Whispering Verse

"Of course it is, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have other meanings. The blending of flesh and soul is an extremely profound knowledge in alchemy. You should know that we [Rosicrucian Order] focus on alchemical techniques. I am reading the documents left by the order and When I was looking for information, I saw an alchemist from the Fifth Age commenting on this sentence."

Ms. Hope spoke very slowly, so Shade heard clearly:

"Emotions are a rope that connects two different individuals. Although the emotions themselves are not entities, the soul is not an entity either. A deep enough emotion can form a bond between two souls across space. No matter how far the distance is, they cannot be separated. connect."

"Soul? I haven't done much research on this. However, emotions do have an impact on the effect of casting spells. I know this."

Shade said, Ms. Hope nodded:

"The alchemy note even mentioned that she was studying a method to harmlessly and briefly merge two souls, so that two people could become one person."

"What? Did she succeed?"

"Of course it didn't succeed. According to the records of the Order, the alchemy master of the Fifth Era created a terrifying fused undead. The resulting disaster was finally suppressed and quelled by the personal action of a witch emperor at that time. Come down. Relevant records of this matter can still be found in the Holy See libraries of the Sun Church and the Peace Church. Our religious order left this dangerous information to warn those who came after us not to interfere with souls at will. I think , this is probably why in our era, the Zhengshen Church strictly prohibits any knowledge of soul selling and soul transformation."

After learning some knowledge about soul fusion from Ms. Hope, Shade took her approval note and finally went to find Mr. Upton.

This gentleman was also rated as eccentric by the Fulan brothers, Ms. Hope and Mr. Richard, so Shade was also prepared to be made things difficult for him.

After he adjusted his mood and put on a formulaic smile on his face, he raised his hand and knocked on the door. After waiting for a long time, I heard footsteps coming from the door. Then the door was opened a gap, but the anti-theft chain was not removed.

A man with messy hair and half-white hair who looked to be in his fifties asked impatiently from the crack of the door:

"who is it?"

This tone is very similar to Dorothy's reaction after being interrupted while writing.

"Friends of Brother Fulan, I'm here..."

"not see."

"etc!"

Shade hurriedly grabbed the door that was about to be closed. The man inside the door pulled hard again, only to find that the door didn't move at all. Realizing that Shade's power was far stronger than his, he took a deep breath and said:

"What did Eric and Charles ask you to do?"

"Can we go in and talk? I won't interrupt for long. This is a note from Ms. Hope. I want to buy a piece of knowledge."

Mr. Upton's mouth twitched and he looked Shade up and down:

"Okay, but wait a moment while I clean up the room."

"no problem."

Shade let go of the door and let it close. Mr. Upton's footsteps walked towards the room, but returned within thirty seconds. This time he unhooked the anti-theft chain and opened the door completely.

This room is on the same floor as Ms. Hope's room, so the interior structure is basically similar. Originally, Shade thought that since Upton looked so slovenly, the room would be messy, but in fact it was very neat.

The furniture arrangement and indoor atmosphere are normal. The only thing worth noting is the wooden easel placed in the living room. However, the painting board on the easel was covered by a white cloth, so Shade couldn't see what kind of oil painting it was. But just now Mr. Upton said he wanted to go into the room and tidy up, which should be referring to this painting.

Shade didn't feel any elements, so he didn't care. He just thought it was Mr. Upton's privacy.

After both parties sat down, Xia De also briefly explained his purpose. Even though Mr. Upton was a little impatient about the religious magic that Shade wanted to acquire, he still listened to Shade's story in detail, and asked seriously about the reason why Shade wanted to learn the magic, emphasizing that Taboos for using this magic:

"When your hand is held with another person's hand, you must remain in awe of this emotion. Whether it is love or other emotions, it is the most valuable power that our mortal souls can burst out. Don't Give up easily, any girl who is willing to hold hands with you. Young people, countless ring warlocks who have learned this magic, will regret it from the bottom of their hearts when one day they are forced or voluntarily watch that figure go away. I have experienced the feeling of soul to soul touching each other through divine magic.”

His expression was very serious:

"Are you sure you want to learn it?"

"No, I don't want to learn it yet. I want to buy this knowledge for a pair of...twin girls."

Shade nodded firmly, and then Mr. Upton nodded:

"Then the risk is not great. But you have to sign an additional contract to ensure that the knowledge will not be leaked."

"Of course, that makes sense."

After Shade finished speaking, he asked curiously:

"Like Ms. Hope, have you studied the knowledge of soul contact or even fusion?"

"No, no, my research direction is not this. What I study is..."

Some unkempt men glanced at the covered oil painting inadvertently:

"I study the relationship between the body and the body under the influence of love."

Shade blinked. The other party's statement was strange. He suspected that he had guessed wrong:

"You can't mean..."

"Yes, have you heard of the [Pink Book]? That's the kind of knowledge I study. Love is not a pure spiritual communication. A young man like you should know better than me."

said Mr. Upton, shrugging at Shade:

"But under the general social morality, studying this kind of knowledge is not suitable for telling everyone. So I pretended to be weird and let them bother me less. Although this will make my reputation worse, at least I avoid becoming worse."

Shade nodded to express his understanding. He had also studied the "Pink Book" and knew that the book, which contained a wealth of knowledge, was indeed not suitable for discussion with too many people.

Since Mr. Upton agreed to let him learn magical arts, he was ready to leave, go to Ms. Hope's place to pay the money, and then go upstairs to find Mr. Richard to get the magical learning ritual.

However, when Shade stood up, Mr. Upton signaled Shade not to leave so quickly.

"As for the motto you mentioned, I actually have my own way of understanding it."

Mr. Upton said, then asked Shade a question:

"Do you believe that two different bodies can be merged into one person?"

Shade thought for a while and nodded decisively:

"Of course I believe it. For example, two girls who are fifteen or sixteen years old will become eighteen years old after fusion.

Mr. Upton nodded in surprise:

"I thought you would say that this is not in line with the theory of the Ring Warlock system. But it doesn't matter, it seems that you still have some talent. My research direction is not the fusion of soul and soul, but with the help of the [Pink Book] System, studying the moments of emotional outbursts and physical pleasure, and the complex interactions between flesh and flesh."

He took a deep breath:

"In my opinion, the ultimate goal of this research is to realize that two people become one person on a material level."

Shade frowned slightly and said hesitantly:

"I don't know if you know that in necromancy, many corpses can be sewn together to create something like an 'undead suture monster'."

He always felt that something was wrong with the gentleman in front of him. He seemed to be too excited. Therefore, Shade was worried that the other party would eventually create an incredible monster.

"No, no. You misunderstood me. I study living people, not corpses. This is completely different. Corpses have no emotions and cannot experience joy. They are meaningless."

Mr. Upton shook his head:

"And I won't start experimenting with humans right away. My current progress is just to try to let myself get the power of animals through contact with animals. This is what ancient Dru Yin can learn after getting close to animal partners. Secret method.”

"That doesn't sound strange."

Shade commented with a smile, and Mr. Upton finally smiled:

"I knew there would always be someone who understood me."

He looked at the oil painting covered by the white cloth again, as if he had made up his mind:

"In fact, I got a very strange oil painting more than a year ago, which convinced me that my idea was absolutely correct. The purest emotions and the most extreme charm will burst out in the fusion of flesh and blood. It brings out great power. I would like to invite you to take a look at this painting, so that you can know what I want to study."

He pointed at the white cloth, and Shade asked:

"Who created this painting? What year is it from?"

"Probably in the early sixth era, a painter who was traveling to sea caught a glimpse of an extremely beautiful lady in the water in the heavy fog one morning. He was stimulated by the beauty of that moment. Only then did he paint this painting. But then the painter went crazy, and other ordinary people who saw this painting also went crazy. I suspect that he had a glimpse of some kind of alien creature, such as a mermaid or something."

As he spoke, he stood up and let the canvas slide down with a gentle tug. Shade looked over subconsciously, and his first impression was that it was a very colorful oil painting.

Although it depicts an underwater scene, the woman who occupies the main body of the picture has long orange-red hair floating in the water and her fair, almost glowing skin make the underwater scene quite bright. She was facing away from the screen, her eyes slightly narrowed, looking charming and lazy.

Surrounding the lady in the picture, various shellfish and fish form the background, while the underwater water flow is outlined with abstract lines by the brush, making the details of the picture richer and more compact.

"It's so beautiful."

This was the thought that immediately came to Shade's mind, and then he expressed it.

He smiled and looked at the painting, admiring the beauty of the underwater lady in the painting. She is completely integrated with the underwater world, as if she should exist in the water. The perfect appearance stopped at that second, but the beauty and charm were recorded for a long time.

"It's so beautiful."

Shade sighed again, staring at the painting and feeling like he was unwilling to look away. He even thought that the woman in this painting was more beautiful than the witches he knew...