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*****
After leaving the starry sky world, Chrysanthemum Douluo, Ghost Douluo, Devil Bear Douluo, and Ghost Leopard Douluo felt a brief flicker of their vision and found themselves back in the Pope's Palace. They experienced an inexplicable sense of unreality.
Is this real?
In the starry sky world, Tang San had taken them to the largest star and conjured a city of martial souls using spiritual power, although it was devoid of any inhabitants.
Even with just the buildings, the realism was terrifying.
Even for Bibi Dong, a peerless Douluo, who knew it was a spiritual illusion and a false creation, the touch, the texture, and the feedback from her own spiritual power gave her the illusion:
It was a truly real martial soul city, only devoid of people!
It wasn't until they returned to reality and Bibi Dong released her spiritual power to scan the entire martial soul city that she felt slightly relieved, knowing she had truly returned to the real world.
"Impressive, your starry sky world is indeed indistinguishable from reality. I even suspect that even after death, one's soul could be preserved in there, am I right?" Bibi Dong, possessing the Death Spider Emperor and the Devouring Spider Emperor martial souls, and being blessed by the two divine positions of Rakshasa and Death, had the most acute sense of souls.
"That's correct," Tang San acknowledged, "I recently discovered that souls of those who die in the martial soul city enter that realm…"
Based on this, Tang San thought he could establish a world to store souls, connected to Electrolux's demi-plane. The entrance to this realm could be set in the City of Slaughter, which was underground, making it perfect to serve as the Douluo Continent's version of the "Netherworld's Ghost Gate."
As for whether the Asura God would mind?
Everyone knows that the City of Slaughter's location belongs to all living beings of Douluo Continent, not to the Asura God. The City of Slaughter was an illegal structure built by the Asura God in the lower realm.
For the development of Douluo Continent, rebuilding the illegal structure should be understandable. After all, they are humans, not gods, and the Asura God cannot break the rules to descend to the lower realm.
Of course, to be on the safe side, it's better to wait until he has the power to defeat a god king with one punch.
"So, how did you handle those souls?" Bibi Dong asked.
"Through the Blue Silver Network, I observed that after ordinary people die, their souls dissipate quickly—within one or two minutes, or at most seven days. Dissipated souls likely transform into basic particles similar to world energy, merging into a certain field of the world. When a newborn appears, these particles regroup to form the soul origin, evolving according to individual experiences," Tang San elaborated. "From this perspective, all living beings in the world, whether human, soul beast, or ordinary plant or animal, are equal in terms of the soul."
Chrysanthemum Douluo and the others: "…"
Who am I?
Where am I?
What are we listening to?
Each word and phrase is understandable, but the sentences together make no sense.
Why are humans, soul beasts, and ordinary plants and animals equal in terms of the soul?
We don't get it.
Bibi Dong, however, understood some of it and gestured for Tang San to continue.
"The soul power of soul masters and the cultivation of soul beasts can strengthen spiritual power, but essentially, the soul does not become disproportionately stronger with increased spiritual power. The soul remains fragile; only the spiritual power becomes formidable. Hence, spiritual power is fundamental to a Titled Douluo. Future cultivation beyond the hundredth level involves converting spiritual power into divine sense, where the soul is not as crucial, serving primarily to carry memories."
"And with divine sense, one can be reborn…"
"But is the reborn self truly the original self?"
"Probably not. The soul is the fundamental essence of a person."
At this point, Tang San paused, took a deep breath, and a glint of light shone in his eyes. "After those deceased souls entered the starry sky world, I placed them on a star, recreating their living environments so they believed they were still alive and continued their lives…"
"What do you think happened to those souls?" he asked, looking at the others.
Chrysanthemum Douluo frowned and glanced at Ghost Douluo, whose martial soul was a specter, essentially his own soul, suggesting he might have some insight.
"Will the souls within live eternally, forever happy?" Ghost Douluo saw both Devil Bear and Ghost Leopard looking at him, and he could only venture a guess.
"No," Tang San shook his head, then turned to Bibi Dong.
"Could it be that souls also experience aging?" After pondering for a moment, Bibi Dong voiced a conjecture that even she found absurd, yet somehow felt it might be true.
"Well said, Your Holiness," Tang San lightly praised Bibi Dong, then continued, "Those deceased souls, placed within an environment identical to their previous lives in the starry sky world, gradually age and eventually decay, their souls crumbling automatically into death, leaving behind two things—"
With his spiritual power, Tang San constructed an image of how the souls of the deceased disintegrated and vanished within a certain illusory realm of the starry sky world after the Blue Silver Network was established—
Initially, the soul took a human form, then the skin rotted, muscles dissolved, leaving only a pale skeleton that surprisingly could move like a normal person, albeit weaker than before.
Subsequently, the weakened skeleton emitted a golden light all over until it eventually turned into nothingness within the golden flames of light.
This scene left a profound impact on the six present individuals, including Tang San.
Especially Bibi Dong, influenced by the Seed of the Death God's Position, comprehended more and even sensed a strand of truth about life and death.
After the complete disappearance of the soul, two things remained:
One eternal and indestructible ball of light.
Its color was indescribable, yet it was dazzling, seemingly eternal and enduring through the ages.
The other thing left behind was incomparably dark ashes, as if capable of devouring all light, much like a black hole in the universe.
Once Tang San dispersed the image constructed by his spiritual power, Bibi Dong came back to her senses and asked, "What are those two things? I have an instinctive feeling they are greatly beneficial to the soul."
"I call that light the Undying True Spirit," Tang San explained, "It's the fundamental essence of a soul—pure, flawless, eternal, indestructible by any means." This wasn't an exaggeration by Tang San; it had been tested by Electrolux, and indeed, that thing couldn't be destroyed by any means, not even bound.
According to him, even gods probably couldn't see the origin deep within that soul.
Only within Tang San's illusory starry sky world could one witness this Undying True Spirit originating from the essence of the soul!
"This is why I say all living beings are born equal, because at the deepest core of the soul, everyone possesses this Undying True Spirit." Tang San couldn't help but sigh; after establishing the Blue Silver Network, he had unexpectedly discovered this phenomenon. "Perhaps from a societal perspective, due to factors like family, lineage, and martial spirits, life isn't equal at birth. However, for the entire continent, or rather, for the entire universe, all living beings are equal. That sliver of Undying True Spirit at the deepest core of the soul is the best evidence."
"For us, an individual's memories of oneself are cognition, the essence of the soul. But for the entire vast universe, perhaps that sliver of Undying True Spirit is the confirmation of a living being's fundamental existence."
"And through this point, I have a conjecture—"
The path taken by the gods of the divine realm, focusing on condensing divine souls and strengthening divine sense, has actually gone astray.
One should imprint all memories onto that Undying True Spirit, making it the foundation of one's entire existence, rather than relying on external divine souls or divine sense.
Though Tang San didn't utter these two sentences aloud, Bibi Dong's breathing quickened, clearly understanding that the sliver of Undying True Spirit at the deepest core of the soul was the basis of her entire existence.
However, how to find one's own Undying True Spirit?
Regarding this, even Tang San himself wasn't too clear...
(End of Chapter)