Mechanical Alchemist-Chapter 529 528 [Medusa’s Serpentine Staff]
Su Lun and his three companions quietly drank in a corner of the tavern.
They also felt that this trip to Atalan City had been very worthwhile, as they had acquired a great deal of critical information.
The sacrifice would take place in a few days. When that evil dragon roared again to remind the people, they would send out treasures and the sacrificial maiden over the sea for the evil dragon's enjoyment.
Su Lun and his companions still had plenty of time to prepare.
However, the information gained from the tavern, although plentiful, was limited.
Commoners and adventurers could hardly access some of the more high-end information.
For example, as soon as Su Lun heard about "Helen" being struck by the petrification curse, he felt there was something fishy about it—likely some sort of royal scandal.
But compared to the excited tavern chatter about "Pania Kingdom's number one beauty," Su Lun was more curious about how the Queen of the Silver Dragon Country fell under the curse. Wasn't petrification a natural ability of the Gorgons with serpentine hair?
But, this was all secondary.
What was important was that Su Lun had confirmed that the Silver Dragon Country's royal family indeed possessed a formula to undo petrification.
Although he guessed that the ingredients needed for the formula would be difficult to find, there was still great hope for solving his mother Tanni's curse.
...
Before long, the four of them drank up and left the tavern.
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They planned to find a place to stay first and stick around the city for the night.
However, not long after they exited the tavern, Tatu suddenly noticed something. She glanced at Qian Tiao and said, "Teacher, it seems we're being watched."
Upon hearing that, Tatu became a bit tense.
For the Naga people, being discovered in human territory was not a good outcome—they were likely to be captured, enslaved, and sold.
"Oh."
Qian Tiao responded lazily, completely unconcerned.
Su Lun also showed no change in expression.
In fact, he knew during the drinking earlier that they were being watched.
Despite all the adventurers in the tavern dressed weirdly, the four of them, even though they were in a corner and cloaked, looked quite odd upon closer inspection.
No matter where they were, there was no shortage of those local bullies looking to scheme and exploit.
The streets of the city were very narrow. As they walked out of the tavern and into an alley, they could already hear the footsteps of those ready to ambush them.
Su Lun thought about it and decided not to cause unnecessary trouble.
With a pinch of his sorcerer's seals, a spatial gateway appeared in front of him, and the four stepped through.
At almost the same moment, in that alley, seven or eight nefarious-looking individuals ran into each other at both ends,
The skinny, sleazy man with a goatee who took the lead looked at the deserted alley, puzzled, and said, "Strange, where have they gone?"
...
Su Lun and his companions stepped out and found themselves in another deserted alley a few streets away.
Atalan City had many adventurers and plenty of inns.
They had not walked far when they noticed an inn with the sign "Beast Knights Inn."
They rented a room, intending to stay just for the night.
But they had not expected the living conditions in the Dragon Country to be so deplorable.
The inn looked to be one of the better ones in the city, but besides a few wooden beds, there were virtually no other furnishings in the room.
Compared to Senior Councilor Lu Ying's inn, this place was as rudimentary as a stable.
Furthermore, it seemed that the people of the city didn't have the habit of bathing, as the inn had no private bathrooms. Not to mention bathrooms, even latrines were just wooden buckets.
The windows embedded in the stone walls were very small, leading to poor air circulation, which caused a fusion of odd smells to always linger in the inn.
In the room, all four of them frowned slightly.
Luckily for Su Lun, the inn was merely a place for meditation in a different location, so the poor conditions weren't much of an issue.
After Tatu made the beds, the four prepared to rest.
Qian Tiao, feeling very bored as she had wanted to take a bath at the inn and was utterly disappointed, sat idle for less than half an hour before she picked up her knife and strapped it to her waist.
With a sudden excited demeanor, as if she had thought of something fun, this gambling-addicted woman turned to Su Lun and said, "Su Lun, you guys rest. I'm going to go out for a bit."
Su Lun couldn't help but laugh and cry at her predictable behavior.
Tatu, knowing her teacher's intentions, asked, "Ah... Teacher, are you sure you'll understand what they're saying in the gambling house?"
Qian Tiao, with a look of someone who knows the ropes, raised an eyebrow and responded, "Watching the size of the dice doesn't require understanding others' words."
She had been pent up during the time on the ship.
Gambling ultimately required betting with strangers to be thrilling; the sensation of risking one's entire fortune was no less exciting than risking one's life, something that couldn't be experienced gambling with acquaintances.
Su Lun didn't say much and simply reminded her with a smile, "Alright. Just remember not to draw your knife first if something happens."
Qian Tiao now had top-tier strength. Language barriers would at most cause some inconvenience, but it wouldn't be dangerous.
After all, she only had this little pastime.
Qian Tiao casually responded, "Got it."
Tatu asked, "Miss Qian Tiao, do you need me to accompany you?"
Tatu also said, "Teacher, do you want me to come with you?"
"No need."
As she spoke, Qian Tiao had already slammed the door of the room shut.
Finally, at a gambling house where she knew no one, she didn't want anyone disturbing her gambling mood.
...
After Qian Tiao left, the room quieted down.
Su Lun and the two others each meditated in their own way, rather leisurely.
But this peaceful scene didn't last long. Around midnight, a group of seven or eight guys made their way to the front of the inn, sneaking around surreptitiously.
Su Lun, whose perception was always extended outward, immediately recognized these fellows as the ones who had been eyeing them earlier at the tavern.
He wasn't surprised that the locals had found their accommodations.
Seeing that these thugs had already let them off once but were still looking for trouble, Su Lun's expression grew darker.
When they reached the door, Lolo Tanni noticed them as well.
She glanced at Su Lun, seemingly asking if they should take action.
Su Lun shook his head and continued his cross-legged meditation.
Hearing no response from within the room, the outsiders assumed they were asleep and, believing they hadn't been noticed, silently took out their tools and began to pick the lock. They were evidently not amateurs at such misdeeds.
The gang burst in, and the dim light of the essential oil lamp cast flickering shadows over several faces.
The Goatee-sporting skinny lecher at the forefront was a bit taken aback. Were these people not asleep?
However, he quickly changed his tune and said, "Town patrol inspection, hey~ where are you folks from?"
The intruders, upon seeing Tatu and Lolo Tanni's alluring figures and not wearing cloaks, also revealed a lecherous glint in their eyes.
In Atalan City, outsiders without any backing were merely sheep awaiting slaughter.
Tatu even attempted to translate the question.
But Su Lun shook his head, not intending to waste time with idle talk. He simply said indifferently, "Tell them to leave the room now. Otherwise, they die."
With his current level of spiritual power, he didn't need to converse to understand the intentions of ordinary people; a single glance was enough.
That malevolent gaze did not escape Su Lun's notice; how could he not know that these thugs harbored thoughts of murder and robbery?
Having let them off once before and now seeing them return, he found the repeated targeting quite troublesome and decided to eliminate this nuisance once and for all.
Even though Tatu translated his words diplomatically, "My master does not appreciate disturbances. Please leave, or we will have to be inhospitable..."
These gentle words of persuasion seemed only to convince the local toughs that they were an easy mark.
They feigned outrage, as though provoked, and suddenly drew the weapons at their waists.
The skinny man with the Goatee saw that Su Lun was unfazed and deduced he might have some skills, but he sneered fearlessly, bringing up his own connections, "Heh, you dare to make a move in this town? Let me tell you, the Deputy Commander of the City Guard is my brother-in-law, and the Town Lord is also..."
But before he could finish his sentence, they saw the figure meditating on the bed suddenly disperse into the air.
Then, before the seven or eight people could react, Su Lun had already appeared behind them.
In the dim room, a sinister black light spread, and a chilling, terrifying presence quickly suffused the area.
In an instant, a cold sharpness stabbed at their backs, as life swiftly slipped away.
In the face of Death, life was as fragile as a stalk of rice.
In their final moments, the local thugs looked back in horror, their terrified eyes reflecting the shadow of a cloaked figure wielding a scythe.
The eerie black light vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
Dealing with a group of almost third or fourth-tier robbers took but a moment.
Su Lun harvested their souls without a sound and left no trace in the room.
After absorbing their memories, Su Lun murmured to himself in an epiphany, "So they were indeed emboldened..."
Only then did he realize that these men weren't foolish; they were simply too accustomed to rampant arrogance.
In the eyes of these local thugs, those staying in an inn surely weren't nobles.
If they were adventurers or merchants, the local thugs were used to bullying them anyway.
After all, this skinny leader did have some genuine connections to the Town Lord, and someone would have his back if things escalated.
But they had never imagined they would encounter a formidable outsider from the open sea.
Compared to those nepotistic connections, Su Lun found something even more interesting in those memories: the Town Lord of Atalan was surnamed "Rodriguez"?
....
It seemed that nobles everywhere weren't much different.
They liked to constantly talk about their family's ancient history, to distinguish themselves from the common folks.
Therefore, from the memories he had just stripped away, Su Lun also learned that this Lord Bald was from a once-prosperous royal family among the nine great kingdoms of Dragon Country—a lineage ancient as years passed.
What Su Lun found coincidental was that one of the Senior Councilors Lu Ying, was from the "Rodriguez family."
And more coincidentally, after harvesting the memories of that old monster August, Su Lun found this Map of Dragon Country's Sea Area and learned that Lu Ying's Rodriguez family originated from this region.
"Could they really be from the same lineage?"
A rush of thoughts passed through Su Lun's mind, and he felt the chances were high.
Big Shots rarely coincidentally shared a surname.
Moreover, in the soul of that skinny man, Su Lun discovered an intriguing memory: there was a secret treasure vault in the lord's mansion.
A powerful noble ruling the area would have even more useful data and intelligence.
Thinking of this, his eyes shifted, and he said to Tatu and Lolo Tanni beside him, "I'm going to the Town Lord's mansion. Wait here for me."
The thugs had come secretly, and they died quietly, so the inn wouldn't pose any problems for the moment.
```
Even if there were any issues, they were minor.
Lolota obediently responded, "All right, Mr. Su Lun."
"Ah... oh."
As they were about to leave, Tatu, who stood to one side, reacted for a moment, coming back to his senses as Su Lun spoke.
She had truly been stunned just now.
Several suspicious-looking men had burst in, and she had thought a fierce battle was about to ensue, but who could have imagined it would end so quietly?
It was the first time she had seen Su Lun take action.
She had never imagined that the refined and composed Mr. Su Lun could be as terrifying as the god of death.
Su Lun smiled, a ripple in the space passed, and he had already disappeared from the room.
As he walked away, Tatu finally felt the heart palpitations, akin to being accompanied by the god of death, fade and weakly asked, "Miss Lolota, just how formidable is Mr. Su Lun?"
Lolota blinked and laughed, "I can't quite explain it. But super impressive, for sure."
...
There were no streetlights in the city, and the night was pitch black save for the occasional dots of candlelight.
The souls of the eight ruffians contained no valuable intelligence, but they did know every alley and street of Atalan clearly.
Su Lun teleported along his way, quickly arriving outside the highest castle in the city center.
The castle was completely isolated from the common residential areas by its tall walls.
Green vines crawled over the white stone walls while guards constantly watched over the ramparts from the arrow towers.
After sensing the spatial structure, although there were magical warning measures, they seemed virtually nonexistent in Su Lun's eyes, and he teleported directly inside.
As soon as he left, several magic beasts with keen senses of smell ran over, sniffed around the area, and finding nothing, they left again.
Su Lun didn't wander aimlessly in the castle but teleported directly into the study.
Unlike the simplicity of the common residences, the study was decorated in ultimate luxury, with various gold and silver objects everywhere to be seen.
There were also shelves full of various tomes.
Even if nobles were illiterate, they would still collect all kinds of books in their studies.
Su Lun gave them a cursory glance.
Because he had incidentally acquired the common language of the Dragon Country, he immediately spotted various titles.
"Beast Taming Skills," "History of Niguna Civilization," "The Nine Kingdoms," "Rodriguez's Dragon Slayer Warrior Tales"...
Seeing the same dragon emblem that signified nobility, Su Lun was certain that the lord of Atalan City and Senior Councilor Lu Ying's Rodriguez were from the same lineage.
The skinny ruffian and the wife of Lord Bald's butler were related, and although he relied on the lord's mansion for food, he was also coveting the treasures within the castle.
That led him to find out from the butler that there might be an entrance to the lord's secret chamber within this study.
The study was full of magic traps, and it wouldn't have been easy to find the entrance.
But for Su Lun's spatial ability, it was more than easy.
His gaze settled on the oil painting of the lord behind the mahogany desk.
The picture depicted a noble dressed figure with a goatee and a fat face, who was none other than Lord Bald.
Su Lun ignored the intricate alarm mechanisms, sensing the location of the passage behind it.
He asked the black crow on his shoulder, and the old crow indicated there was no danger.
Su Lun teleported through.
On inspection, he found a dark staircase descending below, with a not-so-small space sensed underground.
"There's actually someone here?"
In Su Lun's perception, dozens of meters below, there was a rather large space with more than ten souls fluctuating within.
He initially thought it might be a secret prison, but upon teleporting over, he was greeted by a ghastly red scene.
The space featured an altar made of human bones, with magic formations of red flesh, and the air was thick with the stench of blood.
Carvings that resembled hellish demons adorned the surrounding walls, and the chamber blatantly radiated nauseating waves of chaotic spiritual power.
"An altar to an Evil God?"
The sight was increasingly familiar to Su Lun, and his brow furrowed.
It was clear to him that the lord of the city was secretly worshipping some Evil God.
The dozen individuals were sacrifices to the Evil God, hanging from the stone walls, slowly being drained of blood. The piled skeletons made it unknown just how many commoners the Rodriguez family had sacrificed.
Su Lun had thought this was just an ordinary noble, but hidden within was this terrible spectacle.
No matter what that man worshipped the Evil God for, the mere act of sacrificing humans was certainly the work of an Evil God.
Su Lun didn't rush to destroy the Formation but teleported again, deeper down.
He then arrived in front of a magic stone door and, inspecting the magical inscriptions, let out a light sound of surprise, "Huh... there's a spatial prohibition too?"
The door's prohibitions were highly sophisticated, truly reflective of the once royal heritage.
Su Lun used the power of the "Space-Time Ring of Urobolos" to teleport right past it.
Once inside, he was met with a dazzling array of gold and silver.
"This rich?"
Su Lun looked at the small mountain of amassed treasure and was slightly surprised, gaining a new perspective on the lord of Atalan City, a town of just over a hundred thousand inhabitants.
This treasure was likely worth more than if the entire town were sold ten times over.
```
However, Su Lun wasn't very interested in the ordinary gold and silver treasures; he turned his gaze toward the special items instead.
Common gold and silver treasures along with agate steamed and piled up on the ground, probably a few dozen cases.
In the secret chamber, there were also some wooden shelves, on which were placed some high-level Demon Cores, gemstones, Dou Qi secret techniques, knight's breathing methods, martial techniques, and so on—things that were obviously more valuable.
But Su Lun's eyes were drawn to a long, conspicuous sealed box placed in the most eye-catching position.
The box was about one meter twenty, with densely packed symbols that looked like gold inlay craftsmanship. Evil
Su Lun was greatly surprised at the sight and thought to himself, "This is... a divine level seal?"
The seal on the box was very advanced, and it was clearly an alchemical Sealing Skill, not magic.
Did Dragon Country still have an alchemical system?
Upon appraisal, the name was displayed.
[Sealed Sovereignty Treasure Box]
Details: The treasure box that once symbolized the royal power of Dragon Country's nine great kingdoms; a ninth-order Blood Demon Rune seal, only the fresh blood of the Rodriguez family can open it.
"Blood Demon Rune?"
Su Lun murmured to himself.
From what he knew of such sealing runes in this system, they were usually used to seal very dangerous things.
A treasure box that symbolizes royal power, did it need such a high-grade seal?
Looking at this box, he immediately guessed that it must contain something extraordinary.
And looking at the "corrosion runes" that hadn't been opened for countless years, Su Lun was puzzled again. It was like the dragon language magic box he had obtained in Lington before, which hadn't been opened by anyone for at least a few hundred years.
But since the Town Lord was a member of the Rodriguez family, why hadn't he opened it?
Was it that he couldn't open it? Or that he shouldn't open it?
Su Lun's mind was full of doubts.
But the blood of the Rodriguez family was the key to unleashing the seal... didn't he just happen to have Augustus's body in his hand?
Thinking about trying it out, if anything unusual happened, this secret vault was the best place to be.
As the thought struck him, he directly took out Augustus's body and smeared the fresh blood on the box.
Upon another look, the entire box's magical runes lit up.
The box opened a crack, as if something extremely dangerous was about to emerge into the world, and a mysterious aura rushed forth.
Su Lun was on high alert, ready to teleport away at a moment's notice, but the crow on his shoulder was entirely calm.
He just watched patiently.
However, the bad situation he expected didn't happen, and the box opened smoothly.
Inside was a scepter with a golden carving of a snake.
The serpent appeared lifelike, its scales clearly visible.
This was not long for a scepter, and it exuded a sense of "sanctity," "dignity," "supremacy,"... and even a hint of danger.
Su Lun felt this was the most exquisite gold carving he had ever seen.
Upon appraisal, it turned out to be a legendary cursed object!
[Medusa's Serpentine Staff]
Grade: Legendary
Description: Curse of the earth, this is the power of gods;
Cursed Features: Accumulate the power of the earth (9999/9999), using this staff can activate 'Petrification Curse,' turning all creatures not exceeding the artifact's own law into stone; Those not mastering the corresponding level of Earthly Law will suffer the curse's backlash and petrify themselves;
Details: A Great Alchemist, Martin de Rio, once slew a divine-ranked gorgon and refined its serpentine hair into nine Scepters of Sovereignty for the human kings of the nine great kingdoms; the scepters symbolized power, as well as the strength to confront dragons; releasing all accumulated energy could likely petrify an eighth-order dragon;
"Can petrify an eighth-order dragon? That strong?"
Su Lun's eyes lit up, and his blood surged with excitement, "What a treasure!"
The staff, having not been used for hundreds of years, was fully charged.
As for the curse's backlash, others might fear it, but an undead like himself didn't worry about it in the slightest.
Seeing the staff, Su Lun immediately realized that he had acquired another formidable weapon.
He hadn't expected that a casual visit would result in the discovery of such a priceless treasure.
Since he was a follower of an Evil God, there was no need for courtesy.
Originally, he just wanted to see if he could find any information about a petrification potion, but now it seemed he should take on the role of a thief.
....
But just at the moment he opened the box, the crow on his shoulder let out a "caw," warning him of danger.
Su Lun immediately realized the danger did not come from the scepter or any guards, but rather, something in the vast beyond had taken notice of him.
"Strange... Could it be that some false god related to this scepter has noticed me?"
Su Lun guessed in his mind.
He quickly threw the scepter into the small void world, and that feeling immediately vanished.
Taking advantage of the situation before being discovered, Su Lun swiftly emptied all the treasures of the treasury.
Then, after exiting, he rescued the dozen or so sacrifices, destroyed the Evil God's altar, and casually fed the power-gathering stele to Pandora as nourishment.
On his way out, he ransacked all the books in the study, then set a fire to completely erase any traces.
By the time the commotion of the fire started in the Lord's mansion, Su Lun had already teleported back to the inn, as if he had never left.
