"Not bad — at least two of these dragon brains still have intact word imprints."
After checking carefully, Hel removed the two surviving word imprints. That made enough for her to upgrade one of the dragon brains to demi-god level quality.
"Alright, let's go take a look at the elves."
"Yes, master."
Niv took Hel's hand gently and led her out of the underground base.
After leaving the data center of the Ascension Brain, they headed west and stopped in front of another massive building.
Above the main entrance hung a plaque covered in symbols Hel couldn't recognize.
Niv, ever thoughtful, explained:
"This is the Imperial Institute of Biological Research. It's also where most biological specimens are stored.
Aside from this building, there's also the Imperial Genetic and Bloodline Research Bureau on the east side of the data center.
However, the materials over there weren't preserved properly — most of them are unusable now."
The two entered the facility and took an elevator down for quite a while until they reached a vast chamber.
A huge metal vault door stood before them, like the entrance to a bank safe. It was open, and a group of mechanical octopi were busily transporting containers in and out.
"To make things easier, I've had all the materials from the Bureau moved here," Niv said, leading Hel through the vault door and into the main storage hall.
The sight inside was staggering — rows upon rows of transparent jars filled with a pale red fluid. Suspended within were small, lifeless female forms.
Each one, Niv explained, was a Snow Elf Queen, and each had reached the sixth tier of power.
"This section contains all the Snow Elf Queens born in this era — forty in total.
Over there," she pointed to another row, "are the bodies of mixed-blood Goblin Queens — forty-two of them.
The reason there are so many is because Edwina only allowed one queen for each lineage — one Snow Elf and one mixed Goblin — to exist at a time.
Whenever a new queen was born, the old one would be secretly lured to the data center and disposed of.
The mixed-blood Goblin Queens had their souls extracted directly and their bodies turned into biological materials.
The Snow Elf Queens suffered a worse fate — they were sent to the Desire Energy Stations, forced to generate energy until they completely lost themselves, becoming empty shells of their former selves."
"Desire Energy Stations, huh?"
Hel opened her word-imprint library — among her collection were three golden imprints obtained from Edwina.
Because Niv's imprint slots were full, Hel hadn't given them to her yet.
One imprint carried Edwina's bloodline, and the other two contained advanced knowledge — Supreme Soul Theory and Advanced Desire Energy Applications.
The first didn't interest Hel much — as a Death Witch, she had little respect for goblins' crude research into souls.
But "Desire Energy"? That was something entirely new to her.
Since Niv had just mentioned it, Hel decided to test it immediately, swapping in the new word imprint.
Moments later, as the knowledge flooded her mind, Hel murmured thoughtfully:
"So that's how it works… Desire can really merge with death?"
"Has master already understood what Desire Energy is?" Niv asked curiously.
"Yes. According to Edwina's memories, Desire Energy is formed by merging a creature's soul with its emotions.
But here's the strange part — Edwina chose pleasure as the emotional component for the fusion."
Hel frowned slightly, finding the idea bizarre.
"I would have expected her to pick pain — it's far more efficient as an energy source."
Niv smiled faintly. "According to the data, prolonged pain causes shock or emotional numbness. But mild, continuous pleasure can be sustained indefinitely.
With the Snow Elves' physiology, it can last thousands of years.
In fact, two Snow Elf Queens are still imprisoned at the base of the Desire Energy Station — one for nearly four thousand years, the other for over a thousand."
"...Alright," Hel sighed, "once we finish sorting things out here, let's go have a look at them."
"Yes, master."
Once Hel had harvested all the word imprints from the elven bodies, Niv led her deeper into the facility.
"The City of Lifeforms differs from the B5 Research Facility," Niv continued.
"At B5, I forcibly put all the biological subjects into stasis — many of those Snow Elves were from over 120,000 years ago.
But this city was built specifically to house the Elven World Tree, so population wasn't an issue.
None of the specimens here were frozen.
In the early years, Edwina wasn't as fanatical as she later became — she actually conducted proper research alongside the Goblins, seeking ways to overcome divine punishment.
That's why there aren't as many materials left here as you might expect.
Still, what remains is of the highest quality.
Aside from the Saint-tier materials I already brought you earlier, there are also two dismembered Saint-tier dragon corpses, and… one True Ancestor of the Blood Clan."
"Wait — there were blood clans in your era already?" Hel asked in surprise.
"More than that," Niv nodded, pulling up a holographic record from the database.
"According to goblin research, the earliest blood clans can be traced all the way back to the Third Era."
"The Third Era?"
"Yes — that was the Age of Angels and Demons, when gods still descended upon the world.
Of course, the details are unclear, but Fourth-Era elves discovered Third-Era ruins that confirmed its existence."
"I see…" Hel nodded slowly.
So even the earliest eras had left behind relics — that's how later civilizations came to understand the cycle of epochs.
Niv then guided her to where the dragon and blood clan remains were stored.
The two Saint-tier dragon corpses had been cut into dozens of pieces, presumably because of their immense size.
The sight made Hel think — This looks like someone chopped up boiled chicken.
She sighed inwardly. Great. Now I'm hungry.
After shaking off the thought, she turned her attention to the figure before her —
The True Ancestor of the Blood Clan.