Mechanical Alchemist

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Su Lun was delighted upon hearing Mr. Hei’s shout.

The old man’s work is indeed reliable!

But after fighting for a while longer, with no further messages from Mr. Hei, Su Lun asked with a puzzled mind.

"Mr. Hei, where is the Soul Hosting Altar?"

"Not confirmed yet."

"Didn’t you just say you found it?"

"It was to deceive that woman."

"..."

"Just now, she was probably distressed about her wax statues, her mind wavered for a moment, so I blurted out another sentence. However, the effect was good, I read more intel."

"..."

Su Lun listened and smiled knowingly in his heart.

No wonder he had to shout it out loud just then.

In such a serious battle, the old man still had the mindset for a bit of dark humor, indicating that he was handling it quite comfortably.

The old man’s combat power is unfathomable.

Su Lun had now witnessed the combat ways of a Scholar.

He couldn’t understand before, but now at the same level, he knew that "knowledge is power" is a phrase that truly applies to Mr. Hei in every sense.

Knowledge is like a lever; with just the right fulcrum, it can lift all things in the world.

The Curator Heideman’s thirty-six terrifying wax statues, not to mention anything else, are more than enough to match the combat strength of fifty sixth-order professionals.

But she still couldn’t do a thing against Mr. Hei.

"A single log props up a crumbling building," this ancient saying probably describes it best.

Su Lun watched and pondered.

Truly understanding Mr. Hei’s thought process would be greatly beneficial to him as well.

...

With Mr. Hei joining the battle, the fight suddenly became relaxing.

Su Lun knew what he had to do: at all costs, create opportunities for Mr. Hei to spot a "flaw."

He controlled his puppet army and charged back and forth against those wax figures.

The Mind Reading Technique of the second release can forcibly read a target, but for those with firm mindsets or high spiritual cultivation, the difficulty is immense.

This Curator Heideman is a practitioner of mysterious occupations and also necromancy, possessing very strong spiritual power.

After she became guarded, the best way to read her mind was to cause her to be mentally unstable.

The greater the fluctuation, the more mistakes are made.

And the outside situation is still uncertain; the battle should not drag on for too long.

Even without a reminder from Mr. Hei, Su Lun himself noticed that after destroying a few wax statues, Heideman’s sorrow was hard to conceal.

For those obsessive art collectors, destroying their lifetime’s collections could be more painful than death.

The goal now became very clear.

Although there was no way to break the Curator’s immortality, Su Lun thought it would be quite easy to destroy a few wax statues.

The puppet army repeatedly charged, leaving behind large swathes of severed limbs and broken bodies on the estate.

It seemed like Su Lun’s own puppet army was at a great disadvantage, being slaughtered and retreating steadily.

But in reality, the real losses were not too significant.

This highlights the biggest advantage and disadvantage between traditional professionals and mechanical warriors—consumption cost!

If the mechanical armor is damaged, the materials are mostly still there. Take it to the war workshop for some repair and reassembly, and it’s again a brand new machine. At most there’s a bit of material wear and labor cost, which is almost negligible.

But cultivating a high-order professional not only requires a talent that’s one in ten thousand, it also requires countless resources and many years.

And the costs of these wax figures are even more.

Like limited edition figurines, once gone, they’re truly gone.

Su Lun felt that had he been in their place, he would have been in agony too.

Once neither side could do anything to the other, both fell into a war of attrition.

Moreover, as the battle grew more intense, the wax figures’ damage became more serious.

Even the four elemental wax statues began to show injuries.

Energy is, after all, conserved.

Attack consumes energy, defense consumes energy, recovery consumes energy... The more intense the battle, the greater the energy consumption inevitably becomes.

Even if they can become elemental, even if these wax statues have some kind of mysterious power for super fast recovery in this space, energy loss is inevitable.

But this loss, originally, was limited.

Even the torrents of ammunition from Su Lun’s mechanical puppets would not be too problematic.

But now Mr. Hei was involved.

The old man saw through the essence of the elemental wax statues and soon came up with a tactic: making the enemy suffer internal consumption.

His left hand performed an "Elemental Hedge", while his right conducted "Elemental Annihilation", both spells specifically designed to deplete elemental energy.

And crucially, the elements he used for consumption were mostly stolen from those wax statues.

Using the enemy’s own ammunition against them made the consumption extremely exaggerated.

These wax statues were like candles that had been lit, each burning on their own, unrelated.

Now, Mr. Hei has made their flames burn against each other, causing wax to spill everywhere.

Yet in the midst of desperate battle, they had no choice but to burn.

Su Lun marveled at the sight.

He estimated that, even if they couldn’t find a flaw, just continuing this fierce battle, it was hard to say who would win or lose.

...

But the tactic of the two men didn’t last long before Curator Heideman’s mindset indeed began to falter.

She couldn’t kill Su Lun and Mr. Hei quickly, but the losses of her wax figures grew more severe.

```

No matter who comes here, their mentality is bound to be affected.

It was during these intense fluctuations that Mr. Hei read the information he wanted and said to Su Lun through the communicator, "Southeast, nine hundred meters, there’s a withered tree with a dry well beneath it, that’s the entrance to the altar. Be careful, there’s a spatial maze inside!"

Upon hearing this, Su Lun immediately responded, "Okay!"

Mr. Hei was more skilled at dealing with the living.

Exploring mazes and traps, Su Lun himself was better suited for it with his raven and the All-knowing Eye.

Having observed for so long, how could Su Lun not understand the old man’s strength?

He didn’t seem overly powerful, but it was just as he had said — "under the seventh level, it’s hardly possible to beat him."

Su Lun didn’t need to worry about him and teleported away from the battlefield in an instant.

In the blink of an eye, he was already beside the dry well in the southeast.

Looking at the unremarkable dry well which showed no signs of anomaly on the outside, a moment of relief flashed in his eyes as he thought, "Lucky I had Mr. Hei to help, otherwise I really couldn’t have found this place."

The raven on his shoulder was very quiet, indicating that there was no significant danger.

Su Lun did not hesitate and jumped down.

...

As Su Lun passed through a prohibitory barrier inside the dry well, he suddenly found himself in an eerie, empty room.

The identified name of the space prohibition was "Penrose’s Infinite Grid Room."

Su Lun had heard of it before.

It was a type of combinational maze prohibition, with one hundred sixty thousand possible methods of solving it.

If one were to guess blindly, the chances of finding the correct method were theoretically one in one hundred sixty thousand. Your next journey awaits at NovelBin.Côm

But looking at the prohibition, Su Lun was not the least bit panicked.

The probability was meant for ordinary people, not someone like him who had a high comprehension of the Space Law.

Although the prohibition also interfered with spatial perception...

It wasn’t a big issue.

The room he was in was approximately twenty to thirty square meters in size, and despite the lack of light sources, everywhere he looked was dazzlingly white, causing a sensation akin to "snow blindness" if stared at for too long, mess with one’s ability to discern direction.

Su Lun glanced around the room and saw an inconspicuous door on each of the four walls, the floor, and the ceiling.

He thought for a moment, then left a mark on the six doors in the room and drew the "001" spatial coordinates runes below them.

Then, he randomly opened one of the doors and walked in.

As expected, behind the door was another room identical to the one he had just left.

This prohibition posed no danger, its function mainly to "trap people."

Su Lun left "Spatial Marker 002" and randomly opened another room.

Then one, then another.

A few minutes later, having marked over a hundred rooms, Su Lun already had a rough layout of the entire space in his mind.

"Huh, so the rooms move..."

He’d discovered a new pattern.

[Penrose’s Infinite Grid Room]was like a cube puzzle, made up of individual grid rooms.

But their number wasn’t infinite; it only felt endless because certain grids could move.

At this moment, Su Lun stood in a room marked "118," and in his mind, he had a constantly twisting "Rubik’s cube."

After calculating roughly for a minute, a relaxed expression appeared on his face, "So, it can be solved just like that?"

For Su Lun, who wielded Spatial Ability, it wasn’t difficult.

That ’Curator’, Heideman Elpuso, probably hadn’t anticipated that someone would break an ancient magical prohibition he’d found in such a short time.

....

Su Lun found the solution to the puzzle and didn’t continue walking step by step.

With a directed displacement, he appeared in a room he had previously marked.

However, this room had a door without a mark on it, meaning it was a "new door."

Su Lun didn’t hesitate and walked through it.

Unsurprisingly, he found a lonely bathtub in this room.

Upon closer inspection, the tub was filled with hair.

Obviously, there was a corpse underneath the hair.

Seeing this terrifying scene, he felt no fear; instead, he murmured to himself with satisfaction, "It’s really the [Self-Drowning Female Corpse]."

Su Lun was all too familiar with this scene.

Previously, in the [1911 Hotel] cursed space, he encountered it once when he was just a level one rookie. At that time, he was terribly scared and solved the mystery by finding sidesteps barely surviving.

But now?

Watching the long-haired female corpse stand up out of the bathtub, Su Lun merely raised an eyebrow. With a gesture, the gargoyle appeared behind the suddenly arising female corpse and "click," twisted its neck off.

The moment "grey mist" appeared on the corpse, Su Lun teleported over and absorbed it, not giving it a chance to resurrect.

Back when he was at level one, he could only harvest a bit of the fragment at a time and had to do it many times to resolve the corpse.

Now, with his second-level harvesting ability, he crushed the Spiritual Body directly.

Su Lun knew that there were three other corpses in some room within the space, [The Faceless Man], [The Hanged Corpse], and [The Big-Headed Grudge Baby].

But he didn’t feel like looking for them now.

Having killed one of the corpses, the "Quadruple Sinister Spirits’ Fall Sacrifice Formation" was already broken.

Su Lun contacted Mr. Hei to confirm his guess.

Sure enough, after breaking the formation, Curator Heideman’s ability to transfer damage disappeared.

The woman was raging and charging towards this grid room.

...

Su Lun wasn’t in the least bit anxious; an enemy who could be killed was nothing to fear.

If Heideman were fleeing, there might be some uncertainty, but if he came to clash heads on, he was surely doomed!

Su Lun took another look at the room, which was one of the several key points of "Penrose’s Infinite Grid Room."

After he entered this room, the pressure of the Death Magic he felt grew stronger.

```

This means that I am getting closer and closer to that treasure.

"What could be emanating such strong power of the Death Law?"

Su Lun’s curiosity intensified.

Up to now, he could tell that there must be a treasure supporting this wax museum space.

This grid space wasn’t just for hiding a formation.

Su Lun figured out the direction and passed through a few more rooms before he found the center of this Rubik’s Cube-like grid house.

He opened the door, and it was a room as dark as ink.

As soon as he opened it, Su Lun felt a thick, paint-like force of the Death Law flood over him like a tide!

The crow on his shoulder cawed excitedly and immediately darted in.

"This..."

Although Su Lun had anticipated it, the moment he opened the door, he was overwhelmed with shock.

The strength of the Death Law here was like flowing down a river and suddenly crashing into the boundless ocean.

The power of the laws inside the room gathered like flowing black water,

but, even so,

there was a dazzling golden light blooming in the center of the room.

The source of the light was a transparent glass case. Rows of runic chains locked the case, but one could still see a golden scroll inside.

It was so dazzling, so holy, as if it gathered the brightest force of the world.

Yet, an article that was clearly so divine overflowed with what seemed like the most evil power of death!

This strong contradiction made Su Lun full of doubts.

He focused his gaze and saw that silver, mysterious symbols emerged from the golden scroll. Oddly, when he tried to focus on the symbols to see what was written, the symbols seemed to come to life and slipped away, as if refusing to let anyone see clearly what was written!

The text contained the power of laws?

Was the Death Law in this entire space emanating from these symbols?

What a treasure!

Witnessing this miraculous scene, Su Lun guessed what it might be, both stunned and elated, "Could it be... the original runes?"

He had seen the original runes on the murals of the giants, even merging with a [Replica of the Original Rune].

Even though he couldn’t see the symbols on the golden scroll, he could feel the familiar sense of the same origin.

"No, wait... Could it be the ’Divine Language’ from the four high-level linguistic systems described by senior sister? Could it have been a spell scroll left by an ancient deity?"

Su Lun had a vague guess, yet he was uncertain.

The script of the four high-level linguistic systems inherently carried the power of laws, and it looked somewhat similar to this golden scroll.

Trying to appraise it, his view was filled with asterisks beyond recognition.

He couldn’t appraise it, but this didn’t stop him from determining that this golden scroll was a super-tier item.

This was the first time Su Lun had encountered something completely beyond his understanding; even the "God-Forbidden Items" he had obtained from the Mirror Library before didn’t compare to it.

...

"How high could the grade of this thing possibly be?"

Su Lun’s expression became very subtle.

He hadn’t expected that ’Curator’ Heideman would have such an astonishingly significant item in her collection.

The All-knowing Eye couldn’t comprehend the history of this item, but the less it understood, the more it proved this was a great treasure.

Pick it up first and talk later!

What belongs to the enemy, now belongs to me.

Su Lun glanced at the runic chains surrounding him and figured out the trick.

[Elliott’s Black Iron Chains], forged from necromantic black iron, was an antique known for its strong capacity to channel dark energy.

Without much thought, he figured it was most likely looted from a tomb.

It was probably because the Death Law power emanating from the golden scroll was too intense that Heideman used these runic chains to connect it to the entire space, maintaining the energy needed for the space. The emanating death aura was also the best nourishment for nurturing those terrifying wax figures in the museum.

Only then did Su Lun realize that the position of Curator of Archaeology at the Royal Academy was a discreet yet wealthy post, with access to various tombs and first-hand treasures.

The items in Heideman’s hands, if put out into the world, would probably make the royal families green with envy.

...

Just as Su Lun was holding the black scythe, pondering how to take the golden scroll, suddenly a person burst in, shouting furiously, "Damn it, stop!"

Without looking, it was ’Curator’ Heideman who had rushed over.

This woman was no longer as arrogant and composed as before, and she was covered in wounds.

From the look of things, she seems to have been tormented by Mr. Hei outside.

"You really dared to come?"

Su Lun thought she would flee, but to his surprise, she showed up.

Seeing her arrive, he showed no courtesy, instantly teleporting over and slashing down with his black scythe.

Having already experienced Su Lun’s prowess, Heideman dared not take it head on and tried to dodge.

But Su Lun had also witnessed the power of her black rod, so how could he give her a chance to succeed a second time?

At the same time, Mr. Hei brought good news, "Su Lun, most of the wax figures are temporarily restrained by me, end her quickly!"

Hearing these words, Su Lun didn’t hesitate at all and instantly brought his hands together, the spell forming in a flash: "Hormone Rampage - Fifth Unleashing!"

The next moment, his muscles bulged, and the power surged, steaming streams of vital energy.

In this cramped space where the puppet army couldn’t unfold, close combat was the best choice.

Heideman was indeed strong, but without the immortal body, without those wax figures, she was no significant threat to Su Lun anymore.

"Snap!"

With a burst of air, Su Lun’s speed increased tenfold!

Stepping on the air, he shot out like a cannonball.

He hadn’t gone all out before because he wasn’t sure he could kill this woman. Now, it was time to catch her off guard!

Seeing this, Heideman’s eyes widened in shock: How could he be so fast?

She couldn’t even gather her thoughts before seeing that figure flash past, the black scythe chopping down on her leg.

```

With an elemental shield of water protecting her, that slash was still not of any concern.

But at this moment, Heideman’s heart was already filled with utter despair.

Because she was well aware that her physical reaction speed was simply not fast enough to block the next strike from her opponent.

She began chanting a spell, seemingly about to activate some secret technique.

But it was already too late.

Just as the dark scythe slashed down, Heideman watched helplessly as a crimson dagger was thrust toward her chest.

She saw the trajectory of the dagger, guessed Su Lun’s intention, but...

The speed was simply too fast!

So fast that Heideman wanted to swing her black staff to block, but the dagger’s speed was several times faster than her own.

She could only watch as the crimson dagger plunged into her body without any resistance.

"Hiss~"

A spray of blood burst forth.

Heideman’s gaze stiffened, her heart filled with desolation.

She wanted to struggle one last time, the final syllable of her spell had already fallen from her lips, seemingly still holding a glimmer of hope.

But of course, Su Lun would not give her this opportunity.

In such life-and-death confrontations, once the tide turns to reveal a victor, death often follows in an instant.

...

Su Lun swiftly withdrew his Dragon-slaying dagger, then skillfully changed his move, swinging horizontally, slicing a blood line across Heideman’s neck.

After the two slashes were executed, the black staff appeared where it would have blocked the first strike.

By then, the vitality in Heideman’s eyes was rapidly fading away.

Without her undying body, she was as fragile as paper under the Dragon-slaying dagger.

As Su Lun saw the "gray mist" emerge for the first time, he also worried that this person might have some resurrection technique, and immediately harvested her soul, thus ending the battle completely.

With this harvest, a flood of memories surged into his mind.

’You have stripped the soul of "Heideman Elpuso"’

’You have gained a large number of "Death Law fragments", a few "Disaster Law" and "Darkness Law" fragments’

’You have mastered the skill [Art of Terrifying Wax Sculpture Creation (Master Level)], cadaver preparation, spirit attachment, soul control, paraffin soul sealing, maintenance...’

’You have acquired extensive knowledge related to corpses: Oh, if I could get my hands on higher-level corpses, then I could create even more powerful terrifying wax sculptures...’

’You have gained experience in professions related to "Grave Digger" and "Archaeology Master"’

’You have acquired a wealth of knowledge on "Necromancy" and "Dark Magic", your understanding of the world’s darker aspects has become clearer’

’You have obtained a copy of the "Ancient Red Death Research Archives"’

’You have received a piece of information: The royal archaeological team dug up the tomb of ancient Necromancer "Allen Seras" in the southern region of Stormgar, and that’s how I got this golden scroll. From the notes left by the tomb’s owner, I learned that this is a fragment of a mythical item, "The Sage’s Maxims", which seems to record the top death spells in the world...’

’Spiritual power +777...’

’...’

```

...

Su Lun searched through the memories of Heideman Elpuso, and harvested a wealth of recollections.

As expected, he reaped a large amount of "Death Laws."

This woman, originally an alchemist, was tempted halfway by dark forces and turned into a necromancer. She frequently lurked in various gloomy tombs and dark dungeons, studying all kinds of necromancy, achieving a level of mastery and insight into Death Laws that few in the world could match!

Even Su Lun was inferior to her in many aspects!

Reaping decades of understanding of the laws had noticeably elevated Su Lun’s comprehension of the laws, instantly raising his knowledge in many areas.

"Is this the threshold of the sixth order..."

After digesting those law comprehensions, Su Lun’s eyes sparkled with sharp brilliance.

When he had previously harvested from Augustus, the sense of a seventh-order threshold wasn’t too clear. But now, having harvested from Heideman Elpuso, who also followed the path of death, that feeling became distinct all at once.

It was like looking up at the sky, still out of reach, but no longer as unknown and misty as before.

The gains were undeniably immense.

Then there were a bunch of other things like archaeological knowledge, tomb raiding techniques, ancient history... a wealth of practical experiences that greatly broadened Su Lun’s horizons.

However, it was a pity that this individual’s ability of "immortality" was part of necromancy, of little use to him.

On the other hand, those horrifying wax figure crafting skills - Su Lun felt that this path was worth delving into.

Augustus used necromancy that prayed to the gods to resurrect corpses, which alchemists couldn’t use, but Su Lun had "Rune Zombies!"

The secret technique of waxing corpses could seal souls within the bodies; in theory, could Su Lun himself create wax figure zombies similar to those with the abilities they had in life?

The future seemed full of possibilities just thinking about it.

There was no time to contemplate further.

This direction could be slowly explored in the future.

As for the golden scroll that had piqued Su Lun’s curiosity earlier, after harvesting the memories, the information derived from the golden parchment was different.

[The Maxims of a Sage (Fragment)]

Description: A fragment of a magic scroll from the Mythological Era, made of golden fleece, capable of enduring countless eons without decay;

Explanation: An ancient god’s incantation written in primal runes, it records one of the eighteen magic forbidden curses left by an ancient supreme god - the Death Forbidden Curse; You see those characters but cannot comprehend their meaning. The Archmage Allen Seras deciphered the simplest expression on the golden scroll, which turns out to be a whisper of the gods, ’The twelfth ultimate magic I comprehend: after seeing a hanged corpse, I took it down from the gallows, and it told me all the memories of its life’; owning it increases comprehension of Death Laws by +10; once you understand the language of the gods, you will gradually comprehend the transcendent spells recorded on the scroll and will also gradually understand the essence of death;

Su Lun looked at it, greatly astonished.

Although he had guessed that it was an artifact from the Mythological Era, he hadn’t expected its significance to be so great!

For those who practice Death Magic, this scroll was by all means a treasure with 100% compatibility!

...

Because Su Lun already knew that the spread of the "Red Death" originated from Heideman Elpuso.

He also harvested related content, only then realizing the virus was indeed found by this individual from an ancient Red Death tomb.

Moreover, Su Lun obtained detailed Ancient Red Death Research Archives.

After digesting the content, his heart leapt with joy.

Because there were indeed documented cure cases of the Red Death in ancient times!

```