The Legend of Holy Soul Village's Soul Saint

Do the Fireflies...?

Hearing the song hummed by Riko, Zhou Qing's mind returned from its slumber, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he began to speculate more about Abyss Town, which had preserved more ancient information than other places, and about the ancestors of humankind throughout the Douluo Continent.

After a while.

The Rabbit Girl had calmed down, released Riko, wiped away her tears, and said, "Thank you."

She then continued telling the story of Namiki.

After reaching the Fourth Layer, Namiki's tragedy truly began. Amidst the brief joy of her child's birth and the agony of the child being taken away, killed, and devoured, despair gradually drove Namiki to the brink of collapse.

Gradually, Namiki's body began to grow in a non-human direction. Her human form gradually disappeared, and she became a round, tall, vase-shaped sphere. The place where the child was born formed a huge hole, and her facial features gradually disappeared. Her two eyes turned into dark holes on either side of the huge hole.

Romantina suddenly remembered something and said, "This treehouse looks like Namiki?"

"Yeah."

The Rabbit Girl nodded. "This treehouse was designed based on Namiki's appearance."

"And then what?"

"Riko asked."

"After that, everyone survived by eating Namiki's Child, and every day they collected floating animal bones from the Sea of Corpses to build a ship that would allow everyone to travel together to the Fourth Layer of the Steel Base."

Namiki still had a faint smile on her face.

"However, this is not easy, because no one dares to go to sea, and most of the bones that can float on the ocean are relatively fragile. Only the bones of a few monsters can be used as materials to build ships, so it is a long process."

"Finally, one day, someone broke down and, filled with guilt towards Namiki, jumped into the Sea of Corpses and committed suicide."

"The leader realized that they couldn't continue like this, otherwise everyone would become monsters and lose their humanity. But what should they do next?"

"Perhaps the Abyss Ruins still favor us, or rather, they want to continue tormenting us—"

"That Soul Saint who went to explore the lower levels has actually come back up! He was covered in blood and exhausted all his strength, swimming to the shore of the Fourth Layer, where we found him... No one knows exactly how many levels he went down, but when we all thought he wouldn't make it, something that looked like a seed that he was carrying emitted a faint light and was actively healing his wounds."

"Explorer have pride and will not take the things of other living Explorer... Under our care, the Soul Saint came back to life. After learning that we had helped him, and after understanding Namiki's situation and everyone's guilt, he gave us a Heart of Dreams as a way of repaying us."

Heart of Dreams?

Based on the fact that the first Heart of Dreams turned Namiki into a monster, this thing might actually be able to grant wishes, but the way it does so is not entirely in line with what people imagine.

Zhou Qing guessed, "This second Heart of Dreams was probably used on Namiki, right?"

"Yes."

The Rabbit Girl confirmed Zhou Qing's guess, "To make up for everyone's guilt, the leader has decided to use this Heart of Dreams to restore Namiki to her original form."

"But in the legends, no one has ever used two Heart of Dreams... And after that, Namiki's body expanded once again, occupying nearly one-tenth of the Sea of Corpses. Its body also formed its own space that could be inhabited, but once inside, one would lose their human form and become Fallen One."

"Perhaps this is Namiki's curse on all those who ate her children, as she has lost her self-awareness. Because after becoming Fallen One, they did not gain excessive power. On the contrary, most of them lost some memories, their bodies were not very symmetrical, and they were still affected by the Ascension Curse, but they retained the purest emotions."

"Moreover, that space also has its own rules. If the Fallen One want to survive, they must pay a corresponding price, that is, Equivalent Exchange. No matter what they get, they must give something in return. If they want to live in Namiki's body and get protection, they must pay a price. In other words, the Fallen One try every means to obtain value from the outside world and provide it to Namiki."

"Otherwise, the rules within that space would tear apart Fallen One that violate the rules of Equivalent Exchange."

Rule?

Equivalent Exchange?

Zhou Qing frowned, realizing that this Abyss Ruins was more dangerous than he had imagined, and even doubted whether the original creators of this place had reached a level of science and technology capable of utilizing and creating rules.

Two Heart of Dreams transformed a human into Fallen One, creating a self-contained space within him that could convert others into Fallen One and establish abstract conceptual rules such as "Equivalent Exchange."

If true, it's simply unbelievable!

The Rabbit Girl continued, "All the Explorer, filled with guilt towards Namiki, willingly entered Namiki's inner space. Only Namiki, filled with guilt, dared not look directly at Namiki and chose to live alone. She was fortunate enough to meet an Explorer named Odin and begged her to take her to a lower level."

Riko exclaimed in surprise, "Is it Odin the White Whistle?"

"Hmm, is she still stationed on the Second Layer?" the Rabbit Girl asked somewhat nervously.

"Mm." Riko nodded.

"That's good···"

The Rabbit Girl was somewhat delighted, and then continued to tell her story, "After Nami went to the Fifth Layer, she took the initiative to separate from Odin. After all, she was burdened with sins and only wanted to escape the Fourth Layer. She also wanted to rely on her own strength to find a way to truly restore Namiki and everyone else."

"But no matter how hard I tried, I only reached the Sixth Layer... During the ascent, Na fainted on the Fourth Layer..."

"When Na awoke again, she lay on top of Namiki's lump of flesh, her body changed, growing rabbit ears and fur... I, too, became Fallen One. Namiki seemed to retain a sliver of consciousness, conveying a message to me: she had a real child, a child who could truly be called Life, using her and my blood! She possessed Immortal Body and power comparable to Titled Douluo among Soul Master in the outside world, but at the same time, she also inherited all the memories of Namiki's suffering."

"Therefore, she hated all the Fallen One living inside her mother's body and wanted to break through the transparent protective membrane outside that door and kill all the Explorer who caused her mother pain."

"Her mother protected the Explorer, but Namiki could no longer speak or transmit spiritual messages... Perhaps, Namiki's last consciousness was used to create a protective membrane to prevent me and her daughter from entering."