Mechanical Alchemist

"Such terrifying power, is this a god..."

It was just a glance, but Su Lun felt his body endure an indescribable shock, and his mirror image body shattered into pieces.

Yet before he could reflect on it, before his body completely disintegrated, he saw "Theresa" react even faster. Without paying Su Lun any heed, her originally god-tier "Angel" black wings flapped fiercely, and her figure rushed towards the central area of the relic.

Incredibly... she fled!

This was in stark contrast to the lofty demeanor she had just moments ago; now, she was decidedly resolute in her escape!

Right after the mirror image shattered, Su Lun, who was in meditation in a distant tower, suddenly opened his eyes.

When he looked again, Mr. Jing was nowhere to be found.

"It seems this Fallen Angel is also acquainted with Mr. Jing..."

Su Lun muttered to himself.

From the recent events, it was clear that "Theresa" recognized the mirror ability and was scared away.

After all, an S-level talent is extremely rare, and ordinary people might not encounter a second one in their lifetime.

More coincidentally, this was happening in Dawn Relic, the place that nearly led to her downfall as a deity.

Without even thinking, one would definitely assume it to be an "old acquaintance."

Su Lun's curiosity about Mr. Jing's true status deepened; what level was he, to scare a god into running away?

Though she was but a remnant soul, her combat strength displayed earlier was such that even a sixth-tier professional wouldn't likely scare her into such desperate flight.

Or perhaps... she was reminded of the terrifying experience of being outwitted to death by Sir Isaac a thousand years ago?

...

Su Lun didn't dwell on it, as he was more concerned about something else.

He looked up at the sky not far away, where the giant eyeball that the Fallen Angel had conjured was also starting to dissipate because of her flight.

The feeling that made his eyelids twitch also vanished abruptly.

Su Lun hadn't forgotten about the corpses scattered all around.

Mr. Jing was likely chasing after "Theresa." Such a level of combat was beyond Su Lun's involvement.

There was no need for him to get involved either.

In the Mirror Organization, there wasn't just Mr. Jing; if she didn't give any orders, it meant she was confident.

But as for looting corpses, Su Lun was more than willing.

The Duke's men were annihilated, and the nearby creatures had likely been killed during the battle, or frightened away.

There shouldn't be much danger left.

Su Lun didn't hesitate; he unfolded his Eight-Armed Spider Spear and quickly ran towards the recent battlefield.

After all, the Soul Shards on the corpses would disperse over time.

Su Lun was fast, and by the time he arrived, that "grey mist" still seemed very clear.

Being cautious, he used the All-knowing Eye to scan the surroundings again, didn't spot any other dangers, and then started to approach the corpses strewn about.

The first to be reaped, naturally, were the memory shards of the two fifth-tier professionals.

The closest was the corpse of the red-bearded Exorcist.

'Received "Matic Doyle's" Memory Shard*6'

'You have acquired a wealth of "Exorcism Knowledge," comprehending the skill [Thirteen Methods of Evil Spirit Dispel].'

'You have obtained the alchemy formula [Sun Holy Water Mixing Method].'

'You have gained some knowledge in mysticism.'

'You have mastered a wealth of "1~5th tier Alchemy Knowledge"'

'You have comprehended the incomplete fifth-tier rules of the Divine Arts.'

'Spellcasting experience +175'

'Spiritual power +8.4'

Typically, the knowledge base of spellcasting professions is many times greater than that of melee professions.

The Exorcist profession belongs to the "mystical" category within spellcasting.

These guys dive deep into obscure and uncommon fields of knowledge.

Su Lun eagerly reaped that cluster of grey mist.

Even though he felt that the "quantity of shards" seemed a bit low,

the acquired knowledge filled in the gaps in his understanding of mysticism, broadening his horizon...

Which was just fine.

He clearly remembered the dazed state that lasted a long time after absorbing a fifth-tier professional last time.

But now, with a flood of knowledge entering his mind, it was quickly assimilated, and it was exceedingly clear!

It was like the difference between digesting food that is gulped down whole and food that is thoroughly chewed; the nutrition received by the body was entirely different.

Su Lun immediately noticed this difference.

The same amount of memory fragments, now digested with at least ten to twenty percent more knowledge.

Even some completely disordered fragments remained in the memory, not forgotten.

"Spiritual power secret techniques and brain domain development can increase the efficiency of reaping, this is good news…"

Su Lun's thought flashed by, and his heart leaped with joy.

It was akin to playing a game where slaying monsters came with a ten to twenty percent experience bonus.

The short-term benefits may not be noticeable, but this is a substantial improvement that can impact the late game.

Moreover, with negative emotions completely cleared, Su Lun now had enough energy to suppress those external memories in the short term without worrying about them impacting his own consciousness.

After the brain domain development, both memory and comprehension improved significantly, visibly enhancing the talent of the "Reaper of Death" by a large margin!

...

Su Lun did not dwell on the content of the memories he harvested.

He simultaneously operated the eight-armed spider spear, swiftly stripping the corpses of their storage rings and equipment almost in tandem with reaping the Soul Shards, cramming them into his storage space.

He also took the opportunity to collect the sealed item "Exorcist's Cross of the Holy Knight."

He glanced at it briefly. It was a very powerful but specialized piece of equipment for Spiritual Bodies, of little daily use.

Then, he quickly approached the body of another fifth-tier professional, the pale-faced man in military attire who had been at Teresa's side, a court guard wielding a thin sword.

But this reaping took Su Lun by surprise.

'You have gained 2 memory fragments from "Lasati Kale"'

'You have acquired fragments of Alchemy knowledge'

'You have gained a small amount of combat experience'

'Spiritual Power +0.3'

"Is this really a fifth-tier?"

Su Lun looked at the harvested fragments, his gaze froze, thinking he had mistaken the corpse.

Those fragments were not even comparable to a first-tier.

And they were "finely broken" to an extreme degree.

But the odd thing was... there were indeed some incomplete pieces of knowledge from the fourth and fifth tiers.

That proved this was indeed the body of a fifth-tier professional!

Not understanding what had happened, Su Lun harvested a few more corpses nearby that he remembered were fourth-tier professionals.

The result was the same.

But soon, he noticed a pattern.

The souls of close-combat professionals had almost entirely dissipated, or what remained were tiny fragments so broken they could not be any less intact.

While the souls of magic professionals, already stronger in spiritual power, retained somewhat more, but still not much.

"Did that Fallen Angel's Divine Arts take away even their soul power?"

Su Lun furrowed his brows, roughly understanding the reason.

And fortunately for him, he arrived quickly, otherwise he wouldn't have even a soupçon to partake in.

As for the relatively intact soul of the bearded Exorcist, it was probably because Magicians of the Mysterious force often practiced some spiritual power defense techniques. Even in death, their souls were better preserved than others.

However, Su Lun's mentality was good; he was quite satisfied with what he earned.

The sum of Soul Shards he gathered equated to almost seventy to eighty percent of what he obtained last time from a fifth-tier, and it was the valuable knowledge of the Mysterious force, inestimable in worth.

Of course, spoils of war weren't limited to Soul Shards.

Equipment and storage rings on the corpses were also a great harvest.

This was Duke Raphael's personal guard!

And thankfully the Divine Arts of that Fallen Angel greatly helped, otherwise those few hundred elites could probably have breached the defenses of Old Lington directly.

Su Lun would not have had the chance to loot the bodies.

...

A century of "mining" had the treasures assembled from the bottom up, like a pyramid, ultimately almost all converging in the Duke's mansion.

The equipment on those guards' corpses was all meticulously selected quality material.

Weapons, armors, robes, leather armors, boots, alchemy accessories...

The vast majority were "silver quality" and above.

Even the team leaders had "gold equipment" and a small amount of "dark gold equipment."

Each item was rarely seen and top-notch in Old Lingdun Inner City auctions.

Su Lun took them all. These were not only his spoils of war.

If anything, the lion's share belonged to Mr. Jing.

Without her plan, the Duke's force would not have met their demise here.

Aside from these pieces of equipment, Su Lun also found in the storage rings of the two fifth-tier and those fourth-tier individuals a considerable number of gemstones, resembling burning coal, that radiated heat.

Upon appraisal, this was revealed.

[Sun God Stone]

Description: A special gemstone containing rich light energy;

Su Lun now knew it was one of the essential materials for alchemists to advance to the fourth rank.

Most of the guards from the duke's private army were "Light Sorcerers" from outside, who could not withstand the dense dark energy underground and needed to carry these gemstones to prevent the dark energy from causing mutations.

On normal days, people from the duke's household hardly left Old Lingdun Inner City, making a hunt almost impossible.

This was an opportunity that could be encountered but not sought.

Being able to obtain so many [Sun God Stones] at once was indeed a rare "harvest."

There were many of them, certainly a lot more than the last time they ambushed that fifth-rank individual.

Su Lun was only at the second rank at the moment, and still far from advancing to the third rank, so he had no immediate use for these gemstones.

But other members of the Mirror organization might need them, like Qiantiao.

Moreover, from the hints Mr. Jing had previously let slip, it seemed they already had plans to break out of the Black Tower.

With these gemstones, the chances of success were likely even greater.

If they really made it out, these gemstones, which could only be considered high-level materials in the outside world, would not be scarce anymore.

...

Seeing these gemstones, Su Lun was also very much looking forward to it. If Qiantiao and the others were to advance to the fourth rank, how strong would they be?

But he also found it strange, where were the other members of the Mirror organization?

Could it be that they went to ambush that "Teresa"?

Just as this thought emerged, suddenly, anomalies occurred around them!

The thick dark energy in the relic formed a mist, but at that moment, as if stirred by an invisible force, it began converging in one direction, like "dragons sucking water," forming two vortexes that gathered above the center of the relic.

The mist was absorbed and dissipated, and the view was instantly clear.

Seeing this phenomenon, Su Lun immediately realized what it was, his pupils violently contracted, "An 'elemental domain' that could perhaps be controlled by a professional above sixth rank?"

From the memories he had harvested before, he knew that such natural phenomena were some kind of techniques.

There were two major hurdles in a professional's advancement: one was moving from third rank to fourth rank, which required mastering the "elemental barrier"; the other was the "elemental domain" from the sixth rank advancing to the seventh rank.

Legend has it that those who master the elemental domain can absorb elements from miles around for their own use.

This was a means at the level of principles that only truly top-level alchemists could master.

But...

Such beings, even on the surface, were among the tiny elite at the pinnacle of the pyramid.

How could they appear here?

Su Lun thought he was mistaken, and as this idea flickered through his mind, his eyes swiftly shifted.

He then saw at the core of the converging mist, two figures confronting each other in the sky!

The two figures both had wings?!

Su Lun looked over.

One of them was the "Teresa" he had seen before, with a pair of pitch-black wings.

And the other, shrouded in a golden silk cloak, had a pair of huge bat wings behind her!

"Vampire?"

Su Lun thought of a kind of legendary abyssal undead creature when he saw those bat wings.

It was the long-lived "vampire," capable of sleeping away countless ages.

And upon closer inspection of the patterns on the cloak, who else could it be if not Mr. Jing?

At that moment,

everything seemed to make sense.

No wonder Mr. Jing could live for a thousand years; it turns out he was of vampire lineage! Discover hidden stories at empire

However, Su Lun had already suspected that Mr. Jing wasn't a "regular human," and he wasn't too surprised seeing those bat wings.

After all, Su Lun himself had a special body with a portion of the Fallen Angel's bloodline after being altered by the "X Serum."

What shocked him even more was Mr. Jing's strength!

That "Teresa" was capable of deploying an elemental domain, which didn't seem so astonishing to Su Lun. After all, it was a genuine divine soul, although her physical body was somewhat lacking. Diminishing the techniques a bit, it wasn't strange to use them. It was like the fifth-rank [Vajra], which Su Lun at second rank could also downgrade and use.

But how could Mr. Jing do it?

Amid his shock, Su Lun immediately felt confused and conflicted, "Mr. Jing shouldn't be at the seventh rank, but why could he use the 'elemental domain' of the seventh rank? Could it be due to his mirror image imitation ability? But that's not right, that talent shouldn't be able to mimic abilities beyond his understanding..."

Su Lun had now stripped away the memories of those people from the surface and wasn't entirely ignorant about the outside world anymore.

He vaguely knew that the Black Tower was on an island called "Black Reef."

There was a castle on the island, garrisoned by a secret guard of about one or two thousand men under Duke Raphael, the strongest of whom was a sixth-rank Great Commander. Although their overall military power was strong, if Mr. Jing truly had a strength above the sixth rank, he shouldn't be trapped here, growing stealthily.

....

Mr. Mirror was a mystery to everyone.

She had never shown her face.

Even within the Umbrella Organization, information about Mr. Mirror was limited to just this "code name."

No one had ever seen her take action; no one knew what her true strength was or what means she possessed.

To be exact, even when she did take action, because of her mimicry ability, she used the powers of others. Others also did not know she was "Mr. Mirror."

She might have countless disguised identities.

What her true appearance was, there was no point in pursuing.

Su Lun had also been curious, what rank did Mr. Mirror really belong to?

Although this underground world currently lacked the conditions for ascending to the fourth rank, Mr. Mirror was different.

Now, seeing his vampiric state, Su Lun was even more convinced that his conjecture was correct: Mr. Mirror really was an ancient relic from a thousand years ago!

He had previously speculated that since the Mirror Organization dared to attack fifth-rank professionals, the strength of Mr. Mirror, as the leader, could only be higher, not lower, than the fifth rank.

But without breaching the Black Tower, her rank wouldn't be outrageously high.

Suddenly turning into the seventh rank,

Su Lun felt there was a contradiction.

Huh?

Suddenly!

In that moment, a flash of insight crossed Su Lun's mind.

Since it was certain that Mr. Mirror was an "ancient," then was she someone close to Sir Isaac?

Upon this thought, Su Lun's mind surfaced with several clues that fit the criteria.

He vaguely guessed Mr. Mirror's identity from a thousand years ago!

If she really was that person, it would make sense for her to possess strength above the sixth rank.

But, reality and strength seemed to conflict again.

If she truly had the seventh rank, wouldn't "Teresa" already be dead under the absolute pressure of that power?

Or could there be other reasons limiting her strength?

Without waiting for Su Lun to think further, the two in the sky began their fierce battle.

The two silhouettes with wings wielded identical crimson lightnings in their hands, and when they clashed, the wind and clouds surged, thunder and lightning flashed across the sky, "crackle and pop" sounds were incessant to the ears, and streaks of red lightning tore through the sky, the crimson light illuminating most of the relic like a cataclysmic end-of-world scene.

Whatever technique "Teresa" used, Mr. Mirror was able to completely replicate it with her mimicry ability, leaving Her no chance to counter with elemental theft.

The magic you know, I know it too...

You throw a lightning bolt at me, I'll throw one right back at you...

You can fly, I can fly too...

The two tangled, giving Her no chance to break free, with an attitude of utter extermination.

Su Lun watched for a while, and then confirmed his speculation.

His realm was far from sufficient, but his perspective wasn't lacking, and he could tell that neither side was holding back: "Indeed...Mr. Mirror only shows the combat power of around fifth rank, but why does she have a seventh-rank elemental domain?"

Although the commotion was exaggerated, it still hadn't reached the destructive level of the legendary seventh rank.

The body of "Teresa" was only second rank, managing to exert the strength of around fourth rank, which was already the limit her body could withstand.

And since Mr. Mirror could fight Her evenly, naturally she wouldn't exceed that by much.

Yet paradoxically, both displayed an understanding of the laws far beyond their ranks.

Fifth rank, sixth rank, seventh rank...

And even higher!

Then, slowly, the battle moved in a direction beyond Su Lun's comprehension.

Lawful confrontations, collision of domains...

Rallying substantial dark spiritual forces from all around, their auras soared like primordial ferocious beasts; this was simply not a fight that professionals below fifth rank could participate in—it was an outrageous battle.

Even with the protection of the All-knowing Eye, Su Lun's eyelids jumped wildly at that overwhelming pressure.

The crimson light in the sky made his scalp tingle.

While enjoying the spectacle, a stray lightning bolt that erupted from their clash suddenly burst from the sky, "boom," and carved out a several-hundred-meter-long fissure in the ground dozens of meters away from Su Lun...

It startled Su Lun into alertness.

Looking at the two women manipulating lightning with their bare hands...

Hissss~

He gasped in a breath of cold air, gathered his spoils of war, and hurriedly ran a few kilometers towards the outer perimeter of the relic, selecting an even safer spot to watch the battle.

This level of combat was not commonly seen, and understanding even a part of it was a gain.

He also wanted to see just how substantial the "gift" Mr. and Mrs. Isaac left for their daughter was.