Soul Echo

Moyu had once looked down upon this world from the perspective of a reader.

Now that he had transmigrated and become a member of this world, he felt no sense of superiority, nor did he claim to have a thorough understanding of it.

After all, because of things like mahjong...

That so-called reader's perspective had only shown him a partial view of the world's map, let alone the vast, unknown lands beyond it.

Therefore, under the premise of staying indoors, Moyu believed it necessary to deepen his understanding of this world through extensive reading.

Swamp Man was one of the fantasy novels he had read to lighten his mood, themed around "souls" and "what am I, really?"

The story began with a person struck dead by lightning while passing through a swamp.

However, the lightning and the swamp reacted in a bizarre way, instantly replicating a creature identical to the deceased in form, mass, and even soul.

Starting with this kind of "reset" as the opening, the story posed a question—

If the preservation of a soul grants a new beginning, am I still me?

Moyu stood before the bookshelf, flipping open Swamp Man.

He had read it not long ago, so he still had a fairly clear impression.

His slender fingertips brushed past one page, then paused at a certain spot.

"Shadow."

Moyu stared at the word that stood out most to him among the lines of text.

A shadow is the vessel for replicating a soul...

But what if it wasn't replication, but fusion?

Moyu pondered, then turned his gaze to his own shadow, his thoughts stirring.

The faint amount of latent aura that had just recovered inside him slowly flowed out from his aura nodes, merging into the shadow.

Mimicry—

With the infusion of "aura," Moyu's shadow first separated, then gradually transformed into a three-dimensional form, constructing a pitch-black humanoid identical in volume to Moyu.

"This is my Nen ability, but it's still just a prototype..."

Moyu carefully examined the motionless, mannequin-like black figure before him, muttering to himself:

"The burden of using the ability has clearly lightened a lot, and the aura consumption has also decreased."

The first time he used the ability, the shadow only manifested a bubble-like form, lasting three seconds, but it nearly drained all the "aura" inside Moyu.

This time, Moyu only consumed a small portion of his "aura" to mimic a humanoid form, and its duration exceeded three seconds.

"Because the concept of the ability is gradually becoming clearer, I can use it more smoothly, and even the difficulty of 'construction' has decreased."

Moyu roughly understood the reason.

This Nen ability tied to shadows was still just a prototype. Once his "aura capacity" and "technique" improved, he could further refine more ability effects.

But the prerequisite was that his "Nen Capacity" could accommodate the developed ability effects.

The more complex a Nen ability, the more Nen Capacity it occupies.

Typically, a Nen user developing just one mature Nen ability would fill up all their Nen Capacity space.

However, there were also a few talented Nen users who could develop a second or even third ability without burden.

"Let's call it Soul Echo."

Moyu named his ability, while planning that once his basic techniques were solid, he would use "Water Divination" to test his category attribute.

Only after testing his attribute could he refine his Nen ability along the right path.

"Soul Echo"

"Category attribute: untested"

"First-stage ability: Uses shadow as a vessel for aura to perform Mimicry."

"Upper limit of Mimicry: unknown for now. Preliminary estimate suggests it can be expanded based on restriction conditions."

After naming his new ability, Moyu began toying with the Shadow Dummy.

"Raise your left hand."

Moyu first tried the Manipulator approach, giving a simple command to the Shadow Dummy.

The words fell, but the Shadow Dummy showed no reaction.

"Huh, am I not a Manipulator? No, that's not right either. Even if the attribute is wrong, a simple command should at least get some feedback."

Moyu raised a hand to his chin.

Then, he lowered the difficulty of the command, only asking the Shadow Dummy to move a finger.

Yet the Shadow Dummy remained completely still.

"Something's off."

Moyu raised an eyebrow and began to think about the reason.

"By the way."

Moyu looked at the Shadow Dummy, which showed not the slightest fluctuation of aura, and smiled. "Even though you've already separated from my body, we're still essentially one, so..."

Having said that, Moyu closed his eyes and issued a command to the Shadow Dummy within his consciousness.

The next moment.

The Shadow Dummy raised its left hand as expected.

Moyu then opened his eyes, looked at the Shadow Dummy still holding its hand aloft, and revealed a satisfied expression.

Because he wasn't yet proficient with the ability, and his quantity of "Nen" was somewhat insufficient, he had to close his eyes to improve his concentration.

Once his overall skill and technique became more polished later on, he naturally wouldn't have to struggle like this.

Moyu continuously issued various commands to the Shadow Dummy in his consciousness, like a child who had just gotten a new toy, playing with endless delight.

About ten minutes passed.

Having played too much, Moyu suddenly went black before his eyes and collapsed to the ground from exhaustion of his Nen.

The Shadow Dummy then dissipated, returning to its normal state.

From awakening Nen to the birth of an ability—

This process took less than twelve hours.

If anyone else had been present, they would likely only be able to describe Moyu with the word "exception."

Time passed slowly.

The sun rose high from the east, dispelling the morning mist, radiating scorching heat, then gradually set in the west.

When the last ray of afterglow vanished in the distance, night fell.

Moyu woke up at that moment.

"So hungry."

The hunger gnawing from his stomach tormented the newly awakened Moyu.

"I accidentally played too much..."

Moyu got up from the ground and casually placed "Swamp Man" back on the bookshelf.

"Let's go to the kitchen and get something to eat first."

Perhaps because his Nen reserves had been overdrawn, Moyu felt hungry for the first time like this. He fumbled in the dark room to turn on the light.

Click—

The light that came on filled the entire room.

Moyu walked out of the room and looked up at the sky.

The night sky was thick with black clouds, not a trace of moonlight to be seen.

Everything around was silent, the distant darkness like a massive, soul-snatching maw.

Moyu turned on the electric light in the corridor.

The bright light illuminated the surroundings, bringing a bit of a sense of security.

Moyu crossed the corridor and headed straight for the kitchen.

In the quiet, dark mountain forest, the sound of hurried panting inexplicably rang out.

A figure stumbled and ran through the forest, panic and terror in its eyes.

Suddenly, the figure noticed the lights on the mountaintop ahead.

Like a drowning man spotting a floating log, a glimmer of hope flashed in the figure's eyes.