An Unwelcome Guest

Wang Rui silently waved a hand.

A grayish-white mist spread out before him. Within it appeared a vast, verdant forest, then the image rapidly shifted. The forest shrank smaller and smaller until, in the end, only a ring of trees surrounding the puddle-like Lake of Life remained.

"This was the forest's original fate," he said softly.

"I told you there was something wrong with this world's laws." Electrolux shook his head, a trace of mockery appearing on his aged face. "Human greed... Though I vaguely remember having met noble and selfless humans, the greedy ones clearly still make up the majority."

"If soul beasts do not find a way to save themselves, they will eventually go extinct." Wang Rui laughed self-mockingly, an inexplicable weariness in his tone. "Humans will always find ways to protect soul beasts—for soul rings, for advancement."

"What a pity. This old man cannot remember anything now." With his hands behind his back, Electrolux spoke leisurely. "Why don't you hurry and find this old man a comfortable place to stay? If I sleep well and recover a little strength, perhaps I may remember the past and lend you a hand. Consider it rent."

Electrolux did not directly promise anything.

He was now only a remnant spiritual imprint, residing in another's Sea of Consciousness. He truly did not wish to owe anyone a favor, but neither did he trust Wang Rui.

He still needed to personally observe and verify everything Wang Rui had said about this world.

"Of course." Wang Rui nodded and smiled with narrowed eyes. "Then I shall thank you in advance. I have a piece of Gold of Life that may be of some help in your recovery, Senior."

He had originally worried that Electrolux might try to scan his Sea of Consciousness and extract his memories, so he had deliberately made certain adjustments to where his memories were stored, hiding them deep within his Sea of Consciousness. Now, it seemed the other party had no such intention for the time being.

"How generous." The old man smiled and shook his head. "But before that, should you not tell me what sort of person my neighbor is?"

Wang Rui froze for a moment.

"You noticed that too? It seems I cannot hide it from you." He sighed. "Please follow me."

Wang Rui led the way to the Black Lake and dove beneath the surface.

Within the dark lake water, golden protective bubbles glittered, attracting curious schools of fish to circle nearby, along with the giant squid that followed the fish.

Far away on the lakebed, clumps of aquatic plants could vaguely be seen. Behind layer upon layer of weeds stood the indistinct outline of an enormous mermaid statue. The crudely carved stone figure looked especially ugly in the deep, shadowy waters.

"A very... distinctive aesthetic." Electrolux could not help commenting. "After Spiritual Power materializes, the scenery formed within one's Sea of Consciousness is generally related to the most fundamental and important things in its owner's heart. Even if the scenery can be changed, it is usually still the scene its owner loves and values most... So, can you tell me why squid are so important to you?"

"...Because squid are delicious, and they live in the sea, so I cannot eat them," Wang Rui said gloomily. "It is also a form of easing hunger by gazing at plums."

Seeing Electrolux roll his eyes in a thoroughly undignified manner, Wang Rui knew the old man did not believe a word of it.

"Fine. It is to recreate certain scenes from my memories, and also to remind myself not to forget certain... things." Wang Rui shrugged. No proper person would recreate a magical school attended by an eleven-year-old in their Sea of Consciousness, but he was not exactly a proper person.

"We are here."

They floated above the center of the lake.

The waters at the lake's center were especially turbulent, forming a whirlpool in blatant defiance of natural law. There were no living creatures nearby, only currents mixed with bubbles spinning endlessly.

At the center of the whirlpool was a dark vacuum. Although this place was also within Wang Rui's Sea of Consciousness, it contained nothing formed from his Spiritual Power.

It was like an isolation zone deliberately left behind by the owner of the Sea of Consciousness, meant to block out certain... contamination.

A little girl of eleven or twelve hugged her knees and curled up at the center of that void.

She wore only a knee-length nightgown patterned with little rabbits. She looked as though she had just woken from bed and been thrown into this pitch-black place. Her long, curly hair was pink-blue and hung messily around her body. Her face was buried between her arms, making her features impossible to see.

At first glance, she was a perfectly normal little girl.

But on closer inspection, her body possessed an illusory, translucent texture. Her pale skin and even the nightgown were covered in dense, overlapping cracks.

A dim blue-gold radiance flowed through those cracks, seemingly repelling different fragments and preventing them from fusing together.

It made her look like an extremely expensive piece of crackle-glazed porcelain, one that could shatter at any moment.

The girl's petite body trembled as her faint sobs echoed through the black void. "Mommy... sob, Mommy, I want to go home... Xiaoqi is so scared. It is so dark here. Mommy, Xiaoqi hurts so much. Aunt Green and Uncle Purple, come save Xiaoqi..."

The little girl's miserable cries added an eerie touch to the empty space.

Listening closely, it seemed that the girl repeated only those same lines, without the slightest variation. Like a broken old phonograph, she played the same recording of weeping over and over in fits and starts.

Electrolux's expression also turned grave.

"What a vicious method." The old man muttered. With his knowledge, he immediately understood what was happening. "Someone wants to completely merge that little girl's soul into yours? Fortunately, you reacted quickly and did not rashly touch her with your own Spiritual Power."

Making the souls of two different individuals merge was no simple matter.

If one body contained a sound and complete soul, then part of another person's soul was stuffed into that body, the two souls could not fuse. No matter how much time passed, the souls of the two different individuals would remain clearly distinct.

Unless the soul fragment inserted later had been vastly stronger than the other when it was complete, it could not overcome the body's original owner and seize control of the body.

It was like dropping a stone into a cup of water. Water would remain water, and stone would remain stone; separating the two would be effortless.

But if the soul that had been inserted was not a relatively intact small fragment, but a handful of crushed powder... then things became far more troublesome.

Did you ever do this as a child? Grind a piece of chalk into powder, add water, and stir it into a milky suspension—perhaps after it settled, you could separate out some of the chalk dust.

But if a crushed soul fused into another soul, then separating the two would basically become impossible. And the existence left behind after the fusion would be affected in everything from personality to cognition.

This portion of Tang Xiaoqi's soul had already been thoroughly ground to pieces by Tang San.

If Wang Rui had rashly attempted to remove this tiny clump of soul fragments... No, it should be called soul dust, from his Sea of Consciousness, then the instant he touched that clump of soul dust with his own Spiritual Power, he would be contaminated by Tang Xiaoqi and become a pitiful stitched-together monster of a sacrifice.

"No, ordinarily, methods like this for merging souls are meant to use the fused soul fragments to subtly influence the host's beliefs, or to seize some item bound to the host's soul... such as a divine artifact, or..." Electrolux frowned as he stroked his beard. "That is why one either chooses a strong-willed soul or directly splits off one's own soul. Who would target an immature little girl like this?"

"Then why not guess why this child clearly has no coherent consciousness, yet calls for her mother, calls for her uncles and aunts, but never calls for her own father?" Wang Rui sneered.

As for the explanation in this chapter—well, for example, if a Voldemort fragment were stuffed into Harry, then ten years later, the Voldemort fragment would still be the Voldemort fragment, and Harry would still be Harry. Those things would not fuse.

In the original work, Wang Qiu'er was fused with a fragment of Tang Wutong... It just directly dissolved into her like that, and she did not display any signs of a split personality at all... That is, umm, I firmly believe Tang San did something to Tang Wutong's fragment.

As for when Tang Wutong's fragment entered the Auspicious Beast in the original work, most people seem to believe it happened when Huo Yuhao and the Auspicious Beast underwent their attribute resonance. Wang Dong felt as though something had been split away, but my understanding when I read it was that, because the Auspicious Beast would become emotionally entangled with Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong vaguely felt that her husband had been taken away from her. Damn.

Actually, I do not think it makes much sense for the fragment to have been inserted during the attribute resonance itself. If Tang San's script worked that way, the greatest uncertainty would be that he could not guarantee whether Wang Dong would be present during the resonance. If Wang Dong were not there, he could not tamper with it.

And splitting a soul could not have been a spur-of-the-moment decision. Wang Dong was not some great expert in Spiritual Power; she could not casually split off some soul power as if it were nothing. She definitely would have noticed, and he could not possibly have cut it on the spot.

So if Wang Dong had not been present during the resonance, then he would have split it for nothing. To be safe, I personally think he came up with another method...

Of course, if you think my idea is unreasonable, please do not curse at me. Really, do not curse at me. Let us discuss it peacefully!