Above The Sky
Chapter 586 - 586 555 People Shouldn't Die Like This 23

586: Chapter 555 People Shouldn’t Die Like This (2/3) 586: Chapter 555 People Shouldn’t Die Like This (2/3) Gazing at the black ink in his hand, Ian seemingly saw the blackened, coagulated blood overflowing throughout Azure City.

The innocent people who died for no reason.

Those things that disappeared with ease because of the high and mighty, their schemes, their conspiracies, their strategies, their hatred…

—What’s the difference between here and hell?

Filled with unwillingness, regret, remorse, despair, and agony, a wish to destroy everything converged here.

This was a doubt that surfaced in Ian’s mind.

But soon after, he sighed.

—There really is no difference.

“Humans are creatures destined to die.”

As he gazed at the ink, Ian’s hair trembled slightly, taking the shape of a pen tip, and he began writing a report on the Phantasms on a piece of paper nearby: “Many a life doesn’t reach a century, with deaths befalling in myriad odd ways, perhaps due to a fall, perhaps because of a sneeze hitting the head on a cabinet, or possibly just dying without rhyme or reason, suddenly.”

“I know all this; I’ve even seen it.

Uncle Yisala, who lived diagonally across from my house, I clearly warned him not to drink, yet he insisted, and then he drowned in the washbasin.”

“A fisherman from Harrison Port, a man who could swim to the fishing area and back with his eyes closed, drowned in his own basin…

He shouldn’t have died like that.”

As he said this, the young man suddenly paused.

Then, Ian stood up.

He looked towards the street scenes of Azure City outside the window, towards the corpses and the wreckage, and said from the bottom of his heart, “Yes.

Humans are just like that.

This world is just like that.”

Lowering his gaze, he looked at the Phantasm woman restrained before him and revealed a smile that made Hua’an worried, “That’s the reality.”

Ian said lightly, “But I think people shouldn’t die like this.”

“My thoughts clash with reality, so I get angry.

But I know anger is useless, so I seem rather calm…”

“Until the day I’m not angry at all.”

Ian thought so, but he didn’t voice his thoughts.

—Until the day he can truly remain calm, rational, and unangered by everything.

Perhaps that will be when he stands at the ‘summit.’

But he won’t just stay there at the summit.

He’ll transform the highest point of this world.

To transform this world that angers him.

After taking several deep breaths, Ian had completely calmed down.

“There is a very peculiar technique within this Phantasm.

Hmm, the Duke actually mastered the catalysis of Temporary Souls, allowing ordinary people to temporarily possess souls and thus project!

And they remotely control these projections through the souls…

In other words, that group of people might have the souls of these original Phantasms?

At least some control over them.”

“Thus, the original intent behind the Phantom Army might not have been to create an ‘undying army’ but to create souls?

Yet this technology is very unstable.

Without a strong will, it’s impossible to possess the souls that only Spirit Energy Users and Second Energy Level individuals can have; it’s of no use to them.”

He analyzed softly: “Especially since the process of condensing a Temporary Soul can cause a type of madness—this madness is no different from ordinary people going insane, instantly recalling a lifetime of memories would undoubtedly cause insanity.”

Then, Ian meditated, “But the problem is, this event lasts only a few seconds, but due to the ‘Abyss of Silence’ and the Void Realm Mutation, this madness is amplified, spread, magnified, leading to extreme pathological change.”

“Hmm, is it the spreading of Sio’s resentment?”

“Doesn’t seem like it either, no matter how resentful and unwilling Sio was initially, he…

now she, wasn’t she able to run around in chaos, happy as can be, like a big Husky or a big cat…”

Contemplating this, Ian felt something was amiss: “The cause of the mutation, that is the origin of this disaster…

Someone deliberately triggered this calamity!”

“But the question is, what’s the purpose?”

I can’t quite figure out this problem.

I’m still missing some memories, still lacking some clues.

—I’ve got to find them.

Ian thought this way, there must be some clues on this phantom woman.

She was an ordinary person in the true sense, yet the Projection of the Phantasmal Realm was powerful enough to kill a First-Level Sublimator.

This indicated that her temporary soul was incredibly resilient, having not dissipated despite such a length of time.

This was inconsistent with what Ian had gathered from other phantasms—unless they were successful phantasms with consciousness like Viscount Awak, other failed ones had a finite duration.

He turned his head, looking at the phantom woman still under Spirit-Sealing Restraints.

Ian narrowed his eyes.

This phantasm had no duration.

This meant…this woman, this mother’s ‘temporary’ soul…could actually exist persistently.

No, if it could persist, then it meant that it was no longer ‘temporary’—rather, after death, even a Second Energy Level Sublimator could not continue to exist for long, only a Third Energy Level Heart Light Body could persist and even condense into Spirit Energy Artifacts like the ‘Skull of Momentary Insignificance’.

This mother’s soul was very special.

Spirit and body are interconnected, especially for ordinary people like her, the cause of their soul’s uniqueness could only be the body.

Or perhaps due to being in a ‘special environment’,

—I’ve got to find her body…

If the location in my memory is correct, her body should be at the entrance and exit to the southeast.

Having planned in his mind, but on the surface, Ian simply said to Hua’an: “This phantasm is very special.

I see a lot in it…

I think, I’ve found where those hidden researchers of Azure City are actually hiding.”

“Oh?”

Hearing this, Hua’an temporarily set aside her concerns for Ian and asked with interest, “Where?

Where?”

“Underground.”

Ian recalled the various details he had seen in his memories, sighting where the first Exobeasts and madmen appeared—in the underground sewers north of Azure City.

There was evidently a Biological Laboratory there.

“Underground sewers.” Ian stated, and he spoke the truth with peace of mind: “This is the trail I saw with my Spirit Energy, extending into the underground sewers.

Even if it’s not the headquarters, it’s at least a branch.”

“But before that, I still need to observe the surroundings first.”

It was only natural.

At this moment, the Light Bird also appeared in front of Ian.

It had been listening to Ian and Hua’an’s exchange all along.

[The Phantom Army was not originally designed for the army.

An interesting conjecture.]

Michael also pondered on Ian’s speculation: [Indeed, using such technology for weaponization, for combat, indeed poses too many challenges, but if it is seen as some sort of protection plan similar to the Fairy Homeland, it actually makes sense]

He openly admitted his shortcomings: [As people like us, the inclination to weaponize technology is inevitable]

[If we can recover the Legacy, perhaps we need to change our direction of research]

“Your Highness.”

Although Ian agreed with Michael’s view, there was something he still had to say.

Looking at the Light Bird, Ian asked seriously, “What…do you actually plan to do?

Coming to the Avak Domain in disguise, and now we’re close to the laboratory, I’d still like to know your thoughts—it would help me decide my next steps.”

“If you’re willing to tell me,” he said softly.