Yu Xing didn't respond to River Witch right away. Knowing his personality, Zhao Mou immediately took over the conversation and began probing her about souls.
At the mention of that, the smile faded from River Witch's face, replaced by a troubled look.
"Ah..."
"It's a long story."
According to River Witch, there was an evil art in this world called Puppet Shadow Art, which had evolved from the traditional Puppet Show.
Its founder had been the head of a Puppet Show troupe. Somehow, he had obtained a Forbidden Art of Living Souls unearthed from an ancient tomb. The troupe leader combined the two arts and eventually mastered the ability to draw living people's souls into puppets and use them to act out a performance.
But the art had a limitation: once a living soul entered a puppet, it could no longer be controlled. The performer could only write a story in advance, then lure the souls into becoming immersed in it until they completed the performance—or died in the play.
Once a living soul entered the play, it lost its memories of the real world and became immersed in the identity assigned by the performer. Naturally, after a while, the soul would notice that something was wrong, so the role had to resemble the soul's real self as closely as possible.
After a living soul finished a performance, it returned to its body as though waking from a long dream. Before long, it would forget what had happened, never realizing that the performer had captured its soul.
But this was ultimately an evil art. Forcibly separating a soul from its body caused immense damage to it. And the more times a living soul died in the play, the weaker its defenses became, making it easier for the role in the