Chapter 355 - 352: Dam

Chapter 355: Chapter 352: Dam

DRIP.

A stone fell onto the Block.

It was the last drop of rain.

The rain stopped without any warning.

One moment, it was a torrential downpour; the next, the sky was cloudless.

The white that had submerged everything vanished without a trace.

The black earth was revealed once more, and all the white raindrops were gone, as if they had never existed.

The console and Li Luo stood quietly on the ground, completely unharmed.

"We succeeded," the console said, gratified. "We were a proper dam."

It nodded at Li Luo, then looked up at the Block and waved.

"A proper dam?" Li Luo still hadn’t recovered from the suffocating feeling of being drowned.

The console nodded. "Yes. The dam was us. If we had moved an inch, or tried to attack the raindrops, the downpour would have turned from illusion to reality, and we would have been buried alive."

"So long as you stand as a sturdy ’dam’ and endure the rain, everything disappears. The storm and the floodwaters vanish, and clear skies return."

"In a storm like this, only the dam is eternal and unchanging. The waters will always recede, and the rain will always, eventually, stop."

The console looked toward the Architect in the sky. "This kind of attack, the dam, is a test of one’s resolve."

Li Luo breathed a sigh of relief. "I really thought I was going to drown."

"But you didn’t move. You trusted me," the console said, looking at Li Luo with satisfaction.

"Trust between people is also a kind of dam."

After the crisis, the tense atmosphere eased considerably.

The console nodded to Li Luo, then looked up at the Block in the sky.

"You have the Architect’s memory, don’t you? You need to return it to him. It’s the only way to solve our current crisis."

"He’s just a poor soul trapped on Paradise Island..."

Hearing the console’s words, Mo Ling no longer hesitated and began to search through the pile of black objects.

’The black ribbon.’

’If I remember correctly, the thing I took from the Architect’s Black Shadow on Hell Island was that black ribbon.’

’The ribbon was tied in the Architect’s flowing long hair, making it very conspicuous.’

’This white Architect, by contrast, was completely bald, covered only in layers of stone armor.’

’I wonder what the connection is.’

Soon, Mo Ling found the ribbon.

He entered the memory without hesitation.

Mo Ling already had a plan:

’All I have to do is enter the Architect’s memory and use my teleportation ability to interfere with its contents. That should restore the ribbon to its original state. Once I return it to the Architect, he should be able to get his memory back.’

Black fragments swirled around him, and Mo Ling’s vision went completely dark.

...

’So cold.’

’My vision... it’s strange.’

’This isn’t human perception. It’s more like... a sense of touch?’

Mo Ling felt his cognitive abilities suppressed to a rudimentary level, leaving only a primal survival instinct.

The owner of this perspective seemed to be underground, climbing up through a fissure in the soil. Its surroundings grew warmer and warmer.

Finally, warm sunlight touched its body. It stretched lazily, basking in the long-missed warmth.

But the comfort didn’t last. A moment later, a giant hand snatched it up and held it tightly.

It had no idea where the giant hand was taking it, only that it traveled for a very long time.

The temperature around it fluctuated—at times, fierce winds howled; at others, the cold was bone-chilling. Finally, the giant hand brought it to a place of incredible warmth, even warmer than the spot where it had first broken through the ground.

The giant hand released it and placed a hard object beside it.

Suddenly without support, it felt lost and could only cling tightly to the object.

However, the moment it attached itself to the object, everything changed.

It could see light. The world around it came into focus.

Before it were countless enormous, bizarre creatures. They looked incredibly strange, like a host of amorphous stone statues, and they were all gazing at it with anticipation.

"Where is this?"

As it had the thought, a nascent voice came from its mouth.

’It could speak.’

The creatures looked at it, all with benevolent smiles on their faces.

"This is Silk Island. It’s your home, child," the being before it replied. It was the owner of the giant hand.

"My home? Silk Island?" It was bewildered and confused.

"Yes. We are the Silk Race."

The giant creature before it poked its body. It quickly looked at the spot that was touched and discovered that it was a black strand of mycelium, currently wound around a crude stone effigy.

The effigy was made of common cobblestone, chiseled into a small, armless figure. It was very crude. The fragile black mycelium clung to the little figure’s foot.

"You should climb up to its head. It’s safer there, and it will be easier for you to control," the creature before it gently advised.

It gave it a try, slowly crawling up to the head of the stone effigy and becoming its hair.

’The view really is better from up here.’

It looked at the other strange creatures and saw that they were all like it, with black mycelial strands hanging from their heads. Their strands were much longer, though; some were so long they covered the entire head of their stone effigy, making them look disheveled.

In contrast, it was like a single hair on its effigy’s head, almost unnoticeable without careful inspection.

"This body is just for you to practice control. Once you’re familiar with it, you can build your own. We all started this way."

The creature before it patted the effigy’s shoulder with its giant hand and said softly.

"It’s been a long time since the clan has seen a newborn, so everyone is very curious about you. Take your time getting accustomed to things..."

"For now, you can give yourself a name."

"A name?"

"Yes, what you’re called. It helps us communicate and tell each other apart. For instance, my name is Si Ling."

Si Ling’s long strands of hair draped over the little effigy, stroking it gently. It froze for a moment, then began to ponder a name for itself.

"My name is Si Yang."

"That’s a lovely name," Si Ling praised. "Why did you choose it?"

"Because I like sunlight. It’s so warm. I like the feeling."

Hearing this explanation, Si Ling paused. "You really are special. The Silk Race likes warm and humid environments, but none of us like sunlight. It’s too harsh; it would dry us out completely."

"But I just like it..." Si Yang replied calmly.

It looked around and saw that it was in a cave. All the other members of its race were hiding in the shadows, far from the entrance.

’They really don’t seem to like the sun.’

Just then, Si Ling gently touched the effigy’s shoulder, and her gentle voice spoke again.

"Don’t worry about what others think. Always be yourself."