Chapter 47: About Death (3)

Chapter 47: About Death (3)

I traveled the world collecting various types of human souls.

Well, saying it like this makes me sound like a dark wizard who uses souls as offerings for something.

But still, I gathered them through moderate means, by putting in the legwork! The easiest way would have been to collect them by killing humans! But I didn't want to do that!

I continued to search for and gradually gather the souls of those who had met death in various parts of the world.

I collected souls from the bodies of young people who died suddenly in accidents without even knowing how they died, from criminals who were executed for their crimes, from old people who died of old age after living a long life... and although I was reluctant, even from stillborn babies who died before they were born.

After traveling around the world and collecting the souls of the dead, I was able to learn about the structure of souls to some extent through investigation and research.

It might be a bit of a boring story, but I guess I should explain the nature of souls.

First, although souls appear to be a single entity, their internal structure revealed upon closer inspection consists of two opposing parts intertwined.

Like the Yin and Yang ☯, where each part consumes and merges with the other to form a whole?

One side is bright, light, and warm, while the other is dark, heavy, and cold. These two completely opposite qualities are tangled together to form a soul.

First, the bright part. This is the part I arbitrarily named the soul 魂 (hún).

This part was related to the innate nature of humans.

It was formed from a combination of innate personality, tendencies, and elements inherited from parents, and had a tendency to fly to the sky because it was basically warm and light.

Next, the dark part. This is the part I named the spirit 魄 (Pò).

This part was related to the personality formed after a human is born.

It was related to the personality completed through various memories and experiences created during the growth process, and had a tendency to sink to the ground and scatter because it was basically cold and heavy.

Thus, the innate nature and the personality formed after birth intertwined to complete a human soul.

If you ask how I knew about these two... I could say it was a fact I learned by examining various souls.

First, sample A. The soul of an old man who died satisfied after living a long life.

The soul of a human who survived for an incredibly long time compared to the average lifespan of humans in this era was significantly larger than other souls. Roughly the size of two of my fists when I transformed into a human. Moreover, the soul of someone who lived for over 80 years had an abnormal ratio.

If we consider the entire soul as 10, the ratio of soul and spirit in the old man's soul was about 2:8. A completely unbalanced form of soul.

Nonetheless, the old man's soul showed no significant abnormalities.

Next is sample B. The soul of a stillborn baby who couldn't even be born. Its size was very small, not even half the size of my fist.

The ratio of this sad soul was about 9.9:0.1.

Meaning, it was almost entirely soul.

A sad soul that remembered nothing but what it heard in its mother's womb.

Therefore, the spirit was not properly formed. How pitiful....

As for the other samples... In the case of a death row inmate, the ratio was 4:6, for a young person who died in an accident, it was 5:5, and most souls seemed to balance out to a ratio of 5:5 around the age of 20.

After separating the soul and spirit from the dead soul, scatter the spirit, and the soul... should I send it to the sky?

More importantly, where does the soul that flew to the sky go? The spirit scatters and disappears, but the soul that flew to the sky? Since the existence of souls, numerous intelligent beings must have died? Where did all those souls go?

Well, if I don't know where they went, I should track them.

I attached a faint thread of magic to the soul of the death row inmate and slowly floated it into the sky. Then, the soul gradually ascended into the sky.

The presence of the soul was so faint that it would be difficult to notice without paying attention, even for me. At least I could definitely know its location because I had attached a thread of magic.

Thus, I followed the soul that had risen into the sky and flew up, and only after reaching quite a high place could I see where the soul was headed.

Above the sky, a large number of souls were gathered so densely that it resembled a cloud.

The gathered souls varied in size, but for some reason, souls significantly larger than others split in half and divided into two, maintaining a similar size to other souls. Hmm. Do souls have a property to maintain a certain size? I'm not sure.

But looking closely at the gathered souls, there's something somewhat creepy about it. Watching these faint, round things gathered in large numbers..., I get the feeling that something is bound to happen if so many souls gather like this.

In the meantime, some of the souls floating in the sky fall to the ground. Souls so faint they're almost imperceptible pour down like raindrops, and I follow them down to the ground.

As if being drawn by something, the soul that fell from the sky drops onto a small cabin and seeps into it. It seemed as if something was pulling the soul in.

And inside that cabin... humans, to a fetus?

I flew back up to where the souls were gathering.

Hmm... It seems that there is some circulation of souls after all. Although a considerable amount has already gathered, it's still better than having no circulation at all.

Wait, if souls gather like this... what about the spirits? The spirits scattered on the ground? Do they just disappear? Or...

Do they seep into the ground... and go down...?

I had a very ominous feeling. How long has it been since souls started to appear? If so many souls have gathered, what about the spirits? The spirits scattered and seeped into the ground??

If the spirits, which turn black just by being exposed to negative emotions, and transform souls into evil spirits, seep into the ground in large numbers...?

If something triggers the spirits filled in the ground to develop soot? Then...

And most importantly, the ground is... a likely place where that child ran off to...

Not good. Yeah, not good. I feel like something big will happen if we don't hurry.

Indeed, souls require thorough management. If left alone, who knows what problems might arise!

But wait. If souls gather like this, and spirits scatter like that... what about those who died before souls existed?

Do their souls not exist? Or have they disappeared? What happened?

And... what about me? Does my soul exist within me?

Many questions arose... but for now, let's bury them...

I got the feeling that it's not good to think too deeply about it...