"In theory, when I split my soul and then reabsorb it, my soul strength increases. Then if the Reincarnation Mother Tree undergoes soul-splitting as well, its soul strength should also increase, right?"
Hel gently traced the branches of the Reincarnation Mother Tree as she asked Niv, who was observing from the side.
"That is correct," Niv nodded, then continued her explanation.
"However, the portion you split from the Reincarnation Mother Tree was extremely small—only five ten-thousandths—so the growth it gains is correspondingly negligible. At the same time, Niv has observed that the Reincarnation Mother Tree's soul strength seems to have reached a ceiling.
"Even if it attempts to continue growing, it can no longer increase. This is likely because its soul has reached the maximum capacity that its current body can contain. Any excess soul energy would, under the influence of certain rules, separate from it and begin to dissipate.
"When you used the Reincarnation Mother Tree to create those ten Seeds of Reincarnation, you consumed one ten-thousandth of its soul, causing its soul to become incomplete. This, in turn, allowed the soul fragments that were on the verge of dissipating to return."
"A bottleneck?"
Hel rubbed her chin, frowning in thought.
These spirit mother trees were already at the demigod tier—what kind of bottleneck could still bind them so completely? An ordinary minor bottleneck wouldn't be able to halt growth this thoroughly. That left only one real possibility: the bottleneck between demigodhood and true godhood.
So how could the Reincarnation Mother Tree break through that bottleneck?
Hel shook her head and stopped thinking about it. She hadn't even fully figured out the saint tier yet, let alone how to advance from demigod to a true god. Overthinking it now would only give her a headache.
She shifted her attention back to the Seeds of Reincarnation in her hand.
She had a distinct feeling that as long as she wished it, she could project her consciousness into any of these seeds at any time. But even if she did, there wouldn't be much point—the seeds couldn't move on their own. Still, using them as the foundation for a soul network was more than sufficient.
And most importantly, a soul network built from these seeds would be completely under her control.
Once the soul network reached a certain scale, the total soul power she could command would rival that of a peak demigod. Coupled with the Reincarnation Mother Tree's support, she would be practically unrivaled in the domain of souls—no longer needing to worry about anyone following the "network cable" to come beat her up.
She could also tamper with the soul network itself, enabling the transmission of soul energy. That way, even if she wanted to further strengthen the network in the future, it would be far more convenient.
For example, each seed currently only contained a fourth-tier soul. But if she later achieved true freedom of souls, she could continue to raise the soul strength within each seed—until every single one reached the demigod tier.
And at that point, who in this world could stand against her even once? She really could live large without a care.
Hel couldn't help but grin smugly as she worked, using her alchemy to engrave intricate patterns onto the Seeds of Reincarnation.
Before long, ten seeds densely covered in tiny runes lay in her palm.
"Master, should we replace the current soul network now?" Niv asked.
"There's a need, yes—but we've already spent over half a year building the existing soul network. Replacing it outright would be troublesome. I'll see if there's a better solution.
"Besides, the Seeds of Reincarnation aren't good at excavation. To deploy them, we'll still need the help of the underground worms."
Hel tapped the Seeds of Reincarnation lightly with her finger. Each seed bore an engraved formation for summoning the Waters of the Yellow Springs.
That single formation already occupied most of the seed's surface, leaving only enough space for one defensive formation. As a result, these seeds had virtually no mobility—at least until the Waters of the Yellow Springs spread through the ley lines.
"First, have all the underground worms dive into the ley lines. I need them to enter regions where elemental energy is highly concentrated."
Hel gave the order to Niv, then connected to the soul network to locate the underground worms beneath Heim City.
Although these worms couldn't host her consciousness like the Seeds of Reincarnation—nor allow her to wield a witch's authority through them—they could still serve as conduits for souls entering the soul network and could receive her soul marks.
With soul marks in place, everything became much easier.
After disconnecting from the soul network, Hel waved her hand. One Seed of Reincarnation gradually faded, slipping into subspace. Her consciousness descended into the seed, and within subspace she sensed a location filled with an extremely familiar presence.
With a single thought, the Seed of Reincarnation appeared in that area.
When it emerged from subspace once more, it found itself directly in front of an underground worm that had already burrowed into the leyline energy.
A spatial passage opened in front of the seed, swallowing the still-wriggling underground worm, then seamlessly replacing its position.
As an avatar capable of directly hosting her consciousness, the Seeds of Reincarnation were far more convenient than the original underground worms.
Hel easily completed the replacement of all ten seeds.
In the days to come, she only needed to repeat this process to replace every underground worm. The original worms didn't need to be discarded—they would instead serve as positioning anchors for the Seeds of Reincarnation, scouting directions in advance.
With that, the framework for soul guidance was complete. However, how to purify souls on a world-scale—essentially restoring them to factory settings—remained a daunting problem. And then there was the question of how to return those souls to the world and give rise to new life.
Helping an entire world's worth of souls complete a full cycle of reincarnation was by no means an easy task.
Still, Hel had a feeling that once she broke through to the saint tier, solutions to these problems would naturally present themselves.
For now, however, she had no choice but to set aside her work. On one hand, she was practically broke, with only single-digit trait energy left. On the other hand, she had to face another unavoidable issue—
The school term was about to begin.
Not only did she have to return to school herself, but Lyco would also need to hurry back as well.