The Veil returned to its "smooth" state. Old Jin's connection with the "shadow" was completely severed, and all manifestations of memory dissipated, save for the Balance of Truth—most of its light-and-shadow structure scattered away, but an exceedingly faint, illusory remnant remained, merging into layer upon layer of Veils and into the cloud vapor and Smoke Mist of the Mist Palace, appearing at times and dissolving at others.
Ronan glanced over, but did not let it distract him. Instead, he continued to focus on the fragment of information he had sent over—that nearly formless "dream."
For an instant, that fragile "dream" seemed on the verge of losing contact completely, or perhaps collapsing altogether.
But in the end, it did neither. It merely became even blurrier and more incoherent. Impossible to remember, impossible to make sense of, tangled and chaotic images repeatedly emerged within the illusion, everything shrouded in hazy vapor and halos of light, making concrete forms nearly impossible to distinguish.
Ronan tried to interpret it, but a rare bout of dizziness struck him, along with an overwhelming drowsiness.
He vaguely sensed that this involved a distortion at the level of time-space rules. A trace of his consciousness had "smuggled" itself over, faintly dividing so that it could perceive the time-spaces on both sides at once. It was somewhat like his experience in the Testing Time-Space, except back then, the vast majority of his consciousness had crossed over. This was precisely the opposite.
Moreover, the difference back then had mainly been in the rate of time. Now, it felt different, and dealing with it was even more strenuous.
If not for his experience in the Testing Time-Space, his instincts would not have begun adjusting. By now, he would most likely have fallen asleep already.
Ronan did not keep forcing himself to