Chapter 1 The Proof

"...This only proves that you saw through it, Professor. I'm serious."

Stunned by Su Zhou's straightforward answer, Yelena's voice sounded as if she was gritting her teeth.

But then, she relaxed her slightly furrowed brow and said very sincerely: "The Radiant Light Order is definitely up to something this time. My mission plan didn't include inviting them at all, otherwise I wouldn't have asked Professor you along—but Grandmaster Flint seemed to have foreseen it. He used some excuse to travel with me, and after learning about my mission, he said he could help repair things and volunteered to join the exploration team."

"A normal person couldn't refuse such generous terms. Refusing outright would only arouse suspicion. Moreover, having an alchemy master is indeed a good thing, but now, thinking about it carefully, Grandmaster Flint must have known about our plan for a long time, preparing to enter the ruins with us legitimately."

At this point, the female knight's expression turned cold.

She held out her hand, thumb pointing back, towards the camp—or rather, towards the iron coffin in the center of the camp—and said with a sarcastic sneer, "And his purpose is precisely that primordial maiden in the iron coffin—even deeper than we imagined!"

"And you probably saw it too, right? The demonized tranquilizer he injected into Adama had problems. No tranquilizer works that quickly. Your apprentice is also a patient of demonization, and you are an alchemist, so you know that best."

Yelena's words were sincere and urgent, and she was indeed not lying.

During the initial period when Gasha entered the orphanage, he needed to take medicine to stabilize the spread of demonization.

Taking care of a young demonized child was a memorable time for Svetre, even with memory loss.

Su Zhou knew very well that tranquilizers that resist demonization needed to fuse with the body, and only after at least an hour could they gradually provide feedback to the 'soul'.

The potion that Grandmaster Flint used to calm Adama almost instantly was either a revolutionary new tranquilizer—instantaneously effective, with no side effects, and capable of restoring demonized patients in a state of frenzied beastification to normal.

Or, it was liquefied 'soul essence'. Simply put, a large amount of pure soul condensate.

The former was of course impossible. If they had that, the Radiant Light Order would have become the supreme leader of all demonized people long ago. What Asmodeus Empire? A bunch of worthless rabble. The numerous demonized patients, scattered throughout the entire empire, and all of them superhuman, could join forces within three days to wipe out the emperor's twelve armored guard regiments and twenty-eight group armies.

As for the latter, it was merely a stopgap measure. Injecting a large amount of soul essence could indeed temporarily restore the souls of the corrupted demonized, but after a period of time, once these soul essences were also contaminated, the demonized would die due to excessive burning.

Moreover... before death, the demonized would erupt with incredible power, far exceeding their current realm.

This completely contradicted what Grandmaster Flint said, that he would send Adama to the Radiant Light Order for treatment in the future.

"We need to join forces, Professor. Grandmaster Flint repeatedly stopped Hader from killing Adama, obviously intending to use him as a knife, using the last moments of the demonized to kill us."

Seeing Su Zhou's thoughtful expression, Yelena felt that she had enough chips and sufficient reasons.

She smiled and extended her hand to the white-haired old man: "He has ulterior motives, is powerful, and harbors malice—the Radiant Light Order is most enthusiastic about exploring the ruins of the primordial civilization, and besides, they are no longer the Radiant Light Saint and his group of followers from four hundred years ago."

"To ensure their technological advantage and exclusive control over secrets, these alchemists will do anything."

Su Zhou narrowed his eyes. He didn't extend his hand, but nodded slightly, then shook his head, and then said softly: "Okay—but Ms. Yelena, even if Grandmaster Flint really intends to wipe us all out, would you allow me to live?"

"Let's not talk about the fact that I'm just a small professor of ancient civilization studies, a third-rate alchemist. Now I also know the secrets of this ruin, and I've seen the living primordial maiden. I don't think I can stay out of it, but I don't think I can escape unscathed either."

"Moreover, join forces with you? I don't think I'm qualified to deal with a High Luminary-realm Order Master."

"A small professor of ancient civilization? The most outstanding scholar of ruins in the South is so modest, then there aren't many great ones in the Empire."

Exaggeratedly shaking her head, Yelena meaningfully raised her index finger and pointed upwards: "'We' need you. Since you know about the primordial maiden, you must also understand our purpose. How much do you think your value is to us? Would we waste such precious knowledge?"

"Besides, aren't you maintaining an orphanage? The rewards for exploring ruins are far from enough to sustain your good deeds, but believe me, as long as you join us, expanding your orphanage tenfold will be no problem."

"..."

Su Zhou originally wanted to sneer, sarcastically asking why she hadn't opened ten orphanages before.

But soon, he remembered something.

—The overly coincidental tax officer, the perfectly timed reward, Yelena appearing just at the right moment, and the mysterious mission that matched his apparent profession.

And the force behind this woman.

Su Zhou was self-aware. He knew he wasn't particularly quick-witted, but he certainly wasn't stupid.

Hopeful Light Orphanage... If Yelena wasn't lying, the force behind her had valued 'Professor Svetre's' knowledge from the very beginning.

Then they must have people monitoring the orphanage right now.

So after a moment of silence, Su Zhou said: "What do you need me to do?"

"A smart man, Professor. You don't need to do much, and it's not dangerous. You just need to interfere with the operation of Grandmaster Flint's armor at a critical moment. Just for a moment. Only you, as an alchemist and someone who has studied in the Radiant Light Order, can do it—we know you can."

The smile on Yelena's face became even brighter. She extended her hand again, and this time Su Zhou also extended his hand.

After the two shook hands, the female knight turned and left directly, while Su Zhou said in a deep voice: "Your superior..."

"A smart man doesn't ask that question, Professor. You shouldn't ask, and I won't say."

Slightly pausing, she interrupted Su Zhou's question: "Also, remember to have little Gasha and little Loya stay away from the camp later—that's not a place they should approach."

Yelena's footsteps then sounded again, the knight disappeared around the corner of the corridor, and the gale barrier used to shield the sound at the entrance of the passage slowly dissipated.

Su Zhou stood there with a solemn expression, while Gasha and Loya stood behind Su Zhou with confused expressions.

No, it should be said, just Loya—Gasha seemed to have vaguely understood something. His face was a little pale, and he asked softly: "Professor... the people in the orphanage..."

"It's okay."

Coming back to his senses, Su Zhou smiled and shook his head. He put his hands behind his back, and his crimson eyes faintly glowed in the darkness of the ruins: "I won't let anything happen to everyone."

"Director... what exactly was Aunt Yelena talking about just now?"

Loya was full of confusion. He was indeed a talented prodigy. At a young age, he could assemble alchemical machinery and successfully condense his soul, but in terms of dealing with people and worldly affairs, Loya was still too well protected. Gasha and the former Professor Svetre didn't let him participate in these things.

"Um."

Su Zhou heard this question, thought for a while, and said seriously: "To put it bluntly, it's someone with ulterior motives who wants to pull me in to deal with another person with ulterior motives."

"Speaking of which, do these people not know how to speak without riddles?"

Sighing, he turned his head and earnestly warned the two children: "I'll say it again, Gasha, Loya, when you grow up, never become these riddle-speaking people!"

"Yes! We remember!"

The voices of the two children were very quick and powerful, obviously also hating this kind of behavior.

The second day ended quickly. Apart from exchanging exploration results during meals before rest, the members of the exploration team did not communicate in any way.

Of course, this was on the surface. No one knew how many times exchanges like those between Su Zhou and Yelena had occurred in private.

Grandmaster Flint never left his armor. After all, the physical bodies of alchemists are very fragile. As long as they are not in a safe place, the alchemists of the Radiant Light Order will not leave it.

And Adama also remained dazed next to his luggage, drool dripping from the corners of his mouth. Since being injected with the tranquilizer, although he had barely regained some of his human senses, the damage of demonization to the soul was irreversible. He could no longer be like that earth-type caster, often saying cold jokes that could lower the temperature.

The campfire burned quietly, and another night passed.

On the third day, this day was still just an ordinary exploration, and Su Zhou and his group did not find any clues to leave the ruins.

However, after they returned to the camp, they received two rather unexpected pieces of news.

[Everyone, I have found a passage leading out of the ruins.]

In Grandmaster Flint's mechanical voice, there was also a rare hint of joy. Su Zhou could even imagine a white-haired old scholar smiling inside the armor: [The passage is located at the top of the northeast end of the ceiling. The mountains there have collapsed, revealing a crack, which is relatively narrow, and probably only children can climb out.]

[But with our strength, it is not difficult to expand it.]

"She's waking up."

Yelena's news was even simpler. She directly pointed to the iron coffin, her tone with a hint of anger: "After the primordial stasis field is activated, we can't restart it. Now she's waking up, what should we do? A living, moving primordial being, in such a dangerous environment—if she gets even a little scratch, we'll all die and it won't be enough to compensate!"

Saying this, she glared fiercely at Grandmaster Flint and Hader: "If you hadn't insisted on opening it, things wouldn't have been so troublesome!"

"What?"

Both pieces of news were quite sudden. Even Hader, after being glared at by Yelena, did not react, and even became anxious: "Then what should we do now?"

Too late to think about it.

Su Zhou directly turned his head to look at the stone coffin. Indeed, he could sense that the soul in the coffin had begun to stir.

Ordinary people's souls are like colored glass with ripples: transparent essence, the color of the source energy, and the fluctuations of emotions. Just by looking at the soul, you can understand a person's general situation.

But for the maiden in the coffin, or rather, the local term of the Aean World, 'primordial being', her soul was very peculiar, presenting a pure silver that was opaque and without impurities, and releasing a very dazzling light.

At this moment, this immaculate silver light was rippling, releasing a holy, pure, and peaceful wave.

—Very beautiful.

Nodding slightly, Su Zhou had basically never seen such a soul. Even he himself couldn't be considered 'purely good', so there was no way he could have such a clean soul.

Because he didn't have it himself, he admired it.

But there were others who could also perceive the beauty of this 'soul' as clearly as Su Zhou, and their reaction was far greater than Su Zhou's.

Because they didn't have it themselves, they were greedy.

Cracking and rattling sounds of bones rubbing together sounded, and the giant who had been sitting aside stood up.

Demonized people crave pure souls, because they are too corrupt. The souls eroded by high-density source energy are as decayed and fragile as an apple eaten by ants, so they especially need something to fill them.

"Hungry."

Simple words. During the exploration these past two days, Adama had not eaten. He had been sitting next to his luggage, staring blankly at the ground, muttering some giant language spoken only in his hometown.

Not to mention whether he would eat in this state, his own rations had been finished a few days ago.

No one would give him their food, not even Grandmaster Flint.

Rather, letting the beast live and be hungry was his purpose.

Adama's standing up instantly became the focus of everyone's attention, and he himself was staring straight at the iron coffin in front of him. His throat was writhing violently, making gurgling beast sounds, and his tall body also appeared a little hunched, making him look less like a human and more like a bipedal behemoth.

"Gasha, take Loya back, stay away."

Sighing, Su Zhou signaled his apprentice to stay away. What was about to happen was obviously not suitable for children, and extremely dangerous.

Adama was bound to die. Whether it was the complete berserk of the terminal stage of simple demonization, or as Yelena said, being saved by Grandmaster Flint to be used as a weapon against others, the result would not be much different—he was bound to die, and he would definitely die in the hands of his former teammates.

"You madman, what are you planning to do!"

Hader stood out in the first place, blocking Adama's path.

He had already drawn his long sword, and cold air formed a halo centered on his body. The swordsman said in a loud voice: "Looking at you like this, even the Grandmaster's tranquilizer is completely useless, right? Today, I will do a good deed and send you on your way!"

And just as Hader blocked the demonized giant, a faint green light flashed deep in Adama's eyes. He roared lowly, revealing a mouth full of lion-like fangs, and then punched out with extraordinary swiftness, bringing up gusts of thunderous wind and shock waves, smashing towards Hader's head.

"Wh...?!"

The frostbite swordsmanship of the North can indeed slow down the enemy's speed, but facing such speed, the swordsman was obviously powerless. He hadn't finished his exclamation when he faced this punch, forcing Hader to instinctively raise his long sword to block in front of his head.

But it was meaningless—the giant's bloodline plus demonization, Adama's attack had already exceeded the speed of sound, and it was not something that Hader, who was only in the Spirit Radiance Realm, could resist.

With a crisp sound, the frost-patterned steel long sword immediately snapped in half, and the shocked swordsman had already flown backwards, and then slammed heavily into the wall of the ruins, and a piece of gravel and rubble was shaken down when he was embedded in the wall.