American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

"Also, make good use of that soul fragment you have. It can be used as an extremely excellent forging material. Of course, only for yourself," Stephen thought for a moment, and still reminded Bruce.

"Forging material?" A hint of interest finally appeared on Bruce's face. For him, although research and invention were not his main profession, no one could deny his talent in this area.

"You can use it to forge another 'you'. This 'you' generally won't be confused, and there won't be conflicting opposing consciousnesses. It will be like a set program. And what determines its behavior and style is the part of your soul personality that you cut out. Do you still have the urge and desire to uphold justice? Can you still maintain your bottom line and principles as before? You may not be able to temporarily, but it can," Stephen pointed to the sphere in Bruce's hand.

"You can build a body for him and hand over the responsibilities you used to bear. If there are no accidents, I believe he will do as well as you. And you, perhaps you can temporarily try to experience another kind of life."

"What you said is very similar to Alfred," Bruce glanced at him with a complicated expression. He thought of his old butler, whose greatest wish seemed to be for him to let go of the burdens on his shoulders and live a good life like an ordinary person. Get married, have children, and grow old. Instead of constantly dealing with a group of criminals, with danger constantly accompanying him.

"Thank you for your suggestion. May I ask, have you tried cutting your own soul?"

Bruce's question made Stephen pause. He pondered for a moment: "Honestly, I have great faith in my technique! You should have had that experience, if you want to achieve something, you must firmly believe in it and have some beliefs and methods. Are geniuses all paranoid? I think it's just that they firmly believe in themselves.

You've experienced this surgery, so you should understand what it can do in my hands! I can arbitrarily modify anyone's soul personality and let any personality dominate the surgeon's body.

Similar to mind control and the Anti-Life Equation, but the difference is that I'm just amplifying a certain personality in your heart as a pillar. Essentially, you are still you, not influenced by external forces.

If possible, you can use this ability to become a so-called god."

Bruce was silent, instinctively adding another task to himself in his heart. Not urgent, but necessary.

"I think you're thinking about something very offensive," Stephen sensitively interrupted himself and looked at Bruce, who still couldn't hide his subtle emotions well. Stephen could sense the emotional fluctuations in Bruce's heart at this moment through his spiritual sense. He sensed a trace of malice from Bruce's emotions. Not strong, but present.

Bruce couldn't possibly see him as an enemy now, but there was still malice, obviously after hearing his words, he had generated emotions such as fear, disgust, defense, and targeting in his heart.

This was to be expected. But thinking of Bruce's cautious and suspicious personality, it was hard to say whether he had any targeted ideas for confrontation.

"Don't be so defensive towards me. This power is indeed very powerful and terrifying. But it's not omnipotent. I and it have our own set bottom line.

I regard it as a kind of surgery, and surgery requires a lot of preparation and conditions beforehand. Doing surgery on the soul is a delicate job. Don't look at the simple cuts I made on your body, but it consumes a lot of energy.

And what surgery fears most is the patient's restlessness, so the power of belief is needed! Belief is the best anesthetic for this surgery. The more trust, the less pain felt during the surgery, and the milder it is."

"So when you asked me: 'Do you trust me?' was it to achieve this condition?" Bruce thoughtfully recalled the sudden, nonsensical question Stephen asked him in the mental world. He previously thought it was a subtle reminder to him, but now it seemed more like a psychological guidance ritual?

"Yes, if the abyss had completely polluted and occupied your dark side before the cut, then the subsequent treatment would be very tricky. Fortunately, you still have some trust in me. Although not much!" Stephen smiled and continued: "Because of practicing spiritual energy, the mages of Kamar-Taj will initially breed all kinds of spiritual growths, that is, personality biases. The longer the time, the greater the impact. So another one of my responsibilities is to help mages in need clean up the personality growths on their souls.

Of course, it's different from your direct cutting. They remove the growths and restore them to their desired boundaries. There are also some radical factions who want to take shortcuts, such as cutting off many personalities that they consider to be obstacles, and then cultivating well. But this radical method will also bring serious consequences. Breaking one's own balance.

I initially thought that this technology should be promoted among mages like medical skills. Many mages who are qualified to read it can find someone themselves, or perform surgery on themselves if they have concerns. But the consequence of doing so is that there are still several radical and crazy mages in the energy bank's prison undergoing mandatory 'introspection'.

So this technology had to become a member of the forbidden book area. Wang, my deputy, a learned and powerful mage, believes that this technology should not be spread. His style is more stable and cautious than mine. I really should listen to him."

"Spreading this technology would indeed be a disaster. Those with evil intentions would bring you great trouble," Bruce agreed with the mage Wang's opinion. Although it seemed that the emergence of this technology was to treat diseases and save people, and solve some diseases and troubles, its hidden dangers were equally great.

"In fact, the conditions for learning it are quite difficult. Even though I have explained it in great detail and simplified the difficulty of mastering it as much as possible, in fact, even the simplified version, there are not many who can truly master it proficiently. It really depends on talent," Stephen also regretted that, apart from his teacher, the Ancient One, there were only a few people in Kamar-Taj who truly mastered some surgical techniques, such as Mordo and the mage Wang. The one who was most interested and talented in this technology outside was actually Loki of Asgard. Although he changed it into something that was neither fish nor fowl.

"You asked me, have I cut my soul?" Stephen shifted his body in the chair. "In fact, I have cut it! I cut off most of my technical experience, and Luke used this part of my experience to create the soul operating room. Well, I have shares, the kind that can enjoy dividends."

PS: Thank you to Quiet Peak for the reward.