Chapter 256: 262. Chapter 262: Gu!

Afraid of getting stabbed.

This was Link's first thought.

If Jasmine knew about this, she'd probably stab him.

Hmm... not "probably," but definitely.

He touched the flesh on his shoulder where the bite mark had disappeared; whether it was psychological or not, it faintly ached.

Don't act rashly.

This was Link's second thought.

The portal exploded, and though neither of them died on the spot, they were instead thrown into a spacetime turbulence.

Struck by the spacetime tide, they were blasted into the spacetime turbulence and arrived near the special ruins world.

Subsequent phenomena occurred simultaneously in the special ruins world and upon Iris.

All of this clearly indicates that the entity or rule arranging these events possesses a status far beyond Link's imagination.

Link cannot guarantee that dream-witchcraft will truly help Iris.

What if, instead of helping, he only hinders her, drags her down, and ends up getting himself implicated as well?

There would be mortal danger.

This was Link's third thought.

His intuition and premonition were triggered.

The situation before him is obvious: Iris is undergoing some kind of trial.

Since he has already withdrawn from the trial—and passively so—he has shifted from a supporting role or even a bystander to that of an observer.

If he rashly re-enters, he may very well trigger a backlash from the trial mechanism.

Thus causing some negative effect, altering Iris's trial in some way—nothing good would come of it.

Moreover, Link intuitively feels that if he truly follows his original plan...

... by forcefully grafting Iris's dream using dream-witchcraft, something unspeakable might occur.

This would be true for Iris, and equally true for Link.

After careful consideration, Link suppressed the thought of stealing the dream Iris is currently experiencing.

However, Link has not entirely abandoned his intention to help Iris.

In Link's perception, the trial mechanism and this strange space are alike in that both evoke a strong sense of contradiction.

On one hand, it wants Iris to face the trial alone; on the other, it does not reject Link's intrusion.

It even left behind some "loopholes," allowing Link to assist Iris.

But the degree of such assistance must be judged by Link himself.

He must absolutely not step over the middle line of this contradiction.

"Master, master."

Flandre sensed Link's intention and asked doubtfully, "Master, why must you insist on helping the lady master hate this woman so much?"

In Flandre's view, Link has no need to go to such trouble over these matters.

This is clearly asking for trouble—effortful and not necessarily rewarded.

Link smiled gently and spoke softly to Flandre, laying out his thoughts fully.

At this moment, helping Iris is helping himself.

If Iris does not wake from her dream, Link cannot leave this strange space!

Let Iris endure those trials on her own—who knows how long it will take before she finishes?

Link now recalls his own dream experiences, and even remembering them sends a chill down his spine.

That feeling is even more bizarre and terrifying than having his cognition altered by Lisandra.

Even if Lisandra's cognitive manipulation appears effortless, it lacks the smooth, natural quality of the dream experience.

In the dream testing Iris,

if Link's thoughts or behavior show the slightest inconsistency, attempting to escape confusion by sleeping will instead trigger various disturbances that disrupt his rest.

If Link's waking thoughts become too turbulent, faintly showing a tendency to break free from ignorance, he will naturally find himself slumped over his desk, asleep.

Sleep and wakefulness, being and not being—these are contradictory yet unified.

Link, immersed in this state, feels nothing unusual at all.

Were it not for Iris's reminders and stimulation, Link would never have realized his condition, and thus would have been ejected from the dream by the trial mechanism.

If Iris fails her trial, and the mechanism then drags him back in, forcing him to relive this bizarre and terrifying domination...

... that would not be what Link hopes for.

"Oh, is that so?"

Flandre felt she understood, nodded firmly, and cheered Link on.

After responding to Flandre, Link continued to ponder how he might help Iris.

He cannot directly assist her using something like dream-witchcraft; perhaps he should take a roundabout approach, offering indirect support.

Link tried it and discovered that in this strange space, he can still cast magic normally.

A flash of inspiration struck—Link thought of a way to offer indirect help.

The sense of impending danger gave a hint, but it was not overly strong.

Somewhere between severe injury and mortal peril.

What is there left to hesitate about?

If you think of it, just do it.

Lin Ke flipped through his own witchcraft list and pulled out several status-enhancing witchcrafts.

He cast them one by one, comprehensively enhancing Iris's status.

The dream is born from fantasy and can also be seen as a reflection of reality.

In reality, Iris's physical condition is enhanced, and through a wonderful connection, her soul can also be strengthened.

Thus, Iris in the dream will gain a boost in strength.

Besides casting witchcraft, Lin Ke carefully weighed the pros and cons, judged that the possible gains were worth a small adventure, and resolutely decided to continue acting.

He pulled out a large quantity of potions for treating internal and external injuries, Sea of Consciousness injuries, and soul injuries from the "Small World," as well as potions for massively replenishing Life Force, and also took out two 2nd Ring Wizard Tool-level medical chambers.

After setting up various parameters of the medical chambers, he inserted all kinds of treatment potions and Life Force replenishing potions one by one into the medical chambers' numerous infusion slots, and opened the medical chambers' intelligent diagnosis and treatment mode.

Then he placed Iris's body into one of the medical chambers.

Lin Ke himself also lay into another medical chamber.

After completing these life-preserving preparations, a bottle of "Super Brain" potion and a bottle of "One Mind" potion were taken out by Lin Ke.

Under the True Spirit Wizard's mental power/telekinesis control over objects, they floated to the side of Iris's lips.

"Flandre."

Lin Ke shouted, reminding Flandre to get ready and be prepared to reversely summon his soul into the "Small World" at any time.

He then gently pried open Iris's teeth with telekinesis and poured the two potions in sequence into her mouth.

Boom—

The entire strange space suddenly began to vibrate violently.

A ball of lightning the size of a human head, at extreme speed, completed its condensation and took shape.

After Lin Ke had the thought of administering the "Super Brain" potion and the "One Mind" potion to Iris, a sense of danger had been continuously issuing warnings.

When the action of administering the potions began, the sense of danger went into frantic alert.

If no countermeasures were taken, he would be split into slag by the ball lightning.

"Flandre!"

Lin Ke shouted in his heart, and at the same time poured the last bit of the "One Mind" potion from the bottle into Iris's mouth.

Just this last twitch away, we cannot let all previous efforts go to waste.

Crack.

The strange space faintly appeared with cracks.

Flandre exerted force in time and reversely summoned Lin Ke's soul.

Lin Ke's soul escaped into the "Small World," while his physical body lay in the medical chamber, hard-pressed to withstand the ball lightning's attack.

The ball lightning struck Lin Ke's physical body, yet caused no harm whatsoever.

Instead, it traveled along the connection between the physical body and the soul, in a strange way, entering Lin Ke's Sea of Consciousness.

It intended to use the connection between Lin Ke's Sea of Consciousness and the "Small World" to continue attacking Lin Ke's soul.

At this moment, the "Small World" emitted a long-unfelt yearning.

Misfortune and fortune depend on each other.

Earlier, Lin Ke had received a sense of danger and also inexplicably gained enlightenment.

This time, if he operated correctly, helped Iris, and escaped the punishment of the trial mechanism, he would gain very considerable benefits.

This is also a contradictory opposition point of the trial mechanism.

When the ball lightning entered the Sea of Consciousness and the "Small World" gave rise to yearning, Lin Ke instantly understood what to do.

"Flandre."

Lin Ke called out, and immediately, with Flandre's tacit cooperation, utilized the corresponding connection between the "Solar System" structure of the "Great Universe Meditation Method" in the Sea of Consciousness and the "Small World."

He fully mobilized the source power of the "Small World," from the very beginning preventing the ball lightning from ravaging the Sea of Consciousness, and drew the ball lightning into the "Small World."

At the same time, just as last time when he trapped the Fairy King's soul, Lin Ke's soul and Flandre brushed past the ball lightning and arrived at Lin Ke's Sea of Consciousness.

The two of them joined forces, blocked the ball lightning's exit, and firmly sealed the ball lightning inside the "Small World." The "Small World" has undergone three evolutions and is no longer comparable to its initial state.

This time, the "Small World" sealing the ball lightning does not require much source power consumption.

The ball lightning struck the boundary wall several times, found it could not break through, and thus changed its attack target.

It began to frenziedly attack the origin of the "Small World" that is deeply bound to Lin Ke's soul and thus stained with a large amount of Lin Ke's soul aura.

The manifested scene is that the first thunderbolt appeared in the heaven and earth of the "Small World."

Then came the second, third, fourth, and countless more...

What does thunder represent?

Thunder represents destruction, and also represents creation.

Seeing countless thunderbolts strike various parts of the "Small World," mountains shattered, valleys collapsed, bringing massive destruction to the "Small World," Lin Ke did not feel heartbroken like Flandre beside him, but instead revealed a happy, radiant smile.

This smile instantly annoyed Flandre.

Little Flandre put her hands on her hips and hummed: "Master bad! Master doesn't care at all about Flandre's home! Watching Flandre's home being destroyed, yet smiling so happily. Hum! Flandre doesn't want to bother with Master anymore."

Saying this, Flandre twisted her body and gave Lin Ke a blow to the back of the head.

Lin Ke chuckled: "Flandre, feel carefully, this lightning strike is actually a great thing for the 'Small World.' The fourth evolution of the 'Small World' is about to begin, and it will soon enter a new stage."

"Huh?"

Flandre, upon hearing this, was stunned for a moment, still holding the back of her head toward Lin Ke, but obediently began communicating with the "Small World."

Soon, Flandre broke into a joyful smile.

The origin of the "Small World" told Flandre that after this lightning strike, the "Small World" would spontaneously generate organic life.

Besides forcibly constructing a suitable ecosystem with source power to plant plants and crops, the "Small World" can quickly form a genuine, comprehensive, and perfect ecological cycle.

Plants, animals, microorganisms—everything is complete.

The survival of the fittest in natural selection is about to usher in an era of massive proliferation and evolution for species!

Only then does the "Small World" truly resemble a habitable world.

"Happy!"

Flandre bounced up excitedly.

At this moment, Lin Ke's soul had returned to his body, emerging from the medical pod that had never been used, and he looked down at Iris lying in another medical pod.

Looking forward to the buff-type witchcraft and two potions giving Iris powerful assistance!

Data World.

School, classroom.

Originally clear skies for thousands of miles, suddenly a torrential downpour began.

Iris smelled the rain, her heart fluttered, and without regard for the teacher and classmates' astonishment, she smashed through the window and leapt out.

With a whoosh, a burst of sound.

Iris assumed a female superhero flying pose, shooting upward at supersonic speed, joyfully "bathing" in the torrential rain.

The events of these days flashed rapidly through Iris's mind.

Finally freezing on Lin Ke staring blankly at her as she finished her self-introduction, silently muttering, "This sister, I feel like I've seen her somewhere before."

With a puff sound.

Iris burst out laughing happily.

"Do you also go by Baoyu?"

With a gurgling sound, Iris restrained her smile, her thoughts shifted, and her attire instantly changed.

The loose, ugly school uniform immediately transformed into a tight-fitting suit, with combat boots on her feet and a cloak draped over her, the typical combat mode of an Official Wizard from Riverside Academy.

"This broken world has deceived me for so long."

Iris's eyes flashed with intense anger, she rummaged with her small hand, and flung out dozens of high-damage disposable wizard tools as if they were free.

Simultaneously multitasking, she unleashed offensive witchcraft wildly toward the "sky."

A crackling sound rang out.

Countless streams of data composed of 0s and 1s appeared.

Five thick data stream chains revealed their true form, exposing the state of being tightly bound to Iris.

"Damn it, so annoying."

Lowering her head to glance at the five chains binding her wrists, ankles, and waist, Iris's eyes instantly turned red.

A surge of frenzy welled up in her heart.

The crazy woman is back!

A pillar as tall as a person appeared in Iris's hand.

Iris clung to the pillar like an octopus, wrapping herself and the five chains around it as tightly as possible.

"Hehehe..."

"Hahaha..."

First, a sinister low chuckle, revealing deep satisfaction, then she threw her head back in wild laughter, showing utter madness.

Iris gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and activated the pillar's effect.

Great Sound, Rare Voice.

The entire Data World collapsed and disintegrated in the sudden explosion and the fire and light it generated.

Countless strings of 0s and 1s forming data streams became completely disordered.

The crackling noise turned into a continuous din.

Iris's figure, which should have been obliterated by the blast, reappeared, unharmed.

The disordered data streams rapidly surged toward the reappeared Iris.

The rainbow mark on her forehead flashed, absorbing all the data streams.

Iris's eyes first became dazed, then quickly cleared, revealing a thoughtful expression.

"Interesting."

She laughed habitually, a little foolishly.

Iris suddenly stopped laughing.

For some reason, she felt that laughing like this made her seem childish.

"What's going on?"

Furrowing her brows, Iris felt doubtful.

Before she could think it through, the entire Data World vanished completely.

Iris's figure appeared amidst a brilliant starry sky.

As Iris was assessing the unfamiliar surroundings, another Iris appeared not far from her.

This Iris had a more mature appearance, figure, and demeanor, wearing a light blue floral dress, her face bearing a faint smile, revealing a tranquil and elegant grace.

"Hello, my surname is Ai, my full name is Iris."

Light blue floral dress, tranquil and elegant, mature-version Iris, looking at the astonished combat-mode Wizard Iris, smiling faintly, proactively introducing herself.

Another mature-version Iris appeared out of thin air at this moment, yet dressed in Wizard combat mode.

However, her attire was completely different from that of Riverside Academy, resembling the mainstream style of Northern Beast-Taming Sorcerers from several hundred years ago.

"Hello, I am Iris Messia, you can call me Iris."

The Northern Beast-Taming Sorcerer Iris likewise proactively introduced herself.

Immediately, the two mature-version Irises spoke in unison: "We are both Iris. However, this time, only the Iris who survives can continue to be Iris, okay?"

"Mmm..."

Iris pondered for a moment, thought seriously for a while, roughly understood the situation before her, and asked for confirmation, "You... are all my past lives?"

In her light blue floral dress, the serene and elegant Iris suddenly had a cup of Black Sugar Deer Ball Milk Tea appear in her hand, took a slight sip, and asked:

"Is it delicious?"

Northern Beast-Taming Sorcerer Iris suddenly flashed in her hand the illusory forms of various high-power explosive single-use wizard tools, one appearing after another as she threw them out, and asked:

"Is it fun?"

Iris looked at the Black Sugar Deer Ball Milk Tea.

She recalled the flutter she felt when she first drank something similar in taste at Lin Ke's place, and recalled her desolate mood at that time.

Iris looked at the various high-power explosive single-use wizard tools.

She recalled her destructive impulses since childhood, and recalled her unexplained fury since childhood.

"Ah, so that's how it is."

After gazing up at the Starry Sky for a while and taking deep, forceful breaths for a long time, Iris finally managed to suppress her inexplicably sorrowful mood.

A faint, yet crazy, mad smile appeared on her face, her white teeth flashing with a cold light:

"Hello, I am also Iris, Iris. Ke La Ke."

Hundreds of different Iris with various appearances, clothing, and personalities appeared behind Iris.

On their faces appeared faint, crazy, mad smiles:

"Hello, we are all Iris."

"Iris. Ke La Ke."