Chương 34: Family P 5
The next day when Lia went to the second floor, Tom was already at his side working in the laboratory. As he came out, his attire full of blood, his eyes sized Lia up, then one corner of his lips raised upwards.
Lia only gave him a nod and ignored him as she examined the results of the previous day. It was said that once the mortals were killed, they didn't instantly turn into ghosts. There was a time frame between three to five days. The corpses she took yesterday already hit the five-day mark and started decaying.
However, she infused them with her soul and they stopped falling apart. She ordered them to stay inside the bathroom. In case someone came into the room and found them, they would need to knock them unconscious and tie them up.
Lia had a slight headache when she thought about how complicated her command was and if the corpses understood it. They just stared at her blankly without any reactions.
At least they were quietly staying in the bathroom, even though Lia dreaded going to the toilet and mostly used the public ones on the ground floor or here on the second floor.
Lia also realised that the more physically fit she was, the better her corpses were. Despite the fact that physical strength and her soul strength should have nothing in common.
The slight increase in her endurance and strength were mirrored by the corpses. Although Lia thought it'd be better to do some soul training. When she was in the library, there was nothing on training one's soul nor how to train her necromancy power.
She was upset as she hit a dead end with her power. The surprise factor was on her side but once the enemy got used to the corpses, she would be at a disadvantage.
She had to find out more about her power. Maybe she could get some clues in the mortal world but if someone wanted to go to the mortal world, they'd need the approval of the council.
And now that Lia was neither a part of the council nor should be alive, she had no way of going there. She also didn't have anyone to help her. Noel was still someone she wasn't sure if he was trustworthy or not.
Throwing these thoughts away, the mortals in the first room didn't withstand the poison and died. Their corpses were clean and only tears stained their faces. The bulging veins settled a lot but when Lia examined the last corpse, she took a deep breath. The frail male's skin was whiter than usual to the point, it might turn translucent.
Mortals had the perception that ghosts were the soul or spirit of the dead. This wasn't particularly wrong. When the human soul was tainted enough with hatred, resentment and regret it would give the soul a form that could escape the fleshy prison of the body to go after its twisted yearnings.
The process of a human's soul turning into a ghost wasn't clear to anyone, even most immortals didn't know. The only ones that did, were the old Ghost Kings and Elders of the families but they long didn't exist anymore.
However now, Lia witnessed for the first time how the manifestations of intense emotions would come out of a body. With no time to think, Lia unstrapped the body and put it into the translucent case in the back of the room, emitting the familiar and hated green light.
It was surprising that only on the second day, results were shown but what was important for the research was to find out the reason behind this mortal's quick transformation.
As the body of the man turned paler and paler, Lia tried to find anything noticeable from yesterday. The male didn't act particularly different from the others. There was no sign of hate, regret or anything close to it, only fear, panic and terror.
What if any kind of negative emotions could turn a mortal into a ghost? As long as those feelings were etched into the soul to 100% then wouldn't it be enough for those that died to keep wanting to stay in this world? Thus they turn into ghosts?
Were their perceptions wrong? Could only having lingering regrets or thoughts of not wanting to die, as long as they were intense enough, be sufficient to let their soul stay on earth?
Lia's mind and heart were in a frenzy, she was at a breakthrough. What kind of thoughts must he have had in the last moments before he died?
She watched his body in front of her and recalled all the fearful and fear-stricken faces. She also didn't want to end their lives like this, after she experienced herself how cruel it was to put someone through torture.
The body finally turned completely white that looked like reflecting glass and from it, faint smoke emitted until slowly it merged into a form and Lia stared at bloodshot eyes.
She gave the ghost a sad smile and the mortal's body turned into smoke and perished. Lia finally understood. If the mortals chose to stay in the world even after they died, their soul would turn into ghosts unable to leave.
Their bodies that didn't house any souls would perish. It was an awful deal, to stay behind and not being able to reincarnate.
The mortals who chose to die without wanting to continue staying in the world would be able to have their soul go through a circle of reincarnation and be born again. Of course, they wouldn't remember their past lives.
However, if they turn into ghosts then they could never be reborn again and silently wait for their demise to be completely erased from this world.
The same applied to immortals. Immortals couldn't turn into ghosts but they could be reborn again. Yet the process of being reborn was different from the mortals'. Immortals could choose if they wanted to live a second life or not. If they chose to, they would need to pass several trials from heaven to determine if they were worth it.
That was why Lia wasn't concerned with the Z family coming back to life or even her own family because until now, no immortal has ever been able to be reborn.
The trials, whatever they were, were incessantly cruel, hard and impossible yet they were fair.
Because immortals were almost like deities they had more responsibilities. The immortals that died weren't qualified in the first place but heaven knew there were also good ones that unfortunately met their ends. That was why the trials have been implemented.
Another reason why it was obvious that no immortal was ever reborn was that compared to mortals, immortals would retain all their memories from their past lives.
Lia left the room and was about to enter the second when Tom stopped her, "Any results?"
"Yes."
"Really?" Tom who was leaning against the wall, straightened and looked surprised.
"One just turned into a ghost."
"How? what did ya-"
"What about you? This is mutual work, if you're burning to know, wait until our report at the end of the day," with that Lia vanished into the second room.
The second room used gas to slowly choke and suffocate the victims to death. Because Lia was immortal, she didn't have to worry about the gas harming her. There were also 10 victims but none showed any results.
The third room had the mortals strapped to chairs and constantly drove electricity through their bodies. In the end, apart from the first room, there were no successful transformations.
It was only the second day of countless more. On one side, Lia was happy that there were no more results because it'd put a dent to this project, on the other side it meant that there would be many more victims.
As she finished her observations, it was time for the lunch break. She has been waiting for it as she could meet Noel.
On her way to the cafeteria, Tom silently trailed behind her with an ugly look. It put Lia in a good mood, seeing him like this.
The cafeteria was big and there was enough space for everyone to be in their own little area but in order to gain information from the others, she had to be on a good basis with them.
After getting her food, she sat down at a table where Noel and his partner Barn were. Then one after another, the others seated themselves also on the same table.
Claire looked into the silent round and asked, "How is everyone? Any problems? Any results?"
Since Claire and Mat weren't part of any of the experiment floors, disregarding the fact they might work for Elder P, they naturally weren't concerned with the competition or else they wouldn't ask about anyone's progress.
"I had results today. It's very interesting to see a mortal turn into a ghost," Lia broke the ice.
She answered first and showed that she had no qualms about telling everyone about her progress. This also meant she either trusted everyone or was just plain stupid and naive in their eyes.
Being vulnerable to others, only had the benefit of them lowering their guards around her.
"Really? That's so cool!" Nessa who was on the fourth floor turned to Lia and cheerfully said, "unfortunately, Nita and I didn't have any results."
Nessa pointed to Nita who had long blonde hair next to her.
Lia gave them a warm smile, "It's only the second day, no need to worry."
"That's right!" Nessa happily ate her food, despite seemingly being in her 30s (mortal age) she was quite child-like.
"We had two results," Noel spoke up.
And so one after another they shared their progress. Noel's floor only had two. Lia's floor had one. Third and Fourth floor had no results.
Now that the ice was broken, everyone talked with each other. Despite feeling Tom's constant stare, Lia talked to Noel and they quickly exchanged information without letting anyone else know as they were in their own conversation.
"So, how does it look like?" Lia ate her food and calmly looked at Noel.
"Our laboratory? I guess the same as yours. Yesterday Barn and I met Sera and Phil, judging from their words, all the floors are the same equipped."
"Even the killing methods?"
"Met's talk about it after work," Noel decisively stabbed a tomato.
"In your room?"
"Mine?" Noel smirked and brought the tomato to his lips, "how bold."
"Shut up," Lia bit her tongue as she wanted to stab him with her fork too however, she couldn't let anyone know they knew each other already.
"Ok, ok, mine. What secrets do you have in yours?" Noel's smirk remained and Lia wondered how he could read her so easily.
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
MatchaMilk
MatchaMilk Tomato: I don't mind being eaten, just don't stab me so fiercely!
Mortals: Aren't you living a good life?
Corpses: At least you guys don't have to stare at the bathroom floor 24/7.
Tom: What's this convo 'bout?
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Hope you all are having a lovely day!
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