The Spirit Transformation Technique's ability to devour souls and extract memories was an effect Ye Zi had independently refined. However, he rarely used it due to its severe side effects. It was easy to be influenced by the target's memories.
If the target's memories were imbued with strong emotions or obsessions, they could heavily impact Ye Zi. This could lead to personality fragmentation or even the foreign memories overtaking his own consciousness.
The memories obtained through soul devouring were, at their core, part of the soul itself.
For this reason, Ye Zi used this technique sparingly. Once, in the Land of Earth, he devoured the soul of a young boy to obtain his memories. Although the boy's soul wasn't particularly strong, Ye Zi was still influenced by it, developing an uncontrollable urge to kill the jinchūriki of the Five-Tails to avenge the boy's parents.
This was why Ye Zi had volunteered when the Akatsuki targeted the Five-Tails jinchūriki.
Compared to Nagato's Human Path abilities or the Yamanaka clan's secret techniques, the Spirit Transformation Technique's memory extraction came with these drawbacks, making it impractical. Moreover, its use inevitably resulted in the target's death.
However, using the technique on Shokui, who was now sealed within Ye Zi's body, would produce a different outcome.
This wasn't extraction but browsing, so Ye Zi wouldn't suffer the same side effects from Shokui's memories. The challenge, though, was finding the method to break through dimensions amidst Shokui's extensive memories, requiring a start from the very beginning.
Ye Zi's soul arrived before a massive orb of light. He reached out and slowly plunged his hand into the orb. In an instant, an overwhelming flood of memories surged before his eyes.
"Hey, big brother, come here!" A girl's voice, clear and sweet like a yellow warbler, echoed in Ye Zi's ears. It was the earliest memory Kui possessed and the first voice he had ever heard.
"What's wrong, Sō?" Following the girl's voice came a cheerful, youthful boy's voice.
A blinding light seeped through a narrow crevice, and when Ye Zi's vision adjusted, he was greeted by a pure white expanse, with nothing visible but the two distinct voices.
As his sight gradually adapted, he could faintly make out two children through the cracks. It was a boy and a girl.
The girl, around five or six years old, wore a short dress made of animal hide, her cheeks adorned with red triangular markings. She crouched before a large, earthen-colored stone about her size, her wide black eyes gleaming with curiosity.
The boy, called "big brother," wore similar animal hide clothing and appeared to be about seven or eight. In his hand was a crudely crafted spear.
Hearing his sister's call, he ran over lightly and crouched beside her, his young face equally full of curiosity.
The large, earthen-colored stone was riddled with cracks about the width of a thumb, resembling an egg about to hatch.
"Big brother, is this an egg or a stone?" Sō asked, her bright black eyes sparkling with wonder.
The boy tilted his head, rubbing his chin as though deep in thought, before replying seriously, "It's probably an egg."
Saying this, he raised his spear and struck the egg-like object forcefully.
"Ah!" Sō exclaimed, startled, as the "stone" shattered under her brother's blow. Its hard fragments scattered, revealing a small, yellow creature about the size of a puppy.
The creature's body was curled up, its form indistinct, but one large eye dominated more than half of its face.
"What's this?" the boy and girl exclaimed in surprise.
This was Shokui's earliest memory, his encounter with a pair of human siblings.
At that time, he didn't understand human language. Even later, when he did, recalling this moment brought fragments of their conversation about "war beasts."
Powerful beings were born through inheritance. Some things were embedded in their bloodline—abilities and names, often synonymous with calamity.
The siblings had brought Shokui back to their tribe from the perilous forest. With his large, luminous eye, Shokui had his first encounter with humans and the world itself.
"Big brother, this little guy eats so much. Do you think Dad will let me raise him as a war beast?" Sō crouched before the yellow creature, resting her chin on her hands and watching it with delight.
"Of course he will. Dad always says that war beasts who eat a lot grow up to be really strong," the boy replied, beaming as he gestured dramatically with his arms.
"Let's give him a name!" Sō said, her face lighting up with determination.
The boy nodded. "Yeah, since he eats so much, let's call him Shokui (meaning 'devour')."
"Shokui?" Sō repeated thoughtfully before breaking into a charming smile. "Alright, let's call him Shokui!"
And so, the name was given. In this world, people only had one-character names. The boy was Yun, and the girl was Sō.
Shokui devoured the food they offered, looking up at the siblings with his large, gleaming eye and flashing a happy smile.
"Big brother, look! Shokui is smiling!" Sō clapped her hands in delight.
Yun grinned as well. Picking up his spear, he said cheerfully, "Shokui eats a lot, so I'll go hunt some more prey for him."
"Be careful out there," Sō said as she waved her brother off.
This was a world where even eight-year-old boys had to hunt to survive. Humans were weak and fragile, struggling to assert their place in a dangerous land.
Born from an unusual egg, Shokui became the siblings' war beast. Even in his juvenile form, he displayed extraordinary abilities and soon gained renown within their tribe.
As time passed, Shokui's appetite became insatiable. His size and strength grew rapidly, bringing significant benefits to the tribe. The name "War Beast Shokui" spread quickly to neighboring tribes.
"Shokui, how can your stomach hold so much food?" Sō, now a sweet and beautiful sixteen-year-old girl, laughed as she placed her hand on Shokui's belly.
"I don't know," Shokui replied with a toothy grin, surrounded by the scattered bones of animals he had devoured.
"Big brother says that eating a lot is why you're so strong," Sō said, lightly leaping onto Shokui's shoulder with graceful ease.
"Yeah, so I'll keep eating and get even stronger. That way, I can protect you all," Shokui replied as he slowly stood. His form had grown humanoid, towering over five meters tall.
Sō let out a string of bell-like laughter before saying earnestly, "Promise me!"
This was a harsh and perilous world, where humans' existence was tenuous and fragile.
The birth and destruction of a tribe often occurred within just a few decades. If there were any human survivors, they would carry the fire of their legacy to other places.
A tribe's downfall could be caused by a beast tide or perhaps by the hands of their own kind.
Shokui's reputation, his abilities, and his immense strength became reasons for others to covet him.
A far stronger tribe, armed with numerous war beasts, came from afar and crushed Yun and Sō's tribe.
Faced with an overwhelming assault, Sō's tribe was destroyed in a single night. Amid a sea of flames, corpses littered the ground, and rivers of blood flowed.
Holding to the spirit of "preserving the fire," the few remaining survivors of the tribe fled toward an unknown destination, pursued relentlessly by the invaders who sought to annihilate them completely.
Yun and Sō were among the lucky few, but as the relentless army closed in, their companions fell one by one.
To ensure Sō and Shokui could escape, Yun gave them a wide, reassuring smile before staying behind without hesitation to cover their retreat.
In the memory's vivid imagery, it was a night when the moon was obscured. Yun, left behind to hold off the enemy, was impaled through the chest by a heavy spear. Even at the cost of his life, he could only buy a brief amount of time.
The howling wind filled the air, accompanied only by Sō's heart-wrenching screams.
Shokui's expression grew increasingly twisted, his gaze fixed forward with a grim determination. He was fleeing, desperately fleeing. He had to protect the young girl from these merciless pursuers.
As the first rays of light appeared on the horizon, Shokui and Sō found themselves standing at the edge of a bottomless gorge, a dead end. Behind them, the pursuers closed in, encircling them.
Ye Zi stood silently between the pursuers and Shokui and Sō, like a projection existing within the memory. He watched as the events unfolded, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, unable to intervene or change anything.
What lay before him was a strange and vivid world, the memory of Shokui.
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Currently on Chapter 513 - One Against Ten Thousand III