Chapter 1168: Reborn Spirit

“Interesting.”

Stefania s.h.i.+fted her gaze away from the sleeping woman and blinked curiously.

“Even though I’ve seen similar beings, this is the first time I’m unable to figure out the exact situation. After all, such beings are extremely mysterious. I’m not too familiar with the Dragon Soul Continent, so I can only rely on my experience to judge the situation.”

“Is that so…”

Upon hearing Stefania’s response, Rhode shrugged helplessly. He had also thought about this issue when he first saw Stefania. Plane merchants were indeed knowledgeable, but due to them being overly-knowledgeable, they had a harder time figuring many things out. Just like himself, Stefania recognized the essence of that woman immediately, but couldn’t pinpoint what exactly went wrong.

“Yes, I’ve faced such instances several times, with some people purposely creating and storing puppets who look exactly like them. As long as they were dead, their spirits could enter their puppets and they could be resurrected. Yes… judging from this, that situation seems similar to this woman’s. If I’m not wrong in my guess, I think she is a vessel.”

“Vessel?”

Upon hearing Stefania’s comments, Rhode was befuddled. The inspiration that he couldn’t grasp earlier suddenly appeared in his mind.

That’s right, a vessel! No wonder I kept wondering about it and couldn’t recall something that felt so familiar.

After being reminded by Stefania, Rhode finally figured out the missing link. Logically, it was impossible for the woman to be born from the ground. But that was in terms of logic, after all. But in the Dragon Soul Continent, many things couldn’t be explained by logic and that included dragon soul heirs.

Dragon soul heirs weren’t inherited by blood, but were born through the cohesion of dragon soul powers and the continent’s essence instead. Their bodies were most suitable to contain dragon soul powers, which was why they were chosen to become dragon soul heirs. In that case, if BoBo wasn’t wrong about that woman being born from the ground, she would be somewhat similar to dragon soul heirs, especially the twin dragons in the Country of Law. The twin dragons weren’t given birth to, but were bred from the fruits of the Spirit Tree instead. Judging from this aspect, the woman was somewhat similar to them.

However, the biggest difference between them was that the woman didn’t have a spirit. Logically speaking, a living being without spirit was dead and the dead couldn’t possibly grow.

However, BoBo said the woman grew up inside the crystal…

At this thought, Rhode shook his head. Even though they were similar, there were many areas that were different between them. The power of Order inside the dragon soul heirs weren’t as pure as this woman’s, where it would subconsciously convert the power of Chaos that eroded her into Order. Perhaps not even the twin dragons were capable of doing that.

“Thanks for the reminder, Miss Stefania.”

Even though Rhode didn’t come to a conclusion, he believed that 70 to 80 percent of his guesses were accurate. That was why he returned to his senses quickly and nodded to Stefania. Facing his words, Stefania didn’t continue speaking. Instead, she smiled and turned around to leave.

“What do you think?”

After Stefania left, Rhode asked the question in his head. Upon hearing his doubt, the younger sister sighed.

“Indeed, just like you said, Big Brother. If that woman is a being similar to dragon soul heirs, it isn’t entirely impossible. Besides, it can be explained from the fact that she doesn’t have a spirit inside her. Back then, in order for us to create the Dragon Soul Continent, we led away most people and power from First Wilderness. But you’ve seen it for yourself, Big Brother. It was exactly due to this reason that we caused First Wilderness to lose its initial bustle. But, as it wasn’t created by us, even after losing its power, it was still able to exist between Order and Chaos. But…”

“Even though it exists, it is unable to reproduce new life forms and spirits, which caused it to end up this way, right?”

Rhode was right. The people who remained became worse with each generation. Back then, even though they didn’t leave alongside the five Creator Dragons, Rhode reckoned that they weren’t weak beings either. And now, since they didn’t evolve and had even degraded to the state of primitive, it was sufficient to explain the problem. Due to this reason, this body that was born from gathering the essence of Order didn’t possess a spirit. Besides, it wasn’t a product of the five Creator Dragons, but was born from First Wilderness that created the five Creator Dragons instead. In that case, it wasn’t surprising that this body contained power similar to the five Creator Dragons.

If that was the case, there was also an explanation for why the woman didn’t have a spirit in her.

“Big Brother…”

At that moment, Rhode heard the younger sister’s voice and twitched his brow.

“What’s wrong?”

“If…”

The younger sister sounded rather hesitant. But eventually, she made up her mind and said solemnly.

“… you agree, I would like… to have this body.”

“…”

Rhode’s heart skipped a beat upon hearing her wishes. He was at a loss for words. Of course, he understood his younger sister’s intentions. Even though she was happy to be by his side like this, as a matter of fact she had always yearned for a body of her own. It was especially so after experiencing the days of being influenced under the ‘power of contrast’ by Ca.s.sidy. Rhode empathized deeply with his younger sister’s nostalgia toward owning a body. But it was a pity that she was only a remnant of her spirit. Rhode wasn’t able to find any suitable body for her up until now. He also couldn’t possibly kill someone just to pa.s.s the body to her. That was why he kept dragging the matter and now, with such a vessel available, it was impossible for the younger sister to not be tempted by the idea.

But…

“Are you confident?”

If the younger sister were an unimportant spirit, Rhode wouldn’t mind giving it a shot. But the problem was that this was his younger sister’s only remaining trace of spirit. Back then, he failed to awaken her as his card spirit as her spiritual powers were too weak for her to manifest. Without any choice left, she had to stay inside his system. But now… it wasn’t anything simple for her to occupy a body. Moreover, she lacked the spiritual powers to do so, which was why Rhode felt concerned.

Not only that, but even though the body seemingly lacked a spirit, this was also Rhode’s guess, after all. Who knew if there were some hidden traps? What if there were some mysterious tricks that not even he had heard of? For instance, this body devoured any spirit that tried to enter, which was how it managed to grow. If that was the case, wouldn’t he be sending his younger sister into a tiger’s den?

He also couldn’t possibly experiment with his younger sister. Of course, he could seize a random spirit and force it inside the body to see the results. It would be best if it was as dangerous as he had guessed. But what if it wasn’t and the spirit fused with the body and couldn’t break free afterward? Even if he killed the spirit later on, he would cause damage to the body too. The body was like a piece of white paper. No matter how one wiped away the ink that stained it, the ink would remain even after using a correctional fluid. Moreover, this body was also extraordinarily strange. Perhaps she contained enormous power and there would be more issues if he had created yet another enemy.

Right now, there wasn’t a spirit inside this piece of white paper, which was coincidentally suitable for his younger sister because she was a spirit. If the body was a corpse left behind by others, it would be challenging to fuse and resurrect due to the remaining traces of the original owner’s spirit. Only a piece of white piece like this that wasn’t occupied by any spirit before was the best vessel for his younger sister.

But… is this risk worth taking?

“… How confident are you?”

“I don’t know, Big Brother. But I would like to try. After being under the influence of Ca.s.sidy’s ‘power of contrast’, my spiritual powers have slowly recovered, so I don’t think there will be any issues… as long as no accidents occur.”

Upon hearing her answer, Rhode pondered in silence. He was facing a tough decision. He had to either take the risk with his younger sister’s spirit with a success rate of possibly 50 percent, or refuse her suggestion and let her stay with him in spiritual form. Even though his younger sister would definitely heed his advice, he wasn’t willing to destroy her hopes. After all, this was a rare opportunity for her and could be said to be the only chance for her to own a physical body.

“… Okay then.”

In the end, Rhode gnashed his teeth and nodded. Of course, he could stop his younger sister, but he chose not to. After all, this concerned her future. Even though it was a gamble, he decided to take a risk since he had already suffered from the loss of his younger sister more than 10 years ago, so he wasn’t afraid of being hurt the second time. Besides, the stakes were huge this time. If his younger sister was able to fuse with the body, it would be far better than her being trapped inside the system in spiritual form.

After making up his mind, Rhode went up to the sleeping woman. Gazing at her beautiful face and gentle, closed eyes, he raised his right arm. At that moment, he was the only one inside the tent as the rest had gone to rest on their own. He had never let anyone in about the existence of his younger sister, at least in this place. Even in the Void Territory, the only one who knew about his younger sister was Gillian. That was why Rhode had no intention of making it known. After all, this was his oldest and dearest secret.

“Are you ready?”

“… I’m ready, Big Brother.”

The younger sister’s voice sounded a little shaky. It was apparent that she was feeling nervous. If it was possible, she also refused to make things difficult for Rhode. But now, she had made up her mind. No matter what, the temptation of owning a body was too huge to refuse.

“…”

Upon hearing her answer, Rhode didn’t respond. On the contrary, he pointed his right index finger and tapped at the woman.

“———!”

Along with this movement, a golden radiance emanated from his fingertip abruptly, shooting straight into the woman’s forehead. Rhode’s expression turned incredibly solemn. As the golden radiance shone, innumerable magical glitters expanded with him in the middle, taking shape into an intricate, circular, magical ritual. The mystical runes inside the ritual linked up into several golden rays. This was a risk and Rhode was afraid of being careless. The instant he injected his younger sister’s spirit into the body, he promptly activated his spiritual ritual. The moment he felt anything unusual, he would stop the process immediately, even if it would hurt his younger sister to drag her back. It was still better than losing her forever…

“…”

As the golden rays were injected, the woman’s body began to tremble. Rhode became increasingly nervous as he stared rigidly. His heart pounded harder and harder as he was afraid of seeing a situation he refused to witness. But this time, he seemed to be fortunate. Even though the woman kept trembling, she didn’t open her eyes at all or turn into a zombie to attack him or whatnot.

“What happened?”

The large activity around Rhode naturally couldn’t be kept hidden from the rest. At that moment, upon detecting the surging magical aura from inside the tent, the group crowded outside anxiously. However, none of them dared to barge in. They were experienced, after all. They knew what was happening inside judging from the rus.h.i.+ng magical aura. During such crucial moments, they were better off not disrupting Rhode unless absolutely necessary.

“I think it must have something to do with that woman. Could it be that Leader decided to have a go with her? But his actions with her are rather huge, aren’t they?”

Mini Bubble Gum curled her lips. Even though she knew that the situation definitely wasn’t as she thought, she was bearing a grudge and taking revenge on him for mercilessly deleting all 10 terabytes of adult animation.

“…”

Marybelle remained silent. She knitted her brows and gazed at the flickering spiritual radiance around the tent. She sensed a faint, yet familiar presence inside the tent.

Could it be… But, how is it possible?

At that moment, Rhode wasn’t in the mood to care about the happenings outside. At his fingertip, the coalesced golden radiance became thinner and disappeared entirely into the woman. The instant the golden radiance vanished, a colorful vibrancy emanated from her body. Looking at this strange scene, Rhode raised his guard, took two steps back, and stared at her. He had done what he could. His younger sister’s spirit was entirely injected into the body. As for what exactly would become of her, even Rhode wasn’t aware. Apart from watching helplessly now, he couldn’t do anything else.

The multicolored glow shone brighter, enveloping the woman entirely. The purity of Order and aura of spiritual power struck him in the face and rea.s.sured him. At that moment, the calm, bright light shrunk abruptly and rose from the ground in a loud rumble, bursting into the sky in a dazzling light column. The sky that seemingly burned in gorgeous scarlet turned dull abruptly. Everyone looked up, only to witness the red sky metamorphosing into a dome that was as white as pure jade. The rus.h.i.+ng aura dispersed in all directions, forcing the group surrounding the tent to move back by a few steps subconsciously.

After several minutes, the brilliance faded away gradually.

“Your Majesty Rhode, what happened?”

The group entered the tent, gazing inside curiously and realizing that Rhode was also looking ahead with an equally curious expression. Following his gaze, the group couldn’t help but widen their eyes in surprise. A crystal stele about 3 meters tall was erected before him. Inside the stele, a young lady was sealed within.

That’s right, a young lady.

The woman Rhode rescued earlier was around 24 years old. But now, she was no longer there as she was replaced by a young lady who looked around 16 years old. She had long black hair, fair skin, and seemed fragile and pet.i.te. What was most eye-catching about her was her face. Her face looked exactly the same as Rhode’s—it was just that she seemed slightly younger.

Looking at this scene, Rhode was speechless. Even though he was mentally prepared, he didn’t expect things to turn out this way. As a matter of fact, after the dazzling light dissipated, he couldn’t help but be in a daze after witnessing her entirely new appearance. Before he returned to his senses, a sparkling and translucent crystal appeared around the young lady. In the blink of an eye, it turned into a crystal stele and sealed her inside completely. Everything had ended when Rhode returned to his senses.

Was it a success?

Rhode held his forehead and let out a pained sigh. He sensed a faint spiritual aura belonging to his younger sister from the young lady in front of him. This meant that his younger sister’s spirit was neither devoured nor annihilated, but had seemingly a.s.similated in succession. However, this scene was so odd that he couldn’t figure out what was happening.

“Your Majesty Rhode, what happened?”

At that moment, upon detecting the end of the activity, the group scuttled toward him. They were astonished as soon as they saw the crystal stele.

“Who is that young lady? Where is that woman from before?”

“Ugh…”

Facing Lydia’s question, Rhode shrugged awkwardly. Before he came up with an answer, he saw Mini Bubble Gum looking at him with an odd expression.

“Leader… are you narcissistic…?”