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“This is way more chaotic than I expected!”

On the eve of the meeting, Mangnyang and Zhuge Sa sat across from each other, surrounded by others. Zhuge Sa slowly opened his mouth.

“At the three-party talks, we will participate as mediators alongside True Heaven Alliance. And, of course, the leader of the Bancheon Alliance, Mangnyang Zhuge Hyun will attend. Lee Cheong-un will accompany him for protection.”

“What about the rest?”

“No need to go. We’re just blending in as a hidden force in Jianghu, so there’s no reason to expose our faces and identities, right? Plus, if Lee Cheong-un isn’t there, we can’t guarantee Hyun’s safety among the peak experts, so he must go. In case things go south, Lee Cheong-un can give Hyun a shot at using his Golden Lamp technique.”

“Hmm.”

At that moment, the Extreme Tiger raised his hand.

“Let me go!”

“Why would we do that?”

“Please!”

Zhuge Sa chuckled coldly.

“Stop being ridiculous. You just want to lay your eyes on the Dharma Guardian of the Wind Spirit Sect and the Master of the White Lotus Sect, don’t you?”

“……”

“We can’t allow for unexpected situations. If anything goes wrong, we might all die.”

“Ugh.”

The Extreme Tiger looked frustrated. It was clear to anyone that Zhuge Sa was right, but I understood the Extreme Tiger’s feelings well. If you have the chance to confront your enemy in person, it’s only natural for emotions to overtake reason. Zhuge Sa continued.

“The Sword Demon, who isn’t here, has been leading the Shadowless Sect and preparing for the talks for days. If the Sword Demon inadvertently supports us during the talks, it would greatly help our situation. However, having a nobody like you join as a guard for the Bancheon Alliance leader is just asking for trouble. If you get captured and tortured, our information…”

“Damn it! Stop putting me down. I get it already!”

The Extreme Tiger shouted, prompting Mangnyang to give a wry smile.

“Don’t be too disappointed. Soon you’ll have your chance to prove yourself.”

Mangnyang continued.

“Initially, I didn’t plan to go myself. I even thought of sending a suitable puppet using my soul exchange technique. But considering I’m the leader of the three major forces, I can’t fool them with such tactics, so I must go myself. The risk involved will be extremely high, and even a peak expert could end up dead.”

“By the way, what’s our goal for tomorrow’s talks?” I asked softly.

“I had assumed you would take care of it, but you didn’t mention the important details,” I said.

“Baek Woong. Our aim tomorrow is to get the three major forces to sign a ceasefire agreement. At the same time, we plan to persuade the White Lotus Sect to halt their advance in the Central Plains.”

“… That sounds difficult.”

I frowned. While I had a hunch, it was clear that this was going to be a tough target. To suppress the Master of the White Lotus Sect, who had declared his ambitions to dominate the Central Plains, while also pushing for a ceasefire among the three major forces! Even Mangnyang’s abilities couldn’t guarantee success.

Then Mangnyang spoke up.

“The groundwork has already been laid. With the blessing of heaven above, I will use all my capabilities to achieve our goal.”

“Hmm!”

Feeling a sudden thought, I looked at Zhuge Sa.

“What are you doing tomorrow?”

“Hehe. Well…”

Zhuge Sa said with a sly grin as he laid out his plans. I could only facepalm at his ideas.

“Is that really necessary?”

“Stop with the nonsense. If we don’t lay traps in the three levels, the situation could get even more dangerous.”

“Well… your brain is better than mine.”

Worrying about Zhuge Sa’s scheming was probably the silliest thing I could do. I shrugged it off and glanced at Cheon Woo-jin.

“So, are you going to use your clairvoyance to observe the talks?”

“Yeah.”

“……”

I looked at Mangnyang with concern, and he chuckled.

“Don’t worry. Lee Cheong-un will protect me, and the priest will bless me with his techniques. I should be fine.”

“Even so, participating in a meeting with the world’s most dangerous individuals is still worrying.”

“Haha! Even if I die, as long as you’re alive, that’s all that matters.”

Mangnyang held my hand tightly, his eyes burning with determination.

“Baek Woong. I will definitely gather crucial leads from their mouths tomorrow. I will come back, no matter what.”

“… Please.”

Truth be told, I wasn’t just asking him to go on my behalf. I wished it was me going instead. But since others were putting their wisdom and courage together to protect a reborn person like me, I couldn’t voice those feelings.

Zhuge Sa spoke.

“Now let’s get ready… Baek Woong, let’s have a chat.”

Eventually, I followed Zhuge Sa into the secret room for a one-on-one meeting. He said,

“I hastily gathered this piece of information yesterday and it’s crucial you know it upfront.”

“Information from the Imperial Palace?”

“Yes. If you hadn’t studied alchemy during this time, this top-secret information would have been useless to you. It would have been a headache to teach someone who can’t even grasp alchemy.”

As I focused on his words, something hit me. When I stared at Zhuge Sa, he let out a giggle.

“The most essential ingredient in creating a top-tier Portrait Immortal is mercury.”

“Mercury?”

“Finally, the alchemist has spilled some information. He must be getting anxious, thinking that he needs to quickly create the Portrait Immortal in discussions with Zhuge Bu since the three major forces meeting is a big deal for him.”

“So you shared key information with Zhuge Bu. But mercury as the main ingredient…”

I pondered for a moment before speaking to Zhuge Sa.

“Mercury isn’t that rare of a metal. While it’s not common, it can be melted down with injections and is often used for plating. How could it be the key ingredient?”

It has the characteristics of a transitory element and flows like a liquid at room temperature, which is unique, but that was all it had. I didn’t think of mercury as the core material for a supreme Portrait Immortal offered to God.

“I also find it surprising, but there’s a reason. Mercury has been used before in ancient offering ceremonies.”

“Offering ceremony?”

As I looked puzzled, Zhuge Sa continued.

“The first offering ceremony was conducted by Qin Shi Huang himself.”

“……!!”

Why on Earth is Qin Shi Huang being brought up now?

“We had focused solely on the second offering ceremony held by Wu Zetian, but the alchemist Saint Germain seems to have had the first offering ceremony in mind when he came east. Moreover, Qin Shi Huang had made numerous preparations to mine huge amounts of mercury for his tomb.”

“His tomb, you say…?”

“If we needed to name it, it would be the Tomb of Qin Shi Huang. Hehe.”

What was so funny, I wondered, as Zhuge Sa continued speaking.

“According to him, if that mercury is transformed through a special method, it would turn into a special extraterrestrial metal infused with the power of the moon. This extraterrestrial metal has the properties of a liquid metal like mercury but lacks any harmful or toxic features, thus allowing it to be preserved within the human body for a semi-permanent duration. It may look like mercury, but it’s completely a different element.”

“Inside the body…?”

Listening to Zhuge Sa, something clicked and I gasped.

“Wait, you mean they plan to use that metal as blood?”

“Haha… Looks like I taught you well for a year. You’ve gained some sharp instincts.”

Zhuge Sa nodded with an impressed expression.

“Exactly. The best Portrait Immortal uses the extraterrestrial metal created from transforming mercury as blood. Furthermore, this metal can produce energy semi-permanently and can amplify in response to the power of the moon.”

“……!!”

“That’s why they’ve been looking for the Tomb of Qin Shi Huang. Because it seems that metal is buried there in large quantities. Likely, they wanted it for the offering ceremony.”

Suddenly, I understood Zhuge Sa’s words.

“The alchemist Saint Germain knows the formula for changing mercury into that extraterrestrial metal but finds it troublesome and difficult to make, right?”

“Exactly! He had poor extraction skills. It seems he tried to create it using the Crystal Stele’s power, but the results didn’t match his efforts. Thus, he’s attempting to re-extract the metal that Qin Shi Huang had pre-encoded for the offering ceremony thousands of years ago.”

“Hmm…”

“If he manages to dig it up, he’ll be able to produce it quickly.”

I connected the dots. This explained why the Imperial Palace had a draft for a top-tier Portrait Immortal yet had been dragging its feet for so long. They likely had the theory in place but lacked the materials to fill it with.

I told Zhuge Sa, “Then we should find the Tomb of Qin Shi Huang ahead of them.”

“No. The Imperial Palace has already found it.”

“What?”

“They located a cave near Mount Ye at the entrance to the ruins. It seems the alchemist moved alone.”

“……”

I felt dumbfounded but recognized there was nothing we could do about it. After all, this time around, I was playing it safe, keeping an eye on the Imperial Palace while uncovering the secrets of the Portrait Immortal, right? Even if Mangnyang and Zhuge Sa knew in advance, they had to let it go. Zhuge Sa continued speaking.

“Anyway, if this continues, the Imperial Palace will complete the Portrait Immortal in a few years. I called you here to share the transformation formula for mercury that I learned from yesterday’s conversation.”

“Got it.”

“Write it down and memorize it like crazy. Don’t you forget it.”

I wrote down the alchemical formulas and techniques as Zhuge Sa dictated. However, there was so much information that I couldn’t feasibly memorize it all in one go. Looking down at the papers with a blank stare, Zhuge Sa said,

“They refer to the transformed metal as divine blood.”

“Divine blood, huh…”

“Let’s call it a night for now. The three-party talks start tomorrow.”

As Zhuge Sa advised, I headed back to my residence for a brief rest. The next day, when the appointed hour arrived, my companions gathered, but it seemed Mangnyang and Lee Cheong-un had already left their seats. The talks were set for the morning, so there was still time.

Cheon Woo-jin stretched his hand forward, summoning an energy.

“Haap!”

Whoooosh!

Suddenly, a different scenery unfolded before my eyes, resembling a walk through the air. Cheon Woo-jin paused to catch his breath, then said,

“I shared vision with my older brother and activated the clairvoyance technique.”

“So this view is Mangnyang’s perspective?”

“Yes.”

Sure enough, with this setup, we could observe the three-party meeting vividly, even from thousands of miles away. As the clairvoyance technique’s sensitivity increased, the local sounds began to echo around us.

Thud…

Mangnyang was walking alongside Lee Cheong-un, flanked by a couple of others. Lee Cheong-un was in a shape-shifted appearance thanks to my transformation technique, and Mangnyang was too. After walking for a good bit, they arrived at a venue known as the General’s Tower located in the outer city of Luoyang.

The General’s Tower was no ordinary place; only masters or high-ranking officials renowned in society could enter. Hence, it was peaceful yet quiet, as Mangnyang and Lee Cheong-un ascended to the top floor without a word.

At the top level, a banquet of dishes laid out abundantly, with Zhuge Bu seated at the head of the table. Upon Mangnyang’s arrival, Zhuge Bu stood and greeted him with a bow.

“Greetings, Leader of the Bancheon Alliance. I am Zhuge Bu, the Lord of Inner Imperial Pavilion. Today, I will represent the will of the Imperial Palace.”

Zhuge Bu appeared not to recognize Mangnyang, who was in a transformed state. Mangnyang nodded slightly, acknowledging the welcome before looking around.

“The Master of the Twelve Joules and the Master of the White Lotus Sect have yet to arrive.”

“They should arrive shortly.”

Responding nonchalantly, Zhuge Bu continued.

“However, don’t you find it odd? For such a significant meeting, only three guards?”

“It’s because I’m confident this meeting will conclude peacefully.”

“Hahaha.”

Zhuge Bu laughed heartily, then took a sip of water.

“I wish that would be the case.”

At that moment.

Whoooooosh!

The air on the top floor of the General’s Tower suddenly shifted, and four figures emerged from thin air in an empty spot. I gasped in astonishment, watching through my clairvoyance.

‘Space teleportation?!’

With the knowledge I had, that seemed to be the only explanation!

As I stared in shock, one of the sudden figures standing at the center fiddled with his mask and spoke.

[Is the Master of the Twelve Joules not here yet?]

The four figures were indeed the Master of the White Lotus Sect and the Dharma Protectors! The Master of the White Lotus Sect donned his mask as usual, while the Dharma Protectors appeared wearing their respective masks of the Golden Dragon, Fox, and Black Tiger.

Zhuge Bu bowed to the Master of the White Lotus Sect.

“It’s an honor to meet the renowned Master of the White Lotus Sect. The Master of the Twelve Joules will arrive shortly…”

“I’ve arrived.”

“Huh?!”

Unexpectedly cutting off Zhuge Bu’s words, the sound of a single voice echoed through the hall. Zhuge Bu looked visibly shaken this time.

“Then shall we begin the three-party talks?”

And right across from the dinner table, the Master of the Twelve Joules was already seated, propping his chin up. Unlike the other powers, he seemed to have brought no guards or allies. With his ability to blend in without a trace, he undoubtedly possessed skills fitting for someone in the Absolute Realm.

But there was another issue. I placed a hand on my forehead as I while looked at the Master of the Twelve Joules.

‘That… bastard…’

That’s right.

This time, was I finally going to see the real face of the Master of the Twelve Joules? But no, he had come wearing a fluffy white puppy mask!

 

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