He did not feel the pain because the body was currently not linked to his soul. However, he had minor control of the body, such as facial expressions and communication, which amounted to crying and smiling. Now he would try a pained expression.

He was not sure of how kids, babies to be precise, would showcase pain.

He did not have teeth to make the classic gritted teeth expression, to show he was under a lot of pain.

Thus, he decided on a mixture of crying and angry expression. Getting back from his wild thoughts, he agreed with himself that he was overthinking this.

At this time the formation glowed, and the drawing of the snake activated.

The snake in the formation had absorbed the flesh and the blood of the two mercenaries. This gave the snake the illusion of being alive and real.

The scales of the snake looked extremely real, and its movement along with the glowing skin made it resemble a living snake. The snake slowly crawled to the boy's body and wrapped around the little boy like a python strangling its prey. The snake even had a musky smell and smooth texture.

Once the snake's head reached the back of the boy's neck, it slowly melted into the petrified boy, creating a tattoo of the snake around his body.

The dark soul controlling the boy, "pretend" shouted, made an angry expression and cried. He was happy with his performance, and he stopped once the snake melted into his body.

 If one looked at the tattoo, they would get the same sense of fear as a real snake. It seemed too realistic around the boy's body. The dangerous-looking wrapped snake tattoo along with the boy's lifeless eyes create a sense of melancholy.

The man's body that was formed by the formation disk was now freed from the snake, it automatically turned to an evil dark light and dove into the chest of the boy. It formed a small tattoo of a man painted in black with red little dark red veins.

Seeing the completion of the sealing formation, Duke White happily went to the boy and examined his sealing. As it was the first time, he was doing something like this, he was not sure what to expect. However, he had enough understanding to know that he succeeded.

The jovial grin on Duke White did not resemble a man that had just tortured a little boy. He used his senses to probe the boy, and he found out that there was a realistic tattoo of a snake around the boy's body and a small man at his chest.

The Duke nodded happily, "..."

Then he made a strange symbol with his hand, channelling the gloomy dark energy. He placed his hand on the man's tattoo that was on the boy's chest and said: "activate."

The dark energy got absorbed by the tattoo, and it pulsated.

The snake-tattoo disappeared, but the tattoo of the man remained.

The Duke chuckled and with a grin while looking at the boy, he said: "I found the revitalizing grass and another treasure, I guess it is my lucky day."

Then he muttered, "Now how should I deal with you?"

While Duke was contemplating, the dark soul remembered something and was terror-stricken.

He remembered that the boy's soul had been sealed. Therefore, he should not have any emotions on his face or make any noise. While he looked at Duke White, he noticed that he was not speculating anything. He sighed in relief.

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At the same time, he knew that he screwed up big this time if it was someone with an in-depth understanding of sealing, they would have known that something was not right. They could have found his existence, that would be his ruin. Thus he made a mental note to pay more attention in the future.

The first thing he did was analyze the seal that was placed in the body's soul. He wanted to know the extent of how much he can use his ability. Seeing the soul seal, "Soul lock," had thoroughly confused him. This was because the seal was too restrictive. If he did not take over the body. The previous soul could only breathe and possibly maintain the body's functions such as the heart pumping blood and etc.

A body that would not be able to eat, drink water and move properly would probably die in this world. Thus, his conclusion was that Duke White is not fully aware of the extent of his abilities.

This was delightful news for him because now that he knew that Duke white does not know the extent of his seals, it gives him somewhat of freedom to act. Thus he can make his own limits on how much the seal actually affected him.

Now that his primary worry of safety was dealt with, he had many problems and questions. Hence, he was contemplating how to deal with them.

His first concern was, how long will this temporary safety last? Now that his body was sealed, it would take some time for the seal to complete its intended desire.

Thus he needed the time frame for the seal's completion, to make his future plans and make proper countermeasures for possible problems to ensure his safety and survival.

His second concern was why was the original body placed in the cave, and if someone would come to rescue him and would that involve a fight? Would this fight bring harm to this little useless body? And would his invasions into this body be discovered? Or was he simply abandoned?

This line of thinking made him depressed, and he made the decision to stop thinking about it because nothing good would come from blindfold speculation.

His third concern was, is this body and soul really the right vessel for him? He is a dark soul, one that has an affinity to dark energy, and the body and soul of the host is a light affinity-based. Opposites really do not mix well. It becomes even more troublesome when it comes to world energies.  Thus he was contemplating what to do?

He had many more concerns, but for now, the most urgent was these.

Now that the body seal was activated, he could inspect it and find out the timeline for its completion. As he could get rid of one of his concerns, he started to examine the new seal placed on him.

Since it was examining his body, it did not take that long to find out how long it would take for the body and soul connection to break down. Thus, after examining the rate that the seal destroyed the body and soul connections, he managed to make an approximate timeline.

Based on the current rate of the breakdown, he believed that the seal would roughly complete in 22 years. To stay on the safe side, he made his timeline 20 years.

The seal had 2 functions, the first function is to break down the body and soul connection which would take 75 percent of the time, which would roughly be 15 years.

The second function initiates after the first one finishes, and it would take 5 years. It is to re-establish the body's connection to the tattoo of the man on his chest.

The tattoo would absorb the body's energy channels and other attributes. Then this tattoo would be transferred to another person completing the seal.

Seeing the tattoo's function, he sighed in relief.

This is because now he had 15 years of safety and the tattoo's function was advantageous to him.

The tattoo gives him an advantage because it actually comprises 2 separate functions.

The first one is breaking down the body and soul connection by the snake tattoo. The second function is re-establishing the body's connection and absorbing them to the man tattoo on his chest. This allows him to reap the benefits before the second function activates.

His plan was quite simple after each of the body and soul connection is dissolved by the snake tattoo. He would immediately re-establish the broken-connection to his soul.

After 15 years, the body would have already established new connections with the dark soul, preventing the second function from activating.

This is also advantageous to him because he does not have to dispel the seal. Duke White could examine it, and it would still show the progress of the seal during the 15 years, and he will not be suspicious.

15 years was more than enough time for him to have a better understanding of Duke White and come up with a strategy to deal with him. He would also have to get strong enough to escape or fight him if things do not go as planned. Initially, he was worried that the seal would be complete too soon, but that is no longer the case, and he had one worry lessened.

His second concern lifts him downcast because he could not read the previous soul's memories. After all, the kid did not have any memories stored. Thus it remained a mystery as to why he was left here.