Chapter 821: A Superficial Attempt at Soul Drawing
Inside the villa.
“Perhaps you should give me an explanation; Daniel doesn’t seem to be as dangerous as you described.” Bai Yu fixed her gaze on the witch in front of her.
“It seems you’ve had contact with her, huh?”
“Of course.”
“You appear quite self-assured about your heart sense regarding body cultivation~ What exactly did you learn from her that makes you doubt my words?”
“If it weren’t for the sincerity I sensed from you, I wouldn’t have even let you step foot into this villa. I don’t care if that witch is a Betrayer Witch or a Betrayer; as long as she has no ill intentions toward Xiao Han, I wouldn’t bother interacting with her.”
“So you’re saying that if she poses a threat to Xiao Han, you would be willing to stand on the same side as me?”
“Your statement is quite ambiguous.” Bai Yu frowned and replied.
“But you can sense I harbor no hostility and have no ulterior motives regarding the relationship between Daniel and Xiao Han,” Sheril confidently stated.
“Whew…” Bai Yu took a deep breath and looked up at Sheril, “Tell me your motives. After all, Daniel is still a member of the witches; don’t tell me you’ve foreseen her betrayal. The topic of the Betrayer Witch cannot be used as an excuse.”
“Well~ how should I put this… Jealousy? Don’t get me wrong; I’m referring to her jealousy. Or should I say, I’ve never believed in a Betrayer Witch born in a comfortable environment. The defiance of a Betrayer Witch has never been about rebellion, nor is it an excuse for discontentment with the ordinary or a pursuit of uniqueness. It’s about being a misunderstood contrarian, a giant in thoughts and actions, not someone pursuing uniqueness to satisfy personal desires.”
“Your words are sincere, but I can’t accept your one-sided opinion without further evidence…”
“Oh no~ it seems you’ve misunderstood something.” Sheril interrupted Bai Yu with a sudden smile.
“What misunderstanding?”
“I am stating the facts to you, but I never asked you to do anything. Do you remember that?” Sheril gestured for Bai Yu to recall their past interactions.
From the first time she requested to enter the villa to this instance…
“…”
“You seem to always be wary of Betrayer Witches, yet overlook the sincerity of our Betrayer Witches. I’m merely providing you with information you don’t know, and I’m anticipating your reaction.”
“What’s your purpose?!” Bai Yu instinctively tightened her grip, looking at Sheril and questioning her word by word.
“Because… you are Xiao Han’s girlfriend~” Sheril laughed, saying something Bai Yu did not expect.
Then, the next part stirred emotions within her that had long been dormant.
“I must say, your little girlfriend’s Great Knowledge Seed is really useful, letting me know that you were not an Extraordinary Witch in the past… You’re just as unchanged as before, doing what you think is right with your shallow understanding, seemingly all to protect Xiao Han? Just like… when you first learned the concept of fortune, acting on impulse without making any progress. A witch like you… is very easily manipulated by other witches~”
……
On the way back.
“Indeed, I can’t quite let go of the topic regarding Self-Generated Magic.” I sighed to myself.
From a rational perspective, I shouldn’t be having these thoughts.
Regardless of the upcoming busyness with this topic or Hong Chanyi’s self-created Association Method, none of these have any relevance to me.
What I should be concerned with is my understanding of Self-Generated Magic!
Only with an increasingly profound understanding can I know how to make deeper magical modifications, and then there comes the derivation.
Unfortunately, I am still clueless about “Infinite Magic.”
Perhaps it will only be after I complete the experiment on soul drawing that I will have extra time to delve deeper into modifying Self-Generated Magic.
With all these thoughts in my mind cast aside, I stepped into the Instance Realm.
“Hm? Strange, isn’t Sister Bai over here?”
Just a quick perception, and I realized that Sister Bai didn’t seem to be here. Clearly, today she shouldn’t have class… maybe she’s at the villa.
“Ling Yi~ Is Ling Yi also not here?” I looked up at the gigantic He Ya Tree; during this time, it has become increasingly dense.
Since that Wood Elemental Sprite is not here, she’s probably out having fun; after all, even though the Instance Realm is a fragment of the world, its size far exceeds what one could see, so if she has run off somewhere, I’d have a hard time finding her.
“Yu Lan~”
I gently called out, and soon several figures emerged from the floral garden on the island in the lake.
“Sister Xiao Han~”
“Ah~ so quick.” I picked up the first Yu Dream that approached me and then sat down on a nearby lounge chair.
These three Yu Dreams came with me voluntarily; at first, they stayed at the laboratory with other sisters looking after them.
But now that we’ve left, I brought them along with me here in the Instance Realm.
This way, they can help me take care of the plants here and also be friends with Ling Yi, although there’s quite a significant size difference between the two.
However, since Ling Yi also enjoys drinking Fool Dream Drinks, she quickly established a friendship with the Yu Dreams.
Indeed, the friendships among these genuinely lovely little ones are pure~
Moreover, I specifically arranged a patch of fruits from the Fool Dream Drink, planted in the botanical fields; both the Yu Dreams and Ling Yi excel at taking care of these plants.
“This time, I finally have the time to fulfill my promise to you regarding the Fool Dream~” I lifted Yu Dream in my arms; indeed, no one can refuse a cute creature like Yu Dream~
“Really! Thank you, Sister Xiao Han!” Yu Lan excitedly waved her limbs in mid-air, barely able to contain her emotions!
The desire to become a life form has deeply embedded itself within Yu Dream’s understanding from the very beginning; even without memories, this instinct drives her to persistently pursue this possibility.
“Do I still need to say thank you to Sister Xiao Han? No need for that~ But before that, we still need to conduct some experiments.”
I set Yu Lan down, resting for a moment before I pushed open the door and entered the small house.
In a corner of the small house, there were some previously unseen boxes piled up.
These boxes are alchemical items similar to storage equipment, but they are somewhat different.
Because ordinary storage equipment cannot hold living creatures, but these alchemical boxes can.
The principle is somewhat similar to having space expansion runes fixed in a house, with an initial space of a certain size, then expanded and fixed using space-related runes.
So, this alchemical item that can hold living creatures is much larger than storage equipment, making it inconvenient to carry and cannot nest into storage equipment unless… you want the life inside to perish.
Generally, these alchemical items are called Beast Traps, and you can tell from the name that their main use is to contain peculiar creatures.
These are some unique creatures I purchased.
These creatures all originate from the Witch Secret Realm, as the Witch Secret Realm is filled with many graduating witches who send gifts from outside the main world, so there are many things here that the main world does not have.
This has also given rise to a large market for extraordinary beings within the Witch Academy.
Perhaps buyers take them home for dissection, helping themselves understand the unique functions and principles of extraordinary organs. For example, some biological alchemists have a significant demand for this.
Some people want to obtain special and fresh extraordinary materials for drawing extraordinary rituals or for other extraordinary uses.
There are also those who use them as spell materials for summoning spells or directly treat these extraordinary creatures as contractual magical pets.
As for me… I purchased these creatures, all of them embodying the essence of soul material, naturally serving as the best experimental subjects for my soul drawing experiments!
Within these Beast Traps, there are common flesh and bl**d life forms, such as numerous laboratory mice, primate monkeys, birds, and even fish from the water.
There are also less common element creatures, like fire spirits born from flame elements or flame fairies.
I have also seen stranger life forms, but only heard of them; in the Witch Secret Realm, they exist but are in very low demand, so they require advanced orders for capture, which takes some time, so I haven’t bought them yet.
But for now, these life forms are sufficient for me to practice and familiarize myself with soul drawing.
I rummaged through these boxes and looked at the labels, finally finding the one with the largest quantity: “Experimental Cultivation Lab Mice.”
This box contained an entire nest of mice; clearly, it fits in my hands—a cube only as long as my forearm’s edge—yet who would have thought that there could be over a hundred lab mice inside?
When I bought them, they said there were about five hundred; I once thought that might be too many, and I’d still need to feed them regularly, or those little ones might d*e.
As for releasing these animals into the Instance Realm?
Impossible, absolutely not!
If these guys are released, they would definitely become invasive species; I wouldn’t want this place to turn into a world of lab mice.
The same goes for other life forms.
As for how to deal with these life forms… to me, they are all consumables; their d*ath is equally the value they need to provide for me.
This is unrelated to compassion and sympathy.
I opened the box, and several shadows darted out, but before any could escape.
In the next moment, these little guys were all ensnared in the air by my binding spell.
I ultimately only left one, throwing all the excess ones back into the Beast Trap.
“Didn’t expect these lab mice to be this fast?”
I pinched the lab mouse I released, discovering that these lab mice have a very resilient vitality, seemingly not regular lab mice.
“Seems like they have been genetically modified?” I examined the lab mouse, switching to another hand to grip the nape of its neck.
Its size is not small at all; excluding the length of its tail, its body is even larger than the length of my hand.
And its resistance is exceptionally strong, contrasting greatly with the gentle lab mice I knew.
“Could I have been deceived?”
I confined it in the air again, its short limbs splayed out, but only its head and tail kept flailing and struggling, emitting sharp squeaks.
Then I cast a silence spell on it, and the world finally became quiet.
This silence spell can even be used on creatures with a body structure like that of lab mice.
Of course, I don’t want to dissect it right now, nor do I want to harm its flesh; I only wish to touch upon its essence of life.
“Does this feel cruel?” I turned my head to the three Yu Dreams, only to find them displaying expressions of great curiosity.
“Um… is Sister Xiao Han going to do something to them?”
“If I ultimately need to k*ll these guys, how would you react?”
“k*ll?”
The Yu Dreams looked at the lab mouse in front of me, lacking understanding of d*ath, appearing somewhat bewildered.
“It’s fine if you don’t understand; you just need to know that to help you become true life forms, some necessary sacrifices must be made, and they will lay down their lives to pave your path to the concept of life.”
“Sacrifice…”
“Life…”
The Yu Dreams murmured these terms, nodding, uncertain if they understood these matters.
Suddenly sharing this with them was primarily to see whether they would have an aversion to such actions; this will determine whether I need to conduct these experiments without their awareness.
In any case, the procedure for conducting the life experiment cannot be omitted.
Fortunately, it seems the Yu Dreams are not unable to accept this.
Then my gaze shifted back to the lab mouse in front of me.
A series of runes wove ritualized behavior into a special effect, and as my focus intensified, the symbols of the soul drawing technique, combined with the power of the Grand Wisdom Enlightenment Spell, surged forth continuously.
After all, whether it is Mimetic Soul or Soul Drawing, these techniques all stem from the derived arts of the Grand Wisdom Enlightenment Spell.
Once the soul drawing technique is fully completed, I can feel that the essence of this lab mouse has fallen into my “control.”
The lab mouse before me seems like a toy for me to manipulate, showing no resistance whatsoever.
With the incorporation of the most crucial original soul rune, the miracle created at the moment Aipuli ascended to extraordinary will be carried again through the soul drawing technique!
“Hiss… is this a success?”
After a while, I watched the once again active lab mouse; in my perception, I could feel that it was different from before. Its essence of life had transformed and elevated into a soul, yet this sensation felt strange.
This lab mouse almost no longer resembled a lab mouse.
“Memory!”
Quickly, I understood this; the soul rises from the essence, its life form is still that of this lab mouse, but it has transformed from essence to soul. This body still fits this soul, yet this lab mouse is forever different from the previous one.
Even I cannot delineate whether or not this is still the original.
Maybe… it’s not.
Maybe it is.
But… there is no evidence to prove that it is not the original lab mouse, even if it has lost previous memories.
Memory is a kind of interpretation that was eliminated during the process of Life Interpretation; only the soul can confirm that it is still itself!
And memory… serves as an anchor for consciousness and cognition, or a fixation between reality, society, interaction, and interpersonal relationships.
Does a person who loses their memory not remain as they were before?
This is merely a loss of the anchor pointing to all original social relationships.
