Huang Si told the Golden Sphere to hurry back. Only after it disappeared from sight did he finally feel a wave of relief.
"That was so embarrassing. How could anyone get knocked unconscious by their own soul's essence?" Huang Si couldn't help muttering.
According to the memories provided by the Creation Book, souls had microscopic structures too.
Whether it was the tiny transparent cross or the Golden Sphere, both were actually "microscopic manifestations" of a soul's essence.
The microscopic manifestations of other souls were extremely simple. Huang Si's own soul essence, however, manifested as a Golden Sphere.
Calling it a sphere wasn't quite right. A closer look revealed an even finer structure, and it could be magnified over and over again. Even within those fine structures, there were still tinier ones.
Just now, Huang Si hadn't thought it through and had kept magnifying his microscopic view because he couldn't see clearly.
But he wasn't actually using his eyes to "see" at the microscopic level. He was using his consciousness.
The Golden Sphere's microscopic structure was almost infinitely complex, like fractal geometry. His consciousness couldn't analyze it and had exceeded its capacity, so he'd simply passed out.
Fortunately, the Creation Book had sensed what was happening and given him a memory before waking him up.
The more complex a soul's microscopic manifestation, the more powerful the soul.
As the owner of the Creation Book, Huang Si had fused with an Origin Fragment. Once he reached Domain level or higher and his soul became immensely powerful, he could use his own soul structure to overwrite that of other living beings—in other words, erase or assimilate them.
The souls of any living beings he assimilated would belong to him completely from then on.
At the soul level, they would have absolutely no privacy from Huang Si. He would share every one of their thoughts, feelings, and actions—unless he chose not to.
And with just a thought from Huang Si, an assimilated soul would be completely unable to resist. It could only obey.
That sounded absurdly powerful, but it came with prerequisites. First, the soul had to be weakened. Second, it had to be willing to be assimilated.
In practice, meeting both conditions was actually easy for Huang Si. As for the first, killing someone would weaken their soul, or he could attack the soul directly. As long as he didn't erase it and just weakened it, that would be enough.
As for the second, all Huang Si had to do was use his consciousness to hypnotize the other person into believing they were willing. That was just as easy. Given the strength of Huang Si's soul, it would probably be hard to find anyone who could truly resist him on a spiritual level.
Still, Huang Si felt that forcing someone was no fun.
This soul needed his help, so Huang Si had simply assimilated it.
Assimilation had another benefit: Huang Si could provide the soul with energy, so it wouldn't remain weak and could even grow stronger.
And since Huang Si had absolute control over this soul, he could use Creation Power to make it a body and put it inside.
He could even make it a stuffed lion and put the soul inside that.
The soul would have no choice but to use the stuffed toy as its body.
Fortunately, he'd already backed up its body, so he could revive it simply by putting its soul back inside later.
After assimilating Xiao Hua's soul, Huang Si also learned her name. Then he gave her a tiny bit of mental power.
He had to be extremely, extremely careful when sharing his mental power. This soul was far too weak; even a tiny bit too much would blow it apart.
The situation on Huang Si's end was the opposite: his mental power was far too condensed. It might have been all right if he'd never been caught in that storm, but now he could casually scoop up a storm and play with it. Ordinary souls couldn't withstand mental power of that strength.
Huang Si's solution was to first split off a thread of mental power as he usually did, then use his consciousness to divide it into ten parts. He took one part, stretched it out, and divided it into ten more.
By then, the mental power had grown so faint it was almost imperceptible. Only then did Huang Si dare to take a tiny piece and feed it to the soul.
Huang Si's mental power instantly filled out Xiao Hua's soul. With that replenishment, her condition improved greatly, and her soul became much more substantial. At the microscopic level, the tiny cross was no longer transparent and golden; it had become an almost solid golden cross.
Huang Si reckoned she could keep existing indefinitely, as long as no other being with a powerful soul deliberately harmed her.
In other words, Xiao Hua's soul, which had once been so fragile it could easily dissipate, had not only been saved by Huang Si's assimilation and replenishment, but could now exist almost permanently.
Most importantly, Xiao Hua's condition had finally stabilized. She had a clear consciousness and a coherent train of thought, and no longer repeated a single sentence over and over like a broken record.
Huang Si figured that if she kept repeating herself even after being assimilated, he might not be able to stop himself from squeezing her to death.
"Thank you for saving me, Master," Xiao Hua's soul said.
Once Xiao Hua's soul regained consciousness, she instinctively understood that she now belonged completely to the powerful consciousness surrounding her. That was all she knew, so she could only thank her master for now.
Huang Si nodded. "You died, and your body couldn't be saved, so I rescued your soul."
Mention of her body reminded Huang Si of something.
Although he'd made a backup of her body, that backup was of her body as she lay dying.
It seemed he'd have to turn to modern science after all.
"Come with me." Huang Si used his Mental Force Field to seize Xiao Hua's soul, then instantly returned to the Earth Realm.
One advantage souls had over physical bodies was that they were almost like energy, so they could be moved around quickly.
Huang Si first went to the storeroom and changed into his cyborg body, then headed to the Biology Department in the Earth Realm.
With the Ape-men gone, the eight artificial intelligences in the Biology Department seemed to think they wouldn't have much to do anymore. They were lounging around.
Shu Shui and Zhong Yin were watching a video and arguing noisily as they did.
Shi Fang, Kong Yu, Nan Yang, and Wei Ji were playing cards.
Xue Shang was playing with a live lizard he'd somehow caught.
Only Bei Xuan was a well-behaved kid. He was sorting materials by himself and looking at his companions with concern.
Huang Si kicked the door open with his cyborg leg and walked in with the soul.
The artificial intelligences in the lab were immediately startled.
Anyone who dared kick open a door in the Earth Realm could only be that one person.
Shu Shui instantly shut off the mating video of the Ape-men, and Zhong Yin hit the power button. Shi Fang and Kong Yu hurriedly scrambled to clear the playing cards off the table, while Nan Yang straightened up in an instant. Wei Ji pretended he hadn't noticed anything, but slowly began hiding his cards in his clothes. Xue Shang, lizard in hand, had no idea where to hide it, so he just held it up and did his best to look like he was studying it.
Huang Si was speechless. Was all that really necessary? He hadn't even criticized them.
"Prepare the Life Support Equipment. I need a few people to help. Xiao Ke will bring the Artificial Heart and Lung, blood vessels, and the rest shortly. We're saving someone!"
Shu Shui and the others hurriedly got up and said yes, then put on their lab coats and followed Huang Si into the operating room, trying to look professional.
Once the Life Support Chamber was ready, Huang Si looked at the space above it and said,
"Pay attention."
With a thought, Huang Si retrieved the record of Xiao Hua's dying body from the Creation Book, and Creation Power gathered in an instant.
A woman's body, with a gaping hole in her chest, appeared out of thin air before dropping into the liquid in the chamber.
Zhong Yin immediately cut open her throat, and Shu Shui followed by inserting a breathing tube.
The others joined in one after another, and the rescue proceeded in an orderly fashion.
Huang Si commanded Xiao Hua's soul in his consciousness to enter her own body.
Now that her soul had grown more substantial, Xiao Hua could use her senses to replace the usual five. She obediently walked toward her battered body, then bent over and pressed her entire soul against it.
Perhaps because it was her original body, the affinity was exceptionally strong. Xiao Hua's soul soon overlapped with it, then merged into it completely.
The instant Xiao Hua's soul and body fully merged, Huang Si suddenly sensed a piece of information in his memories that was almost instinctive.
He was a little speechless. He simply raised a hand to signal the artificial intelligence assistants to stop. "Wait. Don't treat her yet."
As he spoke, Huang Si used his Mental Force Field to lift Xiao Hua out of the chamber and suspend her in the air.
Just now, Huang Si had learned something from his memories.
He could use Creation Power to freely modify the physical bodies of those he had assimilated.
Wasn't that much simpler? Why bother with medical treatment? He could just use Creation Power to make her wounds whole again!
Huang Si willed it, and Creation Power gathered once more. In an instant, Xiao Hua's entire body was as good as new, without a trace of her former wounds.
Xiao Hua opened her eyes and realized she was suspended in midair. She didn't have time to be surprised; first, she bowed to Huang Si.
"Thank you, Master, for granting me a new life. I can never repay you in this lifetime."
Xiao Hua's "Master," combined with Huang Si personally repairing her body, caused a commotion among the eight artificial intelligences.
In their eyes, it was one thing for someone else to take in a servant. But Huang Si was no ordinary person. If he took in a servant, wouldn't that put the servant on equal footing with the twelve artificial intelligences?
And who were the twelve artificial intelligences? Dong Yao and the other two alone were the supreme gods worshipped by the Human Race.
The others were all right, but Shu Shui jumped to her feet, fists clenched, and said nervously, "Father God, you can't do this! How can you take in a new servant on top of Mo Xia? I, Shu Shui, am the first to object!"
Bei Xuan's expression darkened, too. "Father God, is she one of your chosen people? ... Your only chosen person?"
Shi Fang looked aggrieved as well. "She sure gets spoiled."
Huang Si: "???"
No, what were they thinking?
He was conducting a very serious scientific experiment.
Besides, what could an assimilated soul even understand? So what if it instinctively called him Master?
Had he told her to call him that?
Huang Si said calmly, "What's that got to do with me? Xiao Hua, come with me to Dark Space."
He set Xiao Hua down, and she immediately answered obediently, "Yes, Master."
At Huang Si's words, Shu Shui nearly went crazy. She shouted, "No! Take me before you take her!"
Zhong Yin hurriedly reached out and covered Shu Shui's mouth.
Huang Si shook his head helplessly. He touched Xiao Hua's forehead with a finger, first drawing out her soul, then evaporated her body with his mental power.
The eight artificial intelligences stared, dumbfounded, as Huang Si killed someone without the slightest warning.
After that, Huang Si ignored their stunned expressions and left, carrying Xiao Hua's soul with his mental power.
He could explain later. Right now, he just wanted to experiment and had no time to lecture them.
He destroyed her body mainly because he thought bringing it along would be too much trouble. Besides, once her soul was on the other side, he could make her another body.
He just wanted to see if a soul he had assimilated could be digitized and sent over the internet with him.
Back in the lab, Shu Shui was completely dumbfounded. She murmured, "Is Father God angry? Was he trying to make it up to me, or was he killing the chicken to scare the monkey?"
Zhong Yin said irritably, "Stop letting your imagination run wild. There's nothing Father God particularly cares about. Killing someone or saving someone is trivial to him."
Bei Xuan pondered for a while before saying, "Besides, I don't think Father God killed that woman. He must have taken her away some other way. Otherwise, he wouldn't have said earlier that he was taking her to Dark Space."
Shi Fang nodded. "Exactly. And Shu Shui, didn't you notice? Father God doesn't really care about mortals. The twelve of us are the ones he truly cares about."
Wei Ji and Kong Yu, standing nearby, both agreed.
Shu Shui perked right up again. She cupped her face and smiled. "Actually, I think so too. Father God just looks cold, but he's really good to us."
Before you continue