Chapter 566: Cen Shuyin’s Soul (1/2)

Chapter 566: Cen Shuyin’s Soul

Translator: Sparrow TranslationsEditor: Sparrow Translations

Since the olden days, regardless whether in the world of mortals or cultivators, there were rumors of reincarnation. The mortal world made many guesses regarding this, and all they had were random pieces of news, so they were not particularly sure about reincarnation.

But for cultivators, reincarnation existed. However, reincarnating would not be of much use to most cultivators as the would lose their memories of their past lives, so even if they did reincarnate, they would become an existence completely unrelated with their past life.

In reality, this was the same for most mortals too. Many people would often dream of scenarios completely unrelated to their current life, when in fact those were shards of memories from their past life. As such, the story of Meng Po’s Soup arose in the mortal world, that every soul had to cross the Nai He Bridge and drink a bowl of Meng Po’s Soup before reincarnating.

Precisely because cultivators knew that memories of their past lives would be lost after cultivation, most cultivators were unwilling to reincarnate after their souls entered the Underworld, or they would use any means possible to prevent their memories from disappearing during reincarnation.

Some extremely powerful cultivators could actually retain their memories forcefully after reincarnation, and they would subsequently return to being one of the strongest of thier generation.

The Underworld was originally the place where the corruption of souls’ memories and consciousness happened, and after spending a sufficiently long time in there, one would automatically proceed for reincarnation, never to be seen again.

Although this is the case, the number of leftover souls in the Underworld kept growing.

At this point, a tiny weak soul was carefully wiggling its way around a corner full of souls. Just like the others, she did not want to reincarnate.

This was because she would no longer know who she was after reincarnating, so what’s the difference between going or not going? Instead, she would rather stay here and have her memories slowly fade away.

There are some things, even if you just remember it for a moment longer, would be better than not remembering anything in a new life. The only downside was that there were too many souls around, so she was looking for a slightly larger area for herself, but it was a difficult task to complete.

Now she was drifting towards the outside of the group, and based on her estimates, she would only have a few years left. Once these years were up, her memories and consciousness would be completely taken by the Underworld, and she would go straight for reincarnation.

All she wanted was to find a quiet corner, and gradually reminisce about everything that had happened to her since she started cultivating. Her mother, Heaven Seeking Palace, and everything that happened between her and Mo Wuji…

If Mo Wuji were here, regardless how sparse the soul had become, he would be able to sense that this was Cen Shuyin’s soul.

What set her apart from other souls was that, while weak and sparse, Cen Shuyin’s soul was complete, and not some broken soul.

At this point, Cen Shuyin felt a familiar aura: her body.

Strong emotions overwhelmed her, which almost caused her soul to break apart.

Souls and primordial spirits were different. Primordial spirits could escape, but a soul was merely a sort of sparse form of consciousness. After a primordial spirit was destroyed, it could be remade, but if a soul was destroyed, there was basically no way of remaking it.

Mortals did not cultivate, hence most of their souls remained in a sparse state, unable to retain their memories or intelligence. However it was different for cultivators, as their memories were not only stored within their primordial spirits, but also in their souls.

When a cultivator died, it meant that his primordial spirit was destroyed, and that his soul and body became separated. As the soul has no way to reenter the physical body, it would automatically enter the Underworld.

Once in the Underworld, there was no chance of finding one’s physical body. Even the strongest person could only use means to protect his own consciousness to remain as himself. No one could leave the Underworld to search for their body, and on top of that, most cultivators’ bodies had been destroyed after they died.

Because of that, Cen Shuyin was very surprised to actually feel the aura of her physical body.

One had to realise that she had died in the restricted space outside of the cultivation world, and she believed that Mo Wuji would have preserved her body. But no matter how capable he was, he shouldn’t have been able to bring her physical body to the Underworld in slightly over 10 years.

The souls in the Underworld varied in strength, but regardless how strong a soul was, it could only be a little denser and survive for a little longer. They generally did not possess any offensive abilities, except for a small minority that cultivated with unique soul techniques.

Cen Shuyin’s soul was sparse, but could still barely make it out from the large group of souls.

Souls in the Underworld had unparalleled speed, hence despite how sparse her soul was, she sped through the area swiftly. But this speed came at a price: her soul became thinner with every moment.