Chapter 1255
Bill was an eccentric to the extreme—he almost only trusted Alchemical Golems, and seemed to harbor deep suspicion toward humans. Especially in the ruins he left behind, in all the sites attributed to Bill unearthed in later years, there was scarcely any sign of biological activity besides Alchemical Golems—no humans, no other races, almost nothing.
Here, from the moment we entered, we found abundant traces of human activity. So even though this ruin bore a strong resemblance to the Alchemical Golem base on the Blazeforge Realm, we couldn’t be sure it was one of Bill’s creations.
Bill’s personality was so distinctive—he never trusted humans. Wherever he went, he was always accompanied by legions of Alchemical Golems, and everything he did relied on them. Even in war, he would lead a massive army of Alchemical Golems by himself.
That’s why people said Bill alone was equivalent to a major power. No one knew how many Alchemical Golems he actually commanded, or how strong they were. But every time war broke out, endless waves of Alchemical Golems would drown the enemy—a mindless undead tide tactic, with no finesse.
Still, you had to admit—sometimes this tactic worked frighteningly well. Fearless and relentless like the undead, the Alchemical Golems would keep fighting even with their bodies pierced, chopping off enemy heads without hesitation. Aside from undead armies, no military could maintain morale against the endless assault of Alchemical Golems.
That’s what makes the undead so terrifying—their numbers are endless, they’re fearless, and they know no fear, only moving forward and killing. Any sentient creature would be horrified.
Now, having found two more incomplete journals, Leon could finally confirm that this ruin—even if not personally overseen by Bill—was directly connected to him.
Some scattered clues recorded in these journals revealed that all the people here were Bill’s Lineage, and every one of them was skilled in alchemy.
They were here to help complete a task that Alchemical Golems couldn’t accomplish—something related to the Innate Runes of Sky Rank Alchemical Golems.
Just seeing this much, Leon instantly understood.
The Innate Runes of Sky Rank Alchemical Golems only appear after they advance to Sky Rank and awaken intelligence—then, a unique ability may emerge.
This ability manifests as an Innate Rune, which greatly enhances the golem’s combat power or other capabilities.
But after the destruction of the Northend World, mages never found a perfect way to transplant Innate Runes. Either the effect was severely diminished, or—if luck was on your side—you tamed a Sky Rank Alchemical Golem that happened to possess the ability to transplant its own Innate Rune.
In the Plane of Golems, transplanting Innate Runes is possible—but only between Alchemical Golems. This process relies on a certain power of rules that allows them to complete the transfer.
But even then, it’s limited to transferring another golem’s Innate Rune onto oneself. Helping others transplant runes—only three Alchemical Golems in all history were ever recorded doing this, and all three were ancient pillars of the Cyberton Race from the Plane of Golems, their existence dating back to the Age of Gods and Demons.
Obviously, no human expert ever conquered the Plane of Golems, so they couldn’t get Alchemical Golems to help with rune transplantation.
But the Sky Rank Alchemical Golems here—their Innate Runes weren’t transplanted by defeating other golems under the power of rules. Instead, alchemical methods were used to transplant them successfully.
This means Bill had already mastered a way to transplant Innate Runes. And since golems couldn’t participate in this research or experiment, he could only turn to humans for help. It was probably a last resort—Bill chose some of his descendants to assist with the study.
But splitting the ruin into countless isolated sections, with strict boundaries between each—this kind of mistrustful caution was classic Bill.
Soon, Leon deduced the purpose behind this ruin. But he was left with an even greater mystery: Bill’s name was legendary—even at the peak of the Northend World. The era he lived in was a riddle, and all that remained were vague, fragmented clues.
No one knew where he came from or where he went—he was a complete enigma. Yet his mastery of Alchemical Golems was terrifying, especially some of his techniques, which were far ahead of their time.
Take the Alchemical Golems here: most of their tech is unremarkable, but their combat and power systems are so advanced, they’re beyond anything of that era.
And this method of transplanting Innate Runes between Alchemical Golems? Even tens of thousands of years later, no one else had it.
Leon frowned. He’d found some clues, but nothing truly valuable. Bill was too cautious—almost no one here left behind any useful technical records, just a bunch of meaningless journals.
There wasn’t even any record of why this ruin was ultimately abandoned.
Leon pressed on, heading straight for the easternmost part of the ruin. There, an alchemical array beyond the level of True Spirit Arrays awaited—not too powerful, just a bit troublesome.
Leon had spent ages studying the Sky Rank alchemical arrays on the Invincible. Those three-dimensional, ship-shaped arrays—while labeled as Sky Rank—were absolutely top-tier. He’d been trying to crack their secrets, but so far, he’d only deciphered a tiny fraction.
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But even that tiny fraction was enough to make Leon’s skill with alchemical arrays skyrocket. Now, when he saw a True Spirit Array, he could crack it with a glance. Even lower-tier Sky Rank arrays—he was confident he could break them with a bit of time.
Following the map’s guidance, Leon circled around countless alchemical arrays and soon reached the easternmost edge of the ruin. Standing before the array, it looked like the very end—the way ahead was a sheer cliff, beyond it an endless fog, seemingly concealing infinite void. Just one glance filled him with dread.
Leon gazed into the fog, comparing it to what he saw on the map. His Arcane Engine kept running, but it was starting to lose steam—unable to fully simulate the situation.
Frowning, Leon summoned the Wheel of All Laws, using its power to aid his deductions.
The Wheel of All Laws was truly built for deduction, while the Arcane Engine excelled at endless calculations and data capture. But the Arcane Engine was just a magitech rune—no match for the Wheel of All Laws, which was designed from its blueprint.
Usually, relying on the Arcane Engine was enough to handle most problems—much more convenient. The Wheel of All Laws was mainly used for its overwhelming combat power, so Leon had rarely used it for deduction before.
But now, facing this alchemical array, Leon realized he’d underestimated it.
The Wheel of All Laws spun rapidly, spewing countless data streams and runes, which whirled around it. Leon’s eyes reflected these torrents of data. After ten minutes, he blinked, and the flood of data vanished from his vision.
“Archmage, is it troublesome?”
Laborde saw Leon pause his deduction and couldn’t help asking. Leon had helped them so much, and now that he was asking them to help crack an alchemical array, Laborde felt a bit guilty. Seeing Leon struggle, unable to help, he grew anxious.
Leon shook his head.
"It’s fine, just a bit troublesome. The previous owner sealed this alchemical array completely before leaving. Unless you forcibly break it, there’s no way in.
Wait here a moment—I’ll go in and investigate first."
With that, Leon stepped off the cliff. But his body moved as if he were walking on solid ground, striding into the mist until he vanished from sight.
Marianne, astonished, edged to the cliff and gingerly tapped her foot in the air. To her surprise, it felt solid—not empty at all. Looking down, she saw an endless abyss below, as if something terrifying lurked there, waiting for someone to fall. Just a glance made her shudder.
"It’s all an illusion here, and none of us noticed. My Undying Battle Aura tells me there’s no illusion ahead..."
A group stood at the cliff’s edge, while Leon had already entered the alchemical array. Inside, it was endless fog. Suddenly, Leon blinked, and his eyes reflected countless flowing runes. In his vision, the fog was like a veil being lifted.
The fog dimmed sharply. Giant Rule Runes drifted through the air, each following a predetermined path—like stars in the night sky, orbiting along ancient routes set in eternity.
The moment Leon saw these Rule Runes, his pupils contracted sharply—they were constructed exactly like the ones he used.
Not the old method—where ten runes combined to form a Rule Rune!
Leon’s method for constructing Rule Runes was to fuse three runes, then add another on top, forming a tetrahedron. Using this as a base, he’d combine more, building a Rule Rune that required at least twelve runes at minimum.
The most stable method, though, required sixteen runes to build a Rule Rune—that was the gold standard, adopted by all Sky Rank mages millennia later.
But that method was too difficult. Without breaking through to Sky Rank, Leon could only manage twelve runes per Rule Rune. Even though this would later be considered incomplete—worse than the lowest-grade Rule Runes—it still made Leon’s runes stronger than those crafted by most first- or second-rank Sky Rank mages.
The strongest Rule Rune constructions always started with sixteen runes as the basic unit.
And what Leon saw here—these Rule Runes were built on a twelve-rune foundation!
This would make the alchemical array far more stable—and much harder to crack. Any other Sky Rank mage wouldn’t even stand a chance; unless they tore it apart by brute force, there’d be no way in.
But destroying the array by force would also obliterate the entire ruin.
In the world of Rule Runes, hierarchy is absolute. Higher-level runes can cascade downward, but lower-level ones can never ascend.
Even a top-tier creator, if their Rule Runes weren’t up to par, wouldn’t be able to crack this—knowing the method wouldn’t help if their runes weren’t good enough.
Leon’s expression grew strange. Something felt off. Why would Bill go to such lengths to seal this place—was he trying to lock something away?
What could be so precious that Bill would regret destroying it, yet refuse to let it fall into anyone else’s hands?
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There was only one possibility: the Redpush Core!
Aside from that, Leon couldn’t think of anything else. Only something so prized—even at the height of the Northend era, countless mages saw it as a peerless treasure, too precious to dissect or study, reserved as the core of a protective tower—would warrant Bill’s conflicted approach.
Any alchemist who saw the Redpush Core would treat it like a priceless artifact—too precious to take apart for research.
With this in mind, Leon immediately sped up his investigation. He circled the array’s perimeter, memorizing the positions and layouts of all seven core nodes, and surrounded each with a host of Rule Runes.
The array had reached Sky Rank, but it was an open-type array—unless all seven core nodes were cracked at once, it was useless.
If you cracked just one, the array would immediately shift. And the deeper you went, the more dangerous it became. It was as if the array had been designed to be solved—strangely enough.
At least with other Sky Rank arrays—even the lowest-grade ones—Leon could never come and go so easily, or spot the key points so quickly. There was something deeper going on. Leaving the array, Leon hesitated, then took out a piece of Eternal Dark Gold—a material demons from the Abyss had recently been sending over through sacrifices. There seemed to be plenty, but you could never have too much. As the natural demi-plane grew, the need for Eternal Dark Gold was astronomical.
The benefit was that, during the demi-plane’s development, enough Eternal Dark Gold would be infused to fully merge the defenses into the demi-plane itself.
But the real cost came later—building a protective tower would require a massive amount of Eternal Dark Gold. Using some now just to crack the array felt wasteful to Leon.