Welcome to Ability Store

Chapter 418: Chapter 419: Forging Soul into Substance!

Currency, destiny, memory, weapons... Chen Xuan recited in his mind.

Currency is easy to understand; it involves using the soul as a solid currency, forged into different quality coins, ingots, or even gems...

Destiny, on the other hand, is Rodiya’s choice. Chen Xuan speculated that it was probably the essence of the soul, containing consciousness and the ability to inherit skills.

Then what about memory? What’s the difference between the two?

"Destiny has direction, memory doesn’t." N77 responded to his question, "You can have multiple memories, human, but you’ll only have one destiny."

Chen Xuan was taken aback for a moment.

But he quickly understood. Combining Rodiya’s experiences, destiny is akin to a vector with both magnitude and direction. When two people’s destinies fuse, a new destiny will be produced, kind of like force analysis, hence the mystical entities claim that destiny has direction.

In contrast, the impact of memory is much lesser. It can be a fleeting scene or a flashback, but even if one’s entire life’s memories were stuffed into them, a person with a strong sense of self-awareness could still distinguish which memories belong to them and which are foreign.

From this perspective... it’s almost certain that Lin Qing’s "Protocol Birth" uses a "destiny forged artifact."

Whereas the Destiny Wedge that appeared in the hands of the Mechanical Officer in the future, on the other hand, seems more like a "memory forged artifact."

"And what about weapons?" Chen Xuan asked curiously.

"The soul possesses lethality, but it requires a special soul to forge it." N77 replied.

"Human souls won’t do?"

"Too shallow."

Alright... Chen Xuan understood. To experience this function, he’d first need to collect suitable materials.

But he was just asking casually.

"I wish to forge a destiny, but I don’t know how to describe it or what form to forge it into."

"Human, whatever you wish to gain, you should first imagine its appearance."

Imagine?

"Does that mean it has no fixed form?" Chen Xuan probed.

"The soul is not iron; its shape depends on your thoughts." N77 answered leisurely.

He pondered for a moment before asking again, "Does the forging material have to be the soul?"

"It has to be the material."

N77’s answer seemed redundant, but it made Chen Xuan’s heart skip a beat.

Maybe his idea could work!

He nodded solemnly, "I’m ready."

"Go ahead."

As the aged voice trailed off, the center of the forging platform sank, revealing a fist-sized hole. Inside the hole swirled a dazzling, colorful brilliance like a tumultuous rainbow, accompanied by countless shrieking voices, sending chills down one’s spine.

Startled, Chen Xuan instinctively stepped back.

"What’s wrong?" Honglian inquired with concern, "Are you alright? You look a bit pale."

"Can’t you... see it?" He asked in surprise.

"See what?" Abigail turned to the soul forge, "Could it be... you’ve seen something else?"

Despite the commotion, the two seemed oblivious... Chen Xuan immediately realized that these changes could only be sensed by the forger.

"The appearance of the forging platform has changed..." He thought for a moment before saying, "It requires me to put in the materials."

"Oh? You’re going to do it now?" Honglian asked in surprise, "Don’t you need to call Lin Qing over?"

"Should I know who this Lin Qing is?" Abigail asked curiously.

"Our friend." She briefly explained, "Due to certain circumstances... she lost her memory."

"I thought her presence would be necessary, but now it seems... forging this thing has nothing to do with her current self." Chen Xuan replied as he placed Lin Qing’s former abilities onto himself.

— "Protocol Birth."

As an ability, it was useless, merely an imprint carved onto the soul. Yet, for Lin Qing, it was proof that her destiny had changed.

Chen Xuan took a deep breath and reached his hand into the hole on the forging platform.

He wasn’t sure how others saw him at that moment, but his hand seemed to touch a substantial mass—which then transformed into countless threads, wrapping around his hand and stabbing into his palm! Instantly, he felt as if he was pulled into the hole, and inside was a vast universe. With his palm, he could listen and gaze, with his consciousness operating at speeds beyond light. A casual glance could span over dozens of galaxies...

The feeling was exhilarating!

The mind is faster than light... he now had a personal experience.

He connected with a soul cosmos constructed by countless thoughts and memories... or rather, a smelting furnace.

Here, he would craft the treasure he needed.

Chen Xuan realized that Protocol Birth slid out of the palm of his hand and unfolded slowly before him, like an iron ingot being hammered flat, no longer indestructible, but soft as dough. Through this piece of "dough," he saw Lin Qing, the future warrior.

Without a doubt, someone had forged this destiny and altered Lin Qing’s life. Until the moment she stormed the Crystal Palace, the ability continued recording her life.

Yet, it didn’t include the subsequent encounters.

If Protocol Birth were to be used as raw material, it would only revert Lin Qing to the future warrior. All memories of himself and their adventures would remain forgotten by her.

So Chen Xuan needed to add something else.

He chose some of his own memories.

Within these memories were the days he spent with Lin Qing, for instance, when he was at the counter serving customers and caught her eating chips on the sofa; or when she updated her arm at the Atomic and Electronic Repair Shop; or the moment she resolutely rescued Honglian, aware that altering the future might erase her existence...

Those memories melded into the ability, like butter seeping into dough.

The more he forged, the more he felt he was beginning to understand the true nature of the soul—it isn’t an ethereal entity but a tangible part of every person, inseparable from the essence of human beings. Initially formless, it is shaped by memories, thoughts, and abilities as one grows. In different worlds, the study of souls varies, and those most acutely aware of the soul’s presence are no doubt the cultivators. They absorb Spiritual Qi to strengthen their bodies, an act that inherently nourishes the soul.

He also understood that his memories of Lin Qing could not substitute her own. However, this was the price of changing the future. Every choice inevitably leads to corresponding outcomes, and dreaming of starting over is mere fantasy.

With memories and destiny merging, they became indistinguishable.

It was time to unveil it.

However, Chen Xuan hesitated on the final molding.

As N77 said, the soul’s shape depends on thoughts.

Rodiya crafted her destiny into a spike, symbolizing rebirth through death—she drove the spike into Shelly’s body, and her soul instantly covered the original. A sharp weapon inherently meant resolve.

Yet, Chen Xuan was unwilling to do so.

The Lin Qing of the past is Lin Qing, and so is the present Lin Qing. He couldn’t "kill" the current Lin Qing to reclaim the past one.

The decision to reclaim a past memory should be Lin Qing’s to make.

He simply offered a choice.

But Chen Xuan couldn’t mold the soul into a memory, as memories are extremely difficult to fuse and would only create a disjointed dual-life perception for Lin Qing.

Replicating the model of "Protocol Birth" was also inadvisable, as it carried coercive properties, forcing one to become the "ideal target."

So... what shape should he forge the soul into?

Chen Xuan closed his eyes, imagining raising his hand to cut through the cries of myriad souls, hammering toward the formless materials.

The hammer fell, echoing silence across the space.

"What is this?"

Time seemed to halt for a few seconds until Honglian’s exclamation echoed in his ears.

Chen Xuan opened his eyes and found that his hand hadn’t plunged into the mystical entity, merely resting flatly on the surface of the forging platform.

Beside his hand lay a pill shaped like a Go stone.