Chapter 1627 1620: What She Is (2)
"Heaven's unexpected error?"
Both Su Mei and Wei Wuyin were shocked by such a description. Su Mei had never considered herself as of greater relevance or importance to any other cultivator from birth, only establishing a proper distinction after her personal achievements and accolades were made. It was on this basis that she felt remotely special.
Wei Xiaotian glanced all around her as if observing the space, and then she lightly pouted her lips with dissatisfaction and frustration. Unbeknownst to the duo, she had just felt a distinct warning echoing outwards, impacting her soul. She shrugged her shoulders and spun her cane with a twist.
"That's right. There's a name for it, but my cultivation is a little too low to mention. However, Sister Su, you're not so simple as just an error. You're an error that can cultivate.
"I'll start with what I can say and what I'm certain of. As I said before, it's not a great secret, merely an ancient and very obscure one solely due to the lack of proper transmission amongst the world's forces, and without the support of those who observed our world, Oracles and Heavenly Seers are incapable of learning of this secret.
"You're an existence that shouldn't exist. A mortal spawn that doesn't conform to the laws of rebirth and reincarnation, something that exceeds the natural order of samsara and creation. You're a life without a True Soul."
Wei Xiaotian's words flowed with a solemn air.
"A life without a True Soul?"
Wei Wuyin's brows furrowed. Su Mei could cultivate, so her True Soul and soul existed. If not, what was her Spirit of Cultivation created with? What were the soul fluctuations she emitted during cultivation? However, reaching this thought, Wei Wuyin began to understand the error. As one who understood the fundamentals of the world on a greater level than others of his level, including the profound existence of Hell and the Heavenly Daos, he could acknowledge the severity of existing outside of those limitations.
Su Mei's facial expression underwent a slight change, darkening at the implications, but she soon smoothed out her conflicted emotions with remarkable quickness. She was a realist at heart, so accepting her situation was easier than imagined. After all, it's not like she had ways to change the current circumstance.
Seeing both of them take this rather well, Wei Xiaotian was taken aback. This was a gargantuan bomb that erupted yet the two seemed rather adjusted to such knowledge. Instead, they both looked at her as if waiting for her to speak more on the subject with no signs of panic or anxiety.
Unbeknownst to even Wei Xiaotian, when it came to matters of shattering conventions, fighting against forces far beyond imagination, or resisting the status quo, Wei Wuyin had an absurdly high amount of experience. He was a mortal that survived not one, not two, but THREE Calamities of Hell. He was a mortal who dared to observe the Heavenly Daos. He was a mortal who offended the River of Time and faced its rage, living to tell the tale.
He hadn't just accomplished the seemingly impossible, but his very life required him to achieve it to survive. Su Mei being an error was a good sign rather than a bad revelation. This meant there was a basis for her situation, and that information meant significant progress in understanding how to deal with this issue.
For example, he now had a solid theory backed by Wei Xiaotian's given knowledge of Su Mei's predicament and why overcoming a tribulation solved the crisis and challenging a tribulation was met with resistance. It was the only moment that the heavens could act to rectify its mistakes, actively. Perhaps it was the only moment it could verify Su Mei's existence as an error.
'If it's that...then could the tribulation gate for her ascension be destroyed or moved away by that unseen force?'
Wei Wuyin's mind was agile and brimming with ideas, so he quickly came to this potential outcome. Additionally, the Neo-Dawn Mystic-Genesis Pill that he concocted could become ineffective as well for a few reasons.
The Neo-Dawn Mystic Genesis Pill was a cultivation proxy at its fundamental core, so it would bestow Su Mei with Mystic Rune Seeds that she didn't personally refine, so her compatibility wouldn't be maximized. It was possible that her soul or spirit of cultivation could outright reject it if she needed to ascend a specific way.
If Wei Wuyin knew that his educated guesses had firmly hit the nail on future outcomes with an eerie level of accuracy, he wouldn't be surprised at all. As an alchemist who had studied the Soul Pill and gleamed into the Mystic-Heaven stage of the Alchemic Dao, it would be stranger if he hadn't come to this conclusion easily.
Wei Xiaotian felt that the two digested enough, so she added:
"Those born without True Souls does not mean they lack a soul. It's important to understand the distinction. Do I need to go further on that?"
Wei Wuyin and Su Mei were knowledgeable about the differences between souls and True Souls, especially the former. They didn't need any further explanation to know that the soul was a result of one's existence while a True Soul was existence itself. It formed the basis of everything.
When the Impartation of the Heavens was performed, there were two distinctions-Demons and those like Wei Xiaotian, the imperfect and the perfect. Demons had no True Souls; the fact left them as flaws and abhorrent existences that developed strangely, mutating all things they come in contact with. While they had no True Souls, the act of Impartation of the Heavens was the bestowal of a soul, which was completed.
True Souls, however, were recycled under the laws of samsara an incalculable amount of times. They are cleansed in Hell of their karma, any transformations of their framework, and a lifetime of memories before being swept back into the world as an entirely different existence.
Su Mei was born without a True Soul, so her soul had to have formed from something else, not given by the heavens.
Wei Xiaotian began,
"If I could be considered a complete lifeform given life by the heavens' benevolent grace, then Demons and Sister Su could be considered the inverse of each other, both inherently flawed without a True Soul. The core differences between them, the reason why one is considered flawed while the other is considered an error is intent and what their souls manifest from. The heavens tried to create all Demons, and their souls are no different than anyone else's.
"Sister Su, on the other hand, was an unintended mistake. Moreover, it's not without its issues. Think about it, if Demons can infect and distort beings and objects of the world with their existence alone due to their lack of it, and if Sister Su is no different than them, then...what is her presence infecting? What is she distorting? Or better question, what is infecting her?"
"..."
At the end of that sentence, Wei Wuyin and Su Mei's expressions simultaneously darkened. But their reasons were different.
Wei Wuyin was thinking about how Su Mei could achieve the Resonant Soul Realm in the future, his thoughts far and beliefs remained strong and optimistic about that future. It was no different than his own experiences of overcoming each calamity. It wasn't that he didn't consider the implications or didn't take it too seriously, but that he was ready to tackle any challenge with everything he had, so there was no need to have the faintest doubt of failing.
Meanwhile, Su Mei's thoughts and emotions were stormy. An expected reaction. She realized that her soul must have been formed from something else that she likely absorbed.
Wei Xiaotian sighed with a twist of her cane,
"I'm extremely sensitive to matters of the soul and the aura of the heavens. Normally, Sister Su, those like you would have difficulty developing let alone connecting with their souls to forge spirits and embark on the path of cultivation. However, your situation is increasingly odd. Because from what I can tell, you have a True SoulOr at the very least, you have half of one."
Half?
Su Mei was stunned.
Wei Xiaotian nodded,
"But make no mistake-you were born without one. It's why you can cultivate. Not to mention, being what you are is not without its benefits. Your body, brain, meridians, Sea of Consciousness and such are all fundamentally different from others. I believe you might have noticed your abnormal talent. Or even your extremely stellar comprehension of the will of the world.
"During the refinement of your Mystic Seed Runes, especially after, did you struggle to comprehend any of them? If I gave you a test of the Mystic Dao, I'm certain you would surpass 99% of all Mystic Ascendants at the Earthly Saint Phase with ease. Or how you have a Law Seed of Light, Darkness, Yin, and Yang, and that's simply waiting for you to merge them into the Law Seed of Twilight and Yin-Yang, two extraordinarily profound laws.
"This is all the result of your unique dual flawed existence. Also, without a complete True Soul, souls that would have grown from their own experiences would indeed distort things, and fill in that half-gap like a parasite, siphoning the fortune of the heavens themselves for completion. You're on a higher level than I am in that regard.
"Normally, you should have no bodily talent for cultivation without a True Soul but an exceedingly high comprehension due to your body from the heavens to sustain itself and creating a soul. You should never be able to embark on cultivation without external assistance of an incredibly high level, like a Soul-Bound level treasure or a Divinity's aid. Clearly, your half-True Soul hadn't just taken the siphoning aspect that your soul normally would, but it flowed into your bodily talent, a manifestation of your True Soul.
"You should have already noticed that your cultivation speed is just as abnormal as your comprehension."
Wei Xiaotian explained with a tinge of envy in her eyes. If she could be considered a complete existence born from the heavens, then Su Mei had become an extremely tiny heaven herself, with her True Soul, Body, and Soul all having siphoned heaven's fortune.
Moreover, she had a half-True Soul blessing and a lack of a soul, a mind-bolstering blessing, both of which siphoned from the heaven's fortune, the former as an accepted response and a small apology and the latter due to their naturally distorting abilities, furthering Su Mei's abnormality with two different yet synergizing effects.
"Do you know why she has half her True Soul?"
Wei Wuyin thoughtfully asked. As for the matter of Su Mei's abnormal comprehension and talent, he wasn't shocked at all. Su Mei's bodily talent rivaled many aspects of the Stellar-Paragon Physique without any effort, so this wasn't too much of a surprise. Meanwhile, her comprehension talent for things was on par with Spirits of Cultivation.
It was abnormal that Wei Wuyin had given birth to six laws, but in truth, this was mostly the efforts of his Astral Souls cultivation path. At most, he served as an impetus and compass for them to resonate with those laws and grow. While he was still acting as a nourishing rain to grow and nurture them beyond the Minor Authority, they contributed a major part to the Laws' initial creation.
He was a justified abnormality yet Su Mei was an even greater one without any obvious reasons.
Wei Xiaotian shook her head,
"Your guess is probably better than mine. There are ten thousand and one reasons why a True Soul could be missing half or she could be born with half. Those born like that are often genuine heaven-blessed talents, but they similarly aren't errors. Sister Su was born without a soul, so she had to have gained her half-True Soul after birth as well.
"I truly don't know what could have happened. It could be something extraordinary like a Divinity splitting her True Soul and placing a half in her after birth or as mundane as she's a conjoined twin separated post-birth without care for the consequences. Not to say either happened, just in both cases, having a half-True Soul can occur.
"It's just strange that a Non-Enti-"
Wei Xiaotian stopped and went silent.
"..."
Wei Wuyin thought for a long moment and nodded, ignoring Wei Xiaotian's sudden pause. With this information, he felt that he knew the issue itself. This somehow infused him with greater confidence.
"One last thing: Is there a way for her to resist the rejection from the heavens?"
Wei Wuyin asked.
"..."
Su Mei remained silent.
"A way?"
Wei Xiaotian rubbed her fingers across her lips with the light contemplation in her eyes. After nearly fifteen minutes and a series of changing expressions, she replied with:
"There is a way."
"It's both an easy solution and a difficult choice. It depends on what you're willing to sacrifice,"
Wei Xiaotian reasoned with a profound light in her eyes, staring at Wei Wuyin intently.
Su Mei had the urge to say something that would prevent Wei Wuyin from sacrificing anything for her, but her words stopped at her heart. She knew she would fail. Instead, she decided to not be a burden in that way and let him decide. To trust him as she always had, and if she could contribute, then she would give it her all and more.
"What is it?"
Wei Wuyin was interested in hearing this. The concept of needing to sacrifice something was always ludicrous to him, and if he knew the path, there was bound to be a way around it, something he could exploit to his benefit even without a single loss.
This was how he thought.
This was how he acquired the strength to slay an Enlightened Sage as a mere mortal!
Wei Xiaotian could see the extraordinary light of expectation and cunning in Wei Wuyin's eyes. Unfortunately, she didn't understand that her very existence was a result of that light. If not for that mentality...
...she wouldn't exist!
She began to explain,
"You have to..."
[Author's Note: To clarify: Wei Xiaotian = Complete Soul & True Soul blessed with knowledge. Demons = Complete Soul & Absent True Soul that distorts everything they come in contact with. Errors = Born without a True Soul and 'steals' from the heavens to sustain themselves. Su Mei = Soul formed by 'stealing' from the heavens & born w/o True Soul but gained a Half-True Soul AFTER.
Her talents are a result of siphoning heaven's fortune. Just want to make sure we're all on the same page! <3]