The Alchemist's Guide to Flesh and Blood Ascension

Inside the air-conditioned basement room of the "Cracked Tongue" inn.

Yunevo then thoroughly inspected all the inconspicuous magic arrays set up to "prevent spying and infiltration," as well as the well-hidden devices in the corners.

Logically speaking, after fighting all day and being exhausted, he should have taken a good rest.

But Ionevo did not do that. He lay down in front of the rough, uneven stone table and wrote his speculations on sheet after sheet of paper, his charcoal pencil scratching and drawing gray-black lines on the paper.

Iseria sat obediently to the side, occasionally using a damp tissue to wipe away small pieces of charcoal dust scattered on the table, to prevent them from leaving unwanted marks on the manuscript papers.

She would occasionally look up at the black-robed alchemist lost in thought and offer him a small favor.

"Iseria... in 'The Complete Record of the Environment and Ecology of the Morse Desert,' the part about the sky... do you remember it?" Yunevo suddenly asked.

The pale-haired girl blinked and then shook her head, but she quickly fetched the book for Yonivore and turned it to the page where it was needed.

On the manuscript paper, a fragmented sketch is gradually taking shape.

"Yonev...you think that ruin isn't underground at all, right?" Iseria asked after seeing the sketch.

"If they were underground... those people should have complained long ago that 'the White Robe has severed their lifeline,' and then made a scene with the royal family and the church, instead of saying... 'the White Robe has also helped a little here.'"

"This thing could be in the sky, or it could be on the ground, but it's most likely on the ground," Yunevo pointed to the structure drawn on the manuscript.

"You said before that you saw threads of ley lines leading to the sky, and before that I grabbed a handful of sand... The sand was cold and turned into dust in no time," the black-robed alchemist paused, then continued, "This might be a kind of 'total reflection,' where the air at the bottom heats up and expands, while the air at the top is relatively cool... It's just that it was the other way around in that pale desert."

"Combining the strange ley lines of the elemental veins with the basic principles of mirage formation... I have good reason to speculate that this is an alternative form of 'mirage'."

This certainly doesn't make sense in modern physics.

But now... Yunevo is in an unmistakably magical world.

"What if this thing was an entity anchored to some kind of magical field from the very beginning?" The black-robed alchemist's eyes sharpened. "A 'projection' constructed with high-density magical energy, something that can be seen and touched, a true historical projection that will only open its doors to the material world after everything is in place."

Without hesitation, Yunev took out a complete set of expensive equipment from his storage bag, which was considered embargoed material even in Starmoke. He then used reference books to draw a star map of the sky above Zelharan as an anchoring reference for the equipment.

The seasons in the Morse Desert… solar declination, even atmospheric density—he tried to find that one and only “critical point.”

"No, no... the coefficients here need to be reconsidered," Yonivo snapped a charcoal pencil, quickly replaced it with another without expression, and continued writing tedious calculation equations on other sheets of paper.

Although Iselia couldn't understand those strange crowbar symbols, she could sense that... the etheric elements in the air, exhausted from the fight, were all intently watching Yunevo's calculations, and even cheering when each key value appeared.

"Ha...this is it," Yunevo threw down the charcoal pencil, let out a long sigh, placed the data section in the lower right corner of the manuscript in front of Iseria, and said, "Tomorrow at noon, when the sun aligns with the sixty-sixth road marker of the Golden Trade Route."

……

The sun arrived as scheduled the next day, even more scorching than before, casting the entire Morse into the "lava" and baking it.

Yunevo and Iseria returned to the pale sand, where the surface temperature had soared to a level that could instantly dehydrate an ordinary person...

With various equipment and even the blessing of ethereal elements, the two only experienced a slight increase in breathing difficulty.

Yonivore took out several finely polished mirrors from his camouflage package, located the positioning point according to the pre-calculated orientation, and then inserted them into the sand.

"There's no wind at this time, so the heatwave won't be disrupted..." Yunefu stood in the center of the array and once again took out the container containing the ancient magic source.

As time went on, the pulsation of that ancient demonic source grew increasingly intense...

"The timing is perfect," Yunevo said, opening the container and "pouring" the ancient magical energy at his feet, which was the center of the array.

In an instant, a golden ray of light overlapped with the intense sunlight reflected from the mirror. The laws of physics and magic resonated in unison, as if breaking the shackles of time and space in a single moment!

Om-!

A deep, resonant chime seemed to travel across a thousand years...

In the void before them, where there was nothing, the air began to distort and recombine like ripples on water, transforming into clearly visible physical outlines!

"Yonev... I heard it," Iseria suddenly spoke, her voice ethereal and distant, "It said... the 'key' is broken, it doesn't want those people in white robes to go in, it will try its best to delay those people in white robes... while waiting for us at the end."

The pale-haired girl tried to reach out and touch the illusory pillar in the corner, and at that moment the azure patterns on her right arm shimmered with a unique light.

"Don't touch it," Yunevo pressed down on Iseria's hand and said softly, "Since the 'it' you're referring to has said so... then let's go to it ourselves and listen. There's no need to risk the unknown to perceive more."

"Moreover... it seems that the church people have mastered other methods and found other entrances, and entered this ruin before us... We can't delay any longer."

The black-robed alchemist frowned slightly as he looked at the fading image.

The so-called "window" opened for a much shorter time than he had imagined, lasting only a few minutes.

And who knows when the next opportunity will come...

If the church gets its way, what will happen to him next in Zelhalan?

He really couldn't wait any longer. Even if what lay ahead was a den of dragons and tigers, he had to brave it...

Yunevo looked at Iseria, and the two made the same decision the instant their eyes met.

Follow her, follow him...

Go and see for yourself the truly authentic past of Zelharan.