Autophagy

"No problem," Song Lei said. Even though he knew he didn't manage to deceive Clark, it was enough for them to do whatever they wanted.

After leaving the tent, Song Lei and Aston headed off into the distance. Their aim was to gather some test subjects so that Aston could experiment a little. This time, however, he would have the ability to make more detailed experiments.

"Did you really bind with that thing?" Song Lei asked. Aston looked at him momentarily and said. "Yes, I did."

After answering Song Lei's question nonchalantly, Aston closed his eyes and focused for a few seconds. When he did so, a toolbox appeared in his hands.

"I know you have a lot of soul space but isn't it a bit careless to use it like this?" Song Lei asked.

"When I figured out how to do it, I needed something to test with. And during that time, I couldn't guess that three-dimensional items could fill up my four-dimensional soul storage. So it was a bit unlucky," Aston said. "On the other hand, it could've been much worse. This is a relatively small thing to place in my soul so it's no problem."

"You do you I guess..." Song Lei muttered while looking at the toolbox in Aston's hands. During the five months Song Lei had been training constantly, Aston was mostly busy with inventing new stuff using his Theory of High-Dimensional Physics and Human Soul. As he was the sole creator of this new discipline. He could create a lot of new stuff that had never been seen before.

This toolbox being able to appear out of nowhere was also one of his inventions. It was named by Aston to be called soul storage. Although it was a bit lame of a name in Song Lei's eyes, it didn't change the fact that it was a marvelous invention.

Everyone in the world had a soul. A soul was a part of every living being's body. It existed in a higher dimension than the one they were currently in. Aston had managed to create a liquid by using soul worms that could make someone be able to bind their items to their soul and store them inside it. He had injected the liquid into his own body to experiment and it was successful.

When someone bound something to their soul, they wouldn't be able to unbind it without harming their own souls. However, they would be able to put the item into their soul storage and pull it back out whenever they wanted. As the soul storage was in a higher dimension. Nobody other than the owner would be able to come into contact with it unless the owner himself took it out of his soul.

With this aspect, soul storage was the greatest invention Aston had managed to come up with in Song Lei's mind.

This toolbox was the first thing Aston had bound to his soul with all the things inside it. Albeit the extreme physics behind the fourth dimension, it mostly behaved similarly to a three-dimensional storage. Its size was dependant on the person's soul. As Aston's soul was one that was exceptionally strong, he had a lot of space to spare for storage.

Inside this toolbox were all kinds of tools that Aston used to run experiments. It consisted of Aston's own creations such as the soul perception monocle and soul'o meter as well as normal experimental tools.

"Come to think of it, why didn't you just use this stuff on the test subjects you had yesterday?" Song Lei asked curiously as they traveled across the forest.

"Oh. I accidentally hurt my soul while trying to take out my toolbox, so I was just waiting for it to heal," Aston said.

"That sounds dangerous... How can you be sure that it's healed?" Song Lei asked.

"I assure you, from the amount of pain you feel when you hurt your soul, you can definitely understand when it's healed," Aston explained with a sour expression. "Oh, just a quick advice: Try not to hurt your soul as it isn't particularly pleasant to do so"

"I can imagine that..." Song Lei muttered. Although Aston wasn't aware of it, Song Lei knew how much it hurt to have one's soul injured from the time Isabel had ripped away half of his soul to use as fuel. If he could, he would make sure that he never experienced that pain. "How did you even injure yourself while doing such a thing?"

"Well... I think the soul storage liquid isn't entirely ready yet," Aston said. "It seems to make one's immune system go into alert mode from time to time as it flows through the veins," he said as he formed a circle shape by putting his index finger and thumb together.

"As I was trying to pull out the toolbox, the liquid malfunctioned and the toolbox got glitched in my soul gate. What I hurt wasn't exactly my soul but my soul gate," he said while putting his other index finger through the circle he had created with his hand. He then suddenly tightened the circle and squeezed his index finger.

"Oh..." Song Lei exclaimed in surprise. Although Aston's visualization of the process was a bit weird, he could imagine the toolbox glitching pretty vividly. "Well... I hope it doesn't happen again."

"I hope so. On the other side, however, this helped me learn that souls heal on their own over time, so it was well worth it," Aston explained. His love for science always left Song Lei in awe. "Crouch!" Aston suddenly whispered. As soon as Song Lei heard his order, he went behind a nearby bush and crouched.

There were three humans roughly about thirty meters away from them. They had been making a lot of noise unconsciously while talking. Fortunately, they weren't caught during their careless conversation. They owed this to the fact that both of them had incredibly strong senses.

After hiding and concealing their existence, both Song Lei and Aston started waiting for the men to come closer. From their uniforms, Song Lei was able to understand that they were from Section C. Much to their surprise, the three people directly came towards without even being aware that they were there. At some point, Song Lei was suspicious that they were just acting like they hadn't noticed him and Aston.

However, after ambushing them and instantly knocking them out with Aston, he understood that this wasn't the case. All three of the trainees dropped to the ground without being able to make any sounds. Song Lei was feeling that he and Aston were getting a bit too strong for a few average trainees to handle.

"You can have fun as much as you want with them," Song Lei said while crossing his arms in front of him. He walked to a nearby tree and rested against it. "I'm sure I don't need to remind you that you shouldn't kill them."

"Of course you don't? When have I ever killed someone accidentally?" Aston asked confusedly.

"Just saying..." Song Lei answered. For some reason, he felt anxious. This feeling of anxiousness had been appearing from time to time since he had entered the forest. It was as if someone was watching them, prying into their conversations.

Closing his eyes and trying to focus, Song Lei managed to locate the direction this anxiousness came from. His eyelids suddenly opened as he turned his head towards this particular direction. However, as soon as he did so, the feeling disappeared.

'Am I just imagining things..?' Song Lei thought with a sour expression. He closed his eyes back again. "No. I don't just feel anxious from out of nowhere. My sixth sense has helped me out countless times. I think someone is trying to observe us," Song Lei deducted.

"Oh by the way," Aston started talking. His crisp voice snapped Song Lei out of his daze. "Are you okay..? Anyways. I think I should be able to finish the soul liquid's final version nearly. When that happens, you too will have soul storage of your own."

"Thanks," Song Lei said with an awkward smile on his face. He was unsure whether he should've told Aston about the fact that they were probably being watched. 'I think I'll refrain from doing so for now...' He thought. Although it would be incredibly bad if Aston's inventions were discovered by a third party, Song Lei didn't want to disturb him with such thoughts for now. The primary reason being that he could always guard Aston against such a thing.

'If a situation where I can't be beside Aston appears, I'll talk to him about it.'

As Aston started dealing with his test subjects again, the sky started getting darker and darker. They were running out of time, however, there was an incredibly excited expression on Aston's face. So Song Lei decided that it wasn't the best idea to disturb him. If he were to disturb some kind of discovery, he would regret it a lot. Since the anxious feeling hadn't returned since the last time, he waited till Aston was done with his job.

"I found it...!"