Capítulo 1673: Chapter 1672: Human Alchemy
The dual colors of gold and silver indicate that one side of the cover is gold, and the other side is silver.
gan gently pinched the pendant and slightly shook it, and the small pendant transford into a large book held in her hands:
“Last ti on the island, I told you I had an Angel-Level Relic Weapon, look, this is it.”
This book is different from Miss Pavo, the Vice President of the Truth Society’s “Smowell Codex.” It can’t leave its owner and fly, but it doesn’t stop Shard from feeling the power unique to an Angel-Level Relic.
“Can you tell , besides enhancing spellcasting, does it have any other traits?”
Shard asked, and gan gestured for Shard to follow her as they strolled through the deserted streets in the rain. The sound of the rain, now heavier than in the morning, was omnipresent.
The cold spread outside, but fortunately, it’s spring, not autumn, so every downpour heralds a more powerful vitality to co.
“The Angel-Level Relic [To of Desire] allows you to fully inscribe the Arcane Technique, Sorcery, or sorcery you have mastered onto it, including the thods of learning the powers, spell effects, and so on. After imprinting these, you can store the supernatural abilities in this relic, requiring only minimal spiritual power to spellcast thereafter. If you’re willing to pay additional costs, you can even store others’ powers.”
Shard raised an eyebrow, realizing that although gan claid this relic was not as good as the God Summoner’s [Night Watchman], this feature alone was useful enough:
“I suppose the book’s limitations lie in the storage capacity and the cost to maintain storage… since it’s the To of Desire, it should also affect you.”
“Yes, it makes
crave knowledge even more, endlessly more. If not controlled, a deranged end for a Chosen One judged by knowledge and wisdom is what awaits . Luckily, my longstanding troubles over the past decades, with chronic ntal disturbances hindering my scholarly pursuits, mitigate the book’s impact on .”
As she walked forward, she lowered her gaze, stroking the large tal-covered book she was holding, not shying away from discussing this with Shard. The golden side of the book had a complete ancient sigil representing “Wisdom,” while the silver side was encircled by five stones resembling “Sage’s Glowstone.”
“Aside from storing and releasing, at close range, it can also resolve the spellcasting effects of others. I could use this relic when I was at Eleven Rings, but when I was on the verge of losing control recently, I couldn’t touch it. That’s why on the last two island visits, I practically ventured empty-handed.”
“And now, you can use the book’s power?”
“Partly. At my peak, how powerful I was, a Six Rings Warlock like you couldn’t imagine. I admit you’re impressive, but your level still limits you.”
gan showed a smile as she held the book from below with one hand and placed the other hand lightly on top, her palm covering the sigil representing “Knowledge”:
“Then, I’ll take over from here.”
An invisible wind expanded outward from the female sorceress, parting the curtain-like rain as though by a transparent giant hand.
The tal-covered book emitted a gentle glow, transforming the Whisper Elent into the unique Four Elents wave of gan and Audrey, reaching indeed the high level of a High Rank Sorcerer/High Rank Witch.
By then, they had reached the door leading to Rot-Eye Barry’s lair. If you opened this door, it led to the gang territory in the slum characterized by a “return” shape. Shard used his eyes to ask the lady next to him whether to open the door now, but she shook her head slightly:
“This is enough.”
The glow from the book grew brighter, transforming until the whole book beca a large tallic bow of gold and silver. Studded with sky-blue gemstones, the bow dazzled even without sunlight, as if both tal and gemstones were glistening.
She aid at the sky, drawing the bowstring, while a fog-like, amorphous arrow appeared at her fingertips.
Swoosh!
The foggy arrow flew into the rainy sky, then silently exploded in mid-air. The arrow’s effect began to influence the entire street, and even Shard felt a slight drowsiness.
The surroundings seed sowhat different; the streets remained rainy and deserted, but the sound of the rain lightened, and the scene faded slightly, prompting an instinctual sense within Shard that it might be better not to linger here.
“What kind of Arcane Technique is this? I sensed the effects of a large-scale Coma Spell, Layabout Banishnt Spell, and Silent Doorway.”
He curiously asked, seeing gan’s longbow had turned back into the book. Noting her expression paused, Shard realized it wasn’t the Circle Sorcerer’s power but the Witch’s power; the lady with brown shoulder-length hair explained:
“This is an Arcane Technique – [Uninhabited Territory], causing all life in the area to slumber and expelling anyone entering it for a certain period. It’s normal you haven’t heard of it as this Arcane Technique is challenging to learn, so it’s lesser known, yes… oh, this book has two modes, book and bow, but it only transforms into a bow when releasing stored power, thus it’s not a weapon.”
Shard recognized gan’s intention to cover sothing but didn’t delve further, instead voluntarily opening the door before him.
Besides being locked from the inside, two door bars braced the door. Shard’s [Key of the Door] only worked on locks, but pure force worked on everything.
Pushing open the door led to a narrow alley, divided by a central low, dilapidated building into two sides. Black ragged cloth draped over the alleys on either side, their purpose—whether to prevent peeking from above or sothing else—was unknown.
On a rainy day, only a few people with umbrellas were outside, and by now, all of them had lost consciousness. Shard kindly walked over to check their identities before casually throwing them into those open-doored houses nearby. These two-story houses were also quite run-down, with so rough-looking individuals gathered inside, either drinking or playing cards, yet they too had lost consciousness.
The building near the entrance that looked the best was the one on the left after entering. Even though it was a street-facing building, there was no door facing Gore Street outside; instead, a glass door was opened internally.
The wall with the glass door was also made of glass, but it was frosted glass. Therefore, from the outside, one could only vaguely see the interior of the room. Curious, Shard pushed the door open for a glance and found that inside was a shop.
High-end gold and silver items were on display in the cabinets, and he even saw specially ruled Roder Cards displayed on the wall shelves. However, he didn’t take away that card. While the Outlander liked Roder Cards, he only liked ones he won or bought; he wouldn’t use ones that were robbed, feeling it would tarnish his deck.
“This is Rot-Eye Barry’s highest-end black market, specifically for auctioning high-value items.”
gan followed Shard into the shop, skillfully reaching the innermost part of the store, then signaled Shard to help her open the safe hidden behind the floor mirror.
Gold blocks, cash, property deeds, and contracts filled the entire chest, but gan only took a drawstring cloth bag from the top tier. She opened the bag, pouring the black pearl inside into her palm.
This pearl wasn’t nearly as big as the one Shard gifted to Queen Diana last year, but the rarity of the black pearl itself determined its high value. Shard wasn’t an expert in gem appraisal, but he had heard Miss Galina and Tifa discuss similar topics, knowing that the price of black pearls was related to their size, roundness, smoothness, and color depth.
Speaking of the pearl gan held, aside from not being very large—which, in fact, was about a quarter of Shard’s fist size—its other attributes were perfect.
Even having seen the jewelry cases of Miss Galina and Lecia, he had to admit that this pearl was quite remarkable.
“The second key requires a flawless, round black pearl. I could buy a black pearl myself, but none were very satisfactory. I heard recently that Rot-Eye Barry had one, and initially planned to purchase it through Paradise Island Pharmaceuticals. Since you said he’s a cultist, you’ve saved
so money.”
gan said with a smile, putting the pearl back into the bag and then into her pocket:
“I’m only taking this pearl; the rest is yours.”
She spoke to Shard again, but Shard didn’t move to take anything; absent necessity, he rarely took other people’s money when breaking into places. He wasn’t the sa as he almost was at the beginning, nearly unable to afford food:
“This money is too dirty, I won’t take it. If we have ti later, let’s donate it to the Church so that the poor in Green Lake City can enjoy a hearty al.”
Leaving the shop, they walked deeper along the road on the left. A few hundred ters away, at the point where the paths on both sides rged again, was Rot-Eye Barry’s “office building.”
The term “office building” was strange, but Shard refused to find a better way to describe it.
It was a three-story building, the only one like it here. The first floor seed like an open tavern, with long tables filling the room, various firearms, daggers, and longswords hanging on the walls.
The second floor was the office area. Even gang leaders needed to verify accounts, personnel lists, and handle relationships with other gangs. Shard and gan flipped through it briefly, but found nothing related to Circle Sorcerers.
Despite the existence of a third floor, no stairs leading up could be found on the second floor. However, Shard didn’t need to transform into a butterfly to fly to the third floor; gan, who had already investigated, rotated the candle holder on the east wall, and the bookshelf revealed a door with a rumble, behind which was a narrow staircase.
“Such an old-fashioned chanism… I might consider installing one in my ho.”
Shard examined the concealed door.
“Why, do you have sothing to hide? Wouldn’t using a ritual to conceal things be more convenient than chanical contraptions?”
The Female Sorcerer curiously asked, as Shard shook his head:
“I have nothing to hide, just feel that it looks quite good.”
gan laughed, gesturing for Shard to join her upstairs:
“Only Rot-Eye Barry himself could go to the third floor. There should be valuable clues here.”
With that, she entered the concealed door.
Of course, Circle Sorcerers, protecting their wealth and secrets wouldn’t solely rely on chanical traps. Rot-Eye Barry also had so security asures on the stairs to the third floor.
Those were three human eyes embedded in the side wall of the staircase. Those eyes seed alive and could even rotate within the wall.
“This isn’t Arcane Technique; it’s an Alchemical Item. On one hand, it can directly put those with weak spiritual power into a coma when viewed directly. On the other hand, it can record the observed information, and upon destruction of the eyes, it can notify the creator. The only drawback is that crafting such an Alchemical Item requires taking eyeballs directly from a live human.”
gan explained, the Grand Witch of Wisdom and Knowledge being well-inford and knowing how to handle it.
She waved at those eyeballs:
“Sleep.”
The three eyes turned their eyeballs towards the wall, and gan gestured for Shard to continue upwards with her.
On reaching the third floor, they discovered that the room with only one window was actually a laboratory. The room was unusually clean, with reagent bottles and other common alchemical devices placed on a professional tal laboratory table.
What was uncommon, however, was the surgical table by the west wall and various specins of human organs and fish corpses in the closet.
Shard frowned as he looked at the human fingers sewn onto the body of a fish, preserved in liquid:
“Among the Circle Sorcerers I know, very few are adept at undead abilities. Do all such Circle Sorcerers enjoy conducting these disgusting experints?”
“Only a few do. It seems like he is conducting an experint to artificially create a specific Water Ghost.”
gan flipped through the experintal records on the table and checked the densely marked books nearby. Being a Circle Sorcerer is akin to being a scholar, so even cultists would have undergone various training:
“Oh, so the idea is to graft organs and limbs. The Truth Society abandoned this line of experintal thought more than thirty years ago. The Truth Society aid to graft exotic creature organs onto humans through experints, attempting to grant humans the innate racial talent of exotic creatures, whereas Bally wanted to make resurrected corpses stronger…still, he had so of his own ideas, though not many. But considering he’s just a Low Ring, this talent is comndable.”
Though she and Shard both disliked such experints, she continued to read through other records on the desk:
“The later entries are…oh? So it’s human alchemy…”
“What?”
Shard suddenly turned his head:
“Do you an what I think you an? Creating life? He’s just a Low Ring Sorcerer, how could he possibly achieve that?”
While the highest masterpiece of alchemy is the Philosopher’s Stone, creating life through alchemy is also a supre goal pursued by alchemy. There’s even a saying that the Philosopher’s Stone itself is the most foundational form of life because the real Philosopher’s Stone configures an Elixir of Immortality while repairing both soul and body defects.
So ancient alchemist manuscripts even suggest that the Philosopher’s Stone, through specific thods, can directly fuse with the human body to seamlessly beco part of it—a concept sowhat similar to Shard’s Arcane Technique “Active Soil.” However, this characteristic was not acknowledged in the Sixth Era since no one could replicate the phenona recorded in those materials.
“Bally isn’t creating life in a complete sense; it’s very rudintary. He uses live entities to infect the corpses of the deceased, thereby forming living undead. This experint is strictly forbidden and really doesn’t seem like sothing a Low Ring Sorcerer can accomplish…hmm? What is this?”
Amidst the sound of rain outside the window, she broke the lock on the desk drawer and took out a file folder. As she flipped through the docunts inside, her speed increased:
“Quick, look at this. Human Alchemy!”
“You’ve already said that once.”
Shard walked over, but the witch shook her head, her expression very serious this ti:
“Not the basic corpse stitching techniques. What I have here is a genuine attempt at creating life through human alchemy. This material is quite elentary; I can tell it was given to Rot-Eye Bally by soone to assist him in his undead experints. In other words, behind Rot-Eye Bally, there is an exceptionally skillful alchemist. Although I don’t believe the other party can truly create life, they have indeed reached the forefront.”
Shard frowned slightly:
“Does the Drowning Cult really have such remarkable individuals?”
When he interacted with the three ocean-related cults in Coldwater Port, he had never heard that the Drowning Cult was so powerful. Their level should be on par with the already weakened Crimson Sect; the two have been evenly matched contenders for many years.
“No, it probably isn’t the Drowning Cult that gave him this material.”
The witch spoke with a sowhat displeased expression, rubbing the paper, then looking at the text in the manuscript:
“This kind of special manuscript paper is commonly used by our family. Many of the family’s past letters left by my father are on this type of paper; apart from this, I haven’t seen similar paper. I’ve also seen this handwriting in the books left by my father, where soone wrote down their reading reflections in this handwriting. This Human Alchemy material cos from the Edwards Family. These materials perfectly align with Bally’s research; it’s impossible he just found them randomly on the island.”
“This…”
This was intelligence they’d never considered before, Shard looked at the lady in front of him in surprise:
“Does this an we can already confirm that the cultists appearing locally are indeed connected to your family? Wait, could one of your ancestors be an Artificial Human?”
“Oh, of course not. Truly creating life from scratch is the domain of deities. Even the most advanced alchemist can only add or delete to a certain extent using humans as a blueprint. I suspect that one of my ancestors underwent human alchemy, which is why our bloodline carries that prophecy which says everyone will return.”
The witch provided the most likely speculation, and Shard pondered with a frown:
“Wait a minute, wasn’t your father Alphonse Edwards an adopted child?”
“Allegedly adopted; no one can be sure of that. Besides, isn’t it odd for the mysterious Edwards Family to suddenly adopt a child?”
The witch asked rhetorically, as she seed to be considering more things:
“While my father was alive, he seldom talked about family matters. I originally thought he was an adopted illegitimate child, yet still Edwards’ blood. Now that I think back…”
Her lips pressed together as her expression turned a bit unsightly:
“Could my father have also been so sort of test subject?”
“Lady, we have no evidence for anything right now, so let’s not jump to conclusions.”
Shard comforted, then suggested:
“If you trust , when we part ways tonight, you could give
a bit of your blood to verify your lineage.”
In Milestone, there is a relic that can verify bloodlines, which Shard and Mia have both used to confirm their heritage. However, blood is also the best dium for curses, especially blood offered voluntarily, so giving one’s blood to others must be done with extre precaution.
This act is more dangerous than handing over one’s house key to soone.
Audrey nodded gently:
“Let’s see about that in the evening; anwhile, let’s continue searching to see if there’s anything more here.”
She took the Human Alchemy material, as it was also one of Edwards’ relics. Then, she continued examining the desk and the bookshelf filled with various docunts and materials, while Shard checked other parts of the laboratory.
The items out in the open were of standard quality. A few potion ingredients might be valuable, but they were unrelated to their current objective.
Shard tried to find more connections between Rot-Eye Bally and the Edwards Family, or the sect he belonged to, but only occasionally noticed prayers incised with sharp tools on the walls and experintal table.
However, Shard’s excellent perception ca into play once more. As he moved along the wall, feeling every inch with his hand, “she” suddenly whispered a reminder by his ear:
[Below.]
Shard was standing in the southeast corner of the room, so he bent down and tapped on the sturdy stone floor, saying to the witch searching through the docunts:
“There are defensive chanisms here, I can’t unlock it.”
Violence could certainly break it, but Shard was wary of alerting Rot-Eye Bally.
“Look at that, even you have things you can’t do.”
The witch ca over, also tapped the floor a few tis, confird the Elent trace, retrieved a bottle of black magic potion from her satchel, poured it into her left palm, and dipped her right index finger into it. She then sared the ink-like magic potion on the floor.
Soon, a black ritual circle was outlined:
“Use Fossil to Mud on the area beside and then dig a hole from the side. Be careful not to damage this area of the floor where I drew the ritual.”
Shard followed suit, and soon extracted a small safe from beneath the floor.
Traces of ritual processing were also present on the safe, so the witch once again used her knowledge and experience to break it open. In just over ten minutes, the safe was unlocked.
Inside the safe, a pale heart was contained in a glass jar. The solution inside the container was pale yellow, and around the pallid heart, tiny bubbles were continually forming. It was alive, consistently absorbing liquid into its chambers, and then expelling it from the other end. The liquid ford a circulation like blood, and the scene appeared incredibly eerie.
Next to this glass jar were also so letters and docunts.
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