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A few moments earlier.
Within the baby's body, before the two souls began the merging process, Ren Qian smartly asked the dark soul of the baby,
"How do you plan to repay me for giving you my soul essence? After all, I'm not obliged to help this body in any way."
"You will get your repayment after giving me the soul essence", the baby soul said.
Ren Qian was quiet for some time before he said, "Wait. I want to ask you a question, can you give me an answer?"
"If I have the answer to it", the baby soul said.
Ren Qian nodded and asked his question.
"What exactly are you and how exactly are we going to merge our souls? Do you have to dissipate my soul for this? What exactly do you plan to achieve?."
Truth to be told, Ren Qian was now thinking twice about this soul merge. What if it made him disappear forever?
He didn't even know who the heck he was, how could he 'die' so quickly?
Screw that, he didn't even know why he had become a soul, why and how he had gotten here and why he didn't remember anything.
He knew nothing at all and it made him antsy.
"Did you not say one question?", the baby soul said, amusement could be heard in his voice.
Ren Qian did not speak, avoiding his question.
The baby soul chuckled loudly, thinking to himself, 'This kid is interesting'.
"Hmm, you have a powerful soul and I do not know how you got here but you make me feel incredibly thirsty for you, for the power you hold. As for who I am, I am that bright little boy's dark side. As vampires, their souls are in two parts; light and dark. The side they lean towards more naturally becomes more powerful.", the eerie-looking baby said, floating around idly in the dark place.
He had tactfully avoided some questions Ren Qian asked.
"You seem to possess a conscience of your own.", Ren Qian said, hoping to know more, posing his statement as neither a question nor a statement.
"Yes", the baby said, not willing to explain further.
It was quite a spectacle seeing a baby robed in darkness talking to him 'normally'.
It couldn't be considered talking. His mouth was not moving, he was speaking through his mind.
'How was he able to do such a thing?', he thought.
"Souls communicate in this way, you idiot. I wonder how you are a soul when you are so ignorant.", the soul said dismissively.
"I'm not a soul. I happen to be sent here by some means and my memories seem to have been wiped.", Ren Qian said with uncertainty.
Ren Qian continued with his question-and-answer session with the baby soul who seem to know a lot of things because of his reincarnations.
He didn't understand why the entire existence of this soul made him feel so small, like a child standing in front of an elder, even when the tiny one was clearly the baby soul. But he was going to find out soon.
"If you two are the souls of the same body, then why don't you merge his soul with yours?", Ren Qian asked, his eyes went into the direction of the bright island on the other side of the flowing stream.
"It seems you are quite worried about this soul merge. Do not worry, I won't eat you up.", the soul said with a smirk.
Ren Qian eyes widened, his fear evident.
'Eat me up? Can souls consume other souls?', thought Ren Qian, not knowing that the soul was jesting.
He didn't know the true extent to which this evil baby's version power reached so he could not trust the soul fully.
"Seriously though, it's not practically a soul merge as you think, rather a merge of different soul essences. A hybrid soul will be formed after the soul essences have been refined.", the dark baby soul said, moving slightly away from where the bright soul resided.