Mechanical Alchemist-Chapter 419 - 418 Going to Luying

First draft. "This is quite a nuisance!"

Qian Tiao complained with obvious disdain in her eyes.

Although she had seen her fair share of risqué performances while within the black gang of the Order, seeing them was one thing—she had no interest in them to begin with, and at most, she only vaguely knew what was going on without any personal experience.

Now, caught off guard and surrounded by it, she couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of discomfort.

It was like getting a handful of salad dressing—sticky and unpleasant.

But because it was Su Lun, she didn’t feel too uncomfortable.

Still, she couldn’t show that detestable guy a good face, or else he would definitely take even more liberties.

So Qian Tiao kept a straight face, naked as she stood up from the bathtub and moved under the shower to rinse off her body with the running water.

Su Lun felt refreshed and found himself in a sage-like state.

He watched Qian Tiao with great interest, and only after listening to her complaints did he respond, "Ah, sorry about that~"

Although he apologized, his face bore a grin that just begged to be punched. Ordinary days offered no such chance; it was the "special consent" from earlier that let him indulge with such comfort for the first time.

The most crucial part was,

Qian Tiao had taken the initiative to help just now.

That made Su Lun’s mood quite delightful.

"Hmph!"

Qian Tiao, catching a glimpse of his infuriating smile from the corner of her eye, snorted in annoyance.

She turned her back to him, preventing the bastard from getting another look.

Su Lun, however, appeared indifferent. The gambling widow’s form was a treat to behold from any angle. The crystal-clear water droplets glided down her back, trickling down her gradually rising curves—a truly pleasing sight.

But after a moment, he also smiled and restrained his gaze.

The fact that Qian Tiao was willing to be this intimate was already quite exceptional.

Just like that, it was perfectly balanced.

Qian Tiao, sensing that his wandering gaze had suddenly retracted, inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief.

She looked down at her own hands as if a thought had struck her, and her lips curled into a helpless smile, subtly pursed.

It wasn’t exactly a laugh, but it also didn’t seem angry.

...

Su Lun felt as if he had dealt with the "after-effects" of Pandora’s Bewitching Technique, feeling refreshed.

After Qian Tiao finished washing up and dressed, Su Lun didn’t linger in the water either.

After his shower, he dressed and didn’t rush back to the laboratory; instead, he picked up a tome of alchemy and began flipping through it on the couch.

Although no words were spoken in the room,

both enjoyed the solitude.

However, while engrossed in reading, there came a "knock knock knock" at the door.

Qian Tiao, who was maintaining her beloved swords, recognized Mr. Jing’s footsteps and called out, "Philo, the door isn’t locked. Just come in when you get back, why knock?"

No sooner had she spoken than the sound of the door handle turning was heard.

Upon a glance, Mr. Jing, clad in a black satin tailored long dress, walked in. She glanced at the two occupants of the room and casually responded to Qian Tiao’s earlier remark, "I knocked because I didn’t want to disturb you two."

Su Lun looked up at the arrival of Mr. Jing and greeted her, "Senior Sister."

Mr. Jing nodded with a smile.

Qian Tiao gave her a look, "What’s there to disturb."

As friends who couldn’t be closer, Qian Tiao knew exactly what Mr. Jing was teasing about and couldn’t help but smirk teasingly, "Philo, if you had come back earlier, you could have been helpful."

Upon hearing this, Su Lun on the couch flinched, quickly shielding his gaze with the book, thinking that the gambling widow really would say anything.

Fortunately, Mr. Jing was used to it and just smiled without a word.

She casually closed the door behind her and walked over to Su Lun, gracefully gathering her skirt before sitting cross-legged on the couch.

Su Lun put aside the alchemy tome and asked, "Senior Sister, is there news about yesterday’s battle?"

She would only come at this time for that reason.

"Yes."

Mr. Jing nodded and said, "News of our battle in Moross Polis spread, and it made the special edition’s front page in Ruin this morning. It’s basically as planned. But there are two... slightly special pieces of news."

"Oh?"

Su Lun, intrigued by this, showed interest.

They had experienced yesterday’s battle firsthand, so not even the most detailed newspaper report could surpass their own knowledge. But something "special" mentioned by his Senior Sister had to be significant.

Mr. Jing went straight to the point, "The newspaper says that Princess Scatty Harris, the Thirteenth Princess of Mafa known as the ’Frost Moon Princess,’ was killed."

Su Lun’s eyebrows furrowed deeply at this news, "The Mafa Princess is dead?"

Even Qian Tiao paused her maintenance of the blade she was cleaning to look over.

Mr. Jing nodded again, "Indeed. The precise cause of death isn’t mentioned in the newspaper. But it’s most likely true. There’s already word from Mafa declaring they will investigate it thoroughly."

"..."

Upon hearing these words, Su Lun fell into deep thought.

He wasn’t particularly surprised.

He just felt that the incident would have a significant impact.

After all, the one who died was a princess of a nation.

He was well aware that the Dawn group hadn’t killed Princess Stika in yesterday’s battle, but she had died nonetheless, which was rather delicate.

The ones daring enough to kill a princess, with the capability to do so, belonged to only a few houses.

And Yekaterina was in town; it was she who had summoned the meteor that destroyed the Temple of Aghaparnon.

Without much thought, Su Lun voiced his guess matter-of-factly, "It must have been the work of the Lance family."

It was then that he realized why the mechanical warriors had suddenly retreated during their pursuit earlier.

It turned out that Princess Stika had been assassinated.

"Mm. That’s what I think as well."

Mr. Jing nodded as well, his expression as calm as Su Lun’s.

To outsiders, the death of Princess Stika would certainly appear to be a feat of the Dawn group, making it seem as if they’d taken the blame for the Lance family.

In reality, both men knew that whether the Princess of Mafa lived or died didn’t fundamentally make a difference.

If Princess Stika lived, would the North Sea Fleet and Mafa no longer pursue them?

Obviously not.

It was fundamentally still about interests.

With the "Void Secret Realm" destroyed, the foundation of the alliance between Mafa and the North Sea had already ceased to exist.

The purpose of the pursuit was still to obtain the treasures and the key to the Void Secret Realm that the Dawn group possessed, as well as the neurological mechanical technology.

This was the most important reason.

As for the death of a princess, it was just one more excuse to start a war.

A princess married to a pirate had already lost her most important function as an alliance tool. Especially after arriving in the North Sea, where she had not achieved anything of merit but instead had caused immense losses to the empire time and time again. Such a "disposable" figure, even if she returned to the Mafa Empire, wouldn’t hold any value for those in power.

If she could still be put to some use, even better.

One could predict that, not long after, the Mafa Empire would definitely put pressure on Ruin over the death of the royal princess. The politicians would find any excuse to dispatch a large number of people to Ruin to stir up trouble.

...

Qiantiao, intrigued by this news, came over as well.

After hanging several knives on the rack, she walked over and sprawled casually on the sofa.

Right in between Su Lun and Mr. Jing.

Her manner of speech was more direct, teasingly saying, "Wow, that noble lady friend of yours, Su Lun, really isn’t lacking in means or schemes."

Without expressing any opinion, Su Lun just shrugged his shoulders.

Katyusha was his friend.

But this Yekaterina was a stranger to him.

However, it was undeniable that during the previous battle, that woman had provided a lot of covert support.

Whether it was destroying the temple or Van Gogh making a move... both actions had significantly weakened the strength of the North Sea Fleet. Even the act of assassinating Princess Stika created a condition for their safe withdrawal, allowing the entire team to exit without any casualties.

Collaboration means mutual exchanges, not one-sided demands.

So, as for taking the blame, it wouldn’t make much difference one way or the other.

Clearly, the first piece of intelligence had no real impact on the Dawn group, and all three of them didn’t make much of it.

At that moment, Mr. Jing also smiled slightly and added, "The second piece of news is about Miss ’Yekaterina.’

"???"

Su Lun looked over, feeling like her words had an underlying message, as if they were meant specifically for him.

Mr. Jing continued, "The newspapers have published joyous news, the great Duke Lance from the north and the Riga family from the south have reached a marriage alliance. Three months from now, in the imperial capital of Ruin, Lyndon, a blessing ceremony presided over by the Queen of Ruin herself will take place."

Su Lun was already aware, as he had personally agreed to it.

He just hadn’t expected such a matter to make the newspapers, making it known to the entire world?

Upon hearing this, Qiantiao’s gossip fire blazed fiercely, and with one swift action, she hooked her arm around Su Lun’s shoulder and pulled him close, "Hey, I heard from Barrett that the little princess from the Duke Lance house is a real beauty, known as ’the most beautiful girl at the Royal Academy’..."

After pausing, she gave a mischievous smile, "How does that noble lady look? Is she as pretty as Philo?"

Su Lun felt his head sinking into a sea of tenderness.

Clearly, Qiantiao wasn’t wearing a bra. Having just taken a bath and with no one else in the room, she was dressed very casually. So much so that her generous neckline revealed more than intended with her sweeping movement.

He hadn’t planned on looking, but a glance from the corner of his eye caught sight of a white, delicate and deep expanse.

Even the pink atop the proud peaks was briefly glimpsed.

Su Lun replied, "Indeed, not bad. But I think she’s far from matching Sister Ye. And definitely not as pretty as you, Sister Qiantiao."

Qiantiao was quite satisfied with his answer, "Tsk, tsk. You really do have a way with women, kid."

As she spoke, she leaned her entire body against Su Lun’s, in a very intimate posture, as was her usual manner.

There wasn’t originally a problem, and Su Lun had become accustomed to it, but for some reason, he suddenly felt a surge of restlessness in his lower abdomen and immediately had a bad feeling, "Again?"

The uncontrollable familiar sensation in his body made it clear to him that the effects of Pandora’s Bewitching Technique had not been resolved.

Qiān Tiáo caught a glimpse of the odd look in his expression, and being close to him, she instantly noticed something was amiss.

Looking at Su Lun’s embarrassed state, she said with a look of disgust, "Ah... how detestable."

At that moment, even if Su Lun’s skin were thicker, he would still feel his face burn with embarrassment.

Being alone with Qiān Tiáo was one thing, but now his mentor was right there beside them.

He was just thinking about explaining the situation.

But Mr. Jing seemed to know something, showing no surprise at all. Glancing over, she said with a gentle smile, "Pandora’s Bewitching Technique?"

Hearing her speak, Su Lun’s embarrassing atmosphere dissipated in an instant, and he replied, "Mentor, you know about it?"

Mr. Jing said, "Yes. Pandora came to bid me farewell before she left. She told me to inform you that the effects of the bewitching technique will last for about three days. During that period, it will flare up intermittently."

Pandora was one of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac’s alchemical creations, almost like a daughter to them, and Mr. Jing was Sir Isaac’s own daughter. Although it appeared that they had little interaction before, their relationship was nonetheless beyond what an outsider could compare.

Listenting to this left Su Lun at a loss for words, but he expectedly asked, "Mentor, is there a way to break the spell?"

Mr Jing wore an expression that said she couldn’t help, spread her hands, and said, "It’s a secret technique of the divine path. To resolve it, Pandora herself has to act. There’s nothing I can do."

"..."

Su Lun felt this was very bad news.

...

Fortunately, Su Lun rarely made public appearances when he had no business to attend to, so aside from Mr. Jing and Qiān Tiáo witnessing his embarrassed state, no one else had.

Three days passed in a blink of an eye.

Su Lun had been staying in the lab all this time.

After all, he was truly busy.

The battle at Moros City-State was indeed a show of power, and for the first time, Su Lun had tested the limits of his current Puppetry Technique, using a large number of puppets and causing tens of thousands of enemy casualties.

However, the battle damage was also significant.

Thousands of rune-engraved dolls and mechanical armor suits were all damaged to varying degrees, and the reserve ammunition was nearly depleted.

The mechanical armor suits could still be repaired with the help of the war workshop in the small Void Realm, but the rune-engraved dolls had to be handcrafted by Su Lun himself.

And that battle had yielded great rewards, as the actual combat showed him the various deficiencies in his Puppetry Technique.

The most pressing issue he now faced was the production of high-tier puppets.

In the previous fight, his puppet legion was effective against low-tier pirates, but when facing fifth or sixth-tier professional fighters, they were almost entirely cut down.

If he had a thousand fourth or fifth-tier high-tier dolls, Su Lun believed he might be able to kill a seventh-tier professional!

But the manufacturing process for high-tier puppets was intricate, taking a lot of time for each doll to be handmade.

Even with the Eight-Armed Spider Lance, it would take several days to complete a single fourth-tier puppet.

Therefore, Su Lun had recently been considering a new approach with the engineers in the war workshop, to see if the production process for the rune-engraved dolls could be mechanically replaced.

For instance, basic material selection, carving, polishing, and coating… theoretically, if machinery can fabricate complex mechanical armor suits, then it should be possible to produce ordinary rune-engraved dolls as well.

If a standardized production line could be created, the output of rune-engraved dolls would increase exponentially.

But then came another problem: the production of high-tier puppets required a large amount of advanced alchemical materials.

Su Lun had an abundance of miscellaneous materials at hand, but certain materials controlled by the Ruin military were in extreme shortage.

As a result, the production pace of both the rune-engraved dolls and the mechanical armor suits was not quick.

Therefore, the engineers in the war workshop had been focusing on research and experimentation these days, working on projects like the "Doll Production Line", testing the "Titan Mechanical Octopus", modifying armor blueprints to be suitable for puppet control, among other research-oriented projects.

What was actually being mass-produced was various alchemical ammunition.

That battle had made Su Lun deeply understand the concept that "firepower is truth".

As long as he had enough ammunition, even top-tier professionals would have to retreat.

Since the materials for producing alchemical ammunition were relatively abundant, he focused on production, deciding to procuce a large quantity first before considering other plans.

If he ended up not using them all, these "hard currencies" on the adventuring market could at least be sold for two to three times the profit.

Moreover, the war workshop now had conditions much better than previoulsy in the submarine, thanks to the small Void Realm.

Su Lun also planned to expand, which required the purchase of some mechanical factory equipment, such as large smelting furnaces, high-precision lathes, research instruments…

Unfortunately, those items were still regulated.

Thankfully, Su Lun was not alone, but part of "Dawn Organization".

After prior communications, the Beluga Commerce Assembly had already collected a lot of materials and found some black market channels through which they could purchase equipment from military factories.

All of these could be acquired only by going to Ruin.

The Eternal Night had been sailing south towards Ruin these past days.

...

Before the "Doll Production Line" was set up and the materials were delivered, Su Lun faced another issue—the number of puppets he could control.

His current limit on controlling puppets with divided attention was around one thousand, and increasing that number was proving very slow.

The main limitation was due to his spiritual power.

Spiritual power does not have precisely defined ranks, but Su Lun had clearly felt that he had reached a bottleneck, which was probably the realm of a "Puppetry Great Grandmaster".

After entering this stage, it became extremely difficult for spiritual power to achieve a qualitative leap.

Relying on the "Reaper" talent, he had rapidly reached his current realm. But advancing another step to reach the level of "spirit manifestation" and "Void Wanderer" like Pandora was very difficult, even harder than going from zero to where he was now.

Unless he became a killing maniac, engaging in battles like the one where he killed tens of thousands at once a few more times, there might be a glimmer of hope.

But that was only a possibility.

Su Lun had never considered this idea.

In the field of Alchemy, all energy was balanced.

Killing for the sake of killing would be rejected by some plane rules such as the "will of the world".

Commonly speaking, it would result in "bad luck" or "retribution".

This wasn’t some kind of mysticism.

It was a warning personally given by Sir Isaac, who possessed the "Fate" talent, to Mr. Jing.

Su Lun was not anxious.

After all, this was a supremely high threshold, and he guessed that there were probably no more than a handful of individuals in the world whose spiritual power surpassed this barrier.

He had only advanced to the fifth rank, and there was a long road ahead.

Moreover, Su Lun had an advantage over most people.

That was the "Eclipse" totem.

Su Lun had previously experienced a spiritual mutation, with whispers causing a massive influx of violent and negative spiritual power.

These negative spiritual energies were constantly being absorbed by the "Eclipse" totem inscribed by Yuta with Divine Power.

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He had initially seen it as a burden, but now he was somewhat looking forward to the totem being full and helping him break through his spiritual realm.

Not only in spiritual power, but the upper limit of his "multi-hearted multi-tasking" ability also needed to be enhanced.

To achieve the scenario he envisioned, where one could control tens, even hundreds of thousands of puppets, a stronger control power was needed.

Thankfully, there was the miraculous Alchemy, and some alchemical grafts and advanced materials possessed similar abilities.

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As long as one searched diligently, it might be possible to encounter them one day.

...

The Eternal Night sailed through the waves with the wind, and almost a month had passed in a blink of an eye.

During the voyage, they had encountered many fleets of ships, including merchant ships, pirate ships, and scout ships of unknown forces.

Fortunately, upon seeing the Eternal Night’s imperial-class warship, the vast majority of vessels automatically steered clear; a few that attempted to tail them and the North Sea fleet that came to intercept were directly pursued and sunk by Su Lun and his crew.

With the Dawn Group possessing the world’s top-tier ships, Mr. Jing’s high-level prowess, and the best navigators, they naturally didn’t encounter any accidents.

During this nearly month-long voyage, Su Lun stayed in the cabin the whole time.

The ennobling ceremony and arranged marriage in Leighton were not going to be peaceful in two months, and he needed to make some preparations.

This busy period had also allowed the completion of some essentials required for battle.

...

One day, on a deserted island near the western coast of Ruin,

Su Lun was roasting coconuts and crabs on the beach with his two disciples, Karma and Aberc.

They had been waiting here for nearly half a day.

Half a day ago, Su Lun and Mr. Jing had parted ways.

The rest of the Dawn Group was heading to the Province of Synordia first, which was the territory that Mr. Jing’s bloodline had managed for hundreds of years and also the foundation of the Dawn organization.

A large organization had many diplomatic problems to deal with, even if it was a neutral one.

Mr. Jing had many matters to handle such as bounty orders, alliances, and recruitment.

After the battle at the city-state of Moros, "Dawn" had become famous, which would certainly attract a large number of people to join.

Su Lun was going to Ruin to fetch materials and had no interest in various organizational matters, so he planned to switch to a passing cruise ship heading to Leighton.

Today the weather was mild, with a gentle sea breeze.

On the white sandy beach, Su Lun sat there flipping through the alchemical tomes he had obtained from the Void Secret Realm.

The coconuts crabs on the fire were starting to smell delicious, and the master and disciples simply settled their lunch.

Just then, Aberc, who had been perched atop a coconut tree, spotted something and excitedly called down to Su Lun on the ground, "Master, a ship is coming! The hull bears the name ’Queen of Rodrica’!"

Su Lun heard this and stood up, leaping onto a tree to also see a steam-powered steel behemoth slowly approaching on the horizon.

A glint of anticipation flashed in his eyes.

This was precisely the ship he had been waiting for.

This luxurious cruise liner had already circled around most of Ruin and would arrive at the imperial capital Leighton in half a month’s time.

That was exactly where Su Lun was headed.

Taking a ride on the downwind ship was only one reason.

More importantly, Mr. Hei had sent a message that this ship was carrying an important member of the "Giant Hermit Society"!!