The Teacher Becomes an Old Man

With the three questions answered, Lude had gained an understanding of his own situation, the framework of his power, and the level of his enemies.

However, Lude's emotions at this moment were quite complex.

From the perspective of a mentor, the lies in his mouth were too numerous; from the perspective of a powerhouse, he had been sufficiently candid.

Whether it was the history of the Lord Society or the past of Malinkov, Lord Hypnos had concealed or altered much when discussing them; he did not even deliberately hide this fact, and Lude even had an inexplicable feeling—his lies were born of his own instinct.

Now, Lude was even more interested in this secret society, the Lord Society; he always felt that he would be able to swim like a fish in water there.

Thus, for the brief time that followed, the old man and the young man did not speak, merely silently dancing their knives, forks, and wine glasses; amidst the clinking of cups, Lude only felt that his appetite today was exceptionally good, for everything he saw made him feel pleased.

After the meal, Lord Hypnos took out a handkerchief to wipe his mouth: "It is time to take my leave, young man."

He stood up as he spoke: "Come to think of it, I must remind you of one thing: any transcendent technique or occult method will leave behind a trace known as [Influence]; even though I have restrained myself as much as possible, my arrival still could not avoid this."

"This also means that once this train reaches the station, those people from the Black Tide Society will likely swarm over like sharks smelling blood."

"Therefore, I have buried a contingency on this train, and it will activate after I leave; it will completely erase every trace this train might leave behind, but this contingency requires you to trigger it, so be careful not to get hurt when the time comes."

"Understood, mentor." Lude replied with a smile; he already understood how to get along with this powerhouse.

"One more thing." The old gentleman began: "You should make good use of those three Wyvern Blood Essences."

Lude nodded earnestly: "I will use them where they ought to be used."

"Wrong again." The old gentleman frowned in disdain: "I mean, you should use them up quickly!"

"Whoever gave you the Wyvern Blood Essences must have a very shallow understanding of Alchemy to actually let you use them as temporary stimulants for a burst of power! If you ask me, you could completely use them to accelerate the gestation of your Secret Art!"

Lude laughed dryly: "P-perhaps, but I feel it is better to keep a trump card..."

The old gentleman shook his head: "As you wish. I do not like to interfere with my student's choices, but using Wyvern Blood Essences to nurture a gestating Secret Art provides a permanent enhancement. If it were me, I would not give up such a golden opportunity."

"After all, for us spellcasters, the physical body is merely a vessel temporarily residing in this world; the soul is the true foundation. I thought that for someone like you who has already experienced a body-swap once, this would be easier to understand..."

As the old man's voice grew fainter, his figure also slowly lost its color, eventually turning into a mass of white mist that scattered at a breath, mingling with the freezing air to permeate the entire carriage until it finally vanished completely.

Watching the figure of Lord Hypnos disappear, Lude sat in the compartment, speechless for a long time.

The good news was that the people in this world seemed quite rational; upon seeing a talented young person, their first thought was to recruit rather than eliminate. This meant that this world, both on the surface and beneath, was still developing rapidly, and everyone was trying to make the cake bigger rather than snatching someone else's.

If it were a world that had already set and was gradually decaying, the vested interests would likely only think, This child is terrifyingly talented and must not be left alive.

The bad news was that he had stepped into deep waters too early, before he had even managed to gain a firm foothold in this world; therefore, Lude became even more determined to develop in Enamel City. He had to stay far away from the muddy waters of the Rhine Region and spend some time properly farming and developing.

Yet, just as Lude made up his mind, the train suddenly shook violently, followed immediately by a burst of screams.

"Sir, sir!"

The carriage door was flung open, and Vernon rushed in, wailing: "There's a monster, there's a monster on the train!!!"

"What the hell!"

Lude shoved Vernon aside, drew his Dragon Tooth Sword, and rushed out. When he saw the situation, his head couldn't help but buzz.

It was a mountain of flesh, pink and constantly shedding blood and organs from its surface. Its maggot-like body had a cluster of protruding eyeballs like sunflowers on its front, and around the eyeballs, dense rows of teeth formed small yellow-white flowers that constantly pulsed.

A foul wind, mixed with the stench of blood and rust, rushed toward him, and the walls of the carriage were instantly distorted and deformed.

Dozens of arms and legs grew haphazardly from various parts of its body, extending like oars to propel it forward before retracting back into its flesh; wherever it passed, tables, chairs, and cargo racks were crushed to pieces, leaving only a trail of excreted intestines and guts.

And the moment Lude rushed into the corridor, the monster's nearly one hundred eyes stared at him from every direction simultaneously.

No way, brother, what is this? What kind of expert is this now!

However, he quickly dismissed that thought, because in every eye of this monster, there was a very familiar rune.

Polina, Death-Defying—was this godforsaken thing actually her creation!

But didn't the puppets that woman created all... wait, you old bastard, is this your contingency!

Only then did Lude realize what Lord Hypnos's so-called contingency referred to—by using this powerful biological bomb to blow the train directly into the mountain ravine, wouldn't there be no clues left to trace?

So it was no wonder that old thing said only Lude could trigger this contingency; this thing would only chase him to explode!

The next moment, orange-red cracks appeared on the surface of the pink, fleshy monster.

On that day, a railway in the Rhine Kingdom was irreversibly destroyed, and even a series of cliffs collapsed.

Lude only had time to curl up his arms and legs to cushion his torso and head. The next moment, a roar that nearly deafened him rang in his ears. He felt as if every muscle in his body was about to be torn apart, and his whole person felt as if he were flying through the clouds.

Facts proved that Polina's prediction was very accurate; after taking this hit, Lude was indeed unable to resist any longer.

When Lude regained consciousness, the sun had already set; he had been unconscious for a full four or five hours. That train had been blown off the tracks by Polina's final bomb and had free-fallen over a hundred meters down the mountain ravine.

It had to be said that Lord Hypnos's move was truly ruthless, directly eliminating the traces along with all the witnesses.

Even Lude was not lightly injured.

His hardest bones were naturally intact, but from his muscles to his organs, everything that could be bruised was bruised, and everything that could be shattered was shattered.

Even his heart had stopped beating for a moment.

"Damn it..." Lude cursed weakly: "The old thing knew I had a foundation made of dragon remains, so I could heal through fire, right?"

He crawled bit by bit to the wreckage of the coal tender, piling the surrounding coal into a small hill; then he fished out a bottle of kerosene, poured it onto the coal hill, lit it with Polina's lighter, and tossed it in. Within a moment, the coal hill turned into a bonfire.

Lude then crawled bit by bit onto the pile of burning fuel, lying on his back with his eyes closed, feeling the flames soothe the pain in his body.

It was not until the next morning that Lude rose from the pile of coal that had burned to ash.