Chapter 630: Resurrection Spell Derived Spell: Reincarnation Rebirth
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 630: Resurrection Spell Derived Spell: Reincarnation Rebirth
"I see."
Hearing Dean Mei say that, everything clicked.
I hadn't paid much attention to it before, but thinking about it now, it all made sense.
If Fool's Dream’s current physical body in reality was a form of anchoring... it meant that even before Dean Mei had provided Fool's Dream with a material foundation, she had already established a connection between the dream consciousness and reality!
Otherwise, a dream consciousness wouldn't be able to influence the real world.
The only exception would be something like a dream invasion from an Expansion Realm, where dream creatures could "influence" reality through a specific overlapping relationship.
Visually, this influence was called "consciousness abduction into the dream," but in essence, it was the Instant Dream Entry spell.
The dream magic I had synthesized was likely based on this principle, and it could be used in reverse—the innate instincts of dream creatures could be utilized to wake people up.
"So, does that mean for this problem, I just need to create a true body for Fool's Dream? A vessel that can carry a mimic soul?" I looked at Dean Mei, asking curiously, "Can the Resurrection Spell do that?"
"Your logic is sound, but a simple Resurrection Spell might be a bit too difficult," Mei Lind replied, though she seemed quite satisfied with my answer.
"Then what is required? A deeper derivation, or perhaps a specific technique derived from the Resurrection Spell? Or... do I need other spells?" I asked.
"I've told you about Life Interpretation, haven't I?"
"Yes. The Void has gone through four of them."
"And did I mention what Life Interpretation has the greatest impact on?"
"The Resurrection Spell."
"Correct. The Resurrection Spell can be considered a system—or rather, a composite spell that is constantly optimized as theory advances. Any spell aimed at resurrection or regeneration can be categorized under the Resurrection Spell. Similarly, the original Resurrection Spell can derive any known form of resurrection magic."
"So, to give Fool's Dream a real body, I can rely on the Resurrection Spell, right?" Once I understood this, the problem suddenly seemed much simpler.
Was the Resurrection Spell easy to derive?
I didn't know, but back at the beginning, I had already modified the Resurrection Spell's mode, allowing it to trigger automatically even after my own death.
A few days ago, when I touched the boundary between dream and reality, I had used the Resurrection Spell along with other techniques to achieve Soul Projection and Soul Guidance.
Strictly speaking, those weren't exactly derivations of the Resurrection Spell, but rather a form of "modding" and creative application.
Therefore, a derived effect of the Resurrection Spell should be able to specifically shape a body for Fool's Dream while she was in her mimic soul state!
"Yes. So why not try using the Resurrection Spell on Fool's Dream?" Mei Lind said with a smile, offering a suggestion.
"Then I'll give it a try." I glanced at the three little ones. They understood what I meant and looked at each other, eventually deferring to Yulan to step forward.
"Yulan first, then~" I said with a smile.
I immediately began casting the Resurrection Spell, but after the release, nothing happened.
"Fool's Dream currently lacks a material body to host the Resurrection Spell, so you need casting materials to provide a biological vessel for the resurrection." Mei Lind didn't mind the small mistake I made; instead, she offered a direct reminder. "Their original cage-bodies are the best casting materials. Give it a try. Even if you don't, those bodies will eventually need to be destroyed—unless you turn them back into dream essence and let me stuff them back in."
"Yes, Sister Xiao Han, please use them. It's okay," Yulan said, sensing my hesitation. She spoke without a hint of concern. "I want a new body!"
"Alright." I nodded.
Since the subject had given her consent, this wouldn't be considered a desecration of her remains.
As I cast the Resurrection Spell again, my brow furrowed once more.
"Encountered a problem, haven't you?" Mei Lind asked with a smile, as if she were leading me step-by-step toward a realization.
"Yes. I can't shape Fool's Dream's body..."
"Because you lack the body information to use as a template for reconstruction, right?" Mei Lind continued at her unhurried pace. "The human body is a complex existence, detailed down to every muscle, bone, drop of blood, and vessel—down to every cell, organelle, and telomere, and finally to the genes, the life code... These structures are indispensable for normal physical activity and metabolism. Compared to these, things like appearance, height, weight, hair color, and eye color are merely results obtained by modifying those underlying factors."
"You've thought of something, haven't you?"
"Yes... that Metamorphic Incubation..." That time, the Dean had performed a Metamorphic Incubation for me, giving me the chance to freely modify my own appearance...
"I gave you the authority to modify your macro-appearance, but I was the one who executed it. That's something a standard Resurrection Spell cannot do. That's why my Metamorphic Rebirth Spell has a name independent of the Resurrection Spell, even though it is categorized under it."
"So, I'm missing the information for Fool's Dream's body..."
"Exactly. You should have felt it when you resurrected yourself, right? You couldn't change your appearance into someone else's during the process. So, what exactly is it that locks in your original appearance?"
"Um... can I try something?" I asked.
"Of course," Mei Lind said, her tone saying 'be my guest.'
I didn't waste any words. I used the Resurrection Spell to set up a pre-arranged trigger, then used Soul Projection to perform a rehearsal of "direct death."
Finally, the pre-set Resurrection Spell used my original husk as casting material to complete the resurrection.
In truth, this kind of resurrection could be completed with just a Soul Guidance, but I was resurrecting specifically to understand how the spell reconstructed the original body. Naturally, I needed the body to be rebuilt from scratch.
Soon, my soul was guided back by the Resurrection Spell, and a brand-new body was constructed...
I opened my eyes. "The absolute dominance over the body from Self-Awakened Body Cultivation... that doesn't seem quite right either..."
Mei Lind stood by and said nothing, as if waiting for me to analyze the answer myself.
However, for someone who dared to personally "die" once just to find an answer... that courage was truly commendable.
I fell into deep thought.
The reason I dared to use the Resurrection Spell so recklessly was largely due to the combination of the spell and the absolute dominance over my own body granted by Self-Awakened Body Cultivation.
But that reason wasn't universal. Not everyone was a Self-Awakened Body Cultivator, and not everyone could resurrect themselves after death; most needed someone else to do it.
At that moment, I unhesitatingly pulled out my Resurrection Spellbook.
Then, I took it apart.
I had dismantled it before while researching it, so I wasn't as overly cautious this time.
Combining my recent personal experience, I searched through the dismantled components of the Resurrection Spellbook for a rune ritual structure that matched.
Before taking the spellbook apart, I already had some ideas.
The structure of the body was so complex that the Resurrection Spell didn't force the caster to manually piece together such an intricate biological structure. This meant there had to be a shortcut replacing that process.
That shortcut was the key I had overlooked.
Therefore, there had to be a crucial rune ritual structure within the spellbook that proved its existence.
A channel for obtaining body information!
Or rather, an information acquisition channel. Given the hint about "the evolution of the Resurrection Spell through Life Interpretation," this channel was clearly built upon the essence of life!
And how many versions of life essence had there been?
Four.
Life energy, memory, soul essence, and the soul.
This meant that "backups" of body information could be stored in any of these four aspects; it was just a matter of quality.
As quality improved, the inferior versions were inevitably phased out.
So... did that mean the soul carried the information of my own physical structure?
I had never truly thought about this before.
"Found it..."
Once I had isolated and copied a specific key structure from the dismantled rune ritual, I reassembled the Resurrection Spellbook exactly as it was, leaving behind the copied structure.
As I activated the structure, I proactively used my soul to touch the ritual.
Soon... a massive wave of information rushed in like a tide.
But compared to the scale of Floating World level Spirit Vision, this was nothing. I obtained the information regarding my own physical structure almost without flinching.
Yet, compared to discovering this truth, it was what I found afterward that shocked me more.
Because... this cognitive information regarding one's own body had already become an instinct of Self-Awakened Body Cultivation!
No wonder it was so hard to discover the truth.
Realizing the existence of an instinct is the hardest hurdle.
Although realizing an instinct is like switching from automatic to manual transmission, with my increased cognition, this didn't bring a burden. Instead, it brought more "freedom" of subjective control!
"It seems you've made a new discovery?" Mei Lind asked with a smile. She didn't know exactly what I had found in this attempt, but it was clear I had gained something.
"Yes..." I nodded.
After realizing that physical appearance could be changed, I began to wonder: what did the body and soul truly mean for me as an individual?
The soul is my essence. Does that mean the body doesn't matter? As long as I cast aside common cognitive sense and the eyes of the world, I am still myself.
I had this thought because I was trying to find the meaning of the body to me. Is the material body merely a vessel?
If it's just a vessel, does that mean a body can be seized? Can a body be stolen?
It seems... it can.
I quickly shook my head to clear those thoughts. I realized I was thinking too deeply. If these ideas got out, wouldn't people think I was a lunatic?
To be human, one needs a bottom line—or rather, to be myself, I need to guard a line in my heart.
My original intention shouldn't be to find that bottom line, but to define myself.
Constantly searching is just exploring how low a bottom line can go, but it can't tell me where my line is.
I should confirm that line based on my own "cognition." Only then can I confirm what kind of person (witch) I want to be.
But regardless of where my bottom line was, a fact stood before me.
After confirming the mode of the biological husk, I had mastered another method. I only needed to change the information of the life essence, and the physical husk would change accordingly.
Wasn't this a derived spell of the Resurrection Spell?
"Body-Swap Resurrection."
No, no, no... the potential of this spell went far beyond that!
What if I modified the gender of the life essence?
What if I modified the bloodline constitution?
What if I modified the racial information?
As long as I possessed the knowledge to modify that information, I could do all of those things.
Granted, I currently had no such accumulation, so I couldn't do anything yet, but that didn't negate the fact that it could be done.
So, this spell was far more than just "Body-Swap Resurrection." This was completely changing a person's life!
Perhaps it wasn't limited to changing people.
This should be called... "Body-Swap Rebirth"!
No... that didn't seem accurate either. It was far more than just the body being converted. If I could understand the essence of a race, or even the bloodline of a lifeform, I could even convert the target's race! Their bloodline!
I could even alter the target's memories during the resurrection...
Provided I killed them first, then resurrected them.
So why not give it a more fitting, more ambitious name?
How about... "Reincarnation Rebirth"?
"You've been thinking for a long while. So... would you care to share with us? If it's inconvenient, you don't have to. We respect personal privacy," Mei Lind said, speaking up once she saw my "daze" had ended.
"Um... can I ask one more question?"
"Of course. I like children who ask many questions. Ask away."
"Can the body information in the life essence be used to modify gender? Can it modify race? Can it modify bloodline? Can it modify... memory?"
Hearing my words, not only Mei Lind, but the witches behind her all had their pupils shrink. They were all startled by this mad idea!
But they quickly accepted the thought. After all... they were witches.
"Theoretically, yes. However, to modify a bloodline, you need to obtain the source information of that specific bloodline. To modify a race, you need to break the race lock set by that race. Any transcendent race with even a bit of strength will set an anti-theft lock on their racial information to prevent their bloodline data from being exposed and used to develop countermeasures against them. This is a comprehensive protection, and naturally, it blocks these little ideas of yours. You can certainly modify the racial information of races that aren't protected, but you still need to obtain that information first."
After recovering from the shock, Mei Lind took a deep breath and began to explain in even greater detail.
"It seems, Xiao Han... you've come up with something incredible again, haven't you?"
"Yes... I want to create a Resurrection Spell derived spell called Reincarnation Rebirth. Does this spell already exist?"
"Reincarnation Rebirth... it does indeed exist. But not every witch can learn it, let alone turn it into a spellbook. At the very least, such a spellbook doesn't exist in the Witch Academy."
"Then... Dean, can your Metamorphic Incubation not achieve Reincarnation Rebirth—at the level I just described?"
"I am not a witch specialized in the field of Resurrection Spells. I simply possess that spellbook, so I cannot do it."
"But the upper limit of that spellbook can do it... right?"
"I don't know. Theoretically, the upper limit of any spell is terrifying, especially for prototype spells, because they encompass all sequence derived spells. But the vast majority of witches can never reach the upper limit of a single spellbook."