Sealed Memories

Luo Wei silently put down the piece of paper.

In addition to the blood-written words, there was also a bloody handprint on the paper, dirty and smeared, indicating that she had been in a dire situation when she wrote the final part, most likely injured.

This indeed seemed like something Usoma had written just before her death.

These few short lines of blood-stained words filled Luo Wei with an overwhelming sense of despair.

He never imagined that Usoma had truly accomplished something so unimaginable, yet even so, she had ultimately resolved nothing.

All she had brought back was a glaringly stark phrase: "No solution."

Luo Wei slowly turned to Tilis beside him and handed her the paper.

"This is the last page torn from your teacher's notes. It was written for you."

Tilis's eyes suddenly widened.

"This... was left for me by my teacher?"

Luo Wei silently watched her. Tilis's hand trembled slightly as she held the paper, reading it over and over again, her expression gradually shifting to one of disbelief.

"How... how could the mage's problem be unsolvable?"

"If that's truly the case, then all our efforts over thousands of years have been in vain. What have we even been working for all this time...?"

"And..."

"Did my teacher say she's already dead?"

Compared to the earlier parts, the last few lines were even harder for her to accept.

Tilis read it repeatedly, her emotions shifting from confusion to shock, and finally to a gradual loss of control...

Suddenly, she began to laugh inexplicably.

Tilis laughed hysterically, her whole body trembling, as she pointed excitedly at the final sentence on the paper for Luo Wei to see.

"My teacher would never say something like this to me!"

"Luo Wei! She must be joking! She must be! You have to believe me!"

"I knew it! Someone as legendary as her couldn't just die like that, could she?"

"Then the earlier parts must be lies too, right?"

Luo Wei watched Tilis's increasingly erratic behavior and sighed, shaking his head.

To Tilis, Usoma was more than just a teacher—she was like a mother.

Just as she had stubbornly searched for Luo Wei for four years, refusing to give up, she was equally convinced that someone like her teacher couldn't possibly die.

Now it seemed that the person who had torn out this last page was Tilis herself...

Because she couldn't accept it.

Luo Wei silently reached out, gently touching her cheek and wiping away a tear.

Tilis's bloodshot eyes turned to him.

"Luo Wei? You don't believe me?"

Luo Wei looked at her and said softly, "Whether I believe you or not doesn't matter..."

"The truth is right here, and sooner or later, you'll have to face it."

Tilis frantically grabbed her hair, still unwilling to accept any of it.

"No, no!"

"If that's the case, if nothing we do matters, then why did I feel compelled to come here?"

"Is this all there is? Just this? It can't be!"

Tilis's expression grew increasingly twisted.

Just as Luo Wei was about to comfort her, he suddenly noticed that the small blue-glowing orb in the box had undergone a strange transformation.

The orb trembled slightly, then began to float.

To Luo Wei's astonishment, the orb instantly dissipated, transforming from a solid object into a cloud of blue ethereal light.

The light gathered, ghost-like, swirling around the two of them in the research room before settling not far from Tilis.

Even Tilis stopped, her eyes fixed warily on the scene before her.

The mysterious light illuminated their faces as, under their gaze, the light gradually coalesced into the figure of a girl crouching on the ground.

The girl's translucent form flickered in sync with Tilis.

Luo Wei stared in shock.

The girl was curled up under a table, her arms wrapped around her legs, her face buried as her shoulders shook with sobs.

This crying girl was Tilis.

"What... what is this?"

When Tilis saw the other version of herself crouched on the ground, her expression turned to one of utter disbelief.

But before she could process it, she clutched her head in pain, as if recalling many things at once.

This time, the recollection lasted longer than ever before, and her form began to fluctuate violently.

At the same time, Luo Wei received a prompt.

[Sealed Memory (Spiritual Entity)]

[Danger Level: ★]

[A memory sealed by Tilis in the research room half a year ago. Touch to access.]

Luo Wei suddenly understood.

No wonder she had always said that coming back here would help her remember everything. The compulsion she had felt was, in fact, herself.

Luo Wei silently watched the Tilis curled up under the table.

This heartbroken, vulnerable, crying version of her, like a little girl, was something he had never seen before.

This must have been the day, half a year ago, when her teacher met with the accident.

Luo Wei gently touched the softly sobbing Tilis.

In that instant, a series of images flashed before his eyes.

By accessing Tilis's memories, Luo Wei finally learned what had happened that day, even experiencing her emotions as if he had lived through it himself.

'Could something like this truly exist? The ability to traverse time and space at will... isn't that akin to being a god?'

'If this could really work, maybe it could solve the mage's curse! But I'm not just thinking about that!'

'He's been gone for so long. Could this method help me find him?'

The black-haired, purple-eyed girl looked at her teacher with excitement, her heart racing with anticipation. She longed for her teacher's success.

She had witnessed firsthand how her teacher performed the sacrificial ritual, offering the flesh and blood of the "Sea God," and then watched as she pulled out a key to open a door that wasn't visible to the naked eye but was somehow undeniably real—a gateway to truth.

'My teacher said, "It is the source of the universe's wisdom, the key to doors leading beyond worlds and dimensions. It is the door, the key, the embodiment of truth—truth itself!"'

'My teacher succeeded!'

The girl had seen a miracle. She watched as her teacher vanished before her eyes.

Her face lit up with joy, her heart overflowing with excitement.

But that feeling lasted only three seconds—maybe even less.

The next moment, Usoma's horrifically mutilated corpse appeared before her.

At the same time, she heard faint, eerie sounds coming from beyond the door.

She felt as though whatever was there had glanced at her—an entity without form, cold and menacing, as if staring at prey on the verge of death.

Fear instantly crawled over her like a swarm of maggots.

It was that thing that had killed her teacher...

The girl stared at her teacher's mangled body, her mind shattered as she collapsed to the floor.

She couldn't believe what she was seeing, but she had no choice but to accept it—that was her teacher.

Because two fingers were tightly clutching the notebook.

The emotional whiplash made her feel as though she was trapped in a nightmare.

Just moments ago, she had been looking forward to a bright future, to the day she would reunite with him...

But now...

From hope to utter despair, in just three seconds.

The girl, disheveled and broken, flipped through the notes her teacher had left behind. She read the words her teacher had written for her.

It turned out that all the research she and her teacher had done over the years, all the efforts of the secret society over millennia, had been meaningless...

The life she had dreamed of, free from all burdens, had vanished in an instant.

If seeing her teacher's body was painful, then learning this cruel truth plunged her into complete despair.

This disgusting, wretched world no longer had any meaning. It was beyond saving!

Like a ten-year-old girl, she curled up under the table, crying uncontrollably.

She never thought of herself as the leader of some school of thought or the hope of the secret society. She was just an ordinary girl with a bit of magical talent, lucky enough to have been chosen by her teacher.

At her age, she should have been studying at Callen University with Luo Wei.

Maybe she would have been his classmate, perhaps even showing him up in his own field. She could have spent quiet afternoons in the library, reading books to pass the time...

She never wanted to restore the glory of some damned magical empire!

As these thoughts crossed her mind, Tilis suddenly froze.

Her sobs gradually faded away as a figure emerged in her mind.

Luo Wei.

Only when she thought of him did her heart find a moment of peace.

A sudden thought arose.

Leave this damned world behind! Find Luo Wei!

This was the only thought she had left, the sole force keeping her alive.

And so, a desperate plan began to take shape.