The World's First Monster

"Every living being possesses a soul. Souls and matter are two entirely separate forms of existence that never intersect or interfere with one another. Only through the influence of magic can a soul gain the ability to affect reality."

"Magic is a wondrous power. It can merge with the soul to produce a force known as Spiritual Power. Transcendents can use Spiritual Power to interfere with reality and wield supernatural abilities."

"A soul that has not merged with magic to produce Spiritual Power cannot interfere with reality. A soul can only affect things on the spiritual level."

A lamp was lit on the desk, and Fang Xiu was hunched over it, studying with fierce determination. Fang Xiu could swear that he had never worked this hard even for the college entrance exams. Aside from sleeping, he spent every day conducting and summarizing all kinds of experiments involving supernatural powers—even while eating.

By persistently listening to the broadcasts every day, studying diligently, and striving to improve, Fang Xiu had finally gained a certain understanding of supernatural knowledge and formed some ideas of his own.

Afterward, he immediately began putting those ideas into practice.

On the desk lay the Saint's Ring, which Fang Xiu had always treated as his trump card. The silver ring sat at the center, its graceful curves gleaming as highlights seemed to flow across it beneath the lamplight.

Ever since awakening a talent ability called Soul Domination during his first meditation, Fang Xiu had focused his efforts on souls, especially since there was also a peculiar ghost in his home. The main function of this ability was—creating souls.

That was right. What Fang Xiu was attempting now was something even more lofty and high-end than creating life itself, an act that could absolutely be called poaching from the King of Hell and stealing the Creator's authority: creating souls.

Souls did not come from nothing, either. Fang Xiu had to possess magic before he could create one.

"Just as I guessed, souls and magic are two sides of the same coin. No, that's not right. Souls are born from magic, yet they are a far higher form of existence. They are the light of thought, the light of wisdom."

"Meow!" Fang Xiu picked up the little black cat he had bought that day. It glared at him with a pair of impatient black eyes and kept squirming.

Through its beautiful black pupils, Fang Xiu carefully examined its soul. The Silver Clock emerged once more in his eyes, and the faint aura of some supreme being seeped out, frightening the kitten so badly that it did not dare move at all, as though even its soul had frozen.

The black cat's soul gave off a white glow, though it was itself transparent. Its structure was far more complex than Fang Xiu had imagined; it was not some random thing kneaded together haphazardly.

This was an unimaginably intricate and wondrous creation, the most fundamental mystery of life.

Fang Xiu extended his hand, his fingers moving as light from the magic within the Saint's Ring continuously poured forth.

The light twisted above the ring like smoke, yet also flowed naturally like water, while Fang Xiu's fingers moved as though he were molding clay.

The light kept transforming and condensing until it gradually became a transparent form that emitted a faint radiance.

This was Fang Xiu's thirteenth attempt at creating a soul. However, he had discovered that it was not an easy task. First of all, the souls he created had no physical body to cling to, so they dissipated the instant they were formed. It was like how ordinary people's souls did not remain in the world after death, but were absorbed by the Gaia Consciousness.

To condense a soul capable of existing independently and escaping the pull of the Gaia Consciousness, its Spiritual Power rating had to exceed 7 points. This was the Spiritual Power rating of a formal Professional mentioned in the Otherworld Broadcast. Since Earth had neither magic nor a magic network, it had no Spiritual Power either, so Fang Xiu changed the name and called it Soul Value.

Once Soul Value exceeded seven points, a soul could exist independently. Otherwise, it would need to be like Chen Jin and have a supernatural item protecting its soul.

This time, as soon as Fang Xiu's hands stopped moving, a phantom soul body glowing with soul light floated above the desk. It appeared to be about the size of a palm, but that was only its core. Fang Xiu estimated that if this soul body fully spread out, it could reach the height of a two-story building.

Its soul strength could rival the combined strength of dozens of people.

"I finally succeeded! I finally succeeded!"

Fang Xiu jumped to his feet and shouted like a child. This was the first soul he had created that had not automatically dissipated, and he was beside himself with excitement.

This meant his idea had worked. Perhaps he could find his own path in this world without magic.

Fang Xiu extended a finger. On the spiritual level, invisible to the naked eye, a tentacle extended from the soul in his fingertip and poked toward the other soul.

"Hello! Can you speak?"

Fang Xiu tried to communicate with it. Even a newly born soul should have some instincts, shouldn't it?

However, the soul Fang Xiu had just created showed no reaction whatsoever. It was like a stone. Fang Xiu guided his thoughts and consciousness into the soul, only to discover that it could not accept those thoughts, much less store memories.

Fang Xiu frowned and continued writing down his speculation in his notebook. "Preliminary hypothesis: souls may not possess the ability to store memories."

Fang Xiu suddenly looked up. "That's not right! Chen Jin remembers her memories from before she died, yet her soul strength is far weaker than this soul I created."

Fang Xiu realized he had found another breakthrough, taking another extremely important step along his path of creating souls.

Fang Xiu hurried downstairs, turned on the lights in the hall, then lifted the wooden panel leading to the basement. Lights were on below.

"You are the wind, I am the sand..."

"Entwined forever..."

Before he had even gone down the stairs, the sound of the television from below made Fang Xiu cringe, and goosebumps instantly rose all over his body.

A wide television was playing Princess Pearl, yet there was no one in the room. The once-ruined basement had been fitted with quick-install wall panels and wooden flooring by Fang Xiu, along with a full set of retro-style furniture that had cost tens of thousands. It looked rather tasteful now.

Fang Xiu closed his eyes, then opened them again. Silver light flickered in his eyes, and he immediately saw a little girl in a Western-style dress curled up on a burgundy sofa, staring motionlessly at the outdated television drama.

"..."

"I say, Chen Jin, can't you watch something appropriate for your age? Don't act like some seventy- or eighty-year-old granny."

"I'm already over a hundred years old." After living with Fang Xiu for so many days, Chen Jin had gradually grown accustomed to his presence. Sometimes she would coolly answer him with a few words, though most of the time she either roasted or mocked him. Especially when she ridiculed you with that icy face of hers, you did not even know how to refute her.

"..." Chen Jin's single sentence left Fang Xiu speechless. Fine, you win. Fang Xiu had nothing to say. At his age, he was not even qualified to be her grandson.

Fang Xiu stopped talking and simply sat across from Chen Jin, looking her up and down. The shadow of the Silver Clock shone from his pupils, seeming to pierce through her soul and see straight through every part of her. In truth, that was exactly what Fang Xiu was doing.

One moment he turned to look at her left side, the next he stared at Chen Jin's calves, then intensely examined her eyes. After that, he took his notebook and circled around Chen Jin, stroking his chin and nodding as though he were evaluating her.

"What are you doing?" Chen Jin was no longer watching television. Her gaze shifted toward him, and her face grew even frostier beneath Fang Xiu's unrestrained stare.

"I'm studying what is special about your soul. Why is it different from cats and dogs?" Fang Xiu had no idea that his actions made him look like a complete pervert. He was utterly immersed in his pursuit of the mysteries of the soul.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! As soon as Fang Xiu finished speaking, pillows, cups, the remote control, and a broom all flew at him, driving him out of the basement in utter disarray.

Then the door was locked from the inside, leaving even Fang Xiu unable to get in.

"Hey, this is my house." The moment Fang Xiu said that, the door opened. The slipper he had abandoned in his panic was tossed out and smacked him in the face.

Fang Xiu returned to the study with a shoeprint on his face. Although his behavior just now had been a little perverted, he had finally figured out some of the differences in Chen Jin's soul.

Compared to an ordinary soul, her soul's structure was more complex. It was divided into seven or eight parts that combined together, much like how a human body possessed different organs. It seemed as though some change had occurred under the illumination of supernatural spiritual light—or perhaps her soul had simply been different from ordinary people's to begin with.

Of those seven or eight parts, some represented intelligence, some communicated with the outside world, some stored memories, while others were the condensation of emotions and desires.

"What is this? The Three Souls Seven Spirits?" Fang Xiu felt that this seemed somewhat similar to the souls described in ancient legends.

At the desk in the study, Fang Xiu reshaped the first soul he had created, adjusting its structure according to the inspiration he had gained from Chen Jin's soul structure.

Once he started, five or six hours passed. Fang Xiu did not stop until after three forty in the morning.

"I'll try it tomorrow and see whether it possesses intelligence and can store knowledge. If it can, that means I've created a true soul lifeform."

Fang Xiu stretched, then covered the soul on the desk with a glass cylinder.

Not long after Fang Xiu left, a clatter came from the study, followed by a shrill cat's cry that vanished in an instant.

Fang Xiu was exhausted, and he fell asleep as soon as he lay down. The bedroom was also far away, so he did not notice what was happening over there at all.

A black cat had knocked over the glass cylinder in the bedroom. The artificial soul, which had originally been motionless and shown no reaction, immediately expanded from the size of a fist until it filled the entire bedroom.

White soul-light flowed and swirled, centered around the black cat.

The entire study seemed to have become a white galaxy, starlight glittering throughout it. Vast soul power enveloped the black cat, and in that instant, its originally black pupils slowly began to glow white as well.

In the blink of an eye, the artificial soul poured into its body like a great river.

The cat's memories and the artificial soul completely fused into one. The gaze of what had once been an ordinary cat now became lively and full of emotion. An ordinary cat's intelligence might only be equivalent to that of a two- or three-year-old child.

But at that moment, this cat seemed to have become like a human—perhaps even smarter than one. It sorted through all the memories in its mind of interacting with humans. Its months of experiences, the sounds of human speech, and everything in this world were reorganized in an instant.

It jumped down from the table, headed down the stairs, and then leaped out through the open window and railing.

As it left, it looked back at the little building, ridicule in its eyes.

"Tch, stupid humans!"