Chapter 821: A Shallow Attempt at Soul Depiction
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 821: A Shallow Attempt at Soul Depiction
Inside the villa.
"Perhaps you should give me an explanation. Danielle doesn't seem nearly as dangerous as you claimed," Bai Yu said, her eyes fixed on the witch before her.
"It seems you've already gone to see her, then?"
"Naturally."
"You seem quite confident in your Body Cultivation Heart Sense... What exactly did you learn from her that made you come back here to doubt my words?"
"If I couldn't sense your sincerity, I wouldn't have even let you step foot in this villa. I don't care if that witch is a Rebel Witch or a Betrayer Witch; as long as she doesn't have designs on Xiao Han, I can't be bothered to deal with her."
"Meaning, if she becomes a threat to Xiao Han, you'd be willing to stand on the same side as me?"
"Your phrasing is highly ambiguous," Bai Yu said with a frown.
"But you can feel that I harbor no ill will, nor am I plotting against the relationship between Danielle and Xiao Han," Sheryl said confidently.
"Sigh..." Bai Yu took a deep breath and looked up at Sheryl again. "Tell me your motive. Regardless of anything else, Danielle is still a member of the witches. Don't tell me you've foreseen her betrayal; the Rebel Witch project won't work as an excuse for you."
"Hmm... how should I put it? Jealousy? Don't misunderstand, I mean her jealousy. Or perhaps I should say it like this: I never believe in Rebel Witches born from a comfortable environment. The 'rebel' in Rebel Witch has never been about rebellion for the sake of it, nor is it an excuse for those unwilling to be ordinary, or a pursuit of the unique and bizarre. They are misunderstood contrarians—giants of thought and, more importantly, giants of action. They are not naughty children chasing uniqueness just to satisfy their own selfish desires."
"Your words sound sincere, but I can't just take your word for it and—"
"Oh, no—you seem to have misunderstood one thing." Sheryl suddenly smiled, interrupting Bai Yu.
"What thing?"
"I am stating facts to you, but I never asked you to do anything. Think back, isn't that right?" Sheryl waved her hand, prompting Bai Yu to recall their several past encounters.
From the first time she requested entry into the villa until now...
"..."
"You always seem to be on guard against Rebel Witches, yet you overlook our sincerity. I am merely providing you with intelligence you didn't have, and then I look forward to seeing how you react."
"What is your goal?!" Bai Yu subconsciously clenched her fists, staring at Sheryl as she asked each word with deliberate weight.
"Because... you are Xiao Han's girlfriend~" Sheryl said with a smile, uttering a sentence that caught Bai Yu completely off guard.
And the next few sentences stirred emotions in her that hadn't fluctuated for a long time.
"I must say, your little girlfriend's Great Knowledge Seed is truly useful. It allowed me to learn about your past, back when you weren't yet a Transcendent Witch... You haven't changed at all. You still use your shallow perception to do what you think is right, all seemingly to protect Xiao Han? Just like... when you first learned about the concept of Luck. Acting on impulse, with zero growth. A witch like you... is very easily manipulated by others~"
* * *
On the way back.
"I guess I still can't quite let go of the Self-Generated Mana project," I sighed to myself.
From a rational perspective, I shouldn't be having these thoughts.
Whether it's the busywork required for the project or that associated method Hong Chenyi created, none of it is useful to me.
What I should care about most is my understanding of Self-Generated Mana!
Only with a deeper understanding can I know how to perform more profound magic modifications and, subsequently, derivations.
Unfortunately, I still have no clue regarding "Infinite Mana."
Perhaps after I finish the Soul Depiction experiments, I'll have the spare time to dive into the modifications of Self-Generated Mana.
Casting these thoughts aside, I stepped into the Dungeon World.
"Huh? Strange. Is Sister Bai not here?"
With just a slight sweep of my perception, I realized Sister Bai wasn't around. She shouldn't have had classes today... maybe she's at the villa.
"Ling Yi? Is Ling Yi not here either?" I looked up at the massive Heia Tree. Lately, the tree had grown even more lush.
Since the plant spirit wasn't here, she was likely out playing. Although the Dungeon World was a world fragment, its size far exceeded what the eye could see. If she wandered off, it would be hard for me to find her.
"Yulan~"
I called out softly. Moments later, several figures darted out from the flower garden and botanical area on the Lake Heart Island.
"Sister Xiao Han~"
"Whoa, that was fast." I scooped up Yulan, the first to arrive, and sat down on a nearby lounge chair.
I had brought these three Fool's Dreams here myself. Initially, they had stayed at the laboratory under the care of the other sisters.
But after I left, I brought them with me—specifically, here to the Dungeon World.
I let them help me look after the plants here, and they could be friends with Ling Yi, even though there was a significant size difference between them.
However, since Ling Yi also loved drinking Fool's Dream Drink, she quickly struck up a friendship with them.
The friendship between these innocent little cuties really is pure~
I had even set up a dedicated area for Fool's Dream Drink fruits in the plant fields. Both the Fool's Dreams and Ling Yi were experts at tending to them.
"This time, I finally have the time to fulfill my promise to you Fool's Dreams~" I held Yulan up with both hands. Truly, no one could resist a creature as cute as a Fool's Dream.
"Really! Thank you, Sister Xiao Han!" Yulan wiggled her body in mid-air, her excitement almost impossible to hide!
The longing to become a true life form had been ingrained in the Fool's Dreams' cognition from the very beginning. Even without memories, this instinct drove her to constantly pursue that possibility.
"Do you really need to say thank you to your Sister Xiao Han? There's no need for that~ But before we do that, we need to run a few more experiments."
I set Yulan down. After resting for a bit, I pushed open the door and entered the small cottage.
In a corner of the cottage, there was a pile of boxes that hadn't been there before.
These boxes were alchemy items similar to storage equipment, yet different.
Standard storage equipment cannot hold living things, but these alchemy boxes could.
The principle was similar to a house solidified with Spatial Expansion Runes; they had a certain amount of initial space inside, which was then solidified and expanded with spatial runes.
Consequently, these alchemy items that could hold living things were much larger than typical storage equipment and inconvenient to carry. They also couldn't be nested inside other storage equipment—unless you wanted the life forms inside to die.
Generally, these alchemy items were called "Beast-trapping Boxes." The name made their primary purpose clear: they were used to contain strange creatures.
And these boxes contained the strange creatures I had purchased.
These creatures all originated from the Witch Secret Realms. Many of those realms were filled with gifts sent back from outside the Main World by graduated witches, so they contained many treasures not found in the Main World.
This had given rise to a massive market for extraordinary creatures within the Witch Academy.
Some buyers bought them for dissection to help understand the unique functions and principles of extraordinary organs—biological alchemists, for instance, had a high demand for this.
Some wanted to obtain special, fresh extraordinary materials for drawing Transcendent Rituals or for other uses in extraordinary fields.
Others used them as spell materials for summoning or simply kept them as contracted magic pets.
As for me... all the creatures I bought were life forms with a Soul Essence nature. They were the perfect subjects to help me experiment with Soul Depiction!
Inside these Beast-trapping Boxes were very common flesh-and-blood creatures, such as a large number of experimental white mice, primates like monkeys, birds, and even fish.
There were also less common elemental creatures, like fire spirits or flame fairies born from the fire element.
I had heard of even more peculiar life forms existing in the Witch Secret Realms, but the demand for them was low, and they were only available via pre-order. Capturing live specimens took time, so I hadn't been able to buy any yet.
However, these current life forms were more than enough for me to practice and familiarize myself with Soul Depiction.
I rummaged through the boxes, checking the labels until I found the one with the highest quantity: "Experimental Cultivated White Mice."
This one box contained an entire nest of white mice. Even though the box was only about the length of a forearm, who would have guessed it held over a hundred mice?
The seller said there were about five hundred. I briefly worried I might have bought too many, especially since they needed regular feeding or they might die.
As for releasing these animals into the Dungeon World?
Impossible, and absolutely forbidden!
If these things were let out, they would be a total invasive species. I didn't want this place to become a world of white mice.
The same went for the other creatures.
As for how to handle these lives... to me, they were expendables. Death was simply the final value they needed to provide for me.
This had nothing to do with pity or sympathy.
I opened the box, and several dark shadows darted out. But before they could escape...
In the next instant, all the little guys were frozen in mid-air by a Binding Spell.
I kept only one and threw the rest back into the Beast-trapping Box.
"I didn't expect these mice to be so fast."
I pinched the mouse I had kept out. I noticed its vitality was incredibly resilient; it didn't seem like an ordinary mouse.
"Is it bloodline-modified?" I looked at the mouse and shifted my grip to the scruff of its neck.
It wasn't small either. Excluding the tail, its body was longer than the palm of my hand.
Furthermore, its resistance was very fierce, a stark contrast to the docile white mice I remembered.
"I hope I didn't get scammed."
I bound it in the air again, its short limbs splayed out. Only its head and tail continued to twitch and struggle, letting out sharp squeaks.
I then cast a Silence Spell on it, and the world finally went quiet.
This Silence Spell worked even on the physical structure of a mouse.
Of course, I didn't want to dissect it right now, nor did I want to mess with its physical body. I only wanted to touch the essence of its life.
"Does this feel cruel?" I glanced sideways at the three little Fool's Dreams, only to find them looking on with expressions of intense curiosity.
"Um... is Sister Xiao Han going to do something to them?"
"If I told you that I eventually have to kill these things, what would you think?"
"Kill?"
The Fool's Dreams looked at the mouse. They lacked a concept of death, so they were a bit bewildered.
"It's okay if you don't understand. You just need to know that for you to become true life forms, some sacrifices are necessary. They are using their lives to pave the road for you to reach the concept of life."
"Sacrifice..."
"Life..."
The Fool's Dreams mumbled the words and nodded, though it was unclear if they truly understood.
The reason I suddenly said this to them was mainly to see if they were repulsed by such behavior. This would determine whether I needed to conduct these experiments behind their backs.
In any case, the process of conducting life experiments could not be skipped.
Fortunately, the Fool's Dreams didn't find it unacceptable.
I turned my gaze back to the mouse.
Runes wove together into a ritualistic effect. As my focus intensified, the runes of the Soul Depiction technique, augmented by the power of the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art, began to surge.
After all, whether it was Mimicry Soul or Soul Depiction, these techniques were all derived from the Great Wisdom Enlightenment Art.
Once the Soul Depiction technique was fully active, I could feel the mouse's Soul Essence fall under my "domination."
The mouse before me was like a toy I could manipulate at will, devoid of any ability to resist.
With the weaving of the most critical Primitive Soul Rune—a miracle forged from the moment Ariel ascended to Transcendent and her Soul Essence transformed into a Soul—the miracle would be recreated through the Soul Depiction technique!
"Hiss... is this a success?"
After a long while, I watched the mouse become active again. In my perception, I could feel that this mouse was different from before. Its life essence had undergone a metamorphosis and ascended into a Soul. But the feeling was very strange.
The mouse didn't even seem like a mouse anymore.
"Memory!"
I quickly figured it out. When a Soul ascends from Soul Essence, its life essence remains that of the mouse, but it has transformed from Soul Essence to a Soul. The body still fits this Soul, but this mouse will never be the same mouse as before.
Even I couldn't define whether it was still the original "it."
Perhaps... it wasn't.
Perhaps it was.
But... there was no evidence to prove it wasn't the original mouse, even if it lacked its previous memories.
Memory was an interpretation that had been discarded during the previous Life Elucidations; only the Soul could determine that "it" was still "it"!
As for memory... it was an anchor for consciousness and cognition, or rather, an anchor to reality, society, interactions, and interpersonal relationships.
Does a person with amnesia cease to be the person they were?
They have simply lost the anchors to their original social relationships.