Chapter 232: The Price of Power

Chapter 232: The Price of Power

After some further adjustments, the Disguise Skin was finally completed. Considering this was something to be used for a period of time, Zheng Yichen did not mess around during its creation. It did not undergo any additional changes and was smoothly produced by him.

“Can it be used now?” Lily asked curiously, looking at the Simulated Skin before her.

“How could that be? There are still many details that haven’t been handled. Do you want to disguise yourself as a boy?” Zheng Yichen glanced at Lily with interest and asked. He thought his joking remark would make her roll her eyes, but she thought about it very carefully and nodded slightly.

“Ahem, are you sure? If you go to school, at your age, it would definitely be a mixed dormitory,” Zheng Yichen coughed lightly.

“Just a bunch of little brats,” Lily said very casually, pursing her lips. Zheng Yichen had nothing to say about that. For the current Lily, besides those freakishly talented children from the big families, other children really couldn’t compare to her now, even though she was becoming more and more like a Vampire—no, it should be said, a Jiangshi like existence.

And the kind that couldn’t just go to a hospital blood bank for used blood if running low; it had to be fresh and alive.

“Hmm… well, that would indeed lower the level of attention,” Zheng Yichen stared at Lily’s chest, pondered for a moment, and said with all seriousness. This time, it directly earned him a big eye-roll from Lily. Though she was young, her experiences had made her mature beyond her years.

“Alright then, don’t regret it later. Once this thing is completely set, it can’t be modified.”

“Okay,” Lily nodded gently and looked down at her chest. “Just need to do the face?”

“Oh? Even though it’s flat, the structure is different, so the chest area must be done too. It won’t use much material anyway, no problem!” Zheng Yichen said, giving a thumbs-up. Lily’s expression grew even more distressed.

It was strange. During this period, she had clearly become much stronger quickly, feeling more power ful every day, but… why did her body seem to have stopped developing?

Could it be that being influenced by that Witch’s Power had led to this situation?

After hesitating for a while, Lily went to find Loris, wanting to ask this Witch who kept a cold face for most of the day.

“This is the price of becoming stronger,” Loris said, giving Lily a casual glance. She hadn’t known much about the power of the Undying Witch before, as they had never had any interaction. But after obtaining a trace of the captured Undying Witch’s power from Zheng Yichen, she had learned quite a bit about this power. Combined with her own insight, it was easy for her to see Lily’s physical condition. There was nothing more to say.

Such was the price of becoming stronger. The altered Undying Witch’s power within her body had completely fused with her. This was a characteristic of that power after Zheng Yichen assimilated it, making it inseparable. Lily was no longer like an ordinary Corpse Puppet.

And after that power fused with her… since she had no Soul, the enhancement mainly strengthened her body. After all, the original altered Undying Witch’s power primarily had the effects of conversion and latent storage. Once a Corpse Puppet Awakened, it could easily hunt its own kind, absorb their Life Force, convert it into this power, and continuously store it. As for the Corpse Puppet becoming stronger after Awakening, that was just a minor feedback from this power.

After all, a sufficiently powerful mining machine could obtain more resources, and the accumulated resources would be harvested by the Undying Witch when needed or after the Corpse Puppet’s death. Lily did not have such a situation, so none of that altered Undying Witch power accumulated. All the Life Force she obtained was converted into power that strengthened her body. Of course, because she could only survive under the influence of this Witch Power, she had to periodically suck blood to extract the target’s Life Force to keep this power active.

Also, because she was already ‘dead’, under the influence of the Undying Witch’s power, her growth rate would only become slower and slower as she grew stronger. It should be noted that this altered Undying Witch power had a certain degree of solidifying effect on the Corpse Puppet’s state. When the Undying Witch controlled this power, she could freely manipulate it, making the Corpse Puppets appear like ordinary people, growing and aging naturally. But if they were near death from old age and Awakened, obtaining blood sustenance, they could quickly restore their youthful physical state.

Here came the problem. Zheng Yichen could not achieve perfect control over this power. Therefore, this solidifying state effect was continuous. As for turning it off… Zheng Yichen did not have the Undying Witch’s techniques, so it was basically hopeless. Of course, Lily could try giving up this mode of becoming stronger, but the consequence would naturally be the depletion of the Undying Witch’s power within her and death.

“…This won’t last forever, will it?” Lily asked, somewhat stunned.

“Not exactly, but real changes would only happen after at least several decades,” Loris said calmly, uttering words that filled Lily with despair. After witnessing high-level battles among Witches, she already felt pressure about pursuing the pinnacle of power. Now, a Witch had essentially handed her a death sentence for her body—at least several decades? Did that mean it might not just be several decades for one change, but possibly even longer? This was just unbelievable!

“You’ve always stayed like this too; don’t you feel any pressure?” Lily struggled internally for a while, mustered her courage, and whispered her question to Loris. Judging by her reaction, she seemed completely accustomed to it. The Witch before her was of unknown age; she must have her own way of coping, right?

It was better to ask now. Next time? Next time she feared she wouldn’t have the courage to ask. This time, she had been somewhat provoked by Zheng Yichen, acting impulsively in the heat of the moment. Now she was already regretting it.

“Why would there be pressure? This is just an energy-saving state,” Loris looked at Lily strangely. Who told you that the appearance you see now is her true appearance? If not to suppress the majority of Witch Power she couldn’t fully control, why would she maintain this young form all the time?

With this body shape, short arms and short legs, she needed to take two steps for every one an adult took… So unless necessary, why would she possibly prefer staying like this?

“Uh…!? My apologies,” Lily felt a pang in her heart and didn’t know what to say anymore. She had been too naive, asking such a question to a Witch whose methods were beyond counting. Thinking about it, besides troubling herself, there seemed to be no other gain.

Although Lily really wanted to ask Loris if there were any growth-accelerating methods—she might not need it now, but she could use it in a dozen years or so. According to Zheng Yichen’s analysis, Lily was now a genuine Longevity Species. As long as she periodically absorbed sufficient Life Force, she could live on indefinitely.

She had heard Zheng Yichen mutter about the principle, something about unlimited cell division and such. And since she had no Soul, she didn’t have to worry about Soul-related issues from living too long. She just needed to maintain her body well enough. There were also terms like mitochondrial DNA and such, all words that sounded impressive but were hard to understand.

She really didn’t know where Zheng Yichen had acquired so much unknown knowledge. It seemed even the Witch before her wasn’t familiar with these things. That was quite remarkable. Having stayed here for so long, Lily was no longer the ignorant novice she once was. Zheng Yichen was a Young Dragon, not a Juvenile Dragon. Converted to Human age, it seemed… he might even be younger than her!

This was something she had occasionally overheard Zheng Yichen mutter during an experiment.

“One more thing.”

The calm voice of Loris from behind made Lily’s steps freeze. She immediately stopped, wanting to hear what came next. “Do not betray him. Even if I don’t take action, you will suffer greatly. I do not wish to see him disappointed, so this is a ‘friendly’ warning. That is all.”

For some reason, Lily felt that Loris’s words at that moment lowered the surrounding temperature by over ten degrees, instantly turning the warm room cold.

Watching Lily leave, Loris picked up one of Zheng Yichen’s notebooks and started reading. What she had just said wasn’t scare tactics or a threat, but the truth. No matter how much Lily ‘mutated’, her essence was still that of a Corpse Puppet. Even a Corpse Puppet with all restrictions removed was the same. Corpse Puppets were created by the Undying Witch; how could she create a product she couldn’t control?

Therefore, even if a Corpse Puppet’s restrictions were removed, it was only the surface ones. The true core constraints… those weren’t restrictions, but constraints of essence. One of them was the inability to rebel against or betray her. Even though the Undying Witch typically let Corpse Puppets roam freely, normally those Corpse Puppets wouldn’t show any abnormality.

But with just a thought from the Undying Witch, those Corpse Puppets would immediately lose their sense of self and become her cannon fodder. However, most Corpse Puppets were monitored by the Sanctuary Church, and they were all ordinary Human Corpse Puppets. Even if they rebelled, they wouldn’t have much power and could be easily suppressed. This portion of Corpse Puppets was probably not even valued by the Undying Witch.

Zheng Yichen couldn’t reduce a Corpse Puppet to cannon fodder with a single thought, but the core constraints remained unchanged. It was like an evil constraint Contract: exceed the limit, die. Because it wasn’t actively triggered, but passive, taking effect without Zheng Yichen needing to intervene.

“What’s wrong? You look utterly hopeless,” Zheng Yichen said after fetching a bucket of water from an extra-large water dispenser suitable for his Dragon Body. Quenching his thirst and preparing to return to the Laboratory, he suddenly caught sight of Lily coming out of his study. “Did Loli scare you?”

Well, Loris probably wasn’t that bored.

Lily shook her head, her expression troubled. “I… I think I won’t grow up anymore.”

“Ahem, I can’t do anything about that,” Zheng Yichen coughed lightly. While studying Lily’s cells infused with the Undying Witch’s power, Zheng Yichen had noticed something. Growth and development seemed largely irrelevant to her. Cell division did occur, but it seemed fixed—if lacking, they would regrow to replenish; once enough, they would stop.

And due to the Undying Witch’s power, cells that stopped dividing also annoyingly didn’t age naturally—extremely unscientific. But thinking this was the Otherworld, it was quite magical.

As for using methods to forcibly promote cell division, that was possible. However, after providing sufficient Life Force to allow stable division to a sufficient number, those cells actually exhibited autophagy, quickly shrinking back to their original amount… The accumulated power, however, was normally retained. This research made Zheng Yichen certain that the core essence of Lily’s body was still that Undying Witch’s power.

Unless Zheng Yichen could modify this ‘main program’, her bodily growth might not be completely stagnant, but it would be at a snail’s pace. The problem was, Zheng Yichen didn’t know how!

Even if he used some physical growth-accelerating methods to truly make Lily grow up, within minutes or even seconds, she would ‘grow back’. There was no solution unless he went to discuss with the Undying Witch. Perhaps through exchange, they could try to resolve it. But was his head smashed?

Would he go looking for trouble with the Undying Witch? Even if he were to seek her out, it would be later when he had the ability to confront her a few times, or at least run away if he couldn’t win. For now, he’d continue his research and be a homebody dragon.

“However, I might try creating a special bionic body in the future. Maybe you could try that then?”

“It wouldn’t be my own, so no thanks,” Lily pouted, saying disappointedly. While shaking her head, she secretly glanced at Zheng Yichen, who was scratching his head helplessly yet pondering deeply. She didn’t know what feeling stirred in her heart. Under what circumstances would such a dragon… choose betrayal?

Most of the things she had cared about were already gone. She didn’t want to lose again.

“Sigh~ Just bear with it and wait for now. Maybe in a dozen years or so, this genius dragon will have researched some amazing results. By then, the issues with your body might be minor,” Zheng Yichen said, waving a claw and swishing his tail as he turned his back to Lily. Carrying the half-full water bucket, he walked into the Laboratory.

What was he thinking about just now?

A bionic body, right? This wasn’t just an offhand remark. Zheng Yichen had long had the idea, but he hadn’t officially started research because the Disguise Skin wasn’t ready yet. The unexpected gains from the Disguise Skin had temporarily pushed the latter two items on his plan back. Of course, Zheng Yichen had considered using some of Qin’s high-end Enchanted Materials to create a long-lasting Alchemical Avatar. But after learning from her and calculating, he realized it wasn’t that simple.

The reason Qin’s Alchemical Avatar had such strong disguise capability wasn’t just due to materials; her own power also played a part. Even if other Detection Magic could affect the Alchemical Avatar, with Qin’s power interfering, the detection would be in vain. Zheng Yichen didn’t have her power, so he had to take a different path.

Since that kind of careless disguise couldn’t completely evade some high-precision Detection Magic, he would increase the precision of his own Alchemical Avatar, surpassing those magics so they couldn’t detect effective information!

Looking at the design sketches on the experiment table, Zheng Yichen contemplated for a moment, then returned to his study. After greeting Loris, he started rummaging through the bookshelf. The books inside were records of things he had seen before that he thought matched some knowledge or ideas from Earth.