Mechanical Alchemist-Chapter 637 - 636: The Secret of the Stele

"And then?"

Su Lun looked at the contents of the notebook and confirmed that he had indeed entered that sealed space and even witnessed some kind of incredible existence.

However, the notebook had nothing noted down about it.

Even after deciphering it, there were only these few lines of text.

So, was it just a lonely read?

Mr. Jing looked somewhat surprised and said, "You’ve seen ’truth’?"

With a slight purse of his lips, Su Lun replied uncertainly, "Probably... yes?"

He didn’t know how to describe his current feelings.

The good news was that he might have witnessed the ultimate secret of the alchemy realm—the truth.

But the bad news was that he had absolutely no memory of it.

Mr. Jing looked at Su Lun again and asked, "You still can’t remember anything?"

Helplessly, Su Lun nodded: "Yeah."

If that was the case, it seemed like it was a wasted journey?

He had nearly died, too.

But according to the contents of the notebook, he was very excited and even felt that it was worth sacrificing his life to get a glimpse of the truth.

Clearly, Su Lun thought that the notes he left behind were not so simple.

He felt sure he had left some clues, and pondered, "It seems that the sealed world underground really has some mysterious force preventing me from bringing out what I saw..."

Mr. Jing also furrowed his brow in analysis and said, "I once heard my father mention a possibility. He speculated that some supreme beings in the universe had imposed a kind of ’cognitive limitation’ on inferior lives, causing humans to ignore and forget their existence even if they see something beyond their cognitive scope. That is a domain only gods can tread, a taboo for mortals..."

"Hmm."

Su Lun nodded as he listened; he was familiar with this notion.

Because Sir Isaac mentioned a similar view in his fourth notebook. And the "Isaac Blasphemer" alchemy contrivance was created to solve the problem of human cognitive shackles.

Just then, an idea flashed through his mind.

Suddenly, Su Lun remembered something.

Right, the cipher in the five notebooks!

In his own written notes, he had deciphered the ultimate secret of the five notebooks.

With a shift in his gaze, his mind already had a plan, and he turned to Mr. Jing, "Senior sister, I may have thought of the crux of the problem. It’s on that stele!"

Mr. Jing’s bright eyes sparkled as she said, "Oh?"

Su Lun was already eager to uncover the secret, "I need to check it out."

No sooner had he spoken than Lolo Tata, who had been confused by the conversation, immediately said, "But Mr. Su Lun, what about your body?"

Su Lun slowly stood up, managing to squeeze a smile onto his face: "It’s not a big problem."

The injury was no longer fatal, and recovery was only a matter of time.

Compared to the pain in his body, he was more urgently wanting to know what the ultimate secret left by Sir Isaac was.

...

Right now, Su Lun could barely lift his arms, let alone walk.

In the end, he sat in a mechanical wheelchair, pushed out the door by Lolo Tata.

The group made their way to the deck, and upon seeing Su Lun alive, the whole crew of the Evernight ship erupted in excitement.

"Look... That’s Mr. Su Lun!"

"Mr. Su Lun is all right!"

"Hahaha... I told you Mr. Su Lun would be safe."

"..."

Earlier, everyone had watched Su Lun, covered in blood and barely breathing, fall from the space rift, and there had been no news after seven days of emergency treatment; everyone was very worried.

Now that they saw him come out, though he was in a wheelchair, the stone hanging over everyone’s hearts finally dropped.

Tanni, Tatu, Kama, Abuke, Tatu... the younger generation of crew members immediately swarmed around him, greeting him with a cacophony of voices. Many had tears shimmering in their eyes.

Even Mr. Hei, Number Nineteen, Barrett, and the other high-ranking fighters showed a look of profound relief on their faces.

Seeing that Su Lun, the backbone of the Dawn crew, hadn’t fallen, there was nothing more uplifting than this news.

Su Lun was surrounded by the crowd, looking at their tearfully joyful faces, and he smiled with relief.

He himself had long lost any fear of death, but he found that everyone else seemed to care about it more than he did. The feeling of being cared about was quite pleasant.

At that moment, Yuta also hurried over, her hands still clutching a bag of poorly prepared herbs, unable to hide her joy on her tired face, "Su Lun, you’re awake?"

Mr. Jing said, "These past few days, while you were injured, it was thanks to Elder Yuta sparing her divine power that your life was saved. Otherwise, just Dr. Banks and I would not have been enough."

Su Lun looked at Yuta, whose face was filled with worry, and his brow moved slightly, "You’ve worked hard, Yuta."

Yuta smiled tenderly, a lock of silver hair brushing her temple, finally letting out a sigh of relief. She had a thousand things to say but simply said, "It’s good that you’re alright."

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Su Lun raised his hand and gently caressed her restless hand, smiling brightly.

He didn’t say much more.

After exchanging a few words with everyone, Su Lun disembarked from the ship and set foot on the desolate island.

It was just him and Mr. Jing.

...

The stele left by Sir Isaac was not for everyone to see, nor did everyone have the right to see it, and it could even be dangerous to life.

Su Lun had previously seen that ultimate secret when he went to the seal; he was gravely injured and lost his memory, and even then, he had the top alchemical strength of this plane.

If it had been anyone else, they might have already collapsed mentally.

Mr. Jing, pushing the wheelchair, and Su Lun arrived in front of the stele.

Seeing the stele again, Su Lun who now understood everything, commented with emotion, "No wonder... My mentor actually thought of using this method to record the secret. It’s truly a stroke of genius."

He had been somewhat puzzled when he first discovered this stele.

If the stele named "Isaac Blasphemer" was simply to provide a constant energy supply to the seal and to leave messages for his two daughters, it did not need to be so "intelligent."

The rank of this device was extremely high.

It gave the impression of overkill.

That’s why Su Lun guessed that the stele might have another use, but he had never understood it until now.

Now he had figured it all out.

The function of this "God Profaner" was, in fact, a decoder!

With Sir Aikesa’s device, and a thousand years of time, he had sought to decipher the "ultimate secret of alchemy."

...

The reason "transcendental cognition" is not understood by lower life forms is precisely because it has a cognitive threshold.

Even if Sir Isaac had discovered some great secret and recorded it, descendants would not understand it.

It’s like the high-level script of the dragon language.

Humans don’t understand it, not because of an intelligence gap, but due to a restriction of life levels.

Dragon language imbues intricate cosmic laws, only accessible to professionals of at least the ninth rank within the Tao Domain.

Just like the frog at the bottom of the well, if it cannot leap out, no matter how one describes the vastness of the outside world, it won’t comprehend.

And the key is, those standing at the top of the well are "gods."

Higher beings simply don’t bother to describe the upper realms to lower beings like humans.

Especially for an alchemy civilization that has lost its divine-level heritage, the view from above the well has become almost entirely unknown.

Moreover, various signs indicate that the "mouth of the well" of the alchemical plane has been deliberately sealed by some higher existences, capped shut.

The chance to become a god has been severed.

Now, having finally found some ancient treasures, it was natural to not let them remain buried in dust.

And Sir Isaac thought of this method.

He used the powerful computing of the device "Isaac Blasphemer" to interpret the "ultimate secret."

It’s not a fear that the language of the world above the well is too complex to express, but a fear of having no means to understand at all.

Now, after a thousand years, some secrets that have been deciphered are all inscribed on this stele.

...

Hearing Su Lun’s view, Mr. Jing’s face was also full of shock, murmuring to himself, "I should have thought of this earlier. Father would certainly leave hope for the alchemical civilization..."

Su Lun listened and fully agreed.

He was equally moved by that mentor he had never met, truly worthy of being an Alchemical Demigod.

It didn’t feel like much before, but now standing higher and higher, Su Lun felt an ever-increasing sense of responsibility.

Without much thought, he lifted his hand and started to sketch in the void.

With the "God Profaner" notebook in hand, Su Lun understood the principle of this ancillary device very well, his fingertips tracing out one cryptic symbol after another.

A miraculous scene unfolded—the cryptic symbols were like a safe’s combination, lighting up their corresponding marks on the stele once drawn in their specific places.

As he deciphered, his heart was filled with numerous emotions.

The clever part of Sir Isaac’s plan was that it wasn’t just encrypted, but without possession of the five notebooks, even if someone discovered this stele, they couldn’t learn its secrets.

But to gather all five notebooks, one almost couldn’t avoid Mr. Jing.

Multiple layers of security ensured this secret wouldn’t be leaked until an alchemy civilization existed.

In a short time, Su Lun entered the string of cryptic codes left in the five notebooks, and the stele began to glow with light.

Mr. Jing, standing beside him, watched intently, hardly able to hide his anticipation.

Just then, new characters emerged on the stele.

"Ophelia, I am gratified that you can read this content, which means you are qualified to touch these secrets," it said.

"I’m not being cryptic for the sake of mystique, but simply because what I understand and what you need aren’t the same. The ’Emerald Record’ holds the ultimate secret of alchemy, and what each person sees and perceives will differ."

"Moreover, without having reached a certain level, premature exposure to these secrets is not beneficial but rather harmful to you and even to the alchemical civilization as a whole."

"In the weave of fate, I’ve deduced a series of causes and effects. When the civilization fell, countless enemies coveted the alchemic dimension, and a powerful being hid a fragment of the alchemic dimension, leaving behind many treasures—that is our current alchemic dimension. But even after the downfall of Dawn, countless powerful enemies still coveted the fruits of alchemical civilization. That being didn’t want to cut off alchemy nor leave the treasure exposed, so it could only be hidden in the deepest reaches. Imperceptible, unforgettable, and extremely dangerous... Only in this way could it be preserved. Waiting for someone qualified to touch this secret to appear."

"Yes, this God Burial Ground is the treasure left by our forebears of the Dawn Era for civilization, a pathway for alchemists to ascend to the divine!"

"..."

Su Lun and Mr. Jing glanced at each other upon seeing the text on the stele.

Only then did they understand that the God Burial Ground was actually a treasure left intentionally by ancient Great Alchemists.

Moreover, Su Lun’s prior memory loss was to ensure this secret would not be leaked.

There were a few more lines on the stele:

"I’ve discovered this secret. But the Emerald Record points to a truth so profound that it’s hard for mortals to comprehend. Even at my current realm, I’ve only glimpsed the surface. I know that if this secret remains buried, it may remain undeciphered for countless future years. The abyssal rift of Old Lington has shown signs of collapse, and other space pathways are gradually malfunctioning over time, a mishap away from a catastrophe that could destroy civilization. We don’t have much time left for our alchemic dimension."

"So, I took a clever approach, which is the ’God Profaner’, using computational power and time to encapsulate those ’indescribable’ entities..."

"And if you can decipher the clues I left in the notebooks, then you should understand my intention. Make good use of the content revealed on the stele; it will guide your future. Praise the original creator."

"..."

Su Lun’s expression was very solemn as he read this.

Mr. Jing beside him felt the same way.

It was only upon reading the stele that they realized they had stumbled upon an enormous secret.

A secret so vast that it seemed to require tremendous courage to even touch it.

Now they had the key to open the treasury; within it lay treasures, but also a deep abyssal beast.

It could be overwhelmingly suffocating.

Su Lun glanced at his senior sister, asking, "Senior sister?"

Mr. Jing pondered for a moment, then nodded solemnly, "Mm."

The current situation in the alchemic dimension indeed couldn’t wait any longer.

Even if risks were involved, it couldn’t get any worse.

Su Lun lifted his eyebrows upon hearing this, clearly of the same mind.

After death ceased to inspire fear, only anticipation remained for the unknown.

With a determined Mage’s focus, he exclaimed, "Unveil!"

No sooner had he spoken than the glow on the stele began to spin, slowly condensing into a vortex of darkness.

Upon closer inspection, the vortex seemed endlessly deep, akin to peering into a world as profound as the starry sky.

The small stele appeared to conceal a world fashioned from knowledge.

That world seemed to possess a magic that drew the gaze deeper and deeper.

Su Lun’s eyes sparkled as strings upon strings of dense knowledge, resembling data codes, appeared before him.

The "God Profaner" complicated those indescribable entities layer by layer to make them comprehensible to humans.

But correspondingly, its content had grown to an extreme bulk.

With just one glance, he realized the knowledge contained within the stele was terrifyingly vast.

It was so immense that it was impossible for humans to fully grasp and digest.

Su Lun estimated that, even with his rapid reading speed, it might take a hundred million years to fully comprehend?

Moreover, this was just a small portion decrypted by the "Blasphemer," with the complete Emerald Record still sealed within that mysterious space.

"It really is exaggerated..."

Su Lun felt a familiar sensation as he glanced over it.

It was like when he himself used the second solution of the All-knowing Eye to observe some higher being, and his mind was suddenly flooded with too much information, some of which he couldn’t digest properly.

And the stele didn’t just explain a particular entity, it encompassed everything, and yet nothing.

It was like accessing a database about the world.

Everyone needed different data, and they could only search for what they specifically required.

Mr. Jing as well was drawn into the vortex.

After watching for a while, her eyes grew ever more intense as she murmured, "I think I see the mysteries of the ’Myriad Laws’..."

Upon hearing this, Su Lun turned to look and said, "Oh?"

He knew that his fellow disciple had been perplexed at the ninth rank for a long time.

After all, ascending to demigod by comprehending the "Laws" required more than just talent, it also required a direction.

Standing at her current height, there was no one on this plane who could offer her any advice on professional advancement.

The path ahead was unclear, and she had to rely on her own groping in the dark.

The stele left by Sir Isaac was like a suddenly illuminated lighthouse, giving her a direction.

Mr. Jing murmured, "The mirror has the strength to duplicate everything but also its shortcomings. I see only the surface of objects in the mirror. The world behind those mirrored items is unknown and void to me. Humans perceive the world through their senses and are limited by them. Only when you stand high enough do you realize that what you can see and touch is merely a projection of the world’s surface."

Su Lun listened thoughtfully.

Yet he was surprised to say: Did she really figure out how to use this stele?

After a pause, Mr. Jing added, "Su Lun, think about what you need, and the stele will guide you to the secrets hidden in the universe."

At these words, Su Lun also turned his gaze towards the stele.

What did he need?

He needed a lot.

His current understanding of the laws had already touched beyond the ninth rank, and his eagerness for perception of the rules was equally urgent.

As well as about death, the universe, the advancement beyond the ninth rank...

As he looked at the stele, it was as if a new world’s gateway had opened up, and his mind was filled with hitherto unknown knowledge: "The world is originally primal, all things stem from the primal source... such can one obtain the glory of the world, and stay away from darkness and ignorance... the world is created thus, by which one may reach the truth..."

...

Enlightenment is a lengthy process.

Even with a treasure like the stele.

Su Lun and Mr. Jing continued to remain on the deserted island.

They didn’t share the situation here with other members of the Dawn Group, for this secret involved the rise and fall of civilization and absolutely could not be leaked. And for now, only a few people were qualified to be privy to this secret.

Su Lun, Mr. Jing, Pandora, and Phestoria were the four, whose cognitive level had reached above the ninth rank.

And because Mr. Hei had drunk from the Fountain of Mimir, he also possessed wisdom beyond ordinary humans.

But after reading for several days, due to his insufficient rank, he began to experience "indigestion" and retreated to the ship to rest and assimilate what he had learned.

Thus, nearly another month went by in the blink of an eye.

Due to the extremely high rates of mutation in the environment, the Dawn Group had left this space, leaving behind only a few people and a large number of machines mining activated silver ore nearby.

Su Lun and Mr. Jing continued to stay on the island, and the more they studied, the more they felt their insignificance. In the face of knowledge, humanity truly knew nothing.

Every additional day spent here brought considerable gains.

Originally, they planned to stay until their bodies could no longer bear it.

But on this day, something unexpected happened.

Sabina, the head of intelligence for the Lington Mirror organization, suddenly transmitted urgent news that demigod powerhouses from the Divine Plane had raided Lington, causing massive casualties within a short period.

The mages from the Divine Plane had declared total war!