Both Anbaixiu and the God of Alchemy were fretting.
An unexpected twist had thrown their plans into disarray: neither of them had anticipated that Evil Silver Shaded's offspring would experience a jump in intelligence.
Evil Silver Shaded looked foolish enough as it was—how on earth could it produce clever offspring?
The newborn mercury soul puppet knelt obediently before Anbaixiu, gazing up at him with manifested eyes brimming with anticipation. The sheer detail of its transformation spoke volumes about its powerful imagination—after all, one could only manifest what one could first conceive.
And an individual with a rich imagination naturally possessed great curiosity; with great curiosity, intelligence would inevitably rise higher and higher.
That logic held true across every species.
Anbaixiu conducted a few tests, and the results proved far more severe than he had anticipated.
If an ordinary mercury soul puppet was like a four- or five-year-old child—doing nothing but eating, sleeping, waking, and playing—then Evil Silver Shaded was akin to a ten-year-old, understanding how to communicate and possessing the ability to learn.
Yet the creature before him... its intellect was entirely indistinguishable from that of an ordinary person.
Not only that, but it also seemed to have inherited Evil Silver Shaded's memories, having learned to speak the moment it was born and knowing that Anbaixiu was its creator.
Furthermore, testing revealed that while the newborn's various abilities were weaker than Evil Silver Shaded's, its growth had not been capped.
When they gave it enough magical equipment to devour, the little fellow not only grew substantially larger, but also mastered the enchantments upon the gear. Its only limitation was insufficient internal mana, making the spells somewhat difficult to cast.
At that point, the little creature began attempting to use incantations to assist its spellcasting—and after just a few pointers from Anbaixiu, it succeeded.
"Teacher, we've created a terrifying race," Anbaixiu said with a sigh.
The abilities the little creature displayed weren't overly potent, but the real issue lay in the intellect it exhibited. If newborn mercury soul puppets could continue passing down this inherited memory, they would become a flawless new race.
Even dragons lacked magic resistance as absurd as that of mercury soul puppets, to say nothing of how their liquid mercury bodies were innately immune to most physical attacks. Combine that with their talent for devouring metal and asexual reproduction... tsk, other races wouldn't stand a chance.
Never mind Oghma; even Ao wouldn't permit such a balance-shattering, monstrous race to exist. Within a few years, they would strip the Prime Material Plane bare and rule the entire world.
"We'll study it further. That's how experiments go—there are always risks. It's fine; let them live in my divine realm. It's quiet here anyway."
The God of Alchemy was resigned, but not overly disappointed.
As the incarnation of alchemy, he was naturally as full of the unexpected as alchemy itself. He might be able to grant alchemy experiments an extraordinarily high success rate, but he could not control every single detail of that success with absolute certainty.
Evil Silver Shaded had been enhanced and matched their requirements perfectly; it was simply too powerful.
Its bred offspring had indeed suffered a regression in physical power, but its intelligence had skyrocketed—another unexpected twist of the experiment.
Yet it was precisely these accidents that made alchemy richer and ever more intricate. Looking at the little creature devoutly kneeling before him, Anbaixiu casually remarked, "Since you are the first mercury soul puppet to possess complete intellect, I shall call you... Guangzhi. Broad wisdom. That is my hope for you; make good use of it."
The little fellow said excitedly, "Thank you, great Bone God! Guangzhi will strive to expand his wisdom and dedicate everything to you."
Anbaixiu waved Guangzhi aside. The God of Alchemy permitted Guangzhi to roam freely within the divine realm; the place was vast and empty save for various alchemical apparatuses, so the deity was content to let the lad read and learn on his own.
Having settled the newborn, master and apprentice buried themselves in research once more. They needed to revise their designs and attempt to create a mercury soul puppet with low intelligence and substantially weakened abilities, yet still potent enough to serve as a formidable battle pet.
While Anbaixiu was busy in the divine realm, things were far from idle elsewhere.
Down in Hell, through Paluriel's efforts, Melina's territory had finally completed its first expansion. Her domain had tripled in size, and her retinue was no longer limited to just an erinyes and a cambion.
Under Paluriel's orchestration, Melina now held sway over seven lord-level devils, and her ranks of various high- and low-tier forces numbered over thirty thousand.
And those were merely the handpicked elites. If one counted all devils under the devilish convention of universal conscription, Melina could mobilize a force in excess of a hundred thousand.
Such strength was anything but ordinary. Among the many lords along the banks of the River of Blood, Melina had begun to make a name for herself, rising as a formidable power that could not be overlooked.
By rights, she ought to have continued quietly developing her domain, expanding her influence, and slowly amassing the strength needed to sway the tides of the Blood War. Yet at this juncture, a lemure offered Melina a bold suggestion.
"My lord, let us seek out Archduke Zariel and have her bless your legion and bestow an official designation."
This lemure was the very lucky devil Paluriel had picked up. Back then, Paluriel had promised to make him Melina's right-hand man within ten days, and she had delivered on her word.
The method was simple enough: the lemure was merely Paluriel's marionette and mouthpiece. Any proposal put forward by the lemure was, in truth, Paluriel's counsel to Melina.
"Seek out Zariel? Why?"
Melina was not well-versed in the laws and customs of Hell. She was already a lord empowered by Hell's planar laws, so what was this business about a legion blessing and official designation?
The lemure had prepared his answer well in advance and explained, "The Blood War is a colossal conflict commanded by Archduke Bel. Ordinary devils may only go to the battlefield as solitary skirmishers. Any fighting force exceeding three hundred soldiers requires Archduke Bel's permission to enter the Blood War; otherwise, they are executed on charges of disrupting the battlefield.
"Yet if one submits to Archduke Bel's orders, weaker devils are invariably treated as cannon fodder. If we wish to influence the course of the war, we must enter the Blood War with the authority to act independently. And that requires the permission of Archduke Zariel. Only lords bestowed with an official designation may enter the River of Blood freely and participate in the Blood War as they see fit."
Melina voiced her doubt, "That doesn't sound easy. Zariel isn't likely to agree. Besides, are we really going to enter the Blood War right now?"
Tens of thousands of devils sounded impressive, but while hunting down routed demons along the perimeter of the River of Blood was one thing, stepping onto the official battlefield would make them little better than cannon fodder. What purpose would entering now serve?
The lemure hastened to voice Paluriel's reasoning.
"Lady Melina, entering the battlefield now is not about winning the war. Rather, the time has come to make those veterans realize that the magic mirror possesses the power to reshape the battlefield. If Lord Deceiver's plan is to advance, the magic mirror must become an indispensable necessity in the Blood War!"
Chapter 585