I will burn books and slay gods.

Four days after the old library mission, Chen Ye began to experience "knowledge allergy".

At first, it was just a slight over-association—seeing water in a glass would remind me of the "polarity of hydrogen bonds," and hearing the wind would remind me of the "Bernoulli principle."

But soon, the situation worsened.

When eating, the taste of food triggers complex chemical reactions in his mind; when walking, the rhythm of his steps is automatically converted into a Fourier transform waveform.

The most serious incident occurred in the training room.

When Instructor Gui asked him to use his abilities to analyze the energy structure of a simulated Nightmare, Chen Yegang drew upon his geometric knowledge, and the entire training room suddenly transformed into a massive, suspended three-dimensional coordinate system.

The walls are the X-axis, the floor is the Y-axis, the ceiling is the Z-axis, and each person is a set of coordinate points, including themselves—(x, y, z, t), a data point moving in four-dimensional spacetime.

He stood there, unable to move.

Reason told him that this was just an illusion, a backlash from karmic obstacles.

But on a cognitive level, what he "sees" is the "real structure" of the world.

It wasn't until Lin Su flashed flames in front of his eyes, forcibly interrupting his thought process with high temperature, that he suddenly came to his senses, collapsed to the ground, and was covered in cold sweat.

"Deepening of cognition"

When Lao Li checked Chen Ye's monitoring data in the medical room, he gave a diagnosis: "Your abilities are evolving, but your brain is not ready yet."

The monitoring equipment showed that Chen Ye's soul fire was about 18% brighter than a week ago, but the surrounding gray karmic fog was also nearly twice as thick.

The boundary between the flames and the mist began to blur, a dangerous sign.

"evolution?"

Chen Ye leaned against the hospital bed, his face still somewhat pale.

"All 'aptitudes' will grow with use and understanding. Your 'Sword in the Book' is transitioning from 'referencing' knowledge to 'understanding the essence'."

Old Li pulled up a diagram showing complex cognitive neural mappings. "Simply put, before you were using sentences from books as weapons. Now, you're starting to truly understand the truths behind those sentences. This is both a good thing and a bad thing."

The good thing is that it is more powerful and more accurate.

The bad thing is... truth itself is heavy.

"Those Night Watchmen who followed the path of knowledge in history either became omniscient or went mad."

Old Li turned off the diagram and looked at Chen Ye. "The difference lies in whether they have found their own 'fulcrum'."

"Lever?"

"Archimedes said, 'Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.' For you, you need a fulcrum of thought—a cognitive foundation that will not waver no matter how distorted the world becomes or how knowledge backfires."

Old Li's gaze deepened. "Some people choose mathematical axioms, some choose moral imperatives, some choose a promise to someone first... You have to find it yourself."

Chen Ye stared silently at his hands. The fulcrum…

The training then shifted its focus.

The instructors stopped having Chen Ye engage in high-intensity skill application and instead switched to "control exercises"—completing designated cognitive tasks while maintaining a minimum increase in karmic burdens.

For example, you can use a line of poetry to describe the essence of an object, but it cannot exceed five characters.

For example, memorize one hundred random numbers within ten seconds, and then repeat them after the karmic backlash begins.

For example, maintaining logical thinking in the high-temperature environment created by Lin Su, and writing a critique of Kant.

These exercises are grueling, but effective.

On the seventh day, Chen Ye was finally able to realize "this is an illusion" within three seconds of the knowledge illusion appearing, and used a pre-set thought process to pull himself back to reality.

His procedure was simple: silently repeat his name, recall the color of the flame at Lin Su's fingertips when they first met, and then ask himself a question—"What do I need to do right now?"

Name, specific memories, clear goals.

These three anchor points form a rough but effective cognitive triangle, anchoring him to reality.

"There has been progress."

Lin Su gave her evaluation after the training session.

The corrosive wounds on her arm had mostly healed, leaving only a faint silver scar—the Night Watchers have a stronger ability to recover than ordinary people, but they are left with conceptual scars, which in some cases can even resonate with specific types of Nightmares.

Chen Ye noticed a subtle change in the color of Lin Su's flames.

Faint golden lines have begun to appear in the previously pale white color.

"Are your abilities evolving too?" he asked.

Lin Su raised her hand, and a small cluster of flames rose in her palm, with golden patterns flowing within it: "The second stage of Nirvana Fire. The first stage is 'burning,' and now it's 'tempering.'"

She closed her palms, and the flames disappeared. "The price is that emotional fluctuations will directly affect the stability of the flames. Too strong an emotion, whether it's anger or... anything else, can cause the flames to go out of control."

After she finished speaking, she turned around to pack her equipment, but Chen Ye caught a barely perceptible pause in her tone.

Wang Xiaoming's situation is not so optimistic.

The old library's mission exacerbated its loss of existence.

If he doesn't actively use his abilities to enhance his presence, people will completely ignore him within minutes if he stands in the room.

During training, the instructor had to put glowing positioning stickers on him, otherwise even she often couldn't find him.

"I am researching... methods for stable existence."

Wang Xiaoming said in a group meeting that his voice now requires concentration to be heard clearly, "Causal line ability... can be used in reverse... to 'sew' oneself into reality... but it needs an anchor point."

He looked at Chen Ye and Lin Su: "You two... need to remember me. The clearer the better."

So Chen Ye started writing a diary, recording in detail every interaction with Wang Xiaoming.

Lin Su used flames to engrave Wang Xiaoming's name and characteristics on a special metal plate—the flame engraving carried her conceptual power and lasted longer than ordinary records.

The three of them are all fighting against their respective karmic obstacles in their own ways.

The mission report and analysis results of the fog nucleus samples came out on the tenth day.

The Night's Watch headquarters held a general meeting.

The meeting was held in the strategy room on the fifth basement level.

This is a circular hall with a holographic projection platform in the center and tiered seating around it.

This was Chen Ye's first time attending such a formal meeting. There were about fifty people present, most of whom were strangers to him, but he could sense a unique quality in each of them—a quality that hovered on the edge of rationality and madness.

The instructor, who was using a measuring rod, stood next to the central projection table. Her code name here became her official job title: "Space Surveyor 07".

"Analysis of the Old Library Incident"

She activated the projection, and the magnified effect of the pink mist core floated in the air. "Through conceptual deconstruction, it was confirmed that the mist core was considered to be enhanced. The enhancement method is consistent with the characteristics of the 'Chaotic Resonance' ritual of the Guixu Cult."

The projection switched to a close-up of the ritual array in the library's basement: "The core symbol of the array points to a coordinate. The intelligence department has cracked it—the coordinate points to the old 'Centennial Pharmaceutical' factory in the north of the city, which was abandoned three years ago."