Chapter 1 Lorissa's Memories

Lorissa's memories presented two distinct parts – one part came from her heritage as a clone. It was unknown how the magic emperors of that era had completed such cloning. However, it was evident that the technology was vastly different from cell cloning on Earth. They could even allow the clone to inherit most of the original's cultivation realm, magical power, and memories. Although, in the end, this was not a pleasant accident for them, this part of the memory now benefited Hao Ren and his companions. The other part of Lorissa's memory came from herself. After waking up from the culture tank until she participated in that final experiment, she personally witnessed the scenes of that prosperous era with her own eyes during the brief few years as the "Shadow of the Elven Queen" and integrated many of her own thoughts and understandings into her memory.

The two parts of the memory had a clear contrast in Lorissa's brain. The first part of the memory was incomplete and cold. To her, it was like a black-and-white image stored in her mind, lacking a sense of reality. She could not experience any emotional experiences of her own from it and could only browse those first-person perspectives like an onlooker. The second part of the memory was vivid, detailed, and realistic. Although it was only a few years, it was all of her life so far.

She pieced the two parts of memory together and finally restored to Hao Ren the causes and consequences of the experiment shrouded in conspiracy and mystery ten thousand years ago.

The beginning of the matter was a few years before the birth of the clone Lorissa. It should also have been the eve of the outbreak of the Godslayer War. During a grand religious event jointly participated by the four magic emperors of Holletta, the will of the Creation Goddess personally descended on this remote planet.

The Creation Goddess was not a goddess keen on spreading faith and creating miracles – she rarely appeared on secular planets near her own kingdom of God, let alone this remote world far from the center of divine power. In Holletta's ancient history, the number of times the goddess directly descended in projection could be counted on the fingers. Therefore, one could imagine the impact her sudden arrival had on the magic emperors at that time. During that descent, the goddess mentioned that Holletta's mortal civilization had developed to a certain "passing line," so she would give the mortals a reward. The prize was the secret of the origin of life.

The magic emperors firmly believed in the goddess's promise. This was not only because of their firm faith, but also because the influence of the background of the times was deeply rooted in them. At that time, Holletta's civilization was indeed on the rise. They had discovered the methods of sailing and surviving in the cosmic starry sky, discovered magic-based controllable nuclear fusion technology, and even began to lay the foundation for antimatter technology. They established a vast colony on the moon and were planning to build a large-scale Dyson sphere project near the sun – these achievements were not very outstanding for truly advanced civilizations in the universe. However, the Holletta people, who were in the wilderness, did not know this. They were in the most confident stage of their history, believing that their performance should indeed be extraordinary among the goddess's many children. This somewhat conceited idea made them take the "oracle" for granted.

They felt that they were indeed about to receive a gift from the goddess.

Not long after that, a "Verity Tablet" came to the mortal world. Lorissa was not clear about the specific process of the tablet's descent, but she guessed that it should have descended directly into the kingdom of the blood clan magic emperor Derian, because it was that powerful blood clan monarch who first issued the call and formed the first laboratory (which is also consistent with the legends that have been circulating in Holletta to this day). Derian was obviously not capable of completing the research on the Verity Tablet alone. In addition, the oracle was witnessed jointly by the four magic emperors at that time, so he certainly did not dare to disobey the goddess's holy will. Therefore, he generously handed over the tablet and proposed a joint research plan for the mortal countries.

Then they deciphered the technology of using artificial constraints to harness "divine power" from the Verity Tablet, injecting it into the source blood, and creating artificial divine cells. The decoding process was unbelievably smooth.

The first experimental base was set up in the "Saint White Valley" at the junction of the Elven Empire and the Blood Clan Empire, but not long after that, due to political and economic considerations, it was moved to the Dark Mountains. The Dark Mountains were not called this name back then. It had a more glorious name called "Ever Song Ridge." At that time, there were no dangerous mutated beasts in the mountains, but a peaceful scene.

As Hao Ren had previously speculated, to create artificial divine cells, there must be a "source of energy" that can be accessed and controlled by mortals, because humans cannot condense or carry divine power out of thin air. Therefore, this initial container was the Verity Tablet bestowed by the goddess: it was not only a document medium for a series of extraordinary technologies, but also a carefully crafted "divine power energy pool."

The energy pool once stored power from the Creation Goddess – according to Lorissa, it was energy that had been carefully processed, precisely weakened, and carefully divided into small "clusters," as if the goddess had specially prepared a batch of experimental materials for her clumsy students.

But even this carefully processed energy was still too powerful for mortals. The magic emperors soon realized this after their initial ambition and full of passion: all the creatures they chose to participate in the experiment, including animal samples and human volunteers, could not withstand the impact of direct contact with the Verity Tablet. The weaker of them would even have their minds collapse just by looking at the words on the tablet, and some devout priests could barely communicate with the tablet, but it was obviously far from enough to be the "container" of the tablet.

But the goddess could not have failed to consider this when she bestowed the tablet, so the magic emperors quickly discovered that the people who could serve as the "initial carrier" were actually on this planet, and that was themselves.

The uniqueness of Holletta's ancient civilization determined that the magic emperors were the most powerful individuals among mortals, and the tablet bestowed by the goddess was obviously designed according to this strongest standard.

After confirming this fact, the magic emperors did not choose to risk their lives, but decided to "create" a standard container to replace themselves.

The clone Lorissa was born under such circumstances – and was also the only successful individual who survived stably.

Holletta's cloning technology could allow the clone to have the same power as the original, so its success rate was extremely low. Even if several magic empires united to conduct research with the power of the whole country, only one clone was successful in the end. Therefore, the clone Lorissa was highly expected from the beginning – even after the magic emperors found that she had also accidentally inherited a part of the memories and personality from the original Lorissa, they chose to keep this clone after some weighing.

Because the inherited memories and personality were incomplete and lacked "embedding," although it would affect the clone's self-awareness to a certain extent, it was not as stable as its own memories and personality. Through acquired guidance, the magic emperors believed that they could make this clone cooperate obediently, and "Lorissa" herself also behaved in this way. Of course, in order to make this clone better cooperate with the experiment, the magic emperors also made a series of promises to her, such as the freedom that could be expected, and the powerful power that could be retained after "receiving divine grace"... These things had real appeal, but for Lorissa, she didn't really care about these things.

Because, in some respects, she who inherited the memory of the original was also half a magic emperor. Her interest in exploring the mysterious realm was no less than that of others. Since there was no choice, it seemed like an interesting thing to feel the mystery of the Verity Tablet with herself.

When the entire project developed to a substantive stage, she accepted the "divine power" import experiment.

"Their plan was this: the experiment is divided into two parts. One part is to extract the origin substance from the source blood and artificially synthesize blank 'divine cells.' The other part is to import the power of the Verity Tablet into a magic emperor or a clone like me, so that this power can be transformed into controllable energy. Finally, the two are fused to create true activated divine cells," Lorissa said unhurriedly, "After I accepted the 'import experiment,' I fell into a drowsy state, and then I quickly lost myself completely. But according to you, it seems that they finally completed the remaining work during this time when I lost consciousness..."

"You can complete the transformation of those 'divine powers' even when you are unconscious?" Hao Ren asked curiously.

Lorissa raised her right hand, and a trace of holy flame suddenly rose on this hand. Then her entire arm turned into this burning state.

Then she waved her hand to disperse the flame: "It seems that the divine power has completed my transformation. This process should have been completed by the guidance of the Verity Tablet, and it has nothing to do with my personal will."

"Can you describe what you 'saw' during your coma?" Vivian suddenly asked, "That is, what you saw in the depths of the oracle."

"It is difficult to describe them in mortal language," Lorissa shook her head. "That is a supersensory experience. In a trance, I came into contact with a huge and distorted consciousness – or it may have only brushed its boundaries from afar, but I can be sure that it has a dark and evil essence. This consciousness simulates the power of the goddess, and because it is so powerful, mortals cannot distinguish its disguise at all. Only those like me who have witnessed it with their own eyes can discern its truth. In short, one thing I can be sure of is: that is definitely not the real power of the goddess. The whole thing is a scam from beginning to end."