It was because Lin Feng knew that the only way to keep her sane, the only way to ground her mind in a terrifying, blood-soaked world, was to keep her in the kitchen.
He gave her a familiar environment.
He built a mental fortress for her out of recipes and prep lists.
He was holding her little fingers, helping her take her first steps in a hostile universe.
"Host has successfully intimidated the outer disciples," the System had announced clinically.
"You are so brave, little sister," Lin Feng's soul wept with pride behind the screen.
But the tragedy of the fragmented soul was absolute.
Lin Feng's fragment was not a perpetual motion machine.
He was a severed piece of spiritual energy, operating in a foreign dimension, expending massive amounts of power to maintain the System interface and shield her mind from the World Will.
His life fuse was burning down rapidly.
The vision shifted to a few months before the present day.
Ji'an had stabilized her core.
