Not long afterward, as the blood in dozens of test tubes was completely used up, Hel obtained only a single witch-crafted object with a significantly stronger effect.
[Blessing of the Reincarnation · Living Witch: Reverses the boundary between life and death, allowing the living to die or the dead to be revived. This blessing ignores realm and cost, forcibly taking effect on any being below the level of a god.]
"Well… I guess this is what pink-quality blood does," Hel said, gently swirling the blood inside the test tube.
The liquid was so dark a red it was almost black—clearly not something a normal person should possess. At the mouth of the container, faint wisps of deathly aura continued to coil and drift.
Strangely, though, this deathly aura did not give Hel the cold sensation she was used to. Instead, it felt faintly warm. It was oddly similar to vitality itself.
"Looks like this approach doesn't work after all."
Hel handed the test tube to Niv, then collapsed limply into a nearby chair and said weakly, "I'm done, I'm done—I'm a bit anemic. Niv, help me divide it up. I want to see exactly how much is needed to maintain this trait."
"Alright," Niv replied, nodding as she took out a measuring cylinder and began to work.
The final result showed that roughly ten milliliters of blood were required to achieve the effect described in the trait. Once the volume dropped below ten milliliters, the trait immediately changed.
The quality of the trait did not decrease, but its effect weakened.
For example, what had originally worked on anything below the level of a god became effective only below the level of a demigod.
When the volume dropped below one milliliter, it changed again—this time becoming effective only on beings below the sixth tier.
Watching Niv quietly divide up the blood, Hel couldn't help but complain, "So what is this supposed to mean—have I turned into Tang Sanzang meat? One sip of my blood and you can reverse life and death?"
"That does seem to be the case," Niv replied, covering her mouth as she joked,
"Then Master should hide well behind Niv. Otherwise, you'll be snatched away by little monsters from outside."
"Oh, give it a rest." Hel rolled her eyes and took the small glass bottles Niv handed her.
There were sixteen in total—one containing ten milliliters, and the remaining fifteen containing just one milliliter each. Few would ever imagine that ordinary life mages had to pay an enormous price to resurrect a saint-tier expert, while Hel could accomplish such a feat with no more than a fingernail's worth of blood.
"Alright, the experiment's done. Time to deal with something serious." Hel casually put the bottles away, then said to Niv,
"After letting out that much blood just now, I came up with a new idea. Niv, do you remember the other elven mother trees we dealt with before? They can give birth to elves who share the same bloodline as themselves. And the contractor can freely alter the elves' appearances.
"So what do you think would happen if I put my witch bloodline into an elven mother tree?"
"That would give Master a bunch of bodies that contain your bloodline?
And you'd achieve sacred-relic freedom that way?" Niv tilted her head in confusion.
"But Master, wouldn't copying your witch trait still cost three hundred trait energy points?"
She didn't understand why Hel would go to such trouble. By Hel's logic, even the underground worms they had already deployed would need to be rearranged—another massive project.
But Hel shook her head and said smugly, "Niv, you don't get it. Altering the leyline structure was only to help me deploy the soul network more easily. But if I scatter the Waters of the Yellow Springs underground across this world and use the Yellow Springs to build a reincarnation system, that is truly practicing my Authority of Reincarnation.
"And who knows—doing it this way might even significantly advance my deification ritual."
"Is that so?" Niv asked uncertainly.
After all, Hel had only just synthesized the Authority of Reincarnation and hadn't explained it in detail yet.
Niv only knew that Hel's blood could reverse life and death; the rest she could only guess at based on the Authorities of Life and Death.
"That's exactly how it is. Guiding souls, judging souls, purifying souls, and then letting them be reborn—that is the meaning of reincarnation. What I need to do is build such a reincarnation system.
"The soul network is merely a means of guiding souls. And who told you my plan necessarily has to cost three hundred energy points?"
Hel smiled faintly at Niv and took out a board woven from vines from her spatial ring.
"This is the summoning tome of the flower spirit mother tree. When the time comes, we'll summon it out of the spatial turbulence, and then I'll refine it into my avatar."
"An avatar? Master intends to give it your Origin trait?" Niv took the board and examined it carefully.
"Not exactly. An Origin trait only lets the holder use my authority, but a witch's bloodline is different. Tell me—if someone has the same bloodline as me, and the same soul as me, wouldn't that person be me?"
"Well… I suppose so," Niv answered hesitantly.
"Exactly—that would be me. I plan to split off part of my soul and attach it to that elven mother tree, making it a part of myself.
"Not like Morrigan and Niko, who only split off tiny soul fragments—I'm talking about dividing my soul in half and creating my second body. Wouldn't that mean I've achieved sacred-relic freedom anyway?
"And I wouldn't have to worry about having two reincarnation godheads and accidentally letting the results of my deification ritual be counted toward the elven mother tree instead."
"But Master, the consequences of splitting your soul—" Niv tried to dissuade her.
She had never heard of anyone directly dividing their soul in two. Even splitting off a tiny soul fragment was already unbearably painful—dividing the soul in half would entail unimaginable suffering.
Worse still, such a massive split could easily cause memory disorder or even give rise to a second personality. So even if this was the most beneficial solution for Hel, Niv still wanted to stop her.
But Hel waved her hand and reassured her, "Don't worry. I won't touch my true spirit. Before the split, I'll leave behind the memories carried by the separated portion. I'll even place a god-slave mark on the flower spirit mother tree—there's absolutely no chance of anything going wrong.
"But before that, we need to test one thing first: whether desire-energy can be used to activate this thing."