Chapter 508: Knowledge Seed, Memory Interconnection
Upon hearing the phrase “Great Knowledge Seed,” Sister Bai shivered and instantly cast a soundproof spell.
“Xiao Han, it’s best not to discuss matters concerning the Great Spellbook in such public places from now on,” Sister Bai said with a slight hint of admonition.
“Oh.” I nodded obediently, realizing my mistake.
“At the very least, when discussing it, use a soundproof spell for protective measures. Now, let’s get back to the topic—what do you want my cooperation for in this experiment?” Sister Bai asked with a slightly expectant tone, after all, she had just heard the mention of the so-called “Great Knowledge Seed” and had previously heard Xiao Han talk about conducting experiments with it. Had that been a success?
“Um, the Knowledge Seed is about ready to be considered a success! I originally thought about creating the concept of a Knowledge Seed to replace the Knowledge Leaf to make it more disseminable,” I said, revealing a successfully formed Great Knowledge Seed to Sister Bai.
“I’m almost successful now, and the concept of the Knowledge Seed has completely become one of the derivative spells of the Great Knowledge Tree.”
“You’re really amazing, Xiao Han! So how do you plan to use it? Have you thought about that?” Sister Bai praised me first and then formally asked.
“For instance, I wonder what its effects are, what I need to cooperate on, and what the risks may be?”
But inwardly, she was also quite shocked; the difficulty of deriving a typical spell is very high. Generally, unless one has truly mastered the spellbook at the extraordinary level, deriving from a spellbook relies purely on one’s own skills and abilities.
Upon reaching extraordinary status and thoroughly mastering the spellbook, evolving the spellbook from a mere tool into an ability one fully controls is a stage that skips the purely theoretical phase and complex structure, relying solely on one’s understanding of the spell for derivation.
“Well, the Great Knowledge Seed spell, as the name suggests, is to cast a seed into the target, this seed is called the Knowledge Seed, but theoretically, it will grow into a Knowledge Tree. As for the difference between this Knowledge Tree and my Great Knowledge Tree… I’m not entirely sure,” I scratched my head and continued.
“As for its function, I’m not too clear either, but I think it should be similar to my previous Knowledge Tree. Therefore, I need Sister Bai’s cooperation to study the spell effects of the Great Knowledge Seed. The main risk lies in… um, I’m not sure about its effects. Will it forcibly read Sister Bai’s memories? As for life-threatening dangers, the probability is low… I just don’t know if the growth of the Knowledge Seed will absorb anything strange. If it were to absorb your memories, Sister Bai, that would be troublesome…”
“So the risk is quite high, right?” Sister Bai asked with a smile.
“Um… yes…” I felt increasingly guilty as I spoke; after all, I was asking Sister Bai to accompany me in such a risky venture…
“Well… how about you think of another way for me, Sister Bai?” I tentatively asked again.
“Then, Xiao Han, do you have a means to interrupt the experiment in case of risk?”
“Interrupt? Oh! Of course! After all, the Great Knowledge Seed is a release-type spell, and the Knowledge Seed is just the spell effect. As long as it’s a spell effect, there’s a method to interrupt it.”
I was no longer the naive novice who had just come into contact with spellbooks. In the past, when I released spells like the Fireball Spell, the Fireball that was released would inevitably be detonated.
However, now, as long as I control the Fireball Spell, even at the moment before it hits the target, I can extinguish the Fireball.
This is the ultimate control I’ve achieved through the continuous derivation and iteration of general alteration spells based on the Great Knowledge Tree.
Ideally, the mental power required for such control used to be considerable, but this is also within my optimized range. I define this method as a conventional method, so it needs to match the corresponding consumption. Therefore, I have been continuously reducing the mental power consumption required for the control of the spell itself.
And now, even when facing the Great Spellbook, I have confidence in interrupting the spell effects; this is one of the reasons I came to ask Sister Bai to experiment.
If I interrupt the Great Spellbook, at most I would only suffer some mental backlash. Right now, what I lack is time; if I were to suffer mental backlash, I could just take it easy and recover.
“Well, in that case, it seems I have no reason to refuse. And even if my memories are absorbed, Xiao Han, you wouldn’t fall in love with someone else, right?” Sister Bai jokingly asked me.
“Oh no~ I definitely wouldn’t!” I said matter-of-factly; if Sister Bai lost her memories, I would just win her back!
Moreover, I said it might absorb memories just based on the characteristic that information would be consumed during the process of condensing the Great Knowledge Seed. This information naturally includes nutrients transformed from memories.
In addition, I used useless memories and information as nutrients for cultivation. Once the Knowledge Seed completed its “condensation,” it would entirely complete its transformation from non-existence to existence. Thus, its growth wouldn’t necessarily require consuming memories. If it truly would, I would immediately destroy the Knowledge Seed to prevent Sister Bai from further harm; I would be heartbroken otherwise…
“Since you said so, then I can rest assured.” Sister Bai smiled faintly, no longer having other worries.
Of course, she has confidence in her extraordinary life level; as a body cultivator, the memories formed from the information fed back by the five senses wouldn’t be so easily lost. Even if lost and interrupted, she could still rely on her perception to trace back memory nodes. As long as it’s not a permanent destruction of life level and body, restoring memories would be easier for body cultivators.
It’s just that it would be a bit troublesome for her, but right now she wasn’t afraid of trouble at all.
“Xiao Han, let’s get started. I feel honored to be your first subject,” Sister Bai said, reaching out to pinch my face and encouraging me. “Come on! Since we’ve decided to do this, let’s not think about failure.”
“Okay!”
I nodded heavily, feeling Sister Bai’s encouragement. I no longer hesitated and brought the condensed seed closer to Sister Bai, which appeared unreal, akin to the former Knowledge Leaf, with the overall shape resembling a seed, the edges blurring the boundaries of existence, resembling something ethereal, and indeed it did not have a tangible form.
“Is this the Great Knowledge Seed you derived, Xiao Han?” Sister Bai looked at the seed, a hint of curiosity flashing in her eyes. She had already been surprised before, but upon closer inspection, the flowing runes and rituals definitely gave off a sense of sophistication.
“Yes!” I nodded, but I kept pondering various key pieces of information internally.
Even though Sister Bai advised me not to think about failure, at this moment, I was confronting Sister Bai after all. Unexpected events always occurred unexpectedly, how could I feel at ease without any preparation?
“Alright, I’m starting!” I said while pushing the seed into the center of Sister Bai’s brow.
After all, this is the spell effect, and once the spell effect made contact with the casting target, I also sensed the feedback from the spell.
At this moment, Sister Bai closed her eyes, her spirit sinking into consciousness, following the seed as it entered her Sea of Consciousness.
However, once the seed fell into it, I sensed that the seed, upon encountering a suitable environment, had a strong desire to “take root and sprout.”
After waiting for a while, I noticed that the seed within Sister Bai’s consciousness showed no signs of sprouting at all.
Just then, Sister Bai suddenly opened her eyes.
“Interesting, Xiao Han. The seed had no resistance when implanted in my Sea of Consciousness, but if the mental power is strong enough, it can actively expel this seed.”
“Eh?” Hearing Sister Bai suddenly speak, I quickly listened in attentively. “So it can’t forcibly release on its own, right?”
“Yes, so far, that seems to be the case. However, I suspect those with lower mental power than you should not be able to actively dispel it,” Sister Bai deduced. “Moreover, upon entering my Sea of Consciousness, the seed has been displaying a desire to connect with my mental power. Hmm… let me try…”
“Eh? Wait, don’t be so rash!” When I heard Sister Bai casually mentioning a trial, I hurriedly spoke up, ready to destroy the Knowledge Seed at any moment.
“It’s fine… this kind of perception is very weak. With my mental power, I can even forcibly interrupt this connection… Oh, so that’s how it is…”
“Ah? What is it?” I asked in confusion, as I noticed I was gradually losing my absolute control over the Knowledge Seed.
It felt akin to scratching an itch through a barrier; I could sense it, but it could merely linger with Sister Bai, left for her to toy with. If I attempted to intervene forcefully, something unpleasant might occur, and the worst outcome would be the damage of the Knowledge Seed…
“I seem to be able to have some degree of control over it,” Sister Bai suddenly stated.
“Control?” I was slightly surprised, but this didn’t exceed my expectations, and I recorded all these feedback information, as they were valuable experimental data!
“Yes, it’s continuously sending out signals of wanting to grow and craving nutrients; otherwise, it wouldn’t be able to do much else.”
“Then, can you sense what kind of so-called nutrients it needs?” I tentatively asked.
“Not sure, what do you think, Xiao Han?”
“How about trying magic?” I suggested tentatively.
“Then I’ll give it a try.” Sister Bai nodded and began to experiment.
As things stood, nothing appeared to be beyond control. The greatest challenge we faced was that everything in front of us was unknown, and the subsequent developments required us to gradually explore and summarize patterns and information.
At this moment, Sister Bai was also attempting to use magic to stimulate the Knowledge Seed’s growth. As she began to nurture the seed with magic, especially after it connected with her mental power, she revealed a look of comprehension.
“It seems to be… as magic flowed in, it began to grow. The seed is changing… this… is a root system? And then a sprout… it’s actually sprouting for real…”
Sister Bai observed and verbally reported the current state to provide me with firsthand data.
She felt it was quite magical—a plant that could grow in the Sea of Consciousness, or rather, the Sea of Mind, was indeed interesting.
However, the moment the Knowledge Seed sprouted its tender leaves, I sensed a connection!
I could follow this connection to perceive the state of the Knowledge Seed at that moment. Just as Sister Bai said, it had rooted, sprouted; I was observing its state with great clarity, yet I could not intervene too much. I even discovered I had lost control over the ability to destroy this seed.
A sense of helplessness overwhelmed me—it had grown up, completely detached from its origin, free to soar high and far. Yet I could only watch over it, and its existence now depended entirely on the entity it grew from, which was Sister Bai.
If Sister Bai had a single thought, it seemed it could perish. It had broken through its shell, with no capacity for regret; it could only continue to grow. If it stagnated without sufficient support to cope with risks, any setbacks could lead it to inevitable self-destruction.
When the Knowledge Seed unfurled its tender leaves, I felt it was signaling for nutrients; this time, the nutrients were no longer some so-called magic or other extraordinary energy, but rather it simply required more.
“Is this considered growth to the first stage? I sense a stagnation, a feeling of lacking something… and… is it absorbing my memories?”
“Yes, it’s possible that it’s not merely absorbing memories, but rather the information or data carried by those memories,” I spoke at the right moment. After all, at this point, nobody understood more about the current stage of the Knowledge Seed than I did—no, it should now indeed be called the sapling state of the Knowledge Tree.
“Sister Bai, how about trying to feed it with some useless memories?” I recalled how I had turned memories and information into reserves for the Knowledge Tree at the time of its formation; therefore, this Knowledge Tree should follow suit. However, just to be safe, I still suggested Sister Bai try using less important memories.
“Okay.”
Without further ado, Sister Bai began to experiment directly. The Knowledge Tree was something she had learned about from Xiao Han—the predecessor called Memory Shelf; this was a spell assisting memories. Thus, using memories to nourish it should correspond to “storage” of memories.
After Sister Bai’s attempt, she suddenly realized that this seemed to be not storage but rather a backup!
The black history memory she had chosen to discard did not disappear, but the memory nurtured to the Knowledge Tree had already become its nutrient. Since this Knowledge Tree had established a connection with her, she could also communicate information from within the Knowledge Tree!
At this moment, she found herself recalling the memory used in the experiment… It felt strange, like something she didn’t want to pay attention to yet couldn’t forget.
That was a small segment of black history from her past that she wanted to forget. Despite being close to forgetting it, now that the Knowledge Tree had “backed” it up, her mind was flooded with these memories!
It felt as though even if she forgot this matter, the Knowledge Tree would prompt her to recall it at the first opportunity…
“Eh? Wait, Sister Bai, did you use some strange memories for the experiment? Um… Sorry, I… uh… it seems I can see that… uh, I’m not looking anymore… really not looking!” At that moment, I wanted to remind Sister Bai but found myself actively observing, and the more I watched, the more something felt off…
This! This was actually Sister Bai’s… cough… it’s done for…
“Xiao Han~ did you just see that?” At this moment, Sister Bai suddenly opened her eyes, a flush of red flashed across her face, and then the somewhat sickly-looking Sister Bai suddenly pinned me down.
“No… I didn’t see you… um… I’m sorry!”
“It seems you really did see, huh? It looks like Xiao Han needs to be punished properly…” Though Sister Bai said this, a hint of mischief at the corner of her mouth gave her away; this kind of retribution carried a bit of personal sentiment…
