Chapter 704: Those Who Are Praised in Song...

“You make it sound so simple, young man…”

The Artifice Sage, whose true age was unknown, fell into thought. His projection paced back and forth on the Eight Trigrams Disc, frowning as if pondering something.

After a moment of internal debate, he sighed and looked up at Su Zhou. “To be honest, this is an absolute boon for me. My Electronic Netherworld is in desperate need of practical subjects, and for once, I have the moral high ground, so no one else will stand in my way.”

With that, the Saint, whose external projection was that of a middle-aged man, waved his hand. “But most of these souls aren’t Zhengguo people, are they? It doesn’t really matter, but I still have to file an application with United International and the Central Committee, and I must ask the souls themselves if they are willing.”

“I understand all of that.” Su Zhou was already prepared for this. He didn’t think the Artifice Sage was the kind of person to abandon his principles for the sake of an experiment—if he were, he never would have reached his current position. “How long will it take? What I mean is, I might not be able to preserve them for very long.”

He was reminded of the human souls hanging from the Wisdom Tree Essence Soul, looking like air-dried hams.

“It won’t take long. United International and the Committee will approve this sort of thing quickly.”

The Artifice Sage’s projection closed its eyes. This didn’t actually affect its ability to see Su Zhou; it just meant he was casting his consciousness to the far side of the network. “Alright, the application is uploaded. Now we just wait for a response.”

“In the meantime, I’ll connect you to Cang Lunzhe. It’ll save you a trip to that grotesque laboratory of his.”

“I actually don’t mind. I’m quite interested in seeing it…”

But despite what he said, Su Zhou didn’t mind taking the easier route.

Soon enough, the white-haired Life Saint Cang Lunzhe, who possessed the bloodline of a Bai Ze, also materialized as a holographic projection before Su Zhou.

There was no need for Su Zhou to repeat himself. Cang Lunzhe, having already received the data packet from the Artifice Sage, shook his head with some regret. “My research focus isn’t actually on clones, but on human modification, genetic modification… Besides, to create a body that is perfectly compatible with a soul, you need DNA information left behind by the person themselves. But the vast majority of victims eaten by the Deep Space Caller left no DNA information behind.”

“Even so, creating a cloned body with a normal lifespan, cultivation talent, and no abnormalities—one identical to the original—is extremely difficult. It requires optimization and modification starting from the embryonic stage… Unfortunately, this part of the technology is still in the human trial phase for me. The mortality rate is…”

The Life Saint made a hand gesture for the number eight, causing Su Zhou to frown. “Eight percent? That’s way too high…”

“Eighty percent,” the Life Saint said calmly. “Actually, for the initial clones, it was one hundred percent. But transplanting a soul is just that difficult. Why do you think possession even needs to be studied as a special skill? It’s an Extraordinary Technique. For an ignorant soul to be passively stuffed into a body—even its original body—is dangerous, let alone a cloned one.”

An eighty-percent mortality rate. Su Zhou wasn’t a butcher of men, so he could only give up on the idea with regret. However, the Life Saint did mention that he was very interested in the ‘Shapeless,’ and since Su Zhou was the only person from Zhengguo to have fought one, he hoped they would have the chance to conduct joint research in the future.

Naturally, Su Zhou didn’t refuse.

That left only one option: the Artifice Sage’s Electronic Netherworld.

“Is the technology mature?” After the sobering revelation of the Life Saint’s eighty-percent mortality rate, Su Zhou had become a little worried. Although the lives and deaths of those people had nothing to do with him, as a self-proclaimed world policeman, he just couldn’t stand to see any bad endings.

“Very mature. For example, me.” The Artifice Sage pointed to himself, then smiled. “And I’m not an isolated case. At least, under standard conditions, the success rate is one hundred percent…”

As he said the word ‘standard,’ the Artifice Sage let out a soft sigh, his gaze turning nostalgically toward a vacant desk in a corner of the domed hall. Su Zhou noticed this but didn’t know why.

Su Zhou had assumed the review process with United International and the Committee would be very slow. He was even prepared to take his leave and come back in a few days after the Artifice Sage notified him.

But who would have thought that in less than ten minutes, the electronic report for the application had already come through.

“How was that so fast?!” Su Zhou was stunned. “This concerns the lives, deaths, and futures of several thousand people. They just approved it like that?”

“It’s just like how we’re ‘crossing the river by feeling the stones’ of the American Federation when it comes to AI chips.”

The Artifice Sage responded with a faint smile. “And in the matter of soul digitization, other countries are ‘crossing the river by feeling our stones.’ We all learn from each other. It’s an unspoken understanding, so of course, they gave it the green light.”

“Most importantly, Su Zhou, they’re not like you. They don’t care about the lives and deaths of several thousand people who have nothing to do with them… This is your strength, and also your weakness. But forget it. You’re fine just the way you are. I like good kids like you.”

It was the first time in his life he’d been labeled a ‘good kid’ by someone other than his parents or Aunt Wen. Su Zhou rubbed his chin in bemusement, but compared to such a trivial matter, the souls of the victims were obviously more important.

Soon, under the Artifice Sage’s guidance, Su Zhou arrived before a regular dodecahedron encased in layers of tempered glass, shimmering with a bright, pale-blue fluorescent light.

It looked like a small, twelve-sided star. The Artifice Sage gestured for Su Zhou to release the souls he had preserved and let them come into contact with the regular dodecahedron, which was inscribed with countless nanoscale runes.