"What the f—I just got struck by lightning!"
The moment the white fox opened its mouth, it spoke words that would make anyone do a double-take. Not only because it was speaking human language, but more terrifyingly, it had even mastered the linguistic... essentials.
"Goddammit, which bastard hit me?!"
"Don't let this lady run into you! Striking my soul fragment—what kind of skill is that?! If you've got the guts, come strike my main body!"
While cursing, the white fox absorbed the memories transmitted from its soul fragment, trying to see exactly who had attacked it. She was planning to give them an unforgettable lesson when they met.
Then she saw an existence that virtually no one in China would fail to recognize.
"The Dragon Emperor? Holy shit!"
"How did my soul fragment run into the Dragon Emperor?!"
"No wonder my soul fragment died! Even without my main soul controlling it, I put seventy percent of my power into that fragment! There's no way an ordinary person could kill it—dammit!"
"There are only so many people in China who could take me out, and I just happened to bump into one of them this fast."
"Ahem, forget what I said earlier."
Shaking her head, the white fox's eyes filled with exasperation.
Because of the spiritual energy, many beasts with lower intelligence had gradually awakened. The differences in their innate talents determined the upper limit of their wisdom. Fortunately, her talent was decent, and foxes were naturally clever to begin with. Before long, she had developed reasoning abilities no worse than an ordinary human's.
But even so, that alone couldn't have allowed her to learn human language so quickly—let alone master it to this degree.
That had everything to do with her ability.
Her ability was called Soul Split. As the name suggested, she could separate her own soul. While retaining her primary consciousness, the other consciousnesses would follow commands she set. If no commands were given, they would follow the original body's living habits. She could transfer her primary consciousness into them at any time.
The first time she used it, she got lucky. She happened to enter the body of an unfortunate woman who had been caught in the aftermath of an evacuation during a mutant beast attack.
At the time, although the Spirit Energy Bureau's people had promptly healed the woman's injuries, her consciousness had entered the woman's body at just the right moment. What followed was a struggle for control—something that should have been a fierce battle.
Though she was stronger and had greater mental power, the other party was still human. Humans didn't have particularly strong mental power, but the sheer amount of information stored in their minds was overwhelming. If they really fought it out, it was hard to say who would win.
The result surprised her. The woman didn't resist at all. Instead, she actively merged her soul with hers.
She was confused by this, but since she sensed no danger, she didn't refuse. Besides, even if something went wrong, it wouldn't matter—this wasn't her main consciousness. If it disappeared, she'd just need extra time to recover.
After merging with the woman's soul, she naturally inherited her memories.
That massive flood of memories had left her dazed for quite a while. But she also came to understand why the woman had willingly merged with her.
Ordinary talent. Average looks. Ordinary education—nothing that qualified her for relevant research work.
The world had become so dangerous, yet she still had to go to work every day. It was exhausting.
She wanted to kill herself but was afraid of the pain.
Then, just as her consciousness entered, the woman thought she'd encountered a transmigrator. Not only was she unafraid, she actually hoped this entity would use her body and identity to accomplish something in this world. She willingly merged with her, offering up all of her memories.
Because their minds had combined, she herself no longer knew whether she counted as human or mutant beast.
But one thing was certain: she didn't want the human world to be destroyed.
It wasn't that she had any particular attachment to the species. She was simply... reluctant to let go.
From that human's memories, she had learned about all kinds of food, TV dramas, anime, novels, games, and snacks. As a fox, where would she have ever encountered any of this? Even though those experiences existed in the human's memories, they weren't things she had personally tried. She absolutely had to experience them for herself.
Without hesitation, she took the savings the woman had left behind and went on a spending spree at restaurants, supermarkets, and movie theaters. When she got home, she bought a whole bunch of heroes and skins that the woman had been too frugal to purchase before.
Her verdict could be summed up in two words: Absolutely amazing!
So being human was this much fun?
Precisely because it was too much fun, she had completely forgotten to cultivate in her main body.
Then, drawing on novel plots from the human's memories, she set up passive cultivation commands for her main body. She also split off two more consciousnesses. After they successfully entered two mutant beasts' bodies, she transferred portions of her power to them through the connection between her abilities.
Then she left them with commands: cultivate, seek out natural treasures to consume for self-cultivation, incapacitate enemies when encountering danger, and if the opponent was skilled enough, use the opportunity to hone combat experience.
The mutant rabbit Skyler had encountered was one of her soul fragments. Because its talent was decent, she had deliberately invested about seventy percent of her power into it. She hadn't expected it to die anyway.
As for those humans who had attacked her fragment?
She couldn't care less whether they lived or died.
Though she had merged souls with that woman, it didn't mean she had actually become human. And even humans didn't feel compassion for every living creature.
Humans and mutant creatures were two completely hostile species. She could only live among both because of her ability. Soul fragments were soul fragments. The main soul was the main soul.
Don't go blaming the main soul for what the fragments did, okay?
"It's just a shame about that fragment. I had such high hopes for it."
"Why can't I set a command to automatically transfer all cultivation to the main body when a fragment dies?!"
The white fox rubbed her fluffy little head with her two fuzzy paws.
"Oh well. Starting today, I'll have the fragments transmit their energy once a day."
"After I recover, I'll split off another soul. Then repeat the process—accumulate, grow stronger, reach new heights!"
"But this is going to waste so much time. Absorbing the transmitted spiritual energy requires me to transfer my consciousness to my main body. But I want to play Honor of Kings at night..."
"If this keeps up, will I have less time to play Honor of Kings in the future?"
"Maybe I should just receive all the spiritual energy on weekends instead? How much could one day's worth of spiritual energy be, right?"
Thinking this, the white fox nodded approvingly, mentally giving herself a thumbs-up for her own brilliance.
"Alright, problem solved. Now I should switch bodies. I've gotten used to a human body—these four legs feel weird."
"I'll watch Armor Hero later. Just happened to run into Dragon Emperor Skyler Quinn, after all."
"From now on, I'd better add a command for my fragments to run the moment they see a First Sequence. I don't want to be enjoying myself and suddenly have my consciousness yanked over there. And getting hit by lightning right off the bat?!"
"I almost thought I was done for... wait, something doesn't seem right?"
— End of Chapter —