Chapter 380

The death of Prime Minister Roan sent Xavier's mind plunging into blank silence.

Only three thoughts remained in his mind.

First, confusion and anger: why had Roan died? Who killed him? How had the plan spiraled out of control?

Second, fear: had the assassin targeted Roan because of his public policies, or because he had discovered the Steam Council—but, bound by Roan's status, had no choice but assassination?

If that were true, had the Steam Council already been exposed? Was it already too late for him to flee?

After a brief surge of confusion, anger, and fear, Xavier's mind was filled with one final emotion.

Resentment.

This city was his life's work; no one would force him to leave Grimlan.

Since Roan was dead, he would take Roan's place and complete their plan!

In his fury, Xavier ignored Roan's instruction to flee New Continent temporarily, choosing instead to perfect their plan alone.

Once he resolved to spare no cost, the long-standing bottleneck that had held him back suddenly loosened.

At the very moment he chose to act, the once-faded destiny he had carried became crystal clear.

In their original plan, they had always been one step short of condensing a power above the Steam Rule.

Whether using transcendents or creations of transcendental steam engines as material, they had always hit a wall within the domain of rules.

Now, he realized what was missing: himself—the one burdened with this mission!

While Roan was alive, he had always wanted Xavier to build a final steam engine that could surpass the rules without consuming life.

He had labored for years, and at this moment he finally understood: the ultimate steam engine he had sought was himself.

If he transformed himself into a semi-mechanical state, like the other Steam Council members, and gained divinity through the Steam Rule, he could wield the Steam Rule at will with his own will.

Just then, he discovered that Xiao En, returned from the New World, had allied with their old enemy Ravenston to investigate the Pine Mine explosion.

So he used Wu Chang and Ravenston's hands to gradually expose the transcendental steam engines he and Roan had prepared.

Through the transcendental steam engines, he aimed to let the Steam Root Force influence the plane's rules.

The pace of events that followed exceeded his expectations slightly, but the overall direction remained on track.

The Steam Rule now fully enveloped Grimlan; its concentration was sufficient. Only one final step remained before he could condense divinity and become the ultimate steam engine.

That step: kill Acting Prime Minister Glade.

It wasn't because he harbored personal grudges against Glade, nor because, like Wu Chang, he sought to eliminate a rival for his supported prime ministerial candidate.

As his understanding of his own mission sharpened, he realized he was not the only one chosen by the world as the Plane's Child—Glade was one too.

As leader of the Liberal Party, Glade held absolute authority in industry and trade, even more popular than Prime Minister Roan.

His mission as the Plane's Child was to lead Stilane down the path of industry and trade, opening a new chapter for the plane—he represented one possible future for Stilane, and indeed the entire plane.

Glade had not converted his mission power into transcendental power, but his very existence influenced Xavier.

By eliminating Glade, Xavier would absorb Glade's mission as the Plane's Child, gain greater favor from the plane, and easily condense divinity from the rules.

Had it not been for Leng Shan and Xiang Jianxing triggering an unforeseen event, in his original plan, Leng Shan and Xiang Jianxing would have led a group of Steam Council members to assassinate Glade.

The Executioner and himself, as the one condensing divine power, would then eliminate Olivia and Zhu Li, the divine messengers.

At that point, he would complete Roan and his plan as the ultimate transcendental steam engine.

Unfortunately, Wu Chang's appearance shattered his plan completely.

In Xavier's final resentment, a line of blood-red last words surfaced.

【Find the truth behind Roan's death, and witness the pinnacle of the transcendental steam engine.】

From this final blood-red last words, Xavier's deepest regrets were twofold: the reason his plan with Roan had failed, and his research into the transcendental steam engine.

Investigating the truth behind Prime Minister Roan's death was already the players' main quest—this would pose little difficulty.

Moreover, Wu Chang already had a rough guess about the truth behind Roan's assassination.

As Ravenston had once said: eliminate all impossibilities, and whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

As for the second half of the blood-red last words—witnessing the pinnacle of the transcendental steam engine—that was more difficult for him.

In Xavier's resentment, he had already transformed himself into a unique transcendental steam engine, yet still felt unsatisfied, giving rise to this resentment.

In other words, even a transcendental steam engine that touched divinity could not satisfy Xavier.

In the field of mysticism, Wu Chang might find a way, but for mechanical problems, he could only leave it to He Yun to resolve after completing the dungeon.

Wu Chang's consciousness withdrew from Xavier's resentment. He had intended to linger longer, investigating the sacred ground that had birthed the Lake Light Sacred Sword.

But the sacred ground gave him no chance; the instant the duel ended, it hurled him out.

Wu Chang shook his head, muttering that the sacred ground was too stingy—wasn't it just that he hadn't held back his strength and nearly split the island? Did it really need to kick him out so urgently?

He and Xavier's corpse reappeared together, high above Bai She Street.

From the ground observers' perspective, Wu Chang had been thrown by Randy, used some unknown method to evade the dense arrows of light, approached Xavier, and hurled the Knight's Gauntlet.

The next instant, the Lake Light Sacred Sword blazed with light, sucking both of them in.

The two vanished into thin air for nearly a minute; when the Lake Light reappeared, Wu Chang, gripping the Lake Light Sacred Sword, and Xavier, severed cleanly in two, returned to the crowd's view.

The outcome showed that Sir Xiao En had won.

Though the crowd had already sensed Wu Chang was no ordinary man when he intercepted the light arrows, seeing him slay Xavier still stunned them.

Xavier's overwhelming dominance had left an indelible impression; that sense of helpless despair and suffocation surpassed any dungeon boss they had ever faced.

Yet such a powerful dungeon boss had been slain by a native of the dungeon world.

Players, long accustomed to being the protagonists of dungeon worlds, suddenly found themselves reduced to supporting roles—though winning by default was comfortable, it was still strangely unsettling.

Everyone was lost in awe of Xiao En's invincible form, slaying the dungeon boss against all odds, and not a single person noticed that their boss, the Grand Master of the Mystic Knights, Sir Xiao En, was about to fall to his death.

At this moment, Wu Chang hovered hundreds of meters in the air; though Xavier was dead, the Steam Rule had not yet dissipated.

His spatial ability remained restricted, still unusable.

With his current physical strength, a direct landing from hundreds of meters up wouldn't kill him—but he would certainly be injured.

Just after heroically slaying the Dafan Sect, he lay on the ground calling for rescue less than ten seconds later—where would Xiao En's face go then?

In desperation, he dragged apart the two halves of Xavier's corpse, using the two steel wings on Xavier's back as gliding wings, and flew toward the direction beyond Bai She Street.

When he finally landed slowly via the gliding wings, the mist vortex above Grimlan had calmed, and the heavy clouds overhead began to disperse.

Wu Chang could clearly feel that the steam rules suppressing the players were falling silent as the God of Steam Engines died.

Taking advantage of the distance he had put between himself and the members of the Arcane Knights, he began examining Xavier's corpse.

As the ultimate transcendent steam engine, his body should contain what is called the Transcendent Steam Engine Core.

Since Xavier had not fused with the Jack-of-All-Trades, he could not fully transform into a mechanical lifeform, and his modifications were not as extensive as the Executioner's.

Large portions of his body retained flesh, but his vital organs and key bones had been replaced with special metals. Three systems simultaneously powered his body: a small combustion furnace was installed on the left side of his chest, filled with doubly concentrated coal essence.

This coal essence released immense Steam Root Power, part of which flowed directly into Xavier's body, and part surged into the transcendent power furnace on his right chest.

The right-chest power furnace was primarily constructed through mysticism and alchemy, its architecture extremely complex—even Wu Chang, with his Law-Breaking Eye, could not fully decipher it for now.

The right-chest power furnace received Steam Root Power and stored steam explosives within it, allowing the Steam Root Power to obey Xavier's commands and manifest as whatever effect he desired.

This meant he no longer needed to perform mystical rituals, as Philip Baron's resentment had required, to unleash fire.

Now, merely by envisioning an idea in his mind, energy would bypass preparation and form instantly.

This ability could be considered an advanced application of Wu Chang's transmutation talent skill "Mysticism Mastery"; he immediately removed Xavier's right-chest mystical power furnace, preparing to study its mystical runes in detail when time allowed.

If he fully mastered its energy conversion system, his Mysticism Mastery would ascend another level—he would no longer need to first form mystical runes with energy, use runes to replace mystical rituals, and then unleash mystical power.

Skipping the phase of condensing mystical runes would allow him to cast faster, make his ability type harder to identify, and further strengthen his Mysticism Root Power.

Bring his Root Power to the level of Leng Shan and the God-Tongue.

The Steam Phantom instance had taught him that when used properly, Root Power in the Wasteland Realm need not be inferior to Divinity.

Although Xavier's right-chest mystical power furnace was powerful, it was not the true core of this body.

Following the guidance of the Omniscient Crystal, Wu Chang extracted from Xavier's brain a badge bearing the emblem of the Steam Council.

Five steam pipes extended from the continent of Stilan, absorbing nutrients from Stilan and exhaling faint steam.

Gazing at the steam emitted by the badge, Wu Chang momentarily saw the miners of Pine Coal Mine; the textile workers of the Sloan Textile Factory; Thomas's sister, curled in a dark hut, dying of illness.

He also saw the endless worker marches along Grimlan Street.

He shook his head, turned around, and looked at the prompt that had appeared on the Steam Council badge.

"Item Name: Seed of Famine"

"Item Type: Special"

"Item Description: A divine seed imbued with the power of Famine, currently in dormancy; activated by proper means, it grants the Famine Divinity."

"Note: When the roar of steam engines drowns out the church bells, when the gears of technology cannot drive human desires, peel back the veneer of prosperity to see the Seed of Famine congealed within the rotten fruit."

The Seed of Famine—this was his second divine seed. Combined with the Plague Seed obtained in the Sacred Song Company instance and the Discord Divinity he carried from his transmutation, he was nearly complete with a full set of divine seeds.

Who says divine seeds are hard to obtain? Aren't they just popping out easily in the Wasteland Realm?

Meanwhile, inside the Quiet Church outpost, the Initiate, enjoying the tributes from the Industrialists' Association and waiting to win by default, suddenly shuddered, sat upright from his recliner, and threw away his cigar and wine glass.

He hurried into the secret chapel, stared at the crescent vertical pupil seal on the altar—its glow now fading—and instantly turned pale, sweat beading on his forehead.

Bad—someone stole his Divinity!

As the Quiet Church's representative, his mission in the Steam Phantom instance was simple: wait.

The underlying concept of the transcendent steam engines originated from Leyman's "Divine Gift of Wisdom"; the Arcane Knights had easily taken those teachings because the Quiet Church had already planted mines within that knowledge.

But shortly after the Arcane Knights defeated Leyman's projection, they were disbanded by the King of Stilan, and their preserved mystical texts were sealed away, leaving the mine dormant.

Zhu Li brought the Arcane Knights' knowledge back to Grimlan; publicly, she advanced the plane's development, but in truth, she rekindled the fuse of the mine buried centuries ago.

Leyman was deeply vengeful; in the Moonlight Sanatorium, he had suffered great losses and had never forgiven this plane.

Seeing a chance for revenge, he immediately sent a divine decree, ordering the Quiet Church of this plane to act.

From studying transcendent steam engines, they had secretly accelerated their progress, continuously strengthening the hidden mines along the way.

For instance, the flesh-based transcendent steam engine path was discovered by Steam Council members, inspired by the Quiet Sect.

The emergence of flesh-based transcendent steam engines increased efficiency dozens or even hundreds of times, but also subtly influenced users' minds.

They became more obsessed with efficiency and profit, more indifferent to life, more dependent on flesh-based transcendent steam engines.

The effect on mortals was especially pronounced: for example, the owner of the Sloan Textile Factory, after using one for just over a month, knowingly caused worker deaths—and still risked exposure to force workers into even longer hours.

Before the Initiate arrived, he had already coordinated a plan with the Quiet Church's high command; they held high hopes for Xavier, the plane's chosen one, believing him destined for godhood.

He needed no extra actions—only to hide in the shadows, observe Xavier's operations, and let Xavier handle everything for them.

When Xavier achieved final victory and eliminated those troublesome players, having transformed himself with flesh-based transcendent steam engines, he would have reached peak dependence on the technology.

And the core of this technology was held by Leyman; with this knowledge, the Quiet Sect could control Xavier and launch a counterattack on the Apocalypse.

If Xavier refused to cooperate, or if he became useless, they would trigger the hidden mine, stripping away the divine seed he had gathered.

Earlier, sensing anomalies in the plane and detecting Xavier's divine seed formation, the Initiate had assumed his mission was complete and opened champagne early.

He sat in his recliner, fantasizing about how, after stripping the divine seed, Leyman would be pleased and bestow it upon him.

Before he could finish imagining his bright future, Xavier died mysteriously, and his divine seed was stolen by someone else.

This outcome was unacceptable to both the Quiet Church and the Initiate.

The Initiate did not hesitate—he activated the mystical array surrounding the altar.

He would use his own body as Leyman's temporary vessel, summoning Leyman's descent.

Once Leyman's projection neared the divine seed, it would awaken Leyman's partial consciousness within the seed, merging the seed with the temporary vessel to form a complete divine avatar.

At that moment, Leyman would use divine means to punish those who dared steal their divine seeds.

After a brief prayer, the Initiate swallowed the crescent vertical pupil seal representing Leyman, and solemnly intoned:

"Descend, Lord Leyman."

As soon as he spoke, the Initiate collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, lying before the altar; the ever-moving magical array around him, now deprived of his energy, scattered its runes across the floor.

A few seconds later, the scattered runes on the verge of dissipating lit up once more, coalescing into an even more complex and massive mobile magic array.

The Ritual Master rose straight from his collapsed stance in an extremely bizarre posture, awkwardly twisting his body as his joints erupted in a series of cracking pops.

"Can't even handle a small matter, still need me to act personally — truly useless."

The Ritual Master's body trembled, as if startled by his own words.

Lehmann spread his arms, sensing the presence of the divine seed; after a brief pause, a puzzled expression crossed his face.

"Such dense rule-force — that mortal should have already completed his metamorphosis and activated the divine seed. Who could have killed him?"

Lehmann waited several minutes, until the steam rules shrouding Grimland weakened further; he reached out to tear open space and stepped through.

Passing through the spatial rift, he emerged already before Wu Chang's true body.

Before he could speak, he saw not far from him space twisting, as if someone had activated a spatial teleport at the same moment and arrived here.

From within the spatial distortion, Wu Chang's true self stepped out, gazed at the Ritual Master's familiar face, and slowly typed out a question mark.

Why does this guy have a divine reaction on him?

(End of chapter)