Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Over the last few decades, the Wizard Tower had changed quite a bit. Beginning from its original foundations, it had expanded greatly.
Originally, there had only been the tower itself, as well as the castle that was halfway up the hill. Afterwards, many other smaller towers were constructed to provide the instructors with experiment facilities and locations to mentor their proteges.
Only official proteges were counted as being bonded to their instructors and chosen to carry on their inheritances. Just as it had been when Lu Zhiyu had chosen a few apprentices, these chosen few had received an elite education, while the other apprentices only underwent basic training.
However, they were not raised in the carefree manner that Lu Zhiyu had adopted. Lu Zhiyu was only interested in accumlulating knowledge, and thus, had no interest in building or managing a large-scale organization like Bohr and the other wizards.
The entire tower looked more like a small city, which covered the entire mountain. With all of its new buildings, and the countless number of wizards and apprentices bustling around, its atmosphere was much livelier than it had been with the first graduating class.
Lu Zhiyu’s magical beast smokescreen was later strengthened by Bohr and the others, allowing it to now incorporate illusions. Not only normal people, but even wizards would now be hard-pressed to deal with the miasma, as such illusions could kill formlessly!
The only entrance was at the bottom of the mountain, at a cave that was magnificently decorated. It was connected directly with the underground tunnel. Not only was the entrance above ground, but due to the underground connection, all sounds would alert the Red Dragon, which was guarding the cave.
Lu Zhiyu found Sargon’s grave in the cemetery behind the mountain. Lu Zhiyu had seen his son the day before.
Sargon’s son wasn’t very talented. In twenty years, he had barely achieved the status of an official wizard, and Lu Zhiyu doubted that he would progress much past that in the future.
Thirty years had passed since Lu Zhiyu had originally brought in the slaves. Most of them had died by now, and the second generation ant-people that he had brought in were beginning to die off too. Their work was being replaced by the wizards and apprentices.
Standing before Sargon’s grave, Lu Zhiyu recognized some of the names, but all of them seemed at least somewhat familiar. What Lu Zhiyu had not expected, was that he would see the names of Li Weisi and Henry, as well as some of the other first generation wizards. Bohr had constructed these graves for them, using their items, to reaffirm that they were members of the Wizard Tower.
Within the cemetery, Lu Zhiyu glanced at the rows of graves. He suddenly had an epiphany. The scene before him would repeat again and again in his future. As time passed, all the people that he knew would die, and an enormous mountain of graves would rise up beneath his feet.
He would stand atop this mountain of endless gravestones, which were filled with familiar names. Lu Zhiyu suddenly felt a chill run up his spine. Lu Zhiyu had only just started down this road of evolution, yet he had already felt the frigid loneliness of this path.
Would he rather be like Sargon, who was busy his entire life, only to die the death of an ant after a calm life? Or, would he fight for eternal life through evolution, thus progressing alone?
“Is it worth it?”
Lu Zhiyu wondered aloud, as he smoothed Sargon’s, Li Weisi’s, and Henry’s graves, one by one. He did not know whether he was asking them or himself. He stood in the cemetery for a long time, remaining there until it turned dark. He then left with a long sigh, and headed out into the night.
——–
A few days later, Lu Zhiyu left the Wizard Tower with the SS Eternity. Currently, the wizards had mastered several special abilities through blood witchcraft by transplanting spellcasting organs. As such, they had gained the ability to traverse the sea. So, leaving the the SS Eternity behind would be a waste, especially since Lu Zhiyu had a specific use for it in mind.
In the future, when the Wizard Tower would recruit apprentices, they would go pick them up themselves. The apprentices would also be handpicked.
Over the past few decades, some of Lu Zhiyu’s plans had begun to flourish. Special abilities really began to appear everywhere, as the world began to transform from being merely ordinary to being a world filled with extraordinary power.
Lu Zhiyu sailed the SS Eternity over the surface of the sea, and began revamping its functions. The white life alchemy ship hadn’t changed much since Lu Zhiyu had first made it 30 years ago. The external details, the internal structure, and the decorations within it were practically the same.
However, compared to its initial time of creation, its current mind power scale was much higher, having reached a level of 500. Although it was far from being a mythical life alchemy ship, it was stronger than ever.
When he was first began building the ship, Lu Zhiyu had hoped that one day, the alchemy ship would not only be able to sail above the sea, but would even fly in the sky as an airship. In the end, he intended for the boat to even serve as a starship and sail in the universe!
He would ride it between the stars and the sea, or between the astral planes. But, this was not an easy goal to fulfill.
To build a starship, the technical difficulty was enormous. The aerospace science and technology of various countries were needed to develop this project. As such, its production could drive the development of a large number of industries, and even promote the growth of their economies!
If Lu Zhiyu tried to design it himself, building an airship would be possible. However, in regards to starships, Lu Zhiyu doubted that he could design something that would reach the second cosmic velocity rate needed to escape the gravitational constraints of the earth. So, anything regarding reaching the third cosmic velocity and heading out of the solar system was beyond his realm of expertise and capability.
Moreover, this wasn’t something that you could simply make with a blueprint, as the details of its execution required all sorts of professionals to ensure that no problems arose. After all, such scientific epiphanies, which were made from Eureka moments, belonged only to the legends!
In order to realize the first step of his dream, he had to transform the ship into a complete alchemy lifeform. After all, one wouldn’t expect a normal wooden ship to sail in the universe! So, Lu Zhiyu spent ten years upgrading the Sword of the King, while he charted the structures of the metallic cells to complete their template.
Now, it was time to apply the metallic cells onto the SS Eternity to refine it into a real alchemy lifeform. At the same time, Lu Zhiyu also made a new life template for the SS Eternity.
The original SS Eternity was just a ship that sailed on top of and under the water. It had two special abilities: the power to control currents and the power to control sonic waves. However, this skillset was about to be completely revamped.