Mechanical Alchemist-Chapter 575 - 574 Shortcut

Mythical legends describe the snake-haired gorgons as something not to be trifled with, symbolizing boundless fear, darkness, envy, and hatred.

Although Su Lun had already formed an alliance with Queen Medusa, he still maintained sufficient caution in his heart.

The two followed the underground river and soon caught up with the Dawn Team.

On board the Eternal Night, the members of the Dawn Team had already received Su Lun's message and had been waiting for a long time.

Out of courtesy, they also had to welcome this powerful ally.

Before anyone had arrived, the deck was already buzzing with animated discussions.

"So the snake tide retreated because of a Queen Medusa's assistance. Oh, it's just too incredible. How did Mr. Su Lun come to know that Queen Medusa?"

"Who knows? Anyway, Mr. Su Lun always brings surprises, doesn't he?"

"Hey, do you think, what does Queen Medusa really look like? The legends say you'll turn to stone just by looking at her, can we actually look at her?"

"No one can answer that question for you. I dare say that apart from Mr. Su Lun, no one knows what Queen Medusa looks like. Because not even the demigod heroes in the legends dared to gaze directly at her face. My God, just thinking about it is exciting; we are about to witness a presence from mythical legend!"

"If we really return to Luying, our adventures as the Dawn Team might be sung by bards for hundreds of years..."

"Shush, keep your voices down. Mr. Su Lun said it's okay to look, but we must show enough respect and not offend, or it will be very dangerous."

"..."

Everyone was surprised that Su Lun could actually forge an alliance with Queen Medusa from the mythical legends.

At the same time, they were curious about what this kind of being, who only appeared in mythical stories, really looked like.

Bards described Medusa as a terrifying gorgon with an angel's face and a wicked heart, but others said she was an ugly witch, the embodiment of a demon...

In the written records, people had imagined countless versions of illustrated books.

But in reality, nobody had truly seen Queen Medusa.

Because everyone who had seen her had turned to stone.

This was a mysterious ancient mythical race that seemed even more enigmatic than dragons.

Because even in legends, only a very few legendary heroes had actually seen Queen Medusa's face.

And now the Dawn Team seemed about to create a new legendary story.

The ship was noisy when suddenly, someone exclaimed in a low voice, "They're here!"

People stared intently, and far up the river, two figures appeared.

...

As the two figures gradually approached, the atmosphere on the deck of the Eternal Night also quietly tensed.

It was then that the members of the Dawn Team realized that the beings from mythical legends were not so easy to observe.

Even from a distance, the oppressive aura that came from their bloodline made it feel as though an invisible pressure was weighing on their chests, gradually making breathing more difficult.

Before they even got close, their domineering presence, comparable to that of high-ranking dragons, already made people unconsciously avert their gaze.

After all, she was a true-blooded demigod, Queen Medusa's pride wouldn't allow herself to be gawked at like a monster by a group of humans. Moreover, she was a sovereign creature; this was an innate air of authority that brooked no insult.

At this thought, Qian frowned slightly, as if pondering something.

Lower-tier professionals couldn't control their emotions, which could easily lead to unnecessary trouble.

And they couldn't stand under that domineering oppressive presence.

She gestured with her hand and said to the group behind her, "Members below Tier 5, go to the lower deck."

People sighed with relief and responded in unison, "Yes."

They had only been forcing themselves to not look bad, and upon hearing those words, they finally let out a huge sigh of relief.

As they turned around, that spine-chilling sense of impending death finally dissipated. Those who left glanced enviously at the cloaked figure beside Su Lun, feeling regret but also considering their own lives more important.

Before long, Su Lun and Queen Medusa walked unhurriedly from the river's surface.

To accommodate her serpent body, the Eternal Night extended a wide gangplank to welcome this mysterious and powerful ally.

The two walked up the plank onto the ship, and the sound of Medusa's serpentine body rubbing against the wood made a sss-sss-sss sound.

As this person drew closer, the pressure on the deck grew increasingly heavy, and professionals of ranks five and six couldn't help but break into a fine sweat on their foreheads.

Although Queen Medusa's face was veiled by her cloak, making her true appearance unseen, the fearsome snakes for hair writhing atop her cloak sent chills down everyone's spine.

When Queen Medusa stepped onto the deck, aside from the high-ranking fighters from the Thousand Bartholomew group who managed to remain composed, the rest of the members, even the squad leaders, dared not look her directly in the eye.

The air seemed to have solidified, such was the terrifying pressure of the strong presence.

Fortunately, nothing unexpected happened.

The crowd expressed their goodwill with a welcome, and the atmosphere remained fairly harmonious.

Though Queen Medusa was not particularly fond of socializing, she did not express any malice either.

Su Lun arranged for her to have a private cabin, and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

...

Su Lun returned to the deck.

It was then that the people of the Dawn group gathered around.

Without Queen Medusa's oppressive presence, the suffocating pressure finally dissipated.

Having assisted Queen Medusa through her ordeal, Su Lun had thought it unnecessary to mention it before, so no one else in the group was aware.

Ignorant of the situation, they were all shocked.

Even now, they still found it somewhat incredible.

With no outsiders present, Qian Tiao directly voiced everyone's curiosity, "Su Lun, how did you get in touch with her?"

Finding such a strong ally was certainly a good thing for the Dawn group.

And considering the Gorgon race, notorious for not being friendly with humans, how had Su Lun managed to connect with her?

No sooner had Qian Tiao asked the question than she suddenly thought of something, raising an eyebrow and adding, "It couldn't be...?"

She stopped midway through her sentence, and with a sly twist in her eyes, it seemed the rest of her thoughts were indescribable.

At this, members like Mr. Hei and Kit, who were well-acquainted with one another from their time in the Mirror Organization, all turned to look simultaneously, as if instantly understanding something, their expressions turning somewhat amused.

They knew that Su Lun had a white wolf friend from the Dalu tribe, which was still humanoid, after all.

But this Queen Medusa... she was a Gorgon, with snakes for hair, a completely different species.

Those pairs of eyes seemed to be saying: impressive.

Seeing the teasing looks from everyone, Su Lun felt quite helpless; it was not a joke to be taken lightly.

Just as he was about to explain, someone in the crowd muttered, "Why do I feel like I've seen her before...?"

The one who spoke was none other than Commander Bennett Pickhis of the Miracle Legion of the Silver Dragon Kingdom, with his sister Isabel and a few captains of the Miracle Legion by his side.

Previously, they had been sent to be sacrifices to the Lord of the Grey Mist, and Su Lun had saved them by bringing them into the small void world. In gratitude, they were now helping on the ship and had already been through several battles, getting along quite well with the people of the Dawn group.

Hearing this, Su Lun followed up on the topic and explained, "Commander Bennett, you've seen her before."

Upon hearing this, Bennett realized his own intuition had not been wrong.

His sister Isabel also suddenly had a moment of realization and said in astonishment, "Is she that Priest Helen? But... how did she turn into Queen Medusa?"

The crowd, hearing this, also showed surprised expressions.

They had never seen Queen Medusa, but they had heard of the Helen who had been wanted in the Silver Dragon and was a key figure in the wars between the three great kingdoms...

Now she had become Queen Medusa?

The ordeal of the Gorgon was top secret, and Su Lun knew it was not the time to discuss this, so he shook his head, "Alright, let's not talk about this now."

Understanding his cue, the others did not pursue the matter further.

And just then, Tanni's loud voice came through the transceiver, "Mr. Su Lun, we've detected a cliff waterfall in the dark river ahead. Should we continue downward?"

Su Lun also sensed the change in the spatial terrain. About one kilometer ahead of them, a cliff had appeared, going down into a pit so deep they couldn't sense its bottom.

He wasn't familiar with the environment here, but he knew someone who was.

Without waiting for a transmitted message, Su Lun immediately said, "Continue navigating."

Tanni replied with visible excitement, "Alright! Everyone hold on tight, we're going to glide down. Be careful not to get thrown off the ship~"

Such an unknown underground river navigation was also a rare experience for a sailor.

...

Soon, everyone saw that the dark underground river suddenly came to an end, which obviously was a cliff waterfall.

But what was strange was that they didn't hear the sound of the waterfall hitting the bottom.

It seemed as if there was a bottomless pit beneath the cliff, where the endless seawater flowed to an unknown destination.

However, in an instant, the "Eternal Night" surged out of the river channel, hovered in mid-air for a second, and then plunged freely.

The ship gradually tilted, pointing its bow downward, and the sound of howling wind reached everyone's ears.

Excited shouts filled the deck as exploring the unknown was the greatest pleasure of maritime adventures.

But the free fall didn't last long before a "thump" sounded, and the parachute-like sail at the stern swelled up.

After continuous refitting and improvement, the "Eternal Night" was nearly prepared for navigation in any extreme environment. So, even encountering such cliffs wasn't a big problem.

The warship descended steadily, bow first.

Everyone gazed into the infinite darkness ahead, feeling the thrill of plunging into the unknown.

But after several minutes of descent without a glimpse of the bottom, someone exclaimed, "Heavens, how deep can this hole be? Surely it doesn't lead to hell, does it?"

Su Lun listened, his expression showing a slight change.

They had actually hit the nail on the head.

He clearly sensed that the space around them wasn't "uniform". Sensory-wise they were indeed constantly falling, but on a spatial level, it wasn't so; rather, it was a gap spanning from one dimension to another.

This channel was a seam in the overlap between two dimensions, delving deeper, with a real chance to reach the dimension of hell.

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And so, the "Eternal Night" kept falling for nearly a quarter of an hour.

Suddenly, the howling sound of the wind through the sails at the stern grew fainter and everyone noticeably felt the descending speed getting slower.

After a few breaths, gravity reached a state of equilibrium.

To the astonishment of the Dawn Group, they and the ship were floating in midair.

The ship seemed to be sailing through the stars, no longer feeling the force of gravity.

"Eh... has gravity disappeared?"

"It seems it's not that gravity has gone, but the gravitational field above and below have balanced out."

"Look, there are so many 'stars' over there."

"..."

It was then that everyone realized that they seemed to be floating in the night sky, as their vision filled with irregular twinkling lights.

Circles, squares, diamonds, irregular polygons...

Like shards of glass scattered across the floor, they stretched out in this endless dark world.

But in an instant, Mr. Hei noticed something, his face changed dramatically, and he bellowed, "Be careful, everyone! Those aren't stars, they're space shards. Don't get close to the left, that's a spatial whirlwind, it can rip the ship to shreds in an instant!"

On hearing this, everyone focused and saw that in the darkness on the left, there was a barely perceptible spiraling black mass, shaped like the form of wind.

And it was only then that everyone realized that the "Eternal Night" wasn't unintentionally drifting, but was being pulled over by a force.

"Release pressure from steam boilers numbers three, five, and seven in the left side of the ship, move laterally!"

"Yes!"

Whether there was wind to propel them or not, the steam pressure that had been building up in the ship's boilers hissed out, and the massive ship then drifted hundreds of meters away from the maelstrom.

Everyone on deck breathed a sigh of relief, only then realizing that this space, which seemed like a starry sky, hid such dangers.

...

Su Lun had actually noticed the spatial whirlwind earlier.

But he didn't speak up because, firstly, he knew the team could handle it, and secondly, because even if they got close, it wasn't dangerous.

With the "Urobolos Space-Time Ring" in hand, such spatial winds were not a significant threat.

What surprised him, though, was that these stars in the sky were actually "plane fragments"!

An ancient battle in the distant past had shattered the plane, resulting in these fragments.

They filled the gaps between two planes like stones.

"They're all treasures..."

Su Lun's eyes lit up as he looked at them.

Plane fragments were treasures to anyone.

If one could take them away, they would be excellent for crafting storage spaces.

Su Lun sensed that, while these plane fragments weren't large, they were about the same size as the one from Black Sam's team treasury.

And there were at least a few hundred of them in view.

If all were fused together, it would be enough to expand the area of Su Lun's own small void space several times!

But while he felt excitement, Su Lun also spotted a problem, "If I really took them away, this spatial crack would collapse..."

Thinking this, his expression immediately became somewhat helpless. These plane fragments, although valuable, had formed a relatively stable state over countless years, filling this planar gap.

Actually absorbing them would be a big issue.

It was like a house built of blocks, where each piece of wood played its stabilizing role; removing one might cause the whole structure to collapse.

Contemplating this, Su Lun smacked his lips, feeling a bit regretful.

He thought he could only wait until he no longer needed this planar crack, then come back and try.

This planar crack was indeed an excellent hiding place.

But for those who didn't understand the higher Space Law, it was fraught with deadly dangers everywhere.

It's no wonder Medusa didn't dare to pursue.

Just as Su Lun's thoughts were drifting, Tanni suddenly spoke up on the communicator, "Mr. Su Lun, which direction should we head now?"

Like entering a minefield, the Eternal Night proceeded cautiously, groping its way slowly forward.

Still, the risk was enormous.

Tanni, a great sailor, could handle any situation at sea, but in this void, he had no certainty.

Su Lun, listening, didn't rush to reply.

The planar crack was almost crystal clear in his perception; spatial cracks, spatial winds, spatial turbulence...all were distinctly visible.

If he truly wanted to leave, it wouldn't be difficult.

But...after all, someone had guided him on this path, so he shouldn't need to figure out the route himself.

As expected, almost at the moment the communicator sounded, a message came in his mind-sea, "Go right, towards that red plane fragment, then head north..."

With the exchange of messages, a precise navigation map immediately appeared in Su Lun's mind.

After sensing that there was no problem, he immediately passed the route to Tanni in the cockpit.

The Eternal Night moved on steadily.

...

The concept of distance within the planar crack was different from the Alchemy Plane.

With this shortcut, what would have been a journey of a day or two by sea took only a few hours in the planar crack for the Eternal Night to emerge successfully.

As Queen Medusa said, they crossed the strategically important location controlled by the Angel Plane at Moon Strait, and appeared directly near Giant Island, where the "Mimir's Well" was located.

This also completely avoided the threats from the groups of magic towers at Moon Strait.

And as Dawn Squad reappeared, those on the Angel Plane who were discussing how to land on Giant Island also spotted them.

Saint Frank, greatly perplexed, also bellowed in rage, "How is it possible?! How did those natives bypass Moon Strait and suddenly appear near here?"

The carefully schemed trap, and the prey had just leaped out?