Cyber Ghosts

Chapter 98 Breaking the Integrity into Pieces
“Why are you guys looking at me?” Zhou Yuan was quietly listening to the two as if they were giving a talk show. When he suddenly saw the two staring at him as though they had agreed upon something, he was shocked and immediately looked down to see what was wrong with him.

“Breaking the integrity? Into pieces!” The two of them said at the same time.

“Breaking the integrity into pieces?” Zhou Yuan didn’t quite understand, but since Hao Ning and Liu Shuai said this at the same time, he somehow felt that it had something to do with him. Then he noticed that Zhang Quan was also frowning and nodding slightly, so he asked, “What do you guys mean?”

“Seems like the one involved cannot see the truth,” Hao Ning laughed. From the moment he and Liu Shuai announced “breaking the integrity into pieces”, Hao Ning knew that he was probably right.

“Zhou Yuan,” Liu Shuai looked at Zhou Yuan. “Do you still remember how you lost your soul?”

“Err …” Zhou Yuan closed his eyes and recalled the scene at the villa. “That afternoon, while I was lying on the bed, Lan Ruo started to take off my clothes, and then her fingertips accidentally touched two points on my chest, making my entire body feel as if it had been electrocuted …”

“What? Is it that erotic? ” Hao Ning perked up his ears and said excitedly. “You’ve never mentioned this part before?”

“Stop, stop…” Liu Shuai sighed and laughed, “I’m not asking you for details. I mean, what Lan Ruo took away at that time was your entire soul, right?”

“Bullshit!” Zhou Yuan rolled his eyes at Liu Shuai. “What else do you think? Would Lan Ruo only take away a part of my soul? ” After saying this, Zhou Yuan was stunned. He turned around and looked at Qili, then looked at the “Soul Imprint” on the wall, swallowed a mouthful of saliva and probingly asked, “You mean, what happened to Qili this time is the same as what Lan Ruo had done to me? However, she took my entire soul, and Qili only lost a part of his.”

“Resourceful!” Liu Shuai nodded.

“Why?” After Liu Shuai confirmed his guess, Zhou Yuan became even more confused, “Why does it have to be so complicated? Why did the other party use some unknown method to cut off his soul?”

“Well, of course, it’s for a bad intent…” Liu Shuai did not seem to ever think about this question. “Isn’t that how it’s played in TV dramas? You’ve seen some people who put a man in a bathtub and cut his kidneys to sell for money, right?”

“Pah-pah-pah!” Hearing Liu Shuai’s words, Hao Ning felt chills run down his spine, “That is a human organ transplant. It is driven by benefits, but is there someone who cuts off others’ souls to sell for money?”

“Yes.” Zhang Quan muttered to himself and suddenly spoke.

“What?” Liu Shuai was shocked, “You mean people can cut off others’ souls to sell for money? Why didn’t you teach me that? ”

“So, Liu Shuai doesn’t know everything either … …” Hao Ning muttered in his heart.

“A master only gives you instructions, not all details.” Zhang Quan shook his head as if he was enlightening someone. “Sometimes the answer is obvious, but you are not thinking the right way. The basis of refining equipment, making array formations or cultivation is all spiritual energy. However, some methods require innate spiritual energy, while others use acquired spiritual energy. When I say acquired, I mean…”

“Acquired in the day after tomorrow!” Qili who was reading a novel interjected excitedly, “I know that!”

“…” Zhang Quan’s good mood for the lecture was completely disrupted. He looked at Qili sullenly, took a deep breath in, and slowly said, “Longfei, take this person to the outer area of the Fu Tu Kang factory for a tour.”

“Oh, OK,” Longfei had probably had enough lectures of the gods, and his ears started to perk up. He was looking out the window at the scenery, and when he heard Zhang Quan’s words, he immediately brought Qili out of the conference room.

“A tour outside the Fu Tu Kang factory?” Liu Shuai was startled, “What’s there to see?”

“Hahaha,” Hao Ning did not expect that Zhang Quan would be so interesting. “He means to get his out of Fu Tu Kang factory and never come in again?”

“This kid is worth teaching …” Zhang Quan smiled, and then said to Liu Shuai sternly, “Don’t bring anyone with abnormal thoughts to my place.”

“You sound as if your brain is normal.” Liu Shuai muttered to himself, but still nodded his head. Then he asked, “What do you mean acquired?”

Without waiting for Zhang Quan’s answer, Hao Ning interrupted and asked, “Do you mean that those people took Zhou Yuan’s and Qili’s souls for some cultivation or refining?”

“Exactly!” Zhang Quan nodded his head, “In the past, there was some demonic path where people would just kill others and draw their souls to cultivate their demonic arts or refine their demonic weapons, but just like what you all heard from Lan Ruo before, in the current Three Realms, the nether world’s management of the souls became more strict. So those people began to wander around the gray area. For example, they may tempt people to offer their souls to them and changing with the spirits of animals, causing the phenomenon of ‘suicide’, and with these souls, they would be able to do many things, such as —”

“Such as making Immortal Tying Ropes!” Hao Ning remembered that at that time in the main hall of Dragon King’s Temple, Lan Ruo was going to use Ye’s soul to make an Immortal Tying Rope.

“That’s right. This way they will have an endless source of souls to use in cultivation!” Liu Shuai’s eyes lit up, “That must be the case!”

“Even so, there’s no explanation for why it would be so complex to cut off a part of a person’s soul while leaving the entire thing unneeded.” Zhou Yuan continued to pursue this question. “It is much more convenient to take out the entire soul, like what Lan Ruo did to me?”

“…” The light in Liu Shuai’s eyes seemed to have been extinguished by Zhou Yuan’s words, as he muttered to himself, “That seems to make some sense …”

“I think,” Hao Ning thought about it, and asked, “Maybe it is because of Yan.”

“Yan?” Liu Shuai looked at Hao Ning.

“Yes,” Hao Ning nodded, “last time, Yan disappeared after we saved Zhou Yuan. If I’m right, then he probably passed through the afterglow of Immortal Granting Ceremony and returned successfully. So, the nether world should already know about the grey hole that someone used to extract another person’s soul and has even begun to investigate this kind of thing. ”

“You mean, because of the nether world’s interference, that simple and brutal soul-taking methods that Lan Ruo used can be used no more?” Liu Shuai realized what Hao Ning wanted to say, “So they used a new method to cut off a part of a person’s soul and replace it.”

“Good move…” Zhang Quan nodded his head, “A random small god, nor even an amateur like Longfei could easily notice the abnormality of the old method, so those will inevitably get exposed after a while. However, it is hard to discover when they only cut a part of souls with such a method.”

“That’s indeed the case,” Zhou Yuan nodded. “When I was at the hospital, I vaguely sensed that something was wrong with Qili, but I was unable to discover anything after studying him for a while.”

“But why?” Hao Ning did not understand what Zhang Quan meant, so he asked doubtfully, “Why is it hard to discover when they cut off a part of a soul and replace it with something else?”

“Ha-ha,” Zhang Quan looked at Hao Ning and said, “you are a biologist. You should tell us.”

“Hehe, this is a question about philosophy and ethics in biomedicine. Listen carefully,” Liu Shuai said in a proud tone as he looked at Hao Ning. “Let me ask you if your heart is broken and I give you heart transplantation, are you still yourself?”

“Nonsense,” Hao Ning said. “Of course, I’m still myself.”

“Then, if all of your organs are broken,” Liu Shuai continued to say as he shook his head like Zhang Quan. “Alternatively, if I changed all of your organs, are you still yourself?”