Chapter 233: Ruins

Chapter 233: Ruins

Making a bionic limb obviously could not be as simple as making a normal Alchemical Puppet. Inside an Alchemical Puppet, aside from the skeleton and skin, the parts that looked like muscle were just shaped filler material. To put it plainly, it was something like silicone. It did not serve any function of actual muscle.

For a bionic limb, it at least needed to have a liveliness close to that of a living creature. This time, the Alchemical Avatar Zheng Yichen planned to make would be completely realistic. It would not just be the fake ‘life fluctuation’ hidden inside like before, but would genuinely emit a life fluctuation. Most Detection Magic basically started from this aspect anyway. That stuff was Magic, not an X-ray; it couldn’t see through a person completely.

In short, after simulating the true fluctuation that a real living creature could emit, and adding a layer of protection to block certain Detection Magic, even if it was probed, people would find it seventy to eighty percent human. They would simply overlook the remaining flaws, as long as the Alchemical Puppet parts weren’t detected.

As long as the information about such an Alchemical Avatar didn’t leak, he truly didn’t believe others could create specialized area detection devices to deal with this kind of Alchemical Avatar!

As for the bionic limb he wanted to make, of course it wasn’t a mechanical part. He planned to use Forbidden Alchemy to create flesh and blood.

“Sigh… Speaking of which, I don’t know much about the detailed parts of the human body,” Zheng Yichen scratched his head. Being able to make an Alchemical Puppet was only easy regarding the bones. But things like muscle structure couldn’t be solved just by reading books. So, he found himself already somewhat troubled at the second step. The problem of bones? That was simple. Zheng Yichen could just get a real set of bones. He would compress the Alchemy parts inside the bones, with all connection points linked by the Alchemy parts.

Because of this, the strength of the skeletal structure would naturally decrease, but it didn’t matter. What he wanted was an Alchemical Avatar that wouldn’t be discovered, not a killing machine like a Terminator.

“Lily, do you know where there’s a graveyard?”

“Huh? What do you want to do?” Lily, who was playing with a little yellow duck Zheng Yichen casually made, couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, asking with some surprise. What did he mean by that? He sounded like he was planning to dig up someone’s grave?

“To borrow someone’s corpse.”

“I don’t know,” Lily rolled her eyes and threw the little yellow duck in her hand to a passing Ghostly Little Maid. After coming here, Loris had set up a Necromantic Teleportation Array in Zheng Yichen’s Underground Workshop. Those Ghost Maids could come here anytime through the teleportation array. The Mana cost…

Let’s just say the Magic Weapon Summoning Book brand batteries were really convenient to use.

“Forget it, I’ll look for one myself,” Zheng Yichen muttered. If he didn’t figure out this part, the experiment couldn’t proceed smoothly. Even if he could make something eighty percent similar, he didn’t know whether some Detection Magic would detect something because of the missing twenty percent difference in that eighty percent.

If it was discovered, it would truly be a failure before even starting. If the information about the bionic Alchemical Puppet was exposed, he would probably be targeted again.

Grave robbing… Hmm, considering it really wasn’t very decent, Zheng Yichen thought about it and still gave up on the idea. Graveyards usually had guards. And the so-called gravekeeper being just an old, weak, frail old man? Zheng Yichen could only say the old man part was right, but weak definitely had nothing to do with gravekeepers!

No one wanted their family’s remains dug up, so gravekeepers were highly paid. To ensure gravekeepers had enough energy, it was a shift system. When it wasn’t their shift, they had plenty of free time. Many people wanted to get into this profession but found they couldn’t squeeze in. Zheng Yichen had nothing to say about this.

Damn it… This wasn’t like what the books said. It shouldn’t be like this, right?

Anyway, grave robbing was not only indecent but also easily exposed. Perhaps he should go to the Mercenary Guild and post some Quests? Buy some unclaimed fresh corpses for experiments? He was afraid that he would post the Quest one moment and the next moment people from the Sanctuary Church would come knocking on his door. What the heck did he want to do buying corpses?

Research? Researching dark Magic? Or Forbidden Alchemy? Those were all crimes. Come with us.

“Should I find Qin?” Zheng Yichen rubbed his chin. Given his current situation, finding Qin once wasn’t easy. The surveillance in Kaja still hadn’t been lifted. Using a normal Alchemical Avatar to go there would definitely be exposed. “Tch, I really should have spent some effort researching wireless walkie-talkies before.”

The reason he didn’t have that was because it wasn’t necessary. Hmm… After all, Communication Magic in the Otherworld was quite advanced. Glancing at a small mirror hanging on the wall, Zheng Yichen shook his head. Forget it. For a small matter like finding corpses, it seemed really unreasonable to trouble her. He would handle this himself.

Zheng Yichen had just walked out of the Laboratory when he saw a Ghost Maid carrying two corpses to his door. She walked in, facing his utterly shocked expression, looked back at Zheng Yichen, her eyes full of confusion — where to throw these two?

“Just put them anywhere. Where did you get them from?” The Ghost Maid did exactly as Zheng Yichen said, casually throwing the two corpses she was carrying onto the ground. She gestured a bit, meaning she basically found them in the Forest of Illusions.

“Oh… Right, that place always has people who enter seeking death,” Zheng Yichen nodded, glancing at the twisted faces of the two corpses. In the Forest of Illusions, although Ghost Maids would occasionally guide some unlucky folks to help them survive, that range was only near the Castle.

And not all Ghost Maids would do this. One could only say the death rate for intruders near the Castle was lower. Other places? Those people were determined to charge into the Forest of Illusions. The Ghost Maids weren’t some Human Guardians, so of course they wouldn’t run around every day looking for people who strayed in to help.

“This is a pretty good source of corpses?” Looking at these two corpses, as for desecrating corpses… since seeing the Souls of this world, Zheng Yichen said that when this thing was alive, it was a person. After death, it was really similar to a dead Magical Beast. The corpse wasn’t important; the Soul was the important core.

“Are you sure you want to watch?” Suddenly noticing Lily hadn’t left, Zheng Yichen, controlling the Projection, put down the tool he was holding in his claw and asked curiously.

“I’ve eaten raw meat before, what’s wrong with watching?” Lily retorted. After becoming a Corpse Puppet, especially after her ‘Awakening’, many of her traits had unconsciously emerged. For example, the old her would have felt nauseated and disgusted by eating raw meat and blood, finding the taste unbearable. But now, if she was hungry, those tastes were really quite good. If they contained enough Life Force, she might even find them delicious!

“Fine, if you can’t stand it, then leave by yourself.” Nodding, Zheng Yichen started cutting… He wasn’t doing some particularly evil research, just simply aiming to understand the internal structure of the human body in detail, so the cuts were a bit… fine. In the end, even Zheng Yichen felt bad and simply cremated it before moving to the next one.

“Really, if I do this kind of research a few more times, will I become very strange?” Although he was doing this using a Projection, Zheng Yichen still washed his hands vigorously afterward. Holding a bucket of drink, sucking on a straw as thick as an adult’s arm, he brooded on his own.

“As long as your mindset doesn’t change, it’s fine if it’s for yourself,” Loris said softly, sitting on Zheng Yichen’s tail curled on the ground.

“Mindset… I’ll try my best,” Zheng Yichen thought about it, then nodded. Recalling earlier, it seemed even then he hadn’t gone crazy thinking that because he needed corpses and didn’t have a suitable source, he should consider killing one or two people or something. He even gave up on the idea of grave robbing. So, that was pretty upright, right?

“Any gains?”

“Hmm… Not bad. I have a general direction now. Researching a few more days should allow me to summarize some data,” Zheng Yichen said. After all, it was just for understanding human body structure, not some meticulous research, so progress was naturally fast as long as one had a good memory.

“I’ll go rest for a bit,” Zheng Yichen put the finished drink bucket aside and returned to his room. He flopped onto the specially-made extra-large Sealy mattress, focusing most of his attention on that Projection he had previously spread out.

Near the young man named Oss, the Projection maintained in its smallest form silently watched this youth. Compared to over a month ago, he was undoubtedly stronger now. His sister had been arranged to study at a good Academy, and he had become a lone Mercenary and semi-Adventurer, constantly taking on Quests that could be done solo to earn commissions.

The whole development process was quite normal. During this period, when Zheng Yichen controlled this Projection, he couldn’t help but notice some other Demon Sword Cultists. Some even seemed more special than Oss. He showed no sign of being a Cultist at all, usually focusing on hunting Magical Beasts, many of which were beasts harassing villages that hadn’t been dealt with in time. He did quite a few good deeds.

This was one point that piqued his interest. Another point was this guy was actually being watched by people from the Sanctuary Church. The one following him was a rather skilled Infiltrator. Usually, he had almost no presence and didn’t interfere with Oss’s actions at all. What he did was regularly report some of Oss’s situation.

It seemed extremely rigid…

Probably this was also under someone’s instruction.

Zheng Yichen suspected this might be for fishing… but the chosen target was a bit too… what? Choosing such a target, what could they discover about the Demon Sword Sect? Although Zheng Yichen was quite interested in the Demon Sword Sect and had gotten a lot of related information from Qin. The Demon Sword Sect was really a strange one among cults. It even seemed related to Apophis?

Watching Oss silently sitting alone on a rock, chewing on dried meat by himself, Zheng Yichen controlled this Projection to temporarily move away from the area. He summoned Apophis, looked at this small-sized Magic Sword suitable for the Projection to hold, and tapped it with a finger: “So, can Magic Arms also produce strange reactions using rituals for creating Evil Gods?”

The question that had been bothering Zheng Yichen for a long time was partly answered after learning some information about the Demon Sword Sect. The reason the Magic Sword had such changes was probably because of the cult, right? But if this thing was used as the main material, what about the generated Evil God?

Assimilated by his own Magic Sword?

Zheng Yichen probed into the Magic Sword with his Mental Energy again for a while. The part of his own Mental Energy blended into the Magic Arms inside was a bit more active, but there was no other change. The increase level was also normal. As for being active, well, as long as enough people used the Magic Arms, the stimulation would cause such activity.

“Hey! If you really have changed, blink?” Zheng Yichen poked the eye on Apophis. The thing still showed no other reaction. After tinkering for a while, Zheng Yichen sheepishly withdrew it. He had done this many times today. Never once ‘communicated’ successfully. He didn’t know if the thing really hadn’t changed, or if it had really changed but it was too weak to detect?

Destroy this Magic Arm? Hmm, that was a good idea. The key was Zheng Yichen’s research desire was up now. It felt a pity to destroy it so decisively. Moreover, his own creation, and he couldn’t control it? What was this situation? Lacking skill?

Tch! After the recent research concluded, he would go back and flip through books, see if he could find the ritual for creating an Evil God, and try messing with a Magic Arm!

His vision returned to Oss. After eating and resting, he started moving again. This time, besides taking on a Quest, he also had an exploratory purpose. In his last Quest, he got a very old map from an enemy, seemingly related to some Ruins. The Ruins weren’t huge, but he planned to explore them during this Quest.

Exploring small Ruins was just right. Too large meant higher risk. Oss didn’t want to lose his life there from forcing recklessness. Right now, he had many uses for money, especially for his sister… Even for this small Ruins, he had made a lot of preparations beforehand. If he couldn’t handle it alone, he would quickly complete this Mercenary Quest, then gather some trustworthy partners to explore together.

Just the information from this map, as long as its authenticity was confirmed, could bring him some profit… Exploring Ruins was like digging for treasure maps. He might just hit the jackpot and get rich.

“Hmm… This Ruins?” Zheng Yichen finished peeking at the map in Oss’s hand through his spying and scratched his head. It looked somewhat familiar. Where had he seen it recently? Zheng Yichen, thinking, suddenly slapped his palm! Oh right!

It seemed he saw it earlier at Irene’s place, in an old notebook she used as a table prop. At the time, he thought it was some strange collection, but after reading it, it really was just an ‘ordinary’ Notebook, jotting down some old, unimportant things Irene thought of, which could be traced back four hundred years.