Chapter 9

　　[When mental power is relatively scarce, you should avoid spreading it over a large area. Instead, feel around with mental power, and find the "eye" of the spiritual sea. ]

　　The mental strength of a D-level male insect could not support complex guidance, so the instructor who taught him how to use mental strength only gave him a general idea and didn't let him practice.

　　[It's very easy, just like brushing off the dust on a blade, and a beautiful stream of light bursts out of your mind... You will understand it in a moment. ]

　　…

　　What Yael didn't tell anyone was that there was no spiritual sea in his brain, that is, there was no place to store his mental power at all.

　　But when he calmed down and tried to concentrate his mental power, strands of it would appear out of nowhere as if they were being summoned, and would obediently and enthusiastically allow him to command them.

　　Invisible waves vibrated, like ripples caused by a stone falling into water, and thousands of threads of mental power wrapped around his fingertips.

　　Yael closed his eyes, reached out and touched the female insect's forehead, trying to probe into his spiritual sea.

　　He opened his eyes amid the whistling sound of wind.

　　The upside-down sky above his head was starless and moonless, and looked like an impenetrable blackness.

　　He was in a vast and desolate snowfield, and all he could see was strong winds and blizzards, a chaotic and desolate scene.

　　The spiritual sea can reflect the strength of the subject's mental power. The larger the area, the stronger the mental power.

　　It was deserted here, but it was enough to show that the female insect's mental strength was once terrifyingly strong.

　　"But...why snow?"

　　Yael struggled forward in the knee-deep snow, like a small fish swimming upstream against the current of a river, and he was almost drowned by the vast amounts of wind and snow.

　　"Is it because he almost died in the snow just now, and the fear was reflected in his spiritual sea as a snowy wasteland?"

　　Yael took a deep breath of the cool air, and his mind became clear.

　　No, that's not the case.

　　At the moment when their mental powers merged, he did feel fear, but that was only a small part of it. The raging anger, the faint sadness, the silent and hidden hatred... all these emotions were so vivid that they washed over him like waves.

　　A female insect with such a broad spiritual sea is by no means mentally weak, at least he will not tend to self-destruct because of fear. It seemed that there were other reasons for the mental riot.

　　This also means that it will be very difficult to find the "eye" of the spiritual sea.

　　"Bang!"

　　A piece of debris was kicked away.

　　Yael realized he had walked into a ruin.

　　Steel bars, wooden boards, glass...are all randomly stuck in the snow, and from the looks of the ruins, it seems that there was once a house built here.

　　He stopped and walked, searching for a long time, but the moment he looked up, his attention was attracted by an unusual color.

　　A faded red strip of cloth with a round, glinting piece of metal tied to the end hung on a steel bar, quietly swaying in the wind.

　　With the weak light from the sky, Yael managed to see the thing that looked like a rusty ear of wheat above him.

　　It turned out to be a battered old medal.

　　Yael stared at the medal for a long time, and suddenly realized that this was the tattered and humiliated pride came from a soldier who had fought on a bloody battlefield and somehow ended up in this miserable situation.

　　He could feel that the "eye" of the spiritual sea was in this medal.

　　But unlike its owner, the "eye" is completely dead. It only represents the glory and memories of the past, and everything that has been completely destroyed.

　　It will be buried in the ruins along with the past.

　　It doesn't matter if the medal is repaired or destroyed, it still will not have any effects on the body. The collapse and destruction of the spiritual sea is irreversible and the female insect will definitely die.

　　No, maybe there is another way...

　　[Finding the "eye" of the spiritual sea is a way to externally awaken the subject. Another way is to let the unconscious subject develop self-awareness and a desire to survive, and try to wake up on his own.]

　　The cold words from the book seemed to have become a voice, ringing in his ears.

　　Yael looked towards the wasteland in the distance. As far as the eye could see, there seemed to be unending outlines of mountains, blending gently into the dark night.

　　It took him a long time to climb a mountain.

　　There were raging snowstorms and gusty winds on the top of the mountain, but the viewpoint was wider and one could easily take in the entire plain, including the ruins and the red ribbon fluttering above it.

　　With a thought, Yael condensed his mental power into different desired shapes. Soon, several thick wooden boards and some simple tools appeared on the snow.

　　He picked up a long wooden board and inserted it into the snow, then nailed them together like building blocks. After a while of hammering, a small wooden house took shape in his hands.

　　The hut was only slightly taller than him and was crudely built due to limited resources, but it stood firmly on the mountaintop and was not afraid of the raging wind and snow.

　　The core of the mental power that made up Yael's spiritual body was already aching slightly. The longer he stayed in the spiritual sea, the more uncomfortable he would feel.

　　Yael seemed unaware, his slender fingers moving non-stop, quickly cutting and splicing something, and it took him a while to finish it, then he stood up -

　　A lamp was hung onto the window in the cabin.

　　The spiritual power flowing in his body condensed into a glowing ball of light and shot into the round body of the lamp.

　　The slight warmth melted the coldness of the wind and snow, and the warm light emitted by the yellow halo was small and round, like a newborn hedgehog.

　　He had made decisions on behalf of the female insect before, but whether he could wake up in the end still depended on the female insect himself.

　　"Try to find your way here and wake up..."

　　Yael squeezed out the last bit of his mental power and injected it into the lamp, ensuring that it would stay bright for a long time before finally ,he relaxed and stopped resisting the strong rejection of the female's spiritual sea.

　　His body formed by spiritual power gradually dissipated, he closed his eyes, and fell into complete darkness.

　　…

　　A long time passed.

　　The raging snowstorm on the mountains finally stopped, and the lamps that were knocking against the window frames stopped shaking.

　　The warm ball of light was touched carefully by a finger through the glass.

　　The dark night collapsed inch by inch.

　　And the sky slowly brightened.