Leticia, standing to the side, was a bit confused.
Lin Ling clearly couldn't see Danasuo's light.
So why was she able to say such things to Dashi?
“In that case, just put your trust in me.”
Lin Ling gently patted Dashi on the back.
“Believe that Miss Saintess will create a miracle.”
But as she spoke, Lin Ling was no longer looking at Dashi in her arms.
Instead, her gaze was fixed straight on the spot where Danasuo was.
Leticia's eyes widened slightly.
Because Lin Ling had just said that she couldn't see that ball of light.
Yet now, Lin Ling's gaze seemed to look directly at Danasuo standing there.
“I can't see it,” Lin Ling said softly.
“But just because I can't see it doesn't mean it isn't there.”
In the next second, magic began to gather in Lin Ling's palm.
A ball of light condensed from magic formed in her hand.
At first, the light was just an ordinary magic sphere.
But very quickly, the magic began to solidify in her palm, gradually taking on a crystal-like outline.
Seeing this, Phelan's usually calm expression suddenly shifted slightly.
“Lin Ling, what are you doing...”
“Shh.”
She stared intently at the magic crystal in her palm.
“I don't know why, but I feel like I can do it, so I'm going to try.”
Phelan: “...”
If anyone else had given such a reason, he would probably have recorded it directly as a hazardous action.
But since it was Lin Ling...
It seemed like things where “she felt she could do it, and then actually did it” happened quite often.
In Leticia's eyes, however,
as the crystal in Lin Ling's palm gradually took shape, the ball of light by the window belonging to Danasuo began to flicker and sway, as if drawn by something.
The magic overflowing from the crystal unfurled slowly in the air like ribbons.
It was as if they were searching for something.
Danasuo also seemed to feel the suction.
She looked at the magic ribbon approaching her.
Then, she slowly reached out her hand.
The magic ribbon gently wrapped around Danasuo, as if it had found its target.
Then, the light that was Danasuo was pulled bit by bit into the crystal in Lin Ling's palm.
Leticia watched this scene, her eyes filled with bewilderment.
Lin Ling had just said she couldn't see Danasuo's light.
Yet now, she was able to use her magic to draw Danasuo into a crystal made of condensed mana.
Once Lin Ling began to withdraw her magic, a crystal gemstone appeared in her hand.
The gemstone wasn't large, only about the size of a finger joint.
Inside, a faint light flickered gently.
“Phew~”
Lin Ling looked at the crystal in her hand and let out a sigh of relief.
“It seems to have worked.”
Seeing the crystal in Lin Ling's hand, Phelan immediately took out his recording crystal and began to flip through it.
His movements were visibly faster than usual.
The remaining two stared at Lin Ling's actions, utterly bewildered.
Especially Dashi.
He had absolutely no idea what had just happened.
He had only seen Lin Ling suddenly begin to gather magic, and then a crystal appeared in her hand.
“Miss Saintess,” Dashi looked at her blankly. “Just now...”
Leticia also couldn't help but ask:
“Lin Ling, what was that just now?”
Lin Ling looked at them and said with a serious expression:
“Since we can't see it with our eyes, we just don't use our eyes.”
Leticia: “...”
Dashi: “...”
This answer seemed to explain it, yet explained absolutely nothing at all.
“Yes.”
At that moment, Phelan pushed up his glasses as if he had found the answer.
“We all overlooked the true nature of magic.”
“Lin Ling, it seems we need to re-evaluate your IQ.”
Lin Ling: “Eh?”
“My IQ is finally going to be re-evaluated?”
She suddenly felt a bit happy.
“Wait, why 're-evaluate'?”
“Because the previous evaluation wasn't very high,” Phelan said very matter-of-factly.
Lin Ling: “...Phelan!”
“Let's focus on the matter at hand first.”
Phelan placed the recording crystal in front of everyone.
“The naked eye indeed cannot perceive deceased souls.”
“But a soul that has not yet dissipated is, in essence, a special kind of magic.”
“Or rather, it is a unique state formed by residual consciousness, memories, and magic traces intertwined.”
At this point, Phelan's tone carried an obvious trace of excitement.
“Lin Ling just had her own magic crystal diffuse a structure similar to sensory threads.”
“She then used those threads to capture the special magic in the vicinity that could respond to them.”
“In other words—”
Phelan looked at Lin Ling.
“Lin Ling, you are a genius.”
Lin Ling blinked.
“A genius?”
“M-Me?”
She looked at the crystal in her hand, then scratched her head.
“I just thought I could do it, so I did.”
Phelan fell silent for a moment.
Then he lowered his head to take notes.
“Addendum: Lin Ling's intuition holds undeniable value in high-level magic manipulation.”
“At the same time, due to her lack of theoretical knowledge, the risk remains extremely high.”
Lin Ling: “Hey!”
“Why do you have to add that it's extremely dangerous right after praising me!”
“Because it is the truth.”
Phelan closed his recording board.
Lin Ling didn't bicker with Phelan any further, turning her attention to Dashi.
She handed over the magic crystal in her hand.
“Dashi.”
Dashi looked at the crystal with some confusion.
“This is...”
“Miss Danasuo is inside here right now,” Lin Ling said.
Hearing this, Dashi's body shuddered violently.
He instinctively reached out his hands.
But as if afraid he might break it, his hands hovered in midair, not daring to get any closer.
Lin Ling firmly pressed the crystal directly into Dashi's hands.
“As long as we find Miss Danasuo's keepsake, we can try to wake her up.”
Dashi looked down at the magic crystal in his hands.
He couldn't see the light inside.
But Leticia could see it very clearly.
The crystal had originally been emitting a very faint light.
But the moment Lin Ling placed the crystal into Dashi's hands, that faint light grew noticeably stronger.
It was as if it were responding to Dashi's presence.
Yet, the crystal still didn't truly react.
Dashi stared at the crystal in his hand, as if suddenly remembering something.
He hurriedly ran out.
It didn't take long before Dashi ran back in.
This time, he held several more wood carvings in his hands.
One was shaped like Mrs. Nashi.
Another was a very rough carving of Data.
And there was also an unfinished wood carving of Danasuo.
“If it needs to be a keepsake...”
Dashi said to himself as he placed the wood carvings on the floor.
“These wood carvings should work, right?”
With that, he brought the crystal close to the wood carvings, one by one.
The crystal didn't react when brought near the small animal carvings.
When placed near the carving of Mrs. Nashi, it only flickered gently.
When placed near the unfinished carving of Danasuo, in Leticia's eyes, the light inside the crystal grew visibly brighter.
But it only grew brighter.
The crystal still didn't truly awaken.
Dashi's hands began to tremble slightly.
“No, it shouldn't be this one.”
He looked up, as if suddenly realizing something.
“A keepsake.”
“Yes, that wood carving!”
“It must be here.”
“It has to be in this room.”
Dashi began rummaging through the room.
Lin Ling watched him search frantically, feeling somewhat puzzled.
“Dashi, what are you looking for?”
“The wood carving!”
Dashi's voice was much more frantic than before.
“The wood carving my sister took away!”
“She made a promise with me!”
“She said she'd return that wood carving to me once I got past my childhood phase!”
Dashi felt that Danasuo must have hidden the wood carving somewhere in this room, and he simply hadn't found it yet.
So he began searching through drawers, checking beside the bed, and rummaging through small wooden boxes.
He even opened the box by the window where old hair ribbons were kept.
But there was nothing.
It was nowhere to be found.
Even though he had already searched many times before.
Still, as if refusing to believe it, he searched the entire room all over again.
In the end, he only found a recording crystal of unknown utility.
Dashi stared at the recording crystal in his hand, the light in his eyes dimming bit by bit.
“It's... it's not here?”
“Why?”
“She clearly promised she would return it to me.”
His voice began to tremble.
“Liar, liar!”
As if venting his own helplessness, Dashi violently threw the recording crystal onto the floor.
The recording crystal rolled a few times, coming to a stop right at Phelan's feet.
Looking down at the recording crystal by his feet, Phelan finally snapped out of his excitement over being able to see a deceased soul.
He stared down at the recording crystal.
Then, as if realizing something, his expression shifted slightly.
“This...”
Lin Ling looked at him.
“Phelan?”
Phelan bent down and picked up the recording crystal.
He stared at the residual mana patterns on the crystal, falling silent for a moment.
“This is the recording crystal I gave to Danasuo.”
Dashi snapped his head up.
“What?”
Phelan looked at the recording crystal in his hand.
“Back then, Danasuo came to find me.”
“She asked me about the forbidden spell.”
“So, I gave her the crystal that recorded the forbidden spell.”
Phelan's finger gently brushed over the surface of the crystal.
“But the record of the forbidden spell is no longer inside this crystal.”
Lin Ling was taken aback.
“The contents inside were rewritten?”
“Yes,” Phelan nodded.
“After using the contents of the crystal, someone left a new recording inside.”
At this point, Phelan's voice grew quieter.
“It was likely Danasuo.”
The room fell into an instant silence.
Dashi stared at the recording crystal, his eyes widening slightly.
“Left by... Big Sister?”
Phelan didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he placed the recording crystal on the table.
Then, he injected a bit of magic into it.
The recording crystal slowly lit up.
A faint light projected into the room.
Danasuo's figure appeared in the projection.
She looked even weaker than she had in the previous recordings.
Her face was pale.
Cold sweat beaded on her forehead.
Yet, she still forced a smile toward the recording crystal.
“Dashi,” Danasuo in the recording said softly.
“If you're seeing this, it means Sister probably won't be able to return the wood carving to you in person.”
Hearing this, Dashi's body froze.
He stared at the recorded Danasuo, the magic crystal in his hands glowing faintly.
In the recording, Danasuo seemed afraid that he would cry, trying her best to put on her usual expression.
“Let's make a deal first—no crying.”
“If you cry, Sister will call you a crybaby forever.”
Dashi's tears burst forth instantly.
“Liar...” he muttered under his breath.
“You're crying too, Big Sister.”
In the recording, there were indeed tears in the corners of Danasuo's eyes.
Yet, she was still smiling.
“Sister didn't forget our promise.”
“It's just that Sister was a little greedy.”
Danasuo looked down at her lap.
As if something very important was resting there.
“Because that was the very first time Dashi carved Sister.”
“Even though it's ugly—really, really ugly.”
“Sister likes it very much.”
Dashi bit his lip.
“It's not ugly...”
But the Danasuo in the recording couldn't hear his protest.
She only continued:
“So, Dashi, Sister has to apologize to you first.”
“I'm sorry.”
“Sister can't watch you grow up anymore.”
“And I can't keep teasing you about your ugly carvings.”
“But Sister wants you to live.”
“Live well.”
“Go see the future where the demon race can eat their fill for me.”
“Grow up for me.”
“And then carve even prettier wood carvings.”
By this point, Danasuo's voice had become very faint.
The projection also began to flicker and become unstable.
“And...”
She struggled to lift her head, looking toward the recording crystal.
“If possible, please don't hate Sister.”
The moment those words fell, the crystal in Dashi's hands suddenly flared with light.
As if Danasuo inside was responding.
Dashi could no longer hold it back. Clutching the crystal, he squatted down.
“Liar...”
“Sister Danasuo is a liar...”
“You promised to watch me grow up.”
“Why did you have to leave me with this...”
His voice grew lower and lower.
Finally, it dissolved into stifled, painful sobs.
Lin Ling slowly crouched down and gently stroked Dashi's head.
Standing to the side, Phelan looked at the wood carving shown in the projection, and seemed to realize something.
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