Chapter 668: 596: World Number Eighteen Unnamed

Chapter 668: Chapter 596: World Number Eighteen Unnamed

Knowledge Tower, the spacious fifty-ninth layer.

Rows of bookshelves, each several meters tall, stood neatly arranged, filled to the brim with books.

“Tap, tap, tap…”

Tang Yu meandered between the shelves, his gaze sweeping over them.

The Knowledge Tower housed the majority of books gathered from the Holy City, accumulations from countless years of the glorious epoch of Origin Star. The sheer number of paper-based books alone was countless, and even a fraction of them constructed this tower brimming with ‘endless knowledge.’

It was a place coveted by many foreign Awakeners, major forces, and even the upper echelons of sacred lands.

Oldington, the Chief Elder of the Mage Alliance, had forsaken returning to the small town of the Mage Alliance, immersing himself instead into this tower of knowledge.

Despite previous attempts to catalog, he could never fully know all the contents of the books, documents, and blueprints housed in the tower.

At that moment, he was in the area storing books about the ‘soul.’

The ‘soul’ was not mysterious in the eyes of scholars from the Second Epoch of Origin Star. For instance, Transcendent individuals who had broken through to the Second Tier using the spiritual path could achieve ‘Soul Out-of-body.’ Besides having a backup or an avatar, even if one’s head was severed or heart pierced, continuation of existence was possible through the Spiritual Body—provided it could escape.

After Tang Yu had broken through to the Second Tier, he could easily achieve Soul Out-of-body—it was almost an instinct, yet he rarely did so—the unprotected soul was too fragile.

But the extensive research on the soul from the Second Epoch frustrated him.

Looking around, all he saw were books about the ‘soul,’ with very similar titles.

Titles like “Research on the Soul and Body Gender Mismatch,” “A Few Things You Didn’t Know About the Soul,” “On the Possibility of Spiritual Body Peeping,” and many others filled the shelves.

His spiritual power transformed into dozens of large hands, which grabbed batches of heavy books from the high shelves, floating them in front of him as they flapped open.

They quickly closed and returned to the shelves, and new books steadily floated over, controlled by his spiritual power.

Tang Yu’s gaze swiftly scanned, his brow gradually furrowing.

“No books on ‘soul power’…”

The term ‘soul power’ appeared quite frequently, but it signified the ‘strength of soul power,’ not what he was hoping to find—the soul power absorbed from hunting Demonized Beasts.

He gently tapped his finger on his forehead, sunk in thought.

“It makes sense. If hunting Demonized Beasts granted ‘soul power’ that could rapidly enhance one’s strength, it would be widely known information and not hidden…”

“Unless.” He considered two possibilities, “either ‘soul power’ is a product of the Fifth Epoch, or it was possible to obtain ‘soul power’ from hunting Alien Beasts in the early developments of Origin Star, but later, it vanished as well.”

Rubbing his chin, Tang Yu favored the former, as the latter should have left some trace.

‘Soul power’ had the significant effect on low-tier Awakeners, and during the early apocalypse, it was precisely the time when humans and Demonized Beasts had the largest disparity… It was the existence of ‘soul power’ that helped humanity swiftly enhance their strength, allowing them to gain a foothold in the apocalypse.

Thinking from another angle, if ‘soul power’ did not exist, relying solely on cultivation, advancing from the First Tier to the Fifth Tier of Awakening, given high talent and ample resources, would still require several months… not to mention in the early apocalypse, very few possessed any Cultivation Skills.

In that scenario, even if humanity hadn’t been annihilated, probably… not many would have survived.

“Perhaps it was a contingency laid down by saints in the beginning, or a self-preservation mechanism of Origin Star… However now, the disappearance of soul power has become a certainty.”

He wanted to find a way to restore ‘soul power,’ but now…

Tang Yu shook his head, gesturing for a dozen books to fly back to their places instantly.

Suddenly, his eyes sharpened, landing on a book titled ‘Soul Descent Secret Technique,’ piquing his interest. With a gesture, the thick, brick-like book flew over.

The thick leather cover was flipped open, revealing runes, text, and illustrations…

All revolving around a secret technique.

“Soul Descent!”

It could descend onto a corpse for “Rebirth by Possession,” or onto a living person, but it required a soul powerful enough to completely overpower the other.

“So that’s how it is…”

The book also discussed many matters that one needed to be aware of when pursuing the spiritual path, and Tang Yu gradually gained enlightenment.

The essence of a person is the soul.

By following the path of the flesh, one could achieve Blood Rebirth because the soul information had already integrated into every cell of the body, allowing each cell to become a whole.

By following the spiritual path, the soul had merged with the spirit, endowing the spirit with an indestructible attribute. Cutting spiritual power and parting out the “Undying God” was, in fact, “Soul Split.”

He also tried allowing a strand of Soul Split to merge into a particular Alien Race corpse to make it his own avatar; however, just after the Soul Split entered, he felt a wave of strangeness and rejection.

Tang Yu didn’t pay too much attention at first, thinking it was just his own squeamishness—after all, he was not willing to let his Soul Split enter the body of an Alien Race.

After reading this book, he realized that the insertion technique was incorrect.

The Heart Demon Clan Domain-Level powerhouse from before had not a few avatars, with one of them also being at the Domain Level and occupying the corpse of a Royal Family ancestor.

Occupying the corpse of a powerful being was indeed a shortcut to quickly enhance one’s strength.

But, the stronger the corpse, the greater the rejection, and that’s when certain secret techniques were needed to reduce the resistance during insertion.

Tang Yu flipped through the hardcover book, sometimes pondering, sometimes frowning.

The earlier sections were mostly theoretical and foundational, but in the latter part, it finally talked about “Soul Descent” being able to directly descend onto a living person!

“If one considers a strand of Soul Split as a unit, then at least ‘ten’ units are needed, along with a main soul strength of three or more points, to employ this secret technique…”

He had only cultivated three units so far. Aside from himself, one strand of Soul Split was put aside, and another was used on Avatar One, far from meeting the requirements to perform the “Soul Descent” secret technique.

But it was of great research value.

Snap!

He closed the book.

Tang Yu didn’t continue reading; he just pondered deeply for a while, and several hours had passed. Immerged in academics, he didn’t even notice how time had slipped by.

Now was not the time to be conducting research.

He returned to the castle, where members of the Personal Guard presented reports gathered from around the world.

The continual decline of soul power deeply furrowed Tang Yu’s brow.

“Green Shadow and several sub-territories are not greatly affected, even some areas’ Extreme Martial Arts Halls are doing much better than before, but other human Sanctuaries are…”

His vision was no longer limited to one place, and without soul power, many Sanctuaries that could only just manage to hold off the Demon Tide would become increasingly perilous.

“Let’s do this,” he called over Luo Zhe, Chen Haiping, and other high-ranking officials, and said, “Find a foundational Cultivation Skill of wide applicability and distribute it so that most Awakeners can enhance their strength through cultivation. If there isn’t a suitable one, then create one.”

After some discussion, Luo Zhe proposed an Attributeless Cultivation Method named “Gathering Qi Jue,” which was easy for beginners and suitable for the vast majority.

At that moment,

“Ding Dong!”

A light ring echoed in his mind.

It was a notification for some important messages.

“Transmission Array search discovered a new world coordinate—Unnamed World Number Eighteen.”