Chapter 1290 The Impossible Might Be Possible.
You can overwhelm each small piece of the soul fragment individually after cutting them up instead of struggling with the whole soul fragment. That will increase the chance of success of the brainwashing and avoid memory backlash which causes reverse brainwashing.
Even if reverse brainwashing doesn't occur, there can be some other complications during the process. The soul might become aware during the brainwashing and resist. That is unlikely if you made sure to cut it up into a small enough piece.
Legion-5 was meticulous with his cuts so these pieces didn't wake up. If they did, then he would crush their resistance with the soul blade. Chop them up and brainwash their smaller pieces individually all over again.
The brainwashing went without a hitch too. It was then that Legion-7 extended a part of himself to the soul fragments. This is the first time he is making actual contact with the fragments. He isn't using his soul force like the previous times. His soul and the soul fragments made contact and there was no rejection so they adhered to him.
"Ah." He exclaimed in pleasure. "This is good."
His soul which is also his current body felt elevated. It is a pleasurable feeling due to the special method of feeding. Unlike the last time when he absorbed soul fragments wantonly, the memory he gained now didn't try to brainwash him. Instead, they were absorbed smoothly. It helped that he didn't absorb the soul fragments at all. So his consciousness was still pure.
The corruption of the consciousness is not a phenomenon in the spiritual dimension that is unique to him. Eating the souls of others always leads to it. This causes madness, schizophrenia, and a crisis of identity.
This is due to the assimilation of memories and soul imprints of a different soul. So it is much worse than brainwashing. At least with brainwashing, you would think you were someone else but you would still have the survival instincts of the person you think you are.
Madness on the other hand means insanity, forgetfulness, suicidal tendencies, and loss of survival instincts. The memories and soul imprint contained within the soul fragments will try to infect the soul that assimilated them like it did when he assimilated the soul fragment of the great mother.
He had to use Origin essence to overcome that infection. But he doesn't need to now since he has the soul grafting technique that the great mother created. Other soul prowlers without Origin essence or a specialized technique for eating will run mad. Only special individuals like him and the great mother will not become doomed by trying to survive.
He avoided madness and his soul also grew stronger with the addition of the soul fragments. The soul fragments are not of the same quality as his so the increase in strength is very small and almost negligible. But it is a start. He will only get stronger, unlike the other soul prowlers who have to fight off the digestion of the nether water.
Je thought to himself in caution, "The great mother is talented. I just have to make sure that I don't make the same mistakes that she made and I shouldn't have any problem."
The soul grafting method is not without issues. If someone gets access to the soul fragments he grafted, then they will gain his memories within them just as he was able to gain information from the soul fragment he found in his egg.
He can decide what memories he put in them but he won't be able to use the fragments for important things if he doesn't put important memories in them. But no matter what, as long as he doesn't directly fuse with them, the soul fragments will remain potential leaks of information about him. Nothing can change that weakness.
He chuckled to himself as he said, "I don't plan to make a race of phoenixes so I won't put important memories in them. I can live with that handicap as long as I don't go mad."
He is referring to the great mother. She made the grafting method to bypass madness but she went further to create a race. It created the opportunity for him to learn the law of the soul without a billion years of effort. In other words, her greedy move gave him the opportunity to steal her years of hard work.
The great mother is far from stupid. The problem of information leak from her soul fragment is a problem that should be nearly impossible for her to encounter. It should have been impossible for another soul prowler to manage to overpower her soul fragment, absorb its memories and remain sane.
Even soul grafting wouldn't have work on her soul fragments since they are all connected to each other and have access to billions of memories. Any attempt at brainwashing her soul fragments would have led to memory backlash and a reverse brainwashing.
So she was as secure as she could be. But then he came along with Origin essence. It should have been impossible but it should also have been impossible for someone to reincarnate.
Reality has shown that if something is possible at all, then it can happen no matter how small the chance is. If it is possible for his information to leak, then it can happen. So he will learn from the great mother and make sure that he doesn't release any important memories into the soul fragments.
Apart from this weakness, the soul grafting method has made him optimistic about his situation.
Legion-7 went on to hunt more soul fragments. He chose unaware soul fragments for now to try out his fighting skills on. This ensured that he was always successful and he grew stronger a little more.
He couldn't help but say, "Maybe my situation is not bad at all. The other clones haven't been born yet while I am already growing. Even if they are born and they grow, the strength of their bodies will only try to catch up to the strength of their souls. As for me, I don't have a body to hold me back. At this rate, I will outclass all of them in the strength of the soul."
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A/N: Do you think he planted a death flag by saying that?
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