Mind-Root Reserve

The room was dimly lit.

A thick carpet covered the floor, its original color impossible to make out in the gloom.

A lone oil lamp sat on the table, illuminating the middle-aged monk seated cross-legged on a cushion beside it.

He wore a dark red robe, with a thin layer of hair on his head. His long, narrow face was expressionless as he rolled a string of chicken-fat-yellow prayer beads through his fingers and stared at Su Wu.

He waited for Su Wu to speak first.

The long-faced monk's stare unnerved Su Wu. He forced a smile and handed over the letter tucked inside his clothes.

"My father told me to bring this letter and seek refuge with you!"

Su Wu knew nothing about Zhuo Jie's background.

He could only skip over that and get straight to the point. "Narrow-Sleeved Guanyin is hunting us!"

Since Zhuo Jie's father had sent him to seek refuge with the monk at this temple and even prepared a letter, he must have been in contact with the monks here for some time.

Even Zhuo Jie's father knew about Narrow-Sleeved Guanyin. There was no reason the monks here would not.

Mentioning the fiend's name might catch the monk's attention.

Sitting cross-legged on his cushion, the long-faced monk opened the letter Su Wu had handed him and read it.

Su Wu stood beside him, stealing glances at the letter out of the corner of his eye. Unfortunately, it was filled with twisting, wormlike script. He could not read a single word.

A moment later, the long-faced monk put down the letter and looked up to study Su Wu, who stood before him with his head slightly lowered. A faint smile appeared at the corners of his mouth. "I know of Narrow-Sleeved Guanyin. Anyone who encounters it gradually loses their vigilance without realizing it.

"In the end, it crawls into their belly and eats their internal organs, killing them.

"Yet you managed to escape its pursuit. Did you have some extraordinary encounter along the way?"

An extraordinary encounter?

Su Wu recalled the enormous dog that had rushed out of the darkness, along with the whimpering sounds that had called it forth.

His instincts told him he could not tell any outsider about this, so he feigned ignorance. "I don't know either. I ran, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, for a whole night and a whole day, and ended up here."

"No. It isn't that simple." The long-faced monk stared sharply at Su Wu, trying to find some clue in his expression.

However, Su Wu's Composure talent had already reached blue grade. It was far beyond ordinary.

Even if Mount Tai collapsed before him, he could keep his expression unchanged.

How could he possibly give himself away under this monk's gaze?

The long-faced monk stared at him for a long while without finding the slightest clue on his face.

Even so, the monk did not doubt his own judgment. "You must have encountered something along the way. Your Fate Pattern shows that you had one chance to turn calamity into good fortune.

"Otherwise, how could someone who has never undergone binding practice escape certain death?"

Fate Pattern?

Binding practice?

How did this monk know Zhuo Jie's Fate Pattern? Could it have been written in the letter?

And what was binding practice?

Questions rose one after another in Su Wu's mind, but he could not voice any of them. He could only stand there looking bewildered, like a wooden post.

A faint anticipation stirred within him. He felt that through Zhuo Jie's past life, he might uncover a small corner of the real world's hidden depths.

"Master, I really don't know anything," Su Wu said, his face full of innocence.

Looking at his expression, even the long-faced monk, who had absolute confidence in his expertise, wavered for a moment.

But that doubt vanished in an instant, and the long-faced monk became certain once more. "Perhaps this extraordinary encounter happened without your being aware of it.

"Such cases are rare, but not unheard of."

"Oh." Su Wu nodded. "You look like a very capable master. Could you get rid of Narrow-Sleeved Guanyin?"

In truth, Su Wu had no intention of turning back to fight Narrow-Sleeved Guanyin again.

He had said this only to probe the long-faced monk's capabilities.

Ever since encountering his first Shadow Fiend, he had never personally witnessed a fiend being killed.

The fiends' power lay beyond ordinary human comprehension. Never mind killing them-even severely injuring them was outrageously difficult.

Meeting Su Wu's expectant gaze, the long-faced monk nodded without hesitation. "Killing Narrow-Sleeved Guanyin isn't particularly difficult."

The monk's gaze roamed over Su Wu.

A sudden chill rose inside Su Wu as he heard the monk say with a sinister smile, "But before killing this fiend, I need to make some preparations.

"I still lack a Binding Fate Artifact. Your Fate Pattern is perfectly suited to making one.

"Would you be willing to sacrifice yourself to kill Narrow-Sleeved Guanyin?"

What a stupid question!

Of course not!

Realizing something was wrong, Su Wu turned to flee!

But the instant he turned, he saw the Black Sutra Curtains hanging on the surrounding walls flutter and transform into long, fine strands of hair.

The carpet beneath his feet, whose color he had been unable to make out, also turned into clumps of hair that coiled around his ankles!

The hair all around him wrapped around his entire body!

Each strand was as tough as steel wire. They pierced Su Wu's skin, leaving his whole body ice-cold in an instant as they drained him of blood and killed him on the spot!

"You died."

"This simulation has ended."

"Rating: D+.

"Comment: This world remains shrouded in mist to you.

"Rewards: Base reward for a D+ rating: +5 origin jade;

"Escaping Narrow-Sleeved Guanyin's pursuit once: +10 origin jade.

"Wallet balance: 683 + 15 = 698 origin jade."

Seeing that escaping Narrow-Sleeved Guanyin's pursuit once earned him ten origin jade, Su Wu realized that this fiend's danger level lay somewhere between the Shadow Fiend and the Eye Fiend.

Before he could lament the five hundred origin jade he had lost, something among the options he could bring out seized his attention.

Items appeared one after another around the dial. The most eye-catching was option 0.

Option 0: Mind-Root Reserve.

Mind-Root Reserve: People with certain Fate Patterns possess a mind-root reserve from birth. Vast power accumulates beneath the undercurrents of their consciousness.

When they encounter danger, this power may be activated, taking the form of anything that aligns with its owner's subconscious to help them withstand the crisis.

After a single activation, the mind-root reserve will be completely exhausted.

The Meditation Method can be used to guide one's subconscious, shaping the manifested entity into a form that aligns with one's meditation. By using it as a seed to continually draw in the undercurrents of consciousness, the mind-root reserve can be used repeatedly rather than exhausted after a single activation.

Redeeming the mind-root reserve costs 1,000 origin jade.

After reading the description of the mind-root reserve, Su Wu sank into thought.

First, he could be certain that his own so-called Fate Pattern probably did not contain a mind-root reserve.

It belonged to Zhuo Jie's Fate Pattern. The simulator had merely given Su Wu the possibility of "inheriting" it.

What exactly was a mind-root reserve?

It was a collection of the undercurrents of consciousness.

The more power accumulated in those undercurrents, the stronger the mind-root reserve became.

At that critical moment, Zhuo Jie's mind-root reserve had transformed into the enormous dog and driven Narrow-Sleeved Guanyin back!

Moreover, Su Wu had heard other dogs whimpering in the darkness at the time. That meant Zhuo Jie's mind-root reserve had even greater potential!

Unfortunately, without the Meditation Method, he had squandered all that power in a single use.

What Su Wu could inherit now was Zhuo Jie's complete mind-root reserve.

This power could repel Narrow-Sleeved Guanyin, who was no weaker than the Shadow Fiend, once. With training in the Meditation Method, it could be used repeatedly!

If Su Wu mastered the Meditation Method, he might be able to unleash the full power of the mind-root reserve and wipe out those Worker Fiends in one fell swoop!

A thousand origin jade was an incredible bargain!