Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 331 A coaxing and deceptive invitation

Faced with Sirius and Councilman Prall's excited inquiries, Harvey didn't intend to hide his secrets. After a moment's thought, he slowly explained, "The inspiration for this experiment came from the Alchemical Quest Society's research on soul refining. I see it as abandoning the flesh and blood body and transferring the soul, as an independent energy substance, into a non-living vessel."

"Ah... So it's not soul refining, but soul transfer..." Sirius nodded thoughtfully. "So the method you plan to use to save Patriarch Lambert is also derived from this soul transfer technology?"

Harvey nodded in agreement. Although these necromancers had limited access to magical knowledge and many advanced experimental research and innovations in magical theory would not be generously shared and opened to them, it had to be said... it was precisely because of this that this group of "biased students" in the magic world were so focused on devoting all their energy to the research of necromancy, running wildly on one path for a long distance.

Councillor Prall frowned, lost in thought. After a moment, he tentatively asked, "What you just said... is that the research direction of the undead spellcasting faction should not be limited to the refining of death energy and flesh and blood, but should turn to the magic network and the soul... Has this theoretical statement... been clearly verified by experiments?"

The fish hook that Harvey had thrown out, intentionally or unintentionally, was finally taken advantage of by them...

He cleared his throat quickly, causing the necromancers around him to perk up all their energy, concentrate their attention, and quietly wait for the answer to this important question.

"I used to focus on the application of death energy research and have gained some experience in zombie refining technology... However, as my experiments progressed, I discovered an obvious yet easily overlooked problem and drawback."

Harvey stood up, reached out and gently pulled open the curtain of the meeting hall tent. He pointed at the zombies that had just been controlled and gathered together in the camp and said with a smile, "Whether they are human, alien, domestic beast, or magical creature corpses, under the control of the resurrection technique, they can only be refined and transformed into mindless walking corpses..."

This is the most basic and most simple theory of spellcasting of a faction of undead spellcasting - the necromancer is not a god, so naturally he cannot really resurrect the dead. He just uses magic to guide and control the corpse, and essentially regards it as a weapon and tool made of flesh and blood.

"But you haven't realized one thing: where do the life essence and soul imprints of the deceased go? Haha, there shouldn't be any devout believers of the Church of Light here, right? So no one would say they went to the Heavenly Kingdom of the God of Light."

Sirius nodded and replied cautiously, "Not only our faction's spellcasters, but also those of other orthodox factions, generally believe that life essence and soul imprints should quickly dissipate and disappear after death, and then be eroded and absorbed by the magic network."

This was a research theory proposed by the first chief of the Federation concerning the nature of the world and magic. This mysterious legendary lord believed that the operating rules of the world and the magic network needed to be in absolute balance. Therefore, the amount of magic and energy that the real world absorbed from the magic network was the same as the amount of life origin and soul imprint that needed to be returned after the death of a life. This was the only way to ensure that the two intertwined spaces achieved a delicate energy balance and would not collapse or shatter.

"My experimental inspiration came from this..." Harvey smiled. "The magical theories concerning the origin of life are truly profound and obscure. For thousands of years, no significant research results have been produced. This is why the great alchemists of the Alchemy Exploration Society have been repeatedly frustrated."

"But... the research on the synchronization of soul and magic power has long been mature. New-age spellcasters are generally adept at using meditation to train their mental and spiritual strength, hoping to absorb magic power more quickly within the magic network."

This view was immediately shared by all the necromancers. Someone interjected, "Yes, the elves, whose meditation abilities are weaker than humans, were the first to invent the spell coordinator to connect to the magic network and assist in drawing mana."

This group of necromancers really understood things quickly and were extremely good at drawing inferences from one instance. Harvey felt like he was teaching a group of top students, and the feedback from the lectures made him feel very happy and satisfied.

"So, what I just jokingly called the path to soul immortality is actually nothing more than transferring the complete soul imprint of a living being into an alchemical vessel of a non-living being... Since we can't prevent the natural disappearance of the life essence, it's better to decisively set it aside and focus solely on preserving and continuing the soul."

Councilman Prall reacted quickly, pressing the point, "Sir, we've attempted the soul transfer you mentioned before, but the soul fades so quickly after death that it can't be fully extracted. Furthermore, even the fragmented soul material... is extremely difficult to preserve for long." This choked Harvey. After a moment's pause, he blinked and said pointedly, "You all, I'm sure you haven't attempted... uh, the high-risk experiment of extracting the soul from a living person?"

What a bunch of "evil" necromancers who follow the rules...

An honest man immediately jumped out and whispered in defense, "It's not completely impossible... My teacher donated his body before he died, for... for a few of us students to conduct research in this area... It's a pity..."

I didn’t expect that these guys even developed the traditional teaching method of “cadaver teachers”, which is really admirable.

"Either the soul's energy is too weak in the face of near-death, or you haven't bravely attempted to use pure magic to guide the soul's transfer... Everyone, don't just focus on the cornerstone of necromancy—death energy. Sometimes elemental magic and arcane magic can also be powerful aids in controlling flesh, blood, and souls."

As the communication gradually deepened, Harvey began to realize that this group of necromancers who were said to have "closed academic research" and "backward theoretical development" were actually the purest research-oriented school among all spellcasting factions.

Not only is there no clear distinction between the scope of combat techniques and general techniques, but corpse refining and ghost manipulation, which are often considered evil and terrifying by the secular world, are mostly used to meet their own research needs and are only used for combat defense when necessary.

It was like a researcher in the lab was suddenly attacked while walking on the street, and he picked up his thick stack of papers to beat the other person - except that this stack of papers looked like a terrifying resurrected corpse.

They are all a group of "specialized talents"... Harvey couldn't help but feel secretly moved.

He had to find a way to pack them all up and coax them back to his own wasteland territory. This way, he could immediately build a complete prototype of the magic research team that he had always dreamed of.

Thinking of this, Harvey coughed a few times and said gently to Sirius and Councillor Prall, "Regarding the research direction of the undead spellcasting faction, I still have a lot to improve and verify experimentally... Unfortunately, I haven't found a like-minded person who can resonate with me and quickly advance research in this area."

He pointed to the Soul Extractor, which contained Chief Lambert's soul, carefully placed to the side, and said sincerely, "Everyone, Chief Lambert's soul transfer experiment requires me to return to my own mage territory before it can officially begin. Why don't you all come to my territory as guests? That way, we can have an in-depth academic discussion."

Sirius and Councillor Prall remained silent, seemingly genuinely considering the feasibility of Harvey's invitation. However, the other necromancers had already looked eager and eager to try, but because their leader had not spoken yet, they could only stare anxiously.

Harvey was about to reassure them of their safety again, but the inner demon that had been silent in his mind for a long time could no longer help but speak.

"Mr. Kel'Thuzad, after this collaboration is over, please go home and check your family tree, just like me..." The Inner Demon's words were filled with mockery. "Why do I feel that your words are so similar to the ritual contracts my people use to lure other intelligent beings into selling their souls? Is it true that your ancestors three generations ago had no blood relationship with my people at all?"

(End of this chapter)