Ian A core question facing now is: What happened to the gods?
What happened to leave them in such a weakened state? More importantly, can he use this situation to his own advantage?
Theoretically, now is the perfect time to invade the place where the gods sleep and kill or capture them. But this involves huge risks, because he does not know the background of these gods, nor does he know whether they are really weak or have regained a certain strength.
There are too many variables, and the unknown risks are too great. Ian decided to play it slow and postpone action. After all, what he lacks most is time.
The first step in the plan is to wait for the god of chaos Set to seize the body of Nick, and then capture it.
In this way, he can obtain first-hand intelligence and knowledge about various Emergence conditions. Although this requires waiting for at least 60 years, he does not mind.
During this period, he could find something else to do to pass the time.
Just as he was deep in thought, Hermione suddenly Apparition appeared beside him.
"How's it going?"
"Just as we expected. I can now summon the army from Underworld."
"Did anyone try to stop you?"
"Yes, but it's useless."
"How to say?" Ian asked.
"My talent works in a very special way. It allows me to use Underworld itself to sign a contract with the summoned object. In essence, I communicate directly with the Underworld pan-consciousness to complete the summons. So, as long as I can perceive and connect to that dimension, no one can stop me."
"Awesome. What about other dimensions? Can you sense them?"
"No," Hermione replied with a frown, "This world is really weird."
"Don't be anxious, take your time, we still have time."
Not long after, Snape and Lily also came back.
"How is the situation?" Ian asked Snape.
"I recorded a large amount of data about the reincarnation of Evelyn. According to the information I collected, her memory was stored in something similar to a 'seed' deep in the soul. For some reason, this seed was not discovered during the reincarnation process, and at a specific moment, it was activated, and the memory was restored."
Ian nodded, knowing that the situation was much more complicated than described.
All individuals have a mark on their souls that proves they are natives of a certain universe.
Because of this imprint, once outsiders like Ian travel to other universes, they are easily discovered and suppressed by the rules of that universe.
Before Ian can create the perfect Reincarnation Magic, he must find a way to remove the original imprint from his soul and then have his soul re-marked by the target universe he is about to reincarnate into.
In the past, he was very confused and had no clue how to solve these problems in Reincarnation Magic. However, <Black Book of the Dead>, <Golden Book of the Sun> and <Oracle Bone Scripture> contain vast knowledge about the soul, life and death, and even Underworld.
Over the past eight years, he has only scratched the surface of these books.
As long as he studies deeply, he believes that he will not be far away from achieving his goal.
"It would be best to have an expert in psychics continue this research," suggested Snape.
Although he also has profound knowledge in this field, this is not his main direction after all.
Therefore, he believes that it is the best choice to let more suitable people take over this research.
Ian agrees, but the matter is a bit complicated.
The spells in these three books rely too much on borrowing the power of gods.
Therefore, once Ian returns to his own universe, these spells are likely to be ineffective - unless he can find another god to borrow power from, or steal Divine Power directly.
Although he has transformed these spells into Arcane Rune Magic, the best place to further study these original books is still in this universe.
Of course, once he returns to his hometown, he will also try to see if these spells are effective on Herpo.
"I will let Morgana take over the research," Ian replied, "Where is Black Book of the Dead?"
In order to ensure that the plot would not deviate too much, this book was given to the cultists so that they could Resurrection Imhotep.
Now the Mummy has been killed again, and the world has once again been saved by the O'Connell family. It is time for this book to be returned to its original owner.
Snape handed the book to him.
"Now that we have some free time, what are you going to do?" Ian asked.
"I plan to continue studying Aguirre and those under him," Lily replied.
"Oh, you made a new discovery?"
"Maybe."
For many years, she has been dedicated to researching the ancient power known as "Love Magic". Unfortunately, decades have passed, and she is still the only one among the Empire who can use this magic.
Despite this, Lily has made some breakthroughs. According to her theory, the reason why she can control such powerful magic is because some powerful will - most likely Cosmic Will - recognized the sacrifice she made for Harry, and gave her the ability to control this magic after Resurrection.
The Love Shield she used on Harry has been used by several people in history, but no one has come back from the dead like her.
This is why she is the only one who can actively use this magic.
Previously, Lily was confused about the direction of her research. However, while studying the Elementalization abilities of Aguirre and others, she had an inspiration.
There are many kinds of love in the world: love of family, love of life, romantic love, and love of the environment and planet.
Her thoughts focused on the last one.
She is able to use this magic because her love for her son and desire to protect him at all costs resonates with Cosmic Will.
If someone has the same love, the same passion or desire to protect the environment, then perhaps they can resonate with Planetary Will or Earth Will and gain similar magic.
And it's not just the planet; they can also resonate with forests, mountains, rivers and even animals.
After listening to Lily's description, everyone felt that her method might be feasible.
However, they all looked at her strangely.
"I know, the concept I described is the same as Druid," Lily said calmly.
"I don't object to your creation of Druid's professional system. However, you must be careful not to create the kind of extremists who 'love nature more than anything else.' Otherwise, considering Empire's current national conditions, these people will cause big trouble."
In terms of nature conservation, Empire does a great job overall. The problem is the animals.
Hunting monsters and using animals for experiments is very common in the Empire. And Druid often values nature more than life, and they may not tolerate this kind of thing, which will cause them to conflict with many powerful people in the Empire, even including Elder Council-after all, animal experiments are legal under moderate control.
Lily nodded. "I will formulate the doctrine to ensure that they do not become too radical. In addition, when officially establishing this new profession, I will carefully select candidates."
The best candidates to become Druid are environmentalists because they truly care about nature and should be able to resonate with it.
However, environmental terrorists whose beliefs are too extreme must not be accepted.
"What about you, Severus? What are you going to do?"
"I will continue to research Moon's Tears and Fountain of Youth. These rare materials should allow me to develop many new potions."
Afterwards, everyone returned to Floating City and performed their duties. In a room, Ian called Morgana.
"How's the matter I asked you to check?"
"I found it. I compared the birth certificates of more than 100 million people with our records. Except for a few historical celebrities such as Einstein, Oppenheimer, there is no overlap between the people in this world and our Empire people."
"In other words, we can plunder the population of this universe without worrying about the problem of 'doppelgangers'," Ian said with a smile.
Population is crucial to any Empire, and Ian has always struggled with this issue - especially regarding human population.
Most human beings on other planets lived in the Middle Ages. Except for nobles or Luck children, they rarely had the opportunity to access knowledge, and their thoughts were very restricted.
After conquering them, Ian knew that it would take a lot of time and energy to make these people accept Arcane Empire's lifestyle.
Therefore, he is eager to obtain a large population from modern society, as long as the method is right, they can integrate more easily.
And this trip in this Earth-like universe gave him an excellent opportunity to plunder the population.
"Master, although there is nothing wrong with the people here, I found that their magic talents are very low. And the number of people with talents is pitiful."
"Show me the data," Ian browsed the information and frowned slightly.
As Morgana said, overall, the average magical talent of humans in this universe is appallingly low.
After thinking for a moment, he asked, "Do we still have Dragon Blood Potion in our inventory?"
"Yes, but not enough to feed more than three billion people."
"Of course not that much," Ian replied, "We just need to put a sufficient amount of medicine into the water reserves of all countries. In this way, many people can awaken their magic talents-even if their talents are very low."
"Then, we can classify Awakened Ones according to their talent levels, and secretly control them to ensure that people of the same level marry each other, so that more talented Arcanist offspring can be born."
"After several generations of bloodline optimization, the overall talent of the entire population will be greatly improved."
Morgana thought for a moment and performed a lot of calculations.
"It should be doable, but it would still take a lot of resources and time."
"We have plenty of time. As for resources, the Dragon Heart used in the potion is a renewable resource. We can even provide potions made with Fountain of Youth to captive dragons to ensure their health and a steady supply of materials."
"As you wish."