Chapter 1733: Chapter 1735: Fusing the Soul Stone
Feng Jun completely understood the Big Boss’s feelings—most normal people wouldn’t like having split personalities, right?
"Got it," he nodded and turned around to leave the study, carefully closing the door behind him.
The Big Boss spent half a day merging his soul split, then informed Feng Jun through thought that he still needed about five days to digest and organize the consciousness of the soul splinter, asking him to act as a protector during this time.
Actually, having a protector wasn’t really necessary, as long as no outsiders barged in, this place was quite safe.
Five days later, the Big Boss notified Feng Jun that the retreat was over and he could come and tidy up. Feng Jun entered the study once more.
What surprised Feng Jun was that the Big Boss’s two Soul Stones had merged into one, slightly larger than an average person’s fist, meaning it was a bit bigger than most people imagined a Golden Core Yin Soul Stone to be.
He asked curiously, "Can Soul Stones merge too?"
The Big Boss’s tone was somewhat weary, but you could feel he was in a good mood, "Soul Stones can dissolve, so of course they can merge. But dissolving is easy, merging is difficult; I had to find a specific secret technique for it."
You must be really afraid of death, Feng Jun was speechless, then he realized a question, "You can split your personality, it seems you’ve already reached the Divine Spirit Stage?"
"Hehe," the Big Boss let out a dry laugh and answered vaguely, "What’s the big deal about reaching the Divine Spirit Stage?"
"At least it’s the Divine Spirit Stage," Feng Jun concluded, and then curiously asked, "Why is the Soul Stone housing your main consciousness so small, while the one for your split soul is so large?"
The Big Boss was silent for a long time before finally saying, "Alright, pack your stuff... I have a surprise gift for you, I have the Golden Core Stage technique for Devouring Primordial Heaven Technique here, you’ve hit the jackpot."
"That’s great," Feng Jun was overjoyed at the news.
He wasn’t hoping to rely on the technique provided by the Big Boss to advance; he planned to deduce his own advancement technique.
However, though his deduction skills were quite strong, trying to deduce a Golden Core Technique from scratch was truly daunting—imitating something existing is easier, creating from nothing is too difficult.
Now with this sample, the subsequent deductions would be much easier.
But then he was a bit puzzled, "Why didn’t you tell me before, and only now... were you testing me?"
The Big Boss did not want to answer this question, but also did not want to leave him feeling uncomfortable, so reluctantly replied, "I didn’t remember before, just recalled it now."
Feng Jun instantly understood and asked instinctively, "You wouldn’t have hidden those memories in the split soul, would you?"
"If you know, why ask?" The Big Boss was a bit unhappy, "I haven’t hidden anything from you, so what do you have to complain about?"
"I’m not complaining, just curious," Feng Jun explained patiently without getting angry, but the next moment, something occurred to him abruptly, "The split soul’s Soul Stone is so large because you want the main soul’s Soul Stone to be less conspicuous... right?"
"Isn’t that obvious?" The Big Boss erupted in anger, but then laughed, "Haha, we’re the same, both like to develop stealthily... being a bit afraid of death isn’t shameful, right?"
The more he spoke, the more excited he got, "What I was thinking at the time was, the split soul’s Soul Stone should be large, losing one split soul is no big deal, but losing the main consciousness, then am I still me?"
"You wouldn’t believe how long it took me to design such a small Soul Stone to still retain the main consciousness... offloading memories was just a minor issue, the key was ensuring the main soul’s suppression over the split, otherwise I wouldn’t be comfortable having the Void Demon on hand."
Feng Jun listened quietly to the Big Boss’s chatter, actually quite liking the current Big Boss—saying whatever comes to mind, not pretentious, afraid of death so what? Never mind the Divine Spirit Stage, even those in the Tribulation Transcending Stage are afraid of death, it’s no shame.
When the Big Boss finished speaking, he asked again, "Senior, you’ve reached the Divine Spirit Stage, shouldn’t the Soul Stone be larger than the one housing the Heavenly Demon... isn’t it a bit unfitting for your status?"
"Hehe," the Big Boss’s mood chilled quickly, he sneered, "What exactly do you want to ask?"
Feng Jun was somewhat used to its hot-and-cold attitude, women... oh no, females, it’s normal to have little temper tantrums now and then, isn’t it?
In fact, what he was going to ask was indeed somewhat too much, "I want to know... is there possibly a larger Soul Stone wandering out there?"
As expected, the Big Boss did not answer directly; it just impatiently said, "What are you asking for, is it useful to you? This should be my concern."
"Of course it’s useful," Feng Jun answered confidently, "I have to consider that you might have forgotten something... left it in that Soul Stone, to avoid potential unnecessary losses!"
Unexpectedly, the Big Boss wasn’t angry this time, after thinking for a while, it said, "No worries, anything forgotten definitely has nothing to do with me, I’m best at overall planning. As for what might relate to you... cultivators cultivate themselves."
Feng Jun looked speechlessly at the stone cave ceiling, "...Senior, I never thought a person could be afraid of death to this extent!"
That’s what they said, but they were still very happy to collect and categorize the treasures in the stone cave.
The big boss had already acknowledged their own fear of death, so they were willing to discuss the details further.
The soul split occurred when it got into trouble, and drifted to the Kunhao Plane along with it. Later, the Soul Stone split into two pieces, with the task of the soul split being to find the treasure of the Endless Sea and lie low.
The big boss thought that if their main consciousness perished, and the soul split could be activated, then the second personality... would just become the second personality.
It was clear that it was exceptionally afraid of death. The reason it insisted on Feng Jun opening the door instead of choosing Xiao Bai was because it was worried that Xiao Bai might be affected by the soul split—after all, it was a part of the same soul.
It didn’t use the Phantom Devil because it was worried the soul split might counteract it—controlling the Heavenly Demon required various secret techniques, and mental suppression was very important as well.
The big boss believed that once its soul split grew to a significant level, it could directly seize control of the Heavenly Demon—whether it could be done depended only on strength, from a technical perspective, there were no barriers.
Feng Jun found himself speechless—what else could he say?
The big boss’s final actions left Feng Jun even more at a loss for words; it actually wanted to leave half of all the treasures behind as a capital for future pursuits—even including all the manuals.
Feng Jun couldn’t help but ask, "There’s a very slim chance of a comeback... were you always this cautious before?"
"I know the chances are slim," the big boss replied casually, "but these things aren’t worth much anyway, just useful at this stage. Spending a little money to buy myself peace of mind is worth it."
Feng Jun remained speechless. In the big boss’s eyes, it was a small amount of money, so he had nothing more to say—this logic was much like what he followed back in the Earth Realm.
But it was certain that the wealth gap in the Cultivation World was incredibly vast, with a Gini index far greater than that of the Earth Realm.
The big boss even suggested, "Besides the Golden Core Devouring Primordial Heaven Technique, see if there’s any other cultivation technique you like, you can make a copy of it."
Feng Jun couldn’t resist teasing, "No worries, since I’ve been here, I can come whenever I want."
The big boss was suddenly unresponsive, remaining silent for a long, long time.
Just as Feng Jun was wondering if it had become withdrawn, a fragment of the big boss’s consciousness came through, "Since you can come at any time, you can also erase the memory of this space anchor, right?"
It turned out I overlooked it, the big boss was quite knowledgeable about space too! Feng Jun smiled and replied, "That’s true, but coming in this way... is so convenient, anyway, I already know how to get in."
After thinking for a while, the big boss said, "Well... it is convenient. How about you take all the cultivation techniques with you, make a copy, and bring them back? Mm, without my permission, don’t touch the things here."
One could imagine that making this decision was quite difficult for it, but ultimately, it chose to trust Feng Jun—actually, these two cautious individuals needed to establish a mutual trust mechanism to really work together.
Feng Jun wanted to honestly tell it, the manuals that don’t have prohibitions, once I scan them, they’ll be in my database.
But saying this would have too great an impact, with consequences too unpredictable—he had already scanned many manuals!
So he hesitated and answered, "How about I copy them here... anyway, copying a set won’t take long, and without your permission, I won’t come here in the future."
The big boss immediately felt happy, "I wasn’t doubting you, if you’re pursued in the future and have nowhere to go... you can come here without asking, adapt to circumstances."
Feng Jun replied, amused and exasperated, "Senior, can we talk about something a bit more positive?"
"I forgot, you can still go to your plane," the big boss was indeed straightforward, yet the topic seemed unchangeable, then it showed a reasonable concern, "I don’t have many secret techniques here, but there are over five hundred volumes... do you have enough time?"
It was also aware that the warships of Tianxin Platform and Pine Cypress Peak were already on their way.
"There should be enough time," Feng Jun gave a definite answer, but he had another question to ask, "Are all these cultivation techniques and secret techniques already existing in the Kunhao Plane?"
Indeed, among these more than five hundred volumes, most were cultivation techniques and secret techniques, in addition to those, there were manuals on alchemy, artifact refining, talisman creation, planting, and formations.
However, there were not many of these peripheral manuals, and their specialization was relatively high, not the kind of broad and comprehensive manuals—one could imagine that the big boss prepared these manuals not for itself but to repay others.
As for those travel notes, customs, and plane information manuals, none were present. Clearly, the big boss thought there was no need to prepare these.
And those cultivation and secret technique manuals, though their realms were not very high, except for two Nascent Soul Techniques, the rest were Golden Core or even Foundation Establishment-stage cultivation techniques and secret techniques, but on the Kunhao Plane, they were already quite formidable.
Any one of these cultivation secret techniques, placed in a Foundation Establishment Clan, would be enough to bring about the clan’s destruction.
