CH 19

The familiar academy environment made Rode breathe a sigh of relief. Although he had only been in the academy for three days, he felt like he was already used to it. Perhaps it was because he had spent most of his life in similar environments in the past few decades, and although Kimberly Academy was completely different from them, its essence had not changed. As long as he accepted its peculiarities, he could quickly adapt.

Rode ran back to his dormitory, and since it was still class time, there were not many people in the entire dormitory building. He quickly passed through the empty common lounge and climbed up the hallway on the side of the third building of the tenth department. His dormitory was on the third floor, and all the dormitories in the tenth group were on this floor, so Kassan could bring the entire tenth group of people to knock on his door every time.

Rode opened the repaired door and jumped directly onto the bed, interlocking his thumbs and forming a lightning symbol. The next moment, his spirit appeared to be in a trance, his vision became blurry, and his soul felt as if it was rising into the air. When his vision recovered, he was surrounded by a faint mist, and in front of him was a three-meter-high blue obelisk, with a black altar behind it.

This was Rode's fourth time in the dreamland, and he was still amazed by its mystery and strangeness. But he was more anxious to verify his guess.

Rode ran to the stone tablet, but he did not see the soul fire in the same position as last time. He touched all four sides of the obelisk in turn, but there was no difference.

"No way? Did I guess wrong?"

Rode scratched his head, but then he saw the black altar and ran over with a try-it-out attitude. Sure enough, on the large hand that opened in the center of the altar, Rode saw six clusters of flames floating in mid-air. Five of them were very small, and when Rode focused his attention on them, their information appeared in his mind.

[Dusty souls]

There was a small line of text below it.

[Part of the soul from the grudge ghost of the Dead River]

This part of the text was in the common language and accompanied by his own voice, making it very easy to recognize. These five flames were exactly the same, and there was no difference in appearance. They were all black dots entwined in thin, pale flames.

Rode suddenly understood. These were the five balloons that he had previously exploded, the "dead soul spirits" mentioned by Lauren's mouth. Devouring souls was indeed true. Rode didn't know whether to be excited or worried, and he turned his gaze to the other cluster of flames.

[The contaminated soul of Sotiel Red]

The line below it read [Part of the soul with characteristics from Sotiel Red].

Sure enough!

Rode clenched his fists. His soul was here. His name was not Bas, but Sotiel Red. If he could dig out the secrets in his soul, all the broken clues could be connected, and perhaps he could find the real culprit or scapegoat. Rode was excited. However, he soon found out that he didn't know how to interpret this soul. He tried to touch it, but his fingers went straight through it. He tried to talk to it, but there was no response. This soul was like a phantom, and there was no way to interact with it. Rode tried every method he could think of, and finally found only one useful method, which was to stare at it and listen to it. Then, he heard a very small voice.

Theft is never good, try looking at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

"Baker Street 17...""Alexis..."

The words echoed in the depths of Sotir Red's soul, like a melody that composed his soul, endlessly repeating.

Rode only obtained these two pieces of information.

It was a bit disappointing, but at least it was better than getting nothing.

Rode tried to listen to the other five souls, but all he heard were crazy noise and chaotic screams.

He immediately withdrew from this state. Although he only listened for a few seconds, he felt extremely dizzy and nauseous.

"Damn!"

Rode angrily uttered the name of a plant.

The voice of the soul really couldn't be listened to casually. This world was so strange, what if he heard something he shouldn't have heard? Being enchanted by demonic sounds was not impossible.

He must be careful and cautious, Rode told himself in his mind.

He looked at the six souls in front of him and began to think about his next move.

He didn't plan to share this information for the time being. Firstly, it was difficult to explain the source of the intelligence, and secondly, it was best not to rashly push the case forward in the situation of unclear circumstances.

Although he believed he wasn't, the truth wouldn't change just because he believed it or not.

If the situation allowed, it would be better to go and see for himself first, and then decide on the next step of action, but he must be careful not to deepen the suspicion.

With his thoughts settled, Rode glanced at the obelisk and thought, "It seems that this is all the information I can get from the souls. I can try to see if these souls can really ignite the dots on the obelisk... If I can gain a little more power, it shouldn't be a bad thing."

With that in mind, Rode jumped off the altar and came to the obelisk.

He reached out and touched the surface of the monument. The deep starry sky appeared again, and countless dim dots appeared on the black background, sometimes visible and sometimes not.

The "Dark Devourer" in the center still emitted a dark red light, like a sinister eye.

It looked no different from before.

However, when Rode focused his attention, he instantly sensed the existence of the altar, and his spirit seemed to be connected to it. There seemed to be something jumping in his mind.

Rode had a feeling that he could put the souls on the altar into any of the dots in the starry sky at any time.

But when he tried to select the dark red dot as the target, there was a clear prohibition in his mind.

"Uh... this dot won't work. The Dark Devourer has already added it once. Maybe each dot can only be added once."

Rode shifted his gaze to those flickering dots and found that when he focused his sight on them, they turned into black holes.

"Does this mean I have to fill these black holes?" Rode chose a pleasing one from the countless dots. It was located above and to the right of the "Dark Devourer," and was relatively close.

When he didn't look at it directly, it emitted a faint blue light, and the starlight was light and transparent, making it look like a phantom in the deep night sky background. If he didn't pay attention, he would lose sight of it, giving the impression that it was just an illusion.

But when Rode focused his attention on it, it turned into a black hole with a clear boundary, separated from the black background.

With a thought, the flames of the six souls rose from the black altar and flew into the obelisk.In the next instant, the six flames of the souls appeared in the starry sky and followed Rode's gaze, plunging into the black hole like shooting stars. However, the black hole was not ignited, and these six tiny flames only occupied a small part of it. The majority of the black hole was still black.

"Not enough," Rode thought. "I need more souls."

What should he do? Where could he get them?

Rode didn't think it through, and just as he was about to continue pondering, he suddenly felt a tightness beneath him. Then, his vision blurred, and he felt the familiar sensation of falling.

Oh no!

He knew someone had disturbed him from outside and pulled him out of his dream.

Sure enough, when his vision cleared, Rode saw Kassan's lake-blue eyes and her golden hair cascading down her forehead.

"You're finally awake?" she snorted, straightening up and moving her face away from his.

"You slept like the dead."

Rode quickly put away his gestures. Fortunately, he was covered by a blanket, or with these cult-like symbols, his suspicion would deepen.

Looking up, he saw several senior students standing behind her, one of whom had a red armband and stepped forward, saying, "Rode, we're from the administration office. We need you to come with us."

Rode was taken aback. Was he being expelled? "What's going on? Is there something wrong?"

The student with the red armband smiled kindly and said, "Don't worry, it's just a test. We're a bit short on time, so let's talk on the way."

Rode glanced at Kassan, who misunderstood his gaze and lifted her head arrogantly, saying, "Don't worry, it's not a bad thing."

"No," Rode said. "I meant, how did you get in?"

Kassan smiled slightly, and a hint of cunning flashed in her shallow blue eyes.

"I have a key."

"Where did you get it?"

"When the door was being repaired, I made a copy. Don't try to lock me out in the future."

This ambiguous statement caused a lot of misunderstanding.

On the way to the administration office, a senior sighed softly and said, "Young people these days really know how to play."

His tone was full of envy.

"Maybe we'll see a new student taking maternity leave soon."