Chapter 123: The Iron Uprising with No Culprit Found

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

"Cause of death: through-and-through wound, nailed to his own chair. Based on the fracture angles of the bones, the piercing likely entered from behind—high probability of betrayal by someone trusted."

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

"Tsk, one strike and he was dead—what a gruesome end. Didn't even get a chance to trigger his contingency spell."

The hole in the mechanical chair still hung with 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 backstabs; only the living can be nailed to a chair.

"He died instantly. Took this long to reanimate—no chance his soul can recover. He's reduced to pure instinct now."

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

Normal liches undergo voluntary transformation: they perform rituals to kill themselves, infusing their souls into a prepared phylactery to gain immortality.

This kind of lich, born from corpse mutation due to certain causes, might better be called a super-lich.

It is not a complete soul transformation (lich rituals protect the soul); rather, it is a new life born from the corpse itself.

Like artificial undead spellcasters (liches), it possesses considerable spellcasting ability but lacks reason and intellect.

Even if it still acts on its former obsessions, it can never regain rationality—it is fundamentally 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 valuable and extremely durable; it is the soul's vessel and must remain permanently stable.

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

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

"Should we dismantle it?"

"No, that would be a waste. It's already a soul-infused artifact—and a creation of the Chuang Clan."

Kuku, now in researcher mode, was carefully polishing and studying it.

If this were an ordinary mechanic—or even a Qiyi Master (an advanced mechanical alchemist)—they'd now be forced to choose: either leave the mechanical arm phylactery untouched, or dismantle it to recover the parts.

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

This is clearly ancient technology; too much history has been buried, yet here stands an ancient heroic soul.

As an alchemist himself, how could Kuku not study the Ji Clan and Chuang Clan, famed for their alchemy and metallic creations?

"The Chuang Clan were naturally weak. Their slender, elongated bodies couldn't withstand 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 land, and developing a brilliant, unique civilization lasting over a century.

The Chuang Clan once ruled the world, possessing their own golden age—proof enough of their former strength.

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

Biological "parts" often relate to ecology—this bone's hardness clearly didn't belong to a weakling.

"It was infused with hardened liquid. Modern biological enhancement tech owes at least something to them. Ordinary Chuang Clan were extremely fragile—could probably die from running a marathon. They needed metallic bodies as laborers and assistants."

Kuku's words unveiled a long-buried past.

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

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

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

Around her, piles of metal parts were laid out, blueprints spread wide—perhaps this ancient alchemist was among the few capable of repairing a Ji Clan unit.

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

It was inevitably a chain of suspicion, culminating in war between creator and creation.

"Looking back now, there were plenty of suspicious elements—very likely other races interfered and provoked them."

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

"The Chuang 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. You're saying that ghost-flame-floating lich was kind?

"Their race didn't even have capital punishment—too non-aggressive to generate serious crime within society. Thus, the Ji Clan, who shared their minds, were universally extremely kind and lawful—even highly skilled in combat, they never reveled in killing or sought war; they required programming to plan battle actions."

"I've heard that. Our magical girl soul contracts are said to have been influenced by them." Zi Qiangwei's remark indirectly confirmed it.

The joy of uncovering ancient secrets is always finding their echoes in the modern world.

At this moment, Gu Gu, who was hammering the metal shell, also grew interested.

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

He, too, found himself curious about this race's past.

"Who made it?" Li En, following Kuku's instructions, used Dragon Flame to heat and weld, also growing interested 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? Did something this huge and still escaped exposure?

"Too many suspects. Some say the Giant race did it. Several dwarf clans were bitter enemies of the Chuang Clan—they always claimed the Chuang Clan stole their ancestors' tech. Well, that's basically true—but they said it so harshly. They just learned it."

"Others say the Elves, because the Ji Clan's creation process borrowed heavily from their tech—planting hidden dangers. The race closest to the Chuang Clan? The Dark Elves—their reputation, well, you know."

"Some say the Winged Humanoids, because their era came next—they were the beneficiaries. And others…" Kuku paused, glancing at Zi Qiangwei.

"... ome say it was the 'Serpent' and her priestesses—only because we have the capability." Zi Qiangwei cut in bluntly.

"Don't you think that's outrageous? Just because we have the ability, you blame us!" Zi Qiangwei pouted, face brimming with innocence and grievance.

This made Li En, glancing over, find it oddly adorable.

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

"You can't say we're especially fond of this whole 'creation rebellion, clan civil war' routine, and that this Chuang Clan incident just looks like our doing."

"You can't say it must be us just because historical records mention many Serpent magical girls."

Kuku replied rapidly, and the atmosphere instantly turned awkward.

At that moment, as if hearing everything, Zi Qiangwei suddenly became intensely interested in the machine-being below, diligently enchanting and refining it.

Kuku shook her head. That history was long past.

"Too many races had motive—so we can't determine who did it. Maybe they all acted together. After all, they weren't strong enough or ruthless enough, yet they controlled the continent's most fertile lands."

"Alright, that's enough." Kuku's craftsmanship was excellent. As the soul-infused arm was embedded, the Ji Clan unit's entire body began glowing with spiritual light.

At this moment, even Zi Qiangwei observed closely, unable to help marveling at Kuku's skill—such an exquisitely brilliant design.

"Amazing—you reversed-engineered their telepathic bond into a soul contract similar to a magical girl's, to restore the soul."

"Gaga. I'm a genius! The Ji Clan was only half-complete! The phylactery was only half-complete! Just put them together—and it's done!"

But Li En grew increasingly uneasy about what he was hearing.

Fine, you patch up a dish—but you're just stitching together a person?

"Are you sure this is safe?"

"Perfectly safe (Gou Tou Ren's confident grin)!"

"It's basically beyond saving anyway—let him try." Zi Qiangwei spoke the blunt truth.

Time is the enemy of all life. Though the Ji Clan were mechanical beings, they were still sentient, emotional entities—they aged spiritually with accumulated memories, and eventually shut down and died.

This one's memories and soul were clearly incomplete, and with all his wounds, even if forcibly activated, he wouldn't last long.

The soul inside the phylactery was also fragmented—but fortunately, this phylactery (the mechanical arm) had originally belonged to the Ji Clan, and the two souls were clearly of the same origin.

"They were probably a master-servant pair once—in their own words, sisters. Now that the phylactery is open, its soul energy is flowing steadily into the Ji Clan, nourishing her awakening."

This "high-grade lich" will likely never resurrect again—but perhaps it will persist in another form.

But no matter what, the awakened entity will no longer be the one she was before.

Or perhaps, more accurately, she is the offspring of both, each contributing half?

The red light on her face turned green—signaling the female machine-being had completed self-diagnosis and awakened.

"Where… is this?"

(End of Chapter)