Edward's eyes turned purple as he looked at the pool of water in front of him; he could not detect anything so far, so he waved his hand to try to detect other things.
As something that granted people immortality, Edward thought that this pool may contain a large amount of life force, and through baptism, grant any person who bathed inside a long life span.
Unfortunately, he did not detect any.
After thinking about it, he realized that this might make sense. In the movie, the pool not only gave immortality but also removed curses. After coming to this conclusion, Edward then remembered the Tears of the Moon.
Thinking about his theory that the tree might be related to divinity, and since this pool might have a similar ability as it, so he and Hermione did a few basic tests. As expected, did discover a very small trace of [Authority] and divine energy.
Unfortunately, the power of Authority was too small to detect or experiment on. As for the divine energy, Edward compared the data to the ones he had previously acquired from Herpo.
The conclusion was that compared to the latter, this divine energy was extremely pure, with no will or imprint inside. Honestly, Edward believed that this level of purity was impossible to be achieved by anyone or any means.
For such pure divine energy to be born, most likely, the god to which it belonged must have personally created it and removed his or her imprint from it.
According to him, even if one day he had a hundred percent understanding of divine energy, he might not be able to refine it to such purity. Nevertheless, he did not dwell on this issue.
With this pool, his understanding of divine energy and gods, in general, will drastically increase. Once he returned to the Empire, it should be no problem completely draining Herpo of his energy and rendering him powerless.
Edward opened his watch, "Morgana, I will send you a sample and do a few basic tests for me."
"No problem, boss."
A few hours later, Morgana called back, "Master, Master, this pool can increase mana."
"Really? By how much?"
"I do not have much data yet but it should be enough for all four of you to reach Tier 6. And if we can add some more herbs that can help boost its effect, that would be even better."
"Excellent," said Edward with a grin on his face; this was truly good news. According to previous tests made, with his talent, it would take him 73 years to reach Tier 6 Planetary.
And that is only because of his high talent and the fact that the mana needed to reach a higher Tier has drastically decreased because of the Crystallization process. And unfortunately, most if not all potions and other things that can increase mana have become invalid for Edward.
So, he has to rely on his body's natural production process and everyday meditation to absorb mana, which is a tedious and slow process. Because of this situation, bloodline arcanists have an advantage over regular ones since their bodies can produce mana.
Luckily for regular arcanists, they are usually more sensitive to mana in the environment and absorbed it at a faster rate.
The next day, Edward and Hermione returned to the Amazon to reunite with Lily and Snape. Inside the experiment rooms, the four had a meeting.
"Did you discover anything?"
"Yes. When studying Imhotep, we found out that he is using magic similar to Horcrux," replied Lily. "A powerful curse was used to create an indestructible body, then, his entire soul was bound to his body like a Horcrux."
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Edward nodded his head. With this knowledge, the Empire has an "alternate" form of immortality–although this method will be labeled as forbidden and strictly guarded.
People will be allowed to study it, and if they want to use this method, have to make a request and register their information.
Necromancy has many advantages in war. Being able to use the fallen of the enemy against them not only reduce the loss of troops but also destroy morale.
"I thought that necromancy was already developed in our world," said Hermione. "However, compared to Inferi or Haitian Zombies, the universe's undead magic is truly advanced."
"That's true," replied Edward. "Alright, we have to divide the work for the next few years. I will be working on understanding necromancy and the soul using all three books we acquired.
"Lily is in charge of figuring out the Elementalization power of Aguirre and his men, and Imhotep. You can focus on him since he can turn into sand. Be on guard though as he might be the pawn of the god Anubis.
"So, five to six years from now, you have to kill him and place his body back in his tomb."
Edward did not want to intervene with the second mummy movie as he wanted to verify something during that time.
"Hermione, you will be in charge of translating this universe's magic system to Gate Alchemy. I want to be able to identify different kinds of energy and used them to cast a variety of spells. You can use the Oracle Bones.
"I also have to warn you. Some of the spells in the book require using the power of the gods. So, in the process of analyzing them, you might peep at their essence and catch their attention, so be careful.
"As for you, Severus, you are responsible for studying the Tears of the Moon and the Pool of Eternal Life. Both these things may involve divine energy and the gods, so be careful.
"Many of our research is related to another, so we can exchange ideas in the process."
"Boss, what about me?" asked Morgana.
"Grant all of them the highest level of computing power to help them in their research."
"Alright."
"There is one last thing," said Edward. "Evelyn's soul is special as she has successfully reincarnated. A few years from now, she should regain the memories of her past life.
"Reincarnation magic is very precious to the Empire, so someone has to constantly check on her. It's best to place something near her that can gather information regarding her soul."
Edward wanted to create a reincarnation spell. This way, if something were to happen to him or his family, this spell could be a way to save their lives. If they could keep their previous life memories, then it will be possible to not only escape their enemy's pursuit but also use that past knowledge to secretly grow until they are strong enough to take revenge.
Additionally, some universes are too powerful for him to just barge in. However, with a reincarnation spell, he can separate a small part of his soul with his memories to reincarnate into those universes.
That way, it becomes easier to sneak in, plus he can have the identity of a citizen of that universe and maybe deal with the problem of World Oppression.
Of course, Edward knew that this tactic was not perfect as some universes have powerful individuals in control of the underworld and so on.
"Wouldn't it be better to just place a spell on her soul to gather the data?" said Severus.
"That's a bad idea," replied Lily. "There is no way for a mortal to successfully reincarnate with her memories intact. So, only the power of the gods can do so. Meaning, her soul might be marked; if we rashly mess with it, we might alert the people responsible."
Edward nodded in agreement, "So, who's going to keep watch on her? It's best to keep some level of friendship with the O'Connell to make things easier."
No one answered them. All of these people are scientists, when they enter research mode, there is nothing they hate most than interruptions–let alone constant ones.
So, although both Lily and Hermione still had some good impressions of the O'Connells, they did not want to take this job. Not to mention Snape and Edward who had conflicts with Rick.
"In that case, how about we use Rune Engraving to decide."
"Absolute not," said the other three in unison. Rune engraving is a new game in the Empire where people–mostly young arcanists–compete on drawing the same rune. The person who drew the rune the fastest and with the best quality was the winner.
As such, this kind of game has begun to replace rock-paper-scissors in the magical community. As the creator of Arcane runes, no one wanted to play with Edward as he had too many advantages.
"Rock-paper-scissors?" said Edward helplessly.
"With all due respect your highness, something tells me that you would secretly cheat," said Lily casually, which made Edward's mouth twitch.
"In that case, as your Emperor, I ordered you to be the one that goes."
Lily started to look around while whistling, acting like she did not hear anything; she even sing a little song in a low voice.
"Alright. Morgana, randomly generate a name between the four of us; you have to be impartial."
Edward then gave the other three a stern look when he saw that they wanted to reject his proposal, forcing them to swallow their words. In the end, Snape was chosen for the job and he agreed begrudgingly.