Chapter 21 – Backlash

“What was I supposed to do again?” Yun Xiguang turned to ask his companions.

“You were going to…” Everyone paused simultaneously, “What was it again?”

Forgetting what he was supposed to do didn’t faze Yun Xiguang. He calmly recalled, then said, “I haven’t lost my memory about the bookworms. I know I’m supposed to stop them. I’m holding this lighter…looks like I was going to set fire to the archives.”

Zhao Yu said solemnly, “You probably can’t do it now. Ruan Shu doesn’t want you to, so he ate your memories about it, and ours too.”

“It’s fine,” Yun Xiguang smiled confidently, addressing everyone. “Why worry? My brain is still here, my logical thinking is still here. I can always come up with a new plan. As long as I think fast enough, the bookworms can’t do anything to me.”

With that, he raised the lighter again, only to pause once more, asking, “What was I supposed to do again?”

“We don’t remember either,” everyone shook their heads together.

Yun Xiguang wasn’t panicked. This time, he was mentally prepared, knowing his memory would be devoured by the bookworms.

He glanced calmly at the lighter in his hand and said, “Looks like I was going to set fire to the archives.”

So he quickly raised the lighter again and repeated for the third time, “What was I supposed to do again?”

Everyone shook their heads in perfect unison. “We don’t remember.”

Yun Xiguang lifted the lighter for the fourth time. “I’m going to set fire to the archives.”

And for the fourth time, “What was I supposed to do again?”

Everyone was speechless.

They were puzzled why Yun Xiguang, who knew this method couldn’t possibly work, kept repeating the action of setting fire to the archives. The bookworms wouldn’t let him burn the archives no matter how many times he remembered it. All he could do was repeat the same action.

But Yun Xiguang didn’t lose heart. Moreover, he was recalling his purpose faster, and the process became smoother.

In the end, he completed the cycle of “I’m going to burn the archives,” “What was I supposed to do again?”, “Asking everyone,” “Looking at the lighter,” and “Repeating I’m going to burn the archives” in less than 20 seconds. He could loop through it three times in a minute!

This continued for half an hour. Everyone was mentally exhausted, but Yun Xiguang maintained his initial fighting spirit.

Zhao Yu wanted to stop Yun Xiguang from doing something futile. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly listened intently and then flashed a knowing smile.

Not only did he not stop Yun Xiguang, but he also calmed the others and cooperated with Yun Xiguang to complete the cycle of “burning the archives – losing memory – remembering upon seeing the lighter – continuing to burn the archives” even faster.

Ten minutes later, after Yun Xiguang lost his memory again, he looked at the lighter in his hand, ready to regain his memory, when he suddenly said, “What is this thing? Do you guys know?”

He held out his hand, showing the lighter to everyone.

Everyone shook their heads at the same time. They didn’t know what it was either.

Yun Xiguang smiled. “Smart move this time. Knowing that I’d remember what to do every time I saw the item in my hand, you just swallowed our memories about it.”

“What do you plan to do since you can’t remember what to do?” Xue Lan asked.

“Who said I can’t remember?” Yun Xiguang held the lighter in his hand, lowered his head, and sniffed. “I’ve only lost my memory about this object, but that doesn’t mean I forgot common sense. There’s a special smell in this thing. It’s natural gas. Half a month ago, my kitchen was blown up by natural gas. Oh, I know what I’m supposed to do. I want to blow up the archives.”

The constant “click, click, click” sound echoing in the room changed to “click…click…click” as Yun Xiguang repeatedly lost his memory. But after he said “blow up the archives,” it slowed down even more.

Yun Xiguang and Zhao Yu exchanged glances, sharing a knowing smile.

Ruan Shu was inside the archives. What they said was equivalent to loudly plotting against him right in front of him. Bookworms had the ability to make people forget, so whatever countermeasures they came up with would be eaten away by the bookworms. The spoken countermeasures couldn’t possibly succeed.

Therefore, the spoken countermeasures were false from the beginning, a decoy. Yun Xiguang never revealed his true purpose.

Based on the conditions for bookworm reproduction, there were three ways to stop Ruan Shu from delaying time. The first was to find a way to kill Ruan Shu, but since his whereabouts were unknown, it was impossible. The second was to cut off the bookworms’ source of spiritual energy, but they didn’t even know why the bookworms had so much spiritual energy, so they had no idea where to start. The third was to destroy a massive amount of information, which meant destroying this archive room, but this was surely Ruan Shu’s top priority to protect, so it couldn’t be done either.

These three methods, not only could they think of them, Ruan Shu could as well. None of them could be accomplished.

Therefore, Yun Xiguang planned to use a fourth method. He wouldn’t stop the bookworms from reproducing; he would consume the newly reproduced bookworms.

Once the number of bookworms reached a certain level, their power was immeasurable. But the individual bookworms weren’t strong, especially the newly reproduced ones, which needed time to grow. The memories they could devour were very limited, and the duration of memory loss was also very short.

Yun Xiguang used the lighter as a cue, constantly recalling “burning the archives” and saying it out loud. He wanted to convey this to the people and spirit beasts present.

Every time he said it, the six people and six spirit beasts in the room, including himself, could remember. To swallow their memories, twelve newly reproduced bookworms had to be allocated.

According to Yun Xiguang’s understanding, the main body of the bookworms, the skill of devouring memories, could be used once per minute. Each time, it could only affect one person. The number of uses was related to the strength of the bookworm itself and the power of the Spiritbond Master.

Newborn bookworms needed to hibernate for about ten hours after using their abilities once. After all, they were the weakest when they were born.

Therefore, when Yun Xiguang remembered and said “burning the archives” again, another twelve newborn bookworms would enter the hibernation phase.

As Yun Xiguang completed the process faster, the consumption of bookworms accelerated.

Gradually, Yun Xiguang and Zhao Yu noticed that the “click, click, click” sound had slowed down. This proved that the number of bookworms was decreasing.

If things went smoothly, they could easily hold Ruan Shu off for six hours.

However, Ruan Shu also noticed this. He immediately changed his strategy. In addition to devouring the memory of “burning the archives,” he added the memory of the “lighter.”

In this way, Ruan Shu consumed twenty-four newborn bookworms.

When Yun Xiguang mentioned the words “smell,” “natural gas,” and “blowing up the kitchen,” it meant that to thoroughly devour the concept of “lighter” in his mind and the memory of “burning the archives,” Ruan Shu would have to devour the concepts of “smell,” “natural gas,” and “blowing up the kitchen” as well.

This time, he needed to consume sixty newborn bookworms.

The number was becoming increasingly large.

Yun Xiguang’s true purpose had never been spoken. His goal had never been to destroy the archives; he wanted to consume the bookworms. Therefore, even if Ruan Shu swallowed all the relevant concepts, Yun Xiguang could still loudly propose other methods, forcing Ruan Shu to continue using the bookworms.

It was a bottomless pit.

Being devoured of memories and concepts was indeed a terrifying thing, but Yun Xiguang had experience in this area. He knew that even if his memory was swallowed, some things wouldn’t disappear.

He also understood that thoughts and ideas in the human mind were endless. As long as the source of thoughts wasn’t cut off, new ideas would always arise.

If the bookworms were powerful enough to erase the memory of “fire” in his mind, he wouldn’t be able to deal with them.

But now, this bookworm was clearly not that strong. It was still growing, and it didn’t have such power.

After saying “blowing up the kitchen,” Yun Xiguang prepared another plan in his mind. Once Ruan Shu devoured the memories in their minds, he would change tactics against him. Always using the same method was quite monotonous.

But this time, an unexpected event occurred.

Yun Xiguang raised the lighter to set fire to the archives. He truly lost that memory, and so did the others. However, a small creature sleeping in his pocket suddenly poked its head out and chirped.

At the same time, a small flame suddenly appeared on a filing cabinet to their left. A tiny insect about 1.5 centimeters long, covered in silver-gray scales, with three tail filaments at the end and two abdominal spines, struggled in the fire before turning to ashes.

The “click, click, click” sound in the room stopped instantly. Ruan Shu seemed to be intimidated by something and dared not move for the moment.

“What happened?” Zhao Yu asked in confusion.

He naturally saw through Yun Xiguang’s plan. Not only did he cooperate with Yun Xiguang, but he also conceived a few plans to tease the bookworms in his mind. Even if the concepts Yun Xiguang thought of were completely devoured, Zhao Yu could offer a few for the bookworms to eat.

But before he could put his plan into action, an unexpected event occurred.

“Why did the newborn bookworm suddenly burn to ashes just now? Why did it die?” Yun Xiguang didn’t understand either.

But Wu Ailang, squatting on the ground, said, “What’s so strange about that? It has obviously backfired.”

“Backfired?” Zhao Yu looked at Wu Ailang in puzzlement. “What backfired?”

“The bookworm attacked a divine beast. Wouldn’t the attack backfire due to the divine beast’s power? That’s how it’s written in novels!” Wu Ailang pointed at the drowsy little spirit bird in Yun Xiguang’s pocket.

Everyone stared blankly at the confused little spirit bird, then looked away indifferently at the same time.

Zhao Yu looked lovingly at Wu Ailang, whose face was full of foolishness, and said, “The bookworm has deleted our memories many times. Why hasn’t it backfired until now? It’s probably not for this reason.”

“But why?” Wu Ailang asked.

Zhao Yu pondered and said, “The bookworm forcibly controlled Ruan Shu. Now, eager to reproduce, it can’t bother controlling Ruan Shu and was slightly resisted by Ruan Shu, resulting in the loss of a newborn bookworm.”

This idea naturally appeared in Zhao Yu’s mind. He didn’t even doubt the speculation and nodded solemnly. “It must be for this reason.”

Yun Xiguang also nodded in agreement, fully endorsing Zhao Yu’s idea.

Yun Xiguang thought that since the deletion of memories hadn’t backfired so many times before, it must have nothing to do with the little spirit bird. Wu Ailang was just…

Wait!

Yun Xiguang looked at the adorable little spirit bird in his pocket and suddenly realized something.

Before, the little spirit bird had been sleeping and hadn’t heard their conversation. It didn’t know about “burning the archives,” so the bookworm didn’t need to devour its memory.

So during those many times of memory loss, the bookworm only needed eleven each time, not twelve.

Only during “blowing up the kitchen,” since the subject of the matter was the little spirit bird, to delete this memory, the subject of the event couldn’t be bypassed. When devouring the memory of “blowing up the kitchen,” Yun Xiguang would inevitably think of the little spirit bird, triggering the subject of the event.

And it was at this time that the little spirit bird woke up.

Could it be that the bookworm was merely attempting to devour memories related to the little spirit bird and that backfired?

Yun Xiguang held the little spirit bird in his palm, looking at it seriously.

The little spirit bird was still adorable, but for some reason, Yun Xiguang sensed a hint of displeasure in its eyes this time.

Before, he would have thought it was cranky from waking up.

But now, perhaps there could be another explanation, such as someone daring to challenge the dignity of a divine beast.

The little spirit bird looked around, pecked Yun Xiguang’s palm with its beak, then lifted its head and pointed at a filing cabinet.

The chief mount of the Phoenix Venerable reacted faster than Yun Xiguang. The snow wolf bit Wu Ailang’s butt first and threw its Spiritbond Master onto the row of filing cabinets.

Wu Ailang was thrown out and frantically extended his ice claws, grabbing at the filing cabinets several times to prevent himself from crashing into them.

As Wu Ailang grabbed like that, a bunch of insects crawled out of the filing cabinet. These insects stood upright and formed the shape of a person.

It was Ruan Shu.