Chapter 162 Soul Regeneration 2

The Luoshan office had a small reception room. Ma Zao was sitting on the sofa, intently investigating the severed arm, with Zhu Shi beside her. Lu Youxun and I sat on the other side.

"Lu Youxun, you previously said that Chenlong was ambushed and captured by Ying Lingyun at a time and place you don't know, and then subjected to mental modification, is that right?"

When I brought up the previous information again, Lu Youxun was taken aback, his face turned ashen, and then he nodded: "Yes, that's what I said. If I had noticed Ying Lingyun's conspiracy earlier, perhaps Chenlong could have avoided falling into depravity."

"So, you never actually witnessed Ying Lingyun brainwashing Chenlong," I said. "Did Chenlong tell you this himself? That he was brainwashed by Ying Lingyun, which is why he betrayed you?"

“People who are truly brainwashed won’t admit they’ve been brainwashed. Instead, they’ll argue that they’ve never been brainwashed and firmly believe in the erroneous ideas implanted in them.” He shook his head. “It was Silver Mask… Ying Lingyun told me that.”

As he spoke, he seemed to understand my doubts and continued, "Do you think that Chenlong wasn't actually brainwashed, and that he betrayed me according to his own will?"

"I was just thinking of this possibility," I said.

“That possibility is zero,” he said without hesitation.

How could there be something with a zero probability? That was my first thought. Especially since the person who said that was Lu Youxun, who once possessed the power of "possibility clones," a man who claimed to have even had the opportunity to summon himself as the leader of the nation and launch World War III. How could such a person possibly see anything "impossible"? Although he appears calm now, he may actually be swayed by his emotions.

"I can see you can't accept this, and even think I'm acting on emotion... So let me put it another way," he said. "Suppose that tonight Zhu Shi suddenly used a magical item that can seal any supernatural power to ambush you from behind, then handed you over to the Humanitarian Department, watching nonchalantly as you became a miserable experimental animal, tormented and manipulated by others. And then, without batting an eye, he told you that he had actually been Ying Lingyun's subordinate for a long time, and that the reason he befriended you was to help Ying Lingyun find valuable experimental subjects... How would you feel?"

“That’s impossible,” I said without hesitation. “Unless Ying Lingyun altered her memories and cognition with ‘Moon in the Water,’ it’s absolutely impossible for her to do such a thing… I see, I understand what you’re trying to say.”

Lu Youxun's view of Chenlong in the past is like my view of Zhu Shi now. We both believe that the other would never betray us.

"But Chenlong is at the Great Completion stage now, right? The Great Demon Silver Moon is also only at the Great Completion stage, and 'Moon in the Water' is just a derived tool. I can understand if Chenlong was at the Completion stage in the past and would fall for it, but is Chenlong still unable to escape the brainwashing state caused by that tool now?" I wondered.

“Most ‘brainwashing’ is merely an ‘effect’ if it’s applied for a short period of time, but it becomes a ‘result’ if it lasts for a long time,” Lu Youxun said. “Just like a healthy person who maintains a hunchback posture for a long time will actually become hunchbacked, even if Chenlong is at the Great Completion level now, he can no longer correct it. Even if the opportunity to correct it is really put in front of him, he will not have the idea of ​​wanting to return to normal.”

I looked back once again at the dragon I had fought with before.

Although he was supposedly brainwashed, he struck me as remarkably calm, to the point that I lacked the real sense of having fought someone who had been brainwashed myself. Of course, this doesn't mean that all brainwashed individuals will exhibit fanaticism and a rigid demeanor; just as there are subcategories of madmen, such as "calm madmen." Moreover, if he hadn't been brainwashed, I would find it difficult to imagine the motives of someone of his caliber joining an organization like the Humanitarian Division.

However, from a personal perspective, I don't want Chenlong to be a brainwashed person. After all, he was the first opponent who made me truly take him seriously, and the thought that this opponent was merely a "puppet" is inevitably disappointing.

Perhaps in Lu Youxun's view, being manipulated by the enemy to defect is more acceptable than having a comrade willingly defect. Although I feel very sorry for Lu Youxun, I sincerely hope that Chenlong has some kind of unbelievable hidden reason that can be explained in a way that is justifiable.

The resident detective took the report on my damaged soul and returned to his post. The report looked like a medical examination report, mostly handwritten. It was clearly written by a detective, yet the handwriting was as unrestrained as a real doctor's. Zhu Shi and Ma Zao looked over with concern, but were helpless; Lu Youxun, however, could understand it.

He took my medical report, paused thoughtfully, and then asked me, "Are you still in pain?"

"It still hurts a bit," I thought for a moment and then described it, "like the bruises left on my body after I flew off my bicycle and fell."

"It seems there are no major problems," he said.

"Roughly?" Zhu Shi asked doubtfully.

Lu Youxun explained: "To put it simply, the damage Chenlong caused him was equivalent to him slipping and tumbling down twenty steps while wearing a helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads. Although his body ached all over, it was at most some bruises, and it didn't look like he had any fractures. By the standards of daily life, it would certainly be considered an injury, but by the standards of combat, it wouldn't even be considered a minor injury."

"No way, Senior Brother Zhuang..." Zhu Shi looked at me with a strange expression, "You've been beaten by a Great Completion Realm expert for so long and this is all you've got? How thick-skinned are you?"

“It’s not entirely because Zhuang Cheng is ‘thick-skinned’,” Lu Youxun said. “In stark contrast to his invincible defense, Chen Long ultimately lacks a decisive killing move and can only rely on accumulating damage. But before he can accumulate a large amount of damage, his tactics run into obstacles.”

"At least I'm physically strong," I added.

The report's conclusions were within my expectations; it seems my soul does indeed possess extraordinary endurance. Furthermore, the credit for this success doesn't entirely lie with my soul itself.

During my battle with Chenlong, I also discovered another attribute of mine.

The creator of this strange entity once said that because my flames are an offensive force, they cannot protect my soul, but this now appears to be incorrect. My flames are capable of mimicking the physical body; even in my fire elemental form, I can touch external objects like a normal body, thus seemingly possessing the ability to serve as a sanctuary for the soul to some extent.

Furthermore, this performance seems to be able to be improved. Just as the higher the flame density of a fire elemental body, the stronger its various abilities, the soul defense of a fire elemental body seems to increase in the same way.

The evidence is that when I am hit by Chenlong's attack while my fire elemental body has a high density, the pain I feel is reduced.

This shows that there were also mistakes in the methods I chose when fighting Chenlong.

I shouldn't use fire teleportation so readily in battle. While fire teleportation is the ultimate means of movement, almost like spatial teleportation, it inevitably involves constantly decomposing and reconstructing my fire elemental body. If I keep repeating this process, the density of my body—that is, the defensive power of my soul—is destined to remain low.

It's one thing to be caught out by the weakness of my low body density, but if I'm caught in the gap between decomposition and recombination, my soul is truly defenseless. In game terms, it's a critical state where damage reduction is reduced to zero, and I can only rely on my health to withstand the damage.

"Even if it's just a fall down the stairs, it's still a wound to the soul. We can't just leave it untreated, can we? This office should have some medicine to treat soul trauma..." Zhu Shi was still worried.

Is there any medicine here to heal the soul? I suddenly want to get some for Ma Zao.

"You'd better not even think about it. Even if it's just a minor injury to Zhuang Cheng, it's still a claw mark left by the power of a Great Perfection level cultivator. With the rudimentary wound medicine stored in the office, using it would be like pouring a glass of water at a fire scene." Lu Youxun shook his head.

I feel a little regretful. That way, it definitely wouldn't have helped Ma Zao.

"Let me help Zhuang Cheng recover."

Asaha, who was always taciturn in front of outsiders, suddenly spoke.

"Your own soul is probably still under strain, right? But... maybe he can figure something out himself."

Lu Youxun seemed to have an idea and suggested to me, "Zhuang Cheng, your flame is your spirit, right? And spirit and soul are the same. Since you can transform your spirit into flame, can't you also transform your flame into your own spirit, or rather, your soul?"

"Would that really work?" Zhu Shi asked as if he had heard a fantasy.

"It's never a bad thing to give it a try," Lu Youxun said, looking at me.

Asaha was also watching my every move.

I understood what Lu Youxun meant. Since I can transform my body between flesh and fire, and be reborn from the ashes countless times, mending any wounds with flames, can my soul also do the same thing, returning to its original form no matter what kind of injury it suffers?

I think this is feasible. My body is my flame, and my flame is my spirit, so my body is my spirit. If the body can do it, there's no reason why the spirit—the soul—can't.

In the past, I couldn't properly understand what the soul was, but now I have grasped the concept of the soul through suffering.

Under the watchful eyes of the three, I raised my right hand, summoning a fireball, and began to imagine it in my mind. Now, tiny cracks appeared in my soul, and this flame would become new flesh and blood for my soul, filling them and healing all the cracks.

I slammed the fireball against my chest, and it disappeared like a pebble falling into water.

The inner pain, however, is like pine needles meeting hot water, quickly dissolving and disappearing.

(End of this chapter)