Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2976: Chapter 2977: The Guardian

"Regarding the words he mutters, I might be able to give you some references," Glaipnir spoke up.

Perhaps to heal the rift with Angel, she did not play coy and directly shared what she knew.

"When we first found him, he was muttering too, but back then, he wasn’t saying what he says now."

"Originally, he was muttering: Pikala Labuto Yisheng... Yisu Lu Ka Tiwu Yu... Yani Gabben Lu Kaka Jieming..."

According to Glaipnir’s account, this was what the pink-haired boy muttered when she encountered him.

However, before Glaipnir could take the kettle away, another wave washed through the Sea of Void Mirror, and as the tide swept over, the pink-haired boy’s words began to shorten.

After continuous waves washed over, the pink-haired boy was left only muttering: "Pikala... Yisu Lu Ka... Yani Ga..."

So, Glaipnir’s speculation was that upon entering the Sea of Void Mirror, the pink-haired boy sensed something awry, that his memory was continuously being lost.

As the waves kept washing over, the loss accelerated.

After realizing he couldn’t stop the memory from dissipating, the pink-haired boy began consciously trying to recite his most important memories.

Through repetitive chanting, he formed a kind of stimulus-triggered memory.

And used this stimulus-triggered memory to create a "key" to unlock his sealed memories.

The pink-haired boy reacted promptly, and his methods were smart, yet he made an erroneous judgment due to a lack of information.

The pink-haired boy thought his lost memories were "blocked," that they remained in his mind, simply hidden in some corner.

Thus he opted to use this stimulus method to create a key to unlock subconscious memories. If he truly lost his memory, he could use this to reclaim lost memories.

But the pink-haired boy misjudged one thing; the Sea of Void Mirror’s washing doesn’t bury the memories deep in your mind; it aggressively pulls them out of your brain and carries them away with the tide to vanish completely.

In other words, the memories in the pink-haired boy’s mind are entirely gone, and no matter the method—even if someone familiar tells him about his life experiences—he will be left with no impression.

After all, the Sea of Void Mirror is a reflection of the Mirror Domain’s law; the law eliminates your memories, and you can only passively accept it.

Unless the pink-haired boy can immediately seize the outgoing memory and shove it back into his consciousness when washed away, only then can he avoid its dissipation.

But the pink-haired boy evidently can’t do this, and as the memory has already been taken by the waves, judging by time, his memory has likely vanished completely.

This signifies the pink-haired boy will never recover his segment of memory.

...

"Pikala Labuto Yisheng... Yisu Lu Ka Tiwu Yu... Yani Gabben Lu Kaka Jieming..." Angel recited the initial words of the pink-haired boy and after a while, shook his head.

The phrase seems to use some kind of Otherworldly language, and Angel currently doesn’t know its meaning.

Unless there is an abundance of text and audio for comparison, he cannot use "Language Analysis" for analysis. But now, with only such a short sentence, analyzing its meaning is very difficult.

However, Angel’s inability doesn’t mean others can’t.

Every profession has its own specialty, and Angel has only been in contact with the Extraordinary World for a few years, achieving omniscience is certainly not possible. But he has the Barbarian Cave at his back, so parsing these languages isn’t difficult; he just needed to ask someone who researches Otherworldly languages.

Besides, even if the Barbarian Cave has no clues, he has the identity of a Research and Development Institute member. He could completely release a language analysis task at Sky Mechanical City’s Task Hall, someone willing to analyze it will surely appear.

But, these are ultimately discussions for another time.

Before Angel now is how to handle this tea kettle, and the boy inside it.

While Angel was pondering, beside him Wolftooth Di-Bone continued to urge: "Hand it over to me, if you want to buy it, you can go to Ancient Ruins of Tooth Fairy... For now, let me take a look."

Angel ignored Wolftooth Di-Bone’s muttering and closed the lid, then handed the kettle to Lady Laplace.

In Lady Laplace’s confused gaze, Angel conveyed through message: "Just help me keep it for a while."

Having said this, Angel turned to Wolftooth Di-Bone: "By the way, I remember you have a daughter, I think her name was Dragon-tooth Qin?"

Wolftooth Di-Bone’s gaze had been fixed on the kettle; even as it was handed to Lady Laplace, he didn’t shift his eyes. However, upon hearing Angel’s question, he instinctively recalled: "Yes, yes, I have a daughter named Dragon-tooth Qin, she’s indeed a good girl, I remember when she was first born..."

Wolftooth Di-Bone started rambling about his daughter, Angel did not interrupt, he pretended to listen seriously, giving occasional praise, but secretly he was messaging Lady Laplace.

The message content revolved around discussing how to handle the kettle.

Angel showed interest in the kettle’s material and the somewhat crude yet exotic energy circuits on it, intending to research it.

Researching the kettle itself is naturally unproblematic, as it’s a dead object, and Lady Laplace wasn’t interested in the kettle either.

But the issue is how to deal with the pink-haired boy inside the kettle.

Due to Jon’s existence, Angel’s attitude towards Otherworld denizens isn’t filled with hatred like the Extreme Sect. However, he doesn’t have much interest in them either.

If Otherworld denizens had intact memories, Angel might even explore understanding the ecology and civilization of Otherworld through their memories.

But a pure Empty-hearted Person doesn’t pique Angel’s interest at all.

He isn’t a Carabit, possessing limited interest in experiments involving living beings. Let alone the energy in the pink-haired boy had been washed away, almost akin to an ordinary person. For experimenting on ordinary people, Angel lacks interest even more.

Thus, he and Lady Laplace discussed how to deal with him.

Lady Laplace also lacked experience in this regard, she could only bring Glaipnir into the conversation through message, utilizing a method akin to a Mind Ribbon, where they conversed secretly.

Faced with Angel’s inquiry, Glaipnir directly asked: "I need to know, do you intend to care for this person within the kettle, or not?"

Angel: "What’s the difference between caring and not caring?"

Glaipnir bluntly said: "If you don’t intend to care, there are plenty of ways to handle it."

Glaipnir could directly toss him into the Sea of Void Mirror, where even the physical body would be obliterated, completely vanishing.

However, if care is intended, it depends on how much Angel can care. If only not letting the kettle person die, Glaipnir advised Angel to hand the pink-haired boy over to Wolftooth Di-Bone, as Wolftooth Di-Bone has his own methods of dealing with Empty-hearted Persons, without killing them.

After hearing Glaipnir’s words, Angel pondered for a moment before asking: "What does the Ancient Tooth Fairy want with these Empty-hearted Persons? Slaves?"

"Slaves, not exactly. Although the Ancient Tooth Fairy’s thoughts are deeper, they don’t think of enslaving others." Glaipnir: "Usually, they are trained to become trusted aides."

The Empty-hearted People, equate to having lost all memories, their paper is completely blank. How to draw on this paper entirely depends on the artist.

The Ancient Tooth Fairy tests their talent to focus on cultivating different abilities.

Regardless of how they are nurtured, one thing is unchanging: loyalty.

The Ancient Tooth Fairy uses various methods, including teaching thoughts, instilling will, and transcendent contracts, to make the Empty-hearted People their most loyal aides.

"Many divisions of the Ancient Ruins of Tooth Fairy have aides trained by the Ancient Tooth Fairy, who used to be Empty-hearted People."

It can be said, Empty-hearted People are most suited to be cultivated as aides.

After all, past events are over.

No matter how complex the past is, once transformed into Empty-hearted People, it becomes an unrecallable history.

Empty-hearted People never look back, even if they do, it is hard to find the past.

They are more inclined to look forward, toward the future.

This positive mindset is also what the Ancient Tooth Fairy desires.

Therefore, in Glaipnir’s view, if Angel doesn’t plan on letting the pink-haired youth die, handing him over to the Ancient Tooth Fairy, his fate wouldn’t be too tragic.

Angel listened and was not concerned about the Ancient Tooth Fairy’s cultivation, but... "Can he really restore his Spirit Intelligence?"

Although Angel previously heard from the Wise Sovereign that part of the Noah lineage had turned into Empty-hearted People and found suitable places for settlement and reproduction, Angel didn’t pay much attention at the time.

Now, he sees the Empty-hearted People with his own eyes.

Especially the pink-haired youth in front of him, who seems completely dull-minded, repeating "Pika, Isoluca, Yaniga" over and over.

Can such Empty-hearted People really regain Spirit Intelligence?

Glaipnir: "He has only lost past Spirit Intelligence for now. His innate mind is still present, and as long as the mind persists, Spirit Intelligence can be redeveloped. The only thing that cannot be restored is memory."

In simple terms, Spirit Intelligence is wisdom, the crystallization of memory. The mind is the container that carries wisdom, or the brain’s development.

If only memory vanishes, equating to a defect in Spirit Intelligence, while the mind remains undamaged. Proper cultivation allows complete restoration.

But the restored Spirit Intelligence will be different from the past, because memory cannot be restored.

After hearing Glaipnir’s words, Angel understood a bit.

The situation of the pink-haired youth is somewhat similar to that of Dororo back then. However, the pink-haired youth’s situation is more severe; Dororo just couldn’t find past memories, while the pink-haired youth has completely lost past memories.

Seeing Angel silent for a long time, Glaipnir proactively said: "Actually, you can keep him and develop him as an aide."

Angel has no interest in developing aides, most importantly, developing him would mean carrying an unstable mine.

This mine doesn’t come from the pink-haired youth, but from the Extreme Sect.

With the Extreme Sect’s style, discovering the connection between the pink-haired youth and Angel would cause them to cling like bees to honey.

If it’s just for the pink-haired youth, it doesn’t matter, but if the Extreme Sect targets Angel and discovers Jon, the problem becomes huge.

Therefore, Angel doesn’t want to carry the mine of the pink-haired youth.

Angel pondered, should he follow Glaipnir’s advice and hand him over to the Ancient Ruins of Tooth Fairy?

While Angel was contemplating, Lady Laplace, who hadn’t spoken for a while, finally spoke: "Actually, you can keep him in the Mirror Domain."

Angel: "So, Lady Laplace also suggests I cultivate him into an aide?"

Laplace shook her head: "No, I just meant, don’t you find the Heart Space too vast and lacking a steward? With some training, he should be suitable. Whether to consider him an aide is your decision."

Laplace’s words made Angel ponder.

Indeed, keeping the pink-haired youth in reality is not feasible. But keeping him long-term in the Mirror Domain avoids the Extreme Sect’s discovery and the world’s will rejection.

Moreover, the pink-haired youth is currently a blank slate; if cultivated, there is no fear of betrayal.

Angel certainly would frequently visit the Mirror Domain in the future.

Without bridging the Crystal Origin of Dreams and the Wilderness of Dreams, entering the Crystal Origin of Dreams requires first accessing the Mirror Domain.

Leaving a caretaker at the Mirror Domain outpost could reduce inconvenience.

However, restoring the Spirit Intelligence of the Empty-hearted People is somewhat troublesome. The cultivation cost may be lessened by recruiting from the Barbarian Cave.

Perhaps seeing Angel’s hesitance, Glaipnir said: "If it’s too troublesome, you can let the Ancient Tooth Fairy cultivate the Empty-hearted People, their methods are quite mature."

No need for Glaipnir’s reminder, Angel had considered this. But if cultivating someone he trusts involves the Ancient Tooth Fairy, he is not assured.

Angel contemplated for a moment, ultimately deciding to set this matter aside.

Because he suddenly thought of something previously overlooked.

They have been discussing whether or not to cultivate this pink-haired youth, but before "cultivating," a process must be undertaken—

Is this person worth cultivating?

Now the pink-haired youth remembers nothing, and Angel cannot assess an Otherworld being’s talent, and if it proves unworthy after cultivation, it would be a loss.

So, that decision is shelved for now.

Regarding the pink-haired youth, he plans to observe him for a while longer, preferably letting Dororo take a look.

If Dororo believes he is worth cultivating, then investing some resources is fine.