Nightmare’s Call

Lin Sheng laid the plastic sheet for the summoning ceremony on the ground and carefully checked the ingredients before him. The whale oil lamp was burning, and a cloud of white steam had formed in front of Lin Sheng as the sticky liquid in the new flat pan boiled.

“Let’s begin…” After he received feedback in the form of unique signals from the soldiers around the perimeter, Lin Sheng knew that no preying eyes were in his surroundings. He made sure that he was attuned before he chanted the words to the Initiator. As the Initiator slowly climbed to a fever-pitch, it surged and rolled in the warehouse, triggering the sacred power in Lin Sheng.

Plumes of white smoke rose from the whale oil lamp and instantly disappeared into the liquid in the flat pan. Immediately after that, white steam began to rise and shroud Lin Sheng. He closed his eyes, and within his dark field of vision, light orbs of different colors and sizes started to appear and float before his mind’s eye. They were red, white, gray, and blue, with the red one on the leftmost side being the smallest. It represented the Blackfeather swordsman.

The white light orb was of middle size, but Lin Sheng had no idea what it represented, and he had no intention of summoning it anytime soon. He glanced over the light orbs, and his eyes landed on the blue one on the rightmost. At twice the size of the others, the blue light orb was bright, almost blinding in its intensity. Instead of soft and moderate, it was horribly brazen and savage.

“Here it is!” Lin Sheng was almost sure that the blue light orb was the Thunderbeast that he had just killed the night before. Without further hesitation, he focused his mind on it, and the orb began to envelop his consciousness.

“Wait a minute!” A thought suddenly crossed his mind, and he quickly pulled his consciousness out. “Earlier, when I decided to inject my consciousness into it, it was merely to transfer the necessary memories. But that would also make the summoned creature almost an independent individual. It wouldn’t be a problem when used on its own, but it’s inconvenient for me.”

Lin Sheng thought for a moment and resolved to let his consciousness touch the orb lightly. Following that, he closed his eyes. Except for combat experience of the Thunderbeast, he would not give a damn about the other remaining memories.

A few minutes later, a large number of deep-blue lightning bolts appeared on the ground before Lin Sheng. The lightning then coalesced and formed a half-human, half-goat Thunderbeast. It stood before Lin Sheng, looking at him in shock before looking down at itself.

“It works!” The monster spread its hands out and clenched its fists like a human. “Is this soul transfer?” It stretched its body and felt extremely light.

“Am I Lin Sheng or the Thunderbeast now?” Once again, it looked at Lin Sheng, who was silent and appeared calm. However, if one looked closely, one would notice the glazed look in his eyes.

“It’s not soul duplication but soul transfer?” Lin Sheng walked around his own body in the Thunderbeast’s form. At that moment, he realized that the sacred power in his original body was gone. He looked down and felt the body of the Thunderbeast. Sure enough, a current of pure-white sacred power was flowing in the heart of the Thunderbeast. His sacred power had fused with the Thunderbeast’s electric current and formed something more fascinating.

“It’s not just the transfer of the soul but also of sacred power. It looks like the theory that sacred power is a manifestation of the power of the soul is well-founded.” Lin Sheng continued to walk around. He was now a Thunderbeast through-and-through. Half-human, half-goat, standing at over two meters tall, and surrounded by light-blue electric arcs, his form was essentially a powerful electric current wrapped in living tissue.

Lin Sheng raised his arm, and a streak of blue light flashed in between the threw claws on his hand. It then shot out from his claw and struck the ground several meters away like a lash, leaving behind a burnt mark on the surface and beating up a cloud of dust in the air.

“Awesome! It’s so much more powerful than my own body.” Lin Sheng could not help but be amazed. Previously, the Thunderbeast had fought based on its skills as well as instincts, and it nearly slaughtered Lin Sheng although he was armed with a terrific amount of memories of brutal battles. The level of skill it had was just amazing. With Lin Sheng in control of its body and the sacred power joining forces with lightning, it was much more powerful than the sum of all its parts.

Lin Sheng looked at his own body again. “If my body suddenly dies one day, will I be able to continue living in this shell?” The query came to mind because the question of where he came from, and how he crossed space and time had always bothered him. However, it seemed that there was little difference between the current possession and his previous space-time crossing. The only distinction was that the last possessed body was of a human’s and now it was a Thunderbeast.

“If that’s true, then what is the meaning of the bloodline? No! If the difference in body structure were too huge, my soul would’ve had a problem being in full control, and I would need time to adapt. I can feel the essence and root of the soul coming from humans.”

Lin Sheng raised his hands, and a large purplish-blue electric bolt crackled between his claws with a buzzing sound, reverberating in the air. He willed it in his mind, then his spirit receded and disappeared rapidly in a mysterious way. At the same time, Lin Sheng’s original body began to wake up; his sacred power gradually returned, growing stronger and more intense.

Lin Sheng found himself as a human again, back in his own body. When he looked at the Thunderbeast not far away and willed it in his mind, the monster turned into a plume of black smoke and dispersed into his surroundings.

It was unlike other monsters, which would return to their natural, instinctual behavior after Lin Sheng ceased control such as Khadula and the Steel Lord. The Thunderbeast was different. Lin Sheng did not duplicate its memories, and it could only linger around him like an empty shell that was devoid of a soul, awaiting its master to possess it again.

“I’ve made it!” Lin Sheng was convinced. “The body of this Thunderbeast will only be for my use, and it will not have its own conscience, which means it’s my second body!” He willed it again, and his consciousness returned to the body of the Thunderbeast. Seconds later, he switched back to his human body. After he did that back and forth for a dozen times, Lin Sheng started to get used to it.

What Lin Sheng did not expect was the mysterious reaction between the electric current and sacred power when he changed into the Thunderbeast. As talented and powerful as the Thunderbeast was, there was a problem in terms of the sensory system. Lin Sheng needed to fine-tune his bodily senses carefully to minimize issues due to the sensory differences.

Lin Sheng spent the entire day in the warehouse practicing his newfound sacred power in the Thunderbeast’s body, and he was utterly immersed.