Whispering Poems

Chapter 4076 Soul and Life

"You passed smoothly, right? Congratulations!"

Shad smiled and congratulated Miss McDonald, saying that this was the happiest time of his life back home:
"I only offered a small amount of help; your paper is excellent in itself. However, I'd be happy to continue helping you proofread it. But what are you doing? Hasn't the library ownership been transferred yet?"

“Mr. Leberi delivered the library keys to Fragrant Residence over the weekend, so the teacher asked me to bring people to clean this place up first.”

Miss McDonald said with a smile, then leaned closer to Shad and lowered her voice:

"Also, my teacher asked me to tell you that the council has sent another witch to this area, so you shouldn't go to Fragrance Mansion today. My teacher seems a little sad."

Xia De had made up his mind; he absolutely had to visit Wei Ge.
"Has that witch from afar arrived yet?"

"Yes, when I set off half an hour ago, the lady was in the crypt of the mansion examining the human tissues that had been taken from the cemetery on Friday night."

Shad nodded:
"So, do you need my help here?"

The tall girl immediately shook her head:
"No need, it's just cleaning the house. We can handle this ourselves. Mr. Watson, you can go back to your business."

"Okay, I'll also make time to visit Wei Ge. Thank you for your hard work. By the way, your dress today is very pretty."

"is it?"

Miss McDonald asked with a smile, gently lifting the hem of her skirt with both hands and twirling in front of Shad:
"You're so good with words, but I rarely wear this dress. After all, I don't need to dress so flashy in the lab. Red suits me well, doesn't it?"

"Yes, it's springtime now, and brighter colors are beautiful and suit your hair color well."

After saying goodbye to Miss McDonald, Shad went directly to the Upper City. Because Flora didn't have the Moon Mark on her, and the underground palace beneath the mansion had a strong anti-detection ritual, Shad had no way of knowing whether Flora was there or not.

However, Xia De was going to tell Wei Ge the truth this week, so he didn't care if Wei Ge found out everything today. He knocked on the door as usual, and the housekeeper, Miss Lorraine, was extremely surprised to see Xia De outside.
"Why didn't you meet me at the Blue Ink Library?"

“I’ve met Miss McDonald, but I think I should still come and see Viggo.”

When Shad answered, Miss Rowling laughed:
“Miss will be very happy, but your actions are a bit too risky. Please come in. Miss and the other lady are currently in the underground palace. Please wait in the study for a moment, and I will go and inform Miss to come up.”

Xia De didn't wait long in the study before he heard the hurried sound of high heels clicking on the floor of the hallway outside. Vivi pushed open the door and practically threw herself into Xia De's arms:
"The witches in the council are all bullying me!"

She said, quite aggrieved, and hugged Xia De tightly, refusing to let go. These words had clearly been bottled up inside her all night:
"Even though we haven't had much time left to be alone together, they still sent people to my place. I thought, I thought, I thought I wouldn't see you again today. Cough cough, cough cough."

Miss Rowling quietly closed the door, and Shad gently patted her on the back:

"Look, here I am!"

"But you'll definitely be leaving soon."

She stopped coughing and looked up at Shad:
"Your Excellency the Speaker would also like to introduce you to the witch who visited me today; my colleague was just discussing this with me. So, are you interested in disguising yourself as a witch?"

"Not interested."

Shad didn't let her voice that bold idea:
“Wei Ge, I would rather go downstairs to see your colleague right now than do that.”

"Just kidding, I apologize."

Viggo then kissed Shade on the side:
"You still look better in men's clothing. We haven't had much time alone together, and yet we can't be together again today."

She placed her hand on Shad's chest, closed her eyes, kissed him again, then pushed him away abruptly, revealing a pained expression.
"Go on, my love, go about your business. My colleague probably won't leave until tonight, so let's endure the loneliness and solitude, and see each other again tomorrow. Do you have time to go to the opera tomorrow night?"

Tomorrow is Tuesday, and Adelina will probably arrive on Wednesday or Thursday. Viggo clearly wants to create a lasting memory of their time alone together.

"of course."

Shade agreed, and Viggo hugged Shade again, like Mia who hadn't had enough of dessert, and asked for another kiss. It took her a long time to reluctantly say goodbye to him, so much so that after Shade left, Miss Rowling reminded her to touch up her lipstick.

Shad does indeed have many things to deal with. There are no leads on the demon matter for the time being, but he still needs to discuss last night's events with Mr. Finch.

Today, Mr. Finch was at his gear workshop in the outer city. When Shad arrived, he was personally welding a machine in the factory. It looked like a heavy carriage, all-metal, at least three times larger than the taxis on the street.

When the old gentleman saw Xia De arrive, he cheerfully invited him into the carriage. At this time, the interior decoration of the carriage was not yet completed, but tables, chairs and cabinets fixed to the floor had already been placed, making the carriage resemble a small workshop.

Mr. Finch asked Shad:

"When you were a child, did you ever imagine that one day the world would suddenly end, and you could drive a horse-drawn carriage through the ruins of civilization, rescuing survivors and collecting various supplies?"

This carriage is something I've been preparing to build for years. The alloy body is inlaid with different ritual arrays, and each steel plate has a different blessing effect. The interior will use several extraordinary items, including low-risk relics, to maintain stability.

Although I don't know if this will be useful in the future, I will design and build this carriage as the last and most important work of my life.

Although the space inside the carriage is large, it is still just a carriage, so without using the space expansion function, it can probably only accommodate no more than five people.

Xia De looked curiously at the interior of the carriage, and the old man's words reminded him of his childhood fantasies:

“I thought about similar situations when I was a child, but if it’s for survival in the apocalypse, wouldn’t a train be more convenient? Although the rails are a problem, at least the train has enough capacity.”

Mr. Finch thought for a moment:
“That makes sense. So, after I finish building this carriage, if I still have the energy, how about I try to design a locomotive called ‘Doomsday Survivor’?”

The old man smiled—the same smile children wear when they see toys, teenagers when they find straight branches, and middle-aged people when they cast their fishing rods after a busy day.

"That's a good name."

Shad responded that he didn't need a vehicle that could transport many people at once, because he already had the "Radiant Messenger".

Mr. Finch already knew about the appearance of the "Construct Master" and the "Bloodthirsty One" last night, but he didn't know many details. Shad then began by talking about his desire to find evil spirits and demons, and continued to his meeting with the "Construct Master" in the abandoned farm outside the city.

Mr. Finch didn't say anything about Shad's contact with the traitor from the church. He nodded, indicating he understood the basic situation.

"So next, the various parties will fight over the 'spark of life', right?"

"Yes, regardless of whether it's for the chosen ones or not, all parties have reasons to gather more life force. It's just that it's not clear yet whether other forces also have fire sources besides the one I have, the one from the Blood Spirit School, and the two from the Church of Creation."

Shad also brought the flesh-and-blood eye "container," intending for Mr. Finch to pass it on to Mr. Bernhardt, as they would certainly need it to hunt down the "Life Mutants."

The old man had no further information about Mr. Bernhardt and his group. Recently, the vampires had not only encountered "life aberrations" in the city's sewers, but also witnessed underground corpses rising up again due to "distorted life sparks."

Even the local church noticed the vampires' unusual behavior, but the church was also cleaning up the corpses that had crawled out of the sewers, so it did not become hostile to these foreign high-level vampires.

"Our secret society has some new information. After consulting ancient texts, we found some records related to the 'Spark of Life.' The records are extremely old, and the original documents cannot be sent over, but the general content is that the significance of the 'Spark of Life' is not only to give life, but also to stimulate spirituality, thereby giving souls to inanimate objects."

The immersion in life can fundamentally change cold, inanimate objects, and the soul is born from that faint flame.

Mr. Finch paused for a moment, giving Shad time to think:

"Based on the information you provided, the organizations that currently possess the 'Spark Source' are most likely only able to use the spark to revive inanimate objects, but not yet to the point of allowing inanimate objects to develop souls in the warmth of life. That's why they want to obtain more sparks, using quantitative change to drive qualitative change."

Shad recalled the moment he saw the massive spark within the Church of Creation during its first uprising, and how he clearly sensed a glimmer of wisdom in that enormous, burning eye.

"If the soul is so important, then wouldn't it be simpler to give life to inanimate objects and then forcibly infuse a soul into the body?"

Xia De asked curiously:
"Why go through all that trouble to bring forth the soul that life nurtures?"

Mr. Finch knew that although the young man before him was a "Caller of Gods," he was actually quite young, and he was happy to answer Shad's questions:

"If an existing soul is used directly, then it doesn't count as the birth of a new life; it's merely a change in the form of existence for an existing life. Of course, there are two very special exceptions where an external soul can be considered a new life—"

In the first scenario, although the soul is from outside, it has abandoned everything from the past and transformed itself into another life form in essence. This is extremely difficult, meaning that 'I' am no longer 'I'. This is not something that can be accomplished simply by having ideological awareness; it requires truly welcoming a new life after death.
The second scenario involves a soul that is an outsider, a life form not belonging to this world, born from nothingness. Because it has no past, its incarnation into a new body can be considered a new life being born.