bookbashuk Chapter 6 The Reasons for Low Presence: Alien Isotopes
Chapter 6 The Reasons for Low Presence: Alien Isotopes
On the streets of Beifeng Town, Dai Youheng stood still, while the crowd around him flowed past him naturally, ignoring him completely.
The merchant's angry curses seemed to still echo in the air, further highlighting the eeriness of this state of being ignored.
The Snow Empress in his mind remained silent for a moment, then asked with deep curiosity, "Youheng, in your original world, was your presence also so faint?"
She could hardly imagine that a boy with such a strange martial spirit and a calm mind would be a completely ignored shadow in another world.
"No, of course not." Dai Youheng immediately denied it, her tone calm but certain. "In my original world, although I wasn't exactly a dazzling, high-profile figure, I was just an ordinary member of the masses. I could talk to people, I was remembered by friends, and I wasn't completely ignored when I walked down the street. It was nothing like it is now."
He looked around at the pedestrians who didn't react to him at all. "I felt like an invisible ghost."
"That's strange then." Xue Di's voice was full of contemplation. "A person's sense of existence is an innate quality of their soul. Even if they travel through worlds, such a drastic change at the level of rules shouldn't occur, unless..."
"Unless, there is another 'me' in this world," Dai Youheng interjected, his eyes gleaming with insight. "My presence hasn't disappeared; rather, it's been entirely concentrated in another person. He and I share the same source of 'existence,' with one's presence waxing and waning. So his presence might be exceptionally strong, while mine is almost nonexistent. In some theories I've read, this situation might be called an alien isotope."
"Alien isotope." Xue Di chewed on this unfamiliar yet precise term. "Although they are different forms, they are like one person, of the same personality, sharing existence and destiny. It does sound like it fits your current situation. But is the other you also a soul from another world? If there is already a visitor from another world in this world, what is the purpose of the strange hand that sent you here behind the Scar of Heaven? Is it just to make you two alien isotopes kill each other?"
Xue Di considered a cruel possibility.
According to her understanding, this state of sharing everything is extremely unstable and often cannot coexist for long.
Ultimately, it is very likely that only one of them will survive, devour the other, and thus become a complete entity.
"Fratricide?" Dai Youheng's lips curled into a cold, playful smile. "Heh, maybe that's really the case. Perhaps the guy who sent me here thought the first 'me' was too useless, wasting my talent and martial spirit as a transmigrator, so he threw me over here to replace her?"
His tone carried an almost cold indifference, as if he were discussing a tool that had nothing to do with him.
"So what are you planning to do next?" Xue Di asked curiously. She found that this newborn Dai Youheng's way of thinking and behaving was completely different from any other living being she knew.
Dai Youheng did not answer immediately. He closed his eyes, seemingly sensing something silently. A faint yet incredibly clear sense of attraction came from the distant south, like a resonance deep within his blood.
"He's... in that direction." Dai Youheng opened his eyes, gazing towards the Star Luo Empire, his gaze deep. "But no rush. It's rare to have such a low profile; wouldn't it be a waste not to take advantage of this divinely bestowed opportunity?"
In the following days in Beifeng Town, a series of bizarre yet unnoticed thefts occurred.
The town's wealthy merchant had just taken out a thick stack of gold soul coins from the money exchange, stuffed them into his pocket, and was humming a little tune on his way home. But when he bent down to tie his shoelaces, he reached into his pocket again and found that the coins had vanished, as if they had never existed.
The jewelry shop owner was showing off the new jade bracelet her husband had bought her during the day, but when she was about to take it off and put it away at night, she found that her wrist was bare and she couldn't remember when or where she had lost the bracelet.
Several thugs had just finished collecting "protection money" and were huddled together, proudly counting the copper and silver soul coins in their money bags. But a gust of wind blew by, and their money bags vanished at the same time. Terrified, they thought they had encountered a ghost and ran away in a panic.
In contrast to the losses suffered by the wealthy, the impoverished families struggling to make ends meet in the shantytown at the western end of the town were blessed with a series of unexpected windfalls.
An old man, bedridden, woke up in the morning to find a small bag of silver soul coins beside his pillow, just enough for him to call a doctor to get medicine.
The little girl, who lost both her parents and was raising her younger siblings alone, discovered that someone had placed several shiny gold soul coins at the bottom of the rice jar when it was almost empty.
Even the cheap porridge shop at the edge of town, which was about to close down, had an anonymous large bag placed at the door when it opened one day. The bag was filled with enough food for half a month.
The entire town of Northwind was shrouded in rumors of "haunting" or "romantic thieves," but no matter how furiously the rich investigated or how secretly grateful the poor were, no one could find the mysterious "invisible thief."
Because no one noticed that a boy with almost zero presence had calmly walked past them and accomplished all of this.
In fact, Dai Youheng was not a compassionate and benevolent person. His motives for doing these "Robin Hood" things were quite complex.
Part of it is to satisfy a certain childish yearning and vanity for the image of "heroic thieves" that I read in novels in my previous life; the other part is more like a condescending and casual act of charity.
He seemed to enjoy the thrill of secretly manipulating the fate of others without anyone knowing, which was in line with the evil nature of his martial soul, which was like that of a "heavenly demon".
This may be the two sides of Dai Youheng's personality: one side is the "evil" of being indifferent, selfish, and willing to do anything to achieve his goals; the other side is the "hypocrisy" mixed with vanity and manipulation.
A few days later, Dai Youheng left Beifeng Town and headed towards the heart of the Star Luo Empire, following the direction he sensed. Along the way, he continued to take advantage of his low profile, traversing states and prefectures as if they were empty, and casually "collecting" a considerable amount of funds.
When they finally arrived in a bustling metropolis after traveling thousands of miles, Dai Youheng tallied up his spoils. The cash and various gold soul coin cards alone totaled nearly a million gold soul coins! And this didn't even include the wealth already stored in the storage ring he'd obtained from a level nine soul master.
He found a large bank and verified the special gold soul coin card from the Sun Moon Empire. When he sensed the astonishing balance on the card, even he was slightly moved.
"Nine million, this guy is really rolling in money," Dai Youheng muttered to himself. The savings of a level nine Soul Master are indeed extraordinary.
The Snow Empress in his mind couldn't help but ask again, "Youheng, your funds are already so vast, more than an ordinary Soul Master could earn in several lifetimes. Why do you still continue doing those things?"
She was referring to Dai Youheng's continued practice of "robbing the rich to help the poor" along the way.
"No one ever thinks they have too much money." Dai Youheng's answer was simple and direct. "In this world, money can be exchanged for many resources, such as soul bones and soul tools. The reason money is valuable is that as long as you have enough money, it can be converted into strength."
He recalled the priceless treasures that appeared in the original work: the Golden Earth Dragon Soul Bone, the Soul-Devouring Blade, various level eight and nine soul tools, and even the Snow Emperor's embryo that should have been auctioned off... All of these things were clearly priced, and the prices were astonishingly high.
To quickly become stronger, simply burying oneself in hard work is far from enough. He needs resources, massive amounts of resources! And money is the most direct key to acquiring resources.
During this time, under the guidance of the Snow Empress, he began to cultivate the soul power of this body anew. The Demon Core Martial Soul perfectly complemented his soul, and with the feedback from the 700,000-year soul ring, his cultivation speed indeed far surpassed that of ordinary people.
It's like progressing by leaps and bounds in a day. But even so, according to the normal path, it's a pipe dream to cultivate to the Title Douluo level without twenty or thirty years of painstaking effort.
Looking at Tang San, Huo Yuhao, and others in the original work, which one of them didn't achieve a title in their early twenties?
Their talent is certainly important, but even more important is the continuous stream of enviable "opportunities," especially for Huo Yuhao, who, to put it bluntly, has all sorts of "cheat codes."
Dai Youheng's eyes sharpened, for he too needed those opportunities to give himself a competitive edge. And he would use every means to obtain them.
His gaze returned to the south, towards the direction of the alien isomorph. Devouring the other to complete himself might be one of the greatest and most unmissable opportunities.
His journey is destined to be anything but peaceful. His low profile is his best disguise, while the Heavenly Demon Pill that defies fate and his cold heart that will stop at nothing to achieve his goals will be his sharpest weapons.