The wild beast, fed by the prey, hadn't even taken a second step when a sharp pain suddenly struck. It howled and collapsed to the ground, writhing in agony, tearing at its head with its front paws as if something inside was trapped inside.
The light in his eyes faded rapidly, and the intensity of his soul fluctuations plummeted. In less than a few seconds, he, who had been struggling just a second ago, became still, with only his limbs twitching unconsciously because his muscles hadn't fully released their power.
A clicking sound echoed in his head, along with a constantly bulging and wriggling bulge, like a mushroom sprouting from the ground after a rain.
When Longbao burst, you could see Leo's clone, the Beetle, frantically devouring his brain matter.
The beetle's stomach seems to be connected to a bottomless abyss; even after consuming food several times its own size, it still doesn't stop.
Aside from the soft, tender brain matter, the beetle didn't even abandon the hard skeleton; its two curved mouthparts, like two sharp scimitars, sliced off pieces of the hard bone and swallowed them whole.
The beetle, which was swallowing the carcass of a wild beast, was growing larger at a visible rate, like an inflated balloon.
The beetle started eating the beast's head, and by the time it finished, the beetle, originally the size of a fist, had grown to the size of a soccer ball.
The larger beetle swallowed much faster, finishing the entire meal—from the neck to the body and finally the limbs—in less than half an hour.
The entire body of a wild beast was swallowed. The beetle grew to the size of a tabletop, its entire body radiating a black-gold light, with a thick carapace, ferocious mandibles, strong and powerful limbs, and wings that could be spread out.
And then there's that energy fluctuation that no living thing can ignore...!
What was just a weak beetle about to burst and die has now acquired an aura of energy, officially completing the evolution of its life essence and stepping from an ordinary life form into an energy life form!
For Leo, this body was like a slightly larger jar than a small bottle, allowing his shrunken soul to stretch out a little, preventing the slightest movement from bursting his entire body.
"Not bad physique, decent defense, can fly, and has an attack power of 20-40 points." Leo was very satisfied with his clone's physique.
In any case, this body will be used for several hundred years, so it's always good to be stronger.
This is a wonderful beginning for the Returning Breath World!!
With its mouthparts open, a hazy mist spewed out. This mist floated in front of the beetle, struggling to change shape, but because it was too weak, it could only twist and turn in front of the beetle, like smoke blown by a breeze, unable to complete a change of form.
"His soul power is too weak; he can't even revert to his former form," Leo said disdainfully.
"However, the Black Skull Stigmata Great Wizard has no problem with the knowledge of soul manipulation."
Leo's eyes lit up as he looked at the gray mist. This mist was the soul of the beast he had just devoured. Although the soul was weak, it meant that Leo had successfully used the new sorcery by combining the soul knowledge of the Black Skull Stigmata Great Wizard.
Furthermore, the manipulation of the soul was accomplished by an avatar, which is of great significance to the future development of the avatar in the Returning Breath World!
It's a crucial part of Leo's plan!
The beetle doesn't yet possess the ability to absorb soul strength and control puppets like those Lord of Souls, nor can it modify souls to leave its own mark. Therefore, it uses the knowledge that Leo learned in the last few years to trap the beast's soul in its own body for simple manipulation and use.
Once you're stronger and reach a certain level, you can use more powerful soul magic.
Because of the beetle's evolution, all the small wild beasts around it fled. Creatures that had not evolved to the same level dared not stay near Leo, for fear of becoming food for the terrifying and ferocious monster in front of them.
The beetle looked into the distance and spotted a lion-like beast hiding behind a large tree. It was three times the size of the beetle.
Although his body was concealed, he did not hide his energy aura. In Leo's eyes, the energy aura was as obvious as a light in the dark.
"Go,"
The beetle pointed at the hidden beast, and the gray mist spirit before it drifted slowly toward the beast like a gust of wind.
Half a minute later,
"Aww!"
The hidden beast suddenly let out a painful scream, clutching its head and rolling on the ground. Its sharp claws slashed at its head, drawing blood. It even banged its head against the ground frantically, without considering that it might kill itself.
The beetle slowly walked to the beast's side, quietly watching the creature, which was bleeding from all seven orifices but was not yet dead.
He was assessing the damage caused by manipulating souls.
Back then, the Black Skull Stigmata Great Wizard was able to control countless souls to launch attacks; with countless skeletons raining down, it seemed as if he wanted to destroy the entire world.
He can't do it. Even now, when he controls a beast with barely any energy fluctuations, his soul attack can't cause much damage.
However, soul attacks have one advantage: they are neither physical attacks nor elemental energy attacks, making them very difficult to defend against.
Like the ferocious beast before him, even Leo's beetle-like body wouldn't be a match for it in hand-to-hand combat.
But Leo controlled his soul to attack, and instantly subdued him.
Sensing that the attack intensity of the gray mist soul it controlled was decreasing, the beetle opened its sharp mandibles and snapped the neck of the struggling beast in pain.
This time, the beast stopped howling in pain.
The beetle opened its mouth wide and absorbed the beast's contents from mid-air. Two wisps of gray mist, one large and one small, drifted out from the beast's corpse and were sucked into its belly.
The smaller one was eaten by the beetle earlier, and the larger one belonged to this beast!
Normally, to control a soul, one can only control those weaker than oneself, and there is a limit to the number of souls one can control.
Unfortunately, the beetle, despite its small and weak appearance, actually harbors an ancient monster that is thousands of years old.
Even though the beetle was an avatar born from Leo's torn soul in the Returning Breath World, Leo's soul was a genuine Stigmata Level.
Upon entering the Soul Passage, he concealed his aura, disguising himself as an ordinary soul. However, as his consciousness awakened, the soul strength of Level Four Stigmata Wizard reappeared!
If Leo wanted to, he could easily destroy all the creatures in the entire forest, and might even be able to compete with a Level-Four Lord of Souls.
Just as it would take several years for creatures in Returning Breath World to evolve into their current beetle-like state,
But with Leo, it can be done in an instant!
The beetle devoured the carcass of the beast before it. As a newly evolved life form with energy, it needed to consume large amounts of food to replenish its energy and accelerate its evolution.
Biological evolution in the Returning Breath World differs from that in other worlds; under its bizarre rules, their evolution is faster and more frenzied.
If Leo were to cut open his own beetle clone, he would see that as he gulped down food, all the cells were frantically dividing and iterating, evolving at a speed even faster than the disorderly proliferation of cancer cells.
Unfortunately, there is no experimental equipment available, and this body has not evolved to the point where he can conduct experiments. Leo can only look at this excellent life specimen with envy, unable to obtain it.
The war has dragged on for over a hundred years, and they haven't even managed to obtain a single specimen of the original creature from the Returning Breath World. Those puppet armies are all controlled life forms from other worlds, not native creatures of the Returning Breath World.
Leo already knew from the soul memories of Level-Five Lord of Souls, apart from those who reach the Level-Four Lord of Souls level and can leave the Returning Breath World, other beings never have the opportunity to leave in their entire lives.
If they don't evolve to the level of Lord of Souls through endless battles here, they will use their own bodies to supply other creatures to complete their evolution.
Just as the beetle was swallowing it greedily, another voice suddenly appeared in his soul.
"Hey, main body, although we are the same person, you've taken over my body and consciousness, which is really affecting my development."
"Clone, you've developed your own consciousness?" Hearing the other voice coming from inside his body, Leo was not frightened but rather overjoyed.
"I was just born, but I went to receive information from the origin of the world, which is why you were able to control my body for a while," the clone said with a hint of reproach.
"I was worried you might be in danger, that's why I rushed over the moment you regained consciousness."
"Now that you have developed your own consciousness, I'll head back. Let me know if you have any information," Leo said.
"Let's go, let's go. I'll relay anything to the ocean of consciousness," the clone said.
"Then I'll be going. This body is too weak to open the Shadow Space yet. It will be much more convenient once you can open Shadow Space," Leo said.
"Hey, when did you become so long-winded? And from now on, I'll be called Black Soluo, so don't give yourself away."
"Yes, Black Soluo."
As Leo laughed heartily, his consciousness returned to the ocean of consciousness. His clone had even developed its own consciousness and could develop on its own without his control.
This is like being able to feel your strength increasing even while sitting still!
Self-awareness is the birth of one's own thoughts within a split soul, essentially creating another personality!
Inside the mothership, Leo opened his eyes to Yaoyao's expectant gaze.
Looking at Yaoyao, Leo smiled and nodded, without saying a word. It concerned an important part of the plan, so Leo didn't mention a word.
As a soul partner, Yaoyao Yao's soul is one with Leo's, which means it is one with the clone Black Soluo.
If he wanted to know anything, he could just look at his memories himself. Yaoyao was only asking Leo because she was too lazy to look at her own memories.
Seeing Leo nod, I immediately knew that the strategy had succeeded, the pieces had been placed, and the future gains were merely a matter of degree.
"Great!" Yaoyao laughed heartily with her mouth wide open.
Leo's eyes glazed over as unfamiliar memories surfaced in his mind. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was the information about the Returning Breath World that his clone had mentioned earlier, which had been transmitted to Leo's mind through the ocean of consciousness, completing the information sharing.