Witch Special

Lin Zhenxi immediately conducted a round of tests on his "consciousness projection" ability.

The Glazed Altar now covers the entire surface of the planet, from the upper atmosphere all the way down to the mantle, more than ten kilometers below. Theoretically, Lin Zhenxi could project her consciousness to any corner of this world. In this world without any mystical protection, her consciousness would have no limitations.

The last time Lin Zhenxi used her consciousness projection was when Child Emperor and Metal Knight were building the electromagnetic traction cannon, so the farthest distance she could project her consciousness was only as far as the junction of the abandoned city and the main city of City Z. Now, she needed to project her consciousness to various locations on the planet, the farthest point being tens of thousands of kilometers away from her main body, a thousand times the previous maximum distance.

Lin Zhenxi is also not sure whether there will be signal delay when the projection of the consciousness body is so far away from the original body, or even whether loss of consciousness will occur. These all need to be verified through experiments.

Lin Zhenxi chose to test the effect of distance on her consciousness projection by increasing the distance at a rate of increase. She started with 10 kilometers, then 20 kilometers the second time, 40 kilometers the third time, and 80 kilometers the fourth time. By the ninth test, her consciousness projection was already 1,280 kilometers away from her true form.

The experience of being separated from one's body and appearing in such a distant place as a body of consciousness was a wonderful one. The further away from one's body, the lighter Lin Zhenxi felt, as if something that bound her soul was gradually being untied.

At first, Lin Zhenxi had to concentrate to move his consciousness. But as his consciousness moved more and more, perhaps because he had become more proficient, or perhaps because it was farther away from his main body, Lin Zhenxi felt that his consciousness was like a kite being released farther and farther away, becoming more and more unrestrained and free.

With a simple thought, she could make her consciousness appear anywhere within her field of vision, without even a moment's pause. One moment, she was on the ground, the next, she was in the sky, and the next, she was at the top of a mountain. This extreme freedom made Lin Zhenxi feel like she was letting herself go, and even... she wanted to stay like this, never wanting to return to the confines of her body.

wrong!

Lin Zhenxi forced herself to suppress the yearning for freedom that surged within her, returning her consciousness to her body. The next moment, her true form opened its eyes. Seeing the familiar setting before her, Lin Zhenxi breathed a sigh of relief, her heart pounding for a long time before settling down.

After calming down, Lin Zhenxi recalled what had just happened, and was practically in a cold sweat. What had she been thinking? Giving up her body and becoming a wandering ghost forever? How could she possibly have thought of such a thing?

The only explanation is that the use of "consciousness projection" will lead to a decrease in the compatibility between the soul and the body!

Lin Zhenxi quickly closed his eyes and began to check whether his soul had been damaged. After a thorough examination, Lin Zhenxi finally determined where the problem lay.

"Astral projection" projects a person's consciousness to a distant place. At this time, the person's body itself has a soul but no consciousness. However, how can a body with a healthy soul be unconscious? The soul's self-detection function is still running at this time. After discovering the existence of this bug, it begins to repair the entire bug, that is, to continue to generate consciousness.

Lin Zhenxi felt her awareness of her body begin to wane because her soul was giving birth to a new consciousness. If this new consciousness emerged and her own consciousness didn't return, she would likely face the classic philosophical question: "Who am I? I am me, but how do I prove I am me?"

The reason wasn't that there was something wrong with her "Consciousness Projection" ability, but that Lin Zhenxi shouldn't leave her consciousness outside her body for too long. She had to strictly control the amount of time her consciousness left her body and couldn't let her consciousness wander around the world like she had just done.

However, if Lin Zhenxi cannot maintain an out-of-body consciousness for a long period of time with contracts for 20,000 familiars, this project, which originally had a glimmer of hope, will become extremely long.

Therefore, she needed to find a way to avoid the risk of her soul giving rise to a new consciousness after her consciousness left her body. Alternatively, she could transfer the risk and find a replacement to summon natural water slimes around the world on her behalf.

Lin Zhenxi chose the latter option almost without hesitation. Because the soul's birth consciousness is a protective mechanism of the body, if Lin Zhenxi disabled it, it would be like disabling the automatic backup function on a perfectly functioning computer. If a problem arose later, there might be no way to recover. While a computer could be restored to normal operation by reinstalling the system, the human body lacked such a convenient function.

Therefore, Lin Zhenxi needed to create a stand-in for herself. This stand-in had the same authority as herself, could use the glass altar at will, and had an independent consciousness that could be projected to various locations around the world. It also needed to be able to use familiar contract magic to summon the natural water slime.

Lin Zhenxi subconsciously thought of Yanyan. This creature was the spirit of the Witch Book, possessing an independent consciousness. The Witch Book, like the Elder Wand, was actually a type of magical equipment. Lin Zhenxi was accustomed to using the Elder Wand to cast magic, but she could also cast magic with the Witch Book, though the two simply focused on different bonuses.

The Elder Wand's increased magic power was very practical, exactly what Lin Zhenxi wanted. As for the Witch's Book, it increased the "spirituality" of magic, making it more spontaneous and allowing previously vague magical commands to be automatically completed, thus leaning more towards the creation of magic.

However, the magic that Lin Zhenxi learned was enough for her to use. She was not yet at the stage of creating magic for herself, so she rarely used this function of the Witch Book.

If she uses the Witch's Book as a medium for casting spells, she can share her spellcasting ability with Yanyan...

Although this plan is feasible, Lin Zhenxi gave up this option after thinking about it.

After all, she still cherished Yanyan very much. After so many years of companionship, Yanyan was no longer just a highly intelligent familiar to her, but also her companion, her family, almost like a sister. Since she knew the risks of separating consciousness from the body, wasn't letting Yanyan do it tantamount to pushing her into a pit of fire? Should Yanyan agree to do something she didn't want to do?

So, should we use clones? Lin Zhenxi thought of Kinos's clones. They handled a lot of affairs for Kinos's original self, allowing Kinos to indulge in his own experiments. However, the drawbacks of clones were also obvious. Perhaps Kinos himself didn't realize it, but in fact, every time he created a clone, he was actually tearing his soul apart. The reason why Lin Zhenxi could control Kinos so easily was because of his scarred soul.

The integrity of the soul is extremely important to a magician. Lin Zhenxi is still in a period of rapid growth in strength. Harming his soul is equivalent to destroying his growth potential. Lin Zhenxi also does not want to sacrifice his future.

Wait, there seems to be another thing that has the ability to cast magic?

The Heart of the Rising Sun was a functionally incomplete intelligent magical device. Lin Zhenxi had referenced the design of the ancient Heart of the Rising Sun, but had only created its auxiliary computing module, using it as his own magical supercomputer. However, could Lin Zhenxi also add a module to assist in casting spells?

A complete intelligent magic device has the ability to independently decide to release magic when its owner loses consciousness. In other words, the intelligent magic device itself has the function of releasing magic, but this function has been castrated on the Heart of the Rising Sun.

The virtual personality module was also castrated. The complete Heart of the Rising Sun has an intelligent personality that looks like a considerate older sister. It is as smart as a normal person and can even help elementary school students with their homework. However, the Heart of the Morning Sun has nothing and can only exchange information with the outside world through text.

It's not that it can't be done, but it wasn't necessary before, so Lin Zhenxi didn't do it. Now, with the need, Lin Zhenxi can certainly add the missing modules to the Heart of the Rising Sun. With the intelligent magic device's immense computing power, even if these modules were DIY by Lin Zhenxi, it's believed that they will be backwards compatible.

Lin Zhenxi immediately grabbed Yanyan and began working on the virtual personality and the external module that assisted in casting spells. With the auxiliary computing module as a reference, after a lot of hard work, the two of them finally succeeded in adding a virtual personality with independent thinking ability to the Heart of the Rising Sun, as well as giving it simple spellcasting capabilities.

Well, it can only cast a limited-use familiar contract spell that summons a natural water slime. Although it can only use this one spell, at least it can cast magic, right?

It sounds good, but the key is comparison. A fully developed intelligent magic device can continuously write its own auxiliary spellcasting modules. Its spell library is comprehensive and can be updated in real time. The intelligent magic device will guide its user to choose the magic that suits the scene. The user only needs to provide magic power.

Compared to the Heart of the Rising Sun, which even has multiple transformations into different forms, Lin Zhenxi's Heart of the Morning Sun with two new modules is as simple as a firewood stick.

But at least, it works.