Chapter 21: A Devastated Sea of Consciousness

Lin Zheng had never encountered such a bold guide before; she demanded entry into his mental sea the moment they met.

Was she like this with everyone? Or was he the only exception?

Wen Li couldn’t have cared less. Seeing Lin Zheng’s hesitation in opening his mental sea, her blue thread pounded on the gates even more aggressively.

*Little Blue Thread: Stop dawdling! Are you going to open the door or not?*

Lin Zheng awkwardly opened his mental sea, and Wen Li entered smoothly.

An endless, fiery red radiance shimmered, and a vast sea of flames spread before her. Wen Li could no longer recognize what his mental sea had originally looked like. With a distortion index as high as 97%, the mental realm had undergone a cataclysmic transformation.

Abandoning the form of a blue thread, Wen Li manifested her true avatar. A petite girl with golden hair walked across the scorching earth; the sky was a hazy gray, and molten lava surged through deep fissures in the ground.

Wrapped in her own spiritual energy, Wen Li did not make direct contact with the sentinel’s mental sea. She hovered in the air to assess the situation. It was hard to imagine how Lin Zheng had been able to converse with her so calmly when his mental sea had collapsed to such an extent.

Low, undulating hills were covered in dense, black pollutants. They breathed as if they were alive, recoiling the moment Wen Li approached.

*Wen Li: This is going to be tricky.*

Living entities with autonomous consciousness—SSS-grade pollutants. Wen Li didn't yet possess the strength to go toe-to-toe with them. If she attempted to purify them, these bone-gnawing parasites would torment Lin Zheng’s mental sea, causing the earth itself to tremble. It was too risky; if the purification failed, Lin Zheng’s distortion index would only increase.

At first, when Wen Li entered his mental sea, Lin Zheng felt his brain enveloped in warmth. It carried an intoxicatingly sweet aura that made his blood boil. His soul screamed: *Possess! Possess! Possess!*

He had guessed correctly—it was Wen Li who had awakened him last time. That sweet scent had hooked his soul. The old fossils in the Federation always found ways to control him.

The mental lock triggered an alarm, and in an instant, Lin Zheng fell into a state of mental rampage. The guide’s compressed spiritual energy was injected directly. Lin Zheng was controlled for only three seconds before he regained his ability to act.

The staff in the monitoring room pressed the button for the anesthetic spray. With a ferocious expression, Lin Zheng activated a mental barrier to block the outside world, instantly crushing the surveillance equipment with his psychic power.

He had lost control.

In his rampaging state, Lin Zheng carried Wen Li to a private space devoid of surveillance. Their hands remained locked together. Lin Zheng carefully placed the girl on the bed, and looking at the vacant-eyed little guide, he began to laugh with a manic, nervous energy.

His other hand caressed the corner of Wen Li’s eye, and he leaned in to kiss those white pupils. He was particularly fond of Wen Li’s eyes; they were like pure snowflakes, always making him want to stain them with something.

*Wouldn't it be nice to dye them black? Then you would be exactly like me. I should just gouge them out and press them into my own eye sockets!*

Wen Li, trapped within the mental sea, was unaware of what was happening in the physical world. However, a guide’s sixth sense told her that if she didn't do something, she might lose something precious.

The lava beneath her feet erupted more violently, tongues of fire reaching up as if to drag the girl in the air down into the searing depths. Wen Li felt an itch at her spine, and when she looked back, her own spirit beast had appeared.

She joyfully caught the single-winged Blue Morpho butterfly. "Little Flash, why did you come out?"

The butterfly’s antennae twitched frantically, signaling for Wen Li to leave this place immediately. Both guides and sentinels could directly perceive the intent of their spirit beasts. Upon realizing her eyes were at risk, Wen Li hurried to find an exit.

Her spiritual level was low, and she lacked the power to open a two-way channel. There was only a path in; the path out had to be opened by the one being purified. Lin Zheng, that mad dog, wouldn't open it for her now—she would have to fight for her own survival.

Little Flash’s tiny black antennae pointed behind a hillside, signaling Wen Li to go look.

Moving cautiously, Wen Li discovered a gaunt, black leopard. It was curled up against the black-and-red hill, with black pollutants writhing over its body. The leopard’s tail had long since been gnawed away, leaving only bone. It gasped in agony, and upon sensing someone’s arrival, it struggled to open its eyes.

Wen Li’s heart gave a violent tug. She controlled her spiritual energy to clear the pollutants from its body, but the effect was minimal. The leopard shivered in pain and bared its teeth at Wen Li, growling, "Roar!"

Little Flash flew to Wen Li’s chest, shielding its master by flapping its wings threateningly at the leopard. Seeing the leopard hiss, Wen Li was reminded of the first distortion she had ever encountered. It had been an identical black leopard, but that one had been a fully corrupted distortion; this one could still be saved.

And it *must* be saved!

Wen Li recalled the principles of guide purification from her books: pollutants fear the guide but cannot corrupt them, and spiritual energy can act as a protective barrier.

*What if I coat my hands in spiritual energy and forcibly hold the leopard to get us out?*

"Little Flash, stay here for a moment, okay? I’ll be right back."

Wen Li placed Little Flash a little further away. The blue butterfly clung to its master’s fingertip, reluctant to let go, as if begging her not to leave. She gently stroked its head, cast a protective shield over it, and approached the leopard.

Wen Li concentrated, drawing the spiritual energy from her mind and slowly guiding it to coat her arms. Sensing the fluctuations of a guide’s power, Lin Zheng’s mental sea trembled even more violently. Many hills collapsed, and lava burst from the ground.

Wen Li leaned down and picked up the leopard. The startled beast immediately opened its mouth, prepared to bite her. Wen Li hurriedly used her hands to pull the pollutants off its body.

The pollutants clung to the leopard’s black fur, refusing to let go. Wen Li had to expend great effort to tear them off piece by piece and throw them far away, otherwise, they would just crawl back and latch onto the leopard again.

While channeling spiritual energy to reinforce her protective barrier, she struggled with the pollutants, beads of sweat forming on her forehead. *Why are these pollutants as hard to clean as chewing gum?*

Seeing the beautiful girl working so hard to clean him, the leopard’s gaze softened. Like a child who had done something wrong, it lowered its head and nestled into Wen Li’s arms.

"Meow." A soft, coaxing sound came from the leopard’s throat.

Encouraged, Wen Li put all her effort into tearing off the final piece. This patch was quite large and had burrowed deep into the leopard’s abdomen. She pulled off most of it, leaving only a small fragment embedded in the flesh.

Gently stroking the leopard’s head, she whispered, "Leopard, it’s going to hurt for a second. Can you bear it?"

The leopard let out a weak meow and closed its eyes, bracing for the pain. Wen Li pressed against the wound on the leopard’s abdomen, gripped the remaining pollutant with her other hand, and yanked.

The leopard thrashed in agony, but it carefully avoided hitting Wen Li, afraid its claws might hurt her. With a sudden surge of force, Wen Li finally stripped away the stubborn pollutant.

She gave it a vengeful stomp, then flung the piece—still stained with the leopard’s blood—far away. As the last of the pollutants vanished, blood began to flow freely from the leopard’s abdomen. Wen Li immediately began to heal the wound with her spiritual energy.