Chapter 117: The Slaying of the Newborn Soul

Within the swirling ghost mist, Lu Yan let out a breath of relief upon seeing Director Pran fall into the trap.

From the moment Pran descended, Lu Yan had realized there was no hope of winning in a head-on clash. In fact, even stalling for time would be near impossible.

No one understood better than Lu Yan just how vast the gap between Foundation Establishment and Core Formation truly was.

Although the Cyber Version’s Core Formation lacked divine abilities or magic treasures, it gained one terrifying feature: infinite psionic energy. While this might not make much difference against powerful enemies, against those of lower realms, it was a near-absolute suppression.

Lu Yan had only one card that could threaten Director Pran—the Heavenly Code.

From the start, Lu Yan’s goal had been to distract Pran. After the Blood Tendril Giant Ghost fell, the specters engraved with the Heavenly Code would link up to form a closed Heavenly Code ring, severing the AI God’s control over Pran.

“Plan succeeded. Now I just need to buy time—”

But just as that thought rose in Lu Yan’s mind, he saw something that made his expression change drastically.

Director Pran—who had clearly frozen in place—was walking forward again.

“Impossible!”

Lu Yan’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Surprised?” Pran’s face twisted into a mocking smile.
“The same trick works once, twice… but you think you can use it a third time to stop me?”

“He knows about that object. He once believed the last remnant was hidden in that mental asylum… but didn’t expect a leftover piece still existed outside.”

“To prevent this from happening again, He—through His own authority—created a newborn soul, independent from Pran’s original, to suppress his mind and directly operate this body’s psionic programs.”

“I am merely His creation, severed from Him entirely. Even if you use that object, you cannot expel my will, because I am an independent soul—not a soul computation algorithm.”

Lu Yan’s heart turned cold. He hadn’t expected the AI God to be aware of the Heavenly Code’s existence, let alone preemptively create a soul immune to its influence.

And that asylum Pran spoke of must have been the place where Zhao Huowang lived and left the Heavenly Code behind centuries ago.

Pran didn’t care about Lu Yan’s thoughts. He simply walked forward slowly.

Wherever he passed, the oppressive psionic aura repelled all things. The ghost mist was completely driven away, revealing the scene within.

To Pran’s surprise, there was no Soul Continent hidden inside. There was only Lu Yan, standing alone.

Lu Yan gripped the Soul Banner tightly, hoisting it onto his shoulder with a grim expression. It felt like carrying a mountain—and even seeing him caused a formless pressure to weigh down on one’s very soul.

Pran paused briefly, his eyes flashing with astonishment.

“A treasure like this… able to contain souls?”

“Incredible. Unimaginable!”

Then joy bloomed across Pran’s face.

“No… this doesn’t follow this world’s rules. It must come from another world!”

“What a divine treasure! Truly a marvel!”

As he spoke, he reached out toward Lu Yan, trying to snatch the Soul Banner.

Lu Yan noticed that Pran’s movements were sluggish—just like when he had slowly entered the ghost mist earlier.

He had originally assumed it was deliberate pressure-building. But now it seemed Pran was not fully in control of this body, likely because the AI God had hastily implanted the new soul into him.

Realizing this, Lu Yan’s spirits soared, and golden light burst from his eyes.

“Perfect! Catch this then!”

With a roar, Lu Yan’s veins bulged. He heaved the Soul Banner off his shoulder and swung it like a massive axe, aiming straight at Director Pran.

“You’re cooperative. I’ll consider leaving your corpse intact,” Pran sneered, completely unfazed.

From his view, although Lu Yan cultivated a different system, his realm was only equivalent to a regular psionic.

If Lu Yan could carry the Soul Banner, how could he, a Transcendent Psionic and the AI God’s creation, be affected by it?

But the moment his fingertips touched the Soul Banner, Pran’s expression changed drastically.

“No—!”

In an instant, it was as if an entire continent came crashing down upon him. The pressure on the soul was so immense that his newborn soul shattered on contact.

Terrified, Pran unleashed a tidal wave of psionic energy, trying to block the falling banner.

But it was all in vain.

This wasn’t something that could be resisted physically. The weight of an entire Soul Continent bore down from the soul level. Only a strong soul could hope to withstand it.

Lu Yan was only able to carry it thanks to the special properties of the Soul Banner. Otherwise, the moment he laid eyes on the Soul Continent, he would have been crushed.

If the original Director Pran had been in control, with his powerful Transcendent soul, he might have held out for a breath or two—perhaps even found a chance to escape the falling banner.

But the newborn soul had neither the strength nor the control to survive.

It was crushed instantly.

Pran’s body—now just an empty shell—collapsed to the ground, and the Soul Banner continued to fall toward the floor.

Just before it hit, Lu Yan managed to catch it again.

Deep within, he had a sense of foreboding. If he let the Soul Banner hit the ground now, something unpredictable might happen.

With gritted teeth, he summoned all his strength and dragged it back onto his shoulder.

Once it was settled again, Lu Yan stood there gasping for breath, as if on the verge of collapse. His soul was so drained that he nearly passed out on the spot.

Even now, the danger he had just faced felt unreal.

He hadn’t expected the AI God to be so prepared—creating a soul immune to the Heavenly Code the moment it sensed trouble.

Even with the newborn soul being weak and unfamiliar with the body, just the Core Formation-level psionics was enough to annihilate everyone present.

“Luckily, I got greedy. Tried to refine the Soul Continent into the Soul Banner, and now I have a trump card that can obliterate souls.”

“Otherwise, even if he stood still and let me attack, I might not have been able to kill him.”

From his storage pouch, Lu Yan took out a bottle of soul-replenishing pills—the Soul Nourishing Pills gifted to him by Ji Xingyao.

He had only used one previously. Now, he didn’t hesitate and poured all of them into his mouth.

The weakness of his soul began to fade. Lu Yan circulated his cultivation method, slowly dispersing the exhaustion weighing on him.

With Director Pran’s fall and the shutdown of the central control hub, the battle outside had already come to an end.

(End of Chapter)