Eidetic Memory

Fragrant Bird, with a lingering aftertaste.

Lin Baici had no idea what race's language that voice was speaking. He could not understand a single word, yet its pronunciation was filled with beauty.

Pleasant! Ethereal! Leisurely!

It gave him the refreshing sensation of Clear Mountain After New Rain!

Lin Baici even forgot his hunger, immersing himself in the scripture chanting that sounded like celestial music.

Life is Like a Boat, riding the wind and breaking the waves.

Seven-year-old Lin Baici carried a little bucket and a small fishing net, running barefoot and wildly along the creek, trying to catch the little loach that had just slipped away.

He picked up a green apricot, and its sourness nearly ruined his little teeth.

Seventeen-year-old Lin Baici sweated on the basketball court, wrote furiously in examination halls, and sometimes watched the back of the girl he secretly loved as she walked home past the classroom window.

He wanted to catch that cicada, to catch the summer that belonged to him.

Twenty-seven-year-old Lin Baici was full of ambition at work, drank heavily and ate skewers at roadside stalls, and made life plans in his Rental Room late at night.

He thought he could do anything—pluck stars with one hand above and ride dragons to slay whales below.

Thirty-seven-year-old Lin Baici had accomplished nothing and was unemployed at home.

No girlfriend, no salary, no friends. He pulled the curtains shut tight, afraid of the sunrise that came every day.

Forty-seven-year-old Lin Baici was a walking corpse, lying in bed and waiting for Death to knock.

Life is Like a Boat, crashing until his head was bloodied!

"Fuck!"

Lin Baici could not help blurting out a National Curse.

This is my life?

You've got to be kidding me!

Lin Baici was incredibly pissed off. He wanted to beat up ten people to vent this anger.

Suddenly, intense pain erupted from his stomach. A tidal wave of hunger flooded over him, making his mouth fill with saliva.

Grrrumble!

Lin Baici's consciousness was pulled back by that hunger. Then he saw everyone sprawled crookedly across the floor.

Every face was twisted, excited, furious...

Listening to the scripture?

Everyone had long forgotten about that!

But even more terrifyingly, Lin Baici discovered that the Vine Lasso around his neck was slowly tightening. He was already having trouble breathing.

[The chanting will weave a Decayed Chess Dream!]

"Why didn't you say so earlier?"

Lin Baici roared inwardly. Fortunately, the hunger had jolted him awake and dragged him out of the Dream.

The urgent matter was to finish listening to this scripture and complete this God's Taboo Game.

But his mind was full of distracting thoughts. Combined with the tension and panic of being strangled to death, Lin Baici could not calm down enough to listen.

What should he do?

Lin Baici grabbed the Torch beside him.

Should he light it?

When he had first entered this Meditation Room, he had not acted because he feared angering the God's Taboo Object and getting strangled to death immediately. But now, it seemed he had no choice.

The Vine Lasso around his neck was getting tighter and tighter.

Lin Baici forced himself to hold on and prepared to stand up, but when his left hand pressed against his backpack, an idea flashed through his mind.

Those tea leaves!

The words formed by the white incense smoke meant, simply put, that if one sat Cross-legged Sitting and listened to the scripture without wavering, quietly hearing it to the end, one could reach the Other Shore.

The so-called Other Shore probably meant surviving.

The problem everyone faced now was that the chanting stirred up all sorts of stray thoughts, making it impossible to listen quietly.

Lin Baici hurriedly opened his backpack, grabbed a handful of Hollow Iron Guanyin, and stuffed it into his mouth.

He bit down hard, and juice burst out.

God of Gluttony had said that after drinking this tea, one would lose all emotion, become cold as iron, turn into a hollow person, instantly lose interest in dreams, women, and the like, and enter Sage Time.

Did that not mean it could eliminate distracting thoughts?

Lin Baici decided to gamble. If Hollow Iron Guanyin did not work, he would set fire to the Incense Burner!

"I wonder if chewing it dry will work?"

Lin Baici had no time to find boiling water to brew tea. Yet after he swallowed the leaves, in barely a dozen seconds, the chaotic thoughts filling his mind vanished like floating dust washed away by heavy rain.

Even the Vine Lasso gradually tightening around his neck no longer seemed to matter to Lin Baici.

So what if I die!

Come on.

This Old Man is lying flat. Put some more force into it.

The chanting entered his ears clearly.

Sitting Cross-legged Sitting, Lin Baici missed not a single word. The Vine Lasso strangling him gradually loosened as well.

"It worked!"

Lin Baici smiled faintly.

The others were not so fortunate.

Fat Man usually stuffed himself with greasy, salty food and never exercised, so his body was in the worst condition. His face had already turned blue, and he was on the verge of suffocating to death.

Lin Baici glanced at him, grabbed a handful of Hollow Iron Guanyin, suddenly rose to his feet, and rushed to Jin Yingzhen's side. "Quick, eat the tea leaves!"

The Goryeo Woman had her eyes shut tight and did not react at all.

Lin Baici pinched her chin, forcibly pried open her lips, and stuffed in the tea leaves. Then he rushed over to Old Aunt and did the same.

After feeding Sima Mu and Hua Yueyu, Lin Baici ran out of tea leaves. Fortunately, Jin Yingzhen still had some, so he hurried over to get them.

Next came Sister Xiao Li and Brother Gu.

Finally, Lin Baici looked at Fat Man. This man had left a bad impression on him, but a life was at stake, so he decided to lend him a hand anyway.

Once everyone had been fed tea leaves, Lin Baici quickly assumed the Cross-legged Sitting posture.

After swallowing the Hollow Iron Guanyin, everyone gradually regained consciousness.

"What happened?"

Old Aunt looked utterly baffled.

"Are there still tea leaves in your mouths? If there are, swallow them quickly. Don't think about anything. Get into position and listen to the scripture!"

Lin Baici instructed them.

"Tea? What did you do?"

Hua Yueyu could taste something in her mouth. It was a little like Nutritional Express.

Eh?

Why don't I care at all whether I survive?

"Oppa..."

Jin Yingzhen knew that Lin Baici had helped everyone. Her pretty oval face held both tension and excitement.

My Oppa Lin really is amazing!

Fat Man's body had stiffened from suffocation and lack of oxygen. He tried several times but could not assume the Cross-legged Sitting posture, so the Vine Lasso around his neck tightened once again.

That was simply adding frost to snow.

"Help... help me!"

Fat Man's instincts still made him beg for help, but because he had eaten Hollow Iron Guanyin, he did not scream hysterically.

No one saved him. It was not because they were heartless; the tea leaves' effects had taken hold.

When the chanting ended, the Vine Lasso around Fat Man's neck had completely tightened, forcibly snapping his cervical vertebrae.

Afterward, his body visibly dehydrated and cracked, as if it had been exposed to wind and sun for thousands of years. It weathered into fragments, leaving behind only a pile of dust.

That horrifying scene made everyone shudder, and they instinctively reached for their necks.

Eh?

The lasso was gone?

"Did we clear it?"

Wild joy appeared on Old Aunt's face.

"Haha, we survived!"

Sima Mu laughed loudly, sprang up, and rushed straight to Lin Baici. "Baici, it's all thanks to you. Let's become sworn brothers!"

"What did you do?"

Only now did Hua Yueyu have the leisure to properly examine this Big Male Student.

His face still carried youthful innocence, and he seemed inexperienced in the ways of the world. He was probably still a high school student. He was tall, and if his jumping ability were better, he could probably dunk.

"I fed you tea leaves!"

Lin Baici made up an excuse. "I was hungry at the time and had nothing to eat, so I stuffed the tea leaves I picked in the courtyard outside into my mouth. I didn't expect to wake up from the Decayed Chess Dream and calm down!"

"What tea leaves?"

Sister Xiao Li was puzzled. "Why didn't I see them?"

"It was that plant whose leaves looked like Guanyin sitting on a lotus flower!"

Jin Yingzhen interjected.

"Huh? That one?"

Brother Gu had seen it, but everyone had feared that the strange-looking plant might be dangerous and had not dared touch it. After all, Vine Lassos had still been wrapped around their necks.

Who would have thought it was actually the key to survival?

Actually, it was not. As long as someone was free of desire, detached from worldly matters, and kept their heart undisturbed, they would not be contaminated by the God's Taboo Object.

It could be said that almost any child under three years old could leave this Meditation Room alive.

"I'm going to pick some!"

Sima Mu darted out.

Seeing that, Sister Xiao Li and Brother Gu hurried out too. The tea leaves seemed to be good stuff, so they wanted to gather some just in case.

"Baici, you used up what you had, right? I'll go pick some more for you."

Old Aunt knew she had no real skills and could only demonstrate her value through small tasks like this.

Hearing that, Jin Yingzhen lifted her legs and ran outside.

I absolutely won't give you people the chance to curry favor with Oppa Lin.

"Thank you! Let me formally introduce myself. My surname is Hua, and my given name is Yueyu. What's your name? You shouldn't be older than me, right?"

Hua Yueyu also wanted to rush out and gather Hollow Iron Guanyin, but she held herself back. She knew she needed to thank him first.

If she wanted to leave the God Ruins alive,

she would definitely have to rely on this Big Male Student. She needed to maintain their relationship first.

"Lin Baici!"

Lin Baici looked at Hua Yueyu, who was only chest-high on him and dressed in a sailor uniform. "I'm definitely older than you!"

"I'm a college student, okay!"

Hua Yueyu covered her mouth and giggled. "I just look like an underage girl."

"..."

Lin Baici was speechless.

Women really could not have their ages guessed just by looking at their faces.

"So it's not illegal to date me!"

After saying that, Hua Yueyu remembered something else and quickly added, "Oh, right. Hua Yueyu is my real name. That's exactly what it says in my household registration book!"

Whenever Hua Yueyu introduced herself in the past, people often thought she was deliberately withholding her real name and using a stage name to brush them off, as if she looked down on them.

"Hua isn't a very common surname!"

Lin Baici smiled slightly.

"Mm-hm, the most famous one is Hua Mulan!"

Hua Yueyu had overthought it.

Lin Baici did not care whether she had given her real name. If they could not get out of the God Ruins, even calling herself Queen Mother of the West would not help.

"You should go gather some tea leaves too, to keep for protection."

Holding the Torch, Lin Baici looked toward the Incense Burner.

He should burn that thing, so it would stop harming people.

"Then I'm going!"

Hua Yueyu ran out of the Meditation Room on slim legs clad in black thigh-high stockings.

[Pre-meal exercise is over. You may now eat!]

"Eat what?"

Lin Baici did not know whether to laugh or cry. "Do you want me to gnaw on the Incense Burner or swallow incense ash?"

[By the concepts of the human realm, there is a Divine Grace on this prayer cushion called Eidetic Memory. Eat it, and you can possess it!]

[Eidetic Memory, as the name implies, means that anything you hear once can be remembered in full and recited immediately!]