Hero? Are You Worthy?
Chapter 304 - 190: Tainted Soul (2)

Chapter 304: Chapter 190: Tainted Soul (2)

Silf’s anxiety made Qin Chu somewhat puzzled.

Clearly, the Elf had been very resistant to the second and third treatment options before, so what exactly was going on now?

It wasn’t until she had pulled Qin Chu all the way to her own bedroom that he finally got the chance, "Silf, tell me what happened?"

Silf’s reaction was very abnormal, and Qin Chu could feel that her spiritual fluctuations were extremely exaggerated; her will seemed on the verge of complete collapse at any moment.

After all, Silf had been through battlefields, had fought against terrifying demons, and even dueled with an Abyss Demon General despite knowing she might die. In Qin Chu’s view, although Silf’s character was a bit awful, she should not be so fearful of death.

Once there were no other people in the room, Silf’s complexion seemed to calm down a bit, but her body still trembled, gripping her shoulders tightly as if curled up into a ball. The Elf was now extremely fearful.

Upon hearing Qin Chu’s words, after a moment of hesitation, Silf lowered the neckline of her long dress at the chest, and parted it.

Seeing the skin that had been hidden by the fabric, Qin Chu’s brows also tightly furrowed, and his expression gradually grew somber.

While it’s true that Qin Chu had been somewhat deceptive in the information he provided to Silf, at least he had genuinely reduced the extent of the erosion, cleansing some of the filth.

He had simply divided what could have been completely cleansed in ten sessions into a hundred, or even two hundred sessions.

But now, the filth that had been cleansed from Silf’s body had returned, and it was even more concentrated than before. The situation seemed to have worsened considerably, which is no wonder the Elf was so eager to begin the second step of the treatment plan.

At present, the only person Silf felt she could trust was Qin Chu. Apart from him, it seemed to her that every other look directed at her by anyone, even former teammates, was filled with suspicion, as if they could see right through the changes in her body.

Especially during the previous meeting, every minute and second was an intense agony for Silf, with Rose Vesper and Augustus’s gazes instilling extreme fear in her, as if at any second a multitude of Holy Knights would suddenly appear and surround her, and she would be publicly judged just like Karsas once was.

Amidst people’s pointing and laughing, heading steadily towards her doom.

Silf feared such a scene more than anyone.

"Why, why is this happening, when it was already reduced before..." Silf uttered a nervously neurotic murmur, nearly going insane, wanting to scream but not daring to make a sound, fearful it would draw even more onlookers.

She had never felt so helpless in her life as she did now.

"Silf..." Qin Chu suddenly sighed, his voice beginning to grow heavy, "Open up your soul to me completely..."

Silf’s body trembled slightly; she was clearly resistant to this, as the soul was the essence. Once she opened her soul to Qin Chu, it meant that all her secrets would have no place to hide from him.

This was even harder for Silf to accept than stripping naked in front of him.

"The core of the erosion is still on the soul, if we can’t solve the problem from its root, no matter how many times I cleanse the impurities from your flesh, they will reappear," Qin Chu spoke in a low voice,

"The decision is yours, if you’re unwilling, I won’t force you."

Having said that, Qin Chu was ready to leave Silf’s room.

He had just stepped back when suddenly he heard Silf’s sharp cry of despair:

"Don’t!"

Her reaction was even more exaggerated than Qin Chu expected. She almost instinctively rushed to him, clutching at his clothes forcefully, her eyes even slightly dilated, "Don’t... whether it’s my soul or my body... I’ll give them all to you, I don’t want to become like Karsas!"

From Silf’s words, Qin Chu keenly sensed something; what she seemed to fear was not death, but transforming into something weird like Karsas, which for Silf was apparently more terrifying than death itself.

Looking into those dilated, collapsing eyes, Qin Chu felt he could glimpse a fierce resolve; that if she couldn’t find salvation with him, the woman might even choose to end her own life.

Qin Chu patted Silf’s head, speaking in a gentle tone, "Silf, you have to trust me. Right now, only I can help you, and I truly want to save you. Otherwise, I would have already handed you over to Augustus, wouldn’t I?"

Silf kept nodding her head, no matter how much she had despised Qin Chu before or even plotted to kill him, at least at this moment, Qin Chu was her only lifeline. The current Silf held almost no doubt towards him.

"It’s great that you can fully trust me now, so go get ready for now..." Qin Chu whispered something into Silf’s ear.

Silf’s pale cheeks gradually flushed, feeling extremely ashamed, but as long as she could avoid becoming like Karsas, Silf could endure whatever it was.

After a long while, Silf reappeared before Qin Chu, attired in a set of light gauze, "Qin Chu, let’s... begin. I’m ready."

The flimsy gauze did little to cover Silf’s beauty; her voluptuous figure and fair skin were faintly visible.

The moment Qin Chu channeled the power of Holy Light into Silf, the Elf could not help but emit piercing screams because of the painful impact of the collision between the Holy Light and the filth, her body trembling involuntarily.

Then, a stern shout exploded in Silf’s ears: "Silf, let go of your consciousness..."

Instantly, there was a short blankness in Silf’s consciousness.

Her eyes became lifeless and disperse.

Seizing the opportunity, Qin Chu’s consciousness directly invaded into the deepest part of Silf’s mind.

...

At the core of every life’s consciousness, there exists an independent space—this place is the world of the soul.

Silf’s soul world was obviously not normal.

He felt his consciousness drifting in a gloomy expanse of void,

Above his head, streaks of crimson lightning occasionally tore through the dark sky. On the ground, covered in sludge, burned deep and crazed flames. Thick black fog enveloped the air, making movement severely restricted, with every step forward feeling extraordinarily difficult.

The stench of decay mixed with blood incessantly assaulted Qin Chu’s consciousness. He even felt as if his own soul would be corrupted and driven insane if it were immersed in this environment for too long.

It’s remarkable that Silf, under such circumstances, had managed to hold on for so long—her spirit had only become radicalized instead of completely uncontrolled.

What made Qin Chu feel even weirder was that, judging from Silf’s soul world, the corruption she suffered didn’t begin on the night the crimson descended; it must have been ongoing for a considerably long time. The night Karsas was purified, the crimson glow that bathed Silf seemed to merely awaken an erosion that already existed within her.

This was a space filled with filth and squalor.

Qin Chu’s consciousness floated in this endless space, searching for where Silf’s soul was hiding.

Qin Chu’s spirituality extended, exploring every corner of this twisted and dirty soul world.

Here, there was no concept of time; it felt as though eons had passed, yet it seemed like just a brief moment.

Qin Chu saw Silf’s shadow... but that shadow seemed a bit different, slightly more juvenile. He knew it was the memory within Silf’s soul world!

Silf as a girl, Silf as a young woman, Silf as an adult...

These memory forms were scattered everywhere. Qin Chu had only felt a few of them and roughly understood why Silf feared so much becoming something like Karsas.

Because Silf was an Elven with ancestral regression, she displayed differences from normal children since an early age, and uniqueness in this world also represented being an outlier.

Rejection, ridicule, humiliation, bullying...

These are experiences an outlier would inevitably face, and these experiences also made Silf extremely sensitive to these issues.

Even after growing up, the Elven lineage provided Silf with formidable strength, and no one dared ridicule her anymore. Nevertheless, the shadow remained, and to become an outlier like Karsas was more despairing to Silf than death itself.

Qin Chu could not stay here too long. He needed to find Silf’s true soul and not these memory forms as soon as possible.

Suddenly, Qin Chu seemed to hear a faint sound.

His consciousness floated toward the direction of the sound. After drifting for an unknown distance, maybe this was already the edge of Silf’s soul world?

In the furthest corner, Qin Chu finally found Silf’s soul.

It was an existence that looked exactly like Silf, only slightly smaller and more transparent, almost like a phantom.

Maybe due to the soul space, Silf’s soul did not appear as pure as her body but was filled with darkness; her soul curled up in a corner, huddled into a ball.

A pair of arms clasped her knees.

Her face even appeared somewhat stagnant, entirely unlike the lively nature of a normal soul.

Around Silf’s body, one could even see vague, blurry shadows continuously writhing.

Silf’s lips slightly parted, a sliver of a gap opened as if she was whispering, but no one could understand those inexplicable syllables, sounding like some indescribable murmuring.

Below her soul was a vast pool, filled with dark red liquid, like thick blood.

One could never fathom that an individual’s soul world could be this weird.

Even Qin Chu felt a chill in his chest. His consciousness as if swallowing a nonexistent gulp of saliva, moved closer to Silf’s soul, becoming clearer as he neared.

On Silf’s body, Qin Chu suddenly spotted some blood-colored threads, as fine as spider silk, intertwining into two separate sections, crossing over each other to the left and right, binding Silf’s body.

Just like the brand below Silf’s collarbone.

Just like the mark present on Karsas’s chest...

If one looked closer, there were thirteen on the left, thirteen on the right...

Silf was... twenty-six years old this year!

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