[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies":3,"chapter-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-383":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Notes on Kraft Anomalous Studies",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2283861,4467,"Chapter 383: Snake Saliva","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-383",383,"\u003Cp>The sphenoid bone, located at the center of the skull base, derives its name from its winged butterfly-like shape; in some older texts, it is also called the wedge bone, and today both terms are used interchangeably, though the former is more common.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet certain anatomical researchers still insist on using the latter, arguing that the term “wedge” better reflects this bone’s unique significance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It connects anteriorly to the frontal and ethmoid bones, posteriorly to the occipital bone, and laterally to the temporal and parietal bones, participating in the fixation of nearly all major cranial elements, like a carpenter’s wedge locking multiple parts firmly in place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, from both functional and positional perspectives, the latter term aids in understanding its central role—while the pituitary resides precisely at the center of this wedge, within a saddle-shaped depression.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft sat behind an ancient desk, his back to the window, buried up to his torso under stacked books.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He could no longer recall when the pile had grown so high; logically, most had been delivered by his own hands, yet recent busyness had left him with little memory of it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The heavy pages slipped through his fingers like sand, leaving nothing behind but weight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The pituitary is the core of Dominic’s affliction—this may help you grasp how perilous his condition is. Fortunately, we’ve successfully removed the lesion; what remains is merely something ethereal.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though the lengthy medical description had been simplified, Field hadn’t truly absorbed it—he’d only caught keywords like “center” and “perilous.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He nodded vaguely, preparing to take his leave, when he was called back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wait—what’s that in your hand?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh, sorry, I nearly forgot this.” Field picked up the straw-wrapped object, embarrassed; somehow, it fit his grip perfectly, almost leading him to carry it back to his quarters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Kup found this downstairs. The original owner was a stonemason who once worked for the monastery; he carved the donated prayer text onto a decorative plaque—it’s rather peculiar.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Have you read it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he were idle, he might have glanced at it out of curiosity—but as chief resident, he had no energy to care about anything outside his duties.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Amid the crooked books, he found a suitable gap, shoved the object inside, and hurried out, closing the door behind him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Peace returned to the study.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A hand emerged from behind the books, took the plaque, unwrapped the layers of straw, and revealed the freshly carved inscriptions on the stone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yes—this was precisely what was needed. The moment one read it, a qualified person would instinctively recognize this fact, like brushing a smooth glass surface and suddenly feeling a seam—knowing the entrance lay nearby.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Found it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kraft couldn’t say what he felt. Surprise? Relief? Hesitation?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It seemed to be none of these.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Recalling the intrusion, he saw a blinding beam of gaze piercing through the fissure, while he himself felt trapped in a dim, cramped space, thick fluid enveloping his senses and stifling his limbs, always just out of reach.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not the backlash from severing spiritual perception, but closer to a natural state—compelling him to move not with limbs, but through understanding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The more he saw, the closer he drew; the closer he drew, the more he saw—until he reached a membrane, unable to advance further.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet at that moment, the gaze beyond the membrane shifted away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was maddening—he had sensed the presence on the other side, but whether it was void or substance, he could only know after breaking through.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without external guidance, he faced a dead end.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fortunately, Kup had brought him the breakthrough.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For safety, Kraft extended his spiritual perception and read the text at maximum speed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The language was dense, seemingly a variant of religious tales, using “knight” and “dragon” as metaphors to convey understanding of a certain concept.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Brief, yet intensely evocative. Extra vivid phrases seemed to overflow from between the lines, filling in omitted descriptions, placing the reader directly within the scene—feeling a colossal, boundless entity drifting across the horizon, like wind-driven clouds, heavy yet weightless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His eyes grew sore; the stone carvings lost their sharpness. He shifted his posture, tilting sideways to let the light through.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beyond the ethereal, the allegory revealed a wholly new image—immense beyond imagination. If coiled in circles, it could blot out the sun, darkening heaven and earth; the friction of its scales would sound like the collapse of mountain strata.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unconsciously, his mind painted the scene: endless, rolling thunder rolled across the empty expanse, falling from clouds, sweeping over peaks and valleys, approaching low and slow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as the imagined sound reached his window, a deafening crash erupted beside his ear, a thunderous vibration rolling through his chest—proof this was no hallucination, but real.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He froze for a moment, turning toward the window.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A leaden sky had descended without warning; thick clouds curled and gathered, nearly brushing the opposite mountain peak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Autumn downpours in the highlands arrived without notice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Deep within the clouds, lightning traced the contours of churning vapor—not uniform, some regions sluggish as if frozen, others surging ceaselessly, forming vortices of immeasurable scale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had witnessed many such violent rains before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But this was different: within the surging contours, his eyes caught a rhythm not belonging to wind—like the spine of something immensely prolonged rising in shadow, then slowly sinking, each motion stirring vast clouds into waves that rolled like inverted mountains.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His gaze locked. His tongue froze. His consciousness hardened inch by inch, unable to discern illusion from reality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His hand resting on the windowpane stiffened; his limbs were momentarily deprived of command, nailed in place. If this were illusion, it could not truly harm him; if real, locking the window or fleeing was meaningless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He stared at what lay before him, letting the vision remain fixed in his sight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Contrary to his rigid body and frozen mind, his emotions surged violently—like a water surface hammered by rain, fish leaping from all directions, chaotic, indistinguishable: fear, excitement, rage, grief—or all at once.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They collided, then shattered instantly; when their intensity reached a threshold, they breached the boundary between illusion and reality, stirring a tiny ripple within his spirit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>An infinitesimal rhythm spread outward through his spirit, originating in the temporal and frontal lobes, winding through the grooves of his conscious surface, piercing the coiled folds of the hippocampus, sliding over the fiber bridges of the corpus callosum—without stirring a single fiber.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Until the ripple sank downward, seeping toward the central region of the skull base—only then did his consciousness realize its target:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Pituitary】\u003C\u002Fp>",1086,"2026-06-20T02:15:56.940Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","55bef866d7ff9414810fa18ddf3306ded7b7a45db1011c2093119a9ff6cadf88","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-384","notes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-chapter-382",406,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fnotes-on-kraft-anomalous-studies-cover.jpg"]