"How is it?"
[Feels... like about to burn up...]
The Puchi took the Yellow Codex slightly further away.
It seemed that being directly exposed to the irradiation of the Sunstone wouldn't produce any changes.
Under the [Inspiration] perspective, although the core of the Yellow Codex was trembling, there were no substantial changes.
In fact, placing any life possessing a soul directly under the light of the Sunstone without protection was quite dangerous.
Splitting the soul was like the passive effect of this artifact.
Those D-class volunteers were a very good example. Under the illumination, their souls underwent incomplete splitting.
New consciousness fragments were torn from the original soul, however, the container holding the soul—that is, their body—did not split synchronously.
Thus, multiple newly born consciousnesses were forced to crowd within the same shell.
The final result was symptoms similar to schizophrenia, and the extremely severe kind at that. The various consciousnesses would frantically fight for dominance.
Not everyone was like Lin Jun, able to use Puchis and cocooning to separate the new consciousnesses out, or relying on a massive volume to easily fuse the still-incomplete split parts back together.
This process of change would not stop until reaching a certain critical point, where the soul, fragmented to the limit, could no longer split out more new consciousnesses.
However, by that time, no single consciousness would be able to regain control of the body either, leading to the body losing control and ultimately turning into a vegetative state that would babble nonsensically.
As for the Yellow Codex, its situation couldn't even be considered treating a dead horse as a living horse.
After all, from Lin Jun's perspective, a guy without even a soul wasn't even considered a living creature. It should be categorized as a magical creation endowed with will.
Therefore, any attempt capable of producing changes in its core could be viewed as progress.
Unfortunately, looking at it now, direct irradiation had a slight influence but couldn't produce changes.
Lin Jun immediately switched to the backup plan.
He stuffed the Yellow Codex into the arms of a Puchi. Subsequently, the mycelium on the ground climbed and spread, quickly wrapping it into a mycelial cocoon.
This was the process of making Mushroom Tribe members, but this time a Yellow Codex was added inside.
Whether it was the Sunstone or making Mushroom Tribe members, to the Yellow Codex, these were unknown territories.
It rarely appeared somewhat at a loss.
Thanks to its emotion-sensing ability still functioning normally, that familiar faint malice around made it clear that the Boss didn't intend to kill it.
The Yellow-Codex-wrapped Puchi cocoon was just irradiated by the Sunstone for a full day like this.
Effective!
Lin Jun felt that the portion of his soul wrapped inside had a reaction with the core of the Yellow Codex.
Finally, the mycelial cocoon was pushed open from the inside. A new Mushroom Tribe member stood up.
It twisted its body, using its tentacles to touch itself all over.
"This is... me? I became a Puchi?"
"But, where is the soul? The emotions? Why can I perceive nothing?"
Of course it couldn't perceive anything. After all, this Puchi's body was just an ordinary Burden Puchi, without any special skills added.
And the various extraordinary functions on the book couldn't follow it into the Puchi.
Moreover, there was another problem...
Suddenly losing all abilities, the Yellow Skin Puchi before his eyes was both excited and panicked.
It suddenly thought of something, using its tentacles unskillfully to pick up that Yellow Codex beside it, wanting to see if it could still use the abilities inside.
Then, it saw a symbol slowly emerge from the page: [?]
"?"
[Boss, what's going on?] "Boss, what's going on?"
[Inspiration]
Lin Jun observed for a long time: "Little Yellow, do you know about cloning?"
...
The Yellow Codex was still that Yellow Codex, but through the Sunstone and the mycelial cocoon, the information within the Yellow Codex's core was imprinted into a copy and stuffed into this Mushroom Tribe member.
In other words, the Mushroom Tribe member before his eyes was an individual using Lin Jun's soul but self-identifying as the Yellow Codex.
After hearing Lin Jun's rough explanation, the Yellow Codex was silent for a long time before popping out a sentence: [This... can't be considered me having a soul, right?]
"Then what is you? This book cover, or that self-cognition?" Lin Jun asked back. "Others can still say the soul is their foundation, but you originally had no soul, and now this ego can also be copied..."
The Yellow Skin Puchi on the side quickly reacted after a brief sluggishness.
"Boss, it succeeded! Although this isn't a soul completely belonging to me, you indeed made me possess a soul!"
[You just don't want to be treated as a defective product and destroyed!] The Yellow Codex exposed the thoughts of the other "self" without hesitation.
"Boss, I am already reborn! What's left in that book shell is nothing but meaningless residue. Crush it, and I can continue using the abilities in the book for you!"
[You're talking nonsense!] [Boss, don't believe its pack of lies! It's impossible for it to replace me to control the abilities in the book!]
Lin Jun also didn't expect that the situation of a clone and the original trying to pit and kill each other would stage so quickly.
Should he say it was truly worthy of the Yellow Codex, adapting to this kind of scene so quickly.
Both the Yellow Codex and the Yellow Skin Puchi waited nervously for the Boss to make a decision.
The Marshal Puchi's tentacle rubbed the lower edge of its mushroom cap, thinking.
On one side was the Yellow Codex, whose core was wrapped and controlled but wasn't considered 100% safe.
On the other side was the Yellow Skin Puchi, whose soul was split from himself and could completely be considered his own mushroom.
Then who to choose was obvious.
The Marshal Puchi extended a tentacle and patted the mushroom cap of the Yellow Skin Puchi.
[Boss?]
In an instant, the Yellow Skin Puchi's body straightened. It paced to the front of the Yellow Codex.
On the side, a synchronized voice-transmission Puchi specially configured for it by Lin Jun popped out its smug voice:
"What's there to complain about? You, this residue, without even a soul, what difference is there between life and death? And I, the me possessing a soul, am the real Little Yellow! The wish to obtain a soul can only be realized on me in this way. Accept this reality and go in peace!"
[What kind of realization is this? I won't...]
Before the words were fully written, the Yellow Codex was closed. The Yellow Skin Puchi turned to leave, walking shorter and shorter, shorter and shorter...
By the time it realized something was wrong, the Puchi's feet were already gone, and the fungal mat beneath it was constantly decomposing and devouring it.
"No, no, Boss! I am the Little Yellow completely loyal to you! No, I don't want to disappear!"
"Damn it, damn it! If I'm going to disappear, don't you think you'll have it easy either! Boss, that broken book always remembers how you tormented it. I am it, I know best. If there is a chance, it will definitely take revenge!"
"Ah... soul, ego is disappearing... Is this, the ocean?"
"The feeling of fusing into one... is not bad..."
The Yellow Skin Puchi completely disappeared. Just like No. 0, Lin Jun swallowed it back. Ultimately, it was just a Mushroom Tribe member thinking it was the Yellow Codex. Besides self-cognition, it had no difference from other Mushroom Tribe members.
The so-called controlling the book's abilities was just it talking to itself, and it was premised on crushing the original core of the Yellow Codex. The risks and benefits weren't proportional, so Lin Jun naturally wouldn't choose this way.
However, its mentioning that the Yellow Codex holds grudges...
Sensing the gradually intensifying malice around, the Yellow Codex immediately explained: [Boss! This counterfeit at death's door still vainly attempted to sow discord!] [This lowly one absolutely has no double-mindedness toward you, let alone any thoughts of revenge!]
"Of course, how could I believe it? Hahaha~"
[Haha... haha...]
The sticky, terrifying laughter echoed in the secret chamber. The Yellow Codex's soul experiment came to a temporary end, more or less achieving some progress.
(End of Chapter)
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