Chapter 123

Li En found the murder scene in the control room below.

"Cause of death: pierced through the chest, nailed to his own chair. From the fracture angles of the bones, the penetrating wound likely entered from behind—high probability of betrayal by someone trusted."

At this moment, Violet Miss Zi Qiangwei acted like a seasoned veteran detective, precisely reconstructing the lich's cause of death.

"Tsk, one strike and he was dead—died so brutally, didn't even get a chance to trigger his accidental spell."

The hole in the mechanical chair still hung the lich's lower half, revealing his final posture of resistance.

No need to doubt anymore: this lich was not voluntarily transformed, but a high mage whose corpse mutated after prolonged immersion in a negative energy pool.

After all, liches cannot be killed by physical backstabbing; only the living can be nailed to a chair.

"He died instantly, and only mutated after so long—no chance his soul could recover. It's reduced to instinct alone."

"We can draw a conclusion now: when it transformed into a lich, the weapon that killed it was physically similar to its body, pierced its soul, and became its phylactery. This was a passive transformation—tsk, poor soul, couldn't even die in peace."

Normal liches undergo voluntary transformation: through ritual, they kill themselves and pour their souls into a prepared phylactery to gain immortality.

A lich born from corpse mutation due to certain reasons might more accurately be called a Super Zombie Lich.

It was not a complete soul transformation (lich rituals protect the soul), but rather a new life born from that "corpse."

Like those artificial undead spellcasters (zombie mages), it possesses considerable spellcasting ability but almost no reason or wisdom.

Even if it still acts on its former obsessions, it has no possibility of regaining rationality—it is essentially no different from a skeleton soldier.

"Using something like this as a phylactery—even if the original transformation was perfect, the soul and spiritual essence have long since leaked away."

A lich's phylactery is usually expensive and extremely durable; it is the soul's container and must remain "unchanging" over long periods.

But here is nothing but a mechanical alloy arm—once even classified as a non-supernatural item. Using this as a phylactery, the spiritual essence and soul had long since leaked out completely.

That lich probably couldn't even resurrect more than a few times—perhaps the next resurrection will be its final end.

"Should we dismantle it?"

"No, that would be too much of a waste. This is already a soul-infused spiritual artifact—and a creation of the Creation Clan."

Kuku, switched into researcher mode, was carefully polishing and studying it.

If this were an ordinary mechanic or even a powerful mechanical alchemist, they'd now be forced to choose: either leave the mechanical arm phylactery untouched, or dismantle it and restore the parts.

"Fascinating! Truly fascinating! A natural soul weapon, simultaneously connected to two souls—no wonder they're the twin races cursed by fate."

This is clearly ancient technology; too many past events have been buried in history—but here, there is an ancient heroic soul.

As an alchemist himself, how could Kuku not study the Machine Clan and Creation Clan, famed for their alchemy and metal constructs?

"The Creation Clan were naturally weak—their slender, elongated bodies couldn't endure labor at all—but they did have their own brief golden age, perhaps only three or five hundred years."

The standard for possessing a golden age was said to be controlling one-third of the world's fertile lands and developing a brilliant, unique civilization lasting over a century.

The Creation Clan once became world overlords, possessing their own golden age—proof enough of their strength.

"Uh, this bone?" Li En tapped the blue lich bone; Kuku said it was high-quality material, and he'd taken it as loot.

Biological "parts" are often tied to ecology; this level of bone hardness doesn't look like something from a weak creature.

"Infused with hardened liquid. Modern biological enhancement tech has some connection to them. Ordinary Creation Clan members are extremely fragile—could even die from running a long distance. They needed a metal body as their labor force and assistant."

Kuku's words unveiled a long-buried past.

Using their alchemy, the Creation Clan created metal golems as laborers, and to better serve them, they used their innate telepathic ability to share wisdom, mind, and even emotions with them.

"The 'Machine Clan' were originally just their laborers—but soon became their halves, friends, even family."

Kuku, holding some welding tool she'd acquired from somewhere, was busily working on the machine-being.

Numerous metal parts lay scattered around; blueprints were laid out one by one. Perhaps this alchemist from ancient times was among the few capable of repairing this Machine Clan construct.

Kuku's words were halfway through when Li En already guessed the rest of the story.

It was nothing but a suspicion chain that eventually turned into civil war between creator and creation.

"Looking back now, there were many suspicious elements—very likely other races interfered and provoked it."

Kuku was tightening gears with screws and rewiring the construct, yet held her own view on that history.

"The Creation Clan were an exceedingly rare purely benevolent race—they could only eat plants and were innately terrified of blood and war." Kuku's tone carried rare regret and sorrow.

As an alchemist himself, he held great affection for this orderly and kind civilization.

Everyone present froze—was that ghost-flame-floating lich considered kind?

"Their race didn't even have capital punishment—because they were so lacking in aggression, most serious crimes never occurred within their society. Thus, the Machine Clan sharing their minds were universally extremely kind and lawful—even though highly skilled in combat, they never reveled in killing or enjoyed war, requiring programs to plan battle actions."

"I've heard of this—our magical girl soul contracts are said to have been influenced by them." Violet Miss Zi Qiangwei's remark served as indirect confirmation.

The joy of uncovering ancient secrets is always finding their influence on the present.

At this moment, Gu Gu, who was helping to hammer the metal shell, also grew interested.

He felt this race resembled his own—neither ate meat nor liked war, both skilled in alchemy (nature manipulation).

He, too, felt some curiosity about this race's past.

"Who made it?" Li En, following Kuku's instructions, used dragon flame to heat and weld, also showing interest in this mechanical race.

So much time has passed—surely there must be an answer by now.

"I don't know."

Uh—who was this powerful enough to pull off something like this and never get exposed?

"Too many suspects. Some say the Giant race did it—several kinds of dwarves were enemies of the Creation Clan, always claiming they stole their ancestors' tech—well, that's basically true, but they said it too harshly; they just learned it."

"Others say the elves, because the Machine Clan's creation process incorporated much of their tech, planting hidden dangers. And the race closest to the Creation Clan? The dark elves—their reputation, well, you all know."

"Some say the Winged Humanoids, because the next era belonged to them—they were the beneficiaries. And others…" Kuku paused, glancing at Violet Miss Zi Qiangwei.

"... Some say it was the 'Serpent' and its priestesses—only because we have the capability." Violet Miss Zi Qiangwei cut in smoothly.

"Don't you think that's outrageous? Just because we have the capability, you blame us!" Violet Miss Zi Qiangwei pouted, face full of innocence and grievance.

This made Li En, looking over, find it oddly cute.

"Gaga. Yes, it wasn't you. You can't blame you just because you've already destroyed five potential overlord races."

"You can't claim you particularly enjoy this game (creation rebelling, internal clan strife), when the act of founding a clan in every aspect resembles the internal strife you caused."

"Nor can you say that because historical records mention many Snake-type Magical Girls, it must have been your doing."

Kuku replied continuously, instantly making the scene very awkward.

And at this moment, Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei, as if hearing everything, suddenly developed a great interest in the Machine Race underground and seriously began enchanting and processing them.

Kuku shook his head; this was already in the past.

"Because too many races had the possibility of acting, it is actually impossible to determine who did it; perhaps they acted together. After all, they were not strong enough nor ruthless enough, yet they occupied the continent's most fertile lands."

"Alright, that's about enough." Kuku's craftsmanship was excellent; as the arm of this Soul Artifact was inlaid onto it, spiritual light began to emanate from the Machine Race's entire body.

And at this moment, even Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei observed the situation seriously, unable to help but sigh at the excellence of Kuku's craftsmanship; truly a design of utmost intricacy.

"Impressive, actually using their mental contract against them, transforming it into a soul contract similar to that of Magical Girls, to perform soul completion."

"Gah. I am truly a genius! The Machine Race is only half there! The phylactery is only half there! Just piece them together!"

But the content he spoke, Li En felt increasingly something was wrong.

It's one thing to piece together a dish, but you directly piece together a person?

"Is it really no problem?"

"No problem (Goblin's confident face)!"

"Anyway, there's basically no hope left, let him try." And Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei spoke a great truth.

Time is an enemy to all life; although the Machine Race are mechanical lifeforms, they are still mental lifeforms with wisdom and emotions; they too will experience "mental aging" accompanied by the accumulation of memories, and eventually shut down and die.

The one before them clearly had incomplete memories and soul, plus wounds in various aspects; even if forcibly activated, they would not last long.

The soul inside the phylactery was also severely damaged, but coincidentally, this phylactery (mechanical arm) originally belonged to the Machine Race; the soul-spirit power of the two individuals was clearly of the same origin.

"Before, they should have been a master-servant pair; in their own words, sisters." Now, the phylactery had been opened, and the soul power within was pouring endlessly into the Machine Race, becoming the nourishment for her awakening once more.

I fear this "High Lich" will never have the possibility of resurrection again, but perhaps it will continue to exist in another way.

But I fear no matter what, the individual that awakens again will not be the them of the past.

Or, more like the offspring of both, each contributing half?

And the red light on the surface began turning green, signifying that this female machine person had completed her self-check and awakened.

"Where... is this?"

(End of this chapter)