Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 692 Soul Extraction
Harvey hurriedly entered the new Federation building with his guards, only to find that Dawson and Salas, unusually, were not squatting in the laboratory supervising the experiments, but were sitting in the lounge on the third floor of the building, leisurely enjoying the Wilderness Snow Mountain Tea, a specialty of the North, as well as the special tobacco that was popular throughout the royal capital, Starfire City.

Seeing Harvey's somewhat surprised expression, Salas took the pipe from his lips, exhaled a thick cloud of white smoke from his nose, and said with a smile, "Why has Your Majesty taken the time to come and inspect today? We haven't received any urgent research and development tasks today."

“I’ve come to see the live winged beings you brought back…” Harvey shook his head helplessly and smiled bitterly, “Without the Blackwater to replenish them, and after such a long journey by air, I’m afraid not many of the prisoners who arrived in the capital will have survived.”

The winged beings are essentially no different from the black and red lizard people they captured before. They also do not need to eat or drink. Apart from their outer shells gradually drying and hardening over time, once captured and bound alive, most of them will immediately choose to detonate the red energy stored in their bodies and decisively "self-destruct" in a way that leads to mutual destruction.

As the outer shell breaks down, the soft flesh inside quickly dries up and rots, like air leaking out, eventually turning into a pool of putrid water that emits a strong, rusty stench.

In response to this situation, the experimental team led by Salas and Dawson tried every possible method, but they were unable to reverse the process of death... This also resulted in the research on the Lizardmen consuming a huge number of live prisoners, while the overall progress was extremely slow.

“It’s as if they were implanted with a self-destruct command from birth that cannot be interrupted once triggered.” Dawson puffed on his pipe and frowned as he judged, “Once they lose their combat capability, this command will be triggered very quickly, directly destroying their most instinctive survival instinct as living beings.”

There wasn't even time left for them to communicate with them or observe their reactions.

This is also the key reason why Harvey has been repeatedly thinking about and desperately seeking answers...

"Perhaps...finding a way to sever the link between the individual and the hive consciousness, allowing the recipient to be tested in a completely independent state, could achieve the goal of terminating or reversing the self-destruct command?"

Salas shook his head with a wry smile. "How do we stop it? Dawson and I risked trying mind intrusion the first time we received the living organism you sent in Alaye, and what was the result?"

Although Dawson cleverly cut the target's thoughts and memories out of his sea of ​​consciousness, he was still nearly locked in by the main consciousness of the floating island and dragged into the depths of its race's sea of ​​consciousness for reverse erosion.

Even legendary spellcasters considered it an extremely dangerous attempt, and aside from obtaining some fragments of memory to corroborate its origins, it yielded virtually nothing.

That being said, a somewhat whimsical idea suddenly flashed through Harvey's mind.

If active intrusion activates the body's defenses... then wouldn't it be surprisingly effective to extract the soul of a living captive and transfer it into an alchemical creation through soul transformation, thereby passively severing the natural connection between the two?

As is well known, most alchemical creations transformed by Harvey himself have been guided by his spiritual power during the transformation process. Inevitably, the core of their souls bears the imprint of Harvey's spirit. This allows him to perceive and control these soul creations at any time as a "creator." When necessary, he can even directly guide the creations to break free from their original carriers and freely traverse the magic network space, receiving protection and nourishment from their mutated magic runes.

After Salas and Dawson shared this idea with the two chiefs, they fell silent.

After pondering for a long time, Dawson, who was more familiar with the study of curse magic, was the first to understand and hesitated before asking, "Does Your Majesty intend to treat the Lizardmen as ordinary magical creatures, and perform the soul transfer and body transmutation that you are best at?" This idea was not unheard of by the necromancers in the Academy of Magic who had just converted to "soul spellcasters"... but to this day, there is still no way to successfully verify the most crucial question.

Do the Lizardmen actually possess the concept of a soul, a non-physical entity that can be separated and transferred?
Or rather... once separated from their own strange bodies, how exactly should this mysterious and illusory substance be captured, collected, and successfully transferred into a man-made carrier?

Harvey waved his hand and said decisively, "The development of everything is inseparable from trial and error. In the magical research school I founded, the soul is essentially just a special and unique energy substance. I do not believe that this ancient alien race with intelligence and evolutionary ability is just an empty shell without a soul... This does not make sense from their racial reproduction mechanism."

To truly crack this mystery, we must first try... Place the living winged beings directly onto the soul extraction device. Even if there is no soul, extract it first. Eventually, we can find some special substances in the energy pipes!
……

His Majesty the Emperor personally presided over the experiment. In addition to Chief Salas and Dawson being present to assist, several high-ranking research mages, including Magic Shield, who were mainly responsible for the experimental operation, were also summoned.

Looking at the soul extraction device that was immediately carried into the laboratory on the top floor of the building, Fran McCawley of the Shield looked somewhat worried.

"Your Majesty, Your Excellencies... if you really want to proceed so rashly without any prior preparation or theoretical verification..."

Dawson waved his hand, interrupting his rambling, but his expression held a long-lost fervor. "His Majesty has spoken, so we don't need to keep going in circles step by step... This is exactly how magical experiments that pursue the essence of truth should be conducted. Your previous timidity and reluctance to take risks only made you, these seasoned researchers, appear incompetent!"

"But... but if we really extract the alien soul and transfer it to a new alchemical vessel under His Majesty's personal guidance, what if the Lizardman's main consciousness senses it during the process? His Majesty..."

He was present throughout Lord Dawson's mind-intrusion experiment and was well aware of the perilous situation that occurred during it.

Once Harvey initiates soul guidance through mental power, the connection established between the two is not merely a matter of thought and consciousness, but in a sense, even a deep sharing of perception, just as he controls those alchemical beasts through mental imprints... As a human emperor, he can almost completely experience what it's like to be a creation of a soul, which seems to be a highly controlled and safe behavior.

However, if it falls on an unknown alien race, those strange sensory information that are completely different from humans or even beasts could very likely cause Harvey's own mental world to become chaotic, and as the guidance time goes on... it is hard to guarantee that it will not cause any negative effects.

Harvey, however, had anticipated this and smiled as he asked, "Are you worried that I might be unintentionally 'contaminated' by the alien race's core consciousness?"

The Shield, whose thoughts had been exposed in a single sentence, frowned and nodded solemnly.

"It's alright. Throughout the experiment, I will try my best to rely on the two original cores I have fused together, and with the help of the rules of the inherited fragments, to complete this extremely risky attempt!"

(End of this chapter)