Eyes are the Windows to Soul (2)

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Ja Sun found himself in a strange world. By now, he was sure that the Sigh of Immortal was nothing like the Evil-Eyed Sage's Third Eye because nothing of the sort happened back then. In this blank and dark space, Ja Sun could only observe three sources of contained light that didn't brighten their surroundings with their unique glows.

The first one Ja Sun observed was a dark greyish eye with mist-like grey fog forming its body. The size of this source was nothing comparable to the other two sources. However, for some reason, the other two sources seemed to be closer to one another while making sure to keep distance with the greyish eye. It even gave off a familiar signature of energy that Ja Sun had felt from Bibi Dong, the Evil Egg, and...

The Evil Title.

'That's the Evil Title?' Ja Sun observed the presentation of his second martial soul curiously. Right now, Ja Sun was somewhat aware of his martial soul's ability. Its most basic ability was to randomly summon Evil-attributed spirit beasts. It could either be the same Devilgod Tiger or some other beast but the loyalty of these summoned beasts cannot be counted upon. If Qian Xunji wasn't present while Ja Sun's 'previous' life had activated the body martial soul then he would have died certainly.

The other ability of this martial soul was similar to Tang Yuehua in a way that it was a single ability spamming at various levels based on the spirit rings used— Evil Enhancement. This ability was strange in its description of 'enhancement.' It simply strengthened the 'evil' attribute.

This was a very unique situation and Ja Sun wanted to experience everything carefully, unwilling to let any chance go by.

The grey eye was alive. Its pupil stared at Ja Sun directly without blinking but the filament of the grey iris would shimmer at times. Unlike a vertical eye, this was a horizontal one and after what seemed a few minutes, the grey eye blinked for the first time. Ja Sun's body shuddered at this moment. He felt that he had... 'touched' something spiritually but the sensation was too vague.

Sighing softly, he placed his attention to the most obvious and familiar emerald glow in the form of a vertical eye with dark green, almost dark viridian vertical pupil surrounded by filaments of the lighter green iris. Connecting with this entity felt warm. It felt nurturing, too, unlike the mysterious and cold intent of the grey eye. Without a doubt, this was the personification of the Three-eyed Silver Lion. This martial soul had an affinity with spirit, light, and space. By now, Ja Sun had skills regarding all three.

The martial soul's basic ability to increase the pace of cultivation was the most obvious skill of Spirit Affinity. He had multiple light-type skills, too. His clone skill was a special one that included the mysteries of space and so did his sixth defense spirit ring while only Heaven's Descent was the poison-type skill in his arsenal that affected the mental energy.

The feeling of 'connection' was even more noteworthy this time around. While Ja Sun only felt a vague sensation during his period of 'communication' with the Evil Title, right now, Ja Sun seemed to have understood what was going on with his connection to the vertical green eye.

'This... is this how spirit beasts feel? Just what are these instincts of using the spirit skill?' Ja Sun wondered. This was a mysterious sensation that he had no idea about. It felt... complete. Like he was supposed to find these sensations one way or the other yet it felt a bit rushed as if he shouldn't be intruding on these connections at all.

None of this was an illusion since his mental scape was immune to it now. So, his mind was definitely experiencing something akin to an illusion but surreal instead.

'Then what is this?'

Ja Sun looked towards the final glow. It was the largest. Larger than the grey and the green.

Mixed with blue and red was yet another vertical eye but Ja Sun felt nothing. This was a wholly different experience. He hadn't given Evil Title much attention so it gave the obvious lack of connection while the Three-eyed Silver Lion was the most intimate with various external treasures invested into it and another one— The Bloodline core of the Three-eyed Golden Lion— lined up already.

The third and final eye had the same aesthetic as the orb— Evil-Eyed Sage's Third Eye. Ja Sun continued to observe it without any outcome. Hours went by and Ja Sun didn't flinch. It was interesting. Just when he felt that he realized something, the sensation disappeared. It was truly different from his two martial souls and it intrigued him.

*Roar*

The dark space had white cracks spread as an enraged roar made Ja Sun's consciousness feel dizzy for a moment. But as stated— only a moment. The cracks spread were repaired by the overwhelming life-attributed mental energy. If the death-attributed mental energy could poison and possibly, instantly destroy an opponent's mind then the life aspect of his mental energy served to heal all his mental injuries, making sure that his suicidal lifestyle, at least, did not affect his mental fortitude.

The surrounding space finally flickered with gold for a moment and Ja Sun looked back.

He saw another globe of red and black similar to the one behind him. But this one was placed in the center of the giant white tiger... more like a white lion with dark stripes as its lion-like mane drooped listlessly. The strange entity felt vaguely similar. The being had two eyes, each with red and blue pupils while the area between its forehead contained a third vertical eye sporting both the pupils.

Ja Sun looked at the being curiously. How could he not be curious?

His mental energy was his strongest suit. Even with the death astral combatant part of his core with his clone, his other half was enough to deal a fatal blow to a Titled Douluo if used alongside the Fiery Golden Pupils. And yet, a courageous being stepped into a strange formation of his mental world fuelled by the Evil-Eyed Sage's Third Eye.

"Who are you?" Ja Sun inquired but he did not have any intention of peace. His conscious projection controlled all his mental energy and activated the second layer of the Fiery Golden Pupils, raising his level of attack by two levels disregarding any rules of strength and countless needles glinted with gold appeared around the large tiger who felt the energy compressed in each needle and instantly began to fade away.

'Running? How the hell can he even enter and leave as he sees fit? Because of the Evil-Eyed Sage's Third Eye?'

Ja Sun frowned and attacked. Meanwhile, in the outside world, six black rings similar to black halos appeared on Ja Sun's fingers and the sixth once gave a glimmer. A translucent bubble of energy wrapped around Ja Sun in an instant.

In his consciousness world, Ja Sun finally took control of his mind and the effect of the Evil-Eyed Sage's Third Eye began to fade. His Consciousness World became all too clear and the fading image of the tiger began to turn clear once again.

The needles struck this instant.

The impressive entrance of the strange tiger was turned into roars of pain and despair within a few moments.

"You dare trample the honor of a divine beast?" The tiger finally growled in a familiar language but Ja Sun was more intent on taking the same item on the forehead of the beast. The cause of the Tiger's appearance was clear and while Ja Sun never felt the need to kill being his first instinct, there was a reason why his killing intent shook Liu Erlong and others.

Using the last of his mental energy and activating the Fiery Golden Pupils to its full degree, Ja Sun struck again.

"Stop!"

The tiger howled loudly yet the pain was too much to bear without being an actual manic beast who reveled in pain.

As if knowing that he wouldn't be able to overcome the iron plate that he had accidentally kicked into, the Tiger began to fade. He had remained only to observe the mental world and strike if possible but surviving would be an issue at this point. Not to mention the fact that Ja Sun's mental world was so vast that it couldn't be easily observed in mere moments, especially when being attacked.

As the tiger began to fade, it growled mockingly, "I was unprepared. But you cannot stop the divine from leaving or entering—"

The words couldn't come anymore as the Tiger realized that it couldn't leave. The space outside Ja Sun was contorted weirdly as it sealed everything in entering or leaving in a world of continuously stretching space sealed within a tiny portion of the world.

"The—"

Before the Tiger could continue, the needles tore the tiger to shreds, not allowing it to even howl.

Much to Ja Sun's surprise, however, he saw the Bright Goddess Butterfly and the Nightmare's Fantasy reach out to him. Both of them simultaneously begged for the remains of the tiger in the form of flowing golden light that quickly congealed into a stationary palm-sized miniature tiger.

"Wait," Ja Sun responded calmly.

He fed his spirit souls well since he promised to take care of them should they follow him so the two spirit souls didn't act impatiently.

Ja Sun first observed his mental world. It was still a scene of vast beauty filled with the devious purple sky that had a golden undertone.

Death and Life.

His spirit core acted perfectly fine, too.

Ja Sun finally turned his attention to the remains of the tiger that interrupted his observation previously.

'Not a shred of spirit, mental, or physical qi within... but this much power in such a simple form... by itself, it is certainly weaker than my current self. It feels similar to the figure of white mist that protected the Slaughter Egg... is this considered a Divine Quality of Energy?'

Ja Sun frowned.

If he had to count, then this might be his third confrontation with a god, or at least, a projection of one.

The first time was the so-called God of War for refining the Vajra Gauntlets as his blood Artifacts.

The second time was the mist in the Slaughter City that injured his sea of spirit which was later healed by consumption of the Crystal Blood Dragon Ginseng.

This was the third confrontation and the easiest one if he had to say because of his growth.

"Divine... gods... One is the path of inheritance... the other should be what Qian Xunji did but it is a temporary measure. Redstar, meanwhile, only pushed some boundaries without reaching the next realm by sacrificing his spirit cores."

Ja Sun recalled everything he had viewed or heard on this matter.

'White Tigers... probably do have a method to become a god. But either that method is lost or they're too weak to uncover it. This white tiger feels similar to a divine intent and that's why it was so easy to defeat it now without giving it a chance to retreat using my sixth ring or let it attack me.

A successful defeat of a divine intent probably leaves a form of energy as a by-product. The fact that this wasn't present while I destroyed the intent in the slaughter city means that either the intent successfully retreated or... the intent by itself was a projection of a greater divine intent that didn't wish to risk the loss of more energy for an already dissipating Slaughter Egg.'

Ja Sun considered many possibilities. This also made him interested in returning to the slaughter city once he's a Titled Douluo.

After recovering a bit of his mental energy, Ja Sun interacted with the divine energy placed within his mental consciousness. There was no obvious effect. It couldn't be absorbed or used to further his growth in the matter of cultivation.

'But the Bright Goddess Butterfly and the Nightmare's Fantasy seem particularly interested in this form of energy. Is it their instincts? So, are the spirit beasts more attuned to the aspects related to the next step of the cultivation?' Ja Sun mused but he was unwilling to test anything uncertain on his spirit souls. They were the foundation of his spirit skills after all.

But he was simultaneously unwilling to let a foreign source of energy sit in his mental world.

"The gods really are troublesome entities," Ja Sun exhaled deeply. Who knew if he could be attacked using this collection of energy as a long-distance source of connection.

But one thing was for sure. He did not have a great affinity with the so-called gods.

Three encounters all ended up in confrontation. Although he rose out benefitting from each one of them, even he was clear that these were a merely tiny portion of what the true gods should be capable of achieving.

This also confirmed that there was something strange going on with the Evil-Eyed Sage's Third Eye and the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud. Well, for now, he took care of the problem affecting the eye so Ja Sun could explore it.

Finally, Ja Sun decided to recall his clone and make his mental energy a whole again. He would have the death astral combatant guard over and conduct various forms of communication on the source of energy and the pleading of the two Spirit Souls was suppressed for the moment.

Finally, he opened his eyes. He had to leave now. His clone without the Death Astral Combatant was barely worth anything in managerial skills but there was no issue in his side of the entrance of the forest. After all, he came here to help the spirit beasts. A few months' worth of cultivation raised close to the level of a single year wasn't worth bragging and he would have had to stay here for a few years to reveal any effect in the first place so this was a long-term goal of Bibi Dong.

Ja Sun silently observed his surroundings.

Not a lot of time had passed despite feeling that hours had gone by.

Ja Sun's sixth spirit ability was still working.

It was called the Fantasy Space.

Ja Sun could create a sealed space with its inner region stretched out continuously. This could be used to stop attacks or trap individuals at times. However, this skill exhausted his spirit energy greater than all the skills combined and it meant that without the Sight of Immortal, this skill was currently useless. Of course, it would be another if he becomes a Spirit Douluo or a Titled Douluo.

Anyway, this was another life-saving skill that stopped Redstar's attack and even cut off the path of the Divine Tiger's retreat so its value was already known.

At this moment, there was another Evil-Eyed Sage's Third Eye trapped in Fantasy Space.

'This must be the original my version of the eye is copied from,' Ja Sun realized, 'But this item innately doesn't seem capable of forming consciousness or it would have been impossible for my trait to copy it. Anything with a consciousness cannot be copied, after all.'

Ja Sun began to test the two eyes differently. He would be sent into the strange space where he can interact with his martial souls and the evil eye itself and it didn't seem to affect the stock of divine energy within his mental world at all.

This meant that only one of the treasure eyes was useful while the other one wasn't needed at all, becoming another one of the tradeable goods in his hands.

Days passed as such, Ja Sun had already returned to the eastern entrance where he rarely surfaced now that most of the tasks and responsibilities had been delegated. Ja Sun heard inquires from Ah Yin since she was curious to know what happened. Equally curious himself, Ja Sun revealed most of it, more than willing to know if Ah Yin had any input on the matter. Sadly, she did not.

For the moment, Ja Sun had put the exploration of the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud a hold and wholeheartedly communicated with the Evil Title and the Three-eyed Silver Lion through the Evil-Eyed Sage's Third Eye.

This eye was like a window to his soul and allowed him to understand many things about his martial soul and his spirit skills on an instinctual level as if he was on a strange path of a spirit beast that understood things about nature just by the virtue of it.

Although Ja Sun did not have a term for it, he was making progress. It wasn't something as substantial as an increase in his spirit rank, but getting to know one's martial soul in such a definite manner was a great ability that seemed to belong to the Evil-Eyed Sage's Third Eye.

And unlike how Ja Sun understood the ability of the Sigh of Immortal after binding it with blood, no such effect took place with the eye, leaving Ja Sun a lot of time to actually enjoy the sense of exploration this time around until...

The disaster struck.