Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

The Wind Rider Blade Aura Executioner was the signature skill of the Wind Rider Sword Saint. Lin Jie would definitely need this skill during his second Job-Changing trials, and not to mention this skill would be a great help to him when he wanted to upgrade to Legendary levels. As such, It was impossible for Lin Jie to hand over this skill!

While Lin Jie was contemplating, the system sent another notification.

Ding~

—’Do you accept the mission Teaching of Skills?’

Lin Jie’s eyes gleamed. Since things had turned out this way… “I accept!”

“Great, great! Young lad, you just need to stand there and be still!” Nordilus laughed heartily. He did not attempt to hide his ulterior intentions at all! Truth to be told, he did not think it would really matter if he revealed his motives anyway—it was a common consensus that the human beings from the alternate realms could be fooled easily, and one just needed to put on a pretense when giving them the missions! Nordilus took out a black scroll, and there was a ghostly eyeball drawn on top of the scroll.

This scroll… it could snatch the skills of players! However, as this scroll was too powerful and overbearing, no players were able to use it. If not for the fact that Lin Jie had encountered this situation before in his previous life, he would not have suspected anything!

However, since Nordilus had taken this scroll out, then everything was clear!

‘If you had not taken out the Dark Shrine’s items, I would not have suspected you—but since you took out this scroll which only allowed usage by the Dark Shrine’s followers, then I can now confirm your status!’

Indeed, after Nordilus had left the village, he had roamed the lands looking for materials to create gargoyles befitting of Heroic status but to no avail. In the end, he had remembered that mysterious but powerful Law of Life, and hence had managed to find his way to the Dark Shrine. Craving for power, he had joined the Dark Shrine and had become a high-leveled, but lowly-ranked Dark Shrine follower.

“Ghostly Eye! Absorb the Wind Rider Blade Aura Executioner!” shouted Nordilus in joy. The eye on the scroll emanated dark and eerie glows and focused on Lin Jie’s skill column.

“Hahahaha~! As long as I can get a hold of a Heroic status Sword Saint’s skill, what other gargoyles can’t I make? The first-ever Heroic gargoyle will definitely be created by me! At that time, I will be able to regain my freedom…”

Whoosh—

Light surrounded Lin Jie’s body, and a purplish-black iris gathered above Lin Jie’s head, trying to absorb his skill! At that moment, another black layer of mist enshrouded Lin Jie’s body, and the Ghostly Eye trembled vigorously as if it had encountered the most terrible thing on earth! After a clear clinking sound, the Ghostly Eye shattered into numerous dark pieces!

The black mist dissipated, and the human being from the alternate realms was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a Dragon Envoy draped in purplish-black long robes was standing in front of Nordilus. The dragon breaths this Dragon Envoy gave out from his mouth were extremely intimidating, and his blood-red eyes seemed to be able to pierce through the deepest, darkest secrets of the human heart!

In Lin Jie’s eyes, the world seemed to change in color. Zheng Ziliang and Qiu Yuan’s names became red, while Nordilus’s name changed to green color, signifying that he was an ally now. However, the color of his name was a shade lighter than others—this meant that his rank in the Dark Shrine was not as high as a Dragon Envoy.

After all, the Dragon Envoy was ranked just below a Sub-Shrine Pope!

“You… you…” When Nordilus saw Lin Jie’s new appearance, he knelt down onto the floor immediately. This change of attitude startled Lin Jie! Nordilus held back tears of fear in his eyes as he exclaimed, “My Lord, my Lord! I, Nordilus had only left the Dark Shrine because I felt some disaster had befallen on my hometown, and I was worried about my kin. My Lord, please forgive me, and spare me the punishment of the Dark Furnace!”

Lin Jie was initially shocked, but he immediately thought through all the clauses. ‘Okay, so this fellow has secretly escaped from the Dark Shrine, no wonder he’s so afraid of me!’ As for all his other talk of ‘worrying about kin’, Lin Jie would of course not believe a single word of it.

Lin Jie commanded in a low voice, “For your kin? You would bring all mechanical machinery along with you just to save your kin? And steal scrolls from the Dark Shrine for your kin? Don’t expect to fool me! Your crimes are unforgivable, and you definitely will not be spared from the wrath of the Dark Furnace!”

Nordilus’s eyes dimmed, and he could only keep kowtowing to Lin Jie in a fervent attempt to ask Lin Jie to spare him.

Lin Jie gave a subtle nod then. It seemed like the ‘Dark Furnace’ was a great threat for him, but to be honest Lin Jie had no idea what it was. ‘Haha, but who cares? As long as I can use it to threaten him, that’ll be great!’

“My Lord! I still have some use to you, and a great use at that! Look, here are the mechanical equipment which I have created, and they are the best slaves ever, I daresay they are even more loyal than the Undead Skeletons…” Nordilus was still trying to fight for himself as he continued, “Since you can disguise yourself as a human being from the alternate realms, you must be a great being who can bypass all rules. From what I know, Dark Demigods who can bypass the ordinary rules are not allowed to summon any Undead. If not, great disturbances will be brought to our lands. However, this machinery are different. They can replace your Undead servants, and become your best helpers…”

A gleam of light flashed past Lin Jie’s eyes, and he berated, “Nordilus, your escape was already the greatest disrespect to the Dark Shrine! However, like what you say, you are indeed still of use to me! These two human beings are my spies within the Guild of Light, so I command you to assist them in their tasks. As for you, you shall record down all your Engineering experiences and compile them into books for me. Hand all machinery you have to me now, and then use all the possible resources you have to create this Mechanical Gargoyle now. Only then shall I write off your crimes, and… depending on your attitude, I may allow you to withdraw from the Dark Shrine!”

Dong!

This piece of news was like a bomb—one could not just join or leave underground organizations like the Dark Shrine at their own will. Just like China’s Special Troops, if anyone dared to leave on their own accord, they would be sentenced to death!

As such, now that Nordilus heard that he might have some chance to leave the Dark Shrine, what more could he ask for? While kowtowing to Lin Jie in utter gratefulness, he began taking out all the items he carried on himself. As it was extremely difficult to get out of the Dark Shrine, he had not brought along any magnificent Sub-Legendary machinery with him, but instead, he had brought out a large number of practical machinery the likes of ‘Healing Robots’, ‘Cooking Robots’ and ‘Slave Robots,’ etc.

Healing Robot (Mechanical Lifeform)

Level: 0

Health Points: 10

All Attributes: 1

Skill: Healing Halo. Using 10 Magical Gems, it can release a Healing Halo which can heal 1,200 Health Points for all objects within a 5*5 meters area. Every time its effect distance is increased by 10%, you will need to use 50% additional Magical Gems to maintain its healing abilities. Cooldown time is one day.

Engineering Specialization: Overload! You are allowed to use another additional 300% gems to make the robot release its Healing Halo again another time. However, overloading the robot will make it fall into sleep mode, and this mode will persist for two days.

Other than the Healing Robot, the next most useful machinery would be the ‘Slave Robot’. One Slave Robot was equivalent to three ordinary peasants, and hence, this was great machinery to own for any players who wanted to build their lands.

Nordilus handed over a total of one Healing Robot, three Cooking Robots, and 80 Slave Robots! This greatly delighted Lin Jie.

In turn, Lin Jie passed all the robots to Qiu Yuan. With the help of the Slave Robots, Qiu Yuan would be able to save up at least 70% of the costs on hiring Peasant NPCs to help rebuild the town. Coupled with the numerous original townsfolk left in Saint Malo Town, she should have enough manpower to build even a city!

Seeing how submissive Nordilus was to him now, Lin Jie immediately took the opportunity to order him to carve the required Runes! Five minutes had already passed out of the 30 minutes limitation. As such, if Nordilus dared to carve the Runes any slower, it would be proof that he was still up to no good!

“Carve the Runes on the Gargoyle now!”

“Yes, yes!” Nordilus smiled in a pleasing manner. “My Lord, I still have quite a lot of precious materials on me, please forgive me for not merging them into the Mechanical Gargoyle before as I didn’t know I was serving you then… But now, I will put all of them into the Mechanical Gargoyle when I am carving the Runes on it! This may suppress some of the Mechanical Gargoyle’s attributes, but I assure you, its potential for upgrading to higher levels will be multiplied!”

“Carve now,” commanded Lin Jie as he folded his arms in front of his chest.

Nordilus started work immediately. Crushing all the available Engineering materials he had into molten form, he injected them into carving knife as he started the carving process, while the Mechanical Gargoyle squeaked excitedly! The water alloys which were on the Mechanical Gargoyle’s surface became rough after the Runes were being carved, but in turn, it emanated impressive and powerful vibes—this would be the side effect of carving the Runes.

“Siderite, Bronze Heart, Bloodwoven Ore…” Lin Jie nodded secretly as he observed the materials used. It seemed like this time round, Nordilus had indeed contributed all of his best materials.

Runes carving was a tedious and tiring job, and Nordilus’ fingers had gradually become twisted while holding the carving knife tightly. However, he gritted his teeth and did not appear to be tired, as he continued carving beautiful Runes one after the other upon the Mechanical Gargoyle. When Nordilus was done with the final touch, he heaved a long breath of relief, and reported excitedly, “My Lord, it’s done!”

The Mechanical Gargoyle opened its eyes, flapped its wings and brought up a strong torrent of wind. Like a shooting star, it surged up high into the sky! Both the Scorching Heart and Azure Heart gleamed from within its body, shining brightly!

Mechanical Gargoyle (Gold Mechanical Lifeform)

Level: 20

HP: 1,800

Mana: 600

Attack: 312 – 352

Mana Attack: 400 – 420

Defense: 410 (Thick Skin 45%)

Mana Defense: 350 (Mana Skin 30%)

Attack Speed: 1.7 (It can deal out a physical blow every 1.7 seconds)

Chanting Speed: 1.2 (All spells will have a reduced 20% Chanting time)

Speed: 12 (Normal speed)

Flying Speed: 35 (30% of its Defense is decreased when it is flying at high speed)

Special Features: Hardened Skin, Mana Skin, increased Defense against Water and Fire, Overriding of Attributes

Basic Skills: Clawing (Physical attack, has 10% Armor Ignore effect), Fireball Spell (Mana attack, basic Chanting time of three seconds)

Additional Skills: Water Surge, Fire Armor

“Ziliang, you can contract it now,” said Lin Jie as he took a step back.

Zheng Ziliang was staring dumbly at the Mechanical Gargoyle’s attributes, and he was surprised beyond words. This was a Gold Mechanical Lifeform, a superb pet which not even an Advanced-level Engineer could own! Now, it was just right before his eyes, for him to contract!

“Little Jie, you should go and learn Engineering!” said Zheng Ziliang in a serious tone.

“As long as you learn until the Sub-Legendary levels of Engineering, you will be able to own a Mechanical Lifeform pet! This Mechanical Gargoyle is really strong, but with my skills, I cannot exhibit its prowess fully!”

Lin Jie let out a series of chuckles. “Heavens, you expect me to learn till Sub-Legendary Engineering? Do you want me to stay inside the laboratory for the next few years? Don’t be silly!”

“But…”

“No buts, don’t be so wishy-washy, buddy!” Lin Jie pushed Zheng Ziliang in front and encouraged, “Go on!”

Zheng Ziliang looked at Lin Jie again seriously, then raised out his hand. “Contract!”

The Mechanical Gargoyle did not show any resistance and landed upon Zheng Ziliang’s shoulders obediently… with a loud crash! The Mechanical Gargoyle which was filled full of numerous precious materials was of course very heavy, and its descent nailed Zheng Ziliang right into the ground. Zheng Ziliang was buried by a pile of earth!

This did prove a common saying: the first intimate interaction would always be strange and… painful.

Lin Jie laughed heartily. “Alrighty! From today onwards, you are also a pro! Do remember to show off in front of Qiu Yuan!”

Buried in the ground, a swift gush of disappointment flashed past Zheng Ziliang’s eyes. He chuckled bitterly as he said, “Ah, Qiu Yuan…”