Chapter 288
Such Transcendence
“…Such transcendence,” Eivass murmured.
Resurrection arts existed in this World, and there were quite a few of them. In the past, the Supreme Heaven could also create magic cauldrons to resurrect mortals, and the Shadow of Avalon was essentially a large-scale resurrection ritual. The Heavenly Envoys and Pillar Gods also resurrected mortals by transforming their souls into Discs that could descend into the Material Realm.
Besides this kind of Power that involved the level of Heavenly Envoys and Pillar Gods… according to Eivass’s understanding, Master Amber of the Twilight Path possessed a flawless resurrection art, and the Path Trait “Silent Dead” could also grant a second life. The Path of Devotion could also exchange life for life.
Even Eivass’s “sister,” who didn’t exist in his memory, had her achievements recorded in the Silver and Tin Hall of Avalon—she invented an unstable resurrection potion.
But any resurrection came with a price.
The natural cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death for mortals was a world law, the basis for the world’s eternal cycle. Humans were born with a Soul, which gradually developed and grew during their growth; upon death, the fruit fell, and the Soul returned to the world… then the seed sprouted, giving birth to new life again.
In this process, the total amount of Soul would increase. The total population of mortals was also increasing, forming a positive feedback loop compensating for each other. From this perspective, the world was like a bank, constantly offering loan services. The slow growth of Souls in the Material Realm was the interest it earned.
But if a large number of people stopped participating in this cycle… for example, by becoming Discs, turning into Und, or being resurrected, it would ultimately lead to the world’s inability to meet its expenses.
If, one day, everyone achieved eternal life and the world’s Soul reserves were completely depleted, children would not be born. Newborns forced into existence would no longer possess Souls.
This was not unfounded fear.
It was the “Soullessness” that truly existed.
In the Ancient Kingdom of Anxi, due to the simultaneous effect of numerous Soul-related rituals in various places, pregnant women who conceived or gave birth in the wrong locations might give birth to soulless children. They were like born vegetative patients, but the situation was different. Their brains were normal but could not be activated… like a computer’s hardware being normal but without an operating system installed.
Scholars of Anxi had also studied this phenomenon. Some had attempted to use various means to activate the brains of infants without Souls, but they had never managed to awaken their human intellect—the limit was turning humans into animals.
Without a Soul, one could not remember their own name… or rather, one could not separate themselves from the world. Therefore, an independent Personality could not be born… even if, through strict domestication, Soulless individuals could be made to act and speak autonomously, they still lacked Personality. The closest completed solution so far was to use a pseudo-Soul drive, treating the bodies of Soulless patients as golems.
And Jacob’s research could fundamentally solve this problem.
In this village, frozen by the power of Twilight, no newborns should exist. It was essentially a naturally existing “soulless environment,” incapable of birthing new offspring.
When Jacob was in his twenties, he developed the technology to create “Swamp Dwellers.” By some means, he could replicate Souls—theoretically, this was a one-time resurrection technology that relied on special geographical conditions to be achieved, and it was not entirely outrageous.
But Jacob, by some means, exploited a BUG. Or perhaps, a BUG appeared in his designed ritual.
—He caused the “original Soul,” which should have been destroyed when a New Soul was born, to be preserved for unknown reasons.
Thus, he transformed the art of “resurrecting Souls” into “replicating Souls.” In other words, he physically split one person into two.
Jacob must have known that this technique was forbidden and would cause immense controversy. Therefore, he did not release the “original copies” of the Souls but stored them away. In a place only he knew… if nothing went wrong, it should be in the Fey Cave.
Eivass speculated that this was likely a coincidence. Because if Jacob had done it intentionally, there would be no reason for him to hide the Souls in the Fey Cave… he should have preserved them through some means or conducted further experiments. These Souls were undoubtedly extremely precious “unique items,” valuable special samples from an error. It was as if he had accidentally made a reading error during an experiment and, out of guilt, quietly moved the reading back to the correct position—he hid the original Souls, which were not destroyed by the ritual, in the Fey Realm, so no one would know they weren’t properly destroyed.
From this perspective, those Mudbone Turtles might even have been brought and raised by Jacob—after all, Mudbone Turtles were not pure Und, but wild creatures. They wouldn’t be born naturally; they must have migrated from somewhere. Jacob could have realized his mistake, stopped the Swamp Dweller ritual, and brought in a batch of Mudbone Turtles to block the entrance. His purpose was to prevent anyone from uncovering the Fey Cave, entering the Fey Realm, and discovering the original Souls of the “Swamp Dwellers” that shouldn’t have been there!
Thinking of this, Eivass’s eyes suddenly widened.
“Speaking of Haina’s father…” Eivass suddenly remembered that Magnetic Hammer had come to Eagle Cape Village about ten or twenty years ago. What had happened then? Haina had already been born for some reason, breaking the norm of Eagle Cape Village. At that time, Haina’s biological father had suddenly fled his pregnant wife for some reason, leaving Eagle Cape Village. He never returned. At that time, Jacob had returned to Eagle Cape Village for the second time and had been there for a while, and had not yet died from “Typhoid fever.”
If the Swamp ritual had already stopped operating then, why did Haina’s mother go to the swamp? How could she have found Magnetic Hammer if she didn’t go to the swamp, which was a forbidden area?
But if this was considered Jacob’s experiment… treating these nameless natives as Jacob’s assistants, everything could be explained!
In chronological order, the clues quickly pieced together in Eivass’s mind—
Initially, Jacob must have stumbled into Eagle Cape Village in his twenties. He coincidentally found this village filled with Twilight power, hidden in the cracks by Fey power, and the Fey Cave filled with pure Earth elemental power. Subsequently, with his genius, he developed an incomplete resurrection ritual… But his research failed. The resurrection ritual did not operate normally because the original Souls were not destroyed by the ritual. So, Jacob stopped or suspended the ritual and left Eagle Cape Village.
More than forty years later, Jacob, who already had two sons and whose Serpent Hand was about to fade into history, returned to Eagle Cape Village. This time, he had no intention of leaving again. And with his enhanced technology… by some means, he made it possible for the village of Eagle Cape, sealed by the power of Twilight, to give birth to newborns. Thus, he became the “Benefactor” of Eagle Cape Village, as spoken of by the elders.
Haina was one of the samples he cultivated. Not only was she consistent with ordinary people, but she also possessed adaptability to Paths other than Twilight. Except for her lack of sharp time perception, there were no traces of Eagle Cape Village left on her. She could even leave Eagle Cape Village normally without problems—although the natives could leave, those “Swamp Dwellers” could not.
Then, Haina’s father suddenly fled Eagle Cape Village for some reason.
Immediately afterward, the Swamp Dweller ritual was reactivated. He certainly wasn’t doing it for resurrection technology at that time. He could already accomplish better resurrection techniques. At this point, his activation of the Swamp Dweller ritual could only be for its original byproduct—the replicated artificial Souls.
And then came… his death.
Eivass suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. Jacob, who invented resurrection technology and even artificial Souls in his twenties, his own grandfather… had he really died? Also, why did he and himself synchronously contract “cold”? Was it really a cold?
And…
“Who… am I?” Eivass murmured.
