Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 330 A Different Way to Immortality

Seeing that Ash was safe and sound, Harvey decided not to delay any longer and immediately suggested to the necromancers in the ritual cave, "Everyone, since the ritual has ended, why don't we return to camp and discuss the next steps?"

Councillor Prall and the white-bearded old man nodded, signaling several cult members to stay at the scene to collect the lifeless body of Patriarch Lambert and to quickly clear away the many ritual devices and rune arrays.

When everyone returned to the spellcaster's camp, they found that the chaos caused by Blake's zombies and corpse puppets had just been suppressed with great difficulty by their colleagues who stayed in the camp. Now the camp was still in a mess, and even several tents were trampled down.

Harvey coughed twice awkwardly, then politely called a young necromancer and asked him to go to the dock area to inform White and Black that the situation was under control.

At the invitation of Congressman Prall, he went into the largest pointed tent in the camp, which was used as a temporary meeting room.

After the situation calmed down, the necromancers relaxed their minds. Without waiting for Councilman Prall to speak, they surrounded Harvey as soon as they entered the tent. With eager looks on their faces, they asked him about the strange magic and the key points of the reversal ceremony that Harvey had just performed.

Councillor Prall stood aside with an awkward look on his face, not knowing whether to step forward and stop them, or to let them express their thirst for knowledge to their heart's content. Their spellcasting faction had been in a very difficult situation for hundreds of years. Not only was it considered a dark symbol of evil and blood in the eyes of the secular world, it was also subjected to a joint siege by the church and the nobility. Even within the spellcasting group itself, it was ostracized by other factions that claimed to be orthodox.

Most necromancers survive through family and master-apprentice inheritance. A lucky few have the opportunity to study in the few necromancer academies in the southern region and receive a relatively more formal and systematic academic education. However, the academic community is still very small, and they often have to rely on closed-door research and independent exploration for advancement.

But precisely because of this, necromancers, regardless of their origins and status, are more willing to help each other and keep each other warm. That's why these people dare to ask Harvey directly for advice, without worrying that casually exploring other people's magical research results will easily anger the other party.

"Sir, once the life essence and soul imprint are extracted separately, is it true that there will be no rejection reaction if they are re-fused?"

"Mr. Harvey, can the legendary secret method of flesh and blood reshaping be applied directly to the practitioner?"

"Sir Harvey, the alchemical instrument you used in the ritual just now is the result of research that combines alchemy and necromancy rituals? But... shouldn't necromancy be carried out using flesh and blood as a carrier to guide the death energy within the magic network?"

"Shadow magic! It must be a fusion of shadow magic and death energy... right? Does your original magic have a chance of reaching the legendary level?"

……

Harvey was surrounded by this group of gentlemen who were eager to learn. He felt a throbbing pain in his head. Amid the buzzing sound, he finally found a chair that someone pushed over and sat down.

The scene was like a group of junior college students asking an undergraduate student...the ultimate truth about the origin of the universe.

He really couldn't answer most of the questions!

"Everyone! Everyone!" The white-bearded old man struggled to squeeze to the front, waving his hands to push away the people who were getting closer and closer. "Don't be so rude. Mr. Harvey is our distinguished guest now! Please control your emotions!"

He took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead, then bowed and said, "I'm sorry. Please forgive my previous arrogance and rudeness, Sirius Lambert... I am also the uncle of Ash."

Harvey frowned slightly, looking at the old wizard in front of him who was probably over seventy years old with some disbelief, "You are... Ash's uncle?" He knew very well that Ash was a few years younger than him, and his friend's father, Chief Lambert, was only in his early forties. How could such an old uncle suddenly appear?

Councillor Prall stepped forward and interrupted to explain, "Sirius spent many years in the corpse cave in his family's ancestral land, shouldering the responsibility of guarding the zombies and preventing them from running away, while also engaging in high-intensity zombie refining research..."

It turned out that the deep erosion by the death energy had caused his appearance to be extremely aged...

Sirius himself smiled wryly as he took off his gentleman's hat, revealing a head of messy, sparse white hair. "After barely reaching a high rank, I felt my lifespan was drawing to a close. I was supposed to undergo this extremely risky lich transformation ritual... but the clan leader flatly refused, leading to today's nearly unresolved mess."

Harvey nodded in understanding and casually asked, "The projection of the Temple of the Dead used to protect the ceremony site was probably created by you, right?"

Sirius shook his head and pointed at Councillor Prall. "This is Prall's masterpiece. My body is too old to withstand the magical backlash of driving a legendary artifact."

Councillor Prall duly pulled out a delicately shaped, grayish-white miniature castle model from his bosom. It appeared to be carved from bones, and he explained bluntly, "This is the only remaining legendary necromancy artifact of the Necromancer Cult. Its function is to condense the legendary Temple of the Dead, enveloping an area. Enemies who stray into it will uncontrollably lose their will to live, and their vitality will gradually be drained away..."

Harvey glanced at the high-level necromancer emblem worn on Senator Prall's chest, then glanced at the colleagues from other factions surrounding him, and he immediately understood.

The undead spellcasting faction is really losing talent... The Lambert family, which has been passed down for hundreds of years, and the equally ancient Necromancer, are left with only two high-level undead spellcasters and a pitiful legendary magic weapon. It is really heartbreaking to hear about it and bring tears to eyes.

"Councilor Prall, Mr. Sirius... I'm confused. Why is the lich transformation ritual necessary? Not only does it violate the Federation's taboos, but it could also easily lead to the Church attacking you with legitimate reasons..."

He paused and continued, "Moreover, you are unable to completely imitate the correct ancient ritual process. Using arbitrarily modified rituals and substitute materials is bound to fail..."

His frank questioning almost immediately touched upon the pain that everyone knew so well. Most of them lowered their heads and stopped talking, their faces becoming even paler and more gloomy.

Sirius twitched his lips twice, then gave a wry smile and trembling voice, "We all know this, too. But the Undead spellcasting faction has lost the path to legendary status. Due to their constant dealings with death energy, even those who reach a high level have a lifespan shorter than that of ordinary mid- to low-level spellcasters..."

Councillor Prall tightened the hem of his dress, his face showing a look of shame for his current situation and despair about the future.

Harvey's heart moved, and an idea suddenly popped into his mind.

"Everyone, why do you continue to linger on fruitless research into flesh and blood? As we all know, the connection between us spellcasters and the energy of the magic network has always been dominated by the soul and mental power... Why not turn your attention to the soul level? Is the reshaping of flesh and blood more noble than the immortality of the soul?"

The soul level? The study of the mindless spirits born from the energy erosion of the dead? Those things are even worse than a skeleton, unable to be refined or preserved. Once captured, they will quickly disappear naturally with time...

While everyone frowned and pondered, Sirius and Councilman Prall looked at each other. Almost at the same time, their bodies began to tremble violently and uncontrollably. They asked in unison, "Your Excellency... Your Excellency... may I ask... may I ask what... is... the immortality of the soul?"

(End of this chapter)