Gu Ding's Advancement Once Again
In the deepest Soul Space, there is a door, and on the other side of that door lies the soul's hiding place.
Kratos quickly found the door where Gu Ding's soul was hiding—no, to be precise, he saw not one door, but three.
Standing before three completely different doors, Kratos was puzzled. "This kid has three souls? Is it a triple personality? Or are there two other symbiotic hosts within him?"
The three doors were completely different in appearance.
The door on the left was a magnificent golden gate, its bas-relief depicting a coiled dragon with eyes like two emerald gems. It looked incredibly majestic, almost lifelike. Above the doorframe were various strange birds and beasts, none of which even Kratos, an old man who had lived for over eight thousand years, recognized. He guessed that the depictions on the doorframe must be of extinct ancient creatures, which explained why he hadn't seen them before.
The middle door was a simple wooden door, so plain that it didn't even have a single pattern. Beside the door frame grew fragrant green grass and small white flowers. Kratos felt very happy smelling that fragrance.
The door on the right, constructed entirely of black metal, exudes a chilling aura. Strange characters are carved upon it, varying in size, shape, and angle. The patterns on the doorframe resemble countless fine chains, or perhaps cryptic writing from another world, adding to the eerie atmosphere.
Kratos hesitated. What he truly wanted to enter at that moment was the door on the right, because it instilled a sense of mystery in him, and he longed to know what lay behind it. But his instinct for danger also warned him not to push open that door, lest he face death. This feeling struck Kratos as absurd; the owner of this body was just an ordinary person. No matter how powerful their soul, it was nowhere near his own.
Thinking of all this, he reached out and pushed towards the black door. Just as his fingers were about to touch it, a terrifying feeling suddenly swept over him, making him tremble. He knew very well that death was approaching. He had once had a near-death experience. At that time, he had also had this feeling, as if an invisible scythe was held to his neck, and if he was not careful, his head would fall to the ground.
He quickly withdrew his hand, took a step back, and involuntarily shivered, his eyes warily fixed on the door. "This feeling... it's so eerie..."
He withdrew his gaze and turned to the small wooden door beside him. "Let's go through this door first."
Kratos reached out and touched the wooden door, then pushed it open with little effort and stepped inside.
The first thing he saw was the blinding sunlight. Kratos squinted slightly. He was a little uncomfortable with the sudden bright light, as the entire Soul Space had been dark.
His eyes quickly adjusted to the change in light, revealing a clear sky and a lush green meadow beneath his feet, gently swaying in the breeze and carrying the fresh scent of earth.
A boy with short black hair was sitting on the grass. To his left, a small black dog was lying there, chewing on something.
"Strange, why are there two self-aware souls in the Soul Space? And one of them is in a non-human form. Is that dog a symbiote?" Kratos was even more puzzled.
Normally, each person's Soul Space contains only one conscious soul entity. And only this one soul entity can control the body. But in Gu Ding's Soul Space, not only are there three doors, but two conscious soul entities also appear in one of them, which is somewhat puzzling.
However, Kratos, having lived for so many years, understood this clearly. There are generally only three possibilities for a non-human, self-aware soul to appear within a human body. First, the soul's original form is a divine object; after recognizing its master, the Artifact Spirit resides within the master's Soul Space. Second, the soul is a host body that, for some reason, lost its original form and is forced to reside within a human body. The third possibility is that the two are symbiotic, with the non-human soul being present from birth.
Noticing Kratos's arrival, the boy waved to him, "Hey, come sit down!"
Kratos paused for a moment, thinking he must have gone to the wrong door, but he still walked towards the boy.
"I don't get many guests here often; you're the fifth one," the boy greeted him warmly.
"The fifth one? Have you ever seen a boy with dark brown hair and blue eyes?" Kratos was referring to Gu Ding's disguised appearance, and clearly, he didn't recognize that it was just a disguise.
"Never seen it before," the boy said, patting the little black dog's head.
"Have you seen the people in the other two doors?" Kratos asked.
"Yes, I've seen him. Little Black is the pet of the neighbor on the right." The boy nodded.
Kratos glanced at the tiny black dog, no bigger than his palm, chewing on a black chain. Kratos didn't think much of it; in the Soul Space, inanimate objects could be conjured. Giving such a toy to a puppy wasn't unusual.
"This kid is very likely the one who controls this body. His height and facial features look similar, but the difference in appearance is probably due to disguise. Let's kill him first and see if we can gain control of this body. If not, let's check the other two doors." Kratos quickly came up with a plan, and his gaze fell on the boy with some hostility.
Just then, the little black dog snatched the chain in its mouth, swallowed it, stood up, and let out a low growl at Kratos.
At this moment, no one noticed that after Xiao Hei swallowed the chains, the Execution Platform in Gu Ding's Soul Space was slowly changing.
"What's wrong, Little Black?" The puppy's reaction aroused the boy's curiosity.
Just then, Kratos moved. He flashed forward, his massive fist aimed directly at the boy's head. Suddenly, Kratos felt a darkness engulf him, followed by a sharp pain in his wrist. A giant dog, nearly a meter tall, had bitten his wrist. He forcefully shook the dog off, only to find a gash on his spirit form's wrist. Looking around, he found himself in a dark, enclosed spherical space, surrounded by more than twenty giant dogs.
A sense of foreboding washed over him. Just then, the second giant dog pounced on Kratos, pinning him to the ground. A pack of giant dogs then surrounded him, and in less than ten seconds, Kratos's wisp of soul was torn to shreds by their sharp teeth. Only in the moments before he lost consciousness did he realize that the chain the little dog had swallowed was likely the Artifact Spirit he had been tracking.
"Why did that uncle suddenly disappear?" The boy patted Xiao Hei's head to comfort it, but when he turned around, he found that the uncle he had just been chatting with had suddenly vanished.
Outside of Gu Ding's Soul Space, without the support of soul power, Kratos's Will Projection collapsed, turning into tiny specks of energy dust. These energy dust particles seemed to be drawn to something within Gu Ding's Gu Ding, desperately surging into it.
Sea Emperor sensed that the Black Virus within Gu Ding's body was frantically absorbing the free-floating energy dust in the air. This absorption lasted for more than half an hour.
After absorption was complete, the Black Virus disappeared again, while a brand new gene chain rapidly condensed and took shape within Gu Ding's body. The original double helix structure successfully transformed into a triple helix structure. This structure also meant that Gu Ding had become a Sixth-Order Gene Body.
His cells were undergoing frantic mitosis and evolution. Simultaneously, other changes were occurring in the Gene Chain. What attracted Sea Emperor most was the change in the black chain. That black Gene Chain was the color it had turned when Gu Ding obtained Taboo Power; its current change in form meant that Gu Ding's Taboo Power had evolved.
While the black Gene Chain is changing, a new short segment of the gene chain is also changing.
"How strange. With just one advancement, not only did his forbidden power evolve, but he also gained a new ability..." Although the Sea Emperor had always known that Guding's physique was special, he was still somewhat surprised. He silently waited for the changes in Guding's genetic chain to finish.
About half an hour later, the changes in the Gene Chain finally ended. Gu Ding's cell strength also finally stabilized, and Sea Emperor began to examine Gu Ding's physical data again.