MTL - Steel, Guns and the Industrial Party Across the World - Chapter 567 The Mercenaries Returning to Horn Bay II

Just as nuclear weapons are only a byproduct of scientific exploration, immortality is merely a small gift along the path of seeking the Dao. The New Dao Master, Grand Wise Teacher, and the strongest cultivator in millennia, Real Person Zheng Fa, is recruiting a personal disciple. The reference materials for applicants are as follows:Topology in Talismans: Starting with the Little Rain TalismanResearch on Artificial Intelligence in Magical Tools: A Preliminary Exploration of Tool SpiritsElemental Decomposition of the Nine-turn Golden PillBasic Pathways of FormationNote: Priority will be given to those who have published papers in the Immortal Dao journal.

A mortal youth accidentally stumbled upon the path of immortality and struggled to move forward on the arduous journey of seeking immortality.The road to immortality is more difficult than reaching the heavens, yet despite the countless obstacles, his determination to pursue immortality remained unwavering.Looking back, the green mountains still stood, but his old companions had all turned to bones.

“The Earth was chosen by the gods, and all humans were sent to another world, participating in a 'Dark Lord and Hero's game'.Billions of humans played the roles of 'Dark Lord' and 'Hero', each needing to choose their initial race at the beginning.Ethan Jackson was matched to the 'Dark Lord' faction and became a Dungeon King.To his surprise, he found that he could see hidden information that others couldn't...[Goblin Dark Lord] Low-level Bloodline, not recommended.[Stone Giant Dark Lord] Mid-level Bloodline, not recommended.[Magical Treant Dark Lord] High-level Bloodline, recommended.[Golden Divine Dragon Dark Lord] Top-level Bloodline, highly recommended!...Heroes coveted Ethan's dungeon, and the treasures within it attracted numerous adventurers.Among them, there were young Lady Knights, the saints of the royal capital, tsundere female magicians, and innocent but naive female priests...Ethan could never have anticipated that.As the game had just begun, the dungeon's Goblin guards caught a Lady Knight and offered her to him as a tribute.”

Book I: Lost ThingsTristan Abrascal is a thief, one of many making their living under the perpetual twilight of the greatest city in all of Vesper. Quick wit and a contract with a capricious goddess have always kept him one step ahead, until one night he crosses a line by accident that burns all the bridges he had left. But not all is lost, as his mentor offers a way out of peril that turns out to be more than a simple escape.It is also an opportunity to get even with the infanzones, the nobles he’s lived under all his life, and it so happens that Tristan has a full ledger’s worth of scores to settle with them.Lady Angharad Tredegar has fled halfway across the world, leaving behind a ruin of a life: her family butchered by a ruthless enemy, their estate torched and their nobility revoked. Yet no matter how far she flees the blades of assassins follow, and she finds herself growing desperate for any protection. She has one relative left to call on, her estranged uncle, but she finds that the safety he offers comes at a cost.Angharad has sworn revenge, however, and her honour will allow for no compromise. She will do what she must to survive so that one day bloody vengeance can be visited upon her enemies.The paths of the two take them to the doorstep of the Watch, but for desperate souls like them enrolment is a lost cause. They will have to do it the hard way instead, by surviving the trials on the isle known as the Dominion of Lost Things.Where every year many go, and few return.Book II: Good TreasonsThe trials of the Dominion are over.The four survivors have become students of Scholomance, enrolling together as a cabal, yet even on those infamous grounds they soon learn none are beyond the reach of their pasts.Angharad Tredegar is returned to a semblance of the world she left behind, but finds her honor sorely tested by bargains offered - every bit as tempting as in the stories and even deadlier.Tristan Abrascal needs answers. Mysterious enemies keep trying to abduct him, his classroom does not exist and he’s now had several conversations with dead people. Worst of all, his carrots keep dying.Maryam Khaimov is going mad, which would worry her less if it were happening on schedule. More frightening yet is the possibility that she is not, and there truly is someone else going around wearing her face.Song Ren must forge the others into a functional unit, all the while fending off enemies on all sides: rival cabals, vengeful countrymen and the deluge of implacable foes her companions simply cannot seem to stop attracting.Failure is not an option, for Song must bring back honor to her family’s name whatever the cost: it is the only way to keep their disgrace from literally eating them all alive.And as the four chase shadows in Scholomance, in the distance looms the greater test awaiting them in the Asphodel Rectorate. Asphodel is a faded power, the rotten carcass of what it once was, but under that rot looms darker things - of which monsters might just be the least dangerous.Besides, is treason really such an evil when you have the best of reasons for it?