1312 A Fascinating Thought
It was a truly fascinating thought.
The reality was that most wouldn't even dare to have the line of thinking that Ryu did. That was because although he seemed to be calm at the moment, if he was truly correct, the weight of this discovery was akin to shocking enlightenment that might fundamentally change the foundation of cultivation itself.
The idea that Mental Realm cultivation wasn't being executed properly and that one of the Six Pillars of cultivation had been misunderstood all this time wasn't a small matter in the slightest. Who would dare to look in the face of countless trillions of years of discovery and essentially spit in the face of it?
But even though this matter seemed unacceptable, there was one matter that seemed to seal the idea for good in Ryu's mind... and that was the matter of his own will power.
Back when he first met Ailsa, she had had something very interesting to say. She had been baffled by the fact he could have such weak will power despite the fact his Mental Realm cultivation talent was so poor. To her, this seemed to suggest that there was something wrong with his soul and that it had definitely been tampered with much like his Spiritual Foundation had been.
There were two curious things about this.
The first was that Ailsa seemed to be subconsciously aware that the Mental Realm was related to will power, but hadn't taken a step further to accept the reverse, that being that the will power was the soul itself, and by extension. the Dao Heart.
The reason this was interesting to Ryu was because these were the sorts of secrets that were the easiest to keep, secrets that everyone seemed to be subconsciously aware of, and some might even find to be curious, but because no one else was questioning it, it didn't seem to make sense to investigate any further.
The easiest secret to keep was an open secret, one that felt like a conspiracy theory on its face and everyone scoffed at. Though, Ryu didn't believe that this had been done on purpose. It was more like a case of continuous confirmation bias over countless generations.
The second that he found interesting about this matter was the fact that his will power had, indeed, remained intact despite the fact his soul cultivation talent had been so poor back then.
Ryu hadn't pondered much about it, precisely because he hadn't been aware that his Perfect Blackbody had been taken away from him in the first place until he suddenly ran into it in the Death Ruin. How could he draw this conclusion without being aware that something had been taken away from him in the first place?
But what Ryu realized he should have been thinking about was why...? What was the link between his will power and why had Ailsa assumed that he should have had exceptional spirit talent given his will power?
Just like Ryu was wondering why it was that he was alive right this moment, it should also be just as important to consider how it was that he was alive despite the fact his Perfect Blackbody Soul had been stripped from him.
That was when Ryu pondered of an interesting legend that he had read. In fact, he had read this legend when he was piecing together the lives and folk tales related to the Phoenix Sky God and what one might have to do to gain this illusive figure's Spiritual Foundation.
The story itself wasn't very important, but its skeleton was.
It was about a man who had lived many lives, and in each one of these lives, he had a separate one of his souls take on a prominent role.
This was quite the work of fiction. After all, it was built in a world where everyone had not just one but numerous souls. Or, most specifically, three souls.
They were called the Heavenly Ethereal Soul, the Earthly Ethereal Soul, and the Life-Destiny Ethereal Soul. These souls came together to form the being of an individual and would separate in death.
This actually wasn't the only book that Ryu had read such a idea in. He had mostly ignored them because they seemed to be works of fiction and it wasn't that uncommon for authors to "steal" tropes from one another. The first book had the information he wanted, so he didn't pay much attention to the others...
But now he remembered that there were many names for these souls. They were also the Governing Ethereal Soul, the Awakening Ethereal Soul and the Alive Ethereal Soul. And most intriguing to Ryu, they were also called...
The Original Spirit, the Yang Spirit and the Yin Spirit.
Of course, these were just the core souls. A step beyond that there were still the so-called Seven Corporeal Souls.
Ryu began to piece together the various information about these souls and eventually came to a concise conclusion.
The Seven Corporeal Souls were tied to the body. Their existence maintained health and helped a body to continue living.
The Yin Spirit provided life qi to these Seven Corporeal Souls and gave a living being the will to continue to live.
The Yang Spirit was responsible for consciousness. It made one aware of their life and provided a self-identity of sorts.
Finally, there was the Original Spirit. This was where free will and intelligence originated. It was what gave a person the uniqueness of their personality and maybe even a drive to be more.
Ryu was immersed in his thoughts.
Maybe all this time, the only spirit that he had known of was the Yin Spirit, this was the soul that if it was shattered, life would cease to be. This was always what he had pondered the soul to be. As for the other souls, they were just loosely strewn, incomplete concepts within his mind.
But, was any of this reality? And if it was true, which of these souls was his Perfect Blackbody?
Ryu entered a deeper and deeper state of focus, suddenly forgetting everything around him.
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