The three ferocious beasts slowly turned around. The huge wild boar had only taken a few steps when it suddenly howled in pain. Dazzling electric arcs flowed around its body. Its huge body instantly turned into charcoal and fell to the ground.
A human figure made of countless starlight emerged from the corpse. It glanced at the other two ferocious beasts and disappeared into thin air.
The other two ferocious beasts' limbs went soft and they fell to the ground at the same time, trembling non-stop. They could not see the human figure in their field of vision, but they could feel a huge pressure emerging. It was a natural deterrence from a higher level of life, a power that could easily crush them!
…
The silhouette that seemed to be formed by starlight floated in the sky. Light passed through his body without any refraction, so he couldn't be seen in the eyes of living creatures. The only thing that showed his existence was an invisible force field that repelled the infiltration of high energy from the outside world.
The word "soul" had appeared since the birth of human civilization, but no one knew whether the soul existed or not. After death, did it completely turn into nothingness or become another life form?
Or was it carried by another life form?
Scientists believed that the soul referred to a legendary non-material thing that was attached to the human body as the master. It referred to the spirit, thoughts, emotions, and so on of life.
In the ancient religion, the original Buddhism did not accept the concept of the soul because it did not hold in the theory of the birth and death of fate. From the standpoint of "impermanence of birth and death", everything was impermanence. It was the same in the physical world, and it was the same in the spiritual world.
When looking at things with the naked eye, one would often have the illusion of "being but not changing". If one were to use a sophisticated instrument to look at anything, everything would change in an instant. The "life" mentioned by the Book of Changes actually included death behind life, which was also the change of life and death.
However, Taoism had a detailed description of the soul. Taoism's view of the soul was based on the foundation of life medicine and mysterious theology. It analyzed the characteristics of the soul in detail and believed that the soul was made up of three spiritual and seven physical souls. When a person died, the seven physical souls would disperse first, and then the three spiritual souls would separate again. The spiritual souls controlled the spirit, and the physical souls controlled the body.
The three spiritual souls referred to "Heaven Soul, Earth Soul, Life Soul" or "Heaven Soul, Knowledge Soul, Human Soul" and so on. In modern science, it could also be understood as: spirit, thoughts, and emotions.
The seven spirits referred to happiness, anger, sorrow, fear, love, evil, and lust. They existed in the material world, so when a person died, the seven spirits would also disappear. Later on, a new body would be born.
The "body and soul" belonged to the "material world of the world of the living", while the mysterious "spirit and soul" belonged to the "void world of the underworld".
The starlight figure was none other than Luo Kai. He raised his head to look at the glaring sunlight in the sky and deeply furrowed his brows. The scorching energy carried by the sunlight was constantly roasting his "soul body". Not only the sunlight, even the wind passing through his soul body gave him a piercing pain as if ten thousand swords were piercing his heart. The wind eroded his bones and the sun pierced his heart.
He was a little annoyed. At that time, he was hesitating whether to kill the old ghost or keep him alive to ask about the Dark Realm. Just as he relaxed a little, the old ghost immediately escaped from the electric net and escaped into the thick layer of soil.
The incorporeal life was formless and intangible. It could travel freely between material objects, but material life could not. Even if he had great ability, he could not do anything to the thick layer of soil. These were the rules of two different worlds.
His spiritual consciousness locked onto the old ghost. In a moment of anxiety, something miraculous happened. His spiritual consciousness was no longer based on his physical body. Instead, it left his physical body and followed the old ghost into the thick layer of earth. This was the legendary out-of-body experience.
When he was in the out-of-body experience, the outside world had completely changed. The world in front of him was gray, without sound and color. Everything was filled with death and despair. This scene was familiar. It was the scene when he was almost completely transformed by the Aura.
As the saying goes, "color is emptiness, emptiness is color." It was the same for feelings, thoughts, and consciousness. Human's perception of the outside world came from their own senses. Was the world seen in the soul state the real world?
Or was the world seen in the body the real world?
Did this world really exist, or was everything just a huge and complicated three-dimensional projection?
Real and illusory, existence and non-existence, it was difficult to distinguish.
The crux of the matter was that as his soul chased after the old ghost, he actually got lost. He couldn't feel any sense of direction or space at all. To the soul, everything that was built on the basis of matter was meaningless. In other words, if the soul could travel through any medium, then matter would also lose its meaning.
Something even more terrible happened. The soul state had almost zero resistance to the outside world, or to some of the energy in the material world. For example, a slight ray of light could corrode his soul and create a puff of green smoke. All other active energy was the soul's greatest enemy. The high temperature was like roasting, the low temperature was like freezing, and the wind seemed to be able to blow his soul away.
Seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages was the instinct of life. It was the same for both material and incorporeal life. He instinctively began to look for something warm. In this gray world full of death, the only warm existence was life. Among them, humans were the most suitable.
Now he finally understood the words of the ghost at the Evil Tavern. The world of the dead was indeed not something that the living could understand.
The only difference was that his soul was completely formed by a hazy ball of starlight, and not a dark and cold ghost. This ball of starlight that seemed complicated actually had a pattern. There were a total of three hundred and sixty-five stars in his soul and they were divided into countless fulcrum points. Once any fulcrum point dimmed, he would become weak.
If the soul state wanted to survive, it had to attach itself to a material life. To be precise, it had to use life as nourishment to maintain the condensation of the soul.
Every life had its own independent will, and it would resist the invasion of external consciousness. He had tried to attach himself to some small animals, but the small animals' weak bodies could not support him. No matter what, a water cup could not hold the water in a wooden bucket and it would explode.
Humans with lower cultivation could not do it either. Physique warriors who had not stepped into the Spirit-Refining Realm would quickly become weak and exhausted after being attached, as if their life force had been overdrawn.
Physique warriors with higher cultivation had a very strong will. Once they were invaded by external consciousness, they would immediately sense it and launch a counterattack. The result was either the external consciousness would be destroyed or their own consciousness would be assimilated.
Luo Kai did not want to kill lightly. In the end, he finally found a human with a decent cultivation. It was this guy called Qin Yang. He quietly attached himself to this person and thought hard about a solution.
When one had a material body to carry the soul, they would not be affected by external energy. They could even see the world from another person's perspective. This feeling was very wonderful.
Since he could not influence this person's thoughts, he could not control his actions. He could not stop this guy from being eaten by a ferocious beast. In the end, he lost his physical body. Fortunately, he had figured out some ways to resist external energy during this period.
Although he did not have the strength of a physical body in his soul state, he still had a strong will power. He could summon and control the energy of heaven and earth, and he could also use the psychokinesis field. It was not a problem for him to resist external energy for a short period of time.
However, it could not last long. He had not figured out a way to absorb energy in his soul state. Currently, his soul state could only rely on life and absorb the essence of life. He could not absorb the energy of heaven and earth. He could not last for long.
He looked at the few people halfway up the mountain.
…
Halfway up the mountain, on a protruding rock, the remaining four people were curled up and resting. The bottom of the Ao Long Mountain Range was cold, while the top was lush and verdant. There were also many small animals living in it. The world full of vitality had returned.
The four people looked pale, but they were more depressed. They had lost one person before reaching the Northern Ice Plains. It seemed that the world of ferocious beasts was different from before.
Generally speaking, every mature ferocious beast was a leader. Except for some ferocious beasts that lived in groups, the rest lived alone and would not gather together. But now, they had encountered three ferocious beasts at once. The ferocious beasts had evolved and become stronger, while the humans were facing internal and external troubles.
Zhang Kui sighed. "Sigh, these three ferocious beasts are too scary!
Even if a few more physical trainers came, they would not be able to deal with them. "
"They will be even scarier in the future." Gan Zhi's expression did not change. The death of his teammate did not seem to affect him.
Zhou Zheng looked down the mountain and said sadly, "Qin Yang is a warrior."
Zhang Kui comforted him. "It is an honor for a man to die on the battlefield. It is better than dying of old age at home."
After saying that, he hesitated and said, "… We have lost all our heavy weapons. Should we continue to complete the mission or retreat?"
Gan Zhi said expressionlessly, "Of course we should continue to complete the mission."
Ma Xiaojia did not say anything. She only looked up at the sky in confusion.
The outpost was built on an empty ground halfway up the mountain. It was not big and was just a fortress built into the mountain. The mottled entrance and broken stone walls indicated that no one had lived here for a long time.
The four people went in to take a look. It was empty. Just as they were about to leave, Gan Zhi's expression changed. He was a physical trainer who had received the earth energy infusion. He was very sensitive to the fluctuations of the earth.
"It's empty below."
Gan Zhi closed his eyes and sensed for a while. Then, he stomped his foot. With a boom, the floor was crushed and a dark staircase appeared in front of them.
Zhang Kui looked inside. "Eh, is there an armory here?"
"Let's go down and take a look."
They had lost all their heavy equipment and ammunition. It would be best if they could replenish it. The underground passage was very dark and cold. Gan Zhi walked in front while the others carefully followed behind him.
After walking down a long flight of stairs, an empty stone room appeared in front of them. The stone walls were embedded with many small stones that emitted a silver light. They could clearly see that the square was densely packed with rows of cages. Inside the cages were long-haired monsters that had been turned into mummies. On the other side was a pile of broken machines. There was a test bench full of test tubes and machine tools that emitted the smell of machine oil. It looked like a processing workshop.
"What is this place?"
The four of them cautiously walked into the stone room and carefully inspected the cages one by one. They didn't know what kind of metal this cage was made of, but it was very hard. Moreover, it was directly welded to the ground. The corpses inside had already dried up. Some of them were humans, but most of them were animals.
Gan Zhi turned his eyes to the center of the square. There was still an altar where a three-headed and six-armed Buddha statue was enshrined. He didn't know much about religion and didn't know what kind of Buddha this was. However, he felt that this Buddha statue was a little creepy. It was completely different from the bright and grand Buddha statue in the temple.
After looking around the stone room and finding nothing, Zhang Kui was puzzled. "This place seems to be a laboratory."
"There is a line of words here." Ma Xiaojia suddenly pointed to the top.
Everyone looked up and saw a line of bold words engraved on the rock wall above them. "Others are hell!"
"What does that mean?" Zhang Kui scratched his head.
Gan Zhi was the most knowledgeable one among them. He pondered and said, "This is the words of a wise man before the Catastrophe. He said that contradictions and conflicts are inevitable between people. People will spontaneously have prejudice against others. Sometimes, it will lead to attacks with different purposes and even lead to conflicts between two parties. This conflict not only exists between people, but also between different groups such as races, genders and even countries. In other words, wherever there are people, there will be Jianghu. Conflicts and competitions are inevitable."