Mechanical Alchemist

Su Lun grasped the "Dragon's Tooth of Thunder" in one hand, as if capturing a scarlet thunder serpent.

When he took hold of it, the spiritually endowed thunder serpent struggled, trying to escape.

But Su Lun tensed his muscles and firmly clamped down on it. The thunder serpent couldn't break free, and the massive force of thunder it carried suddenly exploded. A muffled sound like a clap of thunder burst forth, emitting an energy wave as violent as a ninth-tier spell.

Su Lun was prepared, activating his impervious body, with dragon scale runes swirling around him. The exploding thunder serpent emitted countless scarlet thunder lights on the surface of his body, sending a paralyzing sensation throughout his body. He muttered to himself, "Such a powerful high-tier law of thunder..."

But he merely frowned slightly.

After enduring the release of magic power for a moment, the thunder serpent in his hand dissipated, reverting to a dragon tooth about a foot long.

This was indeed a fine epic-quality magic conductor.

After a glance, Su Lun casually stored it in his smaller void realm.

And with this magic conductor, crucial to the formation, taken away, the red thunder in the sky vanished instantly.

The thunderclouds quickly dispersed, as sunlight once again illuminated the sea and the stunned faces of the allied fleet members.

With this single move, Su Lun astounded everyone in the fleet.

This was a legion magic of power comparable to ninth-tier spells... and he just caught it with his bare hands?

It was said that some top eighth-tier alchemists could perhaps withstand such an attack, but catching it barehanded, regardless of whether the combat skills reached that level, how strong must one's body be to endure the eruption of ninth-tier magical power?

Moreover, observing his composed demeanor, it was clear he still had reserve strength.

In the fleet, if anyone witnessed this scene, the impact on their minds was indelible.

After the shock, they looked at Su Lun again, unable to harbor any doubts in their minds.

At this moment, they realized that the Dawn Squad was indeed here to reinforce them.

General Rostov, an old eighth-tier powerhouse, felt a tingling sensation along his scalp from the aura Su Lun had unleashed in that instant.

Ninth-tier?

Clearly not.

Observing the invisible energy layer swirling around Su Lun's body, they knew it was the eighth-tier impervious body.

Yet in the allied fleet, there were several eighth-tier professionals, none of whom felt even slightly confident about catching that earlier legion spell.

'Thunder Tiger' Meredith's eye twitched sharply, as if looking at a monster.

Regaining his senses, he murmured to himself, "So he has become this strong."

Not just strong, but exceedingly so.

This was beyond the level any eighth-tier professional he knew could reach.

They couldn't understand it.

Giant Dragon Gene Potion, Titan Gene Potion, and the knowledge of Alchemical Demigod Sir Isaac from five notebooks including "Dragon Rune Golden Body," "Heart of Alchemy," "Giant's Strength," and the alchemical relic "Philosopher's Stone"...

All of these, unheard of by average professionals except in legends.

Su Lun's combat power now vastly exceeded that of a typical eighth-tier professional.

...

Su Lun also noticed those astonished looks directed at him, but he didn't plan to explain much.

The battle had already begun, and there was no time for lengthy explanations.

Far off, the eight legion mages had taken their positions, forming a vast Octagram Array above the sea.

This was the legion magic "Siege Battle Array," which once completed, could summon a vast range of destructive beams. By then, even the well-armed allied fleet wouldn't stand a chance against such a bombardment.

Unfortunately for them, Su Lun was all too familiar with this legion technique and wouldn't give the enemy a chance.

His eyes detected the massive magic power gathering within the eight magic groups, immediately recognizing that the legion spell was at a critical juncture.

Now was the moment!

He took a step forward, entering a spatial rift, and disappeared from the deck completely.

The members of the allied fleet looked at each other, confusion flashing in their eyes.

What was this?

Their minds were still reeling from the shock of him catching the thunder with his bare hands, and now they saw Su Lun suddenly vanish.

Why would he leave at this critical moment?

Where else could he be if not on the ship, defending and counterattacking?

Could it be...

A possibility sprang up in everyone's mind—a thought they themselves could hardly believe.

They indeed acknowledged Su Lun's strength; his combat power just demonstrated might even match a ninth-tier professional.

But however strong, he was still just one person.

The enemy consisted of eight legion mages!

That type of legion formed into a battle array, solely existing for warfare, was the nightmare of any loner.

However, Su Lun's teleportation speed was faster than everyone's wild guesses.

Before the combined fleet could react and figure out what to do, an absurd scene played out before their eyes once again.

"Look there! At nine o'clock!"

"Oh, what is that?"

"It's puppets! My God, how come there are so many puppets!"

"..."

The very second after Su Lun disappeared, everyone saw a swarm of gargoyle puppets appear out of nowhere above a fleet of ten thousand mages.

The sight was dumbfounding.

In that instant, everyone understood what Su Lun had left the ship to do.

Meredith and General Rostov, the two old marshals, finally understood the true meaning of the plan Su Lun had mentioned earlier.

Although they did not know how he was controlling it, such a massive puppet army... This guy had intended from the start to annihilate the ten thousand mage formation!

Before, they thought his plan was mere fantasy.

Now, seeing this horde of gargoyle puppets that blotted out the sky, everyone felt a surge of hope so strong they could scarcely believe it themselves.

They had not yet recovered from the shock of witnessing Su Lun's combat strength and were once again stunned by the puppet army.

The number... it must be at least tens of thousands!

Those who had heard of Su Lun knew he was a formidable puppet master.

Back in Lyndon, Su Lun had even battled Aubrey Hernandez, the president of the Puppet Masters Guild, when one of his apprentices was kidnapped.

Even then, his puppetry technique had already reached a master level.

But in the eyes of top-notch powerhouses like Meredith and General Rostov, he was merely a young man with promising potential.

However, having not seen him for a year or two, they now saw a drastic transformation.

Not only had he entered the ranks of eighth-tier professionals, but he also possessed such an unimaginably massive puppet army.

...

"Am I seeing things? That... that person... he actually charged directly into the ten thousand mage formation?"

"That's too reckless! The ten thousand mage formation is both offensive and defensive. Even a ninth-tier professional would find it hard to escape unscathed, and he... "

"No, look! He... he broke through! The main ship of the ten thousand mage formation has been destroyed."

"My God, the puppets in the sky have formed into a battle array too! It's unbelievable, those puppets are also unleashing combined attacks!"

"Look, not just in the sky, but in the sea too! And... and mechanical octopuses! Those mechanical octopuses have destroyed the ships!"

"..."

In everyone's astonished gaze, one incredible scene after another unfolded.

They watched as that figure teleported directly into the enemy's headquarters, then rampaged through the equally dumbfounded mages like a destructive storm.

Behind him, the shadow of the grim reaper was almost tangible, his path marked by mages falling like harvested wheat.

At the same time, the puppet army in the sky formed a battle formation, the Nonagram Alchemy Formation lit up, and there erupted a terrifying spatial fluctuation that instantly shattered the fleet's defensive shields. As the shields broke, countless mechanical octopuses extended their tentacles and in moments nearly destroyed the wooden sailing ships.

A combination of moves swiftly breached the ten thousand mage formation's defenses.

Watching the scene unfold, the people of the combined fleet were rooted to the spot.

Was this the same ten thousand mage formation that had forced two great empires into retreat?

How come it seemed as fragile as an eggshell, breaking upon the slightest touch?

At that moment, time seemed to stop because their brains were too shocked to think on their own.

But it felt as though time was also flying because in a blink, the ten thousand mage formation's ships had mostly sunk, and the sea was ablaze.

From the moment that figure disappeared from the deck, it only took a few exchanges to determine the outcome of the battle—it seemed... the fight was already decided.

In the midst of her shock, Meredith couldn't help but murmur to herself, "A single person as a legion... The combat power of a puppeteer is simply too exaggerated."

Hearing her, General Rostov next to her responded, "The glow of dawn will eventually pierce through the darkness... A miracle has truly arrived."

Meredith: "Yes..."

The two old marshals, looking on, found themselves unexpectedly teary-eyed.

They had never feared death, so even in such a dire situation before, they thought only of fighting to the death.

But what they feared was, their defeat might forever extinguish hope for the Alchemical plane.

After the planar invasion, the Alchemical plane seemed to enter an eternal night, continuously losing battles. Seeing the deepening despair was only possible for these front-line career soldiers.

But at this moment, they felt as though they were witnessing the first light of dawn break.

The lone figure who had stormed into the enemy's headquarters had given the entire combined fleet a beam of uplifting light!

....

The people of the combined fleet watched nervously as Su Lun entered the enemy camp alone.

But actually, when he charged into the group of ten thousand mages, his emotions hardly fluctuated.

He had charged through many times before and was already familiar with the process.

Initially, when he was at the seventh rank, controlling a puppet army to kill the group of ten thousand mages carried some risks, and he had to avoid their combination attack technique.

Now, after reaching the eighth rank with a dominant body, he truly had no more concerns.

The group of ten thousand was originally well-balanced in attack and defense, and breaking through would also bring about emergency teams using magic to restrain and counterattack.

But once Su Lun activated his dominant body, he didn't even avoid instant-cast magic from an eighth-rank Grand Magician, instead charging straight through.

He possessed the Second Form of the All-knowing Eye, and almost as soon as an enemy's magic was still condensing, he already knew what the magic was and what level of magic power fluctuation it would be.

Even if there were any high-order magic conductors, at this moment they held no secrets in his eyes.

And the integration into the eighth rank "Descartes' Crystal Skull" made Su Lun's thinking so meticulous that he could almost precisely judge everything.

In battle, there were no mistakes, so it was the enemies who should be feeling despair.

Domain of Death, Soul Intimidation, left hand black scythe, right hand black umbrella...

After breaking into the group of ten thousand, those low-ranked mages within Su Lun's domain burst to death one after another.

Then there was the trump card "Death God's Fire," and even though there were seventh and eighth-rank mages who could withstand it, no one could block him.

Su Lun's eighth rank was different from the others.

Without the suppression of ranks, eighth-rank Grand Magicians had no arrogance left in front of him.

At least such was the case with the ones he encountered.

The only difference was how many moves they could withstand.

Meanwhile, on the other side, after the enemy's methods couldn't cope with Su Lun, it was time for the puppet army to wreak havoc.

As long as he, the controller, didn't die, the combat power of the puppet army was maximized.

He alone entered the enemy's ships, while the puppet army in the sky also simultaneously released their formation techniques. With the Second Form of the All-knowing Eye, he could easily see through the weak points of their battle formations, break their shields, and then start reaping like cutting wheat...

Army against the army, this tactic had already been used very adeptly.

There were also mechanical octopuses in the sea, perfect for breaking ships.

Su Lun knew clearly that army formations required necessary positions to assemble and stable environments for output, and with the ships destroyed, those mages also lost the convenience to continue assembling their formations.

Though not to the extent of drowning, they were one by one awkwardly flying in the sky, struggling on the planks.

Unable to assemble into formations, the gargoyles found it even more convenient to reap.

With Su Lun's intervention, it was almost a one-sided situation.

Aside from him being genuinely strong and capable of overpowering, the more important aspect was the vast gap in intelligence between both sides.

He knew nearly everything about the group of ten thousand, while the enemy knew almost nothing about him.

After a few exchanges, Su Lun had already slain that eighth-rank Grand Magician corps leader.

The remaining group of ten thousand still had many people, but he didn't waste much time on this already broken formation.

Their ships were destroyed, and they had no chance to escape; he would just slowly reap them later.

And in the distance, there were still seven other fully organized groups of ten thousand each!

From the beginning, Su Lun had already thought of such a plan.

After the decapitation, he withdrew the puppet army and teleported again, already appearing in another group of ten thousand.

Then he repeated the old tactic.

Moreover, because the eight groups of ten thousand had been gathering large-scale army magic during the previous surprise attack, Su Lun's interruption at a critical moment caused magic backlash that severely injured many.

So the journey of slaughter was exceptionally smooth.

...

The gods from the Divine Plane were in big trouble now.

Even though they witnessed the annihilation of a ten-thousand strong army, they were helpless.

The only noticeable weak point of a Puppet Master was the controller.

Now, Su Lun was simply not someone any from the Divine Plane could handle.

With him alive, even if the group of ten thousand could unleash various army forbidden curses, they wouldn't be effective at all.

No one expected that the roles of the hunter and the prey would switch so abruptly.

The balance of the war had initially tipped towards the Divine Plane's side, but the drop of a significant chip unexpectedly changed the dynamics of the battle instantly.

The folks from the Divine Plane never anticipated this turn of events.

Originally, even if the Empire of Luying sent reinforcements, it would take them ten to fifteen days to arrive. By then, they would have already engulfed this fleet, potentially dealing with some reinforcements as well.

But now, suddenly, this killer god appeared, and the leaders of several ten-thousand strong armies could do nothing but passively defend.

The progress of the battle was so smooth that even Su Lun himself found it somewhat surprising.

He had thought there would at least be some measures targeting his spatial displacement, or against his puppets.

After all, during the battle in the Dragon Country Waters, he and the Dawn Brigade had exposed almost all of their techniques.

If the enemy had known that information, they would not have been caught so completely unprepared.

But, there was nothing.

It was only after harvesting the souls of those mages that Su Lun realized that these people knew absolutely nothing about him or the Dawn Brigade.

With a bit of thought, he understood why.

The few tens of thousands in formations who had witnessed his techniques were all entirely annihilated, and the only one who survived was that strand of divine will.

Based on Su Lun's current understanding of gods, even if those higher beings were beaten, they wouldn't share their humiliating experiences with lower beings like humans.

To a god, losing a lowly believer is far less important than losing face.

This also made it easier for Su Lun.

He fought through enemy lines, and in the blink of an eye, he had already crushed several tens of thousands in formations.

...

This outlandish scene was witnessed by all on the combined fleet.

Everyone felt that they had never been as shocked in their entire life as they were on this day.

Previously, they had assembled in a defensive formation, ready to fight the enemy to the death.

But the situation had changed dramatically in the time it took to watch this spectacle.

The reinforcements, like a tiger diving into a flock of sheep, single-handedly tore open a gap in the enemy's defenses.

"Marshal, three tens of thousands in formations have been annihilated... At this rate, it won't be long before all eight tens of thousands in formations are destroyed," said one of his commanders.

"Su Lun wants to wipe them all out, first by crippling their ships, making it impossible for them to escape. It's truly unbelievable how one person can drive eighty thousand enemies into a corner, this Puppeteer is just too strong..."

"Yes, really too strong."

"..."

The previously somber atmosphere on the combined fleet vanished in an instant.

All that remained in everyone's hearts were feelings of exhilaration, exhilaration, exhilaration!

Seeing Su Lun hacking through the enemy formations easily, everyone's blood was pumping with excitement.

However, it was then that something unexpected occurred!

On the communication device, watchers suddenly noticed some black dots appearing in the sky, which upon closer inspection, turned out to be gigantic creatures with massive flesh wings.

"Look quick! What is that on the horizon...?" someone shouted.

"Dragonkind?"

"My god, those are real dragons! And the people on their backs, could they be the legendary Dragon Knights? What's happening?!"

"They're attacking the heavenly beings; those Dragon Knights are our reinforcements!"

"..."

Hundreds of dragons arrived simultaneously, with an imposing presence.

It was as though a legion of Dragon Knights from mythological tales had come to life, making everyone feel as if they were dreaming.

The appearance of a god-like Su Lun was shocking enough, and now actual Dragon Knights had arrived?

No one in the combined fleet had ever seen true dragons, and these high-purity sub-dragons closely resembled the dragons described in the books, so they mistook them for true dragons.

They didn't know, these were the flying dragon units from the Dawn Brigade!

Regardless, the arrival of hundreds of flying dragons, like a mythological descent, greatly shocked everyone.

In that moment, the Dawn Brigade, having waited on the outskirts, also made their move!

...

Seeing the Dragon Legion suddenly joining the battlefield, the two old marshals were also astonished.

Meredith murmured, recalling something: "Legend says there are dragons in the Far Western Seas; I never expected it to be true... There had been reports that some time ago the fleets from the West and South Seas were summoned by those from the heavenly realm to the Far Western Seas to seek treasures. Now it seems, the Dawn Brigade also disappeared during that time to go there."

"Yes, I never thought I would see legendary dragons in my lifetime," said General Rostov with a deep sigh, then added, "The Dawn Brigade even has a Dragon Knight corps to help, what great fortune..."

However, Meredith shook his head, "Didn't you notice? Su Lun's presence even overshadows that of the Dragon Knight corps?"

General Rostov: "Indeed. Youth to be feared...

Seeing this, any tension they had felt vanished from their hearts.

It seemed the situation was now secure.

They were not only saved but the enemy was about to be completely annihilated.

Pausing for a moment, General Rostov's eyes flashed fiercely, "Enough of this. Our two hundred thousand troops can't just stand by and watch the show."

Meredith nodded and gave the command, "All forces attack! Charge and annihilate the enemy!"

At the command, the eagerly waiting soldiers manned their ships and charged toward the scattered enemies across the sea surface.