A rush of soul energy entered Jason's mind space, something that would have usually killed someone as weak as him, but under Ray's expert control he only felt some slight discomfort.
If Ray could control his soul power as easily as he could his mana then Jason wouldn't even have known what was going on, but the hundred flowers cultivation method only affected mana. His expert but not perfect control was through natural talent and race.
Through his soul power, Ray could see a largely empty white space with black mist scattered around. This space was Jason's mind space with the mist being a representation of his memories. In the center of the mind space was a ball of light.
As Jason was an ordinary person and hadn't cultivated any soul arts or became a supremacy, this space was relatively empty, or at least it should have been.
Hovering above the ball of light, there was a massive circle that slowly rotated and absorbed something from it.
"What the fuck is going on." That ball of light was Jason's soul, and it was exceptionally weak. Usually, a soul would mimic the body of a person and appear like a little clone, but Jason's was so weak that it balled up to protect himself.
Ray could see that the magic circle was extracting soul power from Jason and feeding it to someone or something somewhere else. Whatever technique that was used to do this was exceptionally powerful as it could even send it through the dimensional boundaries between the subspace and new world.
"Well, that explains it. It's no wonder he is so weak and in pain." While it could be said that the body nurtures the soul, to the point that it mimicked one's appearance, it was a two-way deal.
The soul served as a regulator for the body and if it was damaged or weakened in any way, it would cause immediate and painful consequences. Not to mention that if one's soul was destroyed, they would die.
This connection between the two was so severe that the mind was a by-product of this collaboration. This is why an insane person could physically continue to live well, but a bedeviled person might drop dead at any given moment. The mind could be destroyed, altered or even reconstructed, but a change to the soul rarely ended positively.
For there to be a magic circle above Jason's soul, constantly extracting energy from it and sending it off to somewhere else, it had to be the technique of an equally powerful and morally bankrupt entity.
If they wanted soul power, they could have just killed him and collected it as Ray had done multiple times, but they were clearly farming him for it. By only taking most of it, the soul can recuperate and could be then plundered again.
But this was still extremely dangerous. Even if your soul was left intact, your body would weaken substantially. To regenerate itself the soul would extract vitality from the body, weakening it and decreasing life span.
After enough times one would just die unannounced. If not for his innate strength and strong soul Jason would have died ages ago.
With no hesitation a golden light erupted from Ray's soul power and infiltrated the magic circle. This was naturally his talent, and he was slowly figuring out exactly how to use it when he willed it.
As expected, the magic circle immediately dissolved and was absorbed by Ray's soul power.
After withdrawing his soul power, Ray saw that Jason's completion turned from an unhealthy pale to a healthy peach. His skin color was lighter than his and James', but even with that he looked like a wight before. Now the color was coming back to his skin and with it came muscle mass.
Before Ray could say anything, Jason collapsed to the ground.
"After so long with such an oppressive seal, it is only natural to be overwhelmed." Jason was unconsciously absorbing enormous amounts of mana, so Ray teleported to his room and laid him to rest. He had a lot of making up to do so Ray just left him alone.
"Who could have done this to him? There is no way that he was unaware of this."
[Curse of life-leach (SS): A signature skill of the nurturing ghost hall. A seal is inserted into a target and their soul power is leached to the caster. The strength of the seal determines the drain. Not affected by distance. If the target manages to remove or destroy the seal, the caster will face a backlash dependent on the strength of the seal.]
"Such a skill could be ranked SSS if not for that drawback, but you could just put many weaker seals onto many people." Through his talent destroying the seal Ray learned the technique being used and he instantly saw the potential of such a thing. Soul power was difficult to grow on your own and it was much better to steal it from others. "Nurturing ghost hall huh? I don't know what quarrels you have with my brother, but I won't be letting you off easy. For the time being though, I hope that you enjoy the fruits of your labor."
............…..
Hundreds of miles away, situated in a cave carved out in a valley, sat a young woman who was busy meditating. All around her were viscous looking tools and even stranger artifacts. There was an unending sound of ghastly wails coming from the depths of the valley, but the woman seemed to enjoy those soul wrenching noises.
She was deathly beautiful, as if looking at her could rip your soul out or cause you to dedicate your life to her.
All of a sudden, she felt an immense pain coming from her soul. She was paralyzed and was bleeding from her 7 orifices. Yet even still she appeared desirable.
In a giant tower next to the valley a gray haired, young faced elder suddenly sensed something. He flew out of the tower and into the valley.
"It's not often one of my disciples goes through backlash, but for it to be so severe they had to have made some mistake." The elder scanned the innumerable caves until his gaze met one in particular.
The entire valley suddenly trembled as his rage poured out of him, alerting the disciples and elders.
"Hall Master! Where is the enemy?" The disciples came pouring out, each holding various viscous looking tools. The elders didn't say anything but they each held their own weapons, prepared for anything.
The hall master was too enraged to even speak and only waved a hand to the only unopened cave. A wave of soul power shot out and the body of the woman came flying out. Such a thing could only be done by an extremity.
Pressing his hand on her forehead he tried to investigate what happened to her, but before he could learn much he was covered by a golden light. It was only there for a flash but for him it felt like a lifetime.
Black blood poured out of his eyes, shocking everyone watching.
Before they could ask, the hall master spoke. "All disciples are to continue meditating, the monthly examinations are coming up and if you don't want to get kicked out, I'd advise you take it seriously. All elders, come with me."