Chapter 1890: Soul Issues

The rabbit disintegrated directly, and the energy converted was as much as half a Standard Arcane Crystal.

This proves that the matter of the Projection Plane is also relatively real (to the Projection Plane) and can still be converted into a large amount of energy.

At the same time, it also proves that it was indeed the previous experiment that caused the energy that the rabbit itself should have converted to disappear.

"So, why?"

Xia Duo frowned and pondered bitterly. After several experiments, the result was already obvious: direct disintegration could convert energy, but after using the Arcane Infusion Transformation Ritual to turn it into an Arcane Rabbit, this energy vanished into thin air?

It was not even as much as the energy converted from a pinhead-sized fragment of a disintegrated Gold Coin; what kind of logic was this?

Is the ritual an energy-devouring beast?

Xia Duo carefully reviewed the entire process of the ritual spell from casting to taking effect, and he was very certain that the spell itself did not involve any energy consumption.

The problem still lay with the rabbit, or rather, what exactly is the difference between a rabbit in the arcane state and a rabbit in its normal state!

This was likely the key to the problem.

"Arcane Infusion Transformation Ritual? Arcane Rabbit?"

Xia Duo leaned back against the Laboratory bench, resting his chin in his hand, and fell into deep thought. "The biggest difference between an Arcane Rabbit and a normal rabbit is that the former has undergone the complete transformation of Arcane Infusion."

"Or perhaps, the former was still alive the moment it became an Arcane Rabbit, while the latter died the moment it was disintegrated, but these are both death, so what difference does it make?"

Thinking of this, Xia Duo pulled out the last of the five rabbits. This little guy had already broken free from the Druid's taming shackles and was currently kicking its legs in a "gymnastic" routine!

But the good times didn't last long; as Xia Duo suddenly snapped its neck, the little guy immediately went quiet.

"I want to see what the result will be after using the Arcane Infusion Transformation Ritual on a dead rabbit!"

Still using two Standard Arcane Crystals as the infusion source, after a long spellcasting, the spell was finally completed. Although the actual time might not have been long, to Xia Duo, it felt as if a thousand years had passed.

Counting silently for over a minute, a faint blue light began to emerge from the closed eyes of the experimental rabbit. Seeing this, Xia Duo felt there was hope.

Soon, that faint blue light rapidly infected the entire body of Experimental Rabbit No. 5, followed by the dissipation of Arcane Energy, and Xia Duo had long since prepared a recovery spell.

The result was—

"Two and a half Standard Arcane Crystals' worth?!"

Xia Duo was greatly shocked; it turned out there really was a difference between experimenting on a live rabbit and a dead rabbit!

The conclusion was then quite obvious: if nothing went wrong, it should be related to the Soul, a point he had not considered before.

He knew that Magic Energy Infection was related to consciousness, and consciousness was related to the Soul, but Arcane Infusion had already been proven to be relatively gentle and would not change consciousness; he just hadn't expected that "not changing" did not mean there was no connection.

"Did the Arcane Rabbit's soul steal the energy of the physical body? Or perhaps the energy converted by the physical body had already merged into the soul, and then the soul ran away, leaving only what the transformation ritual provided?"

Of course, a soul would not engage in "stealing," but Xia Duo already had some guesses, and he couldn't wait to verify them.

……

"Meiye, prepare two more rabbits for me, make them male!"

Xia Duo sent a Sending to the Druid Meiye, asking her to bring the selected rabbits to the Laboratory, while he began to prepare for the next experiment.

Before long, Meiye entered the Laboratory holding two rabbits of similar size to the previous ones. "My lord, the two male rabbits you requested."

"Put them over there. I won't need you tonight, go and rest!"

"Yes."

After Meiye left, Xia Duo checked the experimental procedure once more before placing a rabbit into the Force Field chamber on the Laboratory bench.

The following steps were similar to the previous experiments, until the Arcane Rabbit appeared, and Xia Duo immediately took action—【Soul-Locking Technique】!

The spell succeeded without any surprises. In fact, even if the target were a Great Arcanist, as long as the target had no Protection, the spell would likely succeed, let alone when the target was just a most ordinary wild rabbit.

Even though it had been transformed into an arcane form, the essence of the rabbit was not so easily changed.

Xia Duo undoubtedly received the soul of this creature and locked it within an Arcane Crystal, existing in the form of a faint speck of light.

After that, it was the usual recovery of Arcane Energy; the two Arcane Crystals were effectively not spent.

Next was Experimental Rabbit No. 7. This time, Xia Duo did not use the transformation ritual on it but directly locked its soul. He now wanted to see if the transformation ritual would change the soul, and by how much.

Under the light, Xia Duo carefully compared the two specks of light in the two Arcane Crystals. Although both were very faint, one was clearly brighter—the one from the Arcane Rabbit.

Xia Duo was not sure if this was due to individual differences between the rabbits or because of the transformation into an Arcane Rabbit.

It was just a pity that he could resurrect humans with relatively minor sequelae, or even resurrect an Elf with stronger sequelae, but he could not resurrect an ordinary wild rabbit.

Otherwise, he would definitely have locked the wild rabbit's soul first, determined the state of the soul, then resurrected and transformed it into an Arcane Rabbit, and then checked the soul again.

That would have provided a more intuitive comparison.

But now, he could only use the method of sacrificing more rabbits to make a statistical judgment.

……

Since he had already let Meiye go to rest, Xia Duo simply went to catch them himself this time. In any case, for convenience, the rabbit hutch had been placed next to the Laboratory.

He could just go out and grab them. The only regret was that Meiye was not there; he was afraid he couldn't even tell the male from the female, let alone find rabbits in a state similar to the previous ones.

However, such randomness also had its benefits, as it would make the final conclusion have a higher degree of confidence.

Having grabbed ten rabbits that looked about the same size as the previous ones, Xia Duo immediately returned to the Laboratory. Half of them were first transformed into Arcane Rabbits and then their souls were collected, while the other half had their souls collected directly.

The result was as expected—

The soul of the Arcane Rabbit in the Arcane Crystal was brighter than that of a normal rabbit!

And the brightness of a soul, in a sense, is actually its strength or energy level.

In other words, the Arcane Infusion Transformation Ritual can strengthen the soul!

……

Next, Xia Duo determined the transformation ritual's effect on the soul by destroying the souls of Arcane Rabbits or normal rabbits.

The result was somewhat unexpected: the Arcane Rabbit's soul "dropped" about 500 points of Arcane Energy, which was the energy the rabbit's body could convert in its normal state.

While the normal rabbit's soul did not "drop" anything at all.

From this, Xia Duo drew two conclusions: first, the Arcane Rabbit soul "strengthened" by the transformation ritual was not perfect; at least that energy had not truly merged with the soul.

This conclusion was actually not hard to understand; the Arcane Rabbit itself was an unstable state. If the soul were stable and perfect, wouldn't transplanting it into a normal body or creating a new body for it count as creating a new species?

Another conclusion is that the essence of the Soul is likely not energy.