Super Righteous Player
Chapter 997 - 55: Dream Within a Dream

Chapter 997: Chapter 55: Dream Within a Dream

Annan realized... even if he closed his eyes again now, he could still clearly see the entire world.

Even in the midst of the night, he needed neither to lift a lantern nor even open his eyes.

For after the true awakening of The Fifth Daylight, Annan no longer needed his eyes to receive external light. Elemental Power had fundamentally transformed his soul, although he had not yet reached the Gold Stage.

Annan could feel that his soul now was like liquid light.

There were no distinctions of color.

Just like "Radiant Oil."

If it weren’t for the fact that the "skin" he was using now was too solid and sealed, like an opaque box, perhaps Bernadino’s eyes would be continuously shedding pure light.

If one were to look directly into his eyes at this moment, just the leaking majesty would scorch the onlooker’s eyes.

But clearly, those apprentices around him hadn’t realized what had happened.

"How do you feel? Have you acquired the ability to ’Control Spirit Body’?"

Someone asked hurriedly.

Under the light, the silhouettes of the people backlit seemed like dark, clawing demons.

Annan sighed silently.

They had absolutely no clue what had happened to Bernadino, nor did they think Bernadino posed any danger to them.

Such a degree of sensitivity... It was no wonder they could only pursue these dangerous experiments, attempting to seek breakthroughs. It seemed they were among those about to be weeded out as failures within the Wizard’s Tower.

Annan could only close his eyes and lean back in the chair.

He calmly said, "Indeed, I have."

The apprentices instantly became excited.

The leader immediately stepped forward, grabbed Bernadino’s shoulder, and spoke rapidly, "Then show us promptly! Oh right, there’s a sea beast’s Spiritual Body in front of you, and you have sea beast blood flowing within you. Controlling the sea beast’s Spiritual Body should be much less difficult than controlling a human’s. At the very least... um... umm... uh..."

The man was still rambling, and Annan sighed softly.

As expected... he immediately lost control of his body and began watching CGI. Or rather, Bernadino had begun to control this body again, showing Annan what had happened—

As Bernadino abruptly opened his eyes, red-rimmed with bloody tears, the surging tide of black hatred within him burst forth.

The wizard apprentices in the room suddenly showed pains on their faces.

They covered their faces, letting out cries of extreme agony.

But all their struggles were in vain.

Annan could clearly see... the apprentices’ souls rapidly leaving their bodies.

Not like passing through walls, just flying straight out.

Instead, it was like using a meat grinder to mash meat into mud... those souls were ground into a paste like toothpaste, mixed with blood, continuously flowing out from their eyes, ears, mouths, and noses, and Bernadino easily absorbed them into his body.

Bernadino’s vision could not see the positions of physical bodies, but he could see the colors of the souls.

Annan thus realized.

The idea circulated among the Transcendents that "mortals have no souls" was actually not quite accurate.

The correct statement is that a mortal’s soul is so thin that it can’t even be referred to in the form of "smoke." It is extremely thin smoke that is merely a colored illusion.

But conversely, it could also be regarded that mortals do have souls... it’s just that they cannot be detected, extracted, targeted, or utilized.

Only through Bernadino’s Spiritual Sight could one see their true shape!

They were like differently colored stick figures.

The middle was blank, but the edges had clearly defined outlines. After Bernadino had sucked away a small part of the spirit body, they could no longer resist the suction... the rest of the spirit rapidly leaked out. The faint light emitted by the "human figure" also extinguished.

Like a punctured water balloon.

At the moment the soul was damaged, those mortals were already dead.

...This was probably why mortals sometimes died suddenly in their nightmares.

The only one still struggling... was that ’experiment controller’ who had already advanced to being a Formal Wizard.

He had smoky soul.

It was a cluster of deep blue smoke mixed with a small amount of light blue and purple halos. The densest part was at the neck, like a human head, then lighter upward to the brain, forming a crown-like shape.

Moving downwards to around the liver... it had no legs, resembling an inverted bamboo shoot.

And its arms had just spread to the shoulders. Further ahead were two transparent clouds, like the ligaments in crab claws.

—It looked like some kind of Pokémon.

If it could further develop, reaching the bronze stage limit, perhaps it could expand to the entire body.

"Truly... a beautiful thing."

Annan murmured.

Viewed through Bernadino’s sight, it was as resplendent as a nebula.

Annan increasingly understood, why after leaving behind "the Path of Sculpture," Bernadino had taken the path of a Soul Monk... and why he was able to possess the Elemental Power of the soul.

"Because this could truly be called a masterpiece."

No processing required, it was a perfect sculpture.

The souls of different people had different colors, different shapes—unlike the perception seen through rituals, the souls of many Transcendents seen through the soul vision were the only colors in Bernadino’s world.

How could Bernadino possibly resist collecting them?

His smoky spiritual body was continuously reaped by Bernadino—but even after nearly a third was reaped, the man still had the ability to resist.

His pupils lit up with a deep red glow.

"Consciousness Capture: Killing Intent"

But as he scanned Bernadino, he suddenly exclaimed, "What, what..."

Because he saw no killing intent.

It was this momentary distraction that left the young wizard powerless to resist Bernadino’s soul reaping—his spiritual body was drawn directly from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose by Bernadino, and his body then collapsed backward with a crash.

After circling inside Bernadino’s body, his spiritual body was released again.

But when it re-entered its original body, it had shrunk by half and had become withered.

It wasn’t devoured by Bernadino.

It was part that dissipated in the air.

The smoky spiritual body still couldn’t exist outside for long, this short distance back and forth had reduced it by more than half. But it was still better than those which fell into Bernadino’s hands and were left with only a few particles.

And that spiritual body, besides its original deep blue halo... was wrapped in a layer of pitch-black web.

That was Bernadino’s characteristic "gloomy and damp power."

Identical in color to the muck when Bernadino awakened with the Elemental Power.

The spiritual bodies sunk into Bernadino’s elemental swamps were directly devoured and polluted by him.

Yet this ability was still faint, merely capable of binding a shallow layer around the spiritual body like a web, neither deep nor tight. If other Soul Reaping Wizards noticed, they could probably easily intervene and strip it away.

But this immature power was enough to handle other similarly immature and weak wizards.

The "apprentice leader" slowly opened his eyes from the ground; his face no longer held a panicked expression.

He suddenly flipped onto his feet from the ground, his expression turning cold.

In the next moment, he and Bernadino simultaneously extended their right hands, placing them in front of their bodies. They uniquely flipped their right hands in sync, forming fists—not so synchronously, they struck out with full force.

Then, they simultaneously let out a cold laugh.

As Bernadino lowered his right hand afterward, the man opposite did not.

Bernadino got up from his chair and walked over to the man sitting on the ground.

He extended his hand and reached out lightly twice but failed to grasp the man’s hand. Only on the third attempt did Bernadino finally master the technique—he reached out and firmly grasped the man’s right hand.

Afterward, Bernadino forcefully pulled "another self" up from the ground.

And those apprentices also one by one stood up, just like walking corpses.

Next, Bernadino needed them to go to a secluded place to die, at least, their deaths could not involve him. This was difficult, especially within the Wizard’s Tower... but he had to do it.

"How ridiculous."

Bernadino murmured softly, "Is this my destiny?"

His words filled with a tide of hatred: "I... hate this pathetic fate."

As this CG sequence ended, Annan finally regained control of his body.

...But up to this point, the nightmare had still not ended.

Not even Annan’s side quest was completed.

Annan showed no surprise.

Because everything so far, had been within Annan’s expectations.

The light ignited in his heart had already told him everything.

Annan leisurely said to the other spiritual body he controlled, which theoretically couldn’t respond to him, "Well, when do you plan on letting me out? The things you wanted me to see... should all be seen by now.

"—Lord Hugo."

As Annan’s words fell.

The body opposite him, which should have been controlled by Bernadino, remained silent for a few seconds and then suddenly spoke, "When did you realize?"

"Realize what?"

Annan asked softly.

"Realize—this is also a dream?"

The young wizard’s voice gradually mixed with Hugo’s voice.

As Hugo’s voice, as if echoing from beyond the world, boomed, the surrounding world began to peel and fall away again.

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