Chapter 308: The 'Mechanical Ascension' Belonging to Yao Chen!
Amid the mess of the weapon refining room, listening to Yao Chen's thoughts, Jiang Lin remained silent, his expression somber, not speaking a word.
From the little information Jiang Lin had gathered, he couldn't fully understand what Yao Chen was saying at this moment.
If he had to guess, the "end of the soul" probably referred to the Soul Clan, right? As for the end of the body... Could it be the Stone Men? No, that wasn't right, Stone Men don't even have much of a presence, they're like no-names everywhere.
As for the end of the bloodline... Jiang Lin's eyes flickered slightly. He had once heard some theories from a tribal priest, and it seemed that one of the ancient eight clans had perished. Maybe this was related to the statement about bloodlines reaching their end.
As for Yao Chen, currently in his 'limited edition weapon spirit' form, flying around with an unbalanced mindset, Jiang Lin could definitely empathize with his feelings.
As a weapon refiner, Jiang Lin didn't claim to know everything about the world, but at least he understood the mainstream weapon refining knowledge of the Dou Qi continent. Therefore, he knew that the world's definition of "living" was actually quite narrow.
Take someone like Yao Chen, for example. He only felt alive when he could regrow his physical body.
Hmm, you say you're dead? Who was I talking to then? A ghost?
Hey, Yao Chen really does think of himself as a ghost.
So, in this world, there's a severe lack of carriers that can bring joy to a soul like Yao Chen's. Take the examples Jiang Lin knew—soul artifacts from the Soul Clan, puppet techniques, and the recently acquired Beast Spirit Array—these all involved techniques that manipulated souls, yet none of them treated the soul as a being with dignity.
Jiang Lin wasn't very familiar with soul artifacts, but he was quite knowledgeable about puppet techniques and Beast Spirit Arrays. The puppet techniques in their current form treat the living like the dead, and a soul too vibrant is difficult to refine. Similarly, Beast Spirit Arrays only require the soul of the magical beast, not its life or death.
In Jiang Lin's own words, this phenomenon was like "weaponization." Yes, weaponization—on the Dou Qi continent, weapon refiners, no, everyone, seemed obsessed with weaponizing everything. But Jiang Lin's creations, like the Feather Sheath Wings and the Crystal Pill, were all focused on life.
"Using a tool to carry the Dao. Perhaps the true Dao for Dou Weapons is to return to their nature as tools," Jiang Lin thought to himself, gazing at the Strange Fire Xuan Heavy Ruler, which was gently swaying in the air.
Yao Chen was deeply moved because the Strange Fire Xuan Heavy Ruler contained a control system crafted from Soul Gold. Yao Chen could directly use his soul power to control the Strange Fire Xuan Heavy Ruler as a "weapon spirit."
The most important part was that Yao Chen could freely enter and exit, without being restricted inside the small Strange Fire Xuan Heavy Ruler!
This small change was almost a dimension-reducing strike for Yao Chen!
After all, think about it—those wielding soul artifacts would often say: "Hahaha! Once you come in, you're not leaving! Watch me send you flying!"
Before, Yao Chen's living conditions had been what? The dark, cramped space of a storage ring! But now, he could control his "mechanical body" and fly freely outside! The most important thing was, he had his autonomy!
Hmm… It could only be said that the Soul Hall had done its dirty work, causing wandering souls across the continent to live in constant fear, confined to the storage ring, becoming a 'storage ring grandpa' rather than a 'weapon spirit grandpa.'
"Sorry, I got a little sentimental for a moment," Yao Chen said, emerging with his head from the surface of the Strange Fire Xuan Heavy Ruler after it had flown a few circles.
"It seems like this world never really treats souls as people, almost always viewing them as prey. Is this because of the Soul Hall?" Jiang Lin looked up at the old man's head emerging from the Strange Fire Xuan Heavy Ruler, a hint of curiosity flashing in his eyes.
Could it be that the Soul Hall had twisted the world's view on souls, closing the "mechanical ascension" door to wandering souls?
"...Pretty much. The Soul Hall has a habit of capturing soul bodies everywhere. Most of the time, once the physical body is destroyed, the soul becomes a piece of fat meat in the Soul Hall's eyes, just waiting to be swallowed," Yao Chen said with some helplessness, realizing he had crossed a boundary in his understanding, coming to the realization that soul bodies were also a form of existence.
"Enough of this. Let's talk about your Dou Weapon. You're probably the first weapon refiner I've ever heard of who treats souls like people. Many people treat souls as resources, as things that don't have the right to be human," Yao Chen's voice was full of emotion, showing clear signs that he had experienced much.
"..." Hearing Yao Chen's unexpected praise, Jiang Lin felt a bit embarrassed. After all, he was the one who had the 'Human Emperor Banner,' a great and far-reaching endeavor to give wandering souls a warm home, and now he was just testing his skills with Yao Chen.
Since the Soul Hall had become the great villain of the soul world, there should naturally be someone like Jiang Lin, a great benefactor of the soul world, taking in those persecuted by the Soul Hall, offering them homes.
"So I can tell that you're not an evil weapon refiner from the soul artifact faction, although you are a mischievous little spirit of the Soul Clan," Yao Chen said, chuckling.
"...The last part wasn't necessary," Jiang Lin's face twitched slightly. As expected, he shouldn't have been too kind toward the wandering souls.
"Heh, now I understand why you're different from others. So this is it," Yao Chen seemed to realize something, and a look of enlightenment flashed in his eyes. He then smiled and said, "With you, it's like everyone is your customer. You treat everyone equally, so whether it's humans, beastmen, magical beasts, or soul bodies, they all get what they want from you."
"Mm." Jiang Lin didn't realize he was so good until Yao Chen said it.
'Since I've been praised like this, I definitely have to start working on the Human Magic Core Plan. That way, humans, beastmen, and magical beasts can all be treated equally.'
Just thinking about the scene where different races sell their magic cores and eventually have to sign the Magic Core Protection Law made Jiang Lin wish he could reverse engineer the Magic Core techniques right then and there!
Why should magical beasts have cores and humans don't?!
The beastmen may have many emperors, but...
Who says humans don't have great emperors?
Don't worry, I'll make my move!
(END CHAPTER)
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