Thousand-Faced Dragon

Chapter 123 The Iron Man Rebellion: The Culprit Cannot Be Found
Rean found the murder scene in the control room below.

"Cause of death: piercing wound, nailed to his own chair. Judging from the fractured bones, the penetrating wound likely entered from the rear, most likely a betrayal by someone he trusted."

At this moment, Purple Rose acted like a seasoned detective, a seasoned bandit, accurately reconstructing the cause of the lich's death.

"Tsk, one hit and he's dead. What a tragic death. He didn't even have a chance to trigger his surprise attack."

The hole in the mechanical chair, still bearing the lower half of the unfortunate lich, also shows his last stand before death.

There's no doubt anymore; this lich didn't transform on its own, but rather was a high mage who had been immersed in a pool of negative energy for a long time and had turned into a corpse.

After all, liches are immune to physical backstabs; only the living can be pinned to the chair.

"It died instantly. It took so long for it to turn into a zombie, so there's no need to worry about its soul recovering. It's left with only instincts."

"We can draw a conclusion now. When it transformed into a lich, the weapon that killed it was similar to its body, penetrated its soul, and became its life casket. It was a passive transformation. Tsk, what a poor guy, he couldn't even die peacefully."

A normal lich actively transforms by killing themselves through a ritual, pouring their soul into a prepared casket to gain immortality.

This kind of lich, which has turned into a zombie for some reason, is perhaps best described as a super lich.

It is not a complete transformation of the soul (the lich ritual is meant to protect the soul), but rather a new life born from that "corpse".

It is like those artificial undead spellcasters (liches), possessing a high level of spellcasting ability, but basically lacking reason and intelligence.

Even if they can still act based on their obsessions from their previous life, they have no chance of regaining their rationality, and are essentially no different from skeleton soldiers.

"Using something like this as a life-sustaining box, even if the transformation was perfect before, the soul and spirituality will be almost completely lost."

A lich's phylactery is often extremely valuable and exceptionally sturdy; it is a container for the soul and needs to be kept "constant and unchanging" for a long period of time.

But what's in front of me is an alloy mechanical arm, which wasn't even considered a supernatural item before. Using something like this as a life box would have completely drained its spirituality and soul.

That lich will probably only be able to resurrect a few times. It's even very likely that his next resurrection will be the end.

"Should we tear it down?"

"No, that would be such a waste. This is already a spiritual artifact with a soul, and it's a creation of the Creator Clan."

Kuku, now in a researcher's mindset, is diligently refining his research.

If it were an ordinary mechanic or even a master mechanic (a powerful mechanical alchemist who advances from a mage), they would probably only have two choices now: either keep the mechanical arm's life box completely untouched, or disassemble it and restore the parts.

"Interesting! Really interesting! A natural soul weapon that connects two souls at the same time—truly worthy of being a twin race cursed by fate."

This is clearly ancient technology. Too many stories have been buried in history, but here, there is a heroic spirit from ancient times.

As a fellow alchemist, how could Kuku not study the Machine Race and the Creator Race, who were famous for their alchemy and metal creations?

"The Creator Race is inherently weak; their slender and elongated bodies are completely incapable of enduring labor. However, they also had their own brief period of glory, perhaps only three to five hundred years."

It is said that the standard for having its own era is to occupy one-third of the world's fertile land and have a brilliant and unique civilization with more than a hundred years of glory.

The Creator race once dominated the world and had its own era, which is enough to prove its power.

"Uh, this bone?" Rean tapped the blue lich bone. Kuku said it was a very high-quality material, and he had kept it as a trophy.

The "parts" of an organism are often related to the ecology, and with bones this hard, it doesn't look like a weakling at all.

"It's infused with tempered liquid. Modern biological evolution technology is somewhat related to them. Ordinary Creators (the creator race) are very fragile; they might even die from running a long distance. They need a metallic body as their labor force and helper."

Kuku's words revealed a long-buried story.
The Creator race used their alchemical techniques to create metal puppets as laborers. In order to make them serve them better, they used their innate telepathic abilities to share their wisdom, mind, and even emotions with them.

"The 'machine tribe' initially served as their labor force, but soon became their limbs, friends, and even family."

Kuku, holding welding equipment he'd somehow acquired, was busy working on the robot.

Numerous metal parts were placed around, and blueprints were laid out one by one. Perhaps this alchemist, who also came from ancient times, was one of the few people who could repair this machine race.

Kuku was only halfway through his sentence when Rean already knew pretty much what was going to happen next.

It was nothing more than a chain of suspicion that emerged, which eventually turned into a civil war between the creator and the creator.

"Looking back now, there were many shady dealings involved, and it's highly likely that other races were involved in instigation and interference."

Kuku was screwing gears onto her and reassembling her wiring, but he had his own opinions about that period of history.

"The Creator race is quite rare, a purely kind race. Not only can they only eat vegetarian food, but they are also born with a fear of blood and war." Kuku's tone was unusually regretful and saddened.

As a fellow alchemist, he had a very favorable impression of this civilization, which was more orderly and benevolent.

Everyone present was stunned. You're saying that the lich with the will-o'-the-wisps was benevolent?

"Their race doesn't even have a harsh death penalty because they are so lacking in aggression; most heinous crimes don't occur in society. Therefore, the machine races whose minds they share are generally extremely kind and law-abiding. Even though they are quite warlike, they are not bloodthirsty or fond of fighting, and need programs to plan their battle actions." "I've heard of that, because our magical girl mind contracts are said to be influenced by it." Purple Rose's words indirectly confirmed this.

The joy of uncovering ancient secrets lies in the fact that we can always find their implications for the modern world.

At this moment, even the mushroom that was helping to hammer its metal shell became somewhat interested.

He felt that this race was somewhat similar to his own, both of them not eating meat and disliking war, and both were skilled in alchemy (modifying nature).

He was also somewhat interested in the past of this race.

"Who made this?" Rean asked, using dragon flame to heat and weld Kuku as requested. He was also somewhat interested in this mechanical race.

So much time has passed, surely there should be an answer by now.

"do not know."

Uh, who is so capable that they did such a big thing and haven't been exposed yet?

"There are too many candidates. Some say it was done by the giant race, including several types of dwarves who are the mortal enemies of the Creator. They always say that the Creator stole the technology of their ancestors. Well, that's basically true, but it's too harsh to say. They clearly just learned it."

"Some people say it's the elves, because they used a lot of their technology in the creation process of the machine race, which sowed the seeds of future problems. And the one with the best relationship with the creator race is the reputation of the dark elves, uh, everyone knows what I mean."

“Some say it’s the Winged Demi-humans, because their era is coming, they are the beneficiaries, and so are others.” Kuku paused and glanced at Purple Rose.

“Some say it was done by a ‘snake’ and a snake priestess, simply because we have that ability,” Purple Rose chimed in.

"Don't you think this is going too far? Just because you have the ability, you're accusing us of doing it!" Purple Rose pouted, her face full of innocence and resentment.

This made Rean, who was looking at him, feel that he was strangely cute.

"Hehe. Yes, it wasn't you who did it. Just because you wiped out at least five near-dominant races doesn't mean you did it."

"It can't be said that you particularly enjoy playing this game (creation rebellion, tribal infighting), but the creation of the tribe seems to be something you orchestrated (the internal strife) in many ways."

"Just because there are many snake magical girls in historical records doesn't mean it must have been you who did it."

Kuku kept replying, and the situation instantly became very awkward.

At this moment, Purple Rose, who seemed to hear everything, suddenly became very interested in the underground mechs and began to enchant and process them very seriously.

Kuku shook his head; that was in the past.

"Because too many races are involved, it's impossible to determine who did it. They might have acted together. After all, they're not strong or ruthless enough, yet they occupy the most fertile region of the continent."

"Alright, that's about it." Kuku's craftsmanship was quite good. As the arm of this soul artifact was embedded in it, the machine race began to emit spiritual light.

At this moment, even Purple Rose was carefully observing the situation and couldn't help but admire Kuku's exquisite craftsmanship, which was truly an ingenious design.

"Impressive. They actually turned the tables and used their mental contract to transform it into a soul contract similar to that of a magical girl, thus completing their souls."

"Gah! I'm a genius! There's only half a Mech left! And only half a Life Box left! Just put them together! That'll do!"

But Rean felt increasingly uneasy about what he said.

You're not just pairing up the food, you're pairing up the people too?

"Is it really okay?"

"No problem (confident dog-headed face)!"

"Anyway, it's basically hopeless, let him give it a try." Purple Rose spoke the truth.

Time is the enemy of all life. Although the machine race is a mechanical life form, it is still a sentient being with intelligence and emotions. They will also experience "mental aging" as their memories accumulate, and eventually shut down and die.

The person before me clearly has incomplete memories and soul, and with the wounds all over his body, he won't last long even if he forces himself to activate his powers.

The soul inside the Life Box is also incomplete, but coincidentally, this Life Box (mechanical arm) was originally from the Mech race, and the soul power of the two individuals is clearly of the same origin.

"They must have been a master and servant pair before, or sisters in their own words." Now, the life box has been opened, and the soul power within is continuously flowing into the machine race, becoming the nourishment for her reawakening.

It's likely that this "high-level lich" will never be resurrected, but perhaps it will continue to exist in another way.

But no matter what, the individuals who awaken again will probably not be the same as they were in the past.

Or perhaps, more like the offspring of two species, each contributing half of the other?

The red light on her face began to turn green, which meant that the female robot had completed her self-check and woken up.

Where is this?

(End of this chapter)