"First, I need to see what tricks Hoggus is up to."
As the scenery whizzed past, Chen Chen thought to himself. Instead of returning to his physical body, he channeled a burst of Divine Sense Power through the legs of his Soul Body, accelerating further along the celestial trajectory Hoggus had set.
In about two Earth seconds, Chen Chen had traversed countless dimensions and arrived at a star shrouded in a layer of black mist.
*Boom!*
He burst through the outer layer and into a sky the color of twilight. Floating black clouds nearly completely obscured the heavens, allowing only faint, mournful rays of light to pierce the land. Towering, ink-black peaks rose all around, while a perfectly still lake lay at their base.
This dimension exuded an atmosphere of deathly stillness, yet it was filled with a low, soul-like hum, as if it were a realm of the dead.
"What is this place?" Chen Chen hovered in the air, surveying the desolate landscape. Though he had studied countless dimensions at Kamar-Taj, the descriptions in ancient texts remained vague and hazy.
The knowledge gained from books always felt shallow; in reality, the situation at this place was still largely unknown.
In the blink of an eye, Chen Chen stopped pondering the various dimensional descriptions in his mind and slowly closed his eyes.
*Boom!*
A powerful wave of Divine Sense Power surged from Chen Chen's Soul Body, instantly enveloping the desolate and dim dimension. It scoured every organic and inorganic object, gathering information.
Moments later, Chen Chen's eyes snapped open, his pupils contracting sharply. "Vormir?"
This was truly extraordinary.
Vormir, the hiding place of one of the Infinite Stones—the most special Soul Stone. Its guardian was none other than the ultimate boss of Hydra from years past, Red Skull.
During his battle with Captain America on the aircraft, Red Skull had physically touched the Space Stone, then known as the Cosmic Cube. But the moment he made contact, the Space Stone had cast him aside.
The Space Stone had teleported Red Skull to Vormir, cursing him to serve as the Soul Stone's guardian—to protect it but never obtain it.
The Soul Stone could not be obtained through any means of force; only by sacrificing the soul of one's beloved could it be acquired.
"But why would Hoggus transfer us here in our soul forms?"
As Chen Chen explored the surroundings and pondered the Soul Stone, several soul fluctuations emanated from the twilight-hued sky.
Like shooting stars, ethereal figures descended, transforming into massive golden pillars of light that crashed down from the heavens. The powerful impact sent ripples across the lake's surface.
Moments later, the golden light dissipated, gradually revealing the figures obscured by the dazzling pillars.
It was Kazusa, Voodoo, the Mysterious Sorcerer, and Janos in his green robe. Unlike their normal forms, they remained in their soul states. Light easily passed through their ethereal forms, and they cast no shadows on the ground or the lake under the hazy glow.
Unlike Chen Chen's nearly solidified Soul Body, which was almost tangible, Kazusa and the others' souls fluctuated to varying degrees upon arriving on Vormir.
Doctor Voodoo and the Mysterious Sorcerer quickly regained their composure after a brief tremor.
Kazusa and Janos, however, continued to sway noticeably. Janos, in particular, was quite conspicuous; his soul projection, already more luminous than the others, now wavered precariously like a drunken man.
To Chen Chen, it was exactly like the dying souls about to dissipate in the Hell Dimension described in ancient texts.
"Something's not right... this place feels strange," Chen Chen murmured, carefully observing Janos's condition and detecting a subtle anomaly.
Though Janos's magical prowess wasn't exceptional, he was still qualified to participate in this selection process. As the young master of a prominent family or a specially trained prodigy, he should have been proficient in Astral Projection.
Anyone who mastered Astral Projection should inherently possess sufficient soul power and control to navigate the disembodied experience. Yet Janos's soul was now on the verge of collapse, a clearly irrational state of affairs.
*Could it be...?* Various thoughts flashed through Chen Chen's mind. As if suddenly struck by an idea, he closed his eyes again, his Divine Sense radiating outward, meticulously sensing every rustle of grass and shifting breeze in the surroundings.
In the span of a single breath, Chen Chen withdrew his Divine Sense Power back into his Soul Body. His tightly shut eyes snapped open, a trace of profound aura flickering in their depths. "Indeed, this area exerts an immense pressure on the soul. This must be where the Soul Stone is hidden."
Twisting his body in one direction, Chen Chen's gaze seemed to drift past the towering mountains before him, as if piercing through the distance to perceive some distant entity. "There it is."
Before him now stood a jagged, pitch-black peak not far away.
At its summit, dark clouds swirled into a spiral, resembling a black tornado. At the center of the spiral glowed a hazy, orange-yellow orb of light, its radiance like the last remaining beacon in the vast darkness.
Suddenly, several black figures floated past from the ground, the lake, and the mountains. Then came a dozen more, followed by hundreds, thousands, and countless more black, eerie shadows, surging from all directions toward the orange-yellow light mass.
Strengthening his Divine Sense Power, Chen Chen observed the blurry black figures more closely.
When he clearly saw the true forms of these eerie shadows, he couldn't help but gasp.
"Are those... souls?"
Indeed, those endless black shadows were souls, the departed spirits of Vormir, as well as undead from other celestial bodies. They had all been drawn here by some profound soul summons, converging from disparate locations.
Watching them charge into the black cloud vortex without hesitation, Chen Chen couldn't help but recall the phrase "moths to a flame." He withdrew his gaze from the distance and gently rubbed his temples.
The recent expenditure of his Divine Sense Power had indeed been substantial. If the Ancient One had been here, his own consumption would likely have been even greater. Yet, after expending so much mental energy, the effort hadn't been in vain.
"That place... must undoubtedly be the hiding place of the Soul Stone."
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