One-Eyed Monster

Kuyi Tulan drew his cloak tighter around him. The purple cloak did not flutter in the wind and snow. It lay heavy on Kuyi Tulan’s body, still as a stone.

Winter had come fiercely, bringing blinding snowstorms and bone-chilling cold. Thankfully, Guru Mountain was not part of the Empire’s northern territories. Otherwise, the frigid, piercing cold would have already turned everything into a frozen landscape. Guru Mountain was a rather peculiar place. Here, no matter how long the snow fell, it would melt by midday the next day. Snowflakes continued to fall from the sky, but the accumulation on the ground remained insignificant.

The thin layer of snow on the ground was marked with Kuyi Tulan’s footprints as he headed up the mountain. The severe winter weather didn’t affect him much. As the chief Alchemist of the Alchemy Workshop, he could fend off such cold by using a little of his Spirit Power.

Kuyi Tulan’s mood was complex, not only because of the secrets Guru Mountain hid, but also because his mentor resided on that very mountain.

He had come to this place with a purpose: to retrieve what rightly belonged to him.

His mentor had left him a letter and vanished from the Empire. Kuyi Tulan had dedicated a great deal of effort to searching for him, only to come up empty-handed. But more than reclaiming what belonged to him, he needed to understand what his Great Mentor truly thought of him.

He believed he knew his mentor well, yet in the end, his mentor had chosen to abandon him, seemingly never to see him again.

He was perplexed. Why would his mentor disapprove of his actions? He wished to discuss the matter in detail with him.

Due to his pursuit of his Great Mentor, Kuyi Tulan had long ignored the affairs of the Alchemy Workshop. Under the command of the elders, the Alchemy Workshop was gradually being reduced to a state of weakness, losing its voice within the Empire. Still, Kuyi Tulan was reluctant to intervene. In his eyes, something else was far more important than the development of the Alchemy Workshop. While he did sometimes ponder how to enhance the Workshop, at this moment, he deemed it necessary to first reclaim what rightfully belonged to it.

With these doubts, he couldn’t delve into deeper powers. Kuyi Tulan looked up at the stars and sighed.

He knew he didn’t regard his Great Mentor as an adversary, nor could he likely convince him. But, one way or another, he had to find his mentor and assert that he wasn’t wrong.

This was his obsession, the cause of his torment over the years.

Who would have thought the Great Mentor had taken refuge here on Guru Mountain, in such a remote corner of the Empire? He had received information from Black Crow with skepticism, but years of searching had led him to take a chance and investigate.

The reality was far beyond his expectations.

His Great Mentor was here. Others were here too. Much of what he sought was also here.

What he hadn’t anticipated was Black Crow also coveting this place.

He only learned of Black Crow’s true intentions with the appearance of Scholar Manjia.

And the secrets this mountain held seemed utterly incredible to him.

The secrets hidden in the mountain were awakening—a force he wouldn’t let slip past him. Hence, he was now hastily making his way up the mountain.

He had dispatched all the Golden Seats he had brought from the Alchemy Workshop to the mountain. He was familiar with Wizard Reed’s power. The Dark Arts were inherently secretive, exuding an aura of mystery.

Kuyi Tulan believed the Dark Arts were outlawed because they were too powerful—so powerful that even those who mastered them were uncertain if they could control them indefinitely. Losing control of such power would bring unimaginable calamities.

So, this enormous power had to be restricted, not merely because it defied common understanding, but because the spells were so potent they couldn’t be genuinely controlled by anyone.

That was why Kuyi Tulan refrained from dabbling in the Dark Arts; he knew he didn’t currently possess the power to control them. As for those who claimed to control them, they were just a group of ignorant amateurs. They didn’t even know what true spells looked like; they were merely seeking shortcuts...

Those weren’t the true Dark Arts. They were just opportunistic tricks.

Wizard Reed, however, was different from those opportunists. He understood the true essence of exchange; every sacrifice he made was to gain greater power. Kuyi Tulan knew Wizard Reed well. He even considered him one of the few people in the Empire who had truly mastered the Dark Arts.

Now, Wizard Reed was also on the mountain. His target was the mountain’s secret. From Scholar Manjia, Kuyi Tulan had learned that this secret was related to the power of death. Although he couldn’t yet fathom what this power truly entailed, he could infer from Scholar Manjia’s words that this secret power was undoubtedly extraordinary.

After meeting his Great Mentor, his first task would be to contend with Wizard Reed for this secret. Even though he knew it would be challenging, he still had to try. He couldn’t let his Empire’s hidden treasure fall into the hands of Dark Forces, only to be sold off to the other two Empires.

Though the possibility was faint, if this Dark Organization gained control of the power, they would become a threat to the Empire. Kuyi Tulan would not allow such a threat to exist right under his nose. Therefore, he would seize any opportunity to eliminate it in its infancy.

His plan was special; he wasn’t foolish enough to rely solely on the Alchemy Workshop’s resources.

The Alchemy Workshop’s personnel were limited. If they had to deal with the monsters and Wizard Reed simultaneously, they would waste significant Spirit Power and precious time. Kuyi Tulan had long ago included the Treasure Hunters at the foot of the mountain in his plan.

Of course, he wasn’t the first to think of this. Scholar Manjia had already incorporated those Treasure Hunters into the forces assigned to protect the mountain. Kuyi Tulan was merely learning from example, using that ragtag bunch as his stepping stones.

This rabble might not be individually powerful, but they represented a continuous stream of Spirit Power. Given sufficient incentive, they could be persuaded to tap into their latent potential.

Kuyi Tulan had taken control of Headman Rostellum’s body and, using Rostellum’s Sound Sensing Skill as a Politician, had devised this very plan.

This Control Spell was a type of borderline magic, once classified as both a Forbidden Spell and a Dark Art.

The spell manipulated a subject’s thoughts and actions through a form of hypnosis.

Although Elder Rostellum was fully aware of what was happening, his entire thinking process was dominated by Kuyi Tulan. Many decisions ostensibly made by Rostellum were, in fact, instigated by Kuyi Tulan.

Kuyi Tulan’s objective was to get everyone up the mountain.

His aim was simple: to use these people as sources of Spirit Power.