Chapter 40: Spirit and Soul
Su Xiao sat on the Soul Throne. At this moment, he felt he could accomplish many things beyond imagination. If he hadn't trained in the blade arts, he might have been deceived by this feeling.
Su Xiao stood up from the Soul Throne, walked before a giant dragon covered in black scales, raised his right foot, and stepped on the dragon's head.
With a crackling sound, the dragon was crushed into a large cluster of bubbles by Su Xiao. The old demon, the two-headed giant, and all the others also turned into bubbles.
"You are worthy."
Countless voices merged together to form this sentence, a sound that shook the soul.
Just as the soul-shaking sound faded, the dragon, the old demon, the two-headed giant, and the others all reappeared. This time, they were not prostrate on the ground but kneeling on one knee.
Su Xiao glanced at the dragon beside him. The dragon's brownish-yellow vertical pupils were also looking at him. The surroundings became eerily silent.
Su Xiao's hand reached for the dragon's head. Miraculously, his hand passed directly through the dragon's body, grasping a transparent, gelatinous substance. This thing was both soft and tough.
With a tearing sound, Su Xiao ripped off a large chunk of the dragon's soul.
"ROAR!!"
The dragon raised its head and let out a long howl. Just as it glared angrily at Su Xiao, the scene before it made it calm down.
Su Xiao brought the clump of soul in his hand to his mouth and took a bite. The taste was something he would never forget.
Boom!
The Soul Throne shattered. Using it as a starting point, a vortex formed, sucking everything inside except Su Xiao.
Su Xiao did not choose to become some kind of Soul Lord. That only seemed glorious on the surface. He had two options just now: First, to govern the soul, which meant sitting on the Soul Throne forever. This ability was very powerful and quick to master, but it would gradually strip away his consciousness.
Second was Soul Devouring. This relied on Su Xiao himself to grow stronger, requiring long-term accumulation, but it had no side effects.
Su Xiao naturally chose the second option. His strength was earned through risking his life. That kind of sudden acquisition of immense power would have very obvious weaknesses.
Darkness, endless darkness. But when Su Xiao opened his eyes, he saw Bubu Wang holding an injection gun.
"Unexpectedly smooth."
Su Xiao looked at his hand. The clump of dragon soul had disappeared.
[Tip: The Soul Devourer talent has undergone its second awakening.]
[Soul Devourer]
Category: Killing Talent (Awakened Twice)
Rank: SSS
Talent Effect (Passive): After entering a world, when killing a target for the first time, you can choose to strip its 'Spirit' or 'Soul'. After making the choice, you must enter the next world to change it.
Tip: If you choose to strip 'Spirit', you can permanently gain 1 to 60 Mana Points and restore an equal amount of Health and Mana. You can permanently increase Mana Points by up to 500 per world.
Tip: If you choose to strip 'Soul', you can strip out Soul Crystal Fragments, permanently increasing Soul Strength by 1 to 3 points. If the enemy is too weak, you cannot strip Soul Crystal Fragments. You can permanently increase Soul Strength by up to 30 points per world.
Talent Effect (Active): After killing an enemy, if the Hunter has not stripped its 'Spirit' or 'Soul', you can forcibly shatter the enemy's undispersed soul, obtaining some techniques, knowledge, etc., through the soul fragments. If the obtained techniques, knowledge, etc., do not match the Hunter's ability inclination, you can abandon this acquisition.
Tip: This ability can only be used three times per world.
After reviewing the changes to Soul Devourer, Su Xiao's heartbeat quickened. He had gained an ability that would allow him to grow stronger faster.
First was the passive effect of Soul Devourer. The difference from before wasn't actually that significant, but it required making a choice.
Now, after killing an enemy, Su Xiao could strip its 'Spirit' or 'Soul'. 'Spirit' permanently increased Mana Points and provided a recovery effect. This was the same as the previous Soul Devourer, just with increased intensity.
As for stripping 'Soul', this was very interesting. It could permanently increase Su Xiao's Soul Strength. He had guessed this earlier, but what he didn't expect was that he could increase Soul Strength by 30 points per world.
Su Xiao had once eaten a Soul Fruit and used a massive amount of Soul Crystals. But even so, his current Soul Strength was only 60 points.
And stripping 'Soul' could permanently increase Su Xiao's Soul Strength by 30 points per world. What did this mean? The Soul Strength Su Xiao had gained from fighting from the First Rank to the top of the Fifth Rank could now be obtained in half that amount in just one world.
Stripping 'Spirit' and 'Soul' was a binary choice. To change it, he had to wait until entering the next world and killing his first enemy.
The Soul Crystal Fragments mentioned in the talent piqued Su Xiao's interest. His equipment, the Soul Lock Lantern, could also strip Soul Crystal Fragments, but they couldn't be directly absorbed.
Before the second awakening of Soul Devourer, Su Xiao had already craved the Soul Crystal Fragments inside the Soul Lock Lantern. Now, he finally knew why. He could devour these pure Soul Crystal Fragments to increase his Soul Strength.
This gave Su Xiao an idea: in the future, he would only strip 'Spirit' to increase Mana Points. As for increasing Soul Strength, he would use the Soul Crystal Fragments from the Soul Lock Lantern. If successful, he could simultaneously increase his Mana Point cap and Soul Strength, which would be a huge profit.
Whether this idea would work required experimentation. As for the active ability of Soul Devourer, that was even more interesting.
The active ability allowed him, without stripping, to shatter the enemy's soul and obtain some of their techniques, knowledge, etc., through their soul fragments. Undoubtedly, this greatly accelerated Su Xiao's growth speed, although the acquisition was random and only partial.
Even if the obtained techniques or knowledge were useless, Su Xiao could abandon them without wasting energy to accept them. He never thought he was omnipotent or could do everything perfectly.
Of course, if he could obtain techniques from powerful blade or melee enemies, Su Xiao wouldn't refuse. This could enhance his understanding of the blade arts and close combat.
Su Xiao felt that he wouldn't use the active effect of Soul Devourer often, but every time he did, he would gain considerable benefits. Three times per world was enough.
With that thought, Su Xiao stopped. He unfastened the Soul Lock Lantern from his cuff. This equipment, only half a pinky finger long, was easy to carry, which was one of its advantages.
The Soul Lock Lantern was a consumable equipment. Every time it was used to synthesize Soul Crystals, its durability decreased until it was destroyed.
Su Xiao would never use the Soul Lock Lantern to synthesize Soul Crystals. He only needed to obtain Soul Crystal Fragments through this equipment, which did not consume durability.
Su Xiao took out a few Soul Crystal Fragments from the Soul Lock Lantern and held them in his hand. Since Soul Devourer was his talent ability, he could naturally activate it at will.
A strange fluctuation spread in Su Xiao's hand. A few seconds later, the several Soul Crystal Fragments condensed together. Su Xiao could confirm that these Soul Crystal Fragments could no longer be synthesized into Soul Crystals, but they were purer.
[Hunter has devoured Soul Crystal Fragments. Soul Strength permanently increased by 2 points. As the Hunter is located in Reincarnation Paradise, this increase will be calculated for the next world. Soul Strength that can be increased in the next world: 28 points.]
Su Xiao's hand loosened, and a wisp of transparent dust slipped from his palm. Success. He had bypassed the choice between stripping 'Spirit' and 'Soul' and directly increased Soul Strength. This meant he no longer needed to make a choice in the future. He could permanently increase Mana Points by killing enemies and permanently increase Soul Strength through the Soul Lock Lantern.
For some reason, Su Xiao inexplicably took out a Soul Crystal (Small) from his storage space. After hesitating for a moment, he tossed it into his mouth.
Crunch, crunch...
Su Xiao chewed the Soul Crystal (Small) in his mouth. It was crispier than he imagined, and because of Soul Devourer, eating Soul Crystals had a food-like texture and was... very delicious!
After a moment, Su Xiao wanted to take out another Soul Crystal (Small), but considering the cost, he didn't do so.