Alchemist! Earth's Seven Mysteries Chapter

Faintly, Su Ziyu sensed that some kind of connection within that pink cottage had been severed.

The pink cottage lost its ability to repair itself automatically and turned into rubble scattered across the ground.

Su Ziyu was slightly surprised. That magnificent cottage had been made of nothing but the most ordinary stones once shattered?

There wasn't even any reinforced concrete?

Thinking of the battered dolls and the Seven-Ring Worm destroyed in the explosion, Su Ziyu came up with a possibility.

"You know Alchemy?"

Su Ziyu asked in surprise.

Alchemy was an art passed down since the Age of the Gods in the First Epoch. Because of its great age, most related records and texts had been destroyed over time. Moreover, Alchemy was a special profession that required both talent and money to cultivate, making Alchemists extremely rare.

An Awakening-level Alchemist could easily become a retainer under any major city, while a Morning Star Tier Alchemist would be fought over by all major factions.

The Old God Cult casually having a Morning Star Tier Alchemist exceeded Su Ziyu's imagination of just how deep its foundations ran.

When he approached the damaged cottage, the bearded man was lying in a pile of rubble, his entire body charred black. He was taking more breaths out than in, as though he could die at any moment.

Su Ziyu looked at him quietly and asked, "Tell me about the Old God Cult. If you make me happy, I'll give you a quick death."

The bearded man spat and said,

"Y-you... don't even think about getting any information from me!"

Su Ziyu smiled without minding it. He activated the All-Seeing True Eye and stared into the man's eyes.

Gradually, he saw fragments of the man's past.

He saw the man's former destitution and his eventual rise, though a portion in the middle seemed to be missing, beyond his ability to peer into.

The man's name was Zhang Huan. He had once been a vagrant who gathered all kinds of ancient rituals in pursuit of power. At last, one ritual drew the attention of an ancient existence, and he joined the Old God Cult. Because of his talent, he learned Alchemy.

There was no specific process shown for Zhang Huan joining the Old God Cult in that fragment; it was merely what Su Ziyu had inferred.

Su Ziyu guessed that the Old God Cult's secrets were naturally cut off for some reason. Every matter involving the Old God Cult afterward was like a video with the skip button pressed, leaping straight past it.

What remained was how Zhang Huan used the extraordinary abilities he had learned to carry out his bloody revenge.

He first forced himself on a goddess he had once secretly loved, then turned her into a doll and sent her to a pleasure house. After that, driven by lust, he harmed quite a few women and turned all of them into Living Skin Dolls.

Because the dolls he made were even more beautiful than their original owners, they earned him a great deal of money. He even caught the attention of some influential figure in the major city, who invited him to a banquet next week.

Su Ziyu also saw a conversation between Zhang Huan and a man dressed in a priest's distinctive loose robe, embroidered with a flaming-cloud design. He wore a cross on his chest and looked like a priest, yet for some reason, Su Ziyu could not make out his face no matter how hard he looked.

He heard bits and pieces of their conversation and vaguely remembered words like "major city," "ritual," and "high priest."

The fragments were scattered and incomplete. Even when they ended, Su Ziyu had not obtained what he wanted.

That priest again... Su Jingtian's family became monsters because of that priest... Damn it, I can't see his face clearly. The Old God Cult is even more cautious than I imagined... They seem to possess some ritual or taboo item that prevents scrying... Still, at least I know that priest will appear in the major city next week. They seem to be preparing some kind of ritual?... Su Ziyu withdrew his thoughts and heard the bearded man's dry throat let out a hoarse roar, his face filled with unwillingness.

"Looks like you have no more value to me."

Su Ziyu shook his head. Under the man's terrified gaze, he conjured a black spear and pierced through his head. The All-Seeing True Eye also noticed that he seemed to be hiding something valuable beneath his clothes.

To make sure he missed nothing, Su Ziyu stripped off the bearded man's flaming-cloud robe and searched every pocket, pulling out a thread-bound book with a black cover.

The large words written on the cover made Su Ziyu's eyes widen at once.

"Grimoire of the Old Days!"

This was actually a Grimoire of the Old Days!

He had been wondering how the Old God Cult had turned Zhang Huan into an Alchemist. It seemed they had done it through this Grimoire!

When he opened the first page, several more large words were written there:

Earth's Seven Mysteries Chapter!

"Alchemy?!"

Su Ziyu used the All-Seeing True Eye to skim through it and discovered that it was an entirely new, independent chapter about the cultivation of Alchemy!

This harvest delighted Su Ziyu beyond measure.

He also understood why the power of the [Dark Wisdom Chapter] had been devoured by the pink cottage. That cottage must have been made through Alchemy, and the [Earth's Seven Mysteries Chapter], also part of the Grimoire of the Old Days, was a secret art of the same rank as the [Dark Wisdom Chapter]!

Suddenly, his fingers brushed against something, and he discovered a letter tucked beneath the Grimoire.

Su Ziyu curiously took out the letter and found that it was a handwritten letter of recommendation from an influential person surnamed Xiao.

It was an invitation allowing entry into the major city.

This world's class system was strict. Those within the major city considered themselves superior to others, while Guardian City residents outside the major city were viewed as vagrants. They needed either merit or years of service for a chance to enter the major city.

Su Ziyu vaguely remembered that when he had just peered into the bearded man's past, Zhang Huan's exquisite and beautiful Living Skin Dolls had gained the favor of some influential figure in the major city, earning him this invitation to enter it.

And this little incident seemed to be one link in a plan the bearded man had been preparing to carry out.

Perhaps he could use it to trace the Old God Cult's trail.

After examining both sides of the letter and giving it some thought, Su Ziyu tucked it into his pocket as a plan slowly took shape in his mind.

"Maybe taking a look around the major city wouldn't be such a bad thing..."

Su Ziyu glanced over the scene and shouted at the damaged doll materials, "Extract materials!"

As a ball of white light flew into his palm, Su Ziyu heard footsteps approaching from outside. Looking at the corpses that had yet to be consumed by the Netherworld Ghostfire, he suddenly gave a wicked smile as an idea came to him.

He spread out his spirituality and formed a ritual with both hands.

The sewage and dark matter in the sewer mixed together, seeming to form some kind of monster.

The footsteps grew more urgent yet more cautious. Once Su Ziyu finished drawing the ritual, his figure was enveloped by a dark curtain and vanished into the sewer.

Not long after Su Ziyu left, the blinding beam of a flashlight drove away the darkness and shone inside.

Hong Ying of the Special Affairs Department led the group. The spiritual array they had left nearby detected spiritual fluctuations in the area, and they were extraordinarily powerful, so the Special Affairs Department had decided to deploy a team.

Hong Ying's knee-high boots stepped through the standing water as she covered her nose and entered the passage. The moment she went in, she saw crimson walls and blood in the filthy water.

From the deepest part of the passage came the stench of meat roasting over fire, along with occasional muffled crackling sounds.

Hong Ying left two team members behind to guard the area and led the remaining agents swiftly toward the deepest part.

Then...

She saw a revolting scene.