Chapter 380: Seed of Famine

The death of Prime Minister Luo En left Xavier’s mind blank for a moment.

Only three thoughts remained in his mind.

The first was confusion and anger: why did Prime Minister Luo En die, who killed him, and how did the plan spiral out of control?

The second was fear: what was the motive of the person who assassinated Prime Minister Luo En? Was it because of his public policies, or because he had discovered the Steam Council but was forced to resort to assassination due to his status?

If that were the case, had the Steam Council already been exposed? Even if he wanted to leave, was it already too late?

After a brief moment of confusion, anger, and fear, Xavier’s mind was filled with a final emotion.

Unwillingness.

This city was his life’s work; no one could force him to leave Grimlund.

Since Luo En was dead, he would take his place and complete their plan!

In his rage, Xavier did not follow Luo En’s instructions to temporarily flee the New Continent, but instead chose to perfect their plan alone.

Once he made up his mind, sparing no cost, the bottleneck that had held him back for so long suddenly loosened.

The very moment he chose to act, the destiny that had become blurred over the years became incomparably clear.

In their original plan, they were always a hair’s breadth away from condensing an ability that transcended the Steam Rules.

Whether they used transcendents or creations of transcendent steam engines as raw materials, they always stopped short in the realm of rules.

Now, he had discovered what was missing: what was missing was him, he who bore the mission!

When Luo En was alive, he had always wanted him to develop an ultimate steam engine that could transcend the rules without consuming life.

He had buried himself in manufacturing for years, only to realize at this moment that the ultimate steam engine he was pursuing was himself.

As long as he, like the other Steam Council members, transformed himself into a semi-mechanical state, he would be able to manipulate the Steam Rules at will with his own will once he attained divinity through them.

It was precisely at this time that he discovered Xiao En, who had returned from the New World, was investigating the Pine Coal Mine explosion in league with their old adversary Lei Wendun.

Thus, he used Wu Chang and Lei Wendun to gradually expose the transcendent steam engines he and Luo En had prepared, one by one, to the public.

By using the transcendent steam engines, he allowed the power of the Steam Source to influence the plane’s rules.

The subsequent development of events exceeded his expectations, but the general direction remained on track.

The Steam Rules had completely enveloped Grimlund, and the concentration of the rules was sufficient; there was only one final thing to do before he could condense divinity and become the ultimate steam engine.

That was to kill Acting Prime Minister Grade.

It was not because he held a personal grudge against Grade, nor was it to eliminate a rival for a prime ministerial candidate he supported, as Wu Chang had done.

As his own mission became clear, he realized he was not the only Son of the Plane chosen by the world; Grade was one as well.

As the leader of the Liberal Party, Grade held absolute authority in the fields of industry and trade, and was even more beloved than Prime Minister Luo En.

His mission as a Son of the Plane was to lead Stilan onto the path of industry and trade, opening a new chapter for the plane; he represented a possibility for the development of Stilan, and indeed the entire plane.

Grade had not transformed his mission power into transcendent power, but his very existence was influencing Xavier.

By eliminating Grade, the mission of the Son of the Plane held by Grade would be absorbed by Xavier, and having gained more favor from the plane, he would be able to easily condense divinity from the rules.

If not for the incident triggered by Leng Shan and Jianxing, his plan would have been for them to lead the Steam Council members to assassinate Grade.

He, with his condensed divine power, and the Executioner would have gone to clear away Olivia and Zhu Li, the spokespersons for the gods.

At that time, he would have completed the plan between Luo En and himself in the identity of the ultimate transcendent steam engine.

Unfortunately, the appearance of Wu Chang completely disrupted his plans.

At the end of Xavier’s resentment, a line of blood-red last words appeared.

[Find the truth behind Luo En’s death and witness the pinnacle of the transcendent steam engine.]

Judging from the final blood-red words, what Xavier could not let go of most was, on one hand, the reason for the problems in his and Luo En’s plan, and on the other, his research into transcendent steam engines.

Investigating the truth behind Prime Minister Luo En’s assassination was a main quest the players were meant to complete, so there was little issue in investigating it.

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

Just as Lei Wendun had once mentioned, eliminate all impossibilities, and whatever remains, no matter how impossible, must be the truth.

As for the second half of the blood-red words—witnessing the pinnacle of the transcendent steam engine—that was a bit difficult for him.

In Xavier’s resentment, he had already treated himself as a special transcendent steam engine, yet he was still dissatisfied with himself, which in turn gave rise to this resentment.

In other words, a transcendent steam engine that touched upon divinity could not satisfy Xavier.

If it were in the field of occultism, Wu Chang might be able to think of a way, but problems in the mechanical field would likely have to be left to He Yi to complete after the dungeon was cleared.

Wu Chang’s consciousness withdrew from Xavier’s resentment; he had wanted to stay a little longer to investigate this holy land that had birthed the Holy Sword of Lake Light.

But the holy land did not give him the chance; the moment the duel ended, it threw him out.

Wu Chang shook his head, secretly thinking the holy land was too petty. It was just that he hadn't held back his strength and nearly split that island in two—was there a need to be in such a rush to send him off?

He and Xavier’s corpse reappeared above White House Street.

From the perspective of the crowd on the ground, Wu Chang had been thrown away by Randy, used an unknown method to dodge the dense light arrows all the way, and then threw his knight’s gauntlet after closing in on Xavier.

The next moment, the Holy Sword of Lake Light shone brilliantly, sucking both of them in.

The two vanished into thin air for nearly a minute; when the lake light emerged again, Wu Chang, holding the Holy Sword of Lake Light, and Xavier, whose body had been sliced in two, returned to everyone’s sight.

Judging by the result, Sir Xiao En had won.

Although the crowd already felt Wu Chang was no simple person when they saw him intercept the light arrows, they were still shocked to see him actually slay Xavier.

The absolute suppression Xavier had displayed earlier had left too deep an impression on everyone’s hearts; the despair and suffocation of being unable to resist exceeded any dungeon boss they had encountered before.

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

The players, who were accustomed to being the protagonists of the dungeon world, suddenly found themselves relegated to supporting roles. Although it was comfortable to be carried to victory, it was still quite strange.

Everyone was immersed in the image of Xiao En slaying the dungeon boss in a desperate situation with invincible posture; no one noticed that the leader of the Secret Magic Knights, their boss Sir Xiao En, was about to fall to his death.

At this moment, Wu Chang appeared hundreds of meters in the air; although Xavier was dead, the Steam Rules had not dissipated for the time being.

His spatial abilities were restricted and still could not be used.

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

Having just coolly slain the big villain, if he were to lie on the ground calling for rescue after less than ten seconds of looking cool, where would he, Commander Xiao En, put his face?

In his urgency, he grabbed the two halves of Xavier’s split corpse and used the two steel wings on Xavier’s back as gliders, flying away from White House Street.

By the time he slowly landed with the gliders, the vortex of mist above Grimlund had returned to calm, and the thick, gloomy clouds covering the sky had begun to disperse.

Wu Chang could clearly feel that the Steam Rules suppressing the players were falling into silence along with the death of the God of Steam Engines.

Taking advantage of the distance from the Secret Magic Knights, he began to examine Xavier’s corpse.

As the ultimate transcendent steam engine, there should also be a so-called transcendent steam engine core inside him.

Because Xavier had not fused with the Multi-Tool and could not fully transform into a mechanical lifeform, his level of self-modification was not as high as the Executioner’s.

He retained a large portion of flesh and blood, but one could see that his core organs and important bones had been replaced with special metal. His body had three systems providing power simultaneously; a small furnace filled with twice-refined coal essence was installed on the left side of his chest cavity.

These coal essences released a massive amount of Steam Source power, part of which went directly into Xavier’s body, and part of which flowed into the transcendent power furnace on the right side of his chest.

The power furnace in the right chest was primarily constructed through occultism and alchemy, and the architecture designed within it was extremely complex; even with his Pupil of Law-Breaking, Wu Chang found it difficult to fully decipher for the time being.

By receiving the Steam Source power and the steam explosives stored within it, the right-chest power furnace allowed this Steam Source power to obey Xavier’s control and transform into the effects he wanted to achieve.

This meant he did not need to use occult rituals to release flames, as was the case in Baron Philip’s resentment.

Now, as long as a thought appeared in his mind, the energy would skip the preparation phase and take shape directly.

This ability could be called an advanced application of Wu Chang’s job-change talent skill "Occult Mastery." He immediately removed the occult power furnace from Xavier’s right chest, preparing to study the occult runes on it when he had time.

If he could fully grasp the energy conversion system on it, his Occult Mastery would reach a higher level, and he would no longer need to form occult runes with energy, use runes to replace occult rituals, and then use occult power.

Skipping the stage of condensing occult runes would allow him to cast spells faster, make it harder for others to identify the type of ability, and further strengthen his occult source power.

It would bring his source power to the level of Leng Shan and the Tongue of God.

The Steam Phantom dungeon made him realize that if source power is used well, its effect in the Desolate Realm might not be inferior to divinity.

Although the occult power furnace in Xavier’s right chest was powerful, it was not the true core of his body.

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

Five steam pipes extended from the Stilan continent, absorbing nutrients from the Stilan continent and emitting faint steam outward.

Looking at the steam emitted from the badge, Wu Chang trance-like saw the miners of the Pine Coal Mine; saw the textile workers of the Sloan Textile Factory; saw Thomas’s younger sister, curled up in a dark hut, terminally ill.

He also saw the seemingly endless worker protests on the streets of Grimlund.

He shook his head, turned back, and looked at the prompt that popped up on the Steam Council badge.

[Item Name: Seed of Famine]

[Item Type: Special]

[Item Description: A divine seed containing the ability of famine, currently in a dormant state. Can be activated through appropriate methods to obtain the Famine Divinity.]

[Note: When the roar of the steam engine drowns out the bells of the church, and the gears of technology struggle to drive the desires of the human heart, only by peeling back the skin of prosperity can one see the Seed of Famine condensed within the rotten fruit.]

Seed of Famine; this was the second divine seed he had obtained. Counting the Seed of Plague obtained in the Chant Company dungeon and the Strife Divinity from his job change, he was almost close to gathering a full set of divinities.

Who said divinity was hard to obtain? Wasn't it quite easy to get drops in the Desolate Realm?

At the same time, inside the Tranquility Church stronghold, the Ritualist, who was enjoying the tributes from the Industrial Entrepreneurs Association and waiting to be carried to victory, suddenly shuddered, sat up from his recliner, and threw away the cigar and wine glass in his hand.

He hurriedly entered the secret church, looked at the crescent moon vertical pupil seal on the altar whose light was gradually weakening, and his face instantly turned pale, a layer of cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.

Oh no, his divinity had been snatched by someone!

This time, as the representative of the Tranquility Church, his mission for entering the Steam Phantom dungeon was very simple: to wait.

The underlying concept of the transcendent steam engines in the dungeon came from Lehman’s "God-Given Wisdom." The reason the Secret Magic Knights were able to easily take away the God-Given Wisdom back then was because the Tranquility Church had already planted a trap in that knowledge.

It was just that shortly after the Secret Magic Knights defeated the projection of the God Lehman, they were disbanded by the King of Stilan, and the books related to occultism preserved by the Secret Magic Knights were sealed away, causing this trap to never have the chance to explode.

Zhu Li brought the knowledge of the Secret Magic Knights back to Grimlund, which ostensibly promoted the development of the plane, but in reality, it also allowed the trap planted hundreds of years ago to be reignited by someone now.

The God Lehman was very vengeful; in the Moonlight Sanitarium, the God Lehman had suffered a great loss and had always held a grudge against this plane.

Seeing an opportunity for revenge, he immediately issued a divine decree, demanding the Tranquility Church of the plane to take action.

From the beginning of the research into transcendent steam engines, they had been secretly promoting the progress of transcendent steam engines and continuously increasing the power of the hidden trap during the development process.

For example, the Flesh-Transcendent Steam Engine route was discovered by members of the Steam Council under the inspiration of the Tranquility Sect.

The appearance of the Flesh-Transcendent Steam Engine increased the efficiency of transcendent steam engines by dozens or even hundreds of times, but it would also unknowingly affect the user's mind during use.

It made them pursue efficiency and profit more, disregard life more, and rely more on the Flesh-Transcendent Steam Engine.

Mortals were particularly affected; for example, the boss of the Sloan Textile Factory, after using it for only a month, was willing to risk having the anomaly discovered just to make the workers work even more overtime, even while knowing it would lead to workers' deaths.

Before the Occultist arrived, he had already discussed the action plan with the high-level members of the Tranquility Sect; they thought highly of Xavier, this Child of the Plane, and believed he had the potential to become a god.

He did not need to perform any extra actions; he only needed to hide in the shadows and watch Xavier operate, and Xavier would handle everything for them.

By the time Xavier achieved final victory and dealt with those troublesome players, Xavier, who had transformed himself with the Flesh-Transcendent Steam Engine and thus achieved transcendence, had also reached the peak of his reliance on the Flesh-Transcendent Steam Engine.

The core of this technology was held in the hands of the God of Laiman, and with this knowledge, the Tranquility Sect could manipulate Xavier and launch a counterattack against the Apocalypse.

If Xavier did not cooperate, or when Xavier no longer had any utility, they would trigger the hidden mine to strip away the divine seed Xavier had condensed.

Previously, having sensed an anomaly in the plane and discovering that Xavier was condensing divinity, the Occultist thought the mission was already a success and popped the champagne early.

He sat on a lounge chair and began to fantasize about the God of Laiman being pleased after the divine seed was stripped away and bestowing the divine seed upon him.

Before he could finish fantasizing about his bright future, Xavier died inexplicably, and the divine seed within his body was snatched away by someone else.

This result was unacceptable to both the Tranquility Sect and the Occultist.

The Occultist dared not hesitate; he activated the occult array around the altar.

He would use his own body as a temporary vessel for the God of Laiman, causing the God of Laiman to descend.

As long as the projection of the God of Laiman approached the divine seed, he could awaken the portion of the God of Laiman's consciousness within the divine seed, causing the divine seed to merge with the temporary vessel and piece together a complete divine avatar.

By that time, the God of Laiman would use divine means to punish the guy who dared to seize their divinity.

After a brief prayer, the Occultist swallowed the crescent moon vertical pupil seal representing Laiman into his belly and solemnly shouted:

"Descend, Your Majesty, God of Laiman."

As soon as these words were spoken, the Occultist collapsed in front of the altar like a puppet with its strings cut, and the mobile magic array that was always present around him had its runes scatter across the ground after he cut off the power supply.

A few seconds later, the scattered runes that were on the verge of dissipating lit up again, condensing into a more complex and larger mobile magic array.

The Occultist stood up directly from his collapsed position in an extremely strange posture, and he twisted his body stiffly, his joints popping with crackling sounds.

"Can't even handle a small matter, and I have to take action myself; what a piece of trash."

The Occultist's body shuddered, as if he were frightened by his own words.

Laiman opened his arms, sensing the presence of the divine seed, and after a brief pause, he revealed a puzzled expression.

"With such dense power of rules, that mortal should have already completed the transformation and activated the divine seed; who could have killed him?"

Laiman waited for a few minutes, and when the steam rules shrouding Grimlan weakened further, he reached out to tear through space and stepped into it.

Passing through the spatial rift and emerging, he had already arrived before Wu Chang's true body.

Before he could speak, he saw space distort not far from him, as if someone had launched a spatial teleportation at the same time as him and arrived here.

Amidst the spatial distortion, Wu Chang's true self walked out, looked at the Occultist's familiar face, and slowly projected a question mark.

Why does this guy have a divine reaction on him?

(End of chapter)