Mechanical Alchemist

Su Lun listened to the tactics being set up through the communicator, his expression revealing a trace of amusement.

Janet?

That name naturally belonged to Janet Williams, the "Dream Thief" in the team.

A professional in the mystical arts who excelled in spiritual illusions, her abilities bore some similarity to those of the Wailing Witch, capable of hypnotizing and killing in dreams.

She was also one of the elders of the "Mystical Studies Association" in Old Lington.

...

When Su Lun heard that name through the communicator, he knew what those behind him were planning to do.

He turned his head and saw that two guards had positioned themselves beside a female sorceress in a purple robe.

Because the Dream-Making Technique required complete focus and she couldn't afford to be distracted by attacks, this move was probably out of fear that Su Lun might suddenly pull out his black scythe so her comrades could save her in time.

Su Lun distanced himself a bit.

But he knew he couldn't avoid the Formation; distancing himself was just to prevent anyone from catching up to him when he was killing in the dream.

Second-tier professionals always had some bizarre, ability-cursed items in their possession.

Especially the experts fostered by massive conglomerates like the Oliver family, who were never short of valuable resources.

From his intelligence, Su Lun knew that the "Dream Thief" Janet held a cursed item that was highly compatible with her abilities—the "Angus's Dream Refraction Mirror."

An item that could utilize reflections to cast spiritual techniques from a distance.

Just as that female sorceress took out the mirror, Su Lun threw a bunch of mechanical spiders onto the ground.

This time, unlike the previous smoke spiders, these carried some special markings.

Having only made this small move, he then saw a projection of an ancient mirror forming nearby.

....

Caught, without any signs.

The surrounding scenes remained unchanged; he was still in the ruins.

Anyone else might not even realize they had fallen under an illusion.

Su Lun looked down at his finger movements, a sneer forming in his eyes: "Entered the dream, huh..."
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The methods of mystical sorcerers were unpredictable, especially that mirror capable of casting spiritual techniques from afar, making it nearly impossible to avoid. For anyone else, just Janet alone would be a severe disadvantage.

Su Lun didn't show any signs of abnormality and continued running in the dream.

At that moment,

the sorceress in the robe caught up with him.

Although not adept at chases, this spiritual sorceress suddenly seemed to teleport, catching up in a flash.

Because this was her dream, she could have everything.

Since Su Lun knew this was a dream crafted by the enemy,

he didn't attempt to fight this woman.

Janet was the creator of this dream, the master of this realm; here, she was invincible.

Normally, the script would have Su Lun unaware that he had entered the dream, then he would start to retaliate.

But he would quickly realize in horror that gunfire didn't kill, spears didn't pierce... none of his methods worked.

While the opponent could slowly torment him to death.

This was very buggy; in the opponent's dream, you simply couldn't kill her,

but she could easily kill you.

Even though there was a time difference in the dream, Su Lun didn't plan to waste time with this "Dream Thief" Janet.

If physical means couldn't harm her, then he would use mental tactics.

The "Dream-Making Space" Technique was almost a guaranteed hit.

But this did not mean the technique had no weaknesses.

Normally speaking, in any spell, "range" and "spell strength" could only focus on one aspect.

To maintain such a wide-ranging dream technique, it was impossible to use any powerful single-target mental attack techniques.

You're skilled in spiritual techniques?

Funny, so am I.

Although Su Lun wasn't even a beginner in basic mental theory, he had bizarrely mastered several high-level sorcerer techniques, like the "Drowning Technique" and "Suffocation Technique."

These were skills he had collected from "Hotel 1911," with proficiency even reaching the "master level" for second-tier techniques.

Combined with his inherently strong spiritual power, although not efficiently utilized, he had quantity on his side.

Using quantity to overpower was also effective.

Just as Janet caught up, their eyes met.

Both sides directly engaged in a "visual illusion" confrontation.

The outcome was immediately clear.

"Ah..."

Janet screamed in agony.

Clearly, she was the losing party.

Although Su Lun also felt a bit dizzy, he thankfully did not suffer.

...

Just as the two clashed momentarily, the special explosion of the spider bomb reached Su Lun's ears.

Looking again, the dream had already been shattered.

Not far away, Janet seemed to have been hit hard, her figure suddenly plunging.

Boom...

They were intent on pursuing Su Lun, and those behind him had to follow his route.

This time's spider bomb was not any alchemic fog, but a high-explosive bomb.

Although he had no hope of killing these second-tier professionals, it was enough to make them feel threatened.

Dozens of spiders exploded simultaneously, and a wall of fire, tens of meters high, formed in the distance, blocking the view of both sides.

Su Lun pulled from his hat and an invisible puppet immediately appeared beside him.

He didn't hesitate to grab and manipulate the puppet to slash through the blasting flames three times in a row.

Although the flames blocked the enemy's view for a moment, they also blocked his own...

This slash,

was a gamble,

but not entirely a gamble.

Normally, if there's a bomb on the left, where would a normal person instinctively dodge to?

Naturally, to the right!

Su Lun clearly knew the position of the spider bombs and had precisely calculated the blast range.

The blast came first, followed by the slash, not giving the enemy any time to react.

He predicted where the enemy would appear after dodging the explosion, and these three slashes sealed off a large area behind the flames.

Anyone appearing in that space was bound to be hit.

Su Lun felt that he would at least hit one person with this slash.

After all, near his aimed direction was Janet, who had lost her ability to move due to spiritual shock!

Someone noticed Su Lun's movements, and a voice shouted through the communicator, "Be careful of the black scythe!"

Unfortunately, it was already too late.

By the time the words fell, three spatial rifts had precisely appeared behind the fire.

Although one of the three spatial rift slashes missed, two hit their marks.

One slash struck the unconscious Janet, and the other hit a close-combat professional trying to rescue her. A thigh was severed from the body, spraying blood like a fountain.

Although he didn't see a "gray mist" appear and the person didn't die instantly,

these three slashes directly removed two second-tier professionals from the chase.

...

Su Lun looked back, refraining from making another slash.

The two were gravely injured and posed no threat, making it unnecessary to waste another chance from the living corpse.

The Abomination had appeared, and since several slashes had been made, there was no need to retract them because it had already been marked with reagent powder, and its large silhouette was outlined with the silver powder, making further hiding pointless.

Seeing the Abomination appear, the remaining five were not shocked but instead breathed a sigh of relief.

"How did Su Lun not get affected by the illusion?!"

"Damn it, he must have some kind of curse object that wards off spiritual attacks! Forget the wounded for now, keep chasing. That guy's black scythe has been seen, he's out of tricks..."

"Now that his puppet has become visible, everyone be careful. Avoid the slashes and his flame gun, and he poses no threat!"

"Prepare to implement Plan C! Hold them off on your side, support is on its way..."

"..."

Su Lun, listening to the messages in the communicator, smirked subtly.

Having been pursued for such a substantial part of the day, those reinforcements were finally encircling.

Well... he couldn't blame them, only the vastness of the relic was at fault.

Excluding the 'Gun King' Gage, out of ten second-tier pursuers, three were dead, two severely injured, leaving five.

But the 'Trickster' he expected, Lloyd, had yet to show himself.

Su Lun was well aware that the guy was busy directing the relic's forces to surround them.

Now with the black scythe by his side, the remaining few dared not come close.

But what they didn't anticipate was that even with the addition of this towering invisible puppet, Su Lun's speed was not reduced in the slightest.

And then, as they chased, they were surprised to find that Su Lun had led them in a big circle and returned to where they had started.

The Oliver family immediately realized something.

"Not good! That guy is still planning to go back and kill Janet and the others!"

"To hell with him! If he kept running, we might still not catch him, but now he's courting death. Notify those in the siege to converge on us! Prepare for spatial blockade!"

"..."

That's right.

Su Lun had circled back.

He was still eyeing those two severely injured second-tier professionals.

One with a severed leg and the other unconscious, they were practically giveaways.

It would be a pity to let them go.

After all, it's the same fight, wherever it happens.

...

As Su Lun ran past, he saw the guy with the severed leg treating his own wound.

The man was unfamiliar, a professional bodyguard from the Oliver family, apparently named Johnson.

Even as a second-tier professional, injuries like having a leg chopped off could make one bleed out so quickly that they would immediately weaken. Especially during intense activity, when the blood pressure is extremely high.

Now...

The man looked at Su Lun who had returned and his eyes were filled with horror.

Though he had heard the news ten seconds earlier, with his leg severed, he simply couldn't run away.

Su Lun ran over and with a shot, knocked out the fainting 'Dream Thief' Janet Williams, harvesting a wave of Soul Shards.

A second-tier close combat professional is useless without legs?

No,

there were still options.

Johnson had intended to feign weakness and launch a surprise attack, but it turned out that Su Lun's combat skills were not weak at all.

Although Su Lun rarely engaged in hand-to-hand combat in ordinary days, he had stripped so many people of their combat memories that his Combat Technique had reached the level of a "combat expert."

Moreover, with his body modified by "X Serum," if it really came down to hand-to-hand combat, Johnson wouldn't necessarily have the upper hand.

Furthermore, Su Lun's enhanced auditory and visual perception abilities made it impossible for a severely injured person with a broken leg to ambush him!

When the ambush failed, the skirmish didn't last long before Su Lun speared those few people to death.

However, due to the delay, those five pursuers had caught up.

....

Seeing the pursuers arriving, Su Lun was not in a rush to leave.

Because by then, it was too late to escape.

The enemy's encirclement was closing in.

He calmly stripped the Soul Shards and cleared two bodies of their Storage Rings, then finally looked off into the distance.

A squad of about a hundred well-equipped people appeared opposite.

But their numbers weren't important.

What was important was that when they appeared, dense purple light surged around the streets near the ruins like beams of light from a projector, suddenly turning into several huge purple screens.

While Su Lun was collecting the spoils of war, a gigantic Hexagram Array lit up in the sky.

A few purple screens joined together to quickly form a massive purple "box" hundreds of meters wide and a hundred meters tall.

This box enclosed a large area around it.

Su Lun saw that he was trapped and was not surprised at all. He looked at the purple screens and thought to himself, "A large-scale spatial blocking barrier... they really are loaded."

Now that he had mastered Spatial Ability, he could clearly feel the strength of this barrier.

It was powerful.

So powerful that even a third-tier powerhouse might not be able to break it.

Moreover, he had just heard the enemy's battle plan; this spatial barrier could only be opened from the outside. Olli's family's commander had given strict orders that the barrier would not be opened until Young Master Danze arrived with the main force.

That meant, ultimately, only one side within the space could survive.

Of course, this was exactly to Su Lun's liking.

Everyone was trapped, leaving no choice but to clash head-on.

Oh, no!

The enemy couldn't escape, but it didn't affect him at all.

This kind of spatial barrier was like a glass cover; it didn't reinforce the space itself.

If Su Lun wanted to leave, he could simply open a spatial door.

However, having chosen to stay, he had no intention of leaving.

It would be a shame not to exploit the situation when all the fish were in the barrel.

...

As Su Lun became a turtle in a jar, the members of the Olli family didn't rush to take action and slowly closed in.

Of course, the most important thing was the fear of Su Lun's desperate struggle.

After all, with the Black Scythe in hand, if he really started hacking wildly in desperation, no one would take it lightly.

A siege that initially seemed a sure shot was unexpectedly devastating.

Ten second-tier experts participated in the hunt, and now only five were alive.

The surviving members each had a grim expression on their faces.

At that moment, not far away, a gloomy-faced dwarf also appeared — naturally, it was the 'Trickster' Lloyd, a grandmaster in the Puppetry Technique field.

If anyone hated Su Lun more than Young Master Danze, who had his opportunity stolen, it was him.

A highly respected master who turned out to be an ugly dwarf, shattering the masterly aura he had built, was more distressing to him than death.

Sabrina had mentioned to Su Lun that ever since his alchemic puppet was cut down, this guy had not shown up in public, probably too ashamed to face people.

Even during the fleeting moment he appeared, the sorcerer's seals in his hands had already condensed.

Once the embedding released, black threads started emerging from his body...

In the sky, the Hexagram Array gradually brightened, and an enormous cross phantom starkly condensed.

Su Lun had seen this routine before and was familiar with it.

He also knew that limiting the space with the barrier, aside from preventing his escape, was to maximize Lloyd's abilities.

Just like the time they killed the 'Wailing Witch' within a certain spatial range, Lloyd's "Mystic Art: Puppet Theater" was nearly unsolvable.

Su Lun squinted at the cross in the sky and muttered to himself, "I'm really coveting this art..."

Today's elaborate setup was primarily aimed at this guy.

....

It seemed that he felt assured of his victory, so Lloyd wasn't in a hurry to act and began his persuasive taunt," Kid, give up your resistance, and perhaps I might spare your life!"

"Oh?"

Su Lun heard this and smirked.

The words did not sound false.

If possible, they indeed wanted to capture him alive.

After all, he had too many secrets, and that Young Master Danze was very curious.

Like how he could use the black scythe without any side effects...

If he were to die, that might remain an eternally unsolved mystery.

Being stared at venomously by over a hundred people, that "malice" converged into a sharp spear, piercing Su Lun's head with pain.

The enemy numbered over a hundred, and he dared not underestimate them one bit.

Just from a glance, he saw three to four decades of certified professionals among them, not including those wearing their uniforms.

Even the non-professionals were equipped with precision gear, standard issue firearms, personal cannons, mechanical arms, tactical bulletproof vests...

Clearly, these were the elite forces of the Oliver family.

Leaving aside the magical sorcerers, just a hundred people firing their guns and cannons in unison would bring Su Lun to his knees on the spot.

Why call so many people, you ask?

Obviously, to die as shields.

The black scythe only has one blade; it can only slash once at a time. Despite the curse backlash, it wasn't possible to use the black scythe to kill over a hundred people, right?

Besides, in the interval between his attacks, the combined assault of these hundred people was enough to turn him into a sieve.

Lloyd, seeing that Su Lun had no intention of surrendering his weapons, coldly said again, "Kid, I'm giving you one last chance, surrender in three breaths, or else it's no mercy!"

His words seemed to be persuading surrender, but his heart did not relax its vigilance at all.

Because the SS wanted criminal before him was too calm.

Any professional who could progress to the second level was not foolish.

From the very beginning, they had suspected a trap.

Just now, Su Lun clearly had a chance to escape, but he returned for the spoils from two corpses, and then got cornered?

While Lloyd thought this had something to do with their "foolproof" capture plan, he couldn't help feeling that something was off.

It was like they had set a net,

and there was a bigger net...

....

With more than a hundred eyes on him, even if Su Lun could fly, his wings would be shot off on the spot!

Trapped in the corner of the barrier, he seemed to have no way to escape.

But the next moment, Su Lun smiled, tilted his head, and nonchalantly replied, "Then let it be no mercy then..."

As he spoke, his hands started forming symbols.

The Spatial Teleportation technique was more than familiar to him; it was perfect with a snap.

Seeing this sudden movement, Lloyd's expression changed drastically and he yelled without hesitation, "Attack!"

As soon as he spoke, the sound of triggers being pulled together resounded.

But it was too late.

Su Lun's foot had already stepped into the dark gate of space, and his figure vanished in the blink of an eye.

The gunfire flared for a moment, then faded.

"Spatial Teleportation?"

Finally, everyone knew where Su Lun's composed confidence came from.

Everyone's expression was as uncomfortable as if they had swallowed flies.

All this commotion,

and the result... they were played?

Lloyd, especially, turned black with rage, "How can he do Spatial Teleportation..."

Two months ago, he had personally experienced that this "SS wanted criminal Su Lun" was just a stage one professional relying on the black scythe with a bit of cunning.

How could he now...

Just when the Oliver family thought Su Lun had definitely escaped.

Suddenly, someone noticed a person appearing on top of the dilapidated building behind them.

"Look, he's there!"

"Be careful!"

".."

Upon closer inspection, if it wasn't Su Lun, who else could it be?

....

"Tsk tsk, you really have a lot of people..."

Su Lun smirked at the crowd, "But fortunately, I have quite a few people on my side as well."

As he spoke, he was already pulling out three scrolls sealed with the Spatial Technique.

The scrolls unfurled in the wind, nearly a hundred eerie dolls appeared, facing the hundred-plus people of Oliver, their wooden joints crackling with a sound like mocking laughter.

Su Lun's eyes slightly narrowed, his fingers clawed at the void as he uttered lightly, "Try my original Puppetry Technique... 'Secret Technique·Hundred Guile Nightwalk'!"

PS. My sleep schedule has been erratic lately, updates will most likely be around 6 PM. In the future, I'll try to make it by 12 PM.