Autophagy

The fact that Xiang Yimu had such a book was weird. Initially, Song Lei was just surprised at the fact that Xiang Yimu liked reading books. However, it wasn't like he knew him well. He had fortunately managed to figure out that Xiang Yimu was a murderer and acted accordingly in time, cutting their introductions short.

However, as his first confusion passed, a second wave washed over him. The book was weird. It contained a lot of esoteric knowledge that a normal book wouldn't contain. Now, the question was, how had Xiang Yimu managed to put his hands on this? It could just be luck on his side, however, that didn't seem very plausible to Song Lei.

As these confusions bounced around inside his head, a word, written in bold and italic characters caught his eye.

"Shamans, huh..." He muttered as he started reading carefully.

According to the experts, the roots of shamanism originated from Central Asia and Siberia, going as far as 25000 years back. It was a religious practice that involved a shaman, who communicated with the spirit world through different means to summon spiritual energies. They would then use those energies for different goals, such as healing, divination, and guiding souls.

"Huh... That's interesting," Song Lei muttered to himself. "Hmm... I always looked at these things skeptically, but now that I read it, they may as well have been using soul energy to perform these stuff."

As he kept reading, Song Lei realized how possible this was. From the looks of it, the Old World wasn't completely devoid of the supernatural. Secret Blood Order still existed there. Or the fact that Aston was able to create soultech while alive was the evidence. Obviously, it was hard or nigh impossible to figure out who was to first notice and utilize soul energy.

"Well, I guess there's a pretty simple way to figure out," Song Lei thought. Unfortunately, the book was more related to the talisman crafting side of things. For this reason, he wasn't able to learn more knowledge about shamans. Bringing up his system shop once more, he looked for anything that was related to shamanism.

'The good side is, I can study talisman creation with the help of this book for free,' Song Lei thought. 'Thank you for your patronage Yimu...'

Obviously, considering that shamanism was a very broad term, a lot of different results appeared on his system shop. From books on what shamanism was to tools that a shaman could use. After an arduous session of eliminating options from the list, Song Lei managed to find something that interested him.

[Origin Shamanism of Soul Guidance, first page. 1000 BC]

"What!?" Song Lei confusedly looked at the transaction screen. "Why is it so expensive?"

Initially, all the purchasable items related to shamanism were relatively low cost, indicating that most of them contained next to nothing that was of use to him. What he was looking for was the connection between shamanism and the supernatural.

"Wait... Why am I even so interested in shamanism all of a sudden?" Song Lei thought out loud. "I never had any interest in these types of stuff before. What changed now..?" He muttered. As he wanted to understand, he picked the book left from Xiang Yimu back up and read again.

However, he couldn't understand. There was something pulling him towards just buying the first page.

'There won't be any harm in spending that amount, right? If it's not useful, I can just set it aside. 1000 BC's aren't that much...' He thought. His breathing became ragged as his face flushed. He looked around the room as if he was a child doing something wrong and tried to see if he was alone. Confirming that no one was watching him, he raised his hand and manually confirmed the transaction.

As he saw the numbers on his balance rapidly decreasing by 1000, a strange relief ran through his body.

His body's temperature calmed down again. His breathing was as tranquil as ever. He could feel his soul cooling down.

With the transaction complete, he inserted his hand into the system panel and grasped whatever came to his hand. It was light, with a texture that any modern person was familiar with.

As he pulled his hand back, a piece of paper came out with it.

Looking at it, Song Lei felt at ease. As if he had achieved a childhood dream of his, he started reading the paper.

"In its roots, shamanism is for humans. Both of its reasons and goals are there for humans."

"When humans die, they don't simply disappear, nor do they go into deep darkness. Instead, they fly. They fly to the heavens and aether."

"With great strength comes great responsibility. Certainly, shamans are those with great strength. And as the saying goes, they have great responsibilities."

"And that responsibility is to assist the dead, the wretches, the unspoken miserable of this world dissipate into the aether. To help them fly onto the heavens and become the wings that they need."

"And you, who decided to depart on the way of shamanism, shall know your duties even before you have them."

Song Lei read through the sentences with great attention. He didn't want to miss a single word. After all, he had spent so many points on it. However, there was something that made him slightly disappointed. Song Lei himself couldn't exactly describe it, however, he knew there was something wrong. Ignoring this impending sense of doom over him, he continued reading.

"The starting and ending points of shamanism are to become one with nature. A shaman that isn't one with Heaven and Earth is incomplete."

"Once you embark on the way of becoming one with nature, you can start your training. Don't worry and think that you may be acting hasty, as one doesn't need to, and can't finish the way of becoming one with nature."

"A human's body as a whole is made up of three parts."

"The first part is the Earthen Shell. The Earthen Shell is the mass of a human. It's the manifestation of themselves upon this world. It's how the others see the shaman."

'Huh...' Song Lei thought. 'So it's basically my body?'

"The second part is the Brilliant Soul. It's what gives a human their personality, their memories are stored there. Undoubtedly, its health is just as important as the Fire Shell's health to a shaman. It's the source, the root of shamanism. Without it, humans wouldn't be walking these plains. Nor would they be able to understand god. It's what separates us from mere animals."

'So this one is the mind,' Song Lei thought. He was pretty much able to guess what the next one would be.

"The third and the most important is the Luminescent Soul. The Luminescent Soul is hard to explain for the average folk. It's essentially what God sees when he looks at us. It's what flows upon the aether. It's the baseline of our existence. With the support of the Brilliant Soul and the Earthen Shell, it makes us, us."

"One's Luminescent Soul is initially asleep. It has its eyes closed to the others. Those who have sleeping Luminescent Souls are also asleep. They don't see, nor they hear, nor they smell, nor they touch. But most importantly, they don't know."

"They don't know the truth of this world."

"A shaman is to walk upon the path of guiding. However, a person that doesn't know, can't guide others."

"For this reason, a shaman starts their arduous path towards guidance and nature by learning. By opening their eyes..."

As Song Lei kept reading, he could feel the heat rising through his body, coming from his abdomen. For a reason, every word written on the paper resonated with him.

'Maybe this will help me see them once more...'

He couldn't wait to read the rest of the paper, however, as his eyes fell onto an empty whiteness, he realized that the page was over.

"Fuck...."