— Pangaea, South Ward, Broken Swamplands
The Broken Swamplands was a famous region in the South Ward, located about 500 kilometers south of the Chimes Estate. This densely forested area had many lakes and bogs. Some were filled with dirty water, but there were still many clean lakes. However, it was strange that the entire place didn’t have any life energy fluctuation of living creatures. Without insects, the whole area was filled with unknown foliage that radiated the Qi of death.
In reality, the voodoo death Qi in this area was so thick that it robbed and corroded all magical life energy of its essence. The land would be barren if not for the equally thick wood Qi, which kept the plant life thriving in spite of the deadly energy. This resulted in and many weird spirit herbs, cursed fruits, and poisonous substances being born in this area. The voodoo Qi in this region was so powerful that experts rarely visited this place to explore. Only the most capable elites would dare to enter.
A few kilometers within a dark forest of the swamp lands, blood-curdling screams could be heard echoing throughout the region. It sounded horrible like a beast being melted to death from the toes up.
“Where is it?” the sinister voice of a stout middle-aged man with a face full disgusting pustules and pimples. He had gray skin that writhed and squirmed like it was made of millions of tiny insects. This man was horrendously ugly with small beady eyes.
Two meters in front of this freak-show-villain was an elderly human man who was only about 20% less ugly. He was wearing plain hemp rags and had liver spots all over his bald head. Wyven Chimes’ current appearance was haggard to the extreme. Terrifying toxic insects crawled all over his skin devouring his flesh, and two long white serpents slithered and coiled all around his body. Wyven had several open cuts and wounds. However, rather than blood leaking out, there was a green ooze coming from his injuries.
Wyven spoke in a weak and nearly incomprehensible voice, “I toe…*cough* I toe *cough* *cough*… I toe… I told you. The brown child has it, he, he, he took it from me! Made me wah… wash it in the river and put it in his heh… hand.”
“Fine. At this point, I can only believe you. Merely, you gave away what was not yours. The consequence for this is obviously death by venom…” The terrifying looking man wiggled his fingers a bit, and both white serpents opened their maws abnormally wide revealing a total of eight fangs that look like viciously sharp steel sabers. One bit into his neck, while the other bit at his crotch. Wyven started screaming hysterically like a maniac. If there were anyone around it would be impossible not to draw attention.
However, there was no one around.
The number of people who could survive in such an environment was terribly few.
Today while minding his own business, Wyven Chimes had been dragged here by this animal before being tortured for six hours straight. In the cruelest twist of irony, his assailant’s venom was the only thing preventing the surrounding poisonous gases from killing him in seconds.
“Pleaf… pleaf… please just kill me,” begged Wyven Chimes in the world’s most pathetic voice, as his torture continued without pause, “Just want to die, I just wanna die, pleaf… AHH!!! No more… please, I beg you… I said all I know.”
“Oh be silent, you pathetic old fool. This is not the end for you hehehe…” The gray-skinned man was laughing sneakily like a mischievous child, before breaking out into a savage and maniacal cackle, “You’re going to be my very first corpse fiend, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YES! It’s going to be marvelous. Once I refine your pathetic source spirit with fiend strength, I can finally practice the second stanza of the White Demon Book, the path of the Reaper! I, Oulan Mercy, can become an honorary disciple40discipleone who accepts the knowledge of and assists in spreading the doctrines of another, taking them as a master. of White Demon Castle hahaha…”
Oulan Mercy twisted his hands into a sinister hand seal, as a chain made of curse seals spread out into the air from his hands, tightly wrapping around Wyven Chimes. Layer after layer of chain covered him until not a single piece of flesh was visible. The curse seal chain released an evil black light as it tightened further. After shrinking to the size of a longan fruit, there was an explosion of purple light! After the light faded, there was an evil looking imp devil snickering mischievously. It danced there in place, with its manhood hanging loose. A long green tongue was hanging out of its fiendish mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.
“Ah…” when the imp saw Oulan Mercy, it quickly bowed in deep reverence.
“Maniac Tricky Imp, huh,” Oulan Mercy looked disappointed, casually waving his hand as a black light wrapped around the two white serpents and Tricky Imp, spiriting them away mysteriously.
“At the very least, such a minion can handle some menial tasks. Oulan Mercy’s face suddenly turned grim, with killing intent so obvious it seemed to be dripping from his eyes. “Of course, first I must recover that mysterious treasure sword for the sect master, hehe, yes, yes, with that sword sect master can earn an audience with the Left-Hand of the liege lord! Revered liege lord has even offered a new fiefdom to the man who recovers this precious item. Our White Serpent Cove is sure to be on the rise then. Even becoming a Prism rank power isn’t impossible, hehehehe.”
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— South Ward, the northeastern region of Dark Forest,
Jodye Trill opened his sapphire eyes, dim golden lights swimming within. He stood up and stretched, exhaling a mouthful of foul air. His eyes were deep and profound as he looked at the rising sun behind the trees as if he had seen through life and death. The images from that dreamlike experience reflected deeply in Jodye’s head. He remembered the pain of misfortune, the rage, and desire for vengeance. He had relived the advanced military training, the vast and endless space within the desolate river of time, the advent of life after death, and the terrifying lacerating strength of chaotic space laws as he teleported millions of miles away. Each of these scenes flashed one after another in his thoughts.
His recent experiences and comprehensions fused with his previous accumulations, and his Serenity Force, Calamity Force, and Slaughter Force had each reached the advanced Nascent level, capable of increasing his basic power by 20 BP. THE Chaotic Melody of Destruction and Advent of Creation law concepts had even reached the Perfected Nascent level! This meant that more than half of the forces he had comprehended would now grant him 25 points of basic power! It was only unfortunate that basic powers couldn’t be fused. However, for someone like Jodye who could engage multiple forces with a single concept, this wasn’t necessarily true.
Not to mention he had already learned how to fuse his law concepts into his astral energy, as long as he comprehended astral essence it wouldn’t be challenging to blend Qi forces. His voodoo and thunderbolt forces were powered up by the deepening understanding of the Chaotic Melody of Destruction concept, and his magic and dragon forces were all strengthened because of his Advent of Creation concept. Of course, what Jodye benefitted from the most were is life and death comprehensions, this was the leading cause of his strength increasing.
After reliving his previous existence, he had an entirely new outlook.
“Mr. Jupiter?” came Dessa Chimes sweet voice. “Are you okay? You seem…different.”
Jodye stared blankly for a moment, before blinking several times and laughing boisterously out loud, “Haha, they say a woman’s intuition is fierce, so it is fierce! This is scary indeed.”
Dessa stared at Jodye unblinkingly for a moment before covering her mouth and exclaiming, “You got your memories back!”
“Snitches get stitches, Autumn Saver,” said Jodye Trill scowling at the treasure sword tattooed on Dessa’s hand. He recognized a slight soul vibe and knew that it was a telepathic communication. His divine sensitivity was incredibly acute now that he had fully fused with T’Zhane’s 300 years of experience. “I almost would’ve preferred not to remember some things…but yes my memories have returned.”
Dessa looked nervous, “Um… so…”
“Do not worry. My true name is Joseph Goldwolf, and this isn’t something I can run away from. However, it remains that I am Jupiter and Jupiter is me. Besides, I will continue to use this name for quite some time. So yes, there is no need to doubt your vows,” Jodye Trill had already decided on continuing to use the name of his galactic level master, as he had no idea whether or not White Demon Basalt Congo was hunting him.
Now that his memory returned Jodye planned on temporarily leaving Pangaea altogether. Pyramid’s be damned; what he needed was time to gain strength and understand the power of his foes. He had no interest in remaining in this twisted voodoo state before he had the advantage to bring about a change.
Meanwhile, Dessa was shocked that Jodye seemed to have read her thoughts. Dessa felt Mr. Jupiter also looked a bit more… playful? Childish, even. It was as if he was suddenly a youth rather than an old hero as he had felt previously. However, the charisma of this recovered master was higher than before. She couldn’t help but think in an ambiguous way when he referred to her heavenly oath as if they were wedding vows.
Dessa Chimes blushed and turned around to resume her mediation. It was at this time that Jodye noticed that there were several empty water pouches and vicious beast bones on the floor of the burrow.
“Trippy, how long was I out just now?” asked Jodye Trill telepathically.
“Responding to host query: Host spent 36 hours stabilizing Host Source Spirit,” responded the artifact spirit, Trippy.
“Status Update?” Jodye Trill felt like his connection with [Pharaoh’s Law4Lawthe rules and principles that create, govern, and maintain the energies of the universe. When laws come into harmony they form different systems naturally, with as many functions as the laws in harmony. For laws to enter a state of harmony, they must be compatible and have a proper conduit such as a star, or anything with its own unique Origin source law. With a good enough conduit it is possible to make incompatible laws reach a state of harmony, but in such a scenario there is a high chance of the force turning cancerous. The condensation of law energy produces what is known as Force or Qi..] had grown stronger, and he could feel the dragon force traveling through his origin veins constantly, slowly widening and reinforcing them. It almost felt like it was moving in a pattern of its own, similar to when he operated the Bright Star method.
“Reporting Host status,” As Trippy’s voice faded information flooded Jodye’s mind.
[Name: Joseph Goldwolf][Age: 6 years, 5 months.]
[Status: 110% Health, 8:15 am]
‘Sage Path: Advanced Sophomore rank, 16 bp.’
‘Titan Path: Level 9 Wimpy Man Realm.’
‘Legacy Soul: Divine Vajra Dragon, Compatibility rating: 19%.’
“Holy…19%?!” Jodye Trill was genuinely unprepared for such an announcement. The last the young boy knew of, his compatibility with this combat soul was only at 3% when he awakened. Actually, it still didn’t surpass 5% before Jodye became comatose. Now it jumped to 23%? That was an 18% increase! Just what had happened?
“Responding to host query: Legacy Soul was able to absorb large amounts of chaotic lightning from Host’s body in the chaotic streams of space. Compatibility of the legacy soul also seems to increase when Host slays foes, consumes beasts, or increases realm, thus resulting in current compatibility rating.”
“Legacy soul? This must be the upgraded version of the Fusion Soul my mother mentioned,” mumbled Jodye Trill.
Thanks to his mother’s teachings, Jodye knew that there were distinctions between combat souls that synchronized with a Host through the source artifact and the fusion soul’s that fused with a Host through the source artifact. Fusion Souls would slowly integrate with the Host Soul until they became one entity! This gave the host soul full access to the ability trees of the fused soul. For a Legacy Soul, it was probably even more exaggerated than that! Synchronized combat souls, on the other hand, only shared their source spirit’s internal essence powers. These changes would be passed to the host from the origin pool and resulted in a change in the host’s Lifeblood and bloodline limit.
While this could potentially create new bloodline abilities, it would not be the combat souls original ability. However, the Synchronized Combat Soul would be able to use the host’s origin energy to execute its own skills when necessary.
“So wait, what are my legacy skills?” wondered Jodye Trill.
“Responding to Host query:…”
“Could you stop saying that every time, dude,” black lines covered his forehead as Jodye complained.
“Responding to Host’s current query: No,” responded the dull voice of Trippy. “Responding to Host’s previous query: Host owns an S rank Legacy Soul, by current Hero Race standards. At a Compatibility of 8%, Combat Soul can be awakened to its infant stage, and increase bp by 15 via combat seed. Infant Stage Legacy Soul unlocks the Tier 1 primary skill. At a Compatibility of 16%, legacy soul evolves into child stage, augmenting bp by 35 via combat seed and unlocking the Tier 1 auxiliary skill. Would host like Trippy to imprint Legacy Soul Ability Tree information?”
“Yes, do so immediately, why are you always so wordy?” Jodye Trill was growing excessively excited and impatient as his mind received a flood of new information.
[Tier 1 Primary Spark, Thunderbolt Purgatory – Load (4) purgatory thunderbolts][Tier 1 Auxiliary Spark, Vajra Cover – summon protective divine scales to protect the body from harm]Upon receiving this new information, Jodye Trill started. He had almost forgotten! His combat souls and legacy soul were all S class! This meant that he didn’t merely have combat skills, he had divine powers!
A divine spark!
In fact not one, but three! Of course, the other two were synchronized, and Jodye wasn’t sure when they would manifest within his bloodline.
Nonetheless, Jodye immediately hopped up and dashed madly out of the burrow, startling Dessa Chimes out of her meditation.
For the first time in his life, Jodye was excited to be using his origin energy! It was time to try out his new divine power!
