That wisp of mental energy recoiled like a startled snake. In an instant, it withdrew into the paper and fell silent.
A strange sensation stirred in Chen Yan's heart.
The wisp of mental energy seemed to convey an emotion to him—not anger or fear, but a kind of frustration, tinged with helplessness.
It wasn't quite surrender. It felt more like... resignation after a test.
Just then, a faint pattern appeared on the previously blank sheet in his hand.
"What is this...?"
As the thought crossed Chen Yan's mind, tiny golden characters, finer than a mosquito's legs, began to appear on the paper. They crawled across it like living things, arranging themselves into lines, then quietly vanished an instant later, as if they had been no more than an illusion of light and shadow.
But Chen Yan had seen them clearly.
"Heavenly Mystery Book. Whoever wields this book can discern cause and effect."
At the same time, the Heavenly Book sent him a faint thought, as innocent and bewildered as an infant. It simply conveyed its name by instinct: Heavenly Mystery Book.
The pattern and golden characters had appeared and vanished in an instant, but Chen Yan knew they hadn't been an illusion.
A faint connection had now formed between him and this sheet of paper. It was tenuous, but real.
"This thing must be some kind of magical treasure, one that deals in information. It's even developed the most primitive form of sentience, just like Bitter Bamboo King's Bamboo Sword." Chen Yan considered the matter. "So, did it just accept me, or... give up?"
He didn't rush to investigate further. Instead, he closed his eyes and quietly followed that faint connection, sensing what lay beyond it.
Deep in his sea of consciousness, the indistinct phantom of the Giant Dharma Image