Lin Yi subconsciously wanted to dodge, but he restrained himself.
The two scales, after being repeatedly kneaded by Old Mo, had turned into something very soft and mushy, feeling cool like ice powder when applied to the face.
Old Mo kept operating, as if he was helping Lin Yi apply a facial mask.
"Rumble, mumble mumble? (Old Mo, what is this?)" Lin Yi’s mouth was so squished by Old Mo that he could hardly speak.
"Stop clucking... It will be done soon." Old Mo’s hands moved faster, and gradually, the mask-like material covered his entire head.
"Done." Old Mo finished, sizing up the current Lin Yi and nodding with satisfaction, "What did you just say?"
Lin Yi gasped for air: "I said... what is this?"
He touched his head; this "headgear" felt on his face was not suffocating at all. Contrarily, it was very breathable and occasionally gave him a refreshing feeling as if he had put on a layer of mint-flavored... white stocking.
Thinking this, he instantly felt a bit perverse.
Old Mo said, "I’ve altered your appearance. When you reach the Art Building, as long as you anchor your identity, those strange things won’t be able to lock onto your identity."
"’No identity’?" Lin Yi touched his face, then shockingly discovered that although his hand reached his nose, he couldn’t feel its presence, nor any other facial features or even hair.
He repeatedly touched his face, looking like he was rubbing a smooth meatball, comical and laughable...
"Old Mo, I, I, I... What about me now?!" Lin Yi panicked.
"I now... have I turned into the appearance I once saw in the Mirror?"
That appearance was the one that only appeared in Phantom Vision—his own "Faceless" version!
Old Mo observed the distant storm while saying, "You can remove this stuff using supernatural power, or just wait to sunbathe it tomorrow... By the way, what time is it now?"
Lin Yi looked down at his wrist: "It’s 23:04..."
Old Mo slightly nodded: "Not bad."
Although he said this, Old Mo’s hand had already reached for the handle of the pig-killing knife, holding the handle while his index finger tapped a rhythm, as if calculating something.
Lin Yi thought for a moment, then asked, "Old Mo, you said before that once we got out of that path, you were going to tell me the real name of ’Big Snake’, is it convenient to tell me now?"
Old Mo thought for a moment, then slowly nodded his head and slowly uttered a name: "Fantom av meaning... "Shadow of Origin."
"As the name suggests, it’s ’the phantom of the Root.’"
"But, as the ’Shadow of Origin’ lost its true name, it fell into the fissures of the layers and became a sort of mysterious creature reliant on instinct, or, let’s say, basic behavioral logic, and the Zealots gave it another alias—’Ymir’s Shadow.’"
"Ye, ’Ymir’...?!" Lin Yi exclaimed in shock.
"Strictly speaking, with ’Shadow’." Old Mo corrected, "Ymir is the giant snake that coils around the Central Court in Norse Mythology, also referred to as the earthly giant python, but that’s not the actual entity, nor is it to say, ’Shadow of Origin’ turned into ’Ymir.’"
Despite this, Lin Yi was still not lightly shocked as he knew that the more a name is related to mythology, the less likely it is to be casually named to something in "reality."
Old Mo observed the trajectory of the storm enveloping the Art Building, while hurriedly educating Lin Yi: "Initially, a group of ’Believers’ entered the ocean, sailed out to explore the ocean, but ended in complete defeat..."
"The ’Believers’ who escaped back, based on their limited observation and their understanding of the ’Root’, outlined the initial concrete object, the original version of the ’Shadow of Origin’..."
"’Madmen’ tried using various names for it, but in fact... according to the most credible Classics ’Root Origin Chronicles,’ no ’Believer’ actually ever touched the ’Root’; it was all just crude depictions akin to an ant objectifying a leg."
"’Ymir’, ’Feathered Serpent God’, ’Hydra’, ’Xiang Liu’, even ’Leviathan’... all were depictions of the sea by ’Believers.’"
"They are very likely forms of the ’Root’ observed in different times and spaces, recorded by the ’Believers’ and thus derived into mythical creatures..."
"The original ’Shadow of Origin’ was obliterated during the Doomsday eruption, but the Zealots, based on the secret scriptures passed down from the ’Believers’, along with handwritten notes left by Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and others, using solidified supernatural power for a ’Super Concept’ sculpting method, sketched and reshaped ’it’ into the fledgling shape you see now—this ’Big Snake’."
"It is the ’Shadow of Origin’, also known as ’Ymir’s Shadow’, and has many names, but regardless of which name, none is as straightforward and blunt as simply calling it ’Big Snake’."
"Absolutely do not call its real name in the Corpse Bone Forest and the Matrix area, and it’s best not to call ’Ymir’s Shadow’ either, but once you leave, it doesn’t matter."
Lin Yi’s thoughts churned, he took a deep breath, then said: "Since that ’Ymir’s Shadow’ is also called ’Big Snake’, does it look like a giant snake too?"