NOVEL NEXT Chapter 8: Prospects of Artificial Souls
Within the church, among Lynch's supernatural forces, and even across the entire Witch Domain controlled by Lynch, the Holy Daughter of Light is an influential figure capable of affecting various power dynamics, a coveted presence for every faction.
However, for Lynch, the choice of this role is ultimately inconsequential, as long as they obey his arrangements.
Based on this perspective, Lynch himself has no strong opinion on the candidate for the Holy Daughter of Light. Anyone recommended by his subordinates will do, and now the one recommended is an acquaintance from his hometown, so he might as well choose her.
In any case, the selection of the Holy Daughter of Light was quickly concluded, and following the first generation, Alya, the church ushered in the second era of the Holy Daughter of Light.
...
Several months later, Guardian Tower, Laboratory.
In the circular laboratory at the top of the Guardian Tower, Lynch stood before a long lab table.
On the table lay a petri dish, and through the transparent glass lid, some tiny active cells could be seen inside.
Lynch stood by the lab table, observing the changes in these cells through a microscope.
"Tsk, just a trace of Power of Faith significantly increases cell activity tenfold or more..."
"The energy from the fusion of different qualities of cells is not the same..."
"The fusion effect of cells extracted from Transcendents is the best..."
"Besides that, the devoutness of the believer towards their faith also impacts the Power of Faith..."
Over the past few months, aside from his cultivation, he constantly conducted relevant research on the Power of Faith and performed numerous magical experiments.
After the initial three fanatics, Lynch later chose over a dozen experimental subjects for continued trials, including ordinary humans, Knights, and Transcendents. The level of faith extended beyond fanatics to include average believers and even non-believers.
And after a series of complex experiments, Lynch finally made a fair amount of progress in this research.
Currently, the biggest issue with the Power of Faith fundamentally boils down to the problem of fusion.
Though the Power of Faith is potent, it's excessively heterogeneous. After all, it is composed of the spiritual power from the prayers of thousands upon thousands of believers, originating from the minds of countless different individuals.
To illustrate, it's like blood transfusion.
A blood transfusion requires a matching blood type to ensure compatibility and avoid rejection; different blood types forced together cause a variety of negative effects like rejection and thrombosis.
The same is true for the Power of Faith.
The heterogeneous Power of Faith is composed of men, women, old, young, ordinary believers, and fanatics. The Power of Faith contributed by these diverse believers varies significantly. These elements were originally meant for different individuals with specific compatibility—when mixed together in one individual, fusion naturally fails.
Thus, each subject receiving the Power of Faith experiences an instant explosive sensation in their head, losing consciousness due to the mismatch issue between their soul and the Power of Faith.
Put simply, if an individual could be found who matches with the Power of Faith, could its fusion not then be achieved?
So then, is there such an individual?
Previously, Lynch believed no such individual existed, but the example of Alya caused him to reconsider his prior assumptions.
According to his observations, Alya indeed absorbed some Power of Faith, so how did she manage to absorb it without being adversely affected, or at least affected less?
Lynch hypothesizes that the answer might be: emptiness.
Long ago, Lynch used the Eye of Death God to observe Alya's soul, noticing its distinct difference from other individuals—her soul was remarkably empty.
The soul of a normal human is a spectrum of colors, changing with emotional shifts—bright when happy, gray when sad, etc.
Yet Alya's soul remained uniformly gray, neither bright nor dark, indicating her notably indifferent personality—aloof with no concern for anything, lacking subjective color.
The major issue with the Power of Faith is its heterogeneity, being blended with the spiritual powers of myriad souls, each bearing their own subjective consciousness.
When these consciousnesses merge, any container accepting them containing its own subjective consciousness leads to clashes, causing the spiritual power to collapse—the crux of the Power of Faith's lack of acceptance.
Alya can accept the Power of Faith primarily due to her uniquely unaffected soul, absorbing certain faith powers that can be stored without disrupting her spiritual power.
Because she inherently does not actively engage with these consciousnesses, the cacophony of voices in her mind is ignored.
This is the truth behind Alya's ability to accept the Power of Faith.
In other words, provided there is a completely blank soul, accommodating the Power of Faith ceases to be an issue.
Where could such a soul be found?
But, any living entity in this world surely possesses subjective awareness, with pursuits—flora and fauna, love and hate.
Even Alya's soul is only relatively blank, yet it does have fluctuations and changes; otherwise, she wouldn't have left the church and Lynch's control later.
In recent days, Lynch sought out experimental subjects with personalities similarly indifferent to Alya's. Results were present, but not ideal, able to reluctantly accept a trace of Power of Faith but no more.
An original soul can never be utterly blank, so what if one creates a soul?
Artificial Soul!
Creating a soul is not mythological in the Wizard World; on the contrary, it's a fully established theoretical knowledge system, a magical pursuit among many Wizards.
It's one of the three major magical quests in the Wizard World, alongside the Wise Man's Stone and the Perfect Body.
However, up until now, the Artificial Soul has remained theoretical—despite claims from numerous Wizard Organizations within many Witch Domains, none truly qualifies as a bona fide Artificial Soul; many are merely cultivated from existing soul bodies, similar to Frankie in the Shadow Tower library.
Truly creating a soul is an achievement no Wizard has accomplished.
What gives Lynch the confidence to accomplish something so many gifted individuals haven't?
Under normal circumstances, Lynch also believed this would be impossible, a task many Wizards had failed at. But recently, through ongoing research into the Power of Faith and souls, Lynch stumbled upon a peculiar phenomenon.
And it's precisely this phenomenon that presents a potential avenue for breakthroughs...