Chapter 235: Soul Exploration

Everyone hated privileges, yet everyone also wanted to possess privileges.

However, thanks to the magical world’s "inhuman" approach to things, the world of the apprentice mage had already developed an extremely deep understanding of Mental Power. The soul was merely an advanced subject rather than a forbidden field that no one could touch. Therefore, even a relatively low-level skill book contained knowledge that reached into the realm of the soul.

Originally, Joo Joowon had planned to use zombies as test subjects when he went outside to hunt monsters, using them to practice and become familiar with the new knowledge he had absorbed.

They were already dead, and yet they still could not rest peacefully. It was nothing more than him making them a little more restless. He believed that if the zombies had spirits in the afterlife, they would probably be able to understand him.

However, he had never expected that fate would play such a trick on him. His first "test subject" would actually be one of the cats he raised.

This was still not enough to make him lose his composure. The more dangerous the situation, the more important it was to remain calm. A person’s state of mind had a major influence on the success rate of any task, and remaining calm when facing unexpected situations was precisely what Joo Joowon was best at.

Because he had never done anything like this before, he was especially patient. He did not rush into action simply because he was afraid that there would not be enough time.

The strong nerves he had developed from childhood allowed him to remain calm and composed in most situations. After all, panicking would not help. It would only delay things.

Hwi’s Mental Power did not show any particularly strong resistance when Joo Joowon approached. Instead, it faintly transmitted a sense of familiarity and closeness. This level of trust was somewhat beyond Joo Joowon’s expectations.

However, thinking about Hwi’s behavior, he no longer found the situation particularly surprising.

Animals naturally did not have very high intelligence. Their thoughts were far less complicated than those of humans, and Hwi was not one of those relatively intelligent individuals like Byeol. In fact, ever since he had first appeared in front of Joo Joowon, almost everything he had done had been completely unrelated to the word "smart."

The world of a little cat was so simple, and with such a limited brain capacity, once he chose to trust someone, he would naturally place his complete trust in that person. He would not harbor strange thoughts or constantly change his mind.

This brought Joo Joowon a great deal of convenience. The process of disguise, which should have been something that would have taken a long time to overcome, was easily completed because of Hwi’s trust. Joo Joowon went from familiarity to imitation, deceiving Hwi’s loose Mental Power, which had never undergone any special training, and returning to the nest together with it.

The organ that produced Mental Power was not located within the physical body, but within the soul. More precisely, Mental Power was a new form of matter formed from energy that dispersed from the soul.

It was produced within the soul, and when it passed through the body, it was given "weight." This was why it became the intangible yet substantial state commonly understood by the public, something that could not be seen through the ordinary senses.

Therefore, in essence, Mental Power was a part of the soul. If a person’s Mental Power became severely damaged, their soul would also suffer as a result, potentially undergoing unpredictable and terrible changes.

Of course, such a situation was actually very difficult to occur in reality.

Although Mental Power and the soul were closely connected, Mental Power had ultimately become independent from the soul. It was like water without a root, making it extremely difficult to locate its "source."

Therefore, unless someone like Joo Joowon entered deep into an enemy’s interior and followed the connection all the way to its source, ordinary attacks targeting Mental Power would have a hard time damaging the soul.

This was the first time Joo Joowon had discovered the location of a soul.

It was truly a rare and precious experience. It made Joo Joowon believe that if he returned and quietly explored this area for a while, his control over Mental Power would definitely rise to another level.

If the brain was the "CPU" that carried out the body’s operations, then the soul was the "hard drive" that stored everything. It did not exist inside the body, nor was it completely independent of the body.

At first glance, this seemed somewhat difficult to understand. In reality, it was indeed very difficult to describe with words, because the soul was an extremely subjective and spiritual thing. It belonged to the level of the mind rather than the material world.

Yet, strangely enough, the soul could only exist by relying on the material world.

To the soul, the body was like soil, while the soul itself was a plant taking root within it. However, if the soul left the body, it would not necessarily be as fatal as a fish leaving the water. It was more like how plants could also be grown through hydroponics.

The place where the soul existed was extremely subtle. It existed somewhere between nothingness and reality, as though it were located at the point where two worlds intersected, prying open a small gap between the supernatural world and the material world.

However, this place was hostile toward every existence except the soul itself.

Because Mental Power had entered a place that did not belong to it, it suddenly became unbearably hot, as though boiling water had been poured over it, bringing a pain so severe that it felt as though its skin were splitting and its flesh were tearing apart, making life feel worse than death.

Joo Joowon’s face immediately turned pale and a vague understanding gradually arose in his heart.