This Lich Requests More Remuneration
Chapter 608 - 540 Time and Memory

Chapter 608: Chapter 540 Time and Memory

The soul of the Withered Rose was completely open to Amberser, without a hint of wariness.

Amberser could have tampered with her soul, turning the Undead Queen into his absolute slave.

If it had been earlier, Amberser might not have resisted the temptation, after all, Gloomyland was filled with endless gold.

But now Amberser... still hesitated for a long time.

There was no helping it, having been a Lich for too long, the issue of money left too deep an impression, and even when alive, Amberser was not exactly a person of strong will and virtue.

However, the best way to resist temptation was to not pay it any mind or glance at all.

Amberser shifted his attention to something else, and that was how to weave a complete soul.

Even possessing the ability to create Pseudo-Souls, this was no simple task for Amberser.

Despite appearing capable of mass producing Soul Currency as if he could play with souls in the palm of his hand, those resilient and unyielding fragmented souls didn’t even know the reason for their perseverance; they were merely application software set with programmed instructions, not truly souls with independent thought.

In his whole life, the only complete soul Amberser had really crafted was Melina’s.

There was no choice, since he had taken the payment.

Initially, the Withered Rose spent a great sum of money wanting to create a perfect child of her own. Amberser couldn’t possibly let someone else’s child be capable only of senseless slaughter, like a dull-witted machine. Such, even with the power of Legendary Grace, would hardly be of any use in the end.

So, after ensuring Melina’s combat ability and her emotions towards the Withered Rose, Amberser still needed to give Melina a real soul, a true self.

But before that, one thing needed to be clarified—what is the self?

Self-satisfaction is an "illusion" that every independently thinking individual cannot bypass, but this self-satisfaction needs to first remove life’s instincts. Biological instincts like hunger leading to eating, or tiredness leading to sleep do not count; desires for more delicious food, more comfortable sleep, or even preferring death to eating—all these things that transcend instincts are what differentiate intelligent creatures from other life forms.

It sounds complicated, and doing it is ever more so.

Amberser needed to seek these elements of self within the Withered Rose’s soul and then reactivate them.

Undead are left with only their greatest obsession buried deep within their hearts, all the beautiful memories in their souls forgotten due to a lack of sensation. And usually, obsessions are cruel and torturous matters; after hundreds or thousands of years, the soul would be twisted by such torment.

Therefore, once the obsession dissipates, the Undead gain an unprecedented extreme satisfaction, followed swiftly by a state of dissolution. This is even more pronounced in Liches, as the obsession is the key to binding the Life Casket, and Withered Rose’s current state is such that the power to resurrect from the Life Casket has already vanished.

"Sorry, let me take a look at your most beautiful memories."

The connection of souls unfolded countless memory fragments before Amberser.

Resentment, curses, anger... These emotions constantly surfaced, the deepest feelings of the Withered Rose towards Laine.

Amberser sifted through these negative emotions bit by bit, delving deeper, for he needed to find the memories of the Withered Rose before she became Undead.

As Her Royal Highness the Princess of Laine, her young years should have been happy, right?

In the Connected Dream Realm, the Withered Rose lay quietly amongst the clouds, with everything around her appearing so illusory and distorted.

The dreamscape was unclear, probably because by now she no longer even had the capacity to dream; the Withered Rose didn’t want or know anything, she just wanted to sink into oblivion, for this life had been too exhausting.

Suddenly, a blue-eyed, blonde-haired girl appeared beside the Withered Rose. The two bore a seven to eight parts resemblance, only the blonde girl looked much younger and her eyes were filled with innocence.

The girl shook the Withered Rose’s shoulders, saying softly, "Wake up, wake up quickly, everything is going to be seen, even the things from when you were little."

The Withered Rose opened her eyes and looked at her younger self, puzzled, "You... why are you here... you’re already dead."

After she fled from Laine and fell into Mercury Lake beneath the earth, the Laine Princess should have died completely. The one who lived on was the Withered Rose, the Undead whose ideal was to bring down Laine.

The blonde Rose Princess smiled and said, "Am I not you? Now that all hatred has dissipated, what difference is there between you and me?"

"I..."

The Withered Rose didn’t know what to say for a moment. As she said, the hatred had ended, and everything should have ended.

The blonde Rose reminded her again, "Now is not the time to think about this, our memories, everything, is being probed by that man. Don’t you care? Including our most childish dreams, most embarrassing memories, and the little secrets we never wanted to tell others... Does it really not matter to you that he knows all this?"

Upon hearing this, a flush of color suddenly appeared on the Withered Rose’s pale face.

Why was there a sudden feeling of shyness?

Those things should no longer be important, right? She thought she had forgotten them all since the time spent as a Lich was much longer, vastly so, compared to her living years. Those trivial memories were compressed deep within her recollections, seldom accessed in many years.