Book of Thousand Souls

It had just passed noon, lunchtime, yet there were quite a few people in the Magic Soul Market.

Rayne activated his Soul Eye and swept his gaze around. He would never have guessed it, but seeing it gave him quite a shock.

Looking around, nearly one-third of the people nearby were Transcendents. Their souls had all undergone a transformation, moving about like clusters of unique radiance.

"Are there really this many Transcendents in Longshande?"

Rayne could not help sighing. Birds of a feather flock together. The Magic Soul Market was probably the place in the entire city with the most Transcendents.

As he browsed the market, he secretly observed the surroundings for a while and saw a great many Transcendent professions.

Iron Guards, Shadow Dancers, Rangers, and Gunners were the most numerous. More than sixty percent of the Transcendents belonged to one of these four professions. Next came Berserkers, Martial Artists, and Demon Hunters. These three professions were relatively less common, making up roughly twenty percent of the total. The least numerous were Spellcasters, including Plant Tenders, Warlocks, Mechanics, and Wizards, who accounted for about fifteen percent.

There were also Transcendents from several Churches, such as the Holy Swordsmen and Earth Nuns belonging to the Three Gods Church of the Empire. Rayne even spotted a Night Watcher who worshiped the Moon Goddess. Out of curiosity, he secretly took a few extra glances.

However, there were also Transcendents whose professions Rayne could not identify. They might have belonged to some rare professions unknown to outsiders.

The brief observation of just over an hour opened his eyes to a whole new world.

Aside from Transcendents, Rayne also saw all kinds of Demon Souls: those that flew through the sky, ran across the ground, swam in the water, and many more whose names he could not even call, nor did he know where they had originated. It felt as if he had entered a zoo, and the sheer variety dazzled him.

After seeing enough of them, Rayne gradually discovered that most of the Demon Souls in the market, especially the living ones, were magical beasts, and nearly all of them were Beginner Tier. Intermediate Tier ones were rarely seen.

Most of these Beginner Tier magical beasts had not been captured in the wild but were raised artificially.

The Empire's magical soul breeding farms formed an extremely mature industry, focusing mainly on various magical beasts. In particular, Demon Souls for several common professions almost all came from breeding farms.

For example, the Iron Guard's "Basalt Rhino," the Berserker's "Cordies Island Rampage Bear," the Gunner's "Night Owl," and the Ranger's "Long-armed Imp" already had complete breeding processes, from reproduction to raising, then cultivating them to maturity, identifying their elements, and finally sending them to the market to be killed for their Demon Souls. The entire process took only five to seven years.

Because their supply was stable, these kinds of Demon Souls were relatively cheap, with various merchants selling them for between twenty and thirty Gold Shields.

Species other than magical beasts were rarer, so their prices rose sharply, usually exceeding fifty Gold Shields.

According to the sellers, these uncommon Demon Souls generally came from the Empire's western Death Forest Sea.

It was a vast primeval forest located inside a gigantic basin whose area was equivalent to two or three provinces. Three sides of the basin were surrounded by the World Mountain Range and plateaus, while only the eastern side had a narrow plain stretching for more than two thousand li and leading toward the heart of the Empire.

When many Transcendents first ventured out to hunt Demon Souls, they chose to go to the Death Forest Sea, though they naturally stayed around the outskirts and did not venture deep inside.

In the markets of the Empire's various cities, more than half of the Demon Souls came from the Death Forest Sea.

The Winged Serpent he had seen earlier had been captured in the Death Forest Sea and transported back to Longshande by a Soul Hunter Team after enduring countless hardships.

Rayne casually wandered through a Magic Soul shop.

The shop was not large and had no living creatures inside. It only traded Soul Stones, so it was relatively neat and quiet.

More than a hundred Soul Stones were placed on several shelves for customers to inspect. The shelves were made of metal, with their lower sections firmly fixed to the floor. Rune Arrays were carved across their surfaces, occasionally releasing traces of energy. Clearly, magic was being used to protect the Soul Stones from being robbed or stolen.

Each Soul Stone was about the size of a pigeon's egg and had an irregular polyhedral shape.

Soul Stones were Alchemical Creations. Their raw material was a type of white crystal. Before containing a Demon Soul, they were transparent and looked no different from glass balls.

After containing a Demon Soul, a Soul Stone's color changed according to the Demon Soul inside. They came in every color imaginable, resembling precious gems.

If one approached a Soul Stone and examined it carefully, one would see something like a mass of paint churning and flowing inside, revealing the Demon Soul's strange form and flashes of Element Runes.

Soul Appraisers identified the condition of Demon Souls precisely through these chaotic forms and Element Runes.

With the help of his Soul Eye, Rayne could grasp the true information inside a Soul Stone with a single glance.

These Soul Stones had all been examined by Soul Appraisers before their prices were set. Most of the prices were very accurate, and even the occasional mistakes were not far from the true value.

Although Rayne could find a bargain and earn some profit from the price difference, it was nowhere near as lucrative as that Intermediate Tier Winged Serpent. To avoid attracting attention, he decided not to make a move.

After looking over the Soul Stones, Rayne saw another shelf beside them. It had no Rune Array protecting it, and it was filled with books.

Rayne swept his gaze over it, and one book caught his attention.

"Hmm? Book of Thousand Souls Abridged Edition."

Though it was called an abridged edition, the book was as thick as a brick. Rayne stepped forward and picked it up. It felt heavy, hardly any lighter than a real brick.

He opened the book. Its author was a Legendary Wizard named Taimandola, who was also a grandmaster Soul Appraiser and had devoted his entire life to researching Demon Souls.

The grandmaster's Book of Thousand Souls recorded detailed information on more than a thousand kinds of Demon Souls, including their classifications, tiers, habits, weaknesses, distribution areas, possible elements, and the forms, names, functions, strengths, and weaknesses of those elements. Its contents were extraordinarily comprehensive. Every Demon Soul and element had a beautiful illustration, all hand-drawn by Grandmaster Taimandola.

"Holy crap, this is incredible!"

Rayne was overjoyed. This was exactly the book he needed.

He had the Soul Eye, which allowed him to see through a soul's interior and exterior at a glance, as well as the information about its elements. However, he did not know what those elements were called, so he could not match them with the elements known to people.

Rayne eagerly flipped through the pages and read. He did not forget to photograph each page with his phone and save the images.

According to Grandmaster Taimandola's research, all known Demon Souls in the world had been divided into sixteen major categories.

The most numerous were not magical beasts but insects, followed by fish. Magical beasts ranked only third. The other categories were Birds, plants, aquatic creatures, spirits, aberrations, elementals, undead, humanoids, giants, demons, Demonic Seeds, dragonkin, true dragons, and thirteen others.

Each major category was further divided into many subcategories according to their differences, totaling several hundred kinds.

Rayne was utterly amazed. This was practically a book on biological taxonomy.

Of course, if one used the biology of his previous life as the standard, Grandmaster Taimandola's classification was an absolute mess, with no basis whatsoever.

However, this was a classification of Demon Souls, not biological classification. The two had nothing to do with each other.

Rayne found the Winged Serpent's entry in the book. After comparing the information, he immediately learned the names of several elements possessed by the Winged Serpent in the market: "Air Cut," "Whirlwind Spell," and "Rapid Recovery." Its Wind Element Affinity went without saying.

The entire book was several hundred pages long, and it would take at least a day to finish reading it.

Moreover, this was only the abridged edition. It introduced just over a hundred common Demon Souls in total, still far short of the thousand Demon Souls mentioned in the title.

Rayne closed the book and went to the counter. "Boss, how much is this book?"

The shopkeeper was a thin, wiry old man. He glanced at the title. "Book of Thousand Souls Abridged Edition, 299 copper yuan."

Isn't that just three hundred?

Rayne grumbled inwardly. He had not expected another world to use such a price-gap sales trick, but he still obediently pulled three hundred-copper-yuan banknotes from his wallet.

Three hundred copper yuan for a book was quite expensive, practically worse than robbery. But knowledge was priceless, and he was willing to pay it.

After taking the Copper Liso the shopkeeper returned as change, Rayne asked again, "Do you have the complete edition of the Book of Thousand Souls?"

"The complete edition has twelve volumes. You'll have to buy it at a specialized bookstore, or find it in a large library." The shopkeeper shook his head. He sized Rayne up and explained, "The complete set costs more than ten Gold Shields and is very inconvenient to carry. Few customers buy it, so we don't keep it in stock either. Sorry."

Rayne imagined the twelve hefty volumes stacked together. They could fill an entire suitcase, and merely skimming through them would take ages. Very few people would have the patience to read them all, much less spend money to buy them.

"All right, thanks for letting me know." Rayne left with the book.

After wandering around the market for a little longer, Rayne felt he had seen enough. His stomach was also beginning to growl, so he decided to eat lunch outside the market before heading back.

Halfway there, someone by the roadside shouted from a shop entrance, "Bet on souls! Come bet on souls!"

"The shop just received a batch of Gold-Eating Ants today. They're all alive, and each one costs only one Gold Shield."

"Buy one and kill it on the spot. As long as it reveals a Strength Element, it'll be an excellent Secondary Soul worth at least fifty Gold Shields. There aren't many, so hurry if you want one!"

Rayne stopped walking. He found this soul-betting business rather interesting. It sounded a lot like the stone gambling of his previous life.

But is it real? Is there some kind of scam involved?

He entered the shop and saw several large tables covered with glass jars. There were two or three hundred jars, made of specially treated thick glass. Their mouths were sealed tightly, with only a small hole left for ventilation.

Each glass jar contained a fierce-looking ant. Its entire body was as black as ink, faintly reflecting a ghostly sheen. Its sharply angular body looked as if it had been cast from iron. With its jaws raised and limbs flailing, it radiated an overwhelming sense of strength.

A thick, translucent solution filled the bottom of each glass jar. It was probably a specially prepared potion. Soaked in it, the ants had all become weak and limp. They desperately scraped at the glass with their forelegs, producing waves of sharp, ear-piercing noises.

"Such huge ants!"

Rayne was startled. He remembered that the largest Bull Ants on Earth were only three or four centimeters long.

The Gold-Eating Ants before him were more than ten centimeters long even at their smallest, while the largest exceeded twenty centimeters. They were not only huge but also weighed at least several hundred times as much as Bull Ants. If one bit him, it could probably tear away a large chunk of flesh, or even snap his fingers.

If a swarm of Gold-Eating Ants climbed onto someone and attacked, the result would definitely be gruesome.

There were seven or eight customers in the shop, all gathered around the glass jars and carefully examining the ants they wanted to buy.

"Do these Gold-Eating Ants really eat metal?" Rayne asked. He had never seen this kind of ant before, and he had not found it in the Book of Thousand Souls either.

"Of course." A middle-aged man who looked like the shopkeeper replied enthusiastically, "Gold-Eating Ants grow by eating iron ore. A few days ago, this batch bit three miners to death in a mine north of the city. The mine owner hired an Intermediate Tier Alchemist to deal with them, then packed them up and sold them to us. The entire nest is here. Not one escaped."

"Young man, want to buy a few and try your luck?" The shopkeeper's face was full of smiles.

Rayne did not answer.

The shopkeeper assumed he was hesitating and continued persuading him without pause. "Young man, don't underestimate Gold-Eating Ants. A single one is indeed very weak, but they're genuine insect magical creatures. There's a certain chance that an element will form in their souls, and it's an extremely useful 'Strength' element!"

"Do you know how strong an ant is? They can lift things hundreds of times heavier than themselves. If that kind of strength were placed in a human body, it would be even more terrifying than a giant's. Their potential is absolutely limitless!"

"How many melee professions want the Strength Element? It might not be good enough as a Primary Soul, but it couldn't be more suitable as a Secondary Soul."

"Just now, a customer bought a Gold-Eating Ant containing the Strength Element and sold it for fifty Gold Shields on the spot. If you don't believe me, you can ask everyone."

The shopkeeper pointed at several customers selecting ants. Two or three of them spoke up to agree, testifying that the shopkeeper was telling the truth.

Rayne cursed inwardly. These people are obviously shills. Do I really look that easy to fool?

Perhaps Gold-Eating Ants really did have a chance of revealing the Strength Element, but nothing the shopkeeper said could be trusted. He had heard that same spiel about ants' strength to death back in elementary school in his previous life.

He had already activated his Soul Eye and was examining the ants one by one.

Seeing Rayne's indifferent reaction, the shopkeeper could only walk away and greet another customer who had just entered.

Rayne examined twenty or thirty Gold-Eating Ants in succession but found no elements at all. Moreover, the souls of these ants were extremely weak. It took two or three ants combined to equal the soul of the most ordinary Demon Soul.

As expected, it's just a scam. They actually dare to sell a lousy ant for one Gold Shield...

He cursed the shopkeeper for being a swindler. When he reached the sixtieth or so ant, his gaze suddenly froze, and he shouted inwardly, Holy crap, it really has the Strength Element!

This Gold-Eating Ant looked much like the others. It might have been slightly larger, but it was not the biggest. Who would have thought it contained an element?

After sensing it carefully, Rayne confirmed that this was indeed the Strength Element.

He was wondering whether to buy it and get fifty Gold Shields for free when a Wizard in a long robe lifted the glass jar containing the ant and took it away, handing it to the shopkeeper.

"Holy crap, I was too slow."

Rayne pursed his lips in frustration. The other party was a Third Tier Wizard, and his eyesight was so sharp that he was clearly also an impressive Soul Appraiser.

The shopkeeper happily accepted the Wizard's Gold Shield, then fetched an iron hammer. He poured the Gold-Eating Ant from the jar onto an iron anvil and brought the hammer down while it was still dazed.

Bang!

The hammer rebounded as if it had struck a block of iron, but the ant on the anvil was still moving.

The shopkeeper had long since witnessed the Gold-Eating Ant's tenacity. He swung the hammer and struck it several more times, as if forging metal, finally smashing the ant into a flattened mass of mangled flesh. He then pressed a blank Soul Stone against it.

In Rayne's eyes, he saw the Gold-Eating Ant's soul fly out, seemingly heading toward him.

The instant the soul emerged, it was captured by the nearer Soul Stone. The two sides entered a tug-of-war, and the soul seemed about to be torn in half.

"Damn it."

Rayne had forgotten that he could absorb souls.

Fortunately, he had experimented with his phone earlier and discovered an option to turn off charging in the battery icon, so he hurriedly selected it.

Sure enough, once charging was disabled, the Gold-Eating Ant's soul was immediately absorbed into the Soul Stone. The white crystal seemed to have been injected with ink, turning dark and black.

Holding the Soul Stone, the shopkeeper saw a red rune appear, then vanish.

The smile on his face instantly froze.

The customers around them also saw the strange phenomenon inside the Soul Stone and cried out, "The Strength Element!"

Only Rayne had known in advance, so he was not surprised at all. The Wizard wore a smug expression as he took the Soul Stone from the shopkeeper and continued selecting glass jars.

Several customers were stirred into action. They picked out Gold-Eating Ants and handed them to the shopkeeper. One ant after another was smashed to death, yet not a single one revealed an element.

The Wizard bought two more, but he had no luck either.

Rayne ignored the others and continued observing the ants one by one at his own pace.

However, he examined more than a hundred Gold-Eating Ants without finding another one carrying the Strength Element. He then patiently checked dozens more, but still found nothing.

Finally, with just over thirty left, Rayne had given up hope. Just as he was about to assume this was another ordinary Gold-Eating Ant, three runes suddenly flashed before his eyes.

"Holy crap! Holy crap, crap, crap, crap, crap..."