Chapter 2165: Dissolving Emotions, Bewitching Hearts

Nearly four years ago, Xia Duo had witnessed a Longevity Ritual at the Arcane Temple in Seventon; the protagonist was Archmage Sandro of Morien Tower.

The other party had once been the mentor of Lander, the contemporary Controller of Morien Tower, and when the ritual was performed, Lander and even the Princess, who had not yet achieved Ascension to Godhood at the time, were present; Xia Duo's impression of that ritual was extremely profound.

Not only because multiple Great Arcanists were present, but also because he had witnessed with his own eyes Sandro's death and rebirth during the ritual process.

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At the time, he was curious why a Longevity Ritual required dying once first; now, of course, he knew it was because the ritual required a perfectly stripped Soul.

In his hometown, a sage once said, "There is great terror between life and death; it is born in the heart and manifested in the body," which meant that mortals find it difficult to face death directly; even in a world of Magic, knowing one can be resurrected, it still requires immense Courage to face death directly.

And the so-called "perfectly stripped Soul" means one must face death with immense Courage, and throughout this process, maintain absolute inner calm.

This is not a state that can be reached through mental Spells like Mechanical Mind; emotions are poison, and if the Soul is tainted by even the slightest bit during stripping, it will affect the Personality after achieving longevity.

At that time, after Archmage Sandro completed the ritual, his entire person became indifferent and rational; it should be said that this was already the best result, and if nothing unexpected happened, he would be able to maintain this state for a very long time.

If one feels fear when the Soul is stripped, one will be shrouded in an indelible fear after the ritual.

In a sense, this type of Longevity Ritual is similar to the concept of "consciousness uploading to the network" in science fiction on Earth; once consciousness is uploaded, or rather, once the Longevity Ritual is completed, the Personality is completely fixed.

Afterwards, there will only be an increase in the Ziliaoku or memory capacity, and no other changes in temperament; of course, this refers to general circumstances, and if some accidents occur, it is completely understandable.

After all, even living people have accidents, so how could cyborgs or those transformed for longevity be spared? Moreover, from the perspective of probability theory, longevity will almost inevitably encounter accidents.

Even if they don't encounter them now, a sufficiently long lifespan will cause them to encounter them in the future.

But regardless, longevity itself is enough to make ordinary people envious.

That kind of Longevity Ritual where the Soul is stripped and stored separately, although it might avoid the problem of self-continuity that exists in "consciousness uploading to the network," the solidification of Personality is not what Xia Duo wants.

He hopes more to be able to grow, to change, and even to decline; that is what a real person is, which is why he never considered that kind of Longevity Ritual.

It was only because of this attack by the Psionic Master from Zhamu Dasi that he thought that Longevity Ritual might be useful for him to resolve his current hidden dangers.

The part of the Spell Element brought by Yinaole concerns exactly this—how to solidify the Soul without affecting the normal activities of consciousness.

If there is no consciousness, one cannot even be a person; it is no different from a stone.

As for that Gemstone of extreme cold, it is used in the Longevity Ritual to dull consciousness—not the kind of dullness that is rigid, but rather the kind of dullness similar to watching a horror movie in slow motion to dissipate fear, which allows consciousness enough time to react and adjust to various emotions; from this perspective, it is not an exaggeration to say it strengthens consciousness.

These two things are what Xia Duo needs most urgently right now, especially the former; even if it cannot completely remove the hidden dangers in his consciousness, it can still play a very good mitigating role.

……

In the Laboratory, Xia Duo took Protection measures and began the synchronization of the Semi-plane.

The Gemstone of extreme cold cannot be touched directly by the body; when Yinaole brought it over, it was stored in an independent Semi-plane, and that Semi-plane had long been assimilated by the extreme cold of the Gemstone; the two are in a state of mutual reinforcement.

When it needs to be used, one only needs to activate the Plane synchronization, which is to overlap the Semi-plane with the Main Plane at a specific location, thereby allowing the extreme cold of the Gemstone to radiate out.

The Longevity Ritual and what Xia Duo is currently utilizing only rely on the natural attributes of the Gemstone itself; no other means are needed.

As the Plane synchronization opened, Xia Duo couldn't help but shiver, and the Laboratory was quickly covered with a thin layer of white frost; in this state, he indeed felt much better.

Even the interval for periodically going to the consciousness level to disperse the condensed consciousness of Mohawi had lengthened significantly; this was just the beginning, and Xia Duo was somewhat looking forward to the further results to come.

……

At the consciousness level, Xia Duo once again dispersed the condensed consciousness of Mohawi, then immediately returned to Reality to focus his mind and perceive his Soul; this time, with the assistance of the Gemstone of extreme cold, he felt much more relaxed.

Perhaps he doesn't even need a Focusing Gem; using the Gemstone of extreme cold alone might work, but he would not disregard the subsequent preset procedures just because of this curiosity.

Entering the Soul perspective, the red threads that were originally tightly wound around his body surface had become much weaker; even if Xia Duo consciously pushed some away, it would take a period of time for them to wrap around again.

After carefully checking the twelve thread ends extending from the surface of the Soul body and confirming they were identical to the essence of the Soul, Xia Duo no longer hesitated to perceive the external Magic Net and began Spellcasting—

Soul Solidification!

Unlike the general stagnation of 【Jinzhu Shu】 from the outside in, the 【Soul Solidification】 element provided by the Seven Towers starts self-solidification from within the Soul; of course, its greatest characteristic that distinguishes it from general Jinzhu Shu is not the difference between inside and outside, but that it can keep the consciousness awake.

General Jinzhu Shu either imprisons the physical body and Soul along with the consciousness, or only imprisons the body, failing to touch the Soul at all, let alone the consciousness.

It is no wonder that even with Yinaole's status, he had to pay a huge price to obtain it; this is not only the foundation and key to a certain type of longevity Spell, but also involves the mysterious Soul Domain.

This type of research is considered the cutting edge of the cutting edge in Netheril and even the Elf World; perhaps Zhamu Dasi is more proficient in it, but the price of obtaining a cure from there would obviously exceed Xia Duo's bottom line, and he also does not trust those guys who play with Psionic.

"Do it yourself and have plenty of food and clothing"—the teachings of the Great Master are just as applicable today.

As the Spell gradually took effect, Xia Duo clearly felt a void appear in his heart; this feeling is difficult to describe in words, like loss, and also like wandering, as if his entire life had lost its meaning.

Fortunately, he could still think normally, and with the assistance of the Gemstone of extreme cold, he could clearly recognize every thought of his own and had enough time to react.

He could do the former himself, but he was not confident in whether he could deal with those thoughts and emotional feedback before they reached his Soul, and this is precisely the preciousness of the Gemstone of extreme cold.