High Above

  Chapter 557 People shouldn't die like this (23)

   Staring at the ball of black ink in his hand, Ian seemed to see the clotted and blackened blood spilling everywhere in the Azure City.

  Ordinary people who died for no reason.

  Those things that easily disappear because of the high-ranking big men, for their schemes, their plots, their strategies, their hatred...

  —What's the difference between here and hell?

  full of unwillingness, regret, remorse, despair and pain. The desire to destroy everything is concentrated here.

   This is a doubt that surfaced in Ian's mind.

   But then, he sighed.

  —There is no difference at all.

   “Man is a mortal creature.”

Staring at the ball of ink, Ian's hair trembled slightly, causing them to condense into the shape of a pen tip. On the side of the paper, he wrote a report about the phantom: "Many people live for less than a hundred years, and they die in various ways. A fall may be caused by the back of the head touching the cabinet while sneezing, or it may be that there is no reason and suddenly died."

  “I know all of this, I’ve even seen it. Uncle Esara who lived diagonally across from my house back then, I clearly warned him not to drink, but he insisted on drinking, and then he drowned in the washbasin.”

   "The fisherman in Port Harrison, the man who could swim to the fishing area and back with his eyes closed, drowned in his washbasin...he didn't deserve to die like that."

   Speaking of this, the boy suddenly paused.

   Then, Ian stood up.

  He looked at the street scene of Azure City outside the window, looked at the corpses and wreckage, and said from the bottom of his heart: "Yes. That's how people are. This is how this world is."

  He lowered his eyes, looked at the imprisoned phantom woman in front of him, and showed a smile that made Hua An feel worried: "This is the truth."

  Ian said lightly: "But I don't think people should die like this."

   "My thoughts conflict with reality, so I get angry. But I know that being angry is useless, so I look calmer..."

   "Wait until when I'm really not angry at all."

  Ian thought so, he didn't say what he thought.

  —Wait until I can really be calm all the time, and look at all this rationally and without anger.

  Perhaps, it was when he was standing on the 'top of the mountain'.

   But he won't just stay on top of the mountain.

  He will transform the highest point of this world.

   Transform the world that makes you angry.

   Taking several deep breaths, Ian has completely calmed down.

"There is a very strange technique in this phantom. Well, the Grand Duke actually mastered the catalytic technique of temporary souls, allowing ordinary people to temporarily possess souls, and then produce projections! And they use the souls to remotely control the projections... In other words , that group of people may have the souls of these Phantom Primarchs in their hands? At least they have control authority."

"In this way, the original intention of the Phantom Army's design may not be to create an 'undead army', but to create souls? But this technology is very unstable, and if the human will is not enough, it is impossible to possess psychics They can't use the soul that can only be possessed at the second energy level."

  He analyzed softly: "In particular, the process of condensing temporary souls may lead to a kind of madness—this kind of madness is no different from ordinary people going crazy. Looking back at a person's life's memory in an instant, he will definitely go crazy."

Then, Ian thought in his heart: "But the problem is that this kind of thing is over in a dozen seconds, but because of the 'Abyss of Silence' and the mutation of the virtual world, this kind of madness is amplified, diffused, and enlarged, which in turn leads to extreme disease."

   "Well, is Xiou's resentment spreading?"

   "It's not like that. No matter how resentful Xiou was at the beginning, he... Now that it's her, wouldn't he be able to run out and wander around a long time ago, dying of happiness, just like a big husky or a big cat..."

  Thinking of this, Ian felt something was wrong: "The cause of the mutation is the beginning of this disaster...Someone deliberately caused this disaster!"

   "But the question is, for what purpose?"

  This question is unclear.

   Some memories are still missing, some clues are still missing.

  —I have to find it.

  Ian thought this way, there should be some clues in this phantom woman, the other party is a real ordinary person, but the virtual projection is powerful enough to kill the first level of sublimation.

   This means that her temporary soul is quite tough, and even after such a long time, it has not dissipated.

  This is inconsistent with the information Ian got from other phantoms—as long as it is not a successful phantom with the mind like Viscount Avak, other failed phantoms have a duration.

  He turned his head sideways and looked at the phantom woman who was still imprisoned by the spirit seal.

  Ian narrowed his eyes.

   This phantom has no duration.

  This means... this woman, this mother's 'temporary' soul... can actually last forever.

No, if it can exist for a long time, then it means that this is no longer a "temporary" soul - rather, after death, even the sublimation of the second energy level cannot continue to survive for a long time, only the third energy level Only the heart light body can exist for a long time, and even condensed into a spiritual power item like the 'Evening Skull'.

   This mother's soul is very special.

  The soul and body are connected with each other, especially for this kind of ordinary people, the reason why their souls are special can only be the body.

   Or in a 'special environment',

  —I need to find her body...if memory is correct, her body is located at the...southeast entrance.

I have already made a plan in my heart, but on the surface, Ian just said to Hua: "This phantom is very special. I can see a lot of things from it... I think I have found out who the members of the research institute hidden in Azure City are. Where are you hiding?"

"what?"

  Hearing this, Hua An temporarily put aside her worries about Ian, and asked with interest: "Where is where?"

   "Underground."

  Ian recalled all the details he saw in his memory. He saw where the original strange beasts and crazy people appeared—in the underground waterway in the north of Azure City.

   There's apparently a biology lab there.

   "Underground waterway." Ian said so, and told the truth with peace of mind: "This is the trace that my spirit can see, extending into the underground waterway. If it is not the headquarters, it is at least a branch."

   "But before that, I have to observe the surrounding situation first."

   This is a matter of course.

  At this time, the Bird of Light also appeared in front of Ian.

  He has been listening to the communication between Ian and Hua An.

  【The phantom army was not originally designed for the army. Very interesting guess. 】

Regarding Ian's conjecture, Mikael also thought about it: [It is true that this technology is used for weaponization, and there are indeed too many problems in combat, but if it is regarded as some kind of protection plan similar to Fairy Township , but makes sense]

  He frankly admitted his shortcomings: [As people like us, it is inevitable to want to weaponize technology at the first time]

  【If the inheritance can be retrieved, maybe we have to change the research direction】

   "Your Highness."

  Although Ian agrees with Mikael, there is one thing he still wants to say.

Staring at the Bird of Light, Ian asked earnestly: "What are you... planning to do? You came to the Avak Territory with your identity hidden, and now you are close to the laboratory. I still hope to know your thoughts—this is more convenient I decide what to do next."

   "If you'd like to tell me." He said softly.

  (end of this chapter)