153: Soul Fragmentation

In a simple, dimly lit room within Charles Castle, the light was incredibly dim.

The sunlight from outside, once it entered, seemed to be half-eaten by some invisible presence, becoming much fainter out of thin air.

Inside the room, the heavy smell of blood mixed with the scent of burning lamp oil, making it suffocating.

Barton stood silently in the room Li Ke a statue.

The faint glow from the dim oil lamp in his hand flickered slightly, casting layers of shadows on the wall behind him.

In front of Barton, on a simple wooden bed, Hatties lay with his eyes tightly closed, his breathing faint, seemingly in a deep coma.

Creak...

The door was pushed open.

The sunlight from outside struggled to penetrate.

Li Ke calmly walked in from outside the door.

"Master..."

Upon seeing Li Ke, Barton bowed slightly, then stepped aside, revealing Hatties on the bed behind him.

Li Ke slowly approached, his gaze falling upon the wooden bed.

Hatties's condition was extremely poor.

His Physical Body was severely mutilated, and at the grotesque wounds, although faint Black Flame was burning, constantly attempting to reconstruct his body, the reconstructed parts were also rapidly disintegrating, unable to solidify.

Especially his left eye, left arm, and right leg, these wounds were continuously scorched by Black Flame, yet showed no signs of regeneration.

Li Ke frowned.

He immediately saw the root of the problem: Hatties's injuries were not essentially Physical Body-related, but stemmed from the incompleteness of his Soul.

A deep black light flickered in Li Ke's eyes.

His gaze penetrated Hatties's Physical Body, revealing that within him, the Three Ethereal Souls and Seven Corporeal Spirits, which should have been completely fused, had separated.

One Ethereal Soul and three Corporeal Spirits had completely vanished.

And on the remaining two Ethereal Souls and four Corporeal Spirits, there was still a swirling, illusory Black Flame, only prevented from continuing to burn by some invisible, bizarre force.

"Sigh..."

Li Ke sighed softly.

Judging by these injuries, Hatties had recklessly burned his Divine Soul during the battle.

If Barton hadn't intervened in time and forcibly suppressed the Divine Soul's burning, Hatties would probably have completely burned out his Three Ethereal Souls and Seven Corporeal Spirits by now, resulting in complete Divine Soul destruction.

It was no wonder, according to Li Ke's judgment, that the mutated Tree Herder's strength was already extremely close to the Golden Core Stage.

If the Golden Armor Corpse hadn't appeared in time, Li Ke probably wouldn't have been able to defeat him quickly, and would have had to summon the power of Dao Heart Demon Seed, combining the strength of multiple Devil Heads...

And Hatties, by his own power, managed to create a situation where both sides would be annihilated, already demonstrating unimaginable talent and aptitude...

Whoosh...

Li Ke raised his hand, and a black light flew in from outside the window.

The Soul Summoning Banner quietly hovered before him.

"Soul..."

"Return!"

Li Ke softly chanted the incantation, pointing a finger at the Soul Summoning Banner.

As he performed the Soul Summoning incantation, wisps of residual Soul separated from the air, Li Ke smoke, slowly merging into the Soul Summoning Banner.

However, Li Ke's frown deepened.

He was drawing in Hatties's scattered residual Souls that were wandering outside, but these residual Souls couldn't even form a single Corporeal Spirit.

At most, they could barely complete the two Ethereal Souls and four Corporeal Spirits currently within Hatties, preventing them from continuing to dissipate.

Although the current Soul Summoning Banner was only in the Magical Artifact stage and had not yet advanced to a true Magic Treasure, if there were still residual Souls of Hatties within a hundred-mile radius, they would definitely not escape the summoning.

Since this was the case, it could only mean that Hatties's one Ethereal Soul and three Corporeal Spirits had been completely annihilated, with no possibility of recovery...

Li Ke picked up the Soul Summoning Banner, and with a gentle wave, the wisps of residual Soul, Li Ke grayish-white smoke, silently merged into Hatties's body.

"Wake up now!"

Li Ke called out in a deep voice.

Boom!!!

On the wooden bed, Hatties suddenly opened his eyes.

In his only remaining right eye, terrifying spirals still spun wildly, and a terrifying aura surged from his body.

"Cough!"

Barton lightly coughed from the side.

The bizarre aura from his body surged out Li Ke a tide, instantly calming Hatties's rampaging power and bringing him to full consciousness.

Hatties's breathing suddenly caught.

Only then did he clearly see that it was Li Ke standing before him.

"Master..."

Hatties opened his mouth.

His voice was extremely dry and hoarse, becoming very indistinct.

He struggled to get up from the bed to salute Li Ke.

"Alright, don't move yet."

Li Ke waved his hand to stop him.

Li Ke pondered for a moment, then calmly informed Hatties that his Soul was now incomplete, with one Ethereal Soul and three Corporeal Spirits completely annihilated.

Since the Soul and Physical Body are intimately connected, an incomplete Soul means the Physical Body naturally cannot be fully restored.

This meant that Hatties's left eye, left arm, and right leg would be permanently lost and unable to regenerate.

He had become an incomplete person...

And this was not the most fatal blow.

More critically, after this life-and-death struggle, although the Spiral Force within Hatties had become even more terrifying, the incompleteness originating from his Soul Foundation made it almost impossible for him to Break through the Fifth Life barrier.

This almost severed the future of his Nine Lives Spiral Skill, meaning that Hatties's Dao path would most likely end here...

Li Ke sighed inwardly.

The Nine Lives Spiral Skill was Li Ke this: each time one faced death and then survived, their strength would undergo a tremendous leap.

But this act of dancing on a knife's edge was both an advantage and a drawback.

One who often walks by the river cannot avoid getting their shoes wet.

Once a mistake was made, one might instantly pay a painful price, or even lose their life.

Now that Hatties had only his Dao path severed, it was already considered a relatively good outcome...

Upon hearing this verdict, the light in Hatties's intact eye gradually dimmed.

He remained silent for a long time.

For a warrior who pursued extreme physical techniques, this kind of permanent disability was even harder for him to accept than death.

Just as the room fell into silence, Li Ke spoke again.

"However, while Soul loss is very tricky, it's not entirely without a chance for remedy."

"Either wait until I Break through to Soul Transformation in the future, then I can use great magical power to reshape your Divine Soul."

"But this will take a very long time."

Li Ke calmly stated, "Besides that, there is another method."

"That is to use your True Spirit Blood Fusion Secret Method to trigger a Bloodline leap."

"As long as you can condense a trace of a True Spirit Mark, you will be able to use the mark as the core to allow your Divine Soul to spontaneously complete itself and reshape your true self..."

"True Spirit Mark..."

In Hatties's dimmed eyes, a flicker of fanatical flame instantly ignited.

He pressed on, "Master, how can I condense a True Spirit Mark?"

"Continuously fuse various powerful Bloodlines, taking the best from each."

"After sufficient accumulation, trigger a qualitative change, leading to a Bloodline leap."

"Or... directly devour a transcendent Bloodline of extremely high status, forcibly promoting the leap of your own Bloodline status..."

Li Ke slowly explained.

At the same time, he also recalled the legends about the True Spirit Mark in the cultivation world.

It was said to be the supreme Dao Fruit of the Yao Race lineage...

"Transcendent Bloodline..."

"I understand, Master."

Hatties slowly closed his eyes, then suddenly opened them again, the Spiral Black Flame swirling endlessly within them.

Seeing Hatties's fighting spirit rekindled, Li Ke, to motivate him, told him the contact information for the Blood Thorns Merchant Guild that dealt in transcendent Bloodlines, which he had obtained from Morgana's memory.

He instructed Hatties to be responsible for coordinating with this Merchant Guild to accelerate the collection of transcendent Bloodlines.

"Yes!"

Hatties decisively accepted the order and intended to depart immediately.

Li Ke stopped him, forcing him to rest for a few days, at least to recover from the weakness in his Divine Soul first.