Chapter 22 – Entering the Door

Ever since Yun Xiguang moved into Wu Ailang’s home, he began trying to make food for Little Spirit Bird.

Yun Xiguang was quite worried that Little Spirit Bird wouldn’t enjoy his cooking, but to his surprise, no matter what he made, Little Spirit Bird loved it. Even when he accidentally burned something or put too much seasoning, Little Spirit Bird would eat it all up without complaint, always leaving its belly full.

This proved that Little Spirit Bird adored his soul.

Perhaps because he received a portion of the name “Qiong,” Little Spirit Bird started recognizing him, which was why it liked him so much.

But after eating, Little Spirit Bird would always sleep for a long time, over 20 hours a day. This duration was so long that Yun Xiguang even worried it might be hurt or that something was wrong, often fretfully tugging at its tiny wings.

Every time, Little Spirit Bird would look at him with an expression that said, “You’re being too presumptuous,” then peck at Yun Xiguang with its beak as a warning.

Little Spirit Bird’s actions were just too adorable and cute. The pecks didn’t hurt on the hand, and they tickled a bit.

So Yun Xiguang guessed that perhaps because Little Spirit Bird was in its infancy and growing rapidly, it needed sleep, like a baby, which was why it slept so much.

He wanted to interact with Little Spirit Bird and have it peck at his palm, but he couldn’t bear to wake it from its slumber.

In the end, Yun Xiguang could only quietly watch Little Spirit Bird sleep during his free time. He would see those little eyes moving slightly under the eyelids and would guess what kind of beautiful dreams Little Spirit Bird was having.

Yun Xiguang thought that Little Spirit Bird must be dreaming of the blue skies of the ancient barren era, the world brimming with spiritual energy, and its parents.

What Yun Xiguang didn’t expect was that Chi Qiong dreamed of the heavy rain of the ancient barren period, the lifeless primeval age, with a familiar voice echoing continuously in his dream, although he wasn’t sure who was calling out to him.

Chi Qiong vaguely remembered that when he was young, this voice woke him from the depths of the dark sea.

Back then, there was no light in the world.

A fire phoenix burst from the ocean depths to the ninth heaven, bringing the first ray of light to this world.

This calling voice, Chi Qiong heard only once when he was newly born, but he remembered it clearly.

He didn’t know why he heard the voice this time.

It kept repeating two words, seemingly calling his name, but not the words “Chi Qiong.” It was unclear what it was actually saying.

The only thing Chi Qiong knew was that if he hadn’t been awakened by Yun Xiguang’s contract and had continued plummeting to the bottom of the abyss to sleep, the voice in his dream would probably have been even louder, loud enough for him to hear those two words clearly.

Chi Qiong wasn’t tired because he ate Yun Xiguang’s food; rather, he should have been sleeping all along and woke up for Yun Xiguang’s food.

When spirit beasts consumed food, they weren’t tasting the ingredients, but the spiritual energy contained within the food.

During the ancient barren era, humans would offer delicacies to Phoenix Venerable to request power. These ingredients were precious, including ginseng that was thousands of years old, lingzhi that was tens of thousands of years old, snow lotuses that grew on cliff faces, and red fruits found at the ends of the earth.

Human offerings were rich in spiritual energy, but back then, the energy between heaven and earth was distributed by Chi Qiong himself, so he didn’t care about these foods filled with spiritual energy.

As for Yun Xiguang’s food, it barely had any spiritual energy, just a pleasant aroma completely different from anything Chi Qiong had eaten before.

This scent lingered in Chi Qiong’s mind, even drifting through his dreams.

In his dreams, while that voice was calling out to him, it was this pleasant aroma that attracted Chi Qiong, preventing him from being called away by the voice.

Every time it was mealtime and Yun Xiguang prepared delicious food, Chi Qiong would struggle awake from his dreams, only to fall asleep again after eating.

Sometimes Yun Xiguang, perhaps out of great respect, would boldly stroke his phoenix wing.

At these times, Chi Qiong would open his eyes, looking at Yun Xiguang half-blamingly and half-permissively, pecking him as a punishment, then letting him continue.

After all, grooming his magnificent feathers was something a spirit servant should do, so he let Yun Xiguang go ahead.

Chi Qiong lacked strength, unsure where the powerful force he had before falling asleep had gone. That was the real reason he remained in a deep sleep.

When Yun Xiguang first reported to the Records Department, Chi Qiong briefly sensed his strength and woke up to take a look, but he didn’t find the source of this power, so he fell back into a deep sleep.

Today, he sensed the power that originally belonged to him once again.

This time, Chi Qiong’s perception was clearer. Besides finding a small part of his strength, he also felt that this power couldn’t be returned to him temporarily.

At this moment, Chi Qiong sensed the intention of the World Law.

It seemed that the World Law intended to use his power to do something while he was asleep.

It wasn’t that he lost his power, but that he woke up at the wrong time. This wasn’t his era. He should have continued sleeping, but he was awakened by Yun Xinglei’s rude action and was left in this era by Yun Xiguang.

Once he woke up in his own time, these powers would naturally be returned in full.

Therefore, despite sensing his power, Chi Qiong remained asleep, not thinking about reclaiming these powers.

But unexpectedly, the bookworms attempted to erase the memory of Chi Qiong blowing up the kitchen by consuming the text.

To Chi Qiong, this memory was a humiliating black history, something he wished would be buried forever.

But this was also the first time he felt Yun Xiguang’s gentleness, an event he wasn’t eager to forget.

Moreover, this incident already had a scapegoat.

The Snowy Domain Silver Wolf, a snow-type wolf, had taken the blame for a fire-related issue. What a loyal steed, willing to share its master’s burdens.

Thus, although the Snow Wolf was weak and not impressive enough for the position of Phoenix Venerable, Chi Qiong accepted it as a steed.

If this memory was erased, how would others remember it as something he did when it was actually the Snow Wolf?

Who dared to use his power to erase his memories?

This was an act of sacrilege! A grave crime!

Chi Qiong was jolted awake by this audacious move, emerging from Yun Xiguang’s pocket to search for the one who dared commit such a crime.

As for the force attempting to erase his memory, upon touching Chi Qiong’s body, it transformed into Chi Qiong’s primal fire, returning to its origin.

No creature could withstand this flame, and the one who committed sacrilege was naturally purified by the fire.

Chi Qiong also located the source of his power through his connection to it.

Being so noble, he wouldn’t personally intervene, but instead directed his spirit servants and steed, allowing them to take action.

The spirit servants reacted a bit slowly, not understanding his intentions, making the bird somewhat awkward.

Fortunately, the steed was very understanding, quickly grasping Phoenix Venerable’s meaning. It tossed out its Spiritbond Master, revealing the whereabouts of the audacious perpetrator.

The moment Ruan Shu appeared, the snow wolf leaped forward, landing on Wu Ailang’s back, and utilized Wu Ailang’s limbs to release ice mist.

After telling Wu Ailang the character “Yuan,” the relationship between the snow wolf and the Spiritbond Master became closer. When the Spiritbond Master willingly allowed it, the spirit beast could briefly borrow the Spiritbond Master’s body to exert its strength.

Wu Ailang’s limbs rose with a faint white mist, supporting his body just as he was about to land, helping him adjust direction mid-air.

Wu Ailang finally realized his dream of freely flying in the sky.

It was just a bit comical, with the snow wolf on his back, almost as if he was carrying the snow wolf.

“Ao!” The snow wolf howled at Ruan Shu.

In Wu Ailang’s ears, this howl sounded like: “This person disrespects bleep bleep, bite him, defend bleep bleep’s dignity!”

Since he could communicate with the snow wolf, Wu Ailang had gotten used to the ubiquitous censorship and sound effects, automatically ignoring the grating “bleep bleep” in the wolf’s words and only hearing the word “bite.”

So Wu Ailang opened his mouth, his nose and mouth elongating, features gradually transforming into a wolf’s, teeth becoming incredibly sharp.

The snow wolf manipulated the ice mist, sending Wu Ailang toward Ruan Shu, who opened his bloodied maw and savagely bit through Ruan Shu’s neck.

However, Ruan Shu didn’t bleed.

Instead, Wu Ailang spat twice, spitting out two bugs, nauseated by the experience.

Under Little Spirit Bird’s guidance, Yun Xiguang was the first to look at the bookshelf, reacting half a beat faster than the others.

As soon as Wu Ailang rushed to bite Ruan Shu, Yun Xiguang ignited the blank record book in his hand with a lighter and threw the flame at Ruan Shu.

The flame transformed into a golden fire dragon in the air and charged toward Ruan Shu.

To outsiders, it seemed Yun Xiguang was using fire control abilities to attack Ruan Shu, but this might not work. Bookworms had fire resistance; ordinary flames couldn’t harm them.

But in reality, Yun Xiguang had already fused a wisp of Heavenly Fire into the ordinary fire, sending it over via the fire dragon.

Heavenly Fire was released by the World Law to destroy spirit beasts. Any spirit beast not recognized by the law would be injured by Heavenly Fire.

Yun Xiguang believed that the moment this Heavenly Fire touched Ruan Shu, it would be enough to turn him to ashes.

But to Yun Xiguang’s surprise, Ruan Shu raised a hand to block, and a transparent protective shield formed from spiritual energy appeared, deflecting the fire.

Even Heavenly Fire couldn’t penetrate this shield.

How could this be!

Yun Xiguang, always strategic, never expected something like this to happen. For a moment, he didn’t know how to react, standing still in shock.

Any spirit beast not belonging to this era would be burned by Heavenly Fire, unless the World Law gradually recognized the existence of this spirit beast.

How could the bookworms, after committing such a heaven-defying act, be accepted by the World Law? What was going on?

Yun Xiguang knew there was a hidden killing move in the fire dragon. With the first attempt failing, his mind was filled with questions, so he didn’t launch a follow-up attack.

Zhao Yu and the others assumed he was manipulating ordinary fire, which couldn’t harm Ruan Shu. This was far too normal, so they didn’t panic. Instead, while Wu Ailang and Yun Xiguang attacked, they quickly devised a countermeasure.

Ji Sisi wore bells on her hands. She raised her hands, shaking the bells, causing some purple powder to drift out.

After the powder dispersed, the hair clip in her hair transformed into a Phantom Butterfly. The butterfly absorbed the purple powder and simultaneously flapped its wings, releasing some shimmering points of light, each containing a hidden illusion.

Xue Lan placed her hands against her chest, then spread them outward, releasing pale blue ripples that spread outward from her center.

The first ripple collided with the points of light released by the Phantom Butterfly, and the subsequent ripples contained similar points of light.

This was the Dragonfish ability, “Water Mirror” and “Ripple Diffusion.”

“Water Mirror” could replicate non-physical abilities, copying the power of the Phantom Butterfly. “Ripple Diffusion” greatly expanded and enhanced the strength of Water Mirror.

The illusions embedded in the points of light were infinitely amplified by Xue Lan.

These illusions weren’t strong, but their advantage lay in their quantity, perfect for dealing with newborn bookworms.

Xue Lan and Ji Sisi, the two girls, had the biggest weakness of having weak bodies, unlike Wu Ailang, who could be thrown to topple cabinets and still munch on two bookworms unscathed.

When they used their skills, if their bodies were injured, their powers would immediately vanish.

Therefore, Lian Gu released the tortoise shell, firmly protecting the girls’ bodies within.

Zhao Yu merged with the White Tiger and manifested the Beast Avatar.

The White Tiger’s abilities were strong, but unsuitable for the current situation.

If he used an attack like “Tiger Roars Mountains Shake,” it could indeed severely injure most bookworms, but doing so would also harm Yun Xiguang and the other interns. Without a response, this would be an indiscriminate attack, harming teammates.

And one-on-one attacks couldn’t eliminate so many bookworms at once.

Faced with this situation, Zhao Yu chose to use the “Fox Borrows Tiger’s Might” move.

He merged with the White Tiger, standing behind the students, and lent them the “Tiger’s Might.”

Using this move, the “foxes” in front of the tiger could receive the tiger’s strength, greatly enhancing the “foxes'” power. It was a top-tier support skill.

The reason Ji Sisi, Xue Lan, and Lian Gu, the three interns, could smoothly activate their skills was because of Zhao Yu’s help in increasing their strength, briefly boosting their rapport with spirit beasts and their own energy, allowing them to use their skills.

Countless illusionary points of light struck the bookworms hiding in the bookshelves, forcing them to reveal their forms.

But surprisingly, these bookworms also had protective shields close to their bodies, blocking everyone’s attacks.

It seemed that all attacks were ineffective against Ruan Shu.

Zhao Yu looked at the countless protective shields and muttered, “Nine parts of spiritual energy!”

As head of the Records Department, the significant event of two Yin Mountains’ nine parts of spiritual energy naturally couldn’t be concealed from him. He knew that nine extremely powerful streams of spiritual energy flew around the world, but he didn’t expect one of those powerful streams to be in Ruan Shu.

Ruan Shu couldn’t harness even a tenth of the spiritual energy’s power. He could only use this energy to breed bookworms and defend himself. Even so, he was so difficult to deal with.

If Ruan Shu truly absorbed all the power of this spiritual energy, it would indeed be as Wu Ailang speculated. He could consume all the literature materials in the world, erase everyone’s memories, and destroy all human civilization since recorded history!

There were many files in the confidential archives that Zhao Yu didn’t have the authority to view, but he vaguely knew that the confidential archives contained a terrifying manual’s fragment!

Ruan Shu couldn’t absorb spiritual energy, so he must want to enter the confidential archives to find a way to absorb it.

They couldn’t let Ruan Shu enter the confidential archives. He had to…

Just as Zhao Yu thought this, he froze, shaking his head and wondering, “What was I about to do?”

Ruan Shu extended one arm, which transformed into countless bookworms.

He said, “Eat the thoughts of attacking, the thoughts of defending, the thoughts of destroying the confidential archives, the thoughts of stopping me.”

As he spoke, countless words appeared in the air, and the bookworms devoured these words.

Over a thousand bookworms fell into hibernation, and Ruan Shu suffered heavy losses, but Yun Xiguang and the others’ thoughts were all consumed by Ruan Shu.

Although they could recall what they needed to do through logical chains, Ruan Shu had eaten too many memories at once. Everyone was momentarily unable to think.

Taking advantage of the group’s brief memory loss, Ruan Shu quickly approached Zhao Yu, his eyes turning into countless bookworms.

These bookworms transformed into a peculiar force in the air and merged into Zhao Yu’s forehead.

Ruan Shu had two goals in eating the records: one was to breed enough bookworms, and the other was to find a way to enter the confidential archives from the records in the archives.

Now he found that method.

A case record detailed an incident of mind reading.

He consumed this case record and used the bookworms to recreate the incident.

What the bookworms recreated was the process of mind reading.

They burrowed into Zhao Yu’s brain and found the method to enter the confidential archives.

“So that’s how it is.”

Ruan Shu walked to the door of the confidential archives and opened the formation according to the method in Zhao Yu’s mind.

The formation in front of the door had only one correct path, which was complex. One misstep would result in the intruder being destroyed by the formation’s power.

Only by walking the single correct path among billions of combinations could the door to the confidential archives be opened.

Furthermore, once the correct route was traversed, that path couldn’t be used again. A new one needed to be taken next time.

Zhao Yu happened to store a correct route in his mind because he needed to bring others into the confidential archives.

Ruan Shu followed the route in Zhao Yu’s memory, using the bookworms to walk through it, easily opening the door.

He gave the group, who were slowly regaining consciousness, a contemptuous smile, saying, “You don’t understand my mission.”

With that, he entered the confidential archives.

Chi Qiong was the only one in the group not affected by the bookworms. During this attack, Ruan Shu also avoided this little bird with considerable will to live.

Seeing his servants all fall and the person in front of him taking his power away, Chi Qiong instantly felt it was a disgrace to the Phoenix Venerable’s dignity.

“Chirp!” Little Spirit Bird cried out in frustration.

He was saying: You people, actually forcing this Exalted One to take action personally. You’re truly useless!

With that, Chi Qiong spread his little wings, leaping off Yun Xiguang’s palm, and dashed inside like a small cannonball.

He didn’t follow the prescribed route, but the formation of the confidential archives treated him like air, water, or natural laws, allowing him to pass through naturally.

And Yun Xiguang, who was in a blank state, saw Little Spirit Bird disappear from his palm. Images of his parents’ tragic deaths surfaced in his mind, and a fear of impending loss arose from the depths of his heart.

Yun Xiguang was a person with a terrible obsession and boundless desire.

This obsession and desire retained the sleeping Chi Qiong, and in the instant when all thoughts were devoured, a new idea arose in his heart.

He couldn’t let Little Spirit Bird risk itself. He had to protect Little Spirit Bird.

This thought prompted Yun Xiguang to move.

His brain swiftly responded to the route Ruan Shu took earlier. The potential that the Yun family saw in him as an heir was fully displayed at this moment.

He repeated Ruan Shu’s path without error, rushing into the confidential archives before the door completely closed.

And just after Yun Xiguang entered, the door to the confidential archives closed.

This time, even Zhao Yu couldn’t reopen the door and enter the confidential archives.