Chapter 580 Psychological Warefare
From previous experience, I was familiar with people going insane, mainly personal experience.
The time I was stuck with Servant Mao taught me how a human's soul can become corrupt slowly and surely it will turn darker and darker until it is fully consumed or until the main soul suffers a mutation of sorts, and that mutation causes the soul to separate itself from the corrupted part.
This isn't good at all though, although it's basically cutting the toe to save the foot, it doesn't mean that it is harmless to a person, because cutting away a part of one's soul doesn't come without consequences.
Here the consequence was obvious, it was the creation of the heart demon, and in that creation, there was separation.
The old man separated his soul in two, but with that lost or gave up his memories of the past, the memories were then put in this severed soul and created the heart demon that is haunting him.
That was done to save the main soul, however, now that he was able to remember the past, it's as if that part that was cut away is being fused back.
And I could see that visibly happening.
The shadow in my hand began laughing as it slowly dissipated and the golden glowing soul of the old man began losing its brightness gaining a darker shade over time.
Soul corruption…
"Old man…" I said
But he didn't hear me. Or he couldn't hear me. He was troubled with all the memories he had forgotten and that were now coming back.
He then locked eyes with mine, bloodshot eyes, and spoke, "You… you're not my junior brother…"
"I never said I was," I replied.
The old man, as calmly as he could speak said, "Get me… out of here…"
"I can't do that," I replied.
"Let… me…out!" he said and with every word, I felt my sea of consciousness vibrating.
"You're currently destabilized, if I were to let you out, that thing that fused back into you will consume you once again, guilt and blame will eat you up and you will fall into a destructive behavior for many more years…"
"I… can manage," he said.
"You can barely control yourself inside my Sea of Consciousness and I'm already depriving that Heart Demon of a lot of its power, once there is just you and him within your mind, it will consume you…"
"WHAT DO YOU KNOW?!" he said.
"In case you didn't notice, your body is barely darkening, look at mine," I said as I pointed out at the pitch-blackness of the soul that was controlling Shen Mo.
"So am I to be trapped here forever?" he asked.
"No, I needed that thing to get back to you for a second," I said.
"Why?" he asked, his eyes looked dubious.
"Because only then can I consume it without you losing your sanity and memories," I said as my hand grasped the old man.
"What are you doing?" the old man questioned, he clearly didn't seem to be enjoying my gripping him like a small chick.
"Don't fight back, I'm trying to purify your soul," I said.
"How are you planning on doing that?" he asked.
"This soul of mine is pretty appetizing for that kind of heart demon, look," I said.
The old man noticed that the moment my hand was around him, some of the darkness that was contaminating his soul began seeping out.
It seeped out and latched onto mine, further increasing the size of my dark soul.
"What are you doing? If you were to remove the Heart Demon I'll forget this once again," he said.
"No, I won't fully remove it," I said as I continued absorbing.
"I'll remove the self-loathing, the hate, the guilt, the despair, the loneliness, and the anguish, but will leave you with the Rage, and the will of revenge. The latter two will contain your memories, and the former will contain all the vileness toward yourself. This way, you won't lose your purpose." I said.
By the way, I was talking out of my ass, I can't do that. I'm not a god. Treating trauma requires professional help, but I said I'll do that, to focus and focalize his mindset. I can draw away the Heart Demon, but I cannot selectively remove feelings. Because, really, who the fuck is even able to do something like that.
Yet, words wield a unique potency. The old man before me resembled a drowning soul, desperately seeking a lifeline. Recognizing the potential for him to retain his memories while relieving his guilt, I envisioned for him a process where his subconscious would accept the 'altered' reality.
If the Heart Demon attempted to resurface as feelings of remorse and self-loathing, he would recall my intervention, believing those emotions had been expunged. In turn, he'd attribute any negative sentiment to the overwhelming desire to have revenge against the Darkest Sun.
It was a seed planted in the depth of his mind, he will think that that seed was his own and his own only and whenever something bad happens he will always attribute it to his rage against the Darkest Sun.
It's psychological warfare between him and himself. Only now I had given him a target where he can dump all the bad memories.
The old man seemed to have calmed down a bit, and soon his eyes were no longer bloodshot and seemed to have regained some sort of life to them.
"Let me out child…" he said.
I nodded to him and the two of us were back in the real world.
He looked around, sighed, and soon tears began dropping from his eyes.
I was worried that all my hard work would go down the drain, but soon the old man took a deep breath and exhaled.
"Who might you be?" he asked.
"I'm a cultivator from the Vast Expanse," I said.
He looked at me, up and down, and said, "No wonder I thought you were incredibly weak. It seems that you, with scarce and rare resources already reached the ceiling imposed upon the Vast Expanse. Looking at your bone age, you lived no longer than half a century…"
"I'm in my fourth century," I replied.
"Good, you're still young," he said as he looked up.
"I can still feel it," he said.
"What?" I asked.
"The cries and fear, of the people I killed with my own hands…" he said.
'…'
"Don't worry, I won't go on a killing spree again, though I haven't made my peace with myself, wallowing in sorrow and agony helps not in the slightest, now I have a goal in mind, and only when I achieve it must I allow myself to weep for the passing of my brethren…" he said.
"What is your name?" he asked as if switching subject.
"Shen Mo," I said…
"I can tell when someone lies, but if you're not willing to share your real name, I have no qualms with it. One must not give their name lightly."
"Names have power," I replied.
"Indeed, they're what defines you from one another, and if you give it to someone it is to give them a bit of your essence, for mortals it means nothing, but for those of greater ability revealing their true name can be dangerous," he said.
"Is that why they're named Suns?" I asked.
"Indeed, those of the name Sun are all using their titles instead of their names. They wield so much power that they agreed to never intervene with the mundane and the mortal. They hold reign and lordship over the lands of the Beyond but they cannot directly wage wars. Just one of them can eradicate entire continents so they made a pact to never interfere directly with any beings below their cultivation levels. And if one were to break the treaty, they would be hunted down by the remaining suns." He said.
"I guess the treaty was not respected when the Darkest Sun intervened…" I said.
"No, it was within reason, after all, our Celestial Clan was a part of the Darkest Sun's Celestial Clan. And if he wanted to punish us, none could stop him, since we belonged to him since birth…"
"You want revenge?" I asked.
"I do," he said.
"We need to get out of here first…"
"I know the way out," he said.
"Then what are we waiting for?" I asked.
He looked up and said, "Once we go to the beyond… we're going to have some problems…" he said.
"How come?" I asked.
"I'm a banished celestial, if I'm revealed, I'll be hunted down and chased," he said then he turned and said to me, "And you… well, I have no idea how you got here, but no matter how you did it's not good…" he said
"How come?" I asked
"Because there are only a couple of main pathways that lead to the Beyond, and the moment the people who crossed from the Vast Expanse to the Beyond arrive, they will be received by powerful sects who'll take them and… well, brand them. As for you, you'll be unbranded," he said.
"Branded? You mean as a slave?" I asked.
"More like protection, meaning that you belong to a certain clan or sect… and if you don't have one…"
"Let me guess, then I can be hunted? Free for all?" I asked.
He didn't need to agree, his look was enough.
He's an exiled person, and I'm apparently slave material.
This trip to the beyond hadn't even started and I'm already in the shitter…
Great…
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