Soul Issue
The Gourmet World was another world in the astral plane.
Rumours from ancient times had it that even a brook or a rock would taste supremely delicious there.
This was the pinnacle of enjoyable food, and many Magi could not resist the temptation.
Based on Leylin’s knowledge, the Warlock Union had yet to have any records of a successful attack on another world, which made these all the more precious.
Seeing the delicacies in front of Leylin constantly being consumed, Paul’s robotic face seemed to be in anguish, especially the soul force that unwittingly showed his emotions. Leylin was even more cheerful as he ate quicker.
Though his main body wasn’t here, the pleasures felt by soul force could be connected to the main body.
When Paul could no longer endure this, Leylin raised his head properly, “Lord Paul! Seems like we can now discuss the issues about trading the spoils…”
The look of grievance Paul had on his face had Leylin laughing inside, but his expression was even more serious. Paul wanted to vomit blood.
……
After coming out from Paul’s place, Leylin’s expression still held a smile.
Though he had taken a hasty look, the A.I. Chip had already remembered the prices of everything in the trading market, giving Leylin a price list of objects used by Morning Stars and above.
With this list, Paul’s thoughts of taking advantage of Leylin’s unfamiliarity with market price was thoroughly fruitless, and he had even suffered a loss of great amounts of treasures from the Gourmet World.
Recalling his expression of wanting to vomit blood, Leylin felt the urge to laugh.
Of course, Spirit Circle was still Ouroboros Clan’s ally, and Leylin had not gone too far. At least, when he had been eating the meat, he’d thrown a few bones to Paul.
When he sold off some of the treasures from Scarlet Crescent at a slightly discounted price, Paul’s dead expression eased slightly. That said, the other party would definitely not dare deceive him anymore.
*Boom!* Yellow earth exploded, and a giant black figure strode forward, each step causing the surroundings to tremble.
“As expected, a puppet is easier to use than soul force!” Leylin controlled the giant black steel puppet, extremely satisfied.
The soul force from before had only been a virtual body, and he could not do many things. On top of that, the energy consumption was high. Now that he had the puppet, it was like giving his soul force a layer of clothing. Not only could he do things that needed a corporeal body, even the energy consumption had lessened.
This puppet was obviously not Paul’s. Leylin had teleported one over himself.
After negotiating the trade, the two of them had immediately used the astral gate and sent over the items, finishing the trade in an instant. The teleportation fees were meagre, but Paul took responsibility for that. Leylin had taken the opportunity and sent over a puppet for himself, causing Paul to roll his eyes.
“Something I made myself is easier to use. Besides, I don’t dare touch any of that octopus’ things. Who knows what soul scrying techniques or traps are inside…”
Leylin was still quite fearful towards the most mysterious branch of bloodline Warlocks, the spirit Warlocks.
“Hm?!” Leylin’s eyes flashed, having discovered something. His body turned into a black figure, colliding into a little hill like a savage beast.
*Boom!* The hill exploded, sending rocks flying everywhere. While dust flew everywhere, a human figure flew out.
The human figure looked thin and small, and its body was translucent. One was somewhat able to see the scenery behind it.
“A vengeful spirit that possesses worldly malice?” Leylin burst out in laughter, soul force forming a large hand and grabbing it.
By the time his opponent came before him, Leylin realised that the vengeful spirit looked to be only 13 or 14 years old. It looked like a delicate boy, eyes still holding fear.
“The environment isn’t bad here, and the vengeful spirit created here is considered top-rate even in the central continent. Should I take over a place and build a spirit experimentation area or something…”
Leylin watched the boy’s faint figure in the large hand, stroking his chin.
This vengeful spirit was completely intimidated by Leylin’s terrifying pressure, and could only tremble.
“Hm? Is this power the malice of the world?” While grabbing the boy, Leylin felt a strange force emitting from the body, and even trying to invade his soul force.
This was a force similar to the force of destiny, yet at the same time also similar to Gaia’s extensive will. If not for Leylin having researched deeply into these two areas, he might not even have noticed it.
“If it was a complete and powerful world, even Morning Stars would be unable to handle its malice. It’s a pity…”
Leylin sighed. This was merely a plane, and it was broken. Even Gaia’s will had been defeated at the hands of Radiant Moon Warlocks till it was in tatters. If not, it would not have only this amount of strength.
Gaia’s will was, in actuality, the culmination of common trains of thought amongst living bodies, and even non-living bodies such as the earth and ocean.
Now, however, all intellectual beings of this plane had been exterminated, leaving behind vengeful spirits, and allowing Warlocks to take over more of it.
Perhaps… Tens of thousands of years later, humans would thrive. Gaia’s will, which would be protective of the new humans and Warlocks’ benefits, would completely replace the original will here, and beat these down.
“This sort of malicious intent depends on the entire plane. If a new Gaia is not created, or the area is completely destroyed, this situation will not completely die away. It will be very troublesome…”
Leylin’s brows furrowed. Soul force began to quiver with a specific undulation, immediately shaking out this malicious intent.
*Bang!* The faint figure of the boy in his hands immediately looked sinister and quickly exploded, turning into streams of black air and dissipating.
“How long will it be until all the mysteries of the soul are laid bare before me?”
Leylin observed the desolate area, sighing ruefully as he commanded, “A.I. Chip! Show me the progress on the simulation of the fifth level of Kemoyin’s Pupil!”
[Beep! Progress of 5th level of meditation technique, Kemoyin’s Pupil: 30%!] The A.I. Chip loyally intoned. This number had been stuck here for a long while, and if he did not make any breakthrough, he would probably not be able to make any progress.
Looking at this number, Leylin sighed silently.
In terms of a Magus’ progress, progress from ranks 1 to 3 relied on spiritual force. From 4 to 6, it would touch on the soul. The even more mysterious rank 7 required the grasping of some power of the world, or in other words— laws!
Leylin was now stuck in the training of the soul.
Kemoyin’s Pupil only had four levels, and there was no elaboration on the later realms. Leylin could only grope around blindly.
However, soul force was hard to understand. Even the A.I. Chip now could not completely come up with the date of others. How could he conduct simulations and the like?
‘Perhaps even rank 5 or 6 Magi or Warlocks might not be able to fully understand the working of souls. In addition, while strengthening soul force, one can only rely on meditation techniques and long periods of time…’
Leylin couldn’t help but recall the Wing of the Sun. Even this top-grade meditation technique’s explanation about souls was not clear. The author had often marked speculation and guesses. That meant that even a terrifying rank 6 being like the Sun’s Child did not have enough understanding of the soul, and only depended on the characteristics of its race to gain power.
‘Compared to Magi, Warlocks use the power of their bloodlines to strengthen the soul. Most of the time, nobody understands how it works. Meditation techniques mostly teach how to activate the power of the bloodline, which is why their knowledge on souls is even lesser than that of Magi! Maybe that’s one of the reasons why, amongst bloodline Warlocks, there haven’t been the appearance of any rank 6 thrones…’
Leylin touched his chin, beginning to make conjectures.
“First thing’s first, I have to completely revitalise the bloodline of the Sun’s Child. With the Wing of the Sun, I might be able to gain something. Next, I have to purchase large quantities of renowned works on souls by Magi and Warlocks, and I must obtain level 5 or 6 high-grade meditation techniques…”
“These two methods are the most practical. For the latter, I can solve it right here!” At the thought of the information at the trading market, Leylin’s eyes brightened.
*Rumble!* Though it wasn’t the first time he’d seen it, he was still awed by the large amounts of soul force and conscients mixed together. The scene of uncountable amounts of data streaking through still left Leylin with his mind blown.
On the giant planet of the Morning Star area, basically all Morning Star Warlocks left a trace of their soul force or will here to conduct trades.
Some wills stayed here, relying on selling information and earning large amounts of top-grade resources.
Leylin noticed keenly that the use of magic crystals had been lowered to the utmost, and they were almost completely unseen.
This was very normal. Among Morning Star Warlocks, who did not have a few or even tens of large-scaled magic crystal mines? This could not be used as something of much value.
The currency here was something else that Leylin was very familiar with— astral stones!
Astral stones had become the norm, and were the currency being used. If Morning Star Warlocks had something they needed, they would usually sell off what they had on hand and, after accumulating enough astral stones, buy it.
For Morning Star Warlocks, astral stones were an eternal, hard currency. They would not depreciate in value.
The information in the market changed completely every few moments, making Leylin think back to the stocks, securities, and futures markets of his previous world. It caused him to feel dazzled.
