Chapter 4722: Two Elders, Not Two Treasures
The answer Lin Moyu found shocked even himself and overturned his prior understanding.
What had always seemed to be the "illusory" soul was actually the solid side of the soul.
By contrast, the tiny, lifeless particles before him were the soul's illusory side.
The soul's duality of real and unreal could also be seen as life and death.
In its normal state, the soul was alive yet still "unreal," not wholly complete.
It lived, but not in its fullest form.
These soul particles, though stripped of vitality, truly existed.
They were like a husk of the soul dead, yet not entirely gone, still retaining a trace of instinct.
Only by combining both sides could the soul reach its true state.
A bold idea sprouted in Lin's mind: scatter his own soul into particles, each one bearing a soul flame.
By doing so, he could merge real and unreal and forge a stronger soul.
He even imagined scattering those particles throughout heaven and earth.
Then he could truly control every corner of the world, knowing everything that happened within it.
If those soul particles became as strong as his current soul body, how powerful would he be?
Furthermore, since the particles the silver dust vaporized still survived, perhaps they could also exist in the Life Forbidden Zone.
After all, the silver dust's force was merely a weakened form of the Forbidden Zone's annihilation.
Though different in detail, they shared a common origin.
The more Lin thought, the bolder he became, suddenly glimpsing a path through the Life Forbidden Zone and realizing his earlier plan had been flawed.
If he had followed that old path, he would have ended like Emperor Pocang smashed and broken, dying within the Forbidden Zone.
The only difference would be that Pocang could last ten breaths while Lin might endure twenty.
Once he entered the Forbidden Zone, there would be no retreat.
In such a place, ten breaths or twenty made little difference.
Now that he saw a road, mere willpower would not be enough to walk it.
The key lay within his own soul.
When others died, their souls vaporized into soul particles.
Naturally, he could do the same.
The difference was that others only transformed after death, whereas he needed to produce soul particles while still alive.
Vaporization was the right method he only had to find opportunity within the process.
With this realization, Lin began to examine his soul.
He focused wholly on it, slowing down his own vaporization.
The entire process became slow motion, replaying over and over in his mind.
At the same time, the Calamity Scepter never ceased, shattering the giant again and again.
Between each of the giant's shatterings and reformations, he hunted for clues.
Search, attempt, fail; then search, attempt, and fail again endlessly.
Lin did not know how many times he tried, nor how long it took.
He simply persisted, again and again, without end.
His stubbornness and perseverance echoed the days when he had repeatedly walked through death and rebirth.
As long as he gained even a small harvest from each attempt, he felt thrilled.
He had died countless times before, but all those deaths together did not equal this round's tally.
The only difference was that these deaths were spaced out more, so the hidden function of his rebirth did not trigger and neither body nor soul gained extra strengthening.
After innumerable deaths, he finally found a suitable method.
During vaporization, he tightened his soul with all his might, condensing it.
By his own power, he compressed his soul.
When the silver dust struck, the soul started to vaporize.
Because of the compression, the process was slightly slower than usual.
While it happened, he continued to squeeze his soul inward, trying to compact it into a single point.
All will, memory, and the essence of his soul were gathered into that point.
When the silver substance hit this ultimate compression, it was like a primal explosion, detonating inside the soul.
From the rising smoke, a tiny crystal formed.
It was several times smaller than a fingernail.
It clashed again and again with the silver dust without being vaporized, until, with a sharp crack, it burst apart into countless invisible particles.
Purple light flickered and Lin was reborn once more, now seeing thousands of tiny soul particles within his soul.
Each particle contained his essence.
They were almost miniature soul clones.
He drew out one particle and examined it closely it was exactly what he wanted.
When that particle flew out and touched the silver dust, it did not dissolve.
Instead, it seemed adapted to the silver substance, freely existing in this world.
From that moment on, the Silver White World ceased to be a deathland for Lin.
A place where even peak powerhouses could not remain was now a realm he could move through freely.
The soul particles' adaptation had enormous significance it meant he had chosen the right path.
For now, it was only the Silver White World.
Next would be the Life Forbidden Zone, and Lin was confident he would one day pass through it and reach a place no one had ever seen.
He would witness what lay beyond the Forbidden Zone and what existed inside the world wall.
The truth would be his to see and feel.
With these soul particles in hand, the next steps were clear.
Using them as seeds, he could, during each vaporization, create more soul particles until they filled his entire soul.
Then real and unreal within his soul would fully merge.
His soul might not grow vastly stronger immediately, but its very nature would change, laying the groundwork for his future.
Lin resumed his step by step work, continuing his "shenanigans" amid endless cycles of life and death.
With each new death and vaporization, the number of soul particles grew, until Lin felt as though he had countless soul clones.
Those clones lacked real combat power for now, but the future was another matter.
Time would tell.
At the same time, waves of insight surged through him.
"The body is real, the soul is unreal. Their mirrored real and unreal together form the true self."
"At the same time, the soul itself has both real and unreal. Once they combine, its foundation is fully solidified."
"Then what about the body's own real and unreal?"
Lin realized that if the soul possessed this duality, then the body should as well.
Each had its own real and unreal; only by perfecting both could he reach wholeness.
Now he had found the soul's duality, but the body's still eluded him.
He shared his ideas with the Primordial Chaos Gem, who understood nothing this was entirely outside its knowledge.
No matter there were still "two elders" at home he could consult.
Yet when Emperor Pocang and True Lord Seeking Knowledge heard his explanation, they were both stunned.
Their expressions alone told Lin he had asked the wrong people.
Everyone had always assumed that body and soul together formed the real/unreal duality, a complete whole.
No one had ever considered that each might have its own internal real and unreal.
Helpless, Lin returned to his own research.
A home might have two elders, but that did not guarantee two treasures; even peak powerhouses sometimes had no answers.
As the number of soul particles swelled and filled his soul, Lin became like an artist, adding color stroke by stroke.
His soul grew ever more brilliant.