Mechanical Alchemist

Su Lun collected the four "divine forbidden objects" on the platform into his small void realm, leaving behind the "Cosmic Eleventh Essence: Myriad Manifestations" and "A Fragmented Plane Manifestation Body" as the two items.

Since these two treasures were the core of maintaining the existence of the mirror space, Su Lun was also unsure of what would happen after collecting them.

Looking at the sky-high bookshelves, Su Lun didn't want to leave them here. Yet, the project of moving everything was too massive.

Stuffing them in one by one was definitely not realistic.

By now, the royal family and the academy must have discovered the hidden barrier in the collection room and were likely trying to figure out how to break through. So, every moment of delay increased the risk.

The "Fragmented Plane Manifestation Body" seemed to show that it could fuse into Su Lun's own small void realm, but he was uncertain what would happen after the fusion. If all these copied tomes were damaged, it would be a loss not worth the gain.

Luckily, Su Lun was not alone; he had a powerful support team.

He contacted Mr. Hei with the communicator to ask him for advice.

Mr. Hei said he had seen some descriptions in books, but since these things were too high-end, he couldn't provide any definite and accurate suggestions, advising him to ask Mr. Jing instead.

Thinking it over, Su Lun then connected with his senior martial sister, "Senior Sister, I've encountered some problems and wanted to consult with you."

A brief and concise response came quickly from the communicator, "Speak."

Su Lun said, "I am now in the mirror gallery of the Royal Library of Ruyen, and I see a few 'divine forbidden objects' but I'm not sure how to deal with them..."

After listening, Mr. Jing indeed knew.

She simply said, "Directly fuse the plane fragment. The entire folded space will become a part of your small void realm, including those books, and there won't be any impact on the two spaces. As for the other 'Cosmic Essence', it is a very precious material. It is the ultimate product of Alchemy after condensing the laws and something essential for Alchemists looking to advance to the ninth rank. You can also understand it as similar to the cosmic law foundation of the 'divine essence' condensed in the divine system. It's just that the ancient Great Alchemists devised this alchemical product as a substitute, allowing Alchemists to have a way to touch the cosmic origin laws..."

"..."

Su Lun was greatly shocked by the explanation of these advanced terms.

The effect of fusing the space fragment was almost what he had thought.

But that 'Cosmic Essence', was it really needed for advancing to the ninth rank?

Upon hearing this, a strange thought immediately crossed Su Lun's mind.

His senior sister's talent was the "Mirror Guardian", and her ability was to copy various magical techniques. It couldn't be such a coincidence that this was exactly the material she needed for her advancement, could it?

Su Lun directly asked, "Senior Sister, can you use this thing?"

On the other end of the communicator, Mr. Jing replied without hesitation, "Yes. This is what I told you I was searching for before, the opportunity for advancing to the ninth rank."

A coincidence?

Clearly not.

Su Lun thought about it for a moment and felt as if everything was being pulled by a rope called destiny.

Since the 'Cosmic Essence' was an alchemical product, it also meant it was artificially refined. And it had a "mirror copy" effect, not some other seventh, eighth, or ninth essence... It all seemed like it was specifically left for his senior sister.

Su Lun had a thought and asked, "Senior Sister, was this left for you by our master?"

"Probably," she affirmed.

Mr. Jing had nothing she felt she couldn't share with Su Lun.

Although she didn't explicitly confirm it, she essentially had.

She continued, "Each advancement of an Alchemist is actually a deepening on a cognitive level towards the universe's understanding. Unlike the divine system, Alchemists cannot rely on the pathway of believers to aid their understanding of the world. So, we need some external objects. Especially when approaching the ninth rank and touching the peak of humanity, it's almost impossible to cross this threshold through normal intuition. Hence, the alchemical predecessors researched a way to steal the cosmic origin laws with an alchemical item—'Cosmic Essence'."

After a pause, she added, "Creating Cosmic Essence requires a magical item called the 'Philosopher's Stone', but such things can no longer be refined in this fragmented plane, and the method of making them has long been lost. Even a thousand years ago, Alchemists who wished to advance to the ninth rank could only rely on materials unearthed from various ancient ruins by chance. One used is one less. While I was dormant, no new Philosopher's Stones were found in Dawn City. But since you said it's the 'Eleventh Essence: Myriad Manifestations', it must have been found and refined by father later on..."

Su Lun also realized.

This material belonged to a specialized law material, almost useless to anyone else.

Only Mr. Jing could use it.

So no matter when she awoke, as long as the item was still there, it would almost certainly enter her vision.

What lengths a father had gone to.

Indeed, when in doubt, consult the senior sister.

Having a martial sect elder who had seen the pinnacle of the world meant taking many fewer detours.

Listening to his senior sister's explanation of the origin of this 'Cosmic Essence', Su Lun felt like he had gained a lot.

Though he couldn't use it, as long as his senior sister could advance to the ninth rank, 'Dawn' would truly have a master who had reached the heavens.

This also directly raised Su Lun's own backing capacity.

Golden Leg grew more robust, which was good news.

At least for the rest of his life, if Su Lun wished to be a slacker, someone could cover for him.

As for the other items, such as the coffin, the golden wings, and so on, Mr. Jing said she was unclear about their origins.

Despite Sir Isaac being a demigod, in terms of the number of treasures and wealth, the Isaac family certainly didn't possess more than the autocratic royal family of Ruyen.

These six treasures were the result of the empire's collections over several centuries.

After disconnecting the communication, Su Lun didn't delay and started to arrange an alchemical array on the platform.

He began the work of directly integrating the entire space into his small void realm.

...

Meanwhile.

Just as Su Lun had predicted, the head librarian of the Royal Library, Wenvred, discovered traces left by Kitt's second explosion in the treasury and quickly noticed the anomaly.

```

Originally, the loss of a few artifacts wasn't considered a major issue. After all, the most valuable of the stolen items was "Isaac's Alchemy Manuscript," but the contents had already been fully transcribed. The loss of the manuscript was merely a loss of face.

However, upon seeing the large crater blasted open in the treasure room, Winfred didn't even need to look carefully to discover the hidden prohibitions.

As the long-standing dean of the Royal Academy for decades, no one knew better than him that the Royal Academy had a "Mirror Library" hundreds of years ago.

This was an incredible discovery.

Even if it really was that Mirror Library, the stolen items might turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

After all, the Royal Library had suffered from dozens of natural and man-made disasters over the past few centuries, resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of valuable collections. If there were backups in the Mirror Library, that lost knowledge could once again see the light of day.

But the method of entry had been lost, and even upon discovering that there was folded space here, he didn't have the permission to enter.

Then, the old man notified the royal family.

The royals immediately dispatched experts to survey the area and help decrypt the prohibitions.

Even a royal prince came in person to oversee the operation.

But the initial progress in breaking the prohibitions was not ideal.

The treasure house of the Royal Academy boasted the strongest anti-theft prohibitions on the plane, and they were not exaggerated. The folded space was a barrier from hundreds of years ago, but it still represented a top-level encryption prohibition today. Far from being closer to unlocking it, a group of experts were stumped instead.

After all, given that these were royal private collections, the experts' first thought was not to destroy them violently, but to dismantle the prohibitions bit by bit.

Fortunately, a royal court worshiper found part of the barrier's design in the archives of the Frederic Royal Palace by chance.

With the blueprints, the group of prohibition-breaking experts finally had a direction for their efforts.

The experts worked tirelessly from midnight until morning before they managed to break open the barrier at last.

When they eagerly anticipated seeing the treasures of the legendary "Mirror Library," they were presented with an inexplicable scene.

They found that behind the door of the barrier was emptiness—there was nothing at all!

Not to mention any mirrored collections, even the folded space itself had vanished.

Disappeared without a trace.

But since it had been confirmed that the barrier enclosed the "Mirror Library," its current disappearance was a serious matter.

Although the Royal Family was unsure whether the Mirror Library had vanished during the political upheaval hundreds of years ago or at some later point.

But by examining traces of a secondary explosion, they vaguely guessed that Kit might know something about it.

After all, judging by the explosive power calculated, the experts also believed that Kit had indeed opened the barrier.

Immediately, the royals sent intelligence agents from across the city to search for Kit.

But they didn't expect that the guy had already left Lyndon on a midnight smuggling boat.

....

The first light of dawn shone through the window glass, illuminating the small cottage.

The vendors in the district below had started the morning market, and the noise began to rise. The early steam train also roared as it sped past the tracks, with the sound of wheels grinding against rails ringing momentarily.

Su Lun was in meditation, yet his will descended into the little void realm, taking inventory of the books he had acquired.

After pulling off his heist last night, he hadn't contacted anyone.

Although the Mirror Library had merged into the little void realm, cutting off all tracking methods, he wasn't sure whether the agents of the Luruleng Royal Family could trace it back to him through other clues.

After all, according to the intelligence currently in Sabina's hands, the Royal Family and the intelligence department had many top-level investigators with mysterious methods.

If petty thieves went uncaught, it wasn't because they truly couldn't be caught, but because it wasn't worth spending the effort and resources of high-ranking personnel to find them.

But with the matter of the Mirror Library, they would inevitably utilize top resources.

Therefore, including the manuscript, Su Lun had no plans to bring out those "stolen goods" for the time being.

He will only feel relieved if some time passes, the fuss dies down, and no one has come looking for him.

...

In the little void realm, after months of renovation, the environment had greatly changed.

Because he had found many ancient books in the cursed space in the North Sea, which included space renovation, Dr. Banks and the others had taken some time off their research to modify the environment of the space.

Now, the little void realm had a large area covered by a gravity field with muddy soil.

Besides a castle for the residence of the research personnel, there was also an exposed mechanical war factory on the ground.

Not far from the castle, a clear lake had been introduced with fish and underwater plants. Flowers and green grass were planted on the open land outside the castle, and the trees had become lush under the accelerated growth. Artificial alchemical light sources, like mini suns, provided light and heat for the entire space. The air circulation system blew refreshing breezes...

All this was not a random arrangement; this was an advanced ancient energy recycling system.

By consuming only a small amount of energy, it could maintain the cycle of all the energy within the space, such as wind, water, light, gravity... etc.

If it weren't for the spatial limits, this place would have already become a small human town.

The hundreds of large machinery Su Lun had acquired before were now in production, with several mechanical assembly lines continuously producing mechanical armors and mechanical octopi.

In the warehouse, rows of specially made mechanical puppets were neatly stacked, along with heaps of various types of ammunition.

The volume of the little void realm also kept expanding as Su Lun's advancement and understanding of the Space Law increased.

Given time, it may well turn into an excellent sanctuary for survival, much like the "Void Secret Realm" of old.

Now, with an additional Mirror Library, the entire space had almost doubled in size.

Dr. Banks and the others were shocked when they suddenly saw the library.

```

Knowledge was the finest form of entertainment for these researchers.

Ru Ying's mechanical technology was far behind, but that didn't mean the royal library lacked knowledge of ancient mechanics and biotech excavated from ruins.

In fact, the amount might not be less than in the collections of the Mafa Royal Library.

They were simply unpopular: dusted and neglected in the corners of the shelves.

The Mirror Hall contained nearly everything from the Ru Ying Royal Library, including those high-access texts not available to the general public.

With these texts, Dr. Banks was thrilled, saying he could even spend a lifetime here.

...

Su Lun felt a sense of accomplishment akin to stamp collecting when he saw the two pitch-black notebooks lying in a corner of the miniature void space.

He flipped through the second alchemy manuscript he had found, which still introduced the method of crafting "Isaac's Giant Strength" from basic to advanced levels.

Su Lun had long learned some secrets of the notes from Sereya; they recorded not merely a single crafting method for magical gear, but a complete alchemy system and philosophy.

He read it carefully from beginning to end, understood some parts, and many were still beyond his grasp.

But ultimately, he had them in hand and could take his time to study them further in the future.

Looking at the two manuscripts, he murmured to himself, "Two down... now, I'm certain the Riga family has another. Ekaterina has agreed to trade, so I'll easily get it when the time comes. As for the last two, I'll have to inquire about them..."

The main ingredient for "Isaac's Giant Strength" required muscle tissue with "Giant kin strength traits."

In Su Lun's warehouse, there happened to be an arm from the "Hundred-Armed Giant King" that he brought back from the cursed space.

Even as a corpse's material, its strength-type curse trait was the strongest Su Lun had ever seen.

It was the perfect material for crafting this magical gear.

However, due to the high quality of the main material, he was not yet capable of crafting such high-level magical gear with his current abilities.

He would wait for Mr. Jing to bring the essential tool for crafting top-tier magical gear, the "Volgan's Furnace Lamp," before starting.

...

After scanning the contents of the manuscripts, Su Lun's consciousness drifted among the bookshelves.

Su Lun found too many tomes that piqued his interest.

The billions of texts encompassed a vast array of knowledge, not only related to every field of alchemy. There were also various texts left by other ancient civilizations, such as magic civilization, sorcery civilization, martial qi civilization, beast civilization, Divine Tribe, ancient bloodline races... and many more cultural records.

It was like looking through a kaleidoscope, revealing just a fraction of this vibrant world to Su Lun.

All that knowledge, once monopolized by the Ru Ying elite, ancient secrets, were now laid before his eyes.

Su Lun felt that if he had nothing else to do, he would be willing to spend many years here to thoroughly read through the splendid knowledge treasures left behind by these extraordinary civilizations lost to history.

Merely reading through the titles of these books would probably take several months.

He felt a mixture of awe and eager anticipation at the thought of immersing himself in this ocean of knowledge.

Su Lun was enveloped in this feeling.

Before long, the hustle and bustle reached his ears.

The sun was up, and early-rising paperboys were already shouting through the streets, selling today's newspapers.

"Extra! Extra! Come see the big news, the Royal Academy was burgled last night, 'Phantom Thief' Kite successfully steals Isaac's notes! Assassination strikes again, a key member of a Senior Councilor's family assassinated in the street..."

Listening to the shouting below, Su Lun got up and opened the window.

The paperboy down below heard the noise and looked up, "Sir, would you like a paper? Just one liriso."

Su Lun said, "Get me a newspaper."

"Right away!"

The paperboy replied excitedly, rolling up the paper and accurately tossing it through the window.

Su Lun flicked a coin down in return.

Then, he began to peruse the still ink-scented Lyndon Daily News.

Opening it, the front-page headline featured a handsome photo of Kite.

Suit and top hat, monocle, and a devilishly curling mouth corner, strong eye contact with the camera.

It looked like he realized he was being photographed and posed for the camera.

This photo in the newspaper would probably be treasured by the ladies of Lyndon again.

Su Lun couldn't help but smile wryly and continued to read the content.

The previous night's burglary was witnessed by many, and the newspaper detailed the entire process. However, nothing was mentioned about the royal collection room being blown open with explosives; it only stated that Lyndon Metropolitan Police Station was investigating the burglary techniques.

Throughout the article, there was no report about the "Mirror Hall"; it seemed the outside world was unaware of it.

Besides Kite's front-page feature, there was news of another assassination.

Obviously, the content was deliberately restricted, with the top-tier noble assassination meriting only a brief headline and approximate time and place details. Nothing more, not even the name "August" appeared.

Su Lun quickly scanned the newspaper pages. Finding no particularly interesting intelligence, he set it aside and continued with his meditation.

In the room, the death harbinger "Grandpa Raven" lay spread-eagled on the bed, wings sprawling as if imitating a human, without a trace of birdlikeness.

The times were peaceful enough.

Without any surprises, Su Lun planned to stay here for a few days, until Mr. Jing arrived, or until the day he was scheduled to go to the royal palace for the blessing ceremony with Ekaterina.

But for some reason, when dawn broke, Su Lun increasingly felt a sense of unrest in his heart.

The Hall of Mirrors? Was that guy Kit caught for being too high-profile?

Or could it be the Red Death, the Evil God, something else?

Su Lun didn't know where this sense of unease was coming from.

But since Mr. Crow hadn't issued a warning and he hadn't noticed any abnormality himself, he remained alert, attentively monitoring everything around him.

A few more hours went by, and it was probably around noon when Su Lun's communicator suddenly buzzed urgently.

The urgent message from Abeg came through, "Teacher, something terrible happened, it seems my sister has been kidnapped!"

Su Lun, hearing this, his gaze suddenly sharpened.

He finally identified the source of his unrest.

...

Ever since awakening the second level of his "Reaper of Death" talent, Su Lun had a highly acute sense of crisis. Although it wasn't clear-cut, he had ascertained that the earlier feeling of unease was indeed targeting him!

Upon hearing this news, Su Lun's first instinct was that it was related to something about himself, and that the siblings had been implicated because of it.

Without asking for more details upon hearing Abeg's communication, Su Lun pinched his sorcerer's seal, and in the blink of an eye, he was already in a hotel room.

The room was filled with many puppet components, which was the temporary workshop of the siblings, Abeg.

Su Lun, looking at Abeg's stern face, asked, "What happened?"

Abeg looked at his teacher who had come over, put down the communicator in his hand, and rapidly explained the whole situation, "Yesterday, my sister received an invitation from that Alex Roberts. She was going to take a boat ride on the Lokwarren River today. An hour ago, a car came to pick my sister up. I specifically confirmed that among those who came, one was the bodyguard of young master Alex we had seen before. After that, I didn't pay much attention and continued working on my puppet. But then, three minutes ago, another car came, claiming to be sent by young master Alex to pick someone up. That's when I realized something was wrong..."

An hour ago?

Su Lun heard this, his gaze sharpened.

Abeg had laid out the crucial information. Merely hearing these details, a conspiracy seemed to loom before him.

The one who made the move was definitely not young master Alex.

But someone from the first wave of people was his bodyguard, which meant that the mastermind's power was not small at all. Otherwise, it would be impossible to plant a mole within such a family of senior councilors.

Su Lun didn't have time to question young master Alex and immediately sensed the location of Kama.

He had given everyone important to him a piece of jewelry with a spatial signature, and Kama had one of these rings on her.

"Twelve kilometers to the southwest, it should be near the leather market in Franklin District..."

Su Lun thought to himself, pinched the sorcerer's seal, and the black light of the alchemy space array lit up beneath his feet.

A glance later, the scenery around him had changed, and he had transposed through space to appear at the corner of a bustling street.

Su Lun hadn't teleported directly to the precise location of the spatial coordinates but to a spot a few hundred meters away.

After walking a few steps in the direction he felt, he saw a shop with the sign "Fusheng Pawnshop." The spatial coordinates of Kama's ring were inside.

Su Lun's eyes shifted, revealing a hint of contemplation.

He took out a black umbrella to use as a walking stick, cautiously sensed his surroundings, and upon not detecting any high-level professionals around, he proceeded to enter.

The pawnshop wasn't large, just a treasure reception desk separated by an iron fence, behind which sat a man with a sharp chin and monkey cheeks.

Su Lun guessed that the ring might have been pawned off.

He also inferred some information: the ring could only have ended up with one of the kidnappers. Most likely someone like a gang member, short of money, lacking in knowledge, and greedy at the sight of money, sneakily removed the ring to pawn it off.

He directly asked, "Someone pawned a bronze-colored rune ring here recently, where is it now? Who pawned this ring?"

Upon hearing this, the sharp-chinned man knew it was trouble, and his eyes revealed disdain and a cold tone, "I don't know who you are, but don't you know whose territory this is?"

Su Lun's killing intent surged as he coldly stated, "I don't have time for your nonsense. You have one chance to talk. Otherwise, you will die."

Kama had been captured for an hour now, and the longer the delay, the greater the danger to her life.

If this was indeed a trap set for Su Lun, then the danger to himself was also increasing by the minute.

Only by finding the breakthrough quickly could Su Lun possibly locate her before the enemy's plan fully unfolded and avoid being at their mercy.

The sharp-chinned man was not intimidated at all, raising his hand to pull out a three-barreled shotgun from under the counter, mocking, "This is Viper Gang's turf. Get the hell out of here if you're looking for trouble..."

He allowed the man to finish his crucial words, but Su Lun didn't give him the opportunity to waste more of his time with nonsense.

Su Lun also discerned from the man's micro-expressions that he certainly recognized that kidnapper!

With a flick of his finger, a filament had already sliced a bloody gash across the sharp-chinned man's neck; dying, he couldn't even comprehend whom he had offended.

A "gray fog" emerged.

After reaping it, Su Lun's brow slightly furrowed. "Viper Gang's 'Rotten Tooth' Kahn..."

The individual who pawned the ring, as he had guessed, did indeed know the perp—an gang member.

But this "Viper Gang" was not insignificant, being a part of the criminal organization left from the once infamous "Hydra" in Lyndon, which had gone legit, and the Hydra's backer being one of the six senior councilors, the Andres family.

Su Lun frowned, it seemed he had no real conflict with the Andres family, who shouldn't have any motive to make a move against him.

"No, wait! The Caroline I encountered on the cruise ship knew about Kama and my relationship, and she is from Hydra!"

Su Lun didn't delay any further, and after asking Sabina for the main activity location of this gang, he went straight to their doorstep.

He had a feeling that today might just turn into a bloodbath.