But he could not see them.
"The little bastard has some luck, I’ll skin you first, tear your flesh, drink your blood..."
The cursing suddenly turned toward him.
"Rod, can you see those Dead Souls?" Lauren’s voice also sounded in his ear.
Rod replied somewhat nervously, "I see one... Where are you? I can’t see you."
"Don’t panic. We have been dragged into the Spirit Realm. He has some taboo items helping him, so I temporarily can’t catch him."
"What do we do then? Can I do anything?"
Lauren’s voice remained calm and indifferent with a rich timbre that reassured him significantly.
"I will continue to draw his attention. You can try looking for the Spirit Lock. If you can break it, we will return to the normal world."
"Be careful not to attack the huge Spiritual Bodies. Ravens can’t harm them, it would only enrage them."
"I understand, what does the Spirit Lock look like?" Rod asked loudly, but Lauren did not respond again.
Rod felt uneasy, sensing the situation might not be as favorable as he had said.
He needed to find the Spirit Lock quickly, otherwise, if anything went wrong, it would be a disaster.
Rod felt somewhat resentful towards Lauren; with a significant advantage, why take such a risk? Why not simply subdue and take him back? Couldn’t a few companions be called in to search his hiding spot, and then this issue would be resolved?
It was not at all prudent.
While he mentally complained, Rod quickly focused on searching.
Through the viewpoint of the Eye of the Soul, this strange world was dazzling. He felt as if he was floating in the Void, with no solid ground beneath his feet, no directions, and no sense of distance.
The chaotic colors were messily piled together, making it impossible to discern if there was a lock.
However, in the process of searching, Rod discovered quite a few Dead Souls glowing with a black light.
These entities were particularly eye-catching. They often emerged from ribbons of various colors, slow and dazed. One shot could blow them up, just like popping balloons.
Rod burst four Dead Souls in a row and also caught sight of a Giant that appeared to be made of stained glass from a church.
He wisely did not disturb it and passed by this colossal being.
— It was angrily stomping the ground, and colorful flecks of light were flying out from under its feet.
Suddenly, a shadowy figure swept past in front of him, and the cursing by his ear became very distinct.
"Oh, you puny little bastard, you want to seek out your grandpa? Let me tell you, I’ve seen plenty of trash like you who think they are so great just because they have a bit of Spiritual Vision. Their proud heads will ultimately be trampled in the mire..."
The cursing gradually gained a sense of direction, and Rod followed it. He quickly found a Spiritual Body behind a large clump of something resembling cotton candy.
It was a glowing human-shaped mist, half of which had already turned a deep black, with countless small black dots circulating in the mist’s veins.
"If you can find my real body, I’ll eat all the dung in the Royal City Sewer..."
The cursing continued, the mist boiled, revealing his agitated emotions.
But he did not seem to see himself; his attention was not focused on himself.
Was this his real body?
Rod aimed his gun at him, Spiritual Energy quickly poured into it, the Spirit Pressure Gauge surged to the top, and a massive flash erupted. A white beam shot out instantaneously, piercing his head.
The cursing stopped abruptly.
The next instant, Rod felt that his field of vision greatly cleared, and he saw Lauren in a blink.
He was close by, battling with four glass Giants, his body enveloped in boiling mist, with powerful Spiritual Light flickering around him.
But as the human-shaped mist dissipated, the Giants also rapidly crumbled into countless colorful Fragments that fell away.
Lauren looked up in surprise and immediately saw Rod.
At that moment, the world underwent a strange change, there were fewer chaotic flecks of light, and the outlines of solid materials appeared.
Rod turned off the Eye of the Soul and found he was back in the warehouse, standing right where he was.
Bas was to his front left, kneeling on the ground with half of his head missing, and blood and brain matter were scattered around.
A thick black line tinged with various colors flew out from the corpse and entered Rod’s body.
At the same time, a row of small text flashed at the bottom of his eye.
Now that he was no longer semi-illiterate, he could barely make them out.
[The Polluted Soul of Soter Red]
Rod had not yet figured out what was happening when he saw Lauren leap towards him, raising his staff towards Rod’s throat, his tone still calm and indifferent, but with a slight chill.
"Why did you kill him?"