Getting Down to Business

"Alright, I've satisfied your curiosity enough. Give me your soul essence and let's get on with it. This body is still not awake.", the soul dissipated the chair and went into his formless shape.

This was necessary for the refinery process as it required a lot of energy and his soul energy was at its strongest in his formless form.

"Alright", Ren Qian said and raised his index finger.

He did as the soul told him. At first, he could not do it, leaving him slightly frustrated.

He looked exasperatedly at the soul, seeking his opinion.

However, the soul only cast a glance and said, "Try again."

Then on his second try, he was able to conjure a ball of soul energy at his finger tip.

The soul stared wide-eyed in shock and slight trepidation.

The ball was pure white and extremely dense.

He looked at the soul and said uncertainly, "This should be it, right?"

"My soul essence seems to be white. Do you know what that means?", Ren Qian asked innocently.

The soul was silent, awfully silent.

"Ummm…are you still there?", Ren Qian said.

He was surrounded in darkness all over since he was in the dark soul's domain, so he could not 'see' the soul but could only talk to him.

"You…what are you?", the soul said, his fear was evident in his voice.

Ren Qian furrowed his brows slightly as he thought, 'What is going on with the soul?'

'Why does he seem afraid?'

"Ah? Shouldn't you be the one to know?", Ren Qian said innocently.

However, he realized something was not quite right.

"Why? Do you know what I am?"

The soul regained his composure after a long time.

"Ahem. Your soul is extremely pure, there are two possible explanations to this. But, let me start from the beginning. Soul energy, according to its color, tells the kind of power it hold. That fella has golden soul energy, signifying the light power. You should have guessed mine by now. However, white is the rarest kind of soul energy. People who possess this kind of soul energy are coveted by many. No wonder I was so attracted to your soul.", he said, mumbling the last sentence to himself.

Ren Qian turned quiet, pondering why his soul gave out the white ball of energy.

Suddenly, he frowned.

"What is the difference between soul energy and soul essence?", Ren Qian asked.

"Soul essence is basically concentrated soul energy. There's also soul roots. They anchor your soul. You should find them floating in a certain part of your soul that looks like a spring. The more your soul roots, the greater your talent."

The soul created a hollow container out of the darkness and sent it straight towards Ren Qian. Then he said,

"Put it in."

The moment Ren Qian put his soul essence into the container, an extreme urge to consume the essence came over the soul.

However, he controls it and begins the refinery process for the soul merge.

Ren Qian watched in fascination as the quiet dark essence floated beside the soul.

The soul slowly wrapped darkness around the white essence. At first, a violent reaction occurred but the soul continued pressing on and after an unknown amount of time, the white essence had turned into an extremely dense black energy. However, it was different from the darkness.

The soul joined both his essence and the now black essence. Then, he paused and disappeared from where he was, leaving Ren Qian in confusion.

He reappeared moments later with golden essence in his hands.

"I went for that fella's essence", the soul said, seeing Ren Qian's clueless face.

"Only by joining both our essences can the soul merge be successful", he explained, his concentration on the task at hand.

"But you said I didn't belong here. Why do you need my soul essence?", Ren Qian asked.

"I just felt like doing it, so I did. Your soul essence is powerful, it'd be good for this fella", the evil baby said, before bringing his attention to the refinery process.

Finally, the soul merge was complete, and a formless pulsating energy was born.

The soul made a seal on the new ball of energy.

The soul said in exhaustion, "I'm going to sleep for a while. Watch over the soul merge."

Then, it disappeared completely.

Ren Qian looked at the pulsating energy. It had a slightly golden colour. The longer he stared, the more familiar he felt.

'What is this familiar feeling?'

Before his thoughts could venture far, a splitting headache similar to the one he had when he arrived at the dark place.

He blacked out before he could even realize, leaving the pulsating energy to float silently in the dark place, like a human in zombieland.

And so, it happened that the two left a mysterious energy with a half-completed seal, unguarded within the body of a newborn baby.

The energy ball pulsating seemed inactive but upon closer inspection, the black chain-like seal surrounding it was corroding at an incredibly fast rate.

Unfortunately, no one was available to see that.