# Chapter 41: Essence-Soul Conversion 6800
Whether Joshua could feel fear, no one could know.
But at this moment, the emotions of Priest and the others had experienced great ups and downs, from extreme fear to extreme joy, going back and forth seven or eight times.
"Are we still alive right now? No matter how I feel, it seems like we should have died already."
Standing beside the observation platform of the Aklafa Hub, the Spellcaster muttered to himself with a numb expression. The appearance of this question was not strange, because he truly couldn't figure out whether he was alive or dead.
From the beginning, when everyone saw the Nature's Force of the Nature Mentor manifesting high in the sky, they were all very excited, because no matter who the arrival was, it proved that the experts of the Mycroft World had received their signal and rushed here at the fastest speed.
But then, seeing countless Chaos tentacles erupting from the depths of the earth, revealing a terrifying and world-ending posture, everyone's hearts immediately sank to the bottom again. Looking at this posture, even if a Legendary expert came, it seemed they wouldn't gain any advantage, let alone whether the Aklafa Hub they were in could resist the erosion of this Chaos before the Legendary expert arrived.
Soon, the Aklafa Hub's counterattack, and the fact that the counterattack was dispelled by the Decay Evil God's decay wave, once again caused the Elite Squad and Su Er's hearts to rise and fall, completing a perfect three hundred and sixty-degree rotation cycle. Then the Nature Mentor's subsequent cleansing attack once again brought hope to everyone.
Four enormous tentacles extended into the planet's depths, and the struggle between Order and Chaos seemed to have entered a white-hot stage.
But in just a short moment, the four tentacles hurriedly withdrew, leaving as if fleeing from a disaster.
Chaos was so terrifying that even a Legendary expert feared it to this extent!
When Priest saw this scene, various complex emotions churned in his heart. He didn't think that a Legendary expert would dare not face an Evil God, but the facts proved that facing the source of Chaos within the planet, perhaps ordinary Legendaries were indeed no match... but he also didn't see any traces of Chaos erosion on the mountain-like tentacles that had withdrawn.
Why? It didn't seem like they were at a disadvantage.
He soon found the answer.
Because as the world barrier completely shattered with a thunderous roar, the residents of Moldavia, the students of Winterfell Academy, the members of the Imperial Foreign Exploration Department, the disciple of the Count of the North, Priest·Omeini, felt the violent (kuángbào) and chilling aura of his teacher.
Along with it came a Void Behemoth, almost half the size of a planet, constantly struggling.
"My teacher..." Everything made sense now. The young warrior couldn't help but groan: "So it was you who came..."
"Seven Gods above..."
Watching this scene, the crystal ball that the Clergy had been playing with in his hand fell to the ground. He stared dumbfounded as the enormous star high in the sky fell straight down at an unimaginable speed, its bright flames more dazzling than the sun, illuminating the entire world.
The Knight sat on the ground, swallowing a mouthful of saliva, watching fearfully as the nine moons in the sky had their trajectories disturbed by the suddenly appearing star, spinning and descending in an abnormally terrifying trend, dancing in the void.
"Wow!"
Su Er rolled her eyes, as if wanting to faint directly, but since she had fainted once before and was now very clear-headed (qīngxǐng), she could only stay awake with a tearless expression, then forcefully hug Priest's already numb arm. As for the Alchemist, he poured himself a bottle of courage potion that claimed to be able to face Dragon Might directly, but this was obviously useless. How could the pressure constantly approaching from the sky be compared to mere dragons? The Alchemist suspected that even if he drank until he vomited, it wouldn't be of any use, but to block his mouth from making involuntary sounds, he kept pouring potions into himself.
Only the Restorative Pillar was restless in the hall, constantly writhing its pillar-like form, as if wanting to fly up directly into the high sky. But soon, the only relatively clear-headed (qīngxǐng) person among them, Priest, immediately controlled the Aklafa Hub and issued perhaps the loudest command he had given recently.
"Activate all defense systems! Forget about energy distance, run everything at overload!!!"
And just as the faithfully obedient Aklafa Hub wrapped itself in seven or eight layers of shields at the level of Era of Radiance Void Warships.
Along with the Crab and the Steel Giant God descending with an unstoppable force.
The planet shook.
First, there was the eruption of matter.
With the back of the Void Crab as the point of contact, large amounts of soil, seawater, and rock layers at the edge of the impact were squeezed like cream, vaporizing in the terrifying friction heat, boiling, and then flying out of the atmosphere. More matter, like ripples splashed by water waves, was directly thrown into the cold vacuum while spreading and fluctuating toward other directions of the planet.
Next came the shattered atmosphere and shockwaves.
In an instant, all the trees on the planet's surface were destroyed. High-temperature shockwaves mixed with earthquakes that turned soil into water-like waves, twisting and igniting the entire world. This force scattered the entire atmosphere, turning it into an irregular cloud floating in the vacuum. The evaporated seawater continuously amplified the size of this cloud, even condensing into spherical water masses (níngjù chéng tuán shuǐqiú) in the vacuum.
Finally, there was the splitting of the planet.
The crust exploded, the mantle lost its original form. Under the impact of a planet-destroying level, a planet crumbled like this. Countless small pieces of matter debris could be seen flying at high speed, and those large pieces of planetary crust would soon catch up... No.
Although both the atmosphere and small pieces of ground collapsed and disintegrated under the violent impact, the large crust of the sealed world did not completely shatter, get thrown into the vacuum, and turn into an asteroid belt. Accompanied by layers of dark flashes, most of the matter was absorbed (xīfù) by an unknown force, maintaining its original state, preserving the appearance of a planet's existence.
At this moment, Joshua and the Great Khan's battle seemed to make the two not notice this.
Now, the furious Great Khan's soul-materialized body began to gradually thin out. The Void Behemoth, half the size of a planet, comparable to a small to medium-sized world, dissipated into nothingness like an illusion. At the same time, Joshua felt as if an invisible syringe, carrying a potion that caused intense pain and discomfort, had been directly inserted into his brain.
Although Joshua no longer had a brain at this moment, and his entire body was composed of 'Immortal Units' that could be used for calculation and thinking, this feeling, described in human language, was roughly like this: it was an extremely disgusting sensation (yìcháng lìng rén yànwù de gǎnshòu), like a seed taking root in the skin, a fungal spore penetrating the flesh and growing. An invisible soul-hammer struck every calculation unit the warrior could use for thinking. And amidst the dull hammering sounds, something enormous (pángdà) and abnormal (yìcháng de) existence was forcibly nailed into his soul.
It was the Great Khan.
It was the Great Khan's soul.
The Eight-Legged Fungus was not originally eight-legged.
As a special variant of some kind of zombie fungus, they, born with souls due to the naturally magic-rich environment of their homeland, had long since developed self-awareness through the soul, an independent thinking organ.
At that time, the Eight-Legged Fungus was merely a race parasitic on small insects like ants and bees.
The entire process was long, difficult, and yet natural and proper (lǐ suǒ yīng dāng). Relying on wisdom and instinctive unity, the Eight-Legged Fungus quickly ensured the continuation and existence of their civilized community. Using their short lifespan as an advantage, the Eight-Legged Fungus rapidly evolved generation after generation, growing larger, making their bodies and souls more complex, closer to magic. Soon, in a time that was by no means long in biological history, even one could say brief (kěyǐ shuō duǎnzàn) in a million years, they finally gave birth to thinking abilities that could be called wisdom, and thick fungal pillar bodies complex enough to use magic.
From then on, not only insects, but also reptiles and mammals with more complex brains could become their targets for parasitism and control.
This was the beginning of the Star Shepherd civilization.
Eight legs, Void Crab? No, this was never the true body of the Star Shepherd. For the Star Shepherd, whose bodies lived in the morning and died in the evening, while only the soul endured eternally, what truly represented their essence was the soul.
And now, the Great Khan, who had long achieved the feat of soul materialization and possessed the power (qiángdà) to simultaneously control the minds of twenty-four Void Behemoths, resolutely charged his soul into Joshua's spiritual sea.
Eat the brain? Control the nerves? This was something the Star Shepherd had stopped doing long, long ago. If it weren't for having a body to move smoothly in the material world and express emotions, no Star Shepherd would insist on maintaining their strange fungal pillars. Instead, they would directly use the method of soul erosion to occupy the bodies of other low-intelligence beings.
The Great Khan was the same.
Struggling in the material world was not what it was good at. It wanted to start directly from the spiritual aspect and erode this powerful enemy cleanly!
In the vast, dark spiritual sea, Joshua's soul incarnation stood in the center, quietly watching countless fungal filaments and spores falling from the sky like rain, eroding the entire spiritual space.
He didn't seem anxious, even if all the spiritual space being occupied meant that his soul had lost its dwelling place.
"Fungus, I see. So it's a parasitic creature similar to the Plague Evil God's mother civilization and He Er La Si."
The warrior muttered to himself, somewhat understanding why the other party could control such a large number of Void Behemoths. As for parasitic creatures, he had no aversion. Just as humans eat cattle and sheep, the parasitism of parasitic creatures was just another form of eating. To this, he chuckled lightly: "Wanting to eat my soul? Quite quick-witted."
"Is this your soul? Ancestor Star Devourer, you have indeed been eroded by fear, which is why you haven't walked out of this lost Star River in such a long time."
In the spiritual sea, amidst the countless writhing fungal filaments, the vibration of the Great Khan's soul sounded. This vibration ignored language and directly inserted the meaning of words into another soul. This powerful Eight-Legged Fungus said in a cold tone: "Small, weak, shallow, insignificant. Even the leader in my group surpasses you in terms of soul."
The facts were indeed so. The Great Khan's soul was so enormous (pángdà) that it could manifest a size comparable to a Void Behemoth in the spiritual space, while Joshua's soul incarnation, compared to the huge (jùdà de) Steel Giant God, was only the size of a human.
The soul did not lie. The difference in size was the difference in strength.
Joshua was not angry about this... He didn't need to be angry. The warrior shook his head indifferently, then seized on the interesting points in the other's words and pursued: "Ancestor, long time, and lost Star River?"
"Your view of this World Star River seems very strange. Can you explain in detail?"
When he said this, Joshua seemed to have no sense of urgency. Naturally, this was partly because the activity speed in the spiritual space was extremely fast, so there was no need to worry about the Evil God awakening in this short time. Secondly, he seemed confident, as if he was not worried about the soul gap between them.
As long as you explain well, I might spare your lives later.
The Great Khan naturally didn't know the thoughts turning in Joshua's mind. It was just puzzled by Joshua's complete lack of resistance. Even if the soul was weak, as the master of the spiritual sea, the warrior should have used various local advantages to hinder its erosion. But for some reason, the other party didn't move at all, allowing itself to erode... Not to mention that this kind of information was worthless in itself. Even just to maintain the other party's inaction, the Great Khan felt that telling the other party this information, which anyone outside knew, would certainly not be a problem.
"Having been isolated from the world for at least twelve thousand years, you have completely forgotten the external Star River and your own glorious identity. You don't even know the abnormality of the Star River you are in... How pathetic."
Mocking Joshua's ignorance, but even so, when the Great Khan spoke of the great disaster at least twelve thousand years ago in the Ancestor civilization and the Multiverse, its tone was still serious and full of respect. It narrated the glory and generosity of the Ancestor civilization ten thousand years ago, praising their virtue of elevating unenlightened life. Even the Star Shepherd had gained great benefits from the Ancestor civilization. They would not forget this kindness, so they engraved it all in their hearts.
"The Ancestor civilization blocked the army of World Devourers, sealing all the World Devourers within their own World Star River, not allowing half a World Devourer to leave... So although everything happened abnormally suddenly (yìcháng tūrán), all external civilization embryos survived and developed into what they are today."
Saying this, the Great Khan let out a cold snort: "But don't think too much. What we respect is the original Ancestor civilization, not the guys who have huddled in this lost Star River, stagnating for ten thousand years without any progress!"
As it spoke, the Great Khan did its best to erode the spiritual space. But during the erosion process, it discovered with confusion (yíhuò de fāxiàn) that Joshua still had no thought of 'resistance', but instead lowered his head in contemplation.
"Ancestor civilization... How does it sound so much like a combination of the Sanctuary Alliance and the Era of Radiance? Perhaps mixed with a few other Void civilizations that were not as advanced as the Era of Radiance and the Sanctuary Alliance, but still considered powerful..."
Joshua's soul incarnation muttered to himself, seeming lost in thought: "World Devourers are the Evil Gods. That so-called war, if nothing unexpected, should be the final battle back then."
But one happened twelve hundred years ago.
One happened at least twelve thousand years ago.
Space-time dilation?
But that was too long...
The Star River was moved to the edge of the Multiverse, and civilization was separated (lākāi) by more than ten thousand years due to space-time dilation. Joshua looked up at the fungal filaments before him.
For these Star Shepherds, for these civilizations of the external World Star River, that war had passed more than ten thousand years ago. The wars of the past became dusty myths, the myths of the past became fragmented ancient legends. Everything was covered by 'time', the strongest force in the world, the greatest illusion, and no one knew the specific details of everything back then.
This was a 'seal'.
Joshua suddenly understood the meaning of all this.
Yes, this was a seal far more solid and reliable (jiāngù káolào) than any magic array, far more dependable and reassuring (kěkào tàshí) than any suppression. This was a prison called time, a seal called years!
The space-time dilation effect made a thousand years in the Mycroft World become ten thousand years outside, causing the Multiverse Star River to reverse, heaven and earth to turn. In this short thousand years, the civilization of the Era of Falling Stars, growing from the corpse of the Radiant Civilization, had just begun to take steps, while the Evil Gods outside had already prepared for ten thousand years, about to embark on the next journey of destruction that would tour all worlds.
"We are a sealed civilization."
Joshua suddenly realized. He looked up at the dark high sky of the spiritual sea and muttered to himself: "Under this manipulation of time, I only now discover this... Brilliant, too brilliant. This seal moistens things silently, and neither the sealed nor the onlooker can see anything wrong."
Talking to himself, the warrior stopped speaking. Only the rustling sound of fungal filaments eroding could be heard in the spiritual sea. The Great Khan naturally couldn't understand Joshua's psychological changes at this moment, only attributing it to 'being unable to resist due to being shocked by the truth'.
"Wait, why... I've been eroding for so long, but it seems I haven't occupied much of this spiritual sea?"
But slowly, even the Great Khan began to notice something wrong: "How big is this spiritual sea?! Impossible, how could such a weak soul have such a large spiritual space?!"
And at the same time, a sound that seemed suppressed at first, but gradually became more and more unrestrained, came from the center of this spiritual sea.
"Haha... hahaha!! Using so many methods to seal, even distorting time."
Looking up at the black high sky, Joshua seemed to be able to see the infinite stars of the external Multiverse at this moment. He laughed loudly, laughing joyfully and heartily.
"Plucking the Star River from the Multiverse, placing it in a corner at the edge to compress time... So 'He' can also be afraid!"
The Great Khan simply couldn't understand what this strange guy in front of him was laughing about. It was just irritated by this laughter, so it impatiently extended a fungal pillar and struck hard at Joshua's location.
It knew this move was useless. No matter how weak Joshua's soul was, he had the freedom to move in the spiritual space. So it was too lazy to waste energy killing the opposite soul, instead focusing entirely on eroding the spiritual space, cutting off the source of the warrior's soul from its roots.
But soon, the Great Khan found that something was wrong.
Joshua did not dodge this full-force fungal pillar, nor was he shattered into pieces.
The warrior raised his hand, extended his index finger, and with a soul amount no stronger than an ordinary Ultimate expert, blocked this spiritual strike that far exceeded ordinary Legendary and could have shattered his entire soul into powder.
"To be honest, your soul is indeed very strong. I estimate that even the spiritual mentor William is not as good as you in pure soul strength, and should be similar in technique. His battle with you would be a match of equals, a meeting of talents. Perhaps that bard might even lose to you. Anything is possible."
Stopping his laughter, perhaps because in his own spiritual space, inner thoughts directly turned into words, Joshua shook his head: "Unfortunately, since the last spar, William no longer plays these spiritual games with me. I don't know his current strength either."
As he spoke, the warrior casually flicked and pointed, and immediately, the Great Khan's fungal pillar broke from the root, then was shattered by an unknown force, turning into a sky full of milky-white soul light particles, dissipating in this dark, silent spiritual space.
"I actually don't have a soul... To be precise, my thinking organs are strong enough that I don't need a soul for ultra-high-speed combat and thinking. It's just that for convenience in manifestation, I slightly shape a soul for you to see."
Looking at the Great Khan, which seemed to have noticed something wrong and was fully contracting its soul power to prepare for an attack, Joshua showed an indifferent smile: "From the beginning, I, who need no soul, have been in an invincible position. Moreover, there are many things you don't know. For example, my spiritual space is called the 'Soul Abyss' by others."
As he said this, ripples began to spread around the warrior. With Joshua as the center, the dark, silent spiritual sea suddenly began to stir up violent winds and huge waves. Everything began to twist and shake violently. Accompanied by endless wails and screams, roars and laments, accompanied by desolate and heroic horn sounds coming from afar, an endless sea of undead, souls and skeletons, passed through the twisted space and appeared everywhere above the spiritual sea.
Boundless, endless, countless in number. But even estimated with the smallest number, it exceeded millions and tens of millions.
The deep and dark spiritual sea was no longer as calm as before. In the deep bottom of the dark void, the voices of countless beings could be heard praising and singing. They were old people, children, men, women, humans, beasts. They praised, screamed, cursed, sang. Sometimes they groaned, sometimes they rebuked, sometimes they whispered, sometimes they chuckled.
Countless beast humans, alien races, Chaos monster remains danced in the air, lingered, soared, swam. They rolled, jumped, expanded, contracted, like a nightmare within a nightmare. Countless noisy human voices swirled and mingled (pánxuán hùnzá) in the originally silent and empty spiritual sea. They coalesced together (níngjù zài yīqǐ), finally turning into the most naked hatred, the thickest killing intent, and the most undisguised malice.
And Joshua stood in the midst of this infinite malice. He reached out and stroked the top of a magical beast's remains, not caring at all about its stinking blood and its wails. All the undead bowed low in submission when approaching him, as if surrendering to this human who had killed them, this giant god who destroyed everything.
A huge eyeball (jùdà yǎnqiú), composed of countless remains, broken weapons, blood, skulls, burning metal, cold wind and sand, damaged city walls and fortresses, magma, and other things full of destruction and death, appeared behind the warrior. In its pupil was a planet that had been mostly devoured, missing its star core. The hollow planet rotated, releasing a deathly silent aura (sǐjì de qìxī).
Gazed upon by this enormous Eye of the Dead Remains (jùdà wánhái zhī yǎn), the Great Khan felt a cold sensation spreading in the depths of its soul. At this point, it had to admit that it had truly underestimated the Ancestor Star Devourer before it.
How many lives had he killed, how many beings had he destroyed, to have such terrifying evil thoughts lingering (kǒngbù èniàn páihuái) in the depths of his soul?
This question was not answered.
Because Joshua's final voice echoed in the air of the world.
"For example, I actually know a little trick called 'Essence-Soul Conversion'."
The lingering sound faded, and the human-shaped Joshua dissipated into silver mist.
And the next moment, in the depths of the dark and enormous (pángdà) spiritual sea, far beyond the Great Khan's imagination, something seemed to be slowly rising.
Accompanied by the rapid descent of endless black seawater, Joshua's spiritual space finally revealed its true form — it was a bottomless, endless dark abyss. And at the very bottom of the abyss, something red seemed to be rolling. A giant god's hand, blotting out the sky and covering the sun (zhē tiān bì rì), as if it could hold the entire world, was extending from the depths of the abyss. It ignored all fragile and useless counterattacks and directly grabbed toward the Great Khan's fungal main body (běntǐ).
Plop.
Accompanied by a ridiculous sound, the giant beast held it in its palm, gently squeezing, like a person carefully holding a sparrow in their palm, being careful not to crush it to death.
The Eye of the Dead Remains (wánhái zhī yǎn) silently watched all this.
Now.
Who is afraid?