Mechanical Alchemist

"Be careful, at least seven flying monsters are heading our way!"

"Close-range defense system activated, prepare to cover with fire control network!"

"..."

It was after Old Sword God Bartolo issued a warning that the ship's detection instruments also sounded an alarm, confirming the number of incoming monsters.

The appetizer was a sixth-order pureblood necrotic dragon, no one dared to take it lightly.

Everyone stared at the sky, simultaneously gulped down their taxes.

This cursed space was already dimly lit, and with thick gray fog overhead, no one had yet seen the monsters, but a terrifying draconic presence had already swept over them.

"It's a high-order dragon! Those below Rank 5, quickly head to the lower deck!"

Since the Dawn Brigade had previously hunted several dragons, they confirmed the enemy attack, and everything was tense but orderly.

However, the high-rank fighters on the deck showed their imposing presence all around them.

They had felt the oppressive power of an eighth-order pureblood dragon, but the terrifying draconic presence sweeping through the sky now was several times stronger than the previous eighth-order silver dragon!

Old Sword God Bartolo's expression became stern, he clearly realized something and urgently said, "Be careful, we may have attracted a flock of dragons!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he leaped from the deck into the sky.

The Black Sam Brigade had once encountered such an attack; he knew all too well that they absolutely couldn't let this group of necrotic dragons get close to the ship.

At the same time, the high-rank fighters of the Dawn Brigade exchanged glances and also entered combat mode.

Bartolo had previously advised that they must kill monsters quickly, otherwise the noise of the battle would attract even farther and stronger monsters.

No one dared to be careless.

As soon as his words fell, those massive shadows in the fog were already diving rapidly. Before their bodies arrived, a wave of poison gas swept over them, dizzying even through their gas masks.

Dr. Banks's body was the best toxin sensor; he noticed the problem and immediately warned, "Be careful, that's Green Dragon's Breath! It's a potent mixed toxin, extremely lethal; the gas masks can't fully isolate it. Immediately use 'Hairei Triple Luck Anti-Poison Potion,' and if poisoned, use 'Antidote Potion No. 7' for emergency treatment!"

Over the communicator, an adviser immediately relayed the instructions into everyone's ears on the ship.

The Dawn Brigade had their own biological potion factory with an abundant supply of various potions.

As a result, the toxin that could wipe out most adventure brigades posed no threat to the members of the Dawn Brigade.

When that yellow-green dragon breath was exhaled, there was immediately a sizzling corrosion sound in the air.

Just as the dragon breath was about to hit the Eternal Night, No. 19 Golden Wings spread out, already rushing to the forefront. Only her metallic body could perfectly block the exhaled dragon breath.

And Captain Barrett followed closely; clad in Dragon Knight heavy armor, he also acted as a tank attracting fire.

Following them, the 'Blood Duke' Wazwas led a group of high-ranking vampires into the highly corrosive poison fog.

No one held back, unleashing various killing moves.

Simultaneously, the ship's close-range guns automatically aimed at the sky, "rattling" like a torrential downpour of ammunition, creating sparks as they struck those dark shadows in the sky.

The battle had reached its most intense moment from the start.

Everyone on the deck sprang into action, but only Qianniao still hadn't moved.

It wasn't that she didn't plan to fight, but rather she was building up her Sword Qi.

At this moment, behind her, the six-armed Rakshasa Golden Body's phantom shone brightly, her body's Thunder Hell Sword Intent growing denser and denser.

Su Lun with his sorcerer's seals in hand, continued to reinforce the spatial restrictions on the Eternal Night, not allowing the dragon riders to approach.

But at this moment, he felt a familiar Sword Intent and glanced sideways.

All members of the Dawn Brigade in this cursed space felt suppressed by this hellish aura to varying degrees, including Su Lun himself. Only Qianniao not only felt no suppression at this moment as she entered combat mode, but more and more of that hellish aura gathered towards her.

Su Lun watched, whispering to himself, "Is she going to use that move..."

The Rakshasa Woman possessed a secret technique that could rob all beings of their vital essence.

She had used it once when she was in the Netherworld.

That time, she forcibly devoured a finger of a Fallen Angel, in exchange gaining a terrifying combat strength far exceeding her level.

After that, she never used it again.

The outside world didn't provide the conditions to use that move, nor was there a situation so desperate that survival demanded it.

But now, in this cursed space nearly identical to real hell, Qiantiao seemed to have regained that feeling.

At this moment, the Rakshasa phantom behind her once again condensed into a gilded physical form, radiating golden light that extended several meters. The Rakshasa form bore two faces, one with furrowed brows and angry eyes, the other sanctimoniously serene, with golden light spreading like burning golden flames, looking like a true deity, haughty, scornful, and domineering!

"She's really starting to look like a deity..."

Su Lun muttered to himself, never having seen her Rakshasa Golden Body shine so brilliantly, like a forbidden tale from the divine realms, where her triple transformation was said to be a deity reincarnate.

Once the Rakshasa apparition appeared behind Qiantiao, the sky suddenly darkened with dense clouds, and in an instant, a myriad of lightning converged upon her.

Bathed in endless purple-black lightning, Qiantiao "stepped on air," shooting into the sky like a bolt of lightning.

Watching Qiantiao fluidly teleport through the air, Su Lun was surprised and thought, "Hmm... has she mastered 'Imperial Air Walk'?"

This wasn't "Stepping on Air," but rather "Imperial Air Walk," a legendary-level movement technique.

This was a technique extremely difficult to master, and even martial arts grandmasters were not known to use it fluently.

Su Lun had so far only seen it demonstrated by Bartolo, and he was surprised that Qiantiao had mastered it?

This technique, unlike Stepping on Air which required continuous bursts to remain airborne, was about mastering the essence of Qi to float at will.

For any close-combat professional, this technique was nearly divine.

However, this movement was secondary, as what happened next was even more astonishing!

Qiantiao ascended into the air, her hand on the hilt of her sword, sword intent accumulating to its peak.

Everyone seemed to hear a whisper in their ears: "When I draw my sword, it is hell itself."

Watching her leap into the sky, her Demon Blade left its scabbard in a flash, releasing a sword Qi tens of meters long.

Sword Qi as fast as lightning, reaching its target in the blink of an eye.

This single strike seemed as if it could split the hellish space itself, its might absolutely terrifying.

"Whoosh," a shadow in the mist, leaping up, was instantly split in two and fell from the sky.

Su Lun's eyes flickered at this sight.

He was about to lend a hand but quickly dismissed the idea, thinking to himself, "She's really standing firm now..."

Dragons were not easy to kill, even if Su Lun could now kill an average tier-seven professional easily, killing a pure-blooded tier-six dragon alone was not an easy feat.

Even now, Duke Bloodsworn Wazhuas, who was at the eighth tier, also had to use some tricks.

To manage such a clean and quick dragon-slaying with one strike definitely involved the elusive realm of "cutting through rules" that Bartolo had spoken of.

Su Lun could tell that although Qiantiao's strike was still somewhat less compared to one of Bartolo's previous strikes, and the gathering of qi also took some time, it already far surpassed that of the previous Sword Saint.

This represented a true qualitative change in the realm for any swordsman.

...

The sudden eruption of Qiantiao left the whole Dawn Group stunned.

With her and Bartolo providing superior output, the seven dragons in the sky hadn't even had a chance to wreak havoc before four tier-six undead flying dragons were slain.

The crew on the deck quickly captured and collected the bodies.

Su Lun had identified that these seven undead dragons were green dragons in life, skilled in poison and natural dragon language magic, their combat abilities also somewhat lower among dragons of the same tier.

The only real trouble now was their number.

Seven pure-blooded giant dragons took off together... Such a scene could not be seen anywhere else outside.

There were also three seventh-tier dragons in the sky.

Though it was only one tier higher, their combat power was completely different from that of the sixth tier.

The high-level fighters of the Dawn group didn't dare delay, they employed every tactic they had. For even as they fought, the sea had already drawn various kinds of monsters, and more disturbances arose in the distance...

Fighting in this cursed space felt like lighting a bonfire in the Monster Beast Forest, suddenly illuminating countless green eyes from the depths of the jungle.

Three seventh-tier giant dragons were not a small trouble, if this were to be the imperial waters of the Luying Empire where pirate groups like the "King of the Western Sea" and "King of the South Sea" roamed, three dragons would be enough to annihilate any of their fleets.

Fortunately, the Dawn group already had ample experience in dragon hunting. Bartolo held off one, number nineteen held another, while Su Lun chose a dragon marked with spatial coordinates, and teleported onto its back in an instant.

The undead dragons in this cursed space retained most of their strength from when they were alive, but what they distinctly lacked was intelligence; their fighting was nearly all instinctive.

Compared to a cunning living giant dragon, an undead dragon was much easier to deal with.

When Su Lun teleported over, the undead dragon didn't even sense any danger and continued to attack the Huazhuas Nasir people, who were serving as bait. A mechanical octopus was summoned and effortlessly locked down its wings, followed by concentrated fire.

Before long, Su Lun had slashed off the enormous head of the dragon with his dragon-slaying dagger.

This was much easier than the time they had hunted the seventh-tier thunder lightning dragon.

However, just as they had killed one dragon, a demonic wind suddenly rose from the sea, and a hundred-meter-high wave surged from afar.

As the crows in the sky cawed loudly, Su Lun's gaze swiftly turned in that direction.

The All-knowing Eye allowed him to have the sharpest vision in the group, and he saw a "light ball" hidden within the waves, tens of meters in diameter.

At first, he was stunned and didn't realize what it was, but when he identified it as an eyeball, his expression drastically changed.

An eyeball tens of meters in size?

How big must the monster hidden in the sea be?

Yet, that was just the beginning.

The moment he focused his gaze, hundreds of similarly large "light balls" lit up in that patch of the sea; they belonged to a white-eyed monster.

Suddenly, Su Lun's hair stood on end, feeling even more dangerous than encountering an eighth-tier giant dragon.

He quickly said into the communicator, "Tanni, start the boat and leave fast! Full speed south!"

"Alright!"

Tanni responded, then immediately in the communicator, "Activate the alchemy sails!"

Though the others didn't understand what was happening, they executed the order immediately.

The alchemical runes on the sails of the Eternal Night lit up, furiously propelling the sails, and the several hundred meters long battleship instantly moved.

It was then that the people on the ship gradually realized that the ship had started to tilt, and a wall of tsunami hundreds of meters high appeared in front of them, like a giant hand trying to roll the ship to the north.

If this tsunami were to hit, even a ship the size of the Eternal Night might capsize on the spot.

Luckily, there was a top-tier navigator on board.

Tanni shouted, "Everyone, be careful, we're going to ride this wave!"

The ship was equipped with an automatic sail control device, which allowed precise control of the many sails on the Eternal Night at the right moment.

Not just the alchemy sails, Tanni's mother Frida transformed into the Goddess Naga, her mouth blowing into the "Rainbow Conch," and as the beautiful melody emanated, everyone felt an inexplicable exhilaration; the waves and wind also cheered up with the tune, and the speed of the Eternal Night shot up sharply, racing up the waves like an arrow loosed from a bowstring.

Under Tanni's exquisite navigation, the Eternal Night surfed the giant wave like a flexible surfboard. It didn't travel in the direction of the wave but raced up the wave crest, and with a lift of the alchemy sails, the whole battleship leaped clear of the wave's grasp.

Su Lun let out a huge sigh of relief at this sight.

At least they wouldn't need to use Spatial Ability to escape right away.

However, just as the Eternal Night escaped the wave, the terrifying sea beast seemed enraged, and a tentacle several meters in diameter whipped out from the sea.

"Captain Barrett, watch out!"

Because Su Lun sensed something abnormal in the sea ahead of time, his eyes and hands were quick, and he teleported next to Barrett, who was wearing heavy armor and moving slowly. In an instant, both disappeared.

Almost at the same moment, a tentacle in the sea whipped the space where Barrett had just stood like a whip.

It was not physically fast, but it was strangely "inevitable" on a rule level!

Although Su Lun and he narrowly avoided it, there was still a seventh-tier undead giant dragon there.

The dragon hadn't reacted yet when the fleshy tentacle suddenly wrapped around it and dragged it into the sea, creating a splash of white waves.

Seeing this, even the presence of Old Sword God Bartolo couldn't help but make his pupils shrink.

A single tentacle took down a seventh-tier dragon in seconds?

That whip seemed to strike at the heart of everyone present, sending a chill down everyone's back, marking the first time they witnessed the terror of this cursed space.

The creature from the depths wasn't just beyond its tier; at least it had the strength of the ninth tier unquestionably!

Fortunately, its enormous size meant it likely moved slowly, possibly even being rooted to the sea bed, unable to move at all.

This also meant the monster's hunting range with its tentacles was limited.

But the Eternal Night hadn't completely escaped the danger zone and still needed people to hold it off.

At that moment, Su Lun shouted, "You all go first, I'll stay behind to draw the monster's fire."

The members of Dawn Group didn't tangle further with the remaining seventh-tier undead dragon and decisively left the battlefield.

They were well aware that when it came to survival abilities, no one was stronger than Su Lun.

Once he saw everyone leave, Su Lun raised his hand to form sorcerer's seals, and suddenly, dozens of living corpses appeared around him.

Threads pulling, the living corpses flew all over the sky.

The living corpses retained all the signs of life, and their appearance immediately attracted the attention of the sea monster.

Just as everyone had just left, dozens of tentacles burst forth from the sea, and those living corpses, with virtually no room to evade, were wrapped up, their bodies burst open, and dragged into the water.

Even Su Lun's "substitute puppet" was pulled into the sea.

Fortunately, his small void realm contained a warehouse of living corpses, amply stocked.

As one batch was destroyed by the monster, Su Lun immediately fetched another batch.

These living corpses, without any attempt to mask their presence, emitted a strong "living breath," permeating the entire sea and drifting towards the distance...

Su Lun concentrated intently on the turbulent waters, using evasive movements to barely make out the monster's complete form. It resembled a sea anemone, its body alone spanning seventeen to eighteen kilometers in diameter, with numerous fleshy tentacles of varying lengths and a densely packed, writhing, toothy maw at its center.

The identified name was called "Hell Anemone (Overlord)."

It was also fortunate that the Eternal Night had fled quickly; the wave just now was caused by the monster contracting its body like a Venus flytrap, swallowing the sea and everything within a dozen kilometers.

Taking Su Lun along with it.

Fortunately, he teleported out safely.

At this point, Su Lun gave up all thoughts of trying to sneak advantages.

A monster of this scale was nearly invincible, so much so that even if Old Sword God Bartolo were to strike a hundred blows, it might only scratch it.

Having seen this monster, Su Lun finally got a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg of the dangers within this cursed space.

It's no wonder that Black Sam and his group of legendary adventurers had assembled and still fell here in the past.

Just the monster alone was an unsolvable knot.

The monster swallowed nearly every other creature nearby in the sea and then quieted down.

However, Su Lun didn't let it rest, deploying a few living corpse baits, alleviating some of Dawn Group's navigation pressure.

Seeing the Eternal Night was far enough away, he then teleported to catch up.