City of Divine Punishment

City of Divine Punishment

Amber Xiu had lived three completely different lives.

In his previous life, he had been a science student who coasted through for a diploma, felt utterly lost about life, and buried even his dreams beneath cheap entertainment. Only at the moment of death did Amber Xiu realize that the scenes flashing through his life were all trivial things.

Then heaven gave him another chance, sending him to this chaotic yet endlessly exciting otherworld. In his youthful arrogance, he believed he was the natural protagonist, that reaching the Legendary Realm in three years and becoming a god in ten would be easy. Starting out as an adventurer, Amber Xiu had been determined to accomplish great things, until he discovered that even after reaching the Legendary Realm, he was still nothing but a fraud.

People always said that one grew up upon realizing they were not the center of the world.

Amber Xiu was the same. When he found himself aged and declining, yet still only a mediocre Legendary mage who could not even afford a Potion of Youth to extend his life, he understood that he was merely one slightly luckier member of the masses. Being a transmigrator did not make him particularly special.

So what if he was a Legendary mage? He was still broke. He might as well stop being human altogether.

Reincarnating as a lich was not so bad.

Thanks to the fact that his heart no longer beat and his brain had nearly stopped functioning, Amber Xiu merely stared blankly at his former reflection in the mirror for a moment. Then he changed out of his dark, sinister robe and into ordinary clothes, preparing to leave the Ancient Castle to buy supplies.

As he passed another laboratory, Isabelle was inside preparing a potion.

Petrified Lizard Oil was a magical potion that could remove petrification. Using it as the main ingredient and adding some cheap materials produced an effective Rock Softener. Diluted with water, it was perfect for reclaiming wasteland.

However, Petrified Lizard Oil was rather difficult for an alchemy apprentice to make.

Worried that Isabelle would waste too many ingredients, Amber Xiu stopped to watch for a few moments. Then he could not help saying, "Your fundamentals are decent, but the flame temperature is wrong. The flask is positioned too low. If the reaction temperature is too low, the reaction will be incomplete. The potion you make will not only be poor in quality, but will also waste materials. The outer flame is the hottest part. Didn't your teacher teach you something this basic?"

Isabelle jumped in fright and turned to see an unfamiliar young man standing at the entrance to the laboratory, looking surprised.

"You..." Isabelle had wanted to ask whether Amber Xiu was one of the recruited Freemen, but she quickly came to her senses and excitedly asked, "You understand alchemy too? What is an outer flame? In my teacher's laboratory, we always used fixed equipment. I've never seen anything that could be adjusted freely..."

Amber Xiu chuckled disdainfully. "An old-fashioned method of keeping secrets. They are terrified of teaching their apprentices too much."

Many alchemists valued their techniques more than their lives and refused to teach even basic knowledge. Custom-made equipment was the simplest and most effective way to keep secrets.

Fixed heights, fixed flame temperatures, fixed ingredient ratios... Since everything was customized, apprentices could only perform foolproof operations. Their success rates were high when preparing specific potions, but the fewer failures they experienced, the less they learned.

It was like assembly-line workers in Amber Xiu's previous life, doing simple, repetitive work while learning almost no real skills. Once separated from those customized devices, many apprentices could not even prepare the most basic potions.

The fact that Isabelle could still make a Tranquility Potion after switching laboratories already made her a rather capable alchemy apprentice.

"Alchemy is not simply following a formula. Ambient temperature, humidity, even airflow are all crucial. Every step in a notebook is based on a principle of reaction. If you do not understand those principles, you will be nothing more than an apprentice for the rest of your life."

Amber Xiu walked into the laboratory, readjusted the height of the flask, altered several ingredients, and smoothly produced a bottle of nearly perfect Petrified Lizard Oil.

Watching Amber Xiu work with such ease, Isabelle's eyes widened with admiration. This black-haired youth seemed several years younger than she was, yet his understanding of alchemy far surpassed hers. Even his explanations were simpler and clearer than her teacher's.

Isabelle wanted to ask him more questions, if only to learn his name. Yet after she put away the bottle of Petrified Lizard Oil and turned around, he had already vanished.

Isabelle froze for a moment, then suddenly felt her scalp tingle.

Could this lich's Ancient Castle be haunted...?

In an instant, Isabelle imagined a story: a genius young alchemist who had died in the Ancient Castle, his resentment lingering on as he appeared whenever he saw someone conducting alchemy experiments. The more she thought about it, the more frightened she became. Her back was soaked with sweat. This Ancient Castle truly seemed terrifying in every corner.

Isabelle could only hope that what Lord Lich had said was true—that after the land was reclaimed, they would be allowed to move out of the Ancient Castle and build houses elsewhere.

Wearing the face of a young man, Amber Xiu walked out of the Ancient Castle. Then he cast a Flight Spell on himself and soared into the sky.

After flying for more than half an hour, covering roughly fifty or sixty kilometers, Amber Xiu finally saw the bizarrely shaped city—Alchemy City Alchemia.

The city stood upon a vast plain. Its towering stone walls were embedded with large amounts of magical metal and engraved with countless Alchemy Runes. It was said that the entire city was an enormous alchemical creation, capable of transforming with a clatter into a Construct Mechanical Giant when necessary.

That was definitely exaggerated. If the whole city turned into a mechanical giant, it would not need enemies to attack—half the residents inside would be killed by the transformation themselves.

Still, those runes surely contained immense power. Before the economic crisis, Alchemia had been known as the richest city on the continent.

The city's abstract nature did not refer to the runes on its walls. From the sky, one could see seven magnificent Alchemy Towers lined up in a row. They looked as though they had been piled together from gemstones of every color, gleaming beneath the sun with an almost blinding intensity.

The seven Alchemy Towers differed in height, color, and even architectural style, yet they all shared the same twisted ugliness. Even Amber Xiu, who had little artistic talent, found them hideous. No, hideous was not enough—they were abstractly ugly.

Amber Xiu was hardly alone in thinking so. Alchemy City had held first place in the Nine Kingdoms' Ugliest City competition for many consecutive years, to the point that even the Alchemist Council could no longer stand it.

But they could not change them, because they were a "gift" from the gods.

Back then, the Alchemist Council had attempted to create a god and thus blasphemed the divine. The God of Alchemy had punished them, not only ensuring they could never make another breakthrough in alchemy, but also creating these seven towers for them.

Anyone with even a little knowledge of alchemy could tell at a glance what the seven towers represented.

The tower resembling a pile of green excrement looked like the residue left behind when a Healing Potion was prepared at too high a temperature. The one resembling a red tubular adenoma was the flocculent precipitate formed when the proportions of a Potion of Bear Strength were unbalanced... And so on. The seven towers represented seven kinds of alchemical products, as well as seven of the most classic and common failed experimental results.

With these seven towers symbolizing failure, the gods had ruthlessly nailed Alchemia to the pillar of shame in history.

But that shame had nothing to do with Amber Xiu. Wearing a human guise, he entered through the city gates in the most ordinary manner. Yet shortly after entering, he sensed that Alchemy City had changed greatly.

Oh no, I haven't even received a contract offer yet. Could it be that I can't get signed? Please support me with some recommendation votes, I'm begging you.

(End of Chapter)