Soul Trigger

Chapter 570 Past Bonds (Part Two)
"That camera captured countless moments of happiness for human spirits, bestowed blessings upon many, and received praise from a great many human spirits. Its spirituality grew stronger and stronger, and my mind was revived as a result."

Because of the wheel of reincarnation, I, who have no memory, am like a newborn, passively accepting the remaining emotions in those blessings, shaping a completely new, ignorant consciousness.

But more than anything, I accepted the girl's emotions.

She was optimistic and cheerful, a microcosm of an era full of progress and enthusiasm; these emotions seeped into me and shaped me.

Perhaps she wanted to draw Ji Li's attention away from her past and prevent him from prying too much into it, or perhaps she had opened a floodgate of conversation and unconsciously led Ji Li into the deeper emotions of her past:
"Later, the plague spread, and the human spirits became sensitive and fearful. In order to help these human spirits, the girl took me with her. However, the blessing of filming could not drive away the plague, but could only try to let them face death peacefully."

As Felin spoke, the scene on the left changed, inserting the memory she was narrating.

A man wearing a top hat had a dark complexion and a emaciated figure, looking as if he were suffering from a serious illness.

But he wore a smile, as if the sight of a mouse gnawing on flesh with its fingertips was some kind of happiness, which, to onlookers, appeared eerily possessed.
"So 'you' became the object of these people's fear?"

"Yes."

"At first, it was just to help the suffering patients pass away peacefully, but things gradually got out of control. In that small town, 'Filin' became synonymous with the curse, and the human spirits launched an operation to destroy the 'curse' out of fear."

The burned-down photo studio reappeared in Ji Li's sight:
"The flames destroyed that little 'home,' and also consumed the girl's soul and body. In the moment before she died, she transferred her last emotions to me, who was also being burned."

“Hatred?” Ji Li asked.

"No, it was hope. Even at her last moment, she still hoped that I could save the plague."

Perhaps because he had talked too much, Ji Li could sense that Fei Lin was becoming somewhat rambling:
“Those hopes ignited my spirituality, making me truly a unique evil resurrection.”

“I gathered those corpses, infused them with spiritual energy to shape them into new bodies, and driven by the ‘malicious’ spiritual energy that her emotions had transformed into, I wanted to return to that town and save it.”

"During my time as a camera 'film,' I recorded countless moments of happiness for human souls."

A brief pause by a passing traveler, a joyful family portrait, a graduation photo, a wedding ceremony, and... that optimistic girl's boundless hope for the future, because it was an era full of vitality and hope.

"So even as I became an 'evil being,' I still wanted to do the things I had done before, but in the first step of shaping myself, I killed a human spirit."

"I initially thought it was a mistake, but I underestimated the fragility of the human spirit, or what you call 'strength'."

I wanted to photograph those patients, but only to freeze their lives in time and absorb their spirit to make myself stronger.

I wanted to film the entire town, to delay the destruction, but only destroy the city itself.

The story seems different from what I expected... Ji Li pondered, somewhat surprised.

He could hardly imagine the scene where Film, looking like that, shouts "Let me save you" and then takes a picture and the other person is gone.

It was hell.

Are you secretly laughing?

"I'm not that cold-blooded," Ji Li denied.

He has always respected the innocent and vulnerable, because he was once vulnerable himself.

Only then did Felin turn his gaze away:

"In short, I left the town with questions in mind, and no human spirit or awakened being could withstand my gaze and photography."

So I never met anyone like that girl again, or a house like that photo studio. I started... searching for 'kindred spirits'.

Driven by instinct, it sought out the emotions it could have felt before transforming into the malevolent being, like a wild animal's instinct.

"During my long journey, I have become stronger and stronger. No one can stay in the same environment as me. They either suffer from accelerated time and decay quickly, or their time is taken away and they turn into a handful of dust."

As Feilin spoke, memories flowed around him, and a multitude of images flashed before Ji Li's eyes.

He saw Felin wandering through a small European town, carrying a sense of bewilderment and an endless aura of death, the entire town rapidly decaying.

He saw Felin walk through the fields of Black Sun Palace, with ninjas chasing after her, shouting "Eight feet" as time weathered away.

Or it could become a camera, deliberately picked up by someone and left in their home, but unknowingly gradually parasitize it into the dangerous Limbo Hell.

Perhaps due to the failure of the wheel, Felin had no memory of anything before the wheel's rotation. Relying only on the power and instinct of the newly born evil, she vaguely searched for the "small world" before she became an evil.

Later, she returned to Europe, and after yet another failure, she passed by a farmhouse where some children were playing and laughing, wearing pointed hats wrapped in tin foil.

Behind the farmhouse warehouse lay endless wheat fields. In the dim light of night, the wheat fields seemed to be crushed by an unknown force, molded into strange circles as if by magic.

In the very center of that strange circle stood a burly figure.

The body was encased in sophisticated machinery, tall and humming with motors. Azure eyes shrouded Felin, the light seeming to belong to another world.

"At that moment, my soul experienced an unimaginable tremor. I looked at that being and felt a terrifying aura—a 'kind' capable of bearing my existence."

Looking at the incredibly familiar shape in that memory image, Ji Li's eyes froze.

Ascended Odin, the final Omega version, even the scratches on the company logo on his mother's arm are exactly the same as before his ascension.

"Is this the figure from the scene you saw?"

Film's voice echoed in his ears, and Ji Li seemed to wake from a dream:
"Correct."

Da Lei breathed a sigh of relief:

"Even I can easily get lost in my own memories, so you're really lucky..." Because you have to follow that ignorant past life, like following a route, to arrive at this memory, that's why you showed me these things?

Ji Li understood.

That's right, his journey in this world had already begun long before he awoke from the inverted cross.

Thinking of this, his soul trigger trembled uncontrollably; a secret seemed about to be revealed before his eyes, and a multitude of questions were about to be answered.

But Felin said:
"However, this should not be one of your past lives."

Ji Li looked at her, but saw a certain expression on Da Lei's face that he had never seen before.

"Ok?"

Ji Lixin said that the speed and determination with which you denied it confused me.

"He is the first kindred spirit I have ever met. He will not be swayed by my power and is also my guide."

"He taught me about the knowledge of the wheel of reincarnation, and told me about the relationship between evil and human spirits. He was my mentor and a pioneer."

Ji Li blinked, a question forming in his mind.

Although, this is clearly me:
"Then I guess his name is Odin."

Phil smiled:
"Wasn't that the code you gave to the tombstone?"

Ji Li raised an eyebrow:

"Could it be that his name isn't Odin?"

"of course not."

"Then who is he?"

"His name is 'World Tree'."

Ji Li: ?
In the boundless wheat field, Odin's head cracked and popped, his visor splitting and popping up, closing on both sides of his head to reveal a short black ponytail and a weathered human face.

As the alloy chin gleamed in the moonlight, Ji Li was momentarily lost in thought, a flood of memories rushing into his mind:

That's me, fucking.

This is not only me, but also the me in Murphy's Big Picture.

The alloy chin is a trace of early modifications, and the ponytail was left to commemorate his friend Mark. Even with only half of his skull remaining as a prosthetic body, he still remembers how many whiskers are on his lips!
"You seem very excited?"

Ji Li did not reply, but quickly calmed herself down:

"So, what did he take you to do?"

Felin withdrew her gaze:

"Teach me, let me recognize my ignorance and naivety, and guide me on the path to the future."

The Odin in the picture exhibits a power that Ji Li cannot comprehend.

That was the technology of the Murphy's Great Structure, but it was also mixed with spiritual elements, making it unfathomable to him.

"Besides that, where did he go afterward?"

Ji Li desperately wanted an answer, but Fei Lin shook her head:

"Then we'll have to see what memories that stone dragon fragment holds, because it's my past life."

This means that after its incarnation as a camera, film underwent another cycle to become the film we know today.

After countless scenes of film and Odin spending time together, they finally returned to the scene that Ji Li had first seen.

Odin, Philin, and a white figure.

The white figure now took on a real form. He was dressed in white, wearing a white metal mask, a white top hat, and holding a cane.

Compared to Felin, he adopted a much more humble posture in front of Odin, who called himself the "World Tree".

The conversation was indistinct, but Ji Li and Fei Lin heard the other two people call that person by name:
Baron Ludwig.

Feilin suddenly clutched her head, and the memories around her surged like a torrent, instantly engulfing Ji Li.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw the half-solid phantom of the shattered film and the pocket watch with a crack.

He quickly put away the pocket watch, chose to escape into the reflection world of Mirage City, entered Mirage University, and after many twists and turns, returned to the real world, entered the Heart Laboratory, and arrived at the Limbo Legacy Laboratory.

He saw Felin fall to the ground and quickly rushed forward to help her up, lifting her heavy body.
"Hey, are you alright?"

Felin barely opened her eyes and raised her hand to cover the rickety blindfold:

"I'm fine, it's just... I remembered some things..."

Ji Li's eyes lit up with anxiety:
"Oh...where did the World Tree go in the end? What did it do?"

(End of this chapter)