One-Eyed Monster

Igor took a deep breath. Although he didn’t fully understand the actions of the Alchemy Workshop, he could grasp the results they brought.

It can be said that the growth of the Alchemy Workshop is closely connected to absorbing non-professionals. The inclusion of these non-professionals immediately expanded the Alchemy Workshop’s intelligence network, making it enormous, even surpassing the Black Crow in clarity. No one knows how the Alchemy Workshop defeated the Black Crow, but the fact lies before everyone’s eyes: the Alchemy Workshop lowered the threshold for becoming an adventurer. Before, to become an adventurer, one had to have Spirit Sensing, but now, as long as you’re determined to join the Alchemy Workshop, you can become someone no different from an adventurer.

The alchemist techniques of the Alchemy Workshop have clearly introduced new tricks. They provide non-professionals with a potion, and after consuming this potion, non-professionals exhibit power equivalent to adventurers. This power is a huge temptation for non-professionals, and this boundary-breaking existence lures more non-professionals irresistibly.

Igor understood that such temptation was no different from the Dark Forces, only the Dark Forces seduced adventurers, whereas the Alchemy Workshop tempted everyone.

Many scoffed at this approach. Igor vaguely remembered the Great Mentor’s lament and deep sorrow upon hearing this news. The Great Mentor lamented that his disciples were walking further down an irreversible path...

The increase in strength of the Alchemy Workshop is not solely due to numbers; the real source of their power is their strength.

Kuyi Tulan, who acquired a certain spell from somewhere, surprisingly empowered people to break through boundaries. This acquisition of power made Kuyi Tulan, originally focused on Battle Alchemy, even more unrestrained. Despite previous failures, his Purification Plan did not cease, and suddenly the term ”Spirit Core” spread across the entire Yowein Continent.

The Alchemy Workshop’s advantage lies in these so-called Spirit Cores.

The existence of Spirit Cores allows an Alchemist to instantly change their combat attributes. An ordinary Alchemist can instantly transform into a powerful Fighter upon integrating with a Spirit Core. Such an individual’s ability to switch between classes is certainly vexing. It’s not hard to imagine how the four Cabinet experts of the Dark Cabinet were defeated.

This unexpectedness naturally leads people to suffer a complete defeat.

The twelve Golden Seats of the Alchemy Workshop have instantly become the most feared figures across the continent.

It must be said that the changes of the Alchemy Workshop have altered the situation for adventurers across the entire continent. Just in the Kayne Empire alone, the Alchemy Workshop had become an armed force next to the Empire’s Guardian Army. Yet the youthful King of Kayne never felt any threat, continuing to support the Alchemy Workshop as usual. Even when the Alchemy Workshop reached the scale of a Guardian Army, the young King of Kayne was not fazed. This trust in Kuyi Tulan puzzled all Politicians, some even spreading rumors that Kuyi Tulan bewitched the King, making the King relentlessly develop the Alchemy Workshop.

The rapid changes in the Alchemy Workshop over just two years indeed left many puzzled.

No organization could match such development scale, and more crucially, all the non-professionals joining the Alchemy Workshop did so voluntarily, which indeed puzzles people.

Non-professionals entering the Alchemy Workshop are divided into categories: one for intelligence work, where they still conceal their identities to live in various places, and the other was granted lesser Spirit Cores. These non-professionals donned six-pointed star cloaks and grew increasingly mysterious, almost appearing only when needed most.

The expansion of the Alchemy Workshop left other organizations in despair, unsure whether to form alliances for negotiations or simply become a branch under the Alchemy Workshop’s control. The Alchemy Workshop now completely transcended class distribution, accepting anyone from any class, but the status of the Alchemists suddenly became unprecedentedly elevated.

The circus that Igor needed to find was now also a branch of the Alchemy Workshop.

Thinking back, was the arrow from two years ago controlled by the Alchemy Workshop to keep the Great Mentor from being involved in such conflicts?

However, no one expected that the Great Mentor and his people had already distanced themselves from these power struggles...

In these past two years, the Great Mentor and his people in the Guru Mountain had been silent, and Kuyi Tulan had not returned here. In Kuyi Tulan’s eyes, this peace was an ideal result. Little did he know, the Great Mentor and his people were dealing with an invisible enemy, doing everything to prepare for the coming darkness.

The same was true for Governor Rostov of Luona.

In these past two years, border conflicts occurred no less than ten times, escalating into National Defense War conflicts twice—once at Geljom Harbor and once more in the Bess Mountains of Luona.

Unlike the crushing defeat of the Steel Division at Geljom Harbor, in the Bess Mountains defense battle, the Roaring Tiger Army of the Kayne Empire, with the assistance of Luona’s Thunder Army, defeated the Mantai Empire’s cavalry. The Thunder Army’s thunder spooked the Mantai cavalry’s vanguard Mountain Monsters into retreat, coupled with the well-trained Roaring Tiger Army, leaving the Mantai people in disarray. The cavalry could not exploit their advantage, as the retreating Mountain Monsters scattered the charging cavalry, even losing their basic formation.

The Thunder Army shone spectacularly in this defense battle, alongside the steam rails, which had never delivered supplies to the Roaring Tiger Army so fast in any previous defense battle. The steam rails played a huge role, whether transporting military supplies or personnel.

This victory gave Luona the confidence to propose another project to His Majesty—the steam war chariot.

People also felt that Governor Rostov of Luona could finally become a counterbalancing power against Kuyi Tulan. However, unexpectedly, Governor Rostov never seriously challenged the Alchemy Workshop but instead actively cooperated with them in purging the Black Crow... This behavior confounded people even more, and they could not understand why Luona would be so obsequious.

No one knew about the cooperative relationship between Rostov and Kuyi Tulan, nor did anyone know that Governor Rostov’s enemy was another entity...

Igor and his comrades knew they were walking a lost path, a road no one had traveled before, and they had to explore it on their own...

The unknown is the greatest fear. Everything visible is not worth fearing...