The Highest Bounty

Chapter 196: Gu Ding Who Advanced Again

Everyone had a door in the deepest part of their soul space. On the other side of the door was the hiding place of their soul.

Kratos soon found the door where Gu Ding’s soul was hiding. No, to be exact, he saw not one door, but three.

Standing before three very different doors, Kratos wondered. “This boy has three souls? He has three personalities? Or are there two other host bodies that are symbiotic in his body?

The three doors were quite different in appearance.

The door on the left was a magnificent golden door. The engraving on the door was of a gigantic crouching dragon with eyes made of two emerald stones. He looked as majestic as a real living creature. On the door frames were all kinds of strange birds and beasts, which even Kratos, who had lived for more than eight thousand years could not recognize. He guessed that the design consisted of some extinct ancient creatures, which was why he had never seen them.

The one in the middle was a simple wooden door. It was so simple it did not even have a pattern. On the edge of the door frame grew fragrant green grass and small white flowers. Kratos’ mood was lifted as he smelled the fragrant scent.

As for the door on the right, it was built entirely with black metal and released a chill in the air. The door was carved with strange characters, big and small, square and round, that were arranged at different angles. The patterns on the door frame were like countless tiny chains, or like a strange otherworldly ciphertext, giving off a strange vibe.

Kratos hesitated for a while. What he wanted to enter was actually the right door, because it gave him a sense of mystery, and he really wanted to know what was behind the door. However, his instinct for danger warned him not to open the door as he might die. Kratos, who had this feeling, thought it absurd that the master of this body was only an ordinary man, and that the soul, no matter how powerful, was not on the same level as his.

As he thought of this, he reached out his hand and decided to push open the black door. His fingers were about to touch it when a sudden thrill of terror came over him, and he knew very well that it was death approaching. He had a near-death experience once, and he got the same feeling. It was like an invisible sickle on his neck, which would cut off his head if he made one mistake.

He hastily withdrew his hand and took a step backward. His body shuddered involuntarily, and his eyes darted warily toward the door. “This feels so evil…”

Withdrawing his gaze, he glanced at the small wooden door next to it. “Let’s just see this one first.”

Touching the wooden door, Kratos pushed it open with little effort and stepped in.

Kratos squinted his eyes slightly in the glare of the sun. Everywhere in the soul space had been dark, and the sudden glare made him a little uncomfortable.

His eyes soon adjusted to the change of light. Underneath a clear blue sky, he stood on a green meadow. The wind was blowing gently, bringing a fresh smell of earth.

A boy with short black hair was sitting on the grass. To his left, a little black dog was lying there, chewing who knows what.

“That’s strange, why are there two self-aware soul bodies in soul space? Moreover, there’s one in non-human form. Is the dog a symbiotic?” Kratos was even more confused.

Under normal circumstances, there would only be one conscious soul body in everyone’s soul space, and only this soul can dominate the body. However, there were not only three doors in Gu Ding’s soul space, but two conscious soul bodies in one of them, which was a little confusing.

However, after living for so many years, Kratos also knew that there were generally only three scenarios in which a self-aware soul in non-human form could exist within a human body. One was when the soul body’s original body was a god item. After the god item acknowledged a master, the weapon spirit would reside in its master’s soul space. In the second case, the soul body was a soul host body, which for some reason had lost its own original body and had to reside in the human body. In the other case, the two were symbionts, and the non-human soul body was born with them.

Sensing Kratos’s arrival, the boy waved at him. “Hey, come and sit!”

Kratos was stunned for a moment. He thought he entered the wrong door, yet he still walked toward the boy.

“People don’t come to my place very often. You’re the fifth.” The boy greeted with great enthusiasm.

“The fifth? Have you ever seen a boy with dark brown hair and blue eyes?” Kratos described what Gu Ding looked like in disguise, which he had not realized was a disguise.

“No.” The boy stroked the little black dog’s head.

“Have you seen the men in the other two doors?” Kratos asked.

“Yes, Blackie is the pet of the neighbor on the right.” The boy nodded.

Kratos looked at the little black dog, who was the size of his palm. He was gnawing at a black chain. Kratos did not think too much of it as inanimate matter could be conjured up in soul space. It was not strange to throw a toy like that to a puppy.

‘It’s quite possible that the kid was the dominant figure of this body. He was about the same height and features. The difference in appearance was probably due to the disguise. Let’s kill him first and see if I can take control of the body. If not, I’ll go to the other two doors and see,’ thought Kratos. Kratos soon had an idea. His eyes fell on the boy with some bad intentions, and the murderous look disappeared.

Just then, the little black dog picked up the chain and swallowed it. Then it stood up and gave Kratos a low growl. It seemed to sense his murderous intent.

At this point, no one noticed that the scaffold in Gu Ding’s soul space was slowly changing as Blackie swallowed the chain.

“What’s the matter, Blackie? The puppy’s reaction raised questions from the boy.

Just then, Kratos moved. With a flash of his figure, his huge fist swung directly at the boy’s head. With his soul strength, an attack of this magnitude would blow the boy’s soul to pieces.

All of a sudden, Kratos saw nothing but darkness in front of his eyes–his target had disappeared. There was a flash of darkness and he felt pain in his wrist. He fixed his eyes on it to find that it was a giant dog that was nearly one-meter tall biting his wrist with sharp teeth. As the giant dog pulled back with a single blow, Kratos looked down to see that it had bitten a chunk off his soul body’s wrist. Looking around, he found himself in a dark, spherical enclosure, surrounded by two dozen giant dogs.

He knew it was a bad sign when the second dog rushed toward Kratos, pinning him to the ground and biting him mercilessly in the throat. The pack of dogs then gathered around Kratos, and within ten seconds, this fragment of Kratos’s soul’s split-body was torn to pieces by its sharp teeth. It was not until just before he lost consciousness that he realized the chain the puppy had swallowed was the weapon spirit he was after.

“Why did the uncle suddenly disappear?” The boy touched Blackie’s head to pacify it. He then turned his head only to find that the uncle he was chatting with had suddenly disappeared.

Outside Gu Ding’s soul space, without the support of the soul energy, Kratos’s will projection instantly collapsed, turning into tiny energy dust particles. The energy dust seemed to be attracted by something inside Gu Ding too and rushed desperately into Gu Ding’s body.

Neptune sensed that the black virus in Gu Ding’s body was frantically absorbing the energy dust floating in the air, this time the absorption lasted more than half an hour.

Once it finished absorbing, the black virus once again disappeared, and Gu Ding had a new gene chain that quickly clumped together. The original double spiral structure had successfully constructed a triple spiral structure under the change. This structure also meant that Gu Ding had become a Rank-6 Gene Body.

His cells were rapidly undergoing mitosis and evolution, and there were also other changes in the gene chain. The one that attracted him the most was the one in black. The black gene chain changed color when Gu Ding gained taboo energy. Now, the change in form meant that Gu Ding’s taboo energy should have evolved.

As the black gene chain changed, so did a tiny new gene chain.

“It’s strange that in one evolution, not only did his taboo energy evolve, but he also got a new ability…” Neptune had always known that Gu Ding’s composition was unique, but he was still a little surprised. He silently waited for Gu Ding’s gene chain to finish changing.

More than half an hour later, the gene chain finally finished changing. Gu Ding’s cell strength also stabilized, and Neptune once again checked Gu Ding’s body data.

Name: Gu Ding

Gender: Male

Age: 15

Gene Level: Rank-6

Special Ability 1: Level 3 Rage Attack (Evolvable)

Ability Description: Attack power, defense power, speed, and regeneration are all quadrupled continuously for ten minutes.

Side Effects: Ten hours into Prostration, combat effectiveness is halved.

Special Ability 2: Level 1 High-Speed Regeneration (Evolvable)

Ability Description: The cells’ regenerative ability was increased tenfold (Permanently).

Special Abilities 3: Level 3 Damage Stacking (Curse Stream ability) (Evolvable)

Ability Description: This spell could cause a curse effect on the target whereby damage has the ability to stack. The second blow will be stacked onto the first blow, while the third blow will be stacked onto the first and second blow.

Special Ability 4: Absolute Seal (Level 2 taboo energy) (Evolvable)

Ability Description: An absolute seal effect can be placed on any living body via the sense of touch. It can seal all energies of the opponent, including primary power, special ability, cell energy, spirit, and any other form of energy.

Ability Limitation 1: Seal duration: twenty hours.

Ability Limitation 2: Each use must be more than twenty days apart.

Ability Limitation 3: Not effective for non-living entities

Ability Limitation 4: Only can be placed on a single body.

Special Ability 5: Level 2 Advanced Iron Block (Evolvable)

Description: Makes the skin, muscles, internal organs, and bones of the body as solid as iron. Increases defense by twenty times and applies a 20% reverse shock effect to incoming attacks.

Ability Limitation: Use for up to an hour at a time. Defense power is reduced to a third of its original level when the effect is over.

Special Ability 6: Rank-1 martial arts field (Evolvable)

Ability Description: Suppress the opponent’s strength and speed by 50% and doubles his own strength and speed.

Ability Limitation 1: The force field’s radius is ten meters, anything beyond the force field’s radius will be unaffected.

Ability Limitation 2: Can only use for half an hour at a time

Ability Limitation 3: Can only use once every three days

Cell Index: 80000

Spirituality Index: 79000