Mechanical Alchemist

Su Lun and Mr. Jing bid farewell to the others and left the Eternal Night quietly without disturbing the other members of the Dawn group.

He left the God Burial Ground and headed south towards the open sea.

By nightfall, he had already reached near the Cobros Strait, eight hundred miles south of Blizzard City.

The moon was faint tonight, and a thick fog enshrouded the sea surface.

Su Lun walked on the sea as if strolling in his own courtyard.

A legend known to nearly every sailor in the Alchemy plane persisted: on foggy nights, lucky individuals might encounter a ghost ship adrift on the sea. Aboard were treasures, fine wine, and beautiful women for the taking and revelry. However, one must disembark before midnight, or they would never leave again, becoming a phantom of the ship once it disappeared.

Su Lun had heard numerous variations of the "Cursed Ship" tale within the island communities, mostly related to beauty and fortune.

But regardless of the version, they were all shrouded in mystery.

Now at Su Lun's level, there were few events on the Alchemy plane that could truly be considered mysterious.

He was also curious about the true nature of this cursed ship, a legend that had persisted for at least tens of thousands of years.

Now knowing it was related to a contract with a demon, it certainly wasn't as simple as just a ghost ship.

Soon, darkness enveloped the area, and the night breeze chilled his neck slightly.

For Su Lun, however, the darkness made him feel more at ease.

His state of mind was as steady as his steps.

As he walked, suddenly, the crow perched on his shoulder cawed loudly.

Su Lun looked toward the southeast and mused, "Oh? Even you can't discern that entity, Mr. Crow?"

He stopped and waited quietly.

Small waves rippled underfoot, and the shadowy outline of a large ship started to emerge from the thick fog in the distance.

Su Lun's eyes flashed with wisdom as he activated the second level of the All-knowing Eye, carefully observing his surroundings.

It wasn't long before an opulently lit three-masted sailing ship came into view.

He saw no ghosts, nor did he sense any fluctuations of souls.

The reflection of the ship in Su Lun's eyes was accompanied by a slight curl of his lips, a realization dawning on him: Oh, this isn't even a ship at all.

He had seen through it, this so-called "Cursed Ship" appeared to be a ship to the naked eye, but in actuality, it was merely a mass of energy covered by a spiritual illusion technique.

It was recognized as a ship because it had assumed a form that humans on the Alchemy plane could comprehend.

As for the beauties and treasures, those too were mere illusions.

Those below the ninth tier likely couldn't see through the true nature of this ship.

Even if they did encounter it, they would surely regard it as a serendipitous ghost ship adventure.

The rumored fine wines, romantic encounters, and treasures... were all hallucinations created by those who boarded.

Having seen through its nature, Su Lun immediately felt it was uninteresting.

But his expression remained completely unchanged.

This kind of tedium was an inevitable part of glimpsing the truth.

Mr. Hei once told him that knowledge was heavy, and as you gradually understand the world, you will gradually lose your sense of fun and become indifferent to everything around you.

The feeling was real now that Su Lun had ascended to the ninth tier and touched the ceiling of the Alchemy plane.

That god or demon probably concocted this spectacle just to make the legend of the "Cursed Ship" widely known, luring more people to seek this legendary ghost ship.

As the ghost ship slowly sailed across the surface, Su Lun didn't hesitate and leaped aboard.

With his current spiritual power, unless he willed it, it was impossible for the illusion technique to confound him.

There was no one on the ship, just a piece of paper with a contract on it, so he sat down quietly and began to meditate cross-legged.

Now that the cursed paper ship held no more secrets, Su Lun was curious about where it would go.

...

After taking Su Lun aboard as its only passenger, the speed of the Cursed Ship suddenly increased.

The colors of the night streaked by faster and faster, but Su Lun's expression remained utterly unchanged.

However, suddenly, he felt the whole ship lurch downward, and then it plunged headfirst into the water.

The surge of divine power in that instant caused Su Lun to snap open his eyes, uttering a soft exclamation of surprise.

He glanced around, only to see the entire ship had sunk into the sea.

But strangely, the seawater didn't flood in; instead, it acted like a filter, suggesting that the ship was no longer in the same space.

"High-order Void Displacement?"

Thoughts stirred in Su Lun's mind. This was an advanced technique of Spatial Displacement he had yet to master.

While observing subtly, he casually threw out several Crystal Stones marked with Spatial Coordinates.

Before long, the cursed ship plunged into a rift in the earth's crust. Instantly, the view transformed into various twisted, abstract lines and fragments of space that resembled shards of broken glass.

These were "planar rifts," something Su Lun had witnessed once in the waters of Dragon Country.

The Alchemy plane was a fragmented plane with countless fissures resembling tree roots, leading to unknown destinations deep within.

It was a dangerous region that Su Lun did not dare to explore now.

One wrong step would suck him into the spatial maelstrom, almost certainly sealing his fate.

At this moment, the cursed ship was carrying him through these fissures, diving deeper and deeper.

Su Lun felt as if he had entered a kaleidoscope, his vision a complete chaos.

Being proficient in the laws of space himself, he knew well that a single fissure could span tens of thousands of miles.

In just this brief period, the cursed ship had transported him to an extremely distant place, so far that even the communicators of the Dawn organization couldn't detect his presence.

If it were a normal human being, they would have likely suffered "seasickness" by now, becoming dizzy and losing their sense of direction.

Luckily, having merged with the God Profaner, Su Lun's cognitive abilities had become incredibly strong. He recorded the route while leaving spatial markers at key points within the complex network of spatial rifts.

And so, Su Lun was carried by the ship, traveling through the rifts for three whole days.

Throughout this period, he felt himself leave the subterranean realm full of space fragments in the Alchemy plane, cross a river-like temporal flux, and then dart into another dense cluster of spatial rifts...

Su Lun knew he had definitely left the Alchemy plane.

He had even crossed many different planes.

He had never imagined that he would make an inter-planar journey in this manner.

Previously, Su Lun thought that traveling to other planes was only possible through planar portals. But now, passing through spatial rifts felt like "smuggling" himself.

He also guessed that the situation of that demon god was clearly not very good.

However, the situation changed on the fourth day.

Su Lun remained alert, recording the route.

He suddenly noticed that the space around him had become stable, indicating that the cursed ship must have arrived at a stable plane.

Su Lun became extremely cautious, with a Rune Umbrella in his left hand, a black scythe in his right, and Mr. Crow on his shoulder fully focused and on guard.

Soon, before seeing anyone, his sensory range suddenly detected four soul fluctuations that seemed human.

"Humans?"

Su Lun breathed a sigh of relief.

At least they were humans, and not some bizarre entities.

As the surroundings changed, Su Lun found himself in a confined small space akin to a cellar.

Upon his arrival, four pairs of eyes turned to him.

To be precise, they were not all human.

...

Four beings appeared before Su Lun's eyes.

A barbarian over three meters tall, a young man with a pale face and a long robe, a woman clad in beast skins with dragon scales, and the last one was the strangest—his upper body was human, but his lower half was that of a horse.

"Centaur?"

Su Lun did not fail to recognize this creature from the myths.

From the attire and aura of these four, he knew they were from different civilizations, different races, and different planes.

Perhaps, in their eyes, he himself, an alchemical magician, was just as strange?

Su Lun observed the four without betraying any emotion, while they too were examining him in the silence of the space.

It seemed they had arrived before him, the four pairs of eyes examining him, each in their own way. Su Lun felt very clearly that someone was probing with their aura, divining with secret techniques, and even using bloodline sensing...

The atmosphere was unfamiliar, and there was caution between them.

"What kind of odd bunch is this?"

Su Lun mumbled to himself.

The soul fluctuations of the few people in front of him were impossibly strong, each at least at the pinnacle of power equivalent to that of the Old Sword God Bartolo.

In other words, judging solely from their spiritual power, these fellows probably all possessed the combat strength of ninth-order pinnacles!

And that barbarian, he might even be a Demigod.

Looking at the situation, it seemed it was not just himself who had come for the meeting.

These individuals as well.

Just as Su Lun was observing them, a touch of puzzlement flitted across the eyes of the young man in white, and he silently thought, "Eh... Strange, he's clearly a novice at the ninth-order, yet he's the last to arrive? That's not right. According to the order of arrivals before, the higher the rank, the later the Curse Ship should bring... Does this fellow have something special about him?"

....

Su Lun, the newcomer, did not speak, which made the atmosphere inside the cellar somewhat tense.

Although he guessed that these individuals were not enemies, he maintained an instinctual guard.

This subtle vigilance, while not directed at anyone in particular, did not go unnoticed by the four top experts present.

The towering barbarian, standing over three meters tall and built like an iron tower, noticed something, and with a frown voiced in a deep tone, "Sir, you carry a heavy killing aura."

Killing aura? Strong?

For this murderer of many to say someone has a heavy killing aura, could that not indicate a heartless monster and a horrific killer?

With those words, the expressions of the other two became somewhat strange as they glanced at Su Lun.

Truly, at their level of existence, they knew all too well that the more inscrutable someone is... the stranger their origins!

They chattered away in what seemed to be the native tongue of a plane, but with Su Lun's "Language Proficiency", understanding was no obstacle.

He glanced at the barbarian, whose faint scent of blood seemed to be some sort of secret technique that could sense people's killing intent.

As soon as Su Lun had entered, the fellow had been probing.

Su Lun did not explain when the other mentioned his heavy killing aura. Indeed, he had killed not a few on his way here, not to mention the millions by his puppet army.

No wonder the few in front of him viewed him with a look reserved for monsters.

Su Lun had no intention of explaining to a few strangers.

However, the young man with the pale face smiled and struck up a conversation in a familiar manner, asking, "Are you also here to fulfill the divine demon covenant?"

The language he used was one that Su Lun had not heard before.

But this person clearly used a similar "Language Proficiency" secret technique.

Listening, Su Lun nodded his head and asked with a calm expression, "The same for you?"

The young man with the pale face chuckled and replied, "Yes, indeed. Then we might not be enemies after all. Sir, you need not be so on guard."

It seemed he had no desire to provoke a "suspected psychopathic killer."

He took the initiative and introduced himself, "My name is Jay, from the Dou Qi continent. A ninth-order Fighting Saint."

Then he pointed to the others, introducing, "This is Mr. Kamur Tu, a Demigod archer of the centaur race... This is Otter Ralph, a barbaric berserker from the Atira continent... and this is Miss Masia, a Dragonkin. We arrived a few days before you and have been here waiting to fulfill the divine demon covenant. We don't know if there will be others coming…"

Upon hearing this, Su Lun realized that they had indeed met each other before.

What Dou Qi continent, Atira continent, Dragonkin, centaur—some of these were civilizations he had heard of in mythological stories, while others were new to him.

Su Lun also felt that this world was truly vast.

And although their cultivation systems and ranks were different, the cultivation of all four individuals was indeed consistent with the concept of ninth-order Magicians, a ceiling of power inaccessible to lower-order beings.

Even from this simple introduction, Su Lun gleaned quite a bit of useful information.

Faced with their gazes, he also introduced himself indifferently, "Nicholas, a Death Magician, from a very small and remote plane."

It was better not to mention his real name.

Although he was now not very afraid of any Curse Magic, there was no guarantee that there would not be some method that used names in various strange ways.

In an unknown environment, safety comes first.

Besides, he did not mention that he was a Puppet Master or an Alchemist.

From his knowledge stripped from the memories of Mages from the divine plane, he had learned that Alchemists did not have a very good reputation across the planes.

Alchemists were called "God-Thieves" by many plane dwellers.

Because in the eyes of devout believers, transcendent abilities were gifts from the gods. Alchemists, however, used various Alchemy to steal the fundamental secrets of the universe, which was considered an act of blasphemy against the gods and theft of powers that only the gods should possess.

Another factor was that the ancestors during the Dawn Era were too powerful. They fought across countless planes and defeated too many civilizations, leaving behind these planar pathways as "evidence."

The ones in front of us could very well have been enemies, or even sworn adversaries, of the Alchemical plane at some point.

No!

I'm almost 99% certain they are foes!

Due to the peculiar nature of Alchemy, the alchemical civilization hardly has any real friendly planes. Any plane with a divine faith would not allow the spread of Alchemy; they are all in opposition.

The four of them appeared reserved upon hearing this, but showed no surprise.

After all, we're strangers to each other, and who doesn't have secrets?

At least, the information divulged just now was true.

A Death Magician?

Does that sound like some kind of undead Mage?

They glanced at the sickle wrapped in black cloth that Su Lun held; that weapon is a common symbol of the Grim Reaper across many civilizations.

No wonder...

That explains the exaggerated aura of slaughter.

At that moment, the beast-skin clad woman with patches of dragon scales, as if having realized something, asked, "Are you also of dragon heritage?"

"Hmm."

How could Su Lun not know that someone had just probed him with a bloodline secret technique? He replied ambiguously, "There is indeed a trace of dragon lineage in my blood."

He certainly wouldn't admit that it was due to an alchemist's gene Potion, and the prosthetic enhancement "Dragon Patterned Golden Body."

It's widely known that dragons are lustful beings; even in myths, many races carry a hint of dragon blood. It's not strange for humans to have Dragon Blood in them.

Upon hearing this, a dark glint flashed through Miss Masia's eyes, clearly disbelieving: "You're being too modest. I sense that your dragon lineage is very rich, no less pure than my own."

With that statement, the expressions of the other three turned slightly curious.

Aren't you a Death Magician? How did you become a highly pure-blooded dragonkin?

Normally, those with dragon heritage are incredibly strong physically and have no need for other professional systems.

Even though each of them had secrets, it was at that moment they uniformly realized that this "newcomer" was a bit too enigmatic.

...

The five people in the cellar merely exchanged some innocuous conversation.

But those capable of advancing to the ninth tier were no average individuals.

Their conversations were also probes of each other.

Su Lun was well aware that these fellows were sly.

That seemingly simple-minded, physically robust barbarian Ralph, who at first mention spoke of the "heavy murderous aura," was actually trying to divert the attention of the other three to the newcomer; and the Dragon Maiden Masia had the same aim—while she seemed to be inquiring, she was actually exposing Su Lun's dragon heritage to highlight his strength to the others.

This way, in the event of any unforeseen situation, the one who stands out would be the first target, the primary subject for special attention.

Ha!

They're all a bunch of sly old foxes.

Su Lun pretended not to notice, and spoke only of things that wouldn't reveal his identity.

While conversing, he was also observing; they seemed to be deep underground.

He was curious about what that godly being, who has deemed them—one of the top contenders from their respective planes—to be worthy Contractors, was in such a hurry to accomplish.

From the current situation, it appeared that the deity-like being had spent many tens of thousands of years summoning Contractors by various means.

Yet it's still ongoing to this day.

That means, whatever it is they are supposed to do, it hasn't been accomplished yet.

From this perspective... the contract matter seems complicated.

Su Lun was the last to arrive among the five.

He had thought there might be others yet to come, but it turned out he was the final one.

They did not have to wait long before the cellar suddenly turned chill.

An indescribable will descended.

All five tensed and turned their gaze toward the direction of the tunnel.

They recognized at first glance, this was the mysterious Contractor Master.