Chapter 236: Hwi’s Corrupted Soul

This dwelling place of the soul, which he could not accurately describe, possessed an extremely strong exclusivity. Even Mental Power, which was produced by the soul, was still rejected by it. Therefore, if he stayed here for too long, some irreversible consequence might occur.

This vague understanding felt as though the world itself were treating him as an enemy, showing its hostility without the slightest attempt to conceal it. It made Joo Joowon understand that he had to finish this as quickly as possible.

However, although he had successfully arrived at the dwelling place of the soul, he did not know how to take action and "bring" Hwi out, or rather, how to wake him up.

In Joo Joowon’s perception, Hwi’s "soul" had no shape at all. He could not see anything. Yet, the moment he entered this place, he inexplicably gained the understanding that this was the soul.

It was a unique and obvious sense of attraction, like returning to one’s mother’s embrace. The feeling of warmth and safety was clear and unmistakable. Even though he still had not "seen" anything, he could only feel that he had already arrived at the "final destination."

Joo Joowon did his best to remain calm. The skill book contained no description of anything like this. It had only casually mentioned a few things while explaining Mental Power. Therefore, all he knew was that once Mental Power entered the "gap," there was no need for anyone to remind him, nor did he need to know anything about the situation beforehand. As long as he entered, he would immediately be able to find the soul.

Perhaps in the eyes of the apprentice mage, this was "common knowledge" that did not need further explanation. To Joo Joowon, however, it was like being completely blind to everything.

It was like an elementary school student suddenly encountering knowledge that was only taught to graduate students. He understood nothing at all, to the point that he could not even describe what he was seeing with words.

Joo Joowon wandered around the place like a headless fly for a very long time. As time passed, his Mental Power continued to be dissolved away. Just when it seemed that he was about to return empty handed, he finally gained some progress.

The soul had no shape because souls themselves were actually individual islands within this "gap." They rejected the landing of anything from outside and possessed a unique defensive mechanism.

This defensive mechanism was called the "cognitive barrier" by Joo Joowon. It could also be called "being trapped in a ghost’s maze." In his mind, he clearly knew that the soul was right here, yet he could never see it or find it.

However, in reality, after following his Mental Power to this place, he had already landed on the "island" itself. There was simply no need to search any further.

Therefore, after reaching this point, he did not need to do anything else. He only needed to empty his mind and stop thinking of himself as a "foreign species." The soul’s defensive mechanism would naturally disappear on its own.

Only by "jumping" out of the island could he see the soul in its entirety.

Joo Joowon "closed his eyes," thinking of nothing and pondering nothing. He seemed to transform into a pure drop of water, drifting with the current, rising and falling with the waves in the "ocean," being carried along until it formed a gigantic whirlpool in the center of the sea.

Through the whirlpool, he felt a terrifying force of attraction that made him panic involuntarily.

The physical body would nourish the soul, and the return flow of Mental Power had the same effect, perhaps even a better one. However, once Mental Power had become independent, it no longer belonged to the soul, so it would instinctively reject this kind of return.

For Mental Power, once it went back, there would be no way to come back out.

But Joo Joowon suppressed this instinctive rejection. Under the pull of the return flow, the disguise he had created was gradually peeled away, as though everything were being restored to its original state. He did not resist the whirlpool’s devouring force, yet his Mental Power remained completely unmoved, maintaining its "droplet" form without allowing itself to truly merge into it.

Once it merged, the Mental Power would become a rootless duckweed, losing its thoughts and being assimilated into a part of the soul.

Time seemed to pass for a very long while, or perhaps it was only an instant. Suddenly, light appeared before his eyes.

Joo Joowon finally saw Hwi’s soul clearly.

It was terrifying, an utterly disgusting soul, nothing like Hwi’s round and simple-looking body in reality.

There was not the slightest exaggeration in this description. Countless blisters covered the entire surface of the soul, and quite a few of them had already burst open, leaking foul and filthy liquid, making it look like a corpse that had already died and begun to rot.

In short, it was difficult to believe that this soul belonged to the kind of cute, soft-bodied cat that existed in human understanding.

Even more astonishing was that tentacles were drilling into its body from the void. The two had already begun to show signs of fusion, gradually becoming impossible to distinguish from one another.

A language that sounded neither like a cat’s nor a human’s faintly came from its soul.

"...Reverently receive the Supreme Sovereign of the Profound Darkness, humbly beseeching you to listen..."

Snap!

Another blister suddenly exploded, spilling bloody fluid. Yet Hwi’s soul seemed completely unable to feel it. There was no fear, no pain, and no sadness. Instead, there was a kind of fanaticism resembling that of a martyr.

Could this distortion rooted in his soul still be restored?

Joo Joowon tried to "pull" the tentacles away, but all he could feel was a violent upheaval, as though heaven and earth were about to collapse, accompanied by Hwi’s painful shrieks.

This meant that the tentacles were already close to becoming completely fused with him, having become a part of his soul.

Therefore, if Joo Joowon pulled the tentacles away, he would also damage Hwi’s soul.

It was an utterly terrible, completely absurd, and indescribable corruption of the soul.