Chapter 356: Blood-Stained Crucible of Essence

Wu Chang said calmly: "The coal essence refinement zone isn't just hidden deep in the mine—it's concealed by special spatial magic rituals, clearly meant to keep it secret."

"But Prime Minister Ron is investigating the Pine Tree Mine explosion. If he truly has a powerful Nurse Zhu Li—say, a famous detective from Grimlan—following clues to this place and setting off a self-destruct sequence, it would be entirely reasonable."

Raventon stared at the violently shaking Transcendent Purifier, his face turning pale; he could feel the machine brewing an immensely terrifying energy.

If it detonated, the entire Pine Tree Mine would be erased from Grimlan.

His composure finally vanished, his voice trembling as he said:

"It's indeed reasonable—but we can't die here for no reason. We must find a way to stop it reasonably."

Wu Chang stepped toward the Transcendent Purifier and said:

"Don't panic. Since it's a human-made mechanism, there must be a way to disable it."

The Transcendent Purifier's explosion power is truly extraordinary, especially since it contains the realm's rules; not even Raventon, let alone him, could survive the blast unscathed.

But for him, surviving the explosion isn't difficult—even many methods exist.

The simplest is to use long-range teleportation to bring the group straight back to his villa or Grimlan's slums.

As a spatial mage, leaving teleportation arrays everywhere is a good habit.

But he had no intention of doing so—he still planned to personally pluck this pearl from the crown of industry.

As he entered the coal essence refinement space, he had already taken out the Omniscient Crystal, monitoring the Transcendent Purifier.

Now, with his back to Raventon, he activated the Omniscient Crystal's Weakness Insight ability, searching for a way to halt the self-destruct sequence within the Steam Phantom realm's rules.

For problems rooted in realm rules, the Omniscient Crystal was nearly truly omniscient.

Guided by the Omniscient Crystal, Wu Chang teleported to the top of the Transcendent Purifier, pried open its casing, and dismantled the esoteric rituals exposed inside—the self-destruct sequence instantly deactivated.

As the Transcendent Purifier's roar gradually faded, Raventon snapped back to reality and, before the message spell could activate, replaced the letter he'd written with a lump of coal essence, then tore the letter to shreds.

The next instant, the coal essence before him, wrapped in magic, shot upward as a streak of light toward the surface.

Wu Chang teleported back to the surface and, watching Raventon still shaken, asked curiously: "What did you write in that letter?"

Raventon tugged at his mouth, uneasy:

"Nothing. You actually stopped the explosion—how did you do it?"

Raventon's attempt to change the subject was clumsy, but since it was personal, Wu Chang didn't press further; instead he said:

"A voice in my mind told me that doing this would stop the explosion."

Raventon frowned, skeptical:

"Can your intuition from inspiration be this specific?"

Wu Chang countered: "Can't you?"

Raventon rolled his eyes. "Normal people can't."

He stepped closer to the Transcendent Purifier and said:

"This is the machine that can refine vast amounts of coal essence? It looks nothing like the experimental models at Grimlan University."

"Now let's see what secrets it holds—why Grimlan University kept it hidden deep in Pine Tree Mine instead of revealing it and sparking a mining revolution."

Wu Chang didn't follow Raventon to study the Transcendent Purifier's secrets.

In his eyes, the Transcendent Purifier seemed like the mine demon from Thomas's horror tales, its massive steam-powered surface encircled by over thirty faint red strands of resentment.

These resentments took on a steam-like form, continuously pouring from the machine's exhaust vents, giving this blood-stained mechanical giant a semblance of life.

He fixed his gaze on the deepest strand of resentment, just a hair's breadth from coalescing into a blood-written last words.

As he activated his Transcendence talent, a crimson mist spread, drowning the entire refinement zone.

Within the mist, he had entered the victim's perspective.

The victim wore miner's attire, indistinguishable from ordinary miners, but Wu Chang sensed the presence of transcendent energy within him.

The victim's hands were nimble; tiny blades were hidden in many corners of his clothes—a trait matching Thomas's description of mine thieves.

Clearly, the victim was a member of the mine thief gang, and not a low-ranking one.

The thief now hid in the shadows of the temporary rest area, holding his breath, as if fused with the darkness.

He stared at the Transcendent Purifier roaring in the distance, clutching a lump of coal essence, a scrap of paper, and a nearly complete message spell.

He seemed ready to send everything outside, to inform someone.

But before the spell could form, a hand descended from above, crushing the spell he'd formed.

The thief winced, looking up—and saw a transcendent figure cloaked entirely in black, gazing down at him.

"Who are you?"

The thief forced a smile. "I'm Mick, miner from Mine Shaft 37. I don't know how I ended up here."

Mick's face showed submission, but his left palm slid a blade from inside his sleeve, slicing toward the black-robed figure's hood.

His motion was stealthy—but the gap in power between them was too vast; the black-robed figure effortlessly caught the attack, and mused:

"I thought you were just a bunch of petty thieves. Didn't expect a big fish among you."

"Mick, tell me—who do you work for?"

Mick felt his wrist about to snap; he hissed through clenched teeth:

"I work for no one. I work only for ourselves."

The black-robed figure sneered:

"Message spells are noble magic—no ordinary thief could master them. If you won't speak, that's fine. I have plenty of time to make you talk slowly."

Mick glanced at the black-robed figure, his expression resigned.

"Sorry, but I can't afford to stall—someone's waiting for my message."

The black-robed figure realized something and waved to knock Mick unconscious—but he was too late.

Before he could act, Mick had swallowed the blade hidden in his mouth; its energy tore through his throat from within.

"Damn it!"

Amid the black-robed man's curses, Mick's resentment ended, and Wu Chang's consciousness returned to reality.

He recalled the scenes within Mick's resentment: Mick's death was likely the pretext used by Pine Tree Mine to conceal the Extraordinary Refiner beneath the mine shaft, faking a massive explosion.

Mick tried to use a message spell—this meant there must have been accomplices outside; he and his accomplices likely had prior arrangements.

The last thing he said—that someone was waiting for his message—his death was probably that message itself.

For instance, if he died in the deep mining zone, it would signal that a secret was indeed hidden here.

The black-robed men and the mine owner planned this explosion to cover everything up, pretending they had destroyed the evidence, to lull Mick's accomplices into complacency, waiting for a future chance to relocate the Extraordinary Refiner.

Wu Chang turned his gaze to the other pale resentments; their owners were mostly ordinary people, containing little information.

The owners of the resentments were men and women, old and young, strong and frail, healthy and disabled.

The scenes recorded in their resentments mostly consisted of a single image.

That image: five or six black-robed men surrounding the Extraordinary Refiner, taking notes, while they themselves were bound at limbs and shoved into a special feed inlet ahead of the machine.

Human lives were a vital raw material for refining coal into coal essence.

This was why the Extraordinary Refiner could not be made public, and one reason the mine owner and black-robed men hid it deep in the mine.

Ordinary people had low spiritual strength, making the probability of generating resentment extremely low.

Over thirty resentments on the Extraordinary Refiner meant the number of victims thrown in as raw material was no less than three hundred.

If they did not hide the Extraordinary Refiner and used it openly, they could never conceal using living humans as production material.

The second reason was that the Extraordinary Refiner required coal miners.

They selected so many victims, over such a wide span, to conduct an experiment.

To test which kind of life could convert coal into coal essence more efficiently.

In one resentment, the victim heard a black-robed man say before death:

"The conversion efficiency of these ordinary people is too poor. To reliably produce high-quality coal essence, coal miners' flesh is clearly more suitable."

Though it sounded like a hellish joke, according to the black-robed men's experiments, coal miners' flesh and souls were more conducive to coal conversion into coal essence.

The Extraordinary Refiner consumed two coal miners per month, producing nearly four tons of coal essence.

Four tons of coal essence, converted to ordinary coal, equaled ten times what a coal miner would extract in a lifetime.

According to their logic, they were merely accelerating these miners' lives and multiplying their value tenfold.

Emerging from the resentments of countless victims, Wu Chang had only one thought: these experimenters were surprisingly good at math—if he got the chance, he'd personally calculate how much value their lives had been converted into.

He walked over to Ravenston and asked:

"Detective, have you figured it out?"

Ravenston shook his head: "My focus is primarily on the city; I have little knowledge of large machinery."

Wu Chang shrugged and said:

"Knowledge is infinite—you can't learn it all. At times like this, inspiration is more effective."

Saying this, he walked straight to the front of the Extraordinary Refiner and opened the special feed inlet.

As the inlet opened, a mist of blood gushed out—not resentment, but real blood mist, so thick with the stench of blood it choked the air.

Ravenston's face turned pale; he forgot to mock Wu Chang's miraculous inspiration and hurried to the special feed inlet, his voice heavy:

"All the missing miners were thrown in here?"

Wu Chang nodded.

Ravenston opened his mouth, unsure how to continue: "They…"

Wu Chang pointed to the newly produced coal essence: "They're probably mixed in here."

Ravenston's breathing quickened; his fists clenched slightly.

"They've crossed the line."

Seeing Ravenston's agitation, Wu Chang comforted him:

"Think positively—miners like Thomas started working in the mines at age five, toiling until their thirties or forties, dying in a mine collapse or from chronic occupational illness, just like their parents. Even without this machine, their entire lives would've been trapped in dark mine shafts."

Ravenston heard the sarcasm in Wu Chang's tone; he deflated like a punctured balloon and said:

"What's the point telling me? I'm just a detective, still your subordinate. You should say this to Your Majesty."

Wu Chang replied with unshakable confidence:

"I'm not stupid—I'd never be so disrespectful to Your Majesty. She's my direct superior."

"Just as I respect my superior, since you're my subordinate, you must listen to my complaints—that's a superior's privilege."

Ravenston took a deep breath; the usually refined and easygoing man nearly cursed aloud.

Wu Chang set Ravenston aside and returned to his work.

Following the guidance of the Omniscient Crystal, he reached the center of the Extraordinary Refiner and found a passage leading into its interior near the coal essence refining zone.

Entering through the passage, he found a complex mechanical structure inside.

Unlike ordinary machinery, though composed of cylinders, pistons, boilers, and pipes, the Extraordinary Refiner's internal components combined in a peculiar mechanical elegance.

To an ordinary person, these parts would seem not man-made, but as if they naturally belonged together—humans had merely stumbled upon their arrangement.

In Wu Chang's eyes, the surfaces of these mechanical parts emitted a faint glow—the glow of rules.

Unlike the self-destruct device on top, the interior of the Extraordinary Refiner was entirely mechanical, with not a trace of extraordinary energy involved.

Achieving effects only extraordinary power could produce through pure mechanics—that was the realm's rule, the root force of an S-rank instance.

He scanned the interior; his gaze was drawn to a precisely crafted mechanical component, the size of a leather case.

His inspiration told him: this was the core of the Extraordinary Refiner.

Wu Chang first shut down the Extraordinary Refiner completely, then, per the Omniscient Crystal's instructions, dismantled the core mechanical component.

"Item Name: Coal-Specialized Essence Smelter"

"Item Type: Special"

"Item Skill: Refine Coal Essence."

"Skill Description: A core component of the Extraordinary Purification Machine, a root object empowered by mechanical laws, capable of stripping impurities from coal ore and reconstituting its essence into Extraordinary Fuel—Coal Essence."

"Note: This component is the heart of Stilran Mineral Purification Technology, the brilliant jewel atop the crown of industry."

"Item Skill: Flesh Augmentation" (Unlocked by Royal Badge)

"Skill Description: By placing different types of fresh flesh into it, the speed of mineral purification increases, and the effectiveness of the purified output is enhanced."

As Wu Chang took hold of the Essence Furnace, a prompt popped up before his eyes.

"You have obtained a jewel atop the crown of industry."

Seeing the prompt appear, he relaxed—he now understood that acquiring the core component meant he had effectively acquired the true essence of the jewel atop the crown of industry.

The Extraordinary Purification Machine, including its production line, was nearly the size of a fifteen-meter cube; even after upgrading his personal space by one tier and augmenting it with Master-level Spatial Magic, he could not fit such a massive object inside.

If he wanted to take the entire machine away, not to mention whether other factions in Grimlan would allow it, the very act of transporting it was a problem.

As Wu Chang stepped out from inside the Extraordinary Purification Machine, he saw Raventon struggling to climb onto the platform, just raising his head to meet Wu Chang's gaze.

Wu Chang asked, "What are you doing?"

Raventon patted the hem of his coat, as if not understanding Wu Chang's meaning, and said:

"Of course, I'm investigating what secrets lie inside this big thing. What did you find inside?"

After a moment's hesitation, Wu Chang decided to tell Raventon the truth. He pulled out the Essence Furnace and said:

"I found the core of this Extraordinary Steam Machine."

Raventon raised an eyebrow, his eyes gleaming.

"I can guarantee that no ordinary workshop could produce a component of this caliber. Only a few universities in Grimlan or research institutes funded by high nobles could create machinery this exquisite."

Wu Chang asked, "Then what do you think I should do with it?"

Raventon said, "I don't know. I can only tell you that, in both practical and symbolic terms, its value is extremely high—high enough to compel the Queen to fulfill any promise she made to you."

Wu Chang stored the Essence Furnace in his personal space and said, "I understand."

The investigation of Pine Tree Mine was concluded. Wu Chang and Raventon left the Coal Essence refining area, and before departing, Wu Chang used occult means to alter the entry method to this place.

He returned to the underground steam train and called out to Erin and Thomas to leave.

Wu Chang had already informed Erin of all the details from the refining area through mental communication. Thomas had listened to Wu Chang's advice and understood that knowing certain things could harm him—he dared not ask where they had been.

From the deep mine levels back to the surface, everyone remained silent.

They sat on the mine cart and waited. After more than an hour, the police surrounding Pine Tree Mine received orders and withdrew together, handing over the mining site lockdown to the arriving Secret Police.

The leader of the Secret Police was none other than Zhu Li, who Wu Chang had met shortly before. As the Queen's most trusted Extraordinary, she not only oversaw the Holy Revelation Church but also appeared to manage the Secret Police.

Zhu Li approached the group. Seeing they were unharmed, she exhaled in relief.

She pulled out a piece of Coal Essence and complained to Raventon:

"You suddenly sent me a piece of Coal Essence via Message Magic without any explanation—I thought you were in danger and rushed over with my team immediately."

"Now that I see you're safe, I'm glad—but I hope this wasn't just a prank."

Wu Chang glanced at the Coal Essence in Zhu Li's hand, then turned to Raventon with a strange look.

The recipient of the Message Magic was Zhu Li—meaning that when Raventon had thought he was about to die in the explosion, his hastily written last words were meant for her.

Recalling how Raventon had frantically torn up the letter, our great detective didn't wait until his dying breath to muster the courage to confess, did he?

Wu Chang's strange gaze made Raventon's face flush. Avoiding Wu Chang's eyes, he recounted everything that had happened in the deep mine to Zhu Li.

Upon learning that Pine Tree Mine used miners' lives to produce Coal Essence, Zhu Li's expression grew even darker than Raventon's—darkness laced with emotions Wu Chang could not decipher.

He wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but he felt that upon hearing this, Zhu Li had grown visibly worn down.

After a long silence, Zhu Li spoke slowly to Wu Chang:

"Xiao En, you handled this well. The Queen will know everything you've done. But the truth behind the Pine Tree Mine explosion cannot be made public—at least not yet."

Wu Chang frowned slightly. "Why?"

Zhu Li sighed. "Raventon should know—Pine Tree Mine is the largest coal mine in Stilran, a symbol of the coal and industrial sectors, and a core asset of the Liberal Party, with extremely complex ties."

"Although the mine is operated independently by its owner, Virik, nearly every Liberal Party legislator holds shares in Pine Tree Mine."

"If Prime Minister Ron were still alive, the crimes of Pine Tree Mine could be exposed tomorrow. But now, revealing the truth prematurely would only bring massive chaos."

(End of Chapter)