Three days later.

Aran Imperial City, New City Industrial District.

Towering high towers and chimneys emitted endless smoke, which twisted and spiraled up into the sky canopy, an unyielding gloom and heaviness that, even from high heavens far distant, seemed almost oppressively close, nearly crushing people under its weight.

The mechanical humming noise, like the roar of man-eating monsters, dispersed thoughts into haziness, a mind-penetrating demonic sound gnawing away until people gradually became, retaining only their labor instincts, wild beasts.

Sappers.

At least that's what they were called by the Alan Royal Court, the Emperor obsessed with cultivating gu had pioneered a completely new department.

The infiltration was quite severe; machinery or technology discovered in the industrial district could be transmitted to other countries within days or a few weeks.

To stop the losses in time, job creation had been disregarded, even in the underappreciated civilian sectors, workers had to be Aran Soldiers under militarized management.

The army was expanded once again.

Yet, the status of the sappers was not high because, under the principles of complete obedience that came with the military title, they had become thoroughbred, production machines.

In a basement somewhere in New City.

Regarding Mu Ran and William's deaths, the crisply dressed Warlock Apprentice had no sentimentality whatsoever; he was the current head of New City, a foreign visitor.

He and his mentor, referred to as friends, Professor Lagrange, was a dimension higher than those thirty-something-year-olds.

"Some say that it's humans who domesticated crops, but crops have also domesticated humans.

I think, machines are the same.

According to your theory, humans are constantly evolving, genetic coding, millions of years later, humans might even evolve into sea monsters, with dozens of tentacles to operate machinery."

Although the Magician and Lagrange referred to each other as friends, a surveillance apprentice was still sent by him.

Lagrange closed the book he had just finished writing, an operational manual related to the apparatus.

There were materials and technology, the capability to mobilize resources, the influence to smoothly kick off projects, it was all there; but what was most lacking now was highly skilled technicians.

What Lagrange didn't expect was that the Magician's capabilities were terrifyingly powerful, allowing the Emperor to permit him to establish a military corps and become the supreme leader of this new organization.

This allowed all of Lagrange's actions to be fully executed.

Lagrange... was unbelievably young.

His abundant black hair fell to his neck and shoulders, his skin looked only in his twenties, he stood about two meters tall. His shirt and black vest jacket were both in extra-large sizes, but also stretched out by robust muscles. His irises were light, pale blue eyes bearing an unageing serenity and restraint.

Half of his face was lit by the eerie green phosphorescence of the underground laboratory, ominously gloomy.

Facing the Warlock Apprentice's puzzled look, humans would absolutely not evolve to that step, as the conditions weren't met, there weren't only ever-laboring individuals in the gene pool.

"Before that, Sky Net had already sent robots through time to come back and kill."

Lagrange said offhandedly.

The Warlock Apprentice found it cryptic; his mentor, Akasa, did not enlist Lagrange for these tasks to support Aran.

But rather for the Dark Matter research discussed by Lagrange.

Even though Akasa was not a physicist per se, he believed in a substance vast in the universe that does not radiate, dictating the formation and stability of galaxies.

But Akasa had mastered every form of energy in the world, not knowing what he didn't know, which was absurdly a truism, but strictly speaking, he hadn't reached a certain pinnacle, never taking that transcendent step, and could only be certain there were still forms of energy he hadn't grasped, standing at equal terms only with the Dragon Lord and the Holy Spirit.

In the process of exploring the last form of energy, Akasa occasionally touched upon that power, not knowing how it happened, a miraculous phenomenon that couldn't be explained by rules.

While accumulating experience, one could only endlessly hunt for energy fluctuations of all dimensions and transfer them.

The experimental waste produced during the transfers was countless, with bizarre life forms whose names were unknown.

Until, from the distant Faraway Realm in the Dark Matter Underground Research Institute, a batch of unprecedented experimental waste was transferred.

Now, there was a new turn of events.

Lagrange believed that physics had reached its limits and it was difficult to make further breakthroughs. Basic science was stagnant. All the progress visible in the world was just the application of theories from a hundred years ago. Thus, the only news people could see was about discovering new elements or confirming conjectures, but they could never see any real reversals or progress involving magic power. It all seemed exhausted.

But the strange forms of energy that existed here, Magic Energy and spell power, all seemed unbelievable to Lagrange.

He also wanted to establish a new Dark Matter Research Institute here, hoping there might be a breakthrough.

The New City Industrial District of Aran was just a preliminary task for the research institute. Lagrange needed comprehensive industrial support.

"By the way… the female priest from the Eternal Sect in charge of the industrial area, Sharon, appears to be your… student."

This made the Warlock Apprentice quite wary. Given the authority of the Church Court, killing a priest was a disaster-level event, especially now that the Eternal Sect had overwhelmed its old master, the Holy Spirit Sect, to become the religious mainstream with countless followers. If there were to be a killing, it could only be done secretly, covertly striking a blow to the sect.

"She's hardly my student, just a group of unlucky kids."

Lagrange countered, Mu Ran, Sharon, those students from Berkeley campus, LA campus, were just visitors to his research institute; there was no teacher-student relationship.

"Hey, those 'unlucky kids' you mentioned; one is a Hall-level adventurer, another is Minister Pedan, one is a high-ranking member of the Holy Spirit Sect, and there's one more..." the Warlock Apprentice paused, "Boss of the East Sea."

The Warlock Apprentice found this genuinely baffling.

"Boss of the East Sea?"

This was the first Lagrange had heard of it.

"The one who killed Mu Ran William."

The Warlock Apprentice added.

"I'm asking about the title."

Lagrange had never heard of the East Sea; he was in the center of global power, and although that area wasn't exactly a barbaric land, it could be likened to the surface of Mars.

"Don't you know? That sea beast experiment material you've been complaining about being scarce recently is because the East Sea changed hands. The supplier got knocked off, and now Li Si controls all the sea-dwelling magical beasts that are specialty products of the East Sea. I thought you knew."

The Warlock Apprentice hadn't expected that the runaway experimental waste would have such a day.

This was a curiosity. He had heard some rumors among his senior fellow apprentices; Doringger had once participated in his teacher's experiments.

But that madman, as the most successful test subject, ended up massacring all the experiment personnel and even killed one of his teacher's students.

Doringger, located at the fringe of the world, was never really bothered by his teacher, who didn't care much to intervene.

The East Sea truly was a place blessed with exceptional people. Both Bosses had ties to his teacher.

It's just a pity his teacher was a person who trusted easily, having slaughtered plenty of experimental waste, including friends and lovers of some survivors. Otherwise, he could have co-opted them. After all, those strong enough to put aside shame and emotional attachments are always few.

"So that's the case. I don't particularly need those sea beast materials anyway. Sharon... with Akasa so powerful, why not use a puppet to replace the current Pope."

Lagrange was quite sick of these charlatans.

"Whew." The Warlock Apprentice sighed deeply, "According to some documents and literature, one of my female senior apprentices speculated that the Pope is not human but part of the Undead Clan. That person always wears a mask, and although there's a succession ceremony every few decades, the similar height and skeletal structure make it hard not to suspect it's the same person. Even the Emperor has to yield three points, so we can only endure for now."

Lagrange was at a loss for words.

What the two did not know was that with Sharon's help, the upper echelons of the Eternal Sect had already dispatched assassins to attempt control over Lagrange.

The action was scheduled for tonight.

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