Chapter 1 When the Fishing Works

When Suren and Mr. Mirror discovered that the "ice fishing" method could be used to lure and kill the monsters in the seal, they were no longer in a hurry to explore the secrets of that mysterious sealed space.

Originally, the main purpose of the Dawn Mercenary Group's visit to the Burial Grounds of the Gods this time was for the [Cosmic Source Matter]. Since this method could hunt monsters with high-quality threads of rules and was relatively safe, there was no need to rush to explore the depths of the Burial Grounds of the Gods, which even Sir Isaac called extremely dangerous.

To prevent accidents during the hunting of monsters, the Dawn Mercenary Group set up an alchemy array on the spot.

Once the alchemy array was set up, the hunting plan began.

Suren first opened a small spatial crack in the seal. The aura of living beings quickly attracted the monsters from the world below the seal. Before long, another monster took the bait. It was a distorted monster of the Hell species called [Sabuluth Meat Worm]. It had a body like an earthworm but possessed serrated, dense fangs that could spew highly poisonous acid, with a combat power of Tier 9 or higher.

Fortunately, the monsters in this space were all so strangely shaped. No matter how ugly or disgusting they were, the Dawn Mercenary Group was already used to it.

Repeating the same trick, the ten-thousand-man warlock group pulled the monster out and then killed it with a barrage of focused fire, and then Suren extracted the threads of rules.

After several attempts, Suren also confirmed that this idea was correct.

No matter where, powerful beings have their own territory, so even if a spatial crack is opened, it will not attract too many powerful monsters at once.

Killing them one by one is still risky, but it is not a big problem for the current Dawn Mercenary Group.

If the monsters are in clusters, they are usually just cannon fodder, and they are not so棘手 (jí shǒu - troublesome/thorny). They can cope with a large number.

In this way, one after another, the effect of "ice fishing" was ideal.

Hunting top-tier monsters consumes a lot of energy for the professionals themselves, and the Dawn Mercenary Group also needs time to rest.

Suren used the [Ouroboros Spacetime Ring] to create controllable spatial cracks, which also made it possible to combine work and rest.

When they were at full strength, they would open a spatial crack and catch a monster to hunt.

When they needed to rest, they would close the spatial crack.

During their idle time, the Dawn Mercenary Group was not idle either. They began to explore the deposits of animated silver on the island.

They didn't know until they explored.

Only then did they discover that not only on the island, but also on the seabed of the Blood Sea nearby, highly pure raw ore could be found everywhere.

They were like ordinary stones, everywhere.

These are all invaluable god-tier materials, which are in great demand for puppets, cursed objects, and mechanical armor.

The Dawn Mercenary Group then established a temporary camp on this deserted island.

Mining while hunting monsters.

As the days passed, various alchemy arrays, alchemic towers that imitated magic towers, and ultra-large mechanical equipment were also built, and the efficiency of hunting monsters became higher and higher.

In a flash, half a month passed.

The Dawn Mercenary Group hunted countless monsters, and Suren also extracted a total of hundreds of finished [Cosmic Source Matter].

Compared to the average of one [Cosmic Source Matter] found every two or three hundred years by countless adventurers in the major ruins of the two empires, their harvest this time could be called a miracle.

These hundred or so Cosmic Source Matters not only completely solved the current demand for source matter among the high-ranking members of the Dawn Mercenary Group but even solved the urgent needs of the entire Alchemy Plane.

In the future, for many years, this batch of Cosmic Source Matter will allow the Tier 8 professionals of the Alchemy Plane to not be stopped at the threshold of Tier 9 due to the lack of materials.

Moreover, the types of rule threads in this Burial Grounds of the Gods are very diverse, almost satisfying the needs of any profession sequence. Even Suren himself successfully extracted the [Cosmic Fourth Source Matter · Death] he needed.

On the other hand, countless animated silver ore was mined, and the smelting factories in the small void realm had a continuous supply of materials.

Suren can now finally make puppets without worrying about the lack of animated silver, and confidently move towards his goal of an "infinite puppet legion."

Although the harvest in the past half month has been plentiful, it has not been without accidents.

After all, this is the Burial Grounds of the Gods, and no one can predict the degree of danger. All kinds of terrifying monsters emerge in an endless stream.

Even if the current combat power of the Dawn Mercenary Group is considered the ceiling of the Alchemy Plane, there are still terrifying monsters that they cannot deal with.

In the past half month, they encountered a situation of "fishing up a shark."

Twice.

Once, it was a mountain of flesh monster of unimaginable size. As soon as it appeared, it filled the spatial crack, unable to be pulled out or pushed back. The other time, it was a tentacle monster distorted from the hair of a god. As soon as the spatial crack was opened, countless tentacles instantly pierced the sky full of holes, almost destroying the seal...

These were terrifying monsters that neither Suren, Mr. Mirror, nor the Dragon Language Warlock Group led by Mr. Black could do anything about.

Even a true god might not be able to do anything about them.

They were definitely existences that could not be solved in this plane.

In a normal situation, any team would be wiped out when encountering such an unkillable monster.

Even Suren would have to use the [Ouroboros Spacetime Ring] to teleport away.

But fortunately, they had a secret weapon, which was the ancient weapon discovered in the Gorgon Clan's temple—[Twilight of the Gods].

This dark matter magic energy cannon posed a fatal threat to even gods, so it was naturally very useful against monsters.

One shot would collapse the rules and cause a god to fall.

In another place, they really couldn't withstand such a bombardment.

Previously, [Twilight of the Gods] had been secretly manufactured in the war factory in the small void realm, but there had never been a suitable target range. Now, it was a good opportunity to test it out.

The effect was also very ideal. Both times, when Suren was about to run away, it successfully repelled the monster and sealed the spatial crack.

Days of risk and reward passed quickly.

Until this day,

An unexpected situation occurred.

…

"What happened to me?"

"You were injured in the sealed land..."

"Sister, do you mean that I have already been into that sealed land... and stayed there for three days?"

"…"

In the captain's cabin of the Eternal Night, Suren woke up from the bed.

He looked at the bandages all over his body and the various dense testing instruments, his face full of astonishment, not knowing what had happened.

He moved his limbs slightly, and the muscles and bones all over his body ached as if they were being cut by a knife.

Obviously, the injury was very serious.

But strangely, Suren had no memory of how he was injured.

His mind was foggy. He only felt like he had had a very deep dream.

Then he woke up from the dream and couldn't remember anything.

It was almost impossible for his current Divine Wandering Realm spiritual power to "lose his memory," so this situation was very abnormal.

Beside the bed, Mr. Mirror watched him wake up, her worried expression obviously relaxed. But the opalescent healing light in her hand did not stop, and her eyebrows could not hide a trace of fatigue.

She didn't speak. Lolota, who was helping Dr. Banks to test the instruments, looked at him and was happy that he could speak. She responded, "Yes, Mr. Suren, you not only went in for three days but have also been in a coma for seven days. You scared everyone."

Suren's eyes twitched as he listened, and he said in surprise again, "I have been in a coma for seven days?"

Lolota: "Yes, your injury is very serious. Dr. Banks can't completely stop the spread of those negative energies either. The leader has been staying here all these days, helping you suppress the injury."

Suren: "What exactly happened?"

Lolota seemed to recall something bad. Her face could not help but be nervous when she talked about this topic, and her speech was slightly faster: "Before, Mr. Suren entered that sealed land, and then didn't come out for a long time. Everyone thought you... had an accident. The leader has also been studying how to unlock the seal, wanting to save you. But the seal is too complicated, and no one can unlock it. Then, then you fell out of the spatial crack covered in blood, as if you were being chased by some monster..."

Suren listened, confused: "???"

He couldn't remember anything at all.

This feeling of memory fragmentation made him feel very bad.

He glanced at the wound on his body again. There were not many people in this plane who could cause such a fatal injury to him.

Looking at the attribute panel, there were dozens of negative states on it, and a lot of high-level chaotic energy was constantly eroding his body.

Obviously, only the indescribable monsters in the sealed space could cause this kind of injury.

But why didn't he have any relevant memories?

Suren looked again, and besides the potion repairing his body, there was also a gentle mirroring power in his body preventing those negative energies from invading his body. Obviously, his elder sister had taken action.

He was able to keep his life thanks to this mirroring power protecting his brain and heart.

However, even if Mr. Mirror was Tier 9, it would be difficult for her to completely stop these high-level law injuries.

Fortunately, Suren woke up by himself.

He used the all-knowing eyes of the second solution to look at the negative states of his body, barely raised his hand to condense a warlock seal. In an instant, a self-healing green light lingered around his body, beginning to deal with those tricky negative energies in a targeted manner.

Dragon blood had already been prepared in the blood bag by the bed. As soon as the [Blood Devour] technique was condensed, Suren's body was rapidly repairing itself while devouring the blood.

When he regained consciousness, those "non-physical" injuries were also improving.

After doing all this, his vital signs were considered stable.

Suren looked at the exhaustion on his sister's face and said, "It's okay, Sister. I'm fine for now."

Saying that, he added, "Thank you, Sister."

Hearing this, Mr. Mirror finally breathed a sigh of relief.

She didn't stand on ceremony. The mirror light in her hand disappeared. She looked at Suren again and asked, "You don't remember anything?"

"Yeah."

Suren nodded, tried to recall, and said, "I only remember that we seemed to have hunted a humanoid distortion monster with an octopus head, and then woke up... to now."

Mr. Mirror sighed slightly and said lightly, "That was already ten days ago."

…

"At that time, you said you had an intuition that you had to go down and see, so you decided to go…"

"Black Crow didn't find any problems, and then you opened the spatial crack."

"As a result, you stayed for three days. And then you came out like this."

"…"

After listening to Mr. Mirror's words, Suren realized what had happened during this period.

Ten days ago, there were no more monsters coming out after the spatial crack was opened, so Suren judged that the monster density in the sealed land below may have been reduced to a sufficiently safe level.

Then he wanted to go down alone to find out.

After all, his methods had a high probability of saving his life, thinking that even if there was danger, he could escape in time.

However, the ending was that he returned seriously injured.

It was really the kind of injury that was on the line between life and death, and he came back with his last breath.

But strangely, he couldn't remember what happened after he went down at all.

After finishing speaking, Mr. Mirror looked at Suren, whose confusion had not diminished at all, and asked, "Is your brain damaged?"

She knew that compared to the detection results of the instruments, it was better to ask Suren directly. His all-knowing eyes were more accurate than any instrument.

"No."

Suren looked at it and shook his head.

Whether physically or mentally, there was nothing wrong with his brain.

But that also meant that it might be some kind of power beyond cognition that caused this memory fragmentation.

Completely puzzled, a flash of inspiration came to his mind, and Suren took out a notebook from the small void realm.

He always had the habit of recording notes when exploring some high-risk secret realms.

Because he had more than once

had similar experiences, this habit had helped him escape from danger.

He knew that human senses were easily deceived, and that mental interference, visual interference, auditory interference, memory tampering… could all cause deviations in cognition.

Therefore, even at his current level, he still maintained this habit.

Mr. Mirror, who was next to him, was also slightly curious about his actions.

However, when Suren flipped through the notebook and saw the notes on it, his expression changed instantly.

Because the notes were written in a handwriting that he recognized at a glance as his own, but the content was completely unfamiliar.

The notes read as follows:

"After entering the space, I vaguely realized that my cognition was being eroded by a mysterious force. That was an existence that I could not understand. It seemed to affect my five senses. Intuition told me that I had to record something. Although I don't even know what I want to write."

"I can't grasp that feeling. I can only use a pen to write down those fleeting thoughts in my mind."

"Looking at the rows of words above, I feel very unfamiliar. It's my note, but I have no impression of when I recorded these words…"

"I tried to use the all-knowing gaze to understand the existence of this space, but… uh, what exactly did I see? Why do I want to cover up what I saw?"

[I realize that if I stay in this space any longer, my ego will be erased by some cognition, and I will forget the whole world. I have to leave. If you see these words, please leave here immediately.]

"…"

Seeing these crazy notes, Suren instantly had a feeling of goosebumps all over his body.

He actually wrote these things?

The notebook was open like this, and Mr. Mirror, who was next to him, also caught a glimpse of the contents above, which was equally incredible.

In an instant, she even showed vigilance on her face, suspecting that the Suren in front of her might be parasitized by some monster, or that there were some unknown abnormal conditions.

Seeing this, Suren gestured that he was okay.

After the shock, he suddenly felt a sense of familiarity. This scene was similar to something he had experienced before.

He said solemnly, "Sister, do you remember a few years ago when we came to this Burial Grounds of the Gods, when I encountered a time secret realm in the cursed space of this ruin, and also lost a few days of memory?"

Mr. Mirror nodded: "Yes. I remember. At that time, I told you that you should have seen some kind of existence beyond cognition."

As soon as she said this, the two of them seemed to realize something.

Suren might have seen some kind of existence beyond cognition in the sealed space below.

…

Suren flipped out the notebook from back then.

If he hadn't remembered it now, he might have even ignored the existence of this notebook.

The contents of the notes were similarly similar, crazy and nonsensical, with some contents that had no clue.

Suren glanced at it, but he couldn't see anything special, nor did he recall any more useful information.

But almost from the moment he took out the notebook, he vaguely felt that it seemed that the mystery was about to be revealed.

There was no one talking in the room for a while, and it was quiet.

He continued to flip through the notebook just now, thinking in his heart, "If it were me, in that kind of situation, I would definitely leave some clues for myself. Why… why didn't I record anything?"

This was also where he was puzzled.

There was no problem with the notes in this notebook, they were written by himself.

There was also no problem with the content, it was just realizing the danger and reminding himself to leave.

But that was the biggest problem.

Suren knew his cautious character very well. When encountering that kind of weird situation, he should have left some clues for himself no matter what.

Instead of just coming out like this.

Was there no time to leave it…

Or was there another reason?

Mr. Mirror next to him obviously thought of this as well and suggested, "Could it be that there is some kind of code?"

Suren nodded. He thought so too.

But he also had a doubt: why should he use a code for the notes he wrote to himself?

Before he could think about it, both of them were looking at the words in front of them.

Suren and Mr. Mirror, one had harvested countless people's memories and was proficient in various cryptography techniques, and the other had copied almost all the information of the current alchemy civilization. In theory, if there was any existing encrypted information in the notes, both of them should be able to recognize it.

But after careful observation, they found that it did not conform to various difficult encryption methods.

Instead, Mr. Mirror thought of the simplest encryption method.

But that was an encryption method that almost had no correct method and could not be cracked at all.

She suggested, "Maybe… it needs some kind of reference object?"

Suren had actually thought of it just now.

But many reference objects flashed through his mind, but none of them could decipher it.

Suren's brain entered a state of absolute concentration, his thoughts spinning, deducing various possibilities: "If it is a reference object, then it must be something I often come into contact with, that is deeply impressed and easily thought of… perhaps it should be related to the Burial Grounds of the Gods…"

Although he didn't know why he was doing this, he assumed that if he really needed to use some codes to record some content in that situation, then how would he do it?

For a time, various classics, newspapers, and documents floated in Suren's mind…

Almost all of them were familiar text contents that he had read recently.

He looked at it like this for nearly a quarter of an hour.

After one exclusion after another, suddenly, a flash of inspiration flashed in Suren's mind: "That's right! The code in Isaac's five alchemy manuscripts!"

He thought of a possibility.

Since it was related to the Burial Grounds of the Gods, then wouldn't the five notebooks left by Sir Isaac be exactly what pointed to the secrets hidden here?

At the moment when this thought appeared, those symbols in Suren's mind came alive before his eyes.

Then they corresponded to the words and punctuation marks in the notebook, and automatically transformed into some other content in his mind.

That's right!

He found the decryption method! The new content is as follows:

"Hahaha… I finally cracked the final secret of the notes. Sir Isaac's idea is really unbelievable. He actually used this method to record the "indescribable". No wonder he used the [Blasphemer] implantation on the seal. So that's how it is."

"I realize that a mysterious force in this space is distorting my cognition, making it impossible for me to bring the secrets here out. And Sir Isaac's method also gave me inspiration. I finally know how to record what I saw."

"I saw the "?" symbol…"

"I have glimpsed the appearance of truth."

"Don't come in again without a god."

Seeing the lines of deciphered words in front of him, Suren's expression immediately brightened.