The name that once made the heavens weep and stained the earth with the blood of gods was no more. But Wu Chen refused to give up his ghost as he found his being hurtling through the pathways of spiritual evolution.

Many lines of life snaked their way toward him with the intention to grab his soul for power, but he was able to skillfully evade them and surge forward.

He wasn’t keen to enter the Great Light where all souls went when their bodies were destroyed: holding too much attachment to the corporeal world to let his ghost drift in the sea of others.

While vengeance wrapped his soul heart, he would never be at peace and didn’t deserve it. There was a wrong that needed to be righted. Not for his own sake but all the corporeal beings on Seria.

“If it’s vengeance you seek. I can give your soul a physical life.”

Wu Chen searched the space for the abnormality. Thinking that he could exploit it to stop his momentum and break out of his current path.

He found an opening in a dark space and entered it. Within was a ball of weak gold light: a tiny soul, but its voice was strong.

“My body is dying from betrayal. I feel our deaths were caused from similar reasons. Vengeance gives your spirit power and protects your soul. Your desire for it casts a singular energy from you.” The weak soul flew at him and circled his being.

“We could help each other achieve peace to our purpose.” The weak soul spoke with fierce determination, but Wu Chen sensed a buried kindness.

Indeed, its outer layer of cynicism seemed cultivated from many events that likely had their kindness exploited. It was a soul difficult to resist. But he wasn’t going to be tricked with kindness again.

“Are you sure? If you let go of kindness, you will never know cruelness. I was betrayed many times and feel vengeance in my soul heart for the last person who betrayed me. But that is not the reason I carry the feelings. It was all part of my cultivation experience. I could not still retain my links to the physical world otherwise.” There was wisdom to the weak soul’s words.

Wu Chen felt his soul being examined and interpreted by the weak spirit. As it gained insight from him, its light became stronger and more intense.

“You dare study me!” His voice cracked through the space.

“Of course!” The weak soul answered. There was no fear or pride to their voice, but a resolve. For before them was an answer to a question they had been seeking. Wu Chen’s soul was the help they needed.

“I am still alive. That is why my spirit is weak around my soul,” The weak soul said and hovered confidently before Wu Chen.

“Then this space is a temporary void between spirit and physical realms?” Wu Chen mused at a potential opportunity.

“Indeed. A loophole, if that is the correct term. But as you can see, my soul is weak, as was my resolve that led to my attack and the reason I’m dying. Only my vengeance to right the wrong done to me keeps my spirit strong enough to ensure my soul is intact. Once my hold on my vengeance wanes, so too will my soul die in this void. As my spirit energy is not strong enough to carry me into the Shadow Spirit Realm beyond the Great Light.” The weak soul disclosed its predicament without holding anything back.

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It was taking a gamble that Wu Chen would be interested enough to help them. And he was, for he knew enough about the spirit essence of a soul, and the Shadow Spirit Realm, to know that deep-rooted emotions and sentiments empowered the spirit to keep the soul together long enough to pass through a pathway into the realm.

Once in the realm, a soul was likely able to retain its individuality and cultivate its spirit strength to return to the corporeal worlds in a new body, where the soul could further cultivate itself into greater power.

“But you say your body is dying?” Wu Chen wasn’t so sure if it was wise to transmigrate into a frail body, where the soul could be exposed to corruption so easily.

“My body is not frail, just broken. Your strong spirit energy and soul could easily repair it. And there are benefits to the body I left behind. Benefits that mean nothing to me now.” The weak soul tempted him with its offer.

“And what is in it for you?”

“A promise that you will carry my soul into the Shadow Spirit Realm when vengeance for both our causes have been sated.” The weak soul laid out.

“But if I enter your body, that promise could take a long time to achieve.”

The weak soul skittered about the space with excitement and a firm answer to his concerns.

“I will be your treasure skill to use. The only one in the universe.”

“Oh? And that would be?”

“Wisdom. I can allow you to achieve understanding of universal laws and way of life tacitly.”

“Will you be part of my consciousness?”

“No. But if you absorb me as your spirit energy, you carry my essence within you as your unique skill. When you obtain the Wisdom of Souls, you can detach the individuality of my spirit energy to re-image my soul from the body I left behind. The body you will receive.” The weak soul’s words held only truth on the matter.

“Who were you?” Wu Chen was curious. Indeed, the soul was taking a great risk in giving him this offer. With such a risk, the dangers would also be devastating.

“I am, and was, Veronika Shepherd. A young, um, fodder soldier in your distant future, and a descendant of many grand lord martial warriors. Alas, martial arts is a dead art in my time. No one knows the Laws of Immortality anymore.” There was a tone of cheek and arrogance to the weak soul as they declared this. Wu Chen found it hard not to like it.

“Oh really?” Wu Chen considered the potential.

“So, do we have a deal. We don’t have much time, as my spirit energy is what is holding up this place.” The weak soul warned Wu Chen.

Wu Chen had unfinished business anyway, so it was an opportunity not to ignore.

“We do.” He placed his soul being into a meditative pose.

“Excellent. I’ll reveal the rune that holds this space together and links to my physical body. Understand it with your soul force and allow yourself to flow through the pathways to it.”

Wu Chen opened his being to the voids laws and absorbed gold sigils declaring its rules into himself. As he absorbed the laws, he felt his being picked and pulled apart. His cultivated wisdom was being merged with the weak soul’s, to reforge a great and powerful spiritual essence to empower his soul.

A great energy surged into his soul to reaffirm his purpose and reason to live another life. At the moment he felt the pinnacle of power within him, he felt chills and the wet touch of a waking morning on his skin.

The final bits of insight from the weak soul had been absorbed into him to craft a wisdom skill in his subconscious.

Their voice could no longer be heard, which left a tinge of sadness in his soul heart, but there was hope for the soul as long as he lived to fulfil his purpose. It had taken a gamble with the chance it gave him: he would not let it and him down.

“I’ll remember. I promise.” His soul voice said as he completed the merger into the dying body of the fallen soldier and used his spirit energy to revive it.