I suddenly feel another chain break in my body similar to when my core formed. This time I feel a sudden change in my body as I notice the worm features slowly being replaced with more white snake corpse features. I still feel as though this body of a corpse wine worm, but now I"m sure I have distinctive features of the corpse snake. I know my body is stronger now. My scales are tougher. My body is longer now. I was the length of a fork before, now I"m around solid foot now.
I also notice my hearts are now stronger as well, and that they are beating now. These corse hearts are pumping corpse blood through my veins. when before I had to focus to make my corpse blood flow.
I still have my corpse wine features, but they are less distinct now. I am now a Corpse Wine snake at this point, but with a core of a corpse wine worm. I think practicing the snake cultivation art and absorbing the snake corpse blood has helped in this matter.
The changes are a nice touch, but my core still recently added a large number of different poisons in a short amount of time. I check it and notice there is only corpse wine now in my core.
It"s different from before. There are five images drawn on it. I think it would be better to call it five deaths corpse wine. I was only able to refine the Five deaths poison using the memories of the five creatures memories.
My core very stable, and there are no hints of foreign poison I can detect with my soul. This shows I added the right poisons at the right times. The aura of the five creatures in my corpse wine is distinct, but it"s part of my corpse wine now. They are no longer a threat, as they are spices to my wine.
I shrug off the new changes since they only my second body. This larger body of mine is more noticeable now. A corpse worm is less conspicuous, this snake body is pretty noticeable.
That being said, I still haven"t found any strong predators with the ability to use their soul, but that does not rule out the possibility. The larger body will not be a problem for now even if they could use soul seeing as I have not found any.
It seems weird that after all the memories I have looked at, that there is no creature stronger than the spider. There are plenty of resources. Why are there no strong creatures?
I begin to search the memories of the souls I"ve eaten looking for clues. The corpse gra.s.s is the oldest. It has no sensory organs, but it does seem to have memories of losing fellow corpse gra.s.ses every once in an awhile. So there should be a predator of some kind.
They are injured, but the roots are left untouched. They must be harvesting them. The plant I found was hidden thus safe, but given the number of times, I recall the plants being harvested.
It must not have been a short time. The amount these plants grow is slow. They had grown to full length and were harvested six times it seems. This has to be at a few hundred years between each harvest looking at how slow each one of these plants grows.
I wonder how they could not notice the large corpse gra.s.s I ate. I remember that it grew on top of something powerful that died. When I ate the roots, there was no change in my surroundings.
I destroyed evidence of the corpse spider cave. It was well hidden, to begin with. I don"t know if anything would want to look for it, but just to be sure, I wiped all traces of just in case. I feel a pressure knowing I"m closer to discovering what predator I may face in the future.
It"s better knowing my sense of caution was not wasted playing a super spy in a cave. I slither outside of the spider"s den remains. I head towards the opposite direction of where the corpse gra.s.s was. I get a good distance away, and tunnel into a crack in the wall.
I begin tunnel towards the corpse gra.s.s at a rapid pace. It would seem my new body moves through the earth like water. I avoid any unnecessary dangers and arrive at the corpse gra.s.s area.
I am proud of my own handy work. The soil looks as if nothing was ever here. I allow my main body, and the second body to fuse soul strength and use my soul for the first time to look deeper into the soil.
I try tunneling in the soil, but I begin to sense an almost physical feeling of regret. There is definitely something here. I prepare to escape. I have my main body with me, but I can no longer leave it behind as I need to temper my main body in its poison.
I am temporarily blocked from looking deeper with my soul. Annoyed, I focus my soul to "look" harder. I am met with a weakening soul of something much stronger than I am.
That"s the feeling I get from whatever is down there anyway. It"s hard to describe this barrier of sadness, and regret that it"s unleashing, but I know it"s not long till it dies for good.
I can feel its soul emitting a subtle aura of death. A body with an aura of death means nothing, a soul with this aura is not long for this world.
I have options at this point. I can wait it out, and look around after it dies, but who knows how long that will take? Also, it will be a good test for my second, and main body new strength.
I choose to fight the barrier and am met with feelings of despair that are so strong I begin to hate myself. I begin to lose myself to this strong emotion, but then my main body awakens me. My split will allows me to transfer some of these negative emotions into my main body.
This seems an effective way to ease the suffering. I am unable to tunnel towards the epicenter this raw emotional force.
It"s difficult to focus when waves of this aura of sadness bombard my soul. I begin to try my best to get close but am forced back again and again.
I can feel a spherical force repelling me. I don"t give up, and force myself forwards against this barrier, and I get close enough with my soul to see the remains of an ancient looking corpse inside of a cave underground.
The clothes seem to still be somewhat whole, while the flesh has long since gone. Clothes can say a lot about a person. This was a woman I think based on the fan and ornate feminine look robe. The bones are a deep jade color, but the cause of death is obvious to me.
The green color seems to be due to some weird refinement. The real cause of death is a bone-deep poison that"s still eating at the bones. This must have been what has made my second body feel something strange.
The soul of the corpse would be hard to look for if not for my own struggling. My second body"s instinct tells me there is a treasure in those bones. This poison is stronger than my new five deaths corpse wine.
The other thing I noticed is that its soul does not inhabit its a body but in a looking plain fan. I am forced back after a quick glance. After a few more attempts I grow tired. I try to communicate with the dying soul but that seems to only agitate the soul.
I do begin to understand it as I continue to fight its aura of suffering. There is a language barrier, but I seem to get the impression it was betrayed by someone.
That"s enough to work me with. I begin to try and mimic its primal means of communication. It"s like reading facial expression rather than talking. I try and communicate my willingness to help it get revenge.
The poison in its bones would be plenty for me reward for me to help it out. Also, I feel like this soul does not mean me any harm. The information would be worth more then anything for a being like me who grew up under rocks, and dirt.
I still keep my guard up, but I am curious to meet a sentient soul. After a manny more attempts the soul seems to calm down. I"m not foolish enough to hold any thoughts of eating this soul. It could kill me easily I feel, but I do know for some reason it has something even my main body cannot resist besides the poison.
I suddenly feel the brier diminish by a lot. I also for the first time able to see what I have been trying to communicate with. The soul seems to be an elderly woman who has aged gracefully.
The smile she wears is one of bitterness, anger, and relief. There is an aura that seems to smile a bitter, hopeful sad smile. I don"t think I will see the soul"s true appearance. I know in a lot of novels I read in the past, a soul would remain as it was in life, but that seems like a lot of wasted energy to me.
How could this dying soul waste energy holding a form? I stretch a small part of my soul over afraid of possession. I won"t be tricked into losing this body. I rather destroy this body, then let it be taken by who knows what.
I met with a gentle piece of the soul fragment. I bring it into my body all the while half of my will is split. A portion remains on defense, monitoring the powerful soul fragment.I wrap this fragment in soul threads, and it"s pulled towards the baby.
It seems to unable to eat the soul fragment whole, and instead slowly siphons the fragment like a baby drinking milk. This is my last thought before Memories flood into my mind like a movie.