Chapter 567: Section 354: Constructing the Bloodline Purification Array
Deep Sea Monster Fish.
Alchemy Cabin.
Hiss.
With a soft sound, the cabin door gently slid open.
Zi Di, with an expressionless face, was the first to step into the Alchemy Cabin.
Immediately following behind her were two Alchemy Puppets.
The Puppets were equipped with swords and shields, the standard guardians of the Sword Pavilion.
Two Sword Pavilion guardians carried a Fishman between them, one in front and one behind, into the Alchemy Cabin.
The cabin door immediately closed.
The Sword Pavilion guardians gently placed the Fishman on the ground and stepped back to steadfastly guard the door.
The Fishman exuded the aura of a Silver-Level Mage, and it was indeed Zhongyong.
Zi Di took out a potion bottle from her bosom and popped the stopper.
A strand of yellow-green smoke immediately wafted from the bottle. It seemed attracted to the Fishman Mage and approached him on its own.
The Fishman Mage was in a coma, and as soon as he sniffed the yellow-green smoke, his eyebrows immediately furrowed tightly, and his limbs began twitching.
Soon, he abruptly opened his eyes amidst the twitching.
His eyeballs were full of blood vessels.
“Where… where is this?”
“What am I doing?”
The Fishman Mage’s vision was not only blurry, but his brain couldn’t function, leaving him feeling groggy.
He heard Zi Di’s voice, “Zhongyong, stand up. You’ve arrived at your destination.”
Upon hearing this familiar voice, Zhongyong then lifted his head and saw Zi Di.
His vision cleared, and his intelligence swiftly recovered, as recent memories came to mind.
“I remember now!”
“I was ordered by my family to go to Snowbird Port to join the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps and from that point on, to serve them.”
“What I could never have imagined is that aboard the mercenary corps’ ship, I would see Bu Quan.”
“Bu Quan had also joined the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, offering all four of her alchemy workshops to them and even agreed to recruit and join them.”
“The most outrageous part is that she had no demands regarding her salary!!”
As his memories gradually returned, Zhongyong felt a surge of complex emotions.
Shock, doubt, sympathy for Bu Quan, envy of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, and a sense of “resentment” towards the Dragon-man youth.
“Bu Quan’s eyes when she looked at the squad leader of Long Fu, there was something wrong!”
“If I’m not mistaken, she must have fallen for Long Fu.”
“Oh my, how can this be…”
“The Princess really got whisked away by a foreigner!”
Zi Di, impatient, urged again, “Zhongyong, the magic potion I had you drink doesn’t have the effect of making one’s limbs weak.”
Zi Di’s voice jolted Zhongyong into action, prompting him to suppress his tumultuous emotions.
He immediately stood up.
As a Fishman, even when standing upright, the top of his head didn’t reach Zi Di’s chin.
“Yao Ma Mage.” Zhongyong bowed slightly to Zi Di and then surveyed his surroundings.
The survey shocked him.
A Golden-Level aura pervaded the entire cabin.
Even without being activated, Zhongyong could tell that the Alchemy Array in the cabin was of an incredibly high standard.
All kinds of alchemy tools were placed against the wall, each and every one prepared.
An oddly shaped Alchemy Puppet stood at an auxiliary position of the Alchemy Array. It resembled a massive crab, and as Zhongyong observed it, it seemed to be observing him in return.
“Where… where is this?” Zhongyong asked.
“Of course, it’s my squad’s secret workshop.” Zi Di said with a slight smile, her gaze indifferent.
Zhongyong suddenly understood, his expression turning tense, “Then, what exactly is the content of my test?”
It wasn’t strange for him to be nervous.
Because according to the earlier discussions, how much he would earn in yearly salary depended on just how capable he was in alchemy.
A preliminary alchemy test had to be conducted first.
Zhongyong, although not wanting to witness Bu Quan joining the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, could do nothing to stop it and could only watch helplessly as Bu Quan signed her name on the contract and recorded her magic power, life essence, and other auras.
Afterward, everyone discussed the salary, and Zi Di proposed the alchemy test.
Both Bu Quan and Zhongyong had no objections to this procedure.
Zi Di then separated Bu Quan and Zhongyong, handing Zhongyong a potion to drink.
After drinking it, Zhongyong immediately fell into a deep sleep, losing consciousness.
During this period, Zi Di secretly took him back to the Deep Sea Monster Fish and directly to the Alchemy Cabin.
“The content of the test is this.” Zi Di activated the Alchemy Array.
After a wave of spatial fluctuations, a block of an Array Map and an incomplete Array suddenly appeared.
They floated gently in mid-air, eventually flying in front of Zhongyong.
Zhongyong hurriedly caught them and examined closely.
He had encountered numerous Array Map blocks before, but Golden-Level ones were rare.
After checking them once, he focused his attention on the Array.
It was a fragment of an incomplete alchemy array map.
Zhongyong studied it carefully, inwardly amazed.
He couldn’t understand!
“Is the content of the test this difficult?” Zhongyong’s heart gradually sank. “Or is it that they intentionally gave a very difficult problem to suppress the salary?”
“Forget it.”
“What else could I do?”
“I must join the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, even if the treatment is poor, I must do this.”
“Furthermore, Bu Quan has joined this organization. She not only made no demands regarding her salary but actually contributed four Alchemy Workshops!”
“Compared to her, what am I?”
Zhongyong gradually became disheartened.
Seeing his pale face and his look of shattered confidence, Zi Di couldn’t help but feel anxious.
After a while, Zi Di asked, “Tell me, what have you discerned from this Array Map?”
Zhongyong shook his head, “I’m just too incompetent.”
“This Array Map is very incomplete, and I cannot deduce the function of the complete map.”
“I feel that this should be a human alchemy array, seeming to have a healing effect on the human body?”
“Forgive my bluntness, Mage Yao Ma. The more incomplete the Array Map is, the harder it is to deduce and restore. I’m afraid this residual map is only an eighth of the original. It’s extremely difficult to deduce the original from these pieces—perhaps Miss Bu Quan has this ability, but it greatly exceeds my limits!”
Zi Di nodded slightly, “I didn’t ask you to deduce the original map. I am a mage, so of course, I understand the difficulty involved.”
“This time, the assessment is for you to create this part of the Array Map and imprint it on an array plate.”
“Is that all?” Zhongyong suddenly looked up, a face full of surprise.
“Of course. Do you find it difficult?” Zi Di asked with concern.
“It’s very easy!” Zhongyong exclaimed in delight, “Although I specialize in potion-making, laying out this kind of array is mere basic skill.”
“Basic skill…” Zi Di remembered herself and Cang Xu, working together, failing time and again, and couldn’t help but sigh.
“Then work well and show me your basic skill. The Alchemy Array here can be lent to you for use. The Alchemy Puppets within the array will monitor the entire process and create a Magic Image of your work. The squad leader and others will review it,” Zi Di said.
“Understood.”
“Do a good job!” Zi Di instructed before she stepped out of the cabin.
“I will!” Zhongyong was visibly buoyed.
Meanwhile, on the Triangular Love Ship.
Bu Quan was also studying a Residual Array Map.
This Residual Array was from the same source as the one being used to test Zhongyong; it was indeed the Bloodline Purification Array.
Zi Di drugged Zhongyong and secretly brought him onto the Deep Sea Monster Fish but couldn’t treat Bu Quan the same way.
Bu Quan’s identity and contract differed greatly from Zhongyong’s.
Zhongyong had just joined, but because of the extremely strict contract, he was able to gain trust instantly.
Bu Quan was different; her contract was very loose. The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps couldn’t sign an almost Slave Contract-like agreement with her, as they did with Zhongyong.
Bu Quan, looking at the Array Map, became more and more engrossed as she delved deeper.
Until the Dragon-man youth coughed a few times, interrupting her train of thought, did she look up.
Embarrassed, Bu Quan said, “Sorry, whenever I study these alchemy-related things, I get so engrossed that I often lose track of time.”
The Dragon-man youth smiled, “It’s no problem.”
Bu Quan also smiled, “Is this the content of the test? It’s quite interesting.”
“Although the structure of the array is simple, a close study reveals that it is simple but incredibly efficient and well-coordinated—it must be from the hand of a master.”
“Um… so far I have deduced three possibilities.”
“I’ll draw them out now.”
As Bu Quan spoke, she extended her index finger and drew in the air before her.
She employed a bit of magic trickery, causing her Magic Power to linger in the air and display different colors.
Magic lines intertwined, with Magic Runes dotting among them.
The Dragon-man youth watched, dazzled, and quickly said, “Miss Bu Quan, I think you may have misunderstood our intention.”
“This test simply requires you to establish this part of the residual array and imprint it onto an array plate.”
“Ah? Is it that simple?” Bu Quan was astonished.
Zi Di, who had just returned from checking in on Zhongyong aboard the Deep Sea Monster Fish, overheard Bu Quan’s words.
“Simple…”
A twitch involuntarily went through the corner of Zi Di’s eye.
However, when she pushed open the door of the Captain’s cabin and saw the three possibilities Bu Quan had drawn in the air, she was still shocked.
Because she keenly noticed that one of the possibilities shared an 80% similarity with the complete array map!
In an instant, she recognized the vast gap between herself and Bu Quan.
For the first time, she truly appreciated Bu Quan’s alchemy talent and ability.
“Amazing!”
“How did you do it in such a short time… Miss Bu Quan, you could deduce the complete array if you had a few days,” Zi Di marveled.
Bu Quan’s cheeks tinged red as she shook her head, and earnestly said, “You can’t say that.”
“The work of deducing the original is increasingly difficult toward the end.”
“The difficulty is lowest at the beginning. Because we can be certain of the residual map, we can follow it like a guide.”
“But after that, we have no markers and no direction; we can only guess and continue to guess, trying and erring repeatedly.”
“The workload here is enormous. The more incomplete the array, the more this is the case.”
“And not all Array Maps can be restored. After all, some of the original designer’s ingenious ideas can’t be deduced in a conventional way.”
Hearing this, the Dragon-man youth breathed a sigh of relief.
He understood that Zi Di’s compliment was actually a probe—
worried that Bu Quan would deduce the Array Map and thereby grasp the secret of the Bloodline Purification Array.
Bu Quan said regretfully, “If I had a second piece of the Residual Array, and it wasn’t directly connected to this one, I might be able to deduce it within half a year.”
“This Array Map isn’t that complex or convoluted.”
“Of course, I can’t be distracted by other tasks during this time.”
Hearing this, the Dragon-man youth and Zi Di exchanged a meaningful look, thinking together, “There will never be a second Residual Array for you!”
Bu Quan’s talent was too exceptional, exceptional enough to make both the Dragon-man youth and Zi Di feel threatened.