds cracking and the rustling sound of some plant roots digging into the soil before he finally lost consciousness.
So at that time, the seed had already taken root in the original owner's spiritual image, but the seed shell had just cracked a little.
Could it be that the energy released by the collapsed mental picture last night triggered it?
Lin Yao was not sure because the original owner had no relevant memory of such a situation, and he was an outsider, so he didn't understand even more.
He could only guess that he was an individual and the original owner was an individual, so there were two spiritual bodies.
This mountain banyan tree is his spiritual body, but it is parasitic in the spiritual image of others and does not appear at the beginning.
You should know that there have been countless marketing accounts on Earth that have joked that there are two evil cultivators in the plant world:
A giant redwood grows so tall that it attracts lightning and kills its neighbors; a strangler fig parasitizes and hollows out its host.
'Strangler fig' is not the exclusive name of a certain kind of banyan tree, but a summary of the survival strategy of a type of banyan tree.
Banyan trees that can drop countless aerial roots from their branches, wrapping around parasitic trees like weaving a web, and eventually strangling them to take away nutrients and replace them can all be included in this general term.
The aerial roots of this type of banyan tree are initially as long as silver threads, hanging down from the host tree crown. Once they touch the ground, they take root and thicken wildly, gradually weaving into an impenetrable mesh barrier.
They do not devour their hosts directly, but instead slowly but resolutely tighten their 'net ropes' to compete for sunlight and soil nutrients.
Eventually, the parasitic tree withered and decayed in the suffocating entanglement, leaving only the thick trunk of the strangler fig, as if it were a silent ecological change that lasted for several years.
It just so happens that the mountain fig variety is among the strangler figs.
Lin Yao felt that this explanation was very reasonable. When the original owner's spiritual image collapsed yesterday, the power released was directly absorbed by the mountain banyan tree, prompting it to grow and become a new spiritual image and spiritual body.
This view was further confirmed after Lin Yao carefully looked at the tree.
Lin Yao took a deep breath, and tentatively transformed his mental power into slender tentacles, slowly reaching out to the newly born mountain banyan tree, intending to get to know this new spiritual body better.
He expected to touch a hard tree trunk or feel a strange rejection.
However, he didn't expect that as soon as his mental power approached, it was pulled by a gentle but irresistible force and swept into the tender green of the tree canopy.
The first thing that caught his attention was the hanging aerial roots, which looked like both aerial roots and vines.
The aerial vines that originally glowed with golden fluorescence were undergoing a shocking transformation.
The part close to the trunk is still the dark brown banyan tree roots, and the rough skin is flowing with cold light;
But starting from the middle, the silvery-white lines seemed to be embedded into the roots by invisible hands, spreading all the way along the veins of the aerial roots.
That is the color of the winding peony vine, delicate, flexible, and with a pearly luster.
At the very tip of the aerial root, silver has completely replaced the dark brown, and the entire tip has turned into the appearance of a peony vine, and you can even see the fine hairs on the surface of the vine.
It seems like an inlay that "grew" from the aerial roots of the strangler fig. Two completely different plant textures fit together perfectly here. Even the golden leaf marks on the silver-white vines fall exactly on the star-shaped nodes of the aerial roots, like a carefully designed totem.
Several aerial vines swayed gently in the air, and translucent golden leaves emerged from the edges. The star-shaped serrations were clearly visible. Except for the color, everything else was exactly the same as the peony in my memory.
They entwine themselves docilely, clinging gently to the branches of the banyan tree like real vines, and their leaves sway gently with the flow of spiritual power, as if they were breathing.
Lin Yao's spiritual tentacles trembled slightly, and he carefully touched one of the peony leaves.
The touch from the fingertips is wonderful, with the thickness of banyan leaves and the flexibility of peony leaves. The two completely different plant characteristics are perfectly integrated at this moment.
He traced the vine-like aerial roots upward to their source and discovered that each of these mutated aerial roots was connected to a node on a branch. Energy emerged from the most obvious spiral pattern on the trunk of the mountain banyan tree and flowed into the aerial roots through the branches.
The gilded light spots are flowing along the aerial roots. When they reach the end of the 'peony vine', they will condense into starlight, as if coating the vine with a layer of fine light edges.
When the golden starlight flows back, the color of the spiral pattern will deepen a little, and the golden halo will seep out from the pattern, shrouding the entire tree in a hazy light mist.
“It didn’t disappear…”
Lin Yao's consciousness hung in the center of the treetops, like a leaf held by the wind. The tremor in his voice came not only from disbelief, but also from a slight tremor of settling.
When he first saw this mountain banyan tree, his heart was in a knot.
The tender green treetops block out the sun, and the web woven by aerial roots reveals vigorous vitality, but this vitality lacks the fragile silver-white color of the peony.
He didn't even dare to think about it. Did the peony that had been cared for for years by the original owner, and that held on to the last bit of obsession even when it withered, really turn into pieces when the spiritual picture collapsed?
At that moment, a sense of loss flooded over his heart like a tide. Lin Yao felt sad for the original owner and for the years he spent trapped in the medicine bowl and despair.
But at this moment, he looked at the silver-white vines that "grew" from the roots of the banyan tree, as if they had been one since birth.
A sense of peace emerged in his heart. Lin Yao should have thought that when the strangler fig kills the host, it will preserve the host's original body!
It feels very magical, like watching two drops of different ink blending in water, and finally creating a brand new color that no one can replicate.
"Really... it hasn't disappeared." Lin Yao said it again softly. This time, the trembling was no longer wrapped in loss, but a kind of heat that was hit by tenderness.
The original owner's spirit body did not disappear. It was like a gem carefully embedded in a jade bracelet, living in the life of the mountain banyan tree in another form.
He saw several aerial roots suddenly curl up and entwine, and actually condense into the shape of a flower bud in the air, with layers of golden petals.
The top is not the original black hole of the peony, but is wrapped in a ball of golden light mist, in which spiral patterns can be vaguely seen rotating.
The flower bud trembles gently, as if it will bloom at any time, but stops at the fullest moment, turning into a lantern hanging on the branch, contrasting with the lush green banyan leaves around it.
Lin Yao's spiritual tentacles gently brushed against the flower bud formed by the aerial roots. The light mist at the top of the flower bud suddenly dissipated, revealing the curled stardust-like pistil inside:
Half is the gilded color of the banyan tree, and half is the ice blue of the peony, like two embracing stars.
That icy blue is the color of the original owner's spiritual power. Now it looks like this, does it mean that he also possesses the original owner's spiritual power?
After making a bold hypothesis, Lin Yao conducted careful experiments.
Following the ice blue color, I found its source. It turned out that in the thread on the tree trunk, there was not only gold but also ice blue. It gave me two different feelings, one lively and the other quiet.
Lin Yao can mobilize two abilities at will to enter the mutated aerial root vines, single color or double color, and the aerial root vines will be dyed with the color of the corresponding energy.
He did this several times and gradually tasted the slight difference between the two energies. As to whether it was the same as he thought, he needed further verification.
At this moment, Lin Yao suddenly felt a warm current flowing from his spiritual sea to his limbs and bones, and then he found that his spiritual sea seemed to have expanded a little.
He subconsciously mobilized his mental power and found that the mental field that originally only covered half a meter around his body now spread out like water waves, easily covering the entire room.
The mental tentacles became more sensitive, and could clearly "see" the hairs on the leaves of the green radish in the yard outside the window, "hear" the sound of a hover car passing by on the road in the distance, and even capture the mental fluctuations of Uncle Fu walking towards this side with the smell of engine oil.
Is this... Mental strength growing?
Lin Yao's consciousness returned to the trunk of the mountain banyan tree, looking at the circle of spiral patterns that blended ice blue and gold.
The light spots moved faster and faster, and with each cycle, he could feel the energy in his mental picture filling up.
The originally heavy mist was absorbed and faded away, revealing the moist and fertile soil underneath. This was the new soil created by the fusion of nutrients from the two plants.
He was happy. The pain and collapse he had felt last night were like the marks of the past, and he was heading towards a new life in a solid way.
His spiritual power continued to grow, flowing in his spiritual sea with unprecedented majesty and gentleness.
This is no longer the weak power of the original owner that requires medicine to maintain, but a unique new power belonging to Lin Yao.
-
As the morning light streamed through the window lattice, familiar footsteps were heard outside the door, accompanied by the crisp sound of metal trays tapping against each other.
Lin Yao calmly withdrew his consciousness from his spiritual sea. He had sensed Uncle Fu coming before.
The door was gently pushed open, and Uncle Fu's figure appeared in the morning light. On the tray in his hand, a bowl of yellow-green medicine was emitting faint heat, and next to it was freshly steamed rye bread and a small plate of star honey fern root crystals.
"You woke up early." Uncle Fu put the tray on the floating dining table, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes filled with the morning light.
"You seem to be in good spirits. Did you sleep well last night?" As he spoke, his eyes unconsciously swept across the room.
The blood that Lin Yao coughed up last night had been wiped away by Lin Yao with detergent, leaving only a faint, almost invisible mark.
He sat on the edge of the bed, the warmth of the two-colored light mist in his spiritual sea still lingering on his fingertips. Hearing this, he curled his lips:
"Well, I had a good sleep and a good dream." This was not false. At least when he woke up, his spiritual sea was no longer in ruins.
Uncle Fu pushed the bowl of medicine in front of him. A thin film of star honey floated on the surface of the yellow-green liquid. The metallic taste wrapped in the sweet fragrance was like a piercing thorn in Lin Yao's keen perception.
"The temperature is just right. I added some evening primrose juice today. The doctor said it's good for relieving mental fatigue." Every word Uncle Fu said was sincere and attentive.
Lin Yao's gaze fell on the medicine bowl. After waiting for a while, he touched the bowl with the back of his hand to feel the temperature. It was indeed very palatable as Uncle Fu said.
In the mental picture, the aerial roots and vines of the mountain banyan tree were running around excitedly. If Lin Yao hadn't tried hard to suppress it, it would have come out and drank by itself.
This medicine, which he had poured four times, contained ingredients he knew and didn't know, and the energy it contained was hooking his new spiritual body like a hook.
Lin Yao, who had traveled through time, drank the bowl of "witch's poison" clean for the first time under Uncle Fu's gaze.
The moment he put down the bowl, Uncle Fu's eyes were so complicated that they were difficult to understand.
Lin Yao picked up the rye bread and deliberately avoided Uncle Fu's sight, but his fingertips touched the dark red marks on his clothes that had already dried up when he coughed up blood last night. In his hurry, he forgot to change out of his pajamas.
As expected, Uncle Fu's gaze paused, and when it fell on the dark red, his pupils shrank slightly.
He didn't ask immediately, but just reached out to touch Lin Yao's forehead. The warmth of his palm was rough with calluses: "Did you catch a cold?"
When the fingertips brushed Lin Yao's jawline, Lin Yao clearly felt the old man's hand pause. There were still stains of blood that had not been wiped off from coughing up blood.
"Coughing?" Uncle Fu's voice sank, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes twisted into a ball. "Is... the spirit body feeling unwell again?"
His eyes swept over the medicine bowl. "You still feel uncomfortable after taking the medicine. Do you want to see a doctor? I'll make an appointment for you!"
Lin Yao saw the anxiety in his eyes and shook his head to indicate that it was nothing. He just wanted to practice yesterday, but he didn't expect to overdo it. However, he drank the bowl of medicine just now and he is fine now.
Uncle Fu didn't speak for a long time. His hand froze in mid-air. He looked at Lin Yao's calm profile, and finally withdrew his hand silently. However, the complexity in his eyes deepened a little.
The light shone through the screen window, casting a blurry shadow between the two people, like an invisible wall, separating two people with their own thoughts.
-
After Uncle Fu left, Lin Yao changed out of his blood-stained pajamas. Before he could enter his mental state again, the old man's housekeeper Zhan came to him with a group of people carrying things.
"Master, these are the Cang family's apology gifts! Please count them!"
Butler Zhan, wearing white gloves, handed the tray in his hand to Lin Yao. Inside the tray was a black card and two deeds.
"The Cang family's universal black card. This one is the planet mining deed, and this one is the apartment deed!"
Butler Zhan introduced the items on the tray one by one.
"This box contains items specifically for guides!"
He pointed to the silver-white box with tiger-head patterns that the team was carrying and said, "Fifty million in compensation has been deposited into your computer account. You can check it!"
Lin Yao's eyes followed the introduction of Butler Zhan. The things in the tray were too novel for his eyes to stay for three seconds. The large number of special items for guides kept his eyes for another second.
As for the 50 million in compensation, Lin Yao counted it ten times on the computer, pointing at the zeros one by one.
In the end, it was Butler Zhan who wanted to show the most important apology, which pulled him out of the joy of getting rich overnight.
A small pot of unknown plant was placed on a tray and presented by two tall men, each holding one side.
As a botany graduate student, Lin Yao examined it for a long time and asked, "Is this plant the morning glory grass?"
"Yes! It is very precious, isn't it beautiful!" Butler Zhan said in a very sincere tone.
"It is said that the morning glory grass looks very similar to the roses recorded in ancient books! The records say that roses are the symbol of love on the ancient blue planet. The Cang family hopes that you and the head of the Ye family will have a happy marriage!"
Lin Yao tried his best to press down the corners of his mouth and clench his teeth, fearing that any dead sound would come out of his mouth.
Regardless of whether this thing that has been turned into a pile of slime is a rose, if you want to use this blessing, you should send it to Delin Huihe's spirit body!
Finally, Lin Yao pinched his thigh hard to control himself and sent Butler Zhan and his group away.
Lin Yao searched among the pile of guide-specific items sent by the Cang family. If his memory served him correctly, there was a storage bracelet.
After finally finding the storage bracelet, Lin Yao put the black card and the deed into the storage bracelet, and did not open the other boxes for the time being.
"When will the compensation from my second uncle's family arrive?" Lin Yao asked Butler Zhan.
Butler Zhan bowed slightly, stroking his cuffs with his fingertips twice, and said in a calm tone, "Master, regarding this compensation, there is indeed no definite news from the Second House yet."
"I will see this compensation, right? After all, no one wants to see it on the trending searches?" Lin Yao said it lightly, but with a threat in his voice.
Butler Zhan promised calmly, "Master, you can rest assured, Master, as the old man will guarantee it."
Lin Yao nodded, then mentioned that the place he lived in was a bit shabby. Didn’t his second uncle say he would compensate him yesterday? Then let’s find him a new place to live first.
Butler Zhan nodded to indicate that he understood. He would give feedback and tell him when it was implemented.
The pot of slime-like evening primrose, which resembled a rose, was placed on the table.
Out of curiosity, Lin Yao sat on the sofa after cleaning up and began to observe the evening primrose carefully.
As a typical woody plant flower, roses should have distinct roots under normal conditions, rather than flowers, leaves, and branches piled together limply like this.
"I don't know if it has always looked like this, or if it became like this after its genes were extracted and used for experiments." Lin Yao said to himself.
After searching the original owner's memory, I found that this was how the roses looked like when they were originally grown by the scientific researchers, and they very much agreed that they looked the same.
Lin Yao was speechless after hearing this. In his heart, he said to the evening primrose, "What a sin." Anyway, he didn't know how else to describe this thing except "what a sin."
No, there is also----greed!
Lin Yao had a subtle feeling when he first looked at it. He didn't think it was anything at the time, but the longer he stared at it, the more Lin Yao's saliva raged in his mouth.
He scratched his hair to control his gaze. The more Lin Yao tried not to look, the clearer the shadow of the morning glory grass in his mind became. The clearer it became, the more he couldn't help but want to eat it.
No, after traveling through time, I even developed pica???
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