Witch Troupe and the Undead

Of course, Roach didn't have that kind of power, so he could only consider using a bomb to pulverize the opponent's body and soul. It has to be said that Roach is going further and further down the path of explosions.

"Speaking of which, Miss Livia, have you ever learned any self-defense swordsmanship or staff techniques?" Hearing that Livia was going to the Deathwhisper Fortress with the caravan, Vivi was a little worried. Unlike when they came, when they went, they were really heading into the battlefield. It would be difficult to survive without some self-defense fighting techniques.

"Hmm!" Livia waved her cane and showed Vivi her newly made short sword. Vivi glanced at the sword, and the sword glanced at her too. Hmm? Something seems off.

"Don't worry about this. You'll get used to it. Anyway, the sword will automatically go out and cut people when the time comes." Roach also glanced at the obviously new short sword. Similarly, the short sword also glanced at Roach with the cat's eye stone inlaid on the hilt, and then silently turned its gaze away.

"By the way, Miss Livia, why does she insist on going to the Deathwhisper Fortress? Given her personality..." She doesn't seem like someone who likes war or fighting, nor does she seem to like necromancy. Judging from her enthusiastic appearance, it's more like she's going on a trip. If it were a normal Deathwhisper Fortress, then it wouldn't be surprising.

To be fair, the Deathwhisper Fortress itself also receives a considerable number of tourists and pilgrims. These pilgrims come to fight the undead or contribute military supplies in order to ask the gods for forgiveness for their sins.

As for tourists, they simply come to see what the [Dangerous Realm: Black Abyss Cemetery] looks like. After all, there are very few [Dangerous Realm] level ruins on the continent that can be observed up close, and the Black Abyss Cemetery is one of the few. Places like the [Lost Royal City], which is sealed by magic, are places that no one dares to go to.

Therefore, before its fall, the Deathwhisper Fortress did indeed attract many tourists every year, including nobles who came to broaden their horizons and brag about it back home, adventurers who came to hunt low-level undead creatures to earn some travel expenses, martial artists who came specifically to hone their skills, foreign travelers who visited the outskirts of the Black Abyss Cemetery, and even mages and alchemists who came specifically to collect research papers.

However, now that the fortress has fallen, the fact that they are still in a state of leisurely travel is something that Vivi finds hard to understand.

“She’s going to gather materials.” Leslie nodded. She could understand Old Ma’s telepathic messages, so she understood why Livia wanted to go to the Black Abyss Cemetery, or rather, the Deathwhisper Fortress.

Leaving aside the fact that some of the ingredients she uses to make potions and desserts grow there, the question of where the soul fragments in those moving desserts come from is enough to explain why Livia went there and why she followed Roach towards Hearthglen.

Just like in the drawing she made, the soul was, in her eyes, a moving spherical ball of fire that could be easily crushed. Of course, Livia would never do such a thing. Firstly, the soul is only released after death; secondly, her teacher had warned her never to carelessly crush a complete soul, as the consequences would be extremely serious. If someone saw it, she would never be able to wash away her identity as a psychic.

Therefore, when Livia makes these magical props and various moving works, she chooses to use fragments of souls to make them. She gathers these fragments that are instinctively attracted to her and stuffs them into the potions and other things she makes.

Even if she didn't do that, everyday items would absorb the soul fragments that were inexplicably attracted by the little witch, eventually giving birth to weak souls and consciousness, and becoming the living objects that Roach saw.

"Source?"

“Miss Livia has been busy making some strange desserts and magical items lately, so she needs a lot of materials. The army will generate a lot of materials by clearing out the undead.”

With this explanation, Vivi understood. For alchemists, high-quality raw materials are second only to sophisticated tools. Therefore, it's quite normal for Miss Livia to choose to go to the front lines in order to obtain firsthand, high-quality materials.

"Let's go, Vivi, we need to go experiment with the alchemical tools to deal with the Soul-Binding Corpses."

"Wouldn't your Thorn Sword and that Sunlight Spear Thrower be enough?"

"The former will explode, and the latter will explode too," Roach explained simply why it wouldn't work. The spikes of the former would hurt friendly forces, and the explosion of the latter would turn him to ashes. So he needed a safer bomb. Roach felt that he had already grasped the basics—no wonder Nobel was crippled. If he didn't have the Little Witch, it would be a blessing from heaven that he ended up like that.

"Leslie, are you going to the square to practice singing today too?"

"Hmm." Whether for mermaids or bards, songs and music are their weapons and spells. In this world with supernatural powers, songs themselves possess a faint power.

However, compared to true spellcasters like occultists, bards' songs can only boost morale and encourage courage in a suggestive way, and they usually cooperate with spiritual occultists in battle.

The mermaid's "Mermaid Song" is a kind of magical power. Unfortunately, Leslie is quite unqualified as both a poet and a mermaid. Roach suspects that her reclusive lifestyle and becoming a bard might be because her singing is too bad and her people can't stand it.

After all, the bard's abilities are based on the mermaid's "Mermaid Song" and "Siren Song." For a mermaid to learn from a bard is somewhat like a grandfather becoming his grandson.

Rocchi and the newcomer Vilan left, and Titania and the mermaid went to the square to practice singing. The room became quiet again, with only the low hum of the cane lying across the girl's lap.

"Hmm~" The girl jumped off the chair, walked barefoot to the pile of luggage, took out a large roll of paper and spread it on the table. It had simple patterns drawn on it, which seemed to be a disassembly diagram of some kind of armor. There were also large and small spherical fireballs representing souls next to it. In the center of the fireballs were runes that only Livia could understand.

It looks less like a design blueprint for a magical item and more like a little girl's scribbles, leaving people somewhat puzzled.

The blonde girl leaned over the desk, carefully sketching lines with the tip of her pen, and gave the bouncing ink bottle beside her a slightly annoyed tap to quiet it down.

After sketching out the fifteenth soul fireball, the girl nodded in satisfaction and took out a small bottle from her skirt pocket. The bottle was empty, but in Livia's eyes, it shimmered with fluorescent fragments of various sizes. These were the soul fragments she had collected from the battlefield ruins outside the city over the past few days.

Most undead only have damaged souls. After being destroyed and killed again, these damaged souls are broken into pieces everywhere. The smaller fragments will extinguish before Livia can get her hands on them, while the larger ones will extinguish and dissipate soon after being put into bottles. The relatively larger soul fragments also need to be cleaned of the death magic contamination.

Despite the large number of soul fragments collected, Livia still managed to gather enough. The blonde girl held the souls she had taken from the bottle in her hands, her palms slowly closing together.

A gentle breeze from the underworld rose from below, causing the light golden hair to dance as if floating in mid-air. The firefly-like fragments of the soul in the palm of the hand were gradually squeezed together, eventually forming a large, rhomboid fragment that emitted a faint glow of the soul.

Livia opened her eyes and pressed the large fragment onto the scroll. The pattern of the first soul fireball lit up and quickly formed a dense array of sealing runes in the center. At the same time, a new rune appeared on the disassembled armor sketch, on the arm guard.

"Hmm!" The girl rolled up the paper again with great satisfaction, counting on her fingers how many more soul fragments she needed to make the item she wanted. In addition to the knight's armor, she also needed a sword, but the city lord had already given her one, which had been enhanced, so she didn't need to worry about that for now. She just needed to collect soul fragments and activate it later.

However, Livia quickly remembered something and pulled out an old scroll of paper. Judging from its color, it seemed to be quite old. On it, a childlike drawing was made with even more naive and rough strokes:

There were knights in armor carrying swords, archers with beautiful bows and harps, fairies flying in the air, old men with toolboxes and test tubes, and young female mages with wide-brimmed hats and staffs.

Surrounded by everyone in the middle is a little girl with golden hair, laughing. In the background is a huge, fat dragon, as big as a mountain, with an X drawn on its eye to indicate that it is dead or has been knocked unconscious.

"Hmm!" The little witch nodded and drew a horizontal line under the knight's image. However, when she looked at the female mage with the pointed hat, she showed a hint of disappointment. But soon the ink line that formed the female mage began to wriggle and rise, and the hem of her skirt turned into a ghost-like shape. Now there was no problem.

Then the little witch spread out a new sheet of paper and began to draw patterns of a harp and a bow and arrow, as well as arrow patterns. Based on these patterns, she drew a long string of images of soul fireballs below, and some strange patterns representing certain materials, such as twisted vines like worms.

On the other side, in Roach's new workshop, it must be said that the Alchemy Society is quite experienced in dealing with talents like Roach. They quickly built a new workshop for him in a place far away from everyone else, to prevent this guy's explosion from blowing others into the air.

"Lakeside Studio..." Looking at the obviously newly completed long bridge and the studio on the artificial island in the middle of the lake, Roach showed a speechless expression. He really was enjoying Nobel Prize treatment.

Okay, if I ever really die, I must leave a will and donate all my assets (if any) to establish an award called the "Dynamite Award," to be given to those who create more and bigger explosions.

Explosions are not only art, but also civilization. The universe originated from explosions, and life also originated from explosions. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with studying and liking explosions... Roach comforted himself in this way, but when the other alchemists saw him, they still had an expression as if they had seen a ghost and all avoided him. Only Vivi, who was bold and worried about her credits, dared to follow Roach to do experiments.

"To shatter the soul as well, one must understand what the soul is..." With this in mind, Roach did not immediately begin his dangerous experiment. Instead, he went to the library and borrowed a large amount of information about the soul, soul magic, mental rituals, and other strongly and weakly related topics to read.

The result of reading is that when you are overwhelmed by all sorts of contradictory arguments, you realize that academic research in this world is still in its early stages institutionally.

This means that various materials and papers lack abstracts and a complete and rigorous system, appearing disjointed and incoherent. People outside the school may not even know which materials and books belong to the same school or theoretical system and can corroborate and supplement each other, or which belong to opposing schools and can be used as sources of critical information.

"I hate mediocre papers more than anything else in my life!" Luo Qi angrily threw away yet another piece of mediocre paper in his hand. It looked full of citations and references, and seemed to say a lot, but in the end, it turned out that it hadn't actually said anything.

It simply stitched together the conclusions and knowledge points given by predecessors, translated them, and finally posed an obvious question and provided an answer.

"The thesis review by the academy was a real review, and the defense was a real defense!" An unfounded rage burned fiercely in his heart, as if he had had this idea before he transmigrated. "This thing should be thrown to Stalin!"

He didn't know what Stalin was, but the phrase suddenly popped into his head. Oh, I remember now, it was a giant catfish kept in a train station. Wait, why would a train station keep catfish? Roach was shocked as he recalled his memories.

"I suggest we throw the guy who wrote this to get credits into the Stalin camp... What's with that expression?"

"Um, this paper was written by my teacher, the teacher who teaches the apprentices open classes."

"This is misleading the youth!" Luo Qi exclaimed in anguish, while Weiwei's face showed a similar expression of sympathy.

Chapter Forty: The Japanese's Pleasure Ball

There are two types of secret sources that can damage the soul. The first is a branch of the spiritual secret source, spiritual weapons, which can cause the soul an effect equivalent to "physical damage". The second is the ethereal secret source, which can cause the soul an effect equivalent to "magical damage".

However, most life essences are enhancement or enchantment-based, and have almost no real destructive power. Their most powerful physical destructive effect is to enhance oneself and then punch the target.

Similarly, the damage that the spiritual essence can cause to the physical body is quite weak, and the Soul-Binding Corpse, as an undead creature that uses a living person as its skin, cannot break through this living skin even with the excellent life essence that kills undead creatures.

This is also what makes the Soul-Binding Corpses so difficult to deal with. They have neither the weaknesses of the undead nor those of the living, and possess the advantages of both, such as not getting tired, having no vital points, and having high intelligence.

"If one source of secrets doesn't work, then we'll use two in combination. To put it bluntly, the Soul-Binding Corpse's mode is very simple: it's about giving the soul, the pilot, a layer of flesh and blood armor. What I mean is, it's about using the soul as the core to operate a puppet made of flesh and blood."

After carefully studying the information on the Soul-Binding Corpse provided by the Little Witch and the pile of uneven papers on souls, Luo Qi had already formed some initial ideas.

"To deal with this kind of thing, all the focus should be on killing the pilot inside. In the past, the goal was to directly hit the cockpit, that is, to use weapons rich in life magic to try to hit the soul body of the Soul-Binding Corpse."

“But I have a different idea.” Roach had studied for a long time but still couldn’t figure out the pattern of the “cockpit”’s location. Since he couldn’t understand any of those papers, he could only follow his own plan.

"The essence of a Soul-Binding Corpse is that its physical body is alive. Conversely, living things possess the secret source of life, even if the original soul has been devoured by the Soul-Binding Corpse." Luo Qi's understanding is roughly similar to the concept of possession in fantasy novels, only more cruel and with more severe aftereffects.

“Then, all we need to do is create something that can stimulate the life essence of living beings.” If we don’t insist on using only alchemists’ methods, then Roach finds that the alchemical weapons to deal with the Soul-Binding Corpses are easier to make than he imagined. However… only the Mystic Source Sorcerer knows the means to forcibly extract life essence from the body of a living person and then control the life essence.

This is also part of the reason why everyone hates them. Because when Roach started learning advanced content, a lot of very cruel and terrible shortcuts began to appear. For example, if you want to imitate a spell or extraordinary martial arts, what is the safest way?

The goal is to study the principles of this spell, experimenting little by little with countless combinations of materials to figure out the function of each component, and then constructing a preliminary formula that mimics this supernatural power.

Then came continuous refinement and advancement, ultimately resulting in a formula that could be mass-produced and reused at a controllable cost—the safest and most traditional approach. However, the Mystic Wizards soon discovered that at this pace, their research would quickly hit a wall, because as the computational load increased, it would soon exceed human limits, and even the limits of their mathematical tools.

To give an analogy, it's like pharmacy. With the continuous development of medicine, the research and development costs and technical requirements for new drugs are increasing exponentially. The increasingly complex drugs and diseases mean that the number of substances involved in the reaction will increase rapidly. Ultimately, modern pharmaceutical research will inevitably need to use tools that chemists and physicians could not have imagined in the past—such as computers.

When Roach was reading this part and saw the pages of inference models and empirical formulas, his first thought was: calm down and find where my supercomputer is. Then the content in another book that was obviously unorthodox suddenly seemed much clearer.

That is to directly extract the corresponding secret source from the person who knows it, forcibly extract the knight's bloodline and extraordinary physique using a variant of the secret source extraction technology, and thus directly obtain a finished product. The difficulty of reverse engineering from the finished product is much lower.

A grimacing magic book made of human skin and an ordinary wooden magic book were placed before him, like two different paths laid out before him. Roach believed that if he weren't someone with a wealth of knowledge and whimsical ideas from another world, he wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Of ten arcane sorcerers, probably eleven would choose the shortcut in the book of human skin. Even Roach's first thought upon seeing this thing was to find a way to create a computer. And the first thought of other arcane sorcerers who reached this stage would probably be: I have to find a way to bypass this terrifying amount of computation.

"Master Roach, what are you planning to do?"

“Create a weapon that can extract the life essence, and then seal the spiritual essence inside. Do it in two steps. First, extract the life essence left by the soul-binding corpse. Second, convert this life essence into a simple magical effect and spread it inward.”

If the Soul-Binding Corpse hadn't been designed with some kind of mystical "collapse-proof layer" to deal with this situation, its internal soul would definitely be riddled with holes.

"And in the third step, after the physical body loses its vitality from the extraction of the life essence, the spiritual impact of the second section's spiritual essence can then smoothly act on the soul." Roach discovered that if he treated the Soul-Binding Corpse as a piloted armored unit, the inspiration would be endless. From the Japanese Army's Pleasure Gun to anti-tank gymnastics, the inspiration was endless.

"It can even be the other way around. If his soul is hiding inside and can't be harmed, can't I just shoot his soul out?" For example, a super-powerful mental shock bomb could directly blast his soul out, or a "lethal life essence extraction technique" could be like an incendiary bomb, directly setting your flesh and blood chariot on fire. Let's see how long you can sit in this furnace filled with rich life fire.

After advancing to the next level, the methods of the Mystic Source Sorcerer become more diverse, especially those who follow evil magic. Extracting Mystic Sources is no longer simply done with ordinary tools; they begin to use supernatural materials and ritual methods, as well as using pre-prepared low-level Mystic Source paradigms to form a supernatural extraction array.

“Master Roach, what you’re doing…” It has a sinister aura about it. It looks like it was modified from some kind of evil sacrificial spell. Hmm, the evil sorcerers really did imitate the sacrificial spells of the hell sorcerers to create these things.

"First, let's try to make an impact bomb." The Dung-Pulling Treasure is a bit difficult. With Roach's skills and understanding of secret source magic, he can't yet create an extraction array that combines multiple low-level secret source paradigms to form a series of directional warheads.

However, making a magical version of the cluster grenade is much simpler, since the power of the arcane sorcerer comes from the extracted essence, and the way to make and control these arcane paradigms is different from the alchemist's magical artifacts.

You can't activate a bunch of magical artifacts with the same effect at the same time. Even if you carry a hundred shield rings, it won't turn into a hundred layers of shields. This is because each magical artifact is made with different methods and habits depending on the maker, as well as the materials and environment. If you activate them all at once, they will interfere with each other and eventually all of them will crash, making them unusable.

Of course, the same applies to the Mystic Paradigm, which has unavoidable tolerances. However, Mystic Warlocks developed the early industrial assembly technology from Roach's memories. That is, through precise calculations, they combined paradigms whose errors could be matched exactly, thus forming the Union Paradigm, a unique ability of advanced Mystic Warlocks.

Merging multiple co-operating paradigms into a more powerful higher-level source paradigm, or combining multiple different source paradigms into a more complex large-scale source paradigm, and so on.

However, this means that the things you manufacture must have basic standardization and you must have the corresponding calculation methods to properly combine these different tolerances with minimal mutual interference.

After advancing to the next level, there is only one standard for evaluating the level of an Arcane Mage: how many different, identical Arcane Paradigms you can combine in this way without exploding or failing.

In the textbooks and inheritances possessed by the Little Witch, the most advanced arcane technique for arcane magic is the [Marachi Rainbow Magic Bullet]. It uses the triple arcane effects of elemental, spiritual, and otherworldly arcane magic, encompassing dozens of effects such as fire, lightning, gale, and shattering. Apart from its small range of effect, which is limited to single-target and small-area targets, the description in the magic book is: throw it out, and the battle is over.

Any shield, defense, martial skill, or blessing will crumble before this tiny spell missile. It can take you out with a single shot, regardless of whether you are human or alive. However, this thing is just a blueprint and no arcane sorcerer has ever successfully created it.

“Master Roach, I don’t understand.” Vivi realized that what Roach was doing next was almost completely different from what she understood about alchemy. If it was a magical artifact, she had never heard of so many identical magical artifacts being able to be activated at the same time. If it was a secret magic device, it was a one-time explosive item. If it was a secret magic device, it was too simple.

Even from a purely theoretical standpoint, Vivi completely understood what Roach was doing: he created seven or eight one-time-use magical artifacts with the effect of "Mental Shock," and then combined them together in a way that she couldn't understand, without causing them to interfere with or collapse each other, and the decrease in effect was also very limited.

If this can still be understood as a miraculous alchemical assembly technique, then the [Breath of Life] that Roach then fixed onto the source of life is completely incomprehensible.

This spell spreads a life force, invigorating the spirit and restoring physical strength. It is usually attached to a video as a secret artifact to continuously enhance the user's physical recovery.

The magical flames inside the arcane furnace provided a steady supply of heat, while numerous bottles and jars emitted a soft gurgling sound. Steam flowed through slender pipes, condensing into new liquid that dripped down the crane-beak-shaped metal structure into a glass below, transforming into a pool of deep blue liquid.

"..." The little witch approached the cup, touched the outer wall of the cup with her small hand, and the liquid wriggled up along the edge, automatically dispersing and jumping into multiple test tubes.

In the small crucible beside her, the sugar had already turned into a thick syrup. Livia carefully held the test tube over and dripped the liquid into the crucible little by little. The slightly yellowish syrup instantly boiled and eventually turned into a deep blue like the ocean.

"Hmm~" The little witch nodded, and the cauldron jumped off the furnace by itself, following behind her. Together with the rolling pin, the clanging spoon, and the egg beater that was frantically beating eggs while moving its small metal legs that grew out from the bottom, it climbed onto the workbench, which was similar to the potion-making station.

Livia wiped the fine sweat from her forehead. Strands of her light golden hair clung to her face, still bearing specks of white flour, and even the tip of her small nose was covered in a white residue.

"Tap tap!" The witch tapped on the counter, and the rolling pin flew up and kicked the dough in front of her. Under the kneading of her pink little hands, the dough quickly became soft and fluffy. The witch threw it to the rolling pin, and the wooden stick rolled quickly, rolling the dough into a thin sheet.

The whisk poured the egg mixture all over the dough. The golden egg mixture landed in the center of the dough. Then, the little witch pinched the four corners, and the dough automatically wrapped the egg mixture into a spherical structure. Then, it jumped onto the spoon, which had been combined with the rolling pin to form a simple lever structure. The spoon, like a catapult, threw it into the boiling oil pot in the distance.

Above the oil pan, a slender hook slowly hovers in the air, then swoops down like a hawk at the right moment to scoop out the fried meatballs and drop them into a plate, where the blue syrup in the crucible coats them.

Soon, a large pile of dumplings covered in a layer of azure syrup appeared in front of the little witch. The fairy, sitting on the lamp stand which was more like a potion workshop than a kitchen, made a face of toothache. "What kind of dessert is this?!" The recipe is completely incomprehensible. This stuff is probably going to taste so bad it'll make you want to die.

A simple human face gradually emerged from the surface of the dark blue dumplings, with a resolute expression. Then came muscular arms and strong thighs. The little witch even used the remaining syrup to make small shields, longswords, and spears for them, and a square formation of candy soldiers appeared on the cutting board.

Honestly, if we disregard the taste of the finished product from this recipe, I think kids would really love something that's both fun and edible, especially since these candy soldiers actually move.

When you beat it, because the egg inside hasn't solidified yet, bright orange-yellow "blood" might flow out of the wound. The solidified syrup is the armor, the wheat-colored crust from frying is the muscle, and the yolk underneath is the blood.

After making the candy soldiers, the little witch used flour mixed with lots of eggs to make a soft, fat, green dragon. It had a comical big belly, bat wings and horns made of small chocolates, eyes made of strawberry jam, and teeth made of sharp sugar.

After hatching from the oven, the chubby little dragon let out a tender roar until it was caught by a tiny hand. Looking at the dragon and soldiers on the cutting board, Livia tilted her head and thought for a moment. She then used the remaining syrup, gelatin, and ingredients to shape a large number of adorable monsters and new soldiers, as well as a castle made of cake.

On the dragon's side, there were added soft mud monsters made of mashed potatoes with lots of sugar and oil, little monsters made of strawberry candy (a kind of red-skinned, horned monster), skulls made of icing, egg roll ogres wielding chocolate sticks, and siege engines made of colorful candy sticks.

On the soldiers' side, there were warriors wielding white radish shields and carrot longswords, as well as knights made from leftover apples. If you ignored the cute shapes of these little things and the fact that they were made of food, it would look like a scene of monsters attacking a city. It's clear that the little witch put a lot of thought, time, and materials into creating such a scene.

"Is this what you wanted, Livia?" The fairy landed on her face, and the little witch touched the fairy's cheek with her fingertips, nodding vigorously, her large emerald eyes narrowing happily.

Are you going to sell it or eat it?

"Hmm..." The little witch looked conflicted. Selling it would make her unhappy, but eating it would feel like such a waste. However, these were all candies and snacks, and she wouldn't have much time to keep them. But soon she stopped worrying and decided to gather everyone together to eat them. However, before eating, they needed to play a little game.

Meanwhile, Roach also completed the initial cluster anti-binding soul corpse equipment. The Mystic Paradigm, which can only be used by Mystic Source Warlocks, constitutes a more complex structure. It has the Breath of Life as its core and the Mental Impact as its outer shell. It will attach the effect of the Breath of Life to it, giving the simple Mental Impact the effect of life aura. This can cause a great impact on the soul hiding in the living body.

Unlike normal living people, their souls are bound inside by magic. When normal living people are affected by this bomb, they will only feel dizzy. However, the souls of these soul-bound corpses, which are bound by magical rituals, will be subjected to a greater impact. Furthermore, as undead beings corrupted by the power of death, they will also be harmed by the breath of life.

Most importantly, the Breath of Life will activate the power of the remaining life essence in the body. For the "pilot" inside, it is as deadly as the inner layer of armor collapsing. At the same time, the power of the activated and extracted life essence will also cause irreversible damage to this body that has actually had its soul stolen.

Frankly, it can be used if the target is not a soul-bound corpse, but it will cause the living to suffer terrible pain of having their life and soul drained. For the sorcerers who choose the path of evil magic, this pain is just an indicator of efficiency. They will try to increase efficiency as much as possible to bring the living to more terrible pain and despair, in order to extract more spiritual and life essence to improve the effect of the composite paradigm.

Roach wasn't that inhuman, so he didn't put too much effort into this step, focusing solely on the Soul-Binding Corpse. That's why even an apprentice like Vivi couldn't see through it. However, it's hard to say how it would be perceived by other high-level alchemists.

Chapter Forty-One: An Adventure as a Prologue to a New Adventure