94: Chapter 94 Scars and Keys

The opening and closing of those thin lips were silent, yet they felt like an ice pick piercing through the last shred of false tranquility.

Shen Xiao could almost "hear" the faint sound of his blood freezing instantly.

This madwoman, she hadn't captured the specific words of the Consciousness Entity, but rather the core frequency of fear within that tsunami of intent, like a hound catching the scent of prey.

The Light Cocoon's trembling suddenly intensified, its dark golden light flickering erratically, like a faulty, low-quality light bulb.

The curled-up humanoid silhouette twisted frantically, as if trying to break free from some invisible restraint, sending out even more chaotic and feeble fragments of intent from within:

"Not... me..."

"It is... observation..."

"The price... has been paid... forever..."

Every word was saturated with rust-like regret and bottomless fear; they couldn't form complete sentences, yet they were more bone-chilling than any clear articulation.

The Tomb Guardian Seal on Xia Lengbai's forehead glowed intensely. Far from retreating, she drifted half a foot closer, almost pressing against the surface of the restless Light Cocoon.

In her ice-blue pupils, the chaotic dark golden light was reflected. The layer of calculated ice within them shattered completely, revealing something more primitive underneath—a kind of near-cruel curiosity.

"What price was paid?"

She pressed, her voice lowered but clearer, like icicles scraping against each other,

"Whose 'forever' was used?"

The Light Cocoon shrank inward abruptly, emitting a piercing shriek like metal on the verge of snapping from fatigue!

Shen Xiao knew he couldn't let her keep asking.

This Consciousness Entity was like a cornered beast; fear had overwhelmed all rationality. Any further stimulation could drive it to complete madness or cause it to perform unpredictable, self-destructive acts.

The fragile balance they had managed to build using their shared predicament and memory fragments would collapse like a house of cards.

He had to play a card.

A card with enough weight to draw the fire away, while simultaneously reinforcing his identity as an "insider" and a "participant."

"I know some things."

Shen Xiao's voice wasn't loud, even a bit hoarse from his injuries, but in this Chaos where only the wailing of the Light Cocoon and the pervasive Ice Abyss breath remained, it was undeniably clear.

Xia Lengbai's and the Light Cocoon's "attention" immediately turned toward him.

Shen Xiao didn't look at the Light Cocoon; his gaze fell on Xia Lengbai's face, observing the frequency of the data-stream-like flickering in her eyes.

Then, he raised his hand. The movement tugged at the injuries in his internal organs, bringing a dull pain that made his fingertips twitch slightly.

With this hand, he slowly and firmly pulled back the torn sleeve of his left arm.

Under the sleeve, the exposed skin was not smooth but crisscrossed with several old scars.

They weren't sharp marks left by swords or blades, but more like a combination of... branding and tearing.

The scars appeared an unnatural grayish-white, with slightly raised edges, twisting and coiled on the inner side of his forearm. One, in particular, was gruesome, extending from below the crook of his elbow to near his wrist, like a dried-up, ugly riverbed.

Looking closely, faint, extremely dim silver lines resembling runes seemed to remain deep within the scars, but they had long since lost their spiritual light, like dead meridians.

This was the mark left by the original owner of this body, that cannon fodder villain destined to be sacrificed in the original story.

Not a mark of glory from battle, but the residue of shame and pain from being secretly used as a blood sacrifice Materials by the Sect.

It was also one of the first visual stimuli Shen Xiao had upon Transmigration when he looked at this body and decided he would never follow the path of the original story.

The cold air touched his exposed skin, triggering a slight shiver.

A faint, accustomed stinging sensation came from the scars.

Xia Lengbai's gaze, like the most precise probe, instantly locked onto those scars.

Her ice-blue pupils contracted slightly. The frantic flickering of the data stream suddenly became orderly and rapid, as if she were high-speed matching and linking the visual information before her with the fragmented memories in her mind regarding "stripping," "vessels," and "experiments."

The restlessness of the Light Cocoon also strangely subsided for a moment. A weak and confused wave of intent swept over Shen Xiao's arm, seemingly "observing" those "scars" that were completely different from its own cognitive System.

Shen Xiao lowered his sleeve, covering that piece of his ugly past.

His tone was calm, even carrying a hint of indifference as if he were recounting a distant, irrelevant, and low-quality storybook.

"In the original 'plot,' this life of mine was just a sacrifice to serve as a stepping stone for Lin Yun. In the North Sea Ice Abyss, I would first be heavily injured by the guardian beast, and then 'conveniently' harvested by him."

He paused, and in a colder tone, said,

"My cultivation, the belongings in my Storage Pouch, and perhaps even... this body of flesh and bone, modified by blood sacrifice and quite special, would all become experience packs and a Materials repository on his path to leveling up."

He raised his eyes to look at the Light Cocoon, his tone carrying a precise, undisguised mockery:

"So, I know I am a 'sacrifice.' I can also roughly guess that the 'emotional stripping experiment' you were tinkering with before is probably not as simple as just creating some 'vessel'."

He paused slightly, organizing his words, and threw out his speculation—pieced together from System information, plot knowledge, and the clues before him—in a way that would most sting the Consciousness Entity and attract Xia Lengbai:

"In all likelihood, it requires a sufficiently pure and intense source of emotion as the 'raw material.' And the process of stripping itself is a kind of extreme pain; this pain might even be some kind of ritual or catalyst. As for the final goal..."

He turned his gaze to Xia Lengbai, then back to the Light Cocoon, his voice dropping lower, every word like a knife:

"I'm afraid it's to create a… special lure that can actively attract and 'pollute' some higher, more distant existence.

Using the purest love as bait, and the stripped-away, twisted pain as poison. First Child,"

He stared at the Light Cocoon and asked,

"The experiment you conducted, or the experiment you witnessed, its fundamental purpose was to fish for things from 'the heavens,' right?"

"Hiss!"

Xia Lengbai gasped sharply; the sound was exceptionally clear in the viscous air.

The chaotic ice flames and calculations in her eyes were replaced by a sudden, clear, and even colder realization.

Shen Xiao's words were like the final, critical puzzle piece, fitting into the incomplete and terrifying picture in her mind.

The Light Cocoon's reaction was completely different.

It dimmed entirely, as if drained of all its energy.

The dark golden light filaments hung down listlessly, the curled-up humanoid silhouette bowed low, and a sporadic wave of intent, filled with endless exhaustion and weathered regret, spread out like a candle in the wind:

"...Yes... but not entirely..."

"A lure... indeed... in order to fish for..."

"Things... from the heavens..."

"We... back then... were all too arrogant... and too foolish..."

"Thought... we could control..."

"The price... has been paid... with all of us..."

"Wrong... it was always wrong..."

The intent grew weaker and weaker. The Light Cocoon shrank to the size of a fist, hovering in place, swaying slightly like a dim star about to extinguish.

It fell into deeper memories, or rather, was triggered by Shen Xiao's words into some kind of self-protective closure.

The danger seemed to be temporarily averted.

Shen Xiao let out a sigh of relief inwardly, but his nerves remained tense. He looked at Xia Lengbai.

This woman was looking at him quietly.

The fanaticism in her eyes had completely settled. The cold calculations still existed, but overlaid on them was a more complex, almost scrutinizing gaze.

That gaze lingered for a moment on the spot on his left arm where the scars had just been exposed, then shifted back to his face.

The ice-cold murderous intent melted away a little.

In its place was a twisted, morbid sense of recognition based on their shared status as "sacrifices."

She slowly opened her mouth, her voice still hoarse, but it lacked that uncomfortable, frantic texture and gained a bit more substantial coldness: "Your 'scars'... are very valuable."

She didn't say "thank you," nor did she show any apology or gratitude.

She merely stated a fact coldly: the "weakness" Shen Xiao had voluntarily exposed had become a new, usable bargaining chip in the current three-way struggle.

"It proves that..."

Xia Lengbai glanced at the silent Light Cocoon,

"We have indeed both been marked by the 'script.' You are a sacrifice; I am perhaps... raw material waiting to be processed. And it... is a failed... predecessor product? Or a witness?"

She tilted her head slightly, a movement that made her look, for a split second... confused?

But soon, that confusion was covered by a deeper coldness.

"Now, we do indeed need to talk about 'cooperation.'"

She said finally, her gaze sweeping over Shen Xiao, then the Light Cocoon, and finally landing back on Shen Xiao. Her eyes were sharp as a knife, as if trying to dissect all his disguises and reach the core,

"About how to... tear away our own 'price' from this damn chess game. Not as sacrifices, and not as raw Materials."

Shen Xiao did not answer immediately.

He lowered his eyes, looking at his arm where he had just pulled back his sleeve.

The sleeve covered the scars, but the cold sensation of being scrutinized and appraised seemed to still linger on his skin.

Cooperation?

With this woman who just wanted to use him as a specimen for slicing and research?

With that ancient Consciousness Entity of unknown origin, filled with fear and regret, and ready to explode at any moment?

This Alliance was more fragile than a spider's thread.

But did he have a choice?

Deep in his Sea of Consciousness, that System Silver Pattern grew slightly warm, sending out a vague throb mixed with warning and a certain eagerness.