"Li Jia! I seem to have recovered. Look at my feet..."
“That’s… great.”
"What's wrong with you? Ah, don't fall down."
"Selinda, I, I'm so tired..."
"Li Jia! Wake up! Wake up quickly..."
In the room, Li Jia woke up.
In Xiao Chen's vision, the light ball representing Li Jia's spiritual power suddenly became brighter on the verge of extinguishing, even exceeding its original level. It was like a fire that was about to go out and someone poured a bucket of oil on it.
Li Jia's eyes opened slightly, then quickly closed again as if he was afraid of the light. He sat cross-legged, his eyeballs rolling under his eyelids, as if he was brewing some kind of decision. After about ten seconds, he opened them again. His eyelids trembled slightly, and gradually opened, slowly letting the light in the room seep into his pupils. Perhaps because of the glare of the light, there was a crystal rolling in his eye sockets, covering up a strange emotion in his eyes.
What kind of emotion is that? Xiao Chen watched this scene intently, pondering this question in his mind.
Li Jia looked around blankly. His eyes swept across the ground and Serinda lying on the ground. He stared at the "Shadow Scroll of the Sea of Consciousness" for a few seconds, and stayed on the magic lamp on the table for a long time. Finally, his gaze fell on Xiao Chen.
Xiao Chen's heart moved, and he felt that this scene was somewhat similar to a baby opening his eyes to see the world for the first time. He suddenly realized the meaning of that emotion, which was curiosity.
"The room, the lights... are all real. It seems I'm out." Li Jia muttered to himself very slowly. Then he glanced at the two people who were staring at him and said, "Why are you looking at me?"
"What's wrong with you? Why is it so difficult for you to speak?" Xiao Chen asked, "Do you still remember what happened inside?"
"I came out. This world is real now." Li Jia pointed to his head. "My consciousness is still not used to my body. It may be because I stayed in there for too long."
"Really? Do you remember what you were doing in there?" Xiao Chen asked again.
Li Jia stroked his forehead and didn't say anything for a long time. After a long while, he said, "My mind is in a mess. I'm a little confused, but I remember you are Xiao Chen, and she is Nina, and this is Serinda."
Serinda was still lying on the ground, showing no signs of regaining consciousness. "I seem to have failed," Li Jia said. "She was seriously injured. I used my power to save her, but failed. At the last moment, she returned her power to me. Then, I got out."
"Ah, how is the young lady now? Has she, has she gotten worse?" Nina asked.
"I'm afraid so. She might be more seriously injured. Do you know how sad I was when she gave me the power back?" Li Jia's face began to show sadness. "I wanted to stop her, but my strength was exhausted. I was powerless and could only watch her fall asleep again."
"Then, what should we do?" Nina looked panicked.
"I, I can't do anything anymore. Maybe this is fate. We are just little wizards who have just embarked on the road of magic, not masters of mind control. Maybe only the masters and saints of the Dream Tower can do it, and we are still far from it." Li Jia said with his head down.
"Are you going to give up like this? Do you know how much the lady loves you? She is obsessed with you and even whispers your name in secret!"
"I'm more heartbroken than you, but there's nothing I can do." Li Jia shook his head.
"Master Xiao Chen, what should we do? You have to think of a way to save the young lady." Nina pleaded.
"Perhaps, I can enter Serinda's meditation world again through the Scroll of Sea of Consciousness." Xiao Chen said.
"It can't be done. Before I came out, the book spirit said that it had exhausted its energy and no longer had the ability to open the channel between souls. It would even fall into a long sleep. Look." Li Jia pointed at the "Shadow Scroll of the Sea of Consciousness".
Sure enough, the "Shadow Scroll of the Sea of Consciousness" that had been emitting mysterious light had become dim since some point in time. Not long after, the light went out and it turned into an ordinary-looking large booklet.
Xiao Chen put his hand on it, and the touch was no different from that of an ordinary thick book, and it had completely lost its spirituality. He tried to communicate with the "Shadow Scroll of the Sea of Consciousness" with his mental power, but just like before, he could not feel the existence of the book spirit at all.
"The book spirit also paid a great price. Originally, we could have obtained more magicians with its help. But now... we have done our best to save Serinda and Nina this time." Li Jia said.
Xiao Chen remained silent. After a while, he took his hand back from the book and said, "When I was treating Nina, I gained a new understanding of the connection between souls. You know, most of the magic I learned was spiritual magic, and in the inheritance I obtained there is the magic of connecting souls - the existence of the Bridge of Souls. Under the current circumstances, there is no other way, and I want to give it a try." Xiao Chen said.
Hearing Xiao Chen's words, Nina showed joy on her face, but Li Jia shook her head solemnly and said, "Bridge of Souls? I have never heard of this magic. I can't let you take risks again. Her spiritual world is already shattered. If a little bit of power is applied, it may collapse. I can't bear the risk of losing you again!"
"Master Li Jia!" Nina said anxiously.
"Don't worry." Xiao Chen held Nina, who was about to push Li Jia, and said, "You and Li Jia go out and rest first. I will try to use the Soul Bridge to make a preliminary contact with Serinda. I promise that I will not penetrate her soul. Well, it's like looking across the bridge. What do you think?"
As he spoke, he put his hand towards Serinda's forehead.
Li Jia showed an anxious look, "Xiao Chen! You really can't do this... You, you know? The soul is the most unpredictable existence. Any tiny mistake will lead to unpredictable consequences. It is very likely that under your prying, her soul will collapse faster. You will also be hurt! I can't let you do this."
He got up from the ground and tried to pull Xiao Chen up, but somehow his legs went limp and he fell down. Fortunately, Xiao Chen was quick to catch him.
"I feel a little weak, maybe I've been sitting for too long." Li Jia explained. Xiao Chen supported him and limped to a chair.
"Give up, really. Believe me." Li Jia continued to persuade.
Xiao Chen helped him sit down, took two steps back, looked Li Jia up and down again, and said, "You are right. We should study such risky issues carefully before making a decision. We can't be reckless."
"Yes, yes. It's great that you think this way. As the person who loves Serinda the most, making this choice is really... really..." Li Jia choked up, "I still remember the time I took her flying a few days ago. We were floating above the castle. She was so beautiful and so happy."
However, Xiao Chen interrupted him and said, "Alas, seeing Serinda's current state reminded me of your first girlfriend, the one who died of illness. What was her name?"
"What did you say?" Li Jia, who was still reminiscing about the good times, was suddenly stunned.
"The first girlfriend, the one with long hair and glasses. You stayed with her until she passed away. I suddenly forgot her name. What was it?" Xiao Chen stared at Li Jia and asked.
"First girlfriend? Long hair..." Li Jia fell into deep thought.
"Wow, you even forgot this?" Xiao Chen said.
Li Jia was interrupted again by him, and suddenly glared at Xiao Chen and said, "Xiao Chen, what are you doing? You are asking such irrelevant questions at such a tense time!"
"When most people are angry, they look directly into the other person's eyes, not like you, looking around. It's not easy to look up information in your memory, right? But there is no such person at all, how can you find it? Li Jia didn't have a girlfriend before."
"you… "
"Am I right, Mr. Shu Ling?" Xiao Chen put away his smile and stared at Li Jia with eyes like knives.
"What nonsense are you talking about!" Li Jia yelled.
"I said you are not Li Jia, but Shu Ling." Xiao Chen repeated word by word.
"Are you crazy?" Li Jia stood up from the chair.
"Maybe you're crazy? You can rush over and hit me?" Xiao Chen said, "But can you do it? A new body is not so easy to control, right?"
"Master Xiao Chen, are you saying that this is not Li Jia? But he..." Nina covered her mouth in shock. However, she found that Li Jia was just standing there stiffly, not daring to step forward. "Could it be that the book spirit has taken over Master Li Jia's body?"
"I'm afraid that's the case. In my opinion, this restless book spirit has had this idea for a long time. Your act of stealing books just gave him this opportunity. He suggested that I save you and let Li Jia save Serinda. I'm afraid it was a trap, right?"
Li Jia stared at Xiao Chen, as if he was thinking about something. After a while, he said, "Haha, that's right! Who made Li Jia a lovesick person? I don't see any chance in you. But in him, I see a good chance to escape from this cage. You know, people like him will be very stupid once they fall in love, and will blindly gamble everything they have for something that is illusory. If you were also trapped in the book for tens of millions of years and had tasted enough of loneliness, you would also do this at all costs."
"I'm not interested in your reasons. I only care about two questions now. First, where is Li Jia's soul and how to make him return to his body. Or second, if Li Jia can't come back, how to make you disappear from this world you just took a peek at." Xiao Chen said.
"This is Li Jia's body! If you destroy me, you will destroy him!" said Shu Ling.
"But if he can't come back, I believe the first thing he will ask me to do is to destroy this body. I know him very well." Xiao Chen did not make any move, but Shu Ling deeply felt his murderous intent.