Seeing her Jingshen being repelled three times, Ruan Shu grew anxious and started shouting out loud.
“Hurry up and come out!”
Perhaps sensing her urgency, her Jingshen’s little tentacle finally crawled slowly over to Ruan Qingran’s side.
Ruan Qingran also felt it—a very… gentle Jingshen. It was completely non-threatening, much like a certain cat.
After some thought, Ruan Qingran closed his eyes and opened up his mental sea.
This was a risky move because the mental sea is connected to the brain. If attacked, it could leave a wound difficult to heal; in severe cases, it might even be fatal.
For this reason, people don’t open their mental seas to allow another’s Jingshen in, except for those closest to them whom they completely trust.
But he wanted to try because he trusted his soft-natured younger cousin, and he was also eager to understand what was going on here.
Ruan Shu closed her eyes, too, and focused on her own Jingshen.
She saw her little Jingshen tentacle, a creamy color, cautiously entering another world.
Her consciousness followed along, able to see wherever her little tentacle ventured.
Is this what brother referred to as the mental sea?
As Ruan Shu pondered, she saw her tentacle poking its head in, hesitant to go any further.
Ruan Shu: “….” This behavior felt oddly familiar.
Ruan Shu thought to herself, Go on, just get in there already!
She realized she couldn’t directly control the little tentacle and could only urge it on mentally.
The tentacle, feeling pitiful, thought, This is its first time venturing so far from home; can’t it be a little nervous and survey the area first?
Besides, its young master is also like this—yet she has the nerve to scold it.
Still, under her persistent urging, the little timid tentacle finally moved forward, inch by inch.
But the scene it encountered made it wrinkle with disgust.
There were dirty things everywhere!
The “dirty things” it was disgusted by were actually the x-type pollutants attached to Ruan Qingran’s mental sea.
At that moment, Ruan Shu’s little tentacle suddenly seemed to get a burst of energy. It shook itself, cleared a small patch in front of it, and soon, small white lights began to glow along its length, bravely marching forward to chase after the pollutants.
It was afraid in unfamiliar territory, but even this little scaredy-cat couldn’t tolerate filth—dirty things had to go.
Ruan Shu could almost hear its thoughts and couldn’t help but agree.
Then she stood to the side, cheering her little Jingshen tentacle on, Dirty things shouldn’t exist!
The little tentacle perked up even more, puffing along with a trail of tiny white lights as it set to work—this was its specialty, after all.
But… it was just too dirty, way too dirty. How could this world be so filthy?
As it cleaned, it encountered a vast, sprawling web of blue mental threads.
These were Ruan Qingran’s mental threads, countless and overwhelming, radiating a menacing, dangerous aura. Yet, many of these threads were marred with black spots, like an illness eating away at them. Some of the threads looked so severely afflicted that they were barely hanging on.
Ruan Shu’s little mental tentacle, upon seeing this mass of threads, was instantly filled with fear and wanted to run for it.
Ruan Shu urged it on, Go back! Clear away the dirty things and help them heal!
At that moment, she had a faint realization that her little tentacle’s Jingshen could actually help heal her brother’s damaged mental threads.
The little tentacle was so frightened that it curled up on itself.
Those threads looked so scary, like they might lash out at any moment!
Ruan Shu nudged, What are you afraid of? Look, they’re all scared of those dirty things, but you’re not. What does that tell you?
The little tentacle tilted its head. What does it mean?
Ruan Shu, full of confidence, declared, It means you’re stronger than they are!
The little tentacle was baffled. Then, suddenly, it understood.
Right! Why hadn’t it thought of that?
Looking around at the mighty threads entangled with those sickly black spots, it saw that many of them were actively avoiding the dirty patches. It was clear these powerful threads feared the filth.
But not it—it wasn’t afraid of the dirty things. The dirty things were afraid of it!
So the little tentacle reached the following conclusion:
Big threads are scared of dirty things, dirty things are scared of it, so… big threads must be scared of it too!
With newfound confidence, the little tentacle floated forward with its white lights, proud and bold. It was powerful—it wasn’t afraid!
Less than a minute later…
Surrounded by the blue mental threads, the little tentacle was shivering uncontrollably.
Whimpering internally, it realized it had made a terrible mistake. It was still so, so scared.
Ruan Shu: “….”
Sure enough, her little tentacle was just as much a scaredy-cat as she was.
These are all your brother’s mental threads; what are you even scared of? Plus, once you’ve healed them and cleaned off the filth, they’ll be good to you!
With Ruan Shu’s encouragement, the little tentacle finally gathered its courage, approaching the polluted mental threads cautiously, bringing along its white lights.
As soon as the white lights touched the blue mental threads, they swarmed in, eagerly devouring the x-type pollutants while also mending the damaged areas of the threads.
The mental thread being healed gave a subtle “tremble,” then stretched out comfortably, clearly enjoying the relief.
It even looked at the little tentacle with a “fond” gaze.
After about ten minutes of huffing and puffing, the little tentacle was exhausted and didn’t want to continue working.
Ruan Shu also felt a bit drowsy, yawning as she muttered, “That’s enough.”
Ruan Qingran opened his eyes, and Ruan Shu’s little mental tentacle quickly returned to her own mental sea.
Ruan Shu’s mental sea was very clean, and the exhausted little tentacle immediately hid itself away to rest and sleep—it didn’t want anyone disturbing its nap.
At this moment, Ruan Qingran felt an unprecedented sense of lightness. Ever since his Jingshen pollution levels had surpassed 60, he hadn’t felt this relaxed.
It was like layers of grime that had caked over him were finally scrubbed clean in a small patch today.
Even though only a tiny area had been cleared, it was enough to make him feel thrilled and ecstatic.
And all of this was because of his little cousin.
His little cousin’s Jingshen wasn’t some useless F-rank force. On the contrary, if the world knew her Jingshen could devour x-pollutants and heal damaged mental threads, they would be driven to madness.
She was never a waste; she was a treasure.
So precious, in fact, that they had no choice but to hide her away, lest the entire universe—all species, all people—would fight to claim her.
Naturally, hiding her was also for Ruan Shu’s safety.
After all, no species in the universe had yet solved the challenge of healing Jingshen damage and clearing Jingshen pollutants.
Ruan Shu’s emergence was like a beam of light, but she was only one person, and the surrounding darkness was vast and dangerous. No matter how hard she worked, she couldn’t single-handedly illuminate everything.
Even as strong as their family was, they couldn’t protect her against an entire world of enemies surrounding them, clamoring to possess her.