Anbaixiu truly wasn't joking with the two of them. To resolve the Rose of Decay's predicament, he had recently been researching how to eliminate the negative side effects of being undead.
The Rose of Decay was the most traditional kind of lich—transformed through lingering resentment and obsession, her soul bound to a phylactery.
Never mind that she whimpered softly inside the Synesthesia Dreamscape; once she left the dream, she was still subjected to the influence of her undead body, which constantly eroded her humanity.
As for Hastings and Hares, even though Anbaixiu had experimentally stuffed a great deal into their souls during their transformation, they remained fundamentally undead.
With the passage of time, the loss of humanity and deterioration of cognitive faculties would inevitably reduce them to drooling hulks—that was their unavoidable fate.
Unless Anbaixiu found some "obsessions" for them.
However, doing that was meaningless, because Anbaixiu wanted to resolve the issue at its root, not merely buy time.
The key to everything still lay in the soul. The soul of an undead was fundamentally different from that of the living.
After entering Hell, Anbaixiu had seen countless souls and gathered a wealth of data from all across the realm. Through reverse-engineering the technology behind infernal engines, his understanding of souls had deepened considerably, leading him to discover an anomaly.
To a certain degree, his Simulated Souls did not qualify as undead.
It was only because undead vessels were particularly convenient for stuffing souls into that Anbaixiu habitually created undead creatures. But in essence, a Simulated Soul was different from an undead soul. Take Melina, for instance: she showed no signs whatsoever of having her willpower worn down.
On the contrary, Melina had been an undead from the moment of her birth, living her life in an undead state, and her soul was perfectly adapted to her body.
To Melina, the sensations of the living were merely things of "legend," carrying no genuine emotional resonance.
Much like subterranean creatures who spent their entire lives underground, most were blind and felt nothing special about lacking light, nor did the absence of that sense affect their cognition in any way.
In a sense, Anbaixiu had created a unique race; calling them "natural-born undead" would not be inaccurate.
Natural-born undead had never experienced the state of "possessing living senses." Having never possessed them, they had nothing to lose, and without that sense of loss, their souls suffered no continual erosion.
Anbaixiu now wanted to try modifying traditional undead to make them infinitely close to the state of natural-born undead. Perhaps doing so could thoroughly resolve the Rose of Decay's predicament.
He obviously couldn't use the Rose of Decay as a test subject, which made having a number of high-tier undead with independent wills an absolute necessity.
Yet such subjects were hard to come by.
Under Anbaixiu's command, only the brotherly pair of Hastings and Hares barely met the criteria, and across the entire Underdark controlled by the Rose of Decay, one would probably be hard-pressed to find another.
It wasn't that high-tier undead didn't exist, but rather that the Rose of Decay's prior method had been to erase their individual will and assert total control. Those undead had long since lost most of their selfhood, rendering them useless for experimentation.
Speaking of which, Ryan had been slaying undead for so many years, yet why had Anbaixiu rarely encountered any decent ones? Everyone in the Elegy Poetry Society was a friend, so he couldn't very well experiment on them, and the only person he wouldn't mind dissecting—Herki Stone—happened to be a vampire.
Anbaixiu looked at the two brothers. With only two test subjects, he had to be cautious and avoid squandering them heedlessly.
As for Erha's suggestion to test Dahei first—such touching brotherly devotion—Anbaixiu was happy to oblige.
Reaching out, he pointed at Hastings's body. Dozens of Mage Hands surged forth, seizing the mechanical suit and beginning to disassemble it.
Parts clattered to the floor one by one. In no time at all, Anbaixiu had reduced the armor to scattered debris, leaving behind only the head and the core power furnace.
The head was where the soul resided, while the power furnace was tightly integrated with the head piece, allowing it to be pulled out alongside the head and plugged into another mech suit.
Cradling Hastings's head, Anbaixiu drew out his soul directly.
Holding the glowing orb in his hand, countless threads streamed from Anbaixiu's fingertips and plunged into Hastings's soul.
In the next second, the adventurer who had witnessed so much life and death let out a pig-slaughtering screech.
It was a soul shriek, something any creature with a soul could perceive.
Frightened, Erha instantly curled into a ball, his sloshing liquid mercury hesitating over whether to find a crack to squeeze into. Anbaixiu was also startled by Hastings's scream and hastily halted.
Anbaixiu asked, "Does it hurt that much? I haven't even officially begun the modifications!"
Hastings's soul gasped weakly, "I'm dying... I truly can't endure even a second of this! Pain doesn't begin to describe it—this is the cruelest torture in the world!"
Though the fellow's words were a bit hyperbolic, Anbaixiu could sense that there was indeed an issue with this modification plan.
His original idea had followed the logic of the Ship of Theseus: sever a piece of the soul first, then patch it with a Simulated Soul. Once Hastings adjusted and thoroughly integrated that portion, Anbaixiu would repeat the process of slicing and replacing.
Once the Simulated Soul constituted the majority, perhaps Hastings could break free from the shackles of undeath and no longer suffer the attrition of his willpower.
Who would have thought the experiment would hit a wall right at the start?
Anbaixiu could feel that Hastings's soul had hovered on the verge of shattering moments ago. Any more pressure, and he might have collapsed completely.
A completely shattered soul would hold no experimental value, leaving Anbaixiu no choice but to pause.
Anbaixiu said with disgust, "You usually brag about being some seasoned adventurer, yet you can't even stomach this bit of pain."
Hastings explained feebly, "No matter how seasoned an adventurer is, they've never experienced soul shattering! Anyone who has is already dead!"
Anbaixiu scoffed dismissively, "I have."
Hastings chose to keep his mouth shut. The master lich was once again using "personal experience" to mask his unreasonable behavior.
Anbaixiu produced a large pile of soul coins and handed them to Hastings. "If modification won't work, then eat. Swallow these and digest them as fast as you can. Eat until you can't hold another bite, and come ask for more once they're digested."
Since the Ship of Theseus approach was off the table, he would try diluting it with water—seeing whether devouring extra souls might yield any results.
These soul coins were counterfeit currency forged by Anbaixiu, theoretically identical in nature to Simulated Souls.
All undead possessed the instinct to devour souls, varying only in strength. Seeing that he wouldn't have to suffer torture, Hastings decisively chose this second option, gulping down all the soul coins in a single mouthful.
Swallowing was easy enough, but digesting them would take time.
Anbaixiu stuffed Hastings back into the mechanical armor, then turned to look at the puddle that was Erha.
Without waiting for Erha to utter a word, Anbaixiu extracted his soul, triggering yet another ear-splitting soul shriek.
This time, however, Anbaixiu did not stop. He discovered that Erha's soul was considerably more resilient than Dahei's; even after Anbaixiu sliced off a small piece, it didn't collapse. Anbaixiu immediately patched the defect with a Simulated Soul, then shoved Erha's soul back into the mercury.
He watched as ripples continually spread across the blob of mercury—tremors born of the agonizing pain of a torn soul.
"If you want to maintain your sanity as undead, there is bound to be a price. Both of you, report to me at any time."
Having finished the experiments on the two brothers, Anbaixiu vanished into the magic mirror.
Chewing on the soul coins, Hastings walked over to his still-trembling brother and consoled him, "It's fine. Bear with it, and it'll pass."
Hares's weak voice drifted out, filled with shame. "Big Brother, aren't you mad at me for pushing you forward first?"
Hastings replied gently, "What are you talking about? We're blood brothers. How are you feeling now?"
"It hurts so much, but I can still hold on. Big Brother, I'm sorry." Hares felt thoroughly ashamed.
Yet in the very next second, he heard Hastings yell toward the magic mirror: "Master, he's fine! You can carve off another piece!"
Hares: "Huh?"
Are the hearts of the undead really this filthy?! Big Brother, you've already lost your humanity!
Chapter 579