Chapter 1749: Whispers and Murmurs, Guardian of the Soul

Originally, Xia Duo had wanted to chat with Iolum about the progress of his research on War Spells, but unexpectedly, whispers suddenly appeared in his ears; the sound was sometimes distant and sometimes near, ethereal and long-drawn.

"Teacher, did you hear any sound?"

"Sound?" Iolum looked around in confusion. "No, what did you hear?"

"Nothing. Perhaps I've been thinking about this matter too much lately and had an illusion."

Although he said this, Xia Duo knew very well that an illusion could not possibly be an illusion; tracing his memory could confirm this. And if it were an illusion spell, who could deceive him right in front of two Great Arcanists?

It was just that this sound came too suspiciously, leaving Xia Duo with no heart to stay here and continue the conversation. Afterwards, he used the excuse of not wanting to affect his teacher's work to leave the Study.

……

Arcane Union, in the 5th-Level Member's private Laboratory.

After leaving Iolum's Study, Xia Duo immediately came here, closed the door, set up various Protection Magic, and then began to check the specific source of those whispers.

First, he set up a Soundproof Barrier in the center of the Laboratory. The result was as expected: neither a one-way nor a two-way Soundproof Barrier could block the sound.

Subsequently, Xia Duo created an anti-magic field around his body, completely "freezing" the Magic Net into a dead zone, but—

That slightly rhythmic, ethereal whispering still existed. This was enough to prove that this sound was not some unknown spell effect; if it were a spell, it would inevitably be unable to act upon him once the Magic Net was lost.

After a simple test, Xia Duo had to suspect that the problem might lie with himself. Perhaps he really had been thinking too much these past few days and had developed an illusion.

But after tracing his memory, the sound had truly and undeniably fallen into his memory; it could not be explained away by a simple "illusion."

Illusions can indeed exist in memory, but they are mostly information processed by the subconscious. Yet now, the whispering sound in the memory Xia Duo traced was closer to sensory information.

Similar to seeing, hearing, or smelling, it was a concrete and real piece of information.

Thus, Xia Duo began to examine the sources of his senses. What he could roughly trace were "eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind," which belong to the basic sensory functions of the human body.

But the whispering did not belong to any of these.

"Could it be—"

Xia Duo naturally thought of the Soul. The Soul naturally has perception as well, but he could not yet perceive the Soul at will, let alone accurately obtain Soul perception.

It only appeared in the form of a "flash of inspiration."

However, before entering a state of high concentration, Xia Duo decided to patiently listen to what the whispers were actually saying. Having encountered such a situation for the first time, his state of mind was inevitably a bit flustered.

He had only been focused on finding the source behind the sound, ignoring the information the sound itself conveyed.

"Listen, then—"

Xia Duo took a deep breath, quickly calmed his mood, and focused his attention on the whispering sound that was sometimes distant and sometimes near. Initially, the sound was very ethereal, but as Xia Duo calmed down and listened carefully, the sound became clearer bit by bit.

The distance was no longer erratic but had a relatively fixed range. It was just that the specific content of the sound was still like being separated by a layer of frosted glass; no matter how hard Xia Duo tried, it was difficult to distinguish.

After several attempts, Xia Duo discovered that the clarity of the sound was positively correlated with the degree of concentration he had while listening; the higher the concentration, the clearer it was.

But even in its clearest state, it was difficult for him to distinguish the specific content, as if this sound were merely a string of rising and falling tones, rather than some more specific, more vivid biological language he was familiar with.

"It seems this result still has to fall back on the Soul!"

Xia Duo felt a bit restless in his heart. Being able to transmit a certain sound to him in a form similar to a "Soul Voice" already explained many problems.

At the very least, Xia Duo had previously thought about using a Communication Magic Tool to launch an information bombardment. The information from a Communication Magic Tool could still be blocked or managed, but how could one block this "Soul Voice"?

At the thought of such a terrifying scenario, Xia Duo couldn't help but shiver.

……

Releasing a recliner from his Personal Space, Xia Duo didn't bother with any "lying posture," simply leaning back onto the recliner and beginning to concentrate.

He soon entered a state of high concentration. In this state, his first-person perspective of perception was the Soul, just as he had expected—

Once he switched his perspective from his physical body to his Soul, the whispering he had heard before immediately became very grand and clear, and the source—

Xia Duo projected his "gaze" into the small space illuminated by the Mysterious Glow around his Soul. The Abyss coordinates fell to the edge of the space like stars, but the coordinates of the Daxia Homeland in the Boundless Wilderness were evolving in real-time in the form of a scene.

That whispering—no, it should be called a calling—was coming from the Daxia Homeland!

"Yalun and the others are in trouble!"

Xia Duo noticed that at the edge of the village in the space, Yalun, Mengte, and others were fighting against a group of hyena-like creatures with the villagers. If it were just a battle, it wouldn't be much.

The key was that those hyena-like creatures could not be killed. Every time they died, they would resurrect after a few seconds. Even if they were cut into several pieces, a few pieces of flesh would proliferate into several relatively complete ones, then resurrect and continue to attack the village.

If it weren't for the fact that Yalun and the others were essentially no longer ordinary humans of the Main Plane, the village would likely have been breached by those hyena-like creatures by now!

At this thought, Xia Duo finally knew why he had heard those calls; wasn't this just the "encountering danger and calling for God-Daddy" type of situation!

It was a pity that he only possessed certain characteristics of a Quasi-God, not a true god, and had no way to descend with real power to help Yalun and the others.

However, not being a god had its advantages; at least he didn't have to bear such a heavy "empty name." At this moment, as the lord recognized by Yalun and the others, he could completely descend in person to help them fight the enemy.

That was what Xia Duo thought, and that was what he did.

……

Bloodline Ability—Soul Transition!

With just a thought, the world around him changed. And when Xia Duo appeared in the village, that group of hyena-like creatures seemed more like sharks that had smelled blood, becoming even more frantic.

In the blink of an eye, another villager was injured. Mengte struggled to block the subsequent attacks of other hyenas, pulled the villager back, and when he turned around, he saw Xia Duo who had appeared in the village. He was stunned for a moment, then shouted loudly:

"The Lord is here! The Lord is here!"

This shout from Mengte almost caused the defensive line, which was barely being maintained, to immediately fall into turmoil, revealing quite a few flaws. Seeing this, Xia Duo couldn't help but complain; this was not the time to be shouting like that!

But complaining aside, Xia Duo's speed in taking action was not slow. Almost instantly, a bowl-shaped Force Barrier inverted over the group of hyena-like creatures, and no matter how frantic they were, they could not break the blockade.