Mechanical Alchemist

"Secret Art: Grand Puppet Theater!"

After Su Lun summoned his spell, the cross in the sky kept enlarging indefinitely.

Since the battle in the North Sea Moros city-state, he hadn't used this infinitely magnified version of the spell for a long time.

Firstly, because he couldn't control so many puppets, and secondly, the enemies he encountered were getting stronger, and the threads had very limited control over high-level creatures.

But now, the timing was just right!

Facing the endless Tide of the Undead, Su Lun discovered another use for the grand theater.

In the eyes of an alchemist, everything must have a cause and effect.

Having too much power that didn't belong to him inherently meant there would be a weak link between the power and the host.

Just like Su Lun's own Puppetry Technique, if anyone could break his "Puppet Theater" spell, it would completely counter his ability to control a large number of puppets.

It's just that his understanding of puppetry now was too high, making this possibility extremely low, but not non-existent.

Moreover, the Necromancer was even worse, controlling hundreds of thousands of undead creatures, that guy certainly couldn't control every single undead precisely.

Su Lun had been observing the Necromancer's methods of controlling the undead, looking for weaknesses.

And unexpectedly, he found one!

...

As the cross gradually appeared in the sky, transparent threads began to fall.

The undead creatures were endless, and so were Su Lun's witch hairs!

In just a moment, numerous threads had covered a large area of ice near the Eternal Night.

At this moment, the firepower on the Eternal Night, covering short, medium, and long ranges, had already opened fire, and a large number of low-level skeletons had charged into the near-ship defense fire net.

They were very weak in combat, shattering at the touch of a bullet.

But their numbers were vast.

So much so that in the blink of an eye, a mountain of shattered bones had accumulated near the Eternal Night, which became a barrier for the subsequent monstrous onslaught.

If this continued, the Eternal Night could even be submerged by bones.

Everyone in the Dawn Squad could see that the Tide of the Undead would use this mountain of shattered bones to slowly eat away the space and draw closer. But they couldn't change the situation and had to keep firing back, piling up even more bones.

However, it was at this time that countless threads weaved into the battleground, threading through the eye sockets of the skeletons.

With no flesh to obstruct them, the threads pierced effortlessly.

And since the soul fires of the small skeletons were already weak, once the threads poked in, they were immediately extinguished!

The few hundred skeletons controlled by the threads lost their soul fires and collapsed on the spot.

"It really is so!"

Seeing this, Su Lun's expression relaxed considerably.

He had found an easy way to eliminate the skeleton monsters.

He himself was an expert in various secret soul techniques, and with just a little maneuvering, he effortlessly exterminated this batch of skeleton soldiers.

Compared to destroying their skeletal frames, this method was much more direct and saved a lot of ammunition.

However, after trying it out, Su Lun didn't continue to kill those small skeletons.

He was more certain now, those tiny bits of glass-like soul fires were the key to how the Necromancer controlled the undead!

The death of a few hundred skeletons on the battlefield did not cause much of a stir; there were still endless skeletons rushing forward, one after another.

Killing them was an endless battle.

Su Lun switched to another method.

With a thought, just then, as these skeletons entered the dense range of threads, suddenly, hundreds, and thousands of skeletons at the forefront bizarrely stopped.

Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands...

In the blink of an eye, those skeletons besieging the Eternal Night were as if subjected to "Paralysis Magic," all freezing on the spot.

And this paralysis was spreading fast.

A few moments later, the entire encircling ring of skeletons was rigidly frozen in place.

The undead had almost no intelligence to speak of; they mostly acted on control commands. With the creatures in front halted, the skeletons behind were at a loss, all standing still or just shuffling on the spot. Even those few enormous skeleton giants were blocked by the wave of monsters, temporarily without a place to step.

The previously fierce onslaught had momentarily paused.

Seeing this scene, everyone on the Eternal Night, who had been in a fierce battle, were also stunned.

The monsters ceased their charge, and the triggers stopped firing, silencing the continuous gunfire that hadn't stopped since the battle began. At that moment, there was a sudden quiet.

The crew looked at those skeletons standing in place as if punished, then back at the cross in the sky, their faces instantly filled with excitement.

"It's Mr. Su Lun who took action!"

"Hahaha... I knew Mr. Su Lun could handle these damned skeleton creatures!"

"Oh, it's simply magical, how on earth did Mr. Su Lun manage it..."

"..."

Everyone looking at Su Lun was overjoyed and simultaneously let out a sigh of relief.

The oppressive feeling of being surrounded by hundreds of thousands, even millions of enemies, finally gave them a moment to breathe.

The vast battlefield seemed to turn into a sort of skeleton theater, where a hidden hand behind the curtain pulled, and all skeletons stopped in place.

It didn't need too complex a program; once the thread pierced through the soul fire, the consciousness widely issued the command "stop," causing the skeletons to crash.

The crosses in the sky covered an ever-increasing area, and the number of skeleton monsters controlled by Su Lun also grew.

Thus, the enemy's strategy of using low-level monsters to deplete ammunition and board the ships fell through.

"Ah, so that's the plan," someone remarked.

A relaxed smile also appeared on Su Lun's face.

At that moment, he finally found a bit of initiative on the battlefield.

By now, he had almost completely figured out the Necromancer's method of controlling the undead legion.

The Red Robe Grand Magister acted like a signal tower, while the soul fire inside the bodies of the undead acted as receivers. By emitting signals remotely, he achieved large-scale control.

But since most undead monsters had low intelligence, only simple commands could be issued, such as charging in a certain direction.

Moreover, this remote control method was completely ineffective against Su Lun's threads.

Su Lun's technique involved "physical signal interference"; he directly transmitted his intent through threads, which clearly had a higher priority.

However, this was only true for low-level skeletons.

Su Lun then tried to control the higher-tier undead monsters, approximately fourth-tier and above, but could not completely control them.

After taking control, he found that the undead were conflicted, unsure whether to follow the "advance" or "halt" commands.

Lacking the ability to discern, the conflicting commands plunged the monsters into a state of chaos.

Seeing this, Su Lun was not disheartened but rather delighted.

Being able to control those low-tier skeletons meant he already controlled over ninety percent of the monsters.

With no numerical advantage, the threat of the Tide of the Undead was significantly reduced!

And although the threads had limited control over high-tier monsters, they were not completely ineffective.

The threads would easily burn when touching the soul fire of high-tier monsters, but if one wasn't enough, then countless would be used.

The moment of contact allowed Su Lun to immediately issue incorrect action signals to the inside of the soul fire, throwing the monsters into a state of command conflict and confusion.

After briefly experimenting, Su Lun grasped some techniques.

That was to not interfere with the main command but to issue some singular commands.

For instance, if the main purpose of high-tier monsters was to attack the ships, Su Lun couldn't reverse this command, but he could interfere with the monster's other actions, like issuing a command to lift the right leg when it was supposed to lift the left.

The result was often that these high-tier monsters moved uncoordinatedly, chaotically dancing around the battlefield, with bone dragons occasionally crashing to the ground from the sky...

Only those few eighth-tier monsters with blazing soul fires were almost completely unaffected,

like the Skeleton Sword Deity confronting thousands, along with a few skeleton giants and a handful of advanced monsters.

Su Lun continued his untiring efforts.

In a duel between masters, often a small mistake in details could determine the outcome of the battle.

He felt he could still make some trouble for those top-tier monsters.

The members of the Dawn Group, seeing Su Lun single-handedly turning the tide, were overjoyed, and their morale instantly soared.

Dora immediately issued a combat command, "Focus fire power on those uncontrollable monsters!"

Previously, the monsters still possessed their combat instincts from life, various blocks, body movements, techniques... quite problematic.

Now, after Su Lun's interference, their movements became disjointed, and vulnerabilities were everywhere.

Dealing with them had become much easier than before.

In an instant, all sorts of cannons, gunfire, and mechanized warriors abandoned the controlled low-tier monsters and simultaneously targeted those high-tier monsters that showed vulnerabilities.

Mr. Hei also immediately understood the principle behind Su Lun's technique and ordered the traditional magicians, "Everyone, cast mass mental interference spells!"

Su Lun's thread control was physical, a bit troublesome perhaps, but stable and unaffected by the mental disturbance from the magicians.

But the enemy's magic was a remote signal, and signals can be disrupted.

With this addition and subtraction, Su Lun's control advantage grew even larger.

....

On one side Su Lun's puppet theater rapidly showed signs of turning the situation around, on the other side, the Red Robe Grand Magister's complexion turned ashen.

Seeing the sudden cessation of the undead legion's assault, an abnormal behavior, he was dumbfounded for a moment before he began chanting spells again, trying to drive the monsters forward.

However, after trying, he was shocked to find that he could no longer command the undead legion!

The Red-robed Mage's complexion drastically changed.

This was the first time his forbidden undead calamity had encountered such a predicament.

Upon seeing the crosses in the sky and the threads tethered to the skeletons, he quickly realized it was a problem caused by the puppetry technique.

But after pondering for a while, he was at a loss.

In the understanding of this puppetry technique, he couldn't find any flaw in the short term.

The Archmage's face turned grim, "These indigenous methods are indeed special..."

Encountering a counter to his capabilities, this method even bothered him more than physically annihilating the undead legion.

Of all the enemies he had killed, this was the only one who could actually restrain his Death Calamity.

His eyes harbored an even fiercer intent to kill.

Machinery, cannons, third-tier talent holders... etc., had already taught him a lesson just now, and now there was a puppetry technique that could restrain him?

He absolutely couldn't let this man live!

With a cold sneer, the Red-robed Mage raised his magic wand and had already started chanting spells.

Just then, several shadowy figures streaked through the undead tent and then dispersed into the void.

...

Meanwhile, Su Lun on the deck had entered a peculiar state.

This was also the first time he had used threads to control so many puppets simultaneously, with his brain functioning like a precise instrument at high speed.

Streams of thought and myriad tactics continuously parsed, eliminated, and combined in his mind to reach optimal conclusions.

This sensation was quite delightful to Su Lun.

At that moment, he felt as though he was a hidden hand behind a puppet theater, controlling everything within it.

It was a feeling as if he had dominated the entire world.

Unconsciously, the domineering aura swirling around him seemed to have undergone some sort of qualitative change.

All the while controlling the skeletons, Su Lun kept a constant watch on that Red Robe Grand Magician in the sky.

He had guessed that since his puppet theater limited the undead legion's charge, the enemy would surely come looking for trouble.

This was a concern arising from professional counters; if it were Su Lun himself, he would definitely find a way to kill such an enemy.

Sure enough, at that moment, several rapidly moving targets suddenly appeared in Su Lun's perception.

But there was not a trace in his field of vision, unseen, even without disturbances in the airflow.

Seven... eight... or perhaps more.

Others might not see them, but that didn't mean Su Lun couldn't.

Whether it was spatial perception or soul fluctuations, he clearly sensed monsters converging towards him.

"Such strong stealth abilities!"

Su Lun regarded this with a hint of caution in his eyes.

This stealth was probably on par with... Carlo Melidis, the "Thief Emperor" from the top ten Legendary Bounty Hunters!

Seven or eight Legendary Bounty Hunters ganging up; tsk, the enemy must be using their best tricks now.

Su Lun's eyes flickered and then with a "snap" sound, he stepped into the air, leaping towards the center of the battlefield.

He didn't continue to stay on the Eternight.

Obviously, the opponent had targeted him for assassination; these undead assassins posed a great threat to him, not to mention the others in the group.

Su Lun knew that his enemies' primary target was him, staying on the ship would only endanger others.

This was proven when he sensed in mid-air that these stealth monsters changed direction from heading towards Eternight and instead came towards him.

Without any warning, three black daggers appeared in the air, "swooshing" through and stabbing through the afterimage that Su Lun left behind.

Only then did he identify the monsters' names as [Ghostly Spirit Assassins], legendary undead made from dark elf corpses containing mythical bloodlines and not just skeletal frames, but also flesh; hence their formidable combat abilities.

Su Lun used spatial displacement to evade that seamless trio of strikes.

Even though he evaded them, he still felt it was a close call, muttering to himself, "This guy's undead variety really is extensive, where did he find such mythical corpses..."

He thought for a moment and realized, this guy was a high priest of the Holy Church Army, having the entire church to source materials for him, his undead space scaredly lacked valuable items.

As the opponent made his move, Su Lun could certainly not just wait to be killed.

He wasn't dealing with these undead monsters, instead, he teleported straight towards that Red Robe Grand Magician.

Only by forcing that guy to reveal some flaws, could he create a lethal opportunity for Old Sword God Bartolo!

...

The Red Robe Archmage, seeing Su Lun rush towards him, was not careless at all.

Although he was a higher tier, he did not take Su Lun lightly and raised his hand to summon a few [Death Knights] to protect himself.

Almost at the moment he summoned his guards, several fists glowing with silver light struck towards his real body!

The Red Robe Mage's pupils sharply contracted, he had not expected his opponent to dare engage in close combat?

A few Death Knights stepped in to block, but more silver figures soared from the sky.

Although there might be a difference in individual combat abilities, the gargoyles had an absolute advantage in numbers!

Furthermore, the Death Knights, being sophisticated undead with some autonomy, were individual entities, and no matter how well they cooperated, there would be gaps.

Whereas Su Lun's puppets were controlled by threads, like his own limbs, each move was a direct reflection of his thoughts.

In that brief confrontation, the perfect tactical coordination of the gargoyles held back several Death Knights.

And in the moment Su Lun confined the void, several more gargoyle fists heavily smashed into the body of the Red Robe Mage.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Thud!"

Sounds like hitting a sandbag erupted as the gargoyle fists pounded on the mage, splashing a glint of faint phosphorescence.

Burning the soul?

Gargoyles don't have souls!

Even with various negative effects from the undead realm, the high magic resistance of "Animated Silver" made the gargoyles only minimally affected.

In that moment, Su Lun finally revealed his strength.

Eighth tier? How so?

Su Lun himself was not someone to be easily controlled by others.

By now, he had realized that the combat strength of this Red-robed Mage's physical body was not strong.

Just like traditional Puppet Masters, the body was weak, with the majority of their combat power residing in their puppets.

The Necromancer was no different. Although his life-preserving techniques were bizarre, from Su Lun's perspective, the combat capability of his physical body was negligible, the challenge was dealing with various undead creatures.

Su Lun wasn't sure he could kill this guy, but tangling with him was entirely doable!

This combination of Spatial Confinement plus the gargoyle's heavy punches, solidly thrashed the Red-robed Mage.

Furthermore, Su Lun detailedly chose not to aim for a killing blow, but rather targeted specific weak joints of the body.

He knew that if this fellow died, he would fully recover, but if gravely injured, recovery was not guaranteed!

...

This sequence of actions genuinely caught the Red-robed Mage off guard.

He was, after all, a distinguished Eighth Tier Grand Magician, a top-tier Necromancer who had mastered "Tide of the Undead."

Had it been any other Seventh Tier, they wouldn't have even gotten close before being decayed by the Tide of the Undead.

But the domain of this Alchemy native was also of the Death type and highly developed, making the impact of his own realm of the undead negligible.

Moreover, this fellow's soul strength was terrifying; even the blaze of his own soul fire couldn't kill him.

This made the Red-robed Mage feel truly vexed.

Normally, his tactics nearly neutralized all close-combat professions, but they were utterly ineffective against this guy.

After considerable thought, there really was nothing he could do if the other party engaged him in close combat!

After receiving several heavy punches, he was flung back, cursing in his heart, "What kind of puppet is this!"

There wasn't even time to catch his breath before those gargoyles attacked again.

Unable to teleport and too slow to run, he took several more punches.

Scarcely managing to summon some undead for assistance, it turned out this native was a Puppet Master with helpers as well!

Damn it, there were just about a dozen gargoyles at first, but they multiplied as the fight continued.

No matter how many he summoned, that guy always summoned more gargoyles to overwhelm him.

Finally, after a brutal fight involving both parties, it escalated from two individuals to a melee of thousands!

A Necromancer and a Puppet Master, each employing various tactics to brawl against each other.

Seeing this, the Red-robed Mage was genuinely shocked.

He then realized, that even though they each had a comparable number of helpers, even though his undead legion was ranked slightly higher, they simply couldn't defeat the opposition.

Over a thousand gargoyles acting in unison, perfect tactical coordination, standardized legion charge... Their combat power was incomparable to that of the same numbered but disbanded mercenaries.

A legion inherently has the ability to surround and defeat higher-tier targets. The fact that these fear-no-death, metal-bodied puppets could recover even after damage, posed a significant problem for him.

However, more troublesome was this native in front of him!

The gap in spatial understanding meant he couldn't confine him, allowing him to dodge using various teleports.

Even if the Red-robed Mage tried several times to end the fight with his secret moves, all were dodged.

Despite the stark contrast in combat power and rank, it wasn't that he couldn't defeat him, but these tactics were something he simply couldn't overcome!

The battle suddenly became gridlocked.

...

Meanwhile, Su Lun was gradually getting accustomed to the rhythm of fighting this Red-robed Mage.

High-damage magic spells required chanting and preparation time; he himself was very sensitive to necrotic energy, so whenever he sensed something amiss, he simply teleported away.

Waiting either for a spell interruption or after release, he would return and pummel him time and again.

Gargoyle legions being destroyed, sealed away, confined... none could stop him.

Just bring some replacements from the war workshop, as there was plenty in stock.

As long as he could win, everything would still be his.

If something broke, at most it would be a bit more effort to melt it down and reforge.

The crosses in the sky had now covered all the nearby areas, and the opening of the undead calamity was also here, making this place the main battlefield chosen by the Red-robed Mage.

Both sides continued to drag it out.

Su Lun couldn't kill his opponent, nor could his opponent do anything to him.

However, this spectacle was witnessed by the members of the underground dawn group.

This was an Eighth Tier Grand Magician!

Watching Su Lun, a Seventh Tier, sticking to his foe and fighting, crew members on board the "Perpetual Night" excitedly cheered and frantically waved their flags in support.

"Mr. Su Lun is mighty!"

"Mr. Su Lun is domineering!"

"Hahaha... Mr. Su Lun, take that guy down!"

"..."

The Tide of the Undead was greatly restricted, and now there were people holding off the enemy's big boss, suddenly making the atmosphere of the battle seem less urgent.

In the crowd, Bartolo, watching the Red-robed Mage repeatedly trying to kill Su Lun and failing, a glint of sharpness passed through his cloudy eyes.

He suddenly realized something, murmuring, "So it is this principle..."