As soon as Angel finished speaking, Dox’s eyes lit up again.
If the memories inside the old stone don’t even span a thousand years, then even if it’s a memory torrent, it shouldn’t be that overwhelming, right? I should be able to withstand it, shouldn’t I?
With that thought, Dox quickly leaned in toward Angel. This time he didn’t bother gesturing with his hands; he directly broke through the sound‑sealing set up by the Black Earl and asked aloud, "If it’s less than a thousand years, then with my physical constitution, I should be able to adapt, right?"
"Of course you can." Angel nodded and looked at Dox. "That’s why I asked you first if you wanted to give it a try."
Dox’s heart leapt with joy and he subconsciously wanted to nod, but just as the words reached his lips, he suddenly hesitated. Especially when he saw Angel’s calm, detached expression, a sense of danger slowly rose from the bottom of his heart.
Angel didn’t look particularly pushy, but this act of doing nothing yet doing everything had a clear "please get in the jar" feel to it.
Dox wavered a little.
After thinking it over for quite a while, Dox finally swallowed back down the "Leave it, let me handle it" that had been stuck in his throat.
He knew far too much of Angel’s "black history," and with that premonition of danger in his heart—whether it was inspiration at work or not—it was better to err on the side of caution.
On the other side, Angel watched Dox’s hesitant retreat. Outwardly he showed nothing, but inwardly he let out a quiet sigh. As expected, trying to pit Dox is a difficult job no matter when you do it...
While Angel was silently lamenting, Kaier suddenly spoke up: "I remember reading a paper once. In a symposium that argued ’memory is the essence of life,’ when they defined memory, they included emotions and sensations as part of it. By that definition, if memory can be recorded, then the emotions wrapped up within it should also be counted within the scope of memory, right?"
"If that’s the case, then suppose the memories recorded in the old stone aren’t pleasant at all, maybe they’re even full of extreme emotions. Would the holder of the old stone, under the influence of such negative emotions, end up being affected as well?"
The question Kaier raised instantly drew everyone’s attention.
If what Kaier said was true, then the memories recorded by the old stone were a serious problem!
Angel gave Kaier a long, deep look, then nodded and said, "The old stone’s ’living’ trait incorporates that school’s theoretical framework, so you’re right, there will indeed be a certain degree of influence."
Not only will you be affected, but recording a large amount of memory in a short time will cause your thoughts to become chaotic. In that chaos of memories, there is even a chance you’ll lose yourself—your very core personality will start to waver.
At that point, you may begin to doubt who you are.
That classic question—"Who am I?"—will become a constant refrain, overflowing from the jumble of memories.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but in reality the situation could be even more serious.
For example, Angel had once read a transmigration‑themed novel on the Holographic Tablet. After transmigrating into someone else’s body, there was usually a sequence where the original owner’s memory and the transmigrator’s memory fused.
In novels this kind of sequence is always glossed over in a few strokes, and from the transmigrator’s perspective, he simply takes in all the memories.
But is there another possibility hidden in there: that the transmigrator actually died during the transmigration, and his memory, now without a host personality, flowed into the Otherworld and finally fused with that world’s original body. The original is still the original; he retains a fully autonomous personality. He is simply influenced by the transmigrator’s memories and mistakenly believes himself to be the transmigrator. In truth, his personality has not changed at all—only his memories have influenced him and created an illusion.
Although this is just a conjecture, if the old stone contains too many memories, and the emotions embedded in them are too profound, it really could induce a breakdown of self‑identity.
You could say this is the old stone’s greatest downside: it exerts a certain degree of influence on all cognition, including values, worldview, and outlook on life.
Angel simply hadn’t expected that the first to discover the old stone’s hidden danger would be Kaier.
In fact, Kaier arriving at this line of thought wasn’t without basis. Previously, when everyone signed the True Words Tome contract with the Wise Sovereign, they all revealed their true forms. Behind Kaier’s true form, an abnormal human‑shape silhouette had abruptly appeared. Although everyone, including the Wise Sovereign, said that it wasn’t a big problem and was most likely some unconscious remnant soul attached to Kaier’s body that wouldn’t have any impact—
They were looking at the problem as bystanders, so they were more calm and objective. Kaier, as the person involved, was far from as composed as they imagined. He actually cared a great deal about that strange human‑shape silhouette.
And what Dox had said earlier also made sense. Kaier’s personality and behavior really were a bit odd. Clearly he was a research‑loving Academy Faction type and should have been a shut‑in like Vay, yet while he loved research, he was also keen on exploring various ruins. These two hobbies ran in parallel, and in essence, the two were completely at odds with each other.
In Dox’s view, this contrast was just a bit too much. Maybe he really was being influenced by the remnant soul of that silhouette behind him.
Kaier hadn’t felt anything before, but after hearing Dox’s words and giving it serious thought, he realized he truly had invested far too much effort into exploring ruins. The cost he paid and the returns he gained were completely disproportionate, yet he still had this urge to go explore ruins. And it didn’t matter what kind of ruin it was—once he heard about it, he’d feel itchy and want to go check it out.
Including this time: when he learned there was a hidden "ruin" beneath The Garden Labyrinth that no one had ever investigated, Kaier was beside himself with excitement.
It was as if some kind of Magic Power was compelling Kaier to do this.
That was not normal.
Thus, along the way Kaier had actually been pondering whether his personality and his behavior might really have been affected by the memories of that remnant soul.
With that as his premise, as soon as Kaier heard about the old stone’s effects, he immediately associated it with his own situation, and his first thought was to examine the relationship among the memories, emotions, and personality recorded by the old stone. That was where his question came from.
After Kaier pointed out the old stone’s hidden danger, Dox, standing off to the side, secretly let out a long breath of relief. Good thing—good thing—he hadn’t impulsively volunteered to try it... If the memories in the old stone really caused changes in his very personality, then he’d have taken a huge loss.
With that in mind, the look Dox cast at Angel was brimming with resentment. As expected, this guy had no good intentions—classic "white on the outside, black on the inside," nothing but scheming, sneaky little tricks underneath!
Angel ignored Dox’s gaze and steered the topic back to the mask.
"You should still remember what the Wise Sovereign said: he said he wanted to give us a surprise. If this were an unused old stone, that really would count as a big surprise. But an old stone that’s already been used, even carved into a mask—does that count as a surprise?" Angel shook his head and answered his own question. "Personally, I don’t think it does."
"If this isn’t the surprise, then what exactly is the surprise he was talking about?"
Angel’s question sent everyone into deep thought.
Vay: "So far, all we’ve gotten is this mask. If there really is a surprise, we probably still have to look for it on the mask... Since my lord says the old stone doesn’t count as a surprise, could it be that the memories inside are the real surprise?"
This idea wasn’t just on Vay’s mind; Angel had thought of it too, but—
"If the memory were actually a surprise, Dox wouldn’t have turned it down." Angel answered with a straight face, not feeling there was anything wrong with his own wording at all.
Everyone was stunned for a moment, then quickly reacted. So Angel had suggested twice in a row that Dox put on the mask just to use Dox’s inspiration as a tester... Thinking about it carefully, that did sort of make sense. The reason Dox refused was probably because he sensed danger. If even he felt it was dangerous, then this memory really wasn’t of much use.
Dox also reacted, but at this point his heart was already numb... Heh, men.
"If neither the memory nor the mask is a surprise, then why did they leave the mask here?" Vay asked in confusion.
And there were three trials... no, two trials, before they got these three broken masks. Wasn’t that clearly telling them to piece them together?
Since they were being made to assemble the mask, it clearly meant the mask had to be meaningful. But what exactly was that meaning?
No one could answer that for now, so they could only sigh and move on.