The wizard era begins with the alchemist wizard

Chapter 888 A Web of Conspiracy
The Third Federation world remains peaceful today.

"This is the Federation world where the Xiling Merchant Guild is based," a machine race member said respectfully beside Richard.

Although Richard had already instructed Ulysses to investigate the matter in secret, he, as the investigator in the open, could not do nothing.

He is like a candle in the dead of night, conspicuous yet making people overlook the darkness around him.

"It looks pretty good." Richard flew into the sky, looking at this strange world, and said with a slight surprise.

Because the Federation Worlds are home to five races, each Federation World is a world where the four elements are in balance. Furthermore, due to the different preferences of each race, the regions within the Federation Worlds belonging to different races have vastly different environments.

The vast continent was divided in two, and in the Mechanical Race region, metal covered the land. Giant, cold-colored factories operated day and night, producing all sorts of "alchemy" products amidst the rumbling of machinery.

The Tree Spirit Clan's territory consists of vast forests where birds, beasts, insects, and fish live freely, creating a peaceful and natural landscape.

The tree spirits grow around the World Tree. Although their bodies are still, their spirits roam freely in the network unique to tree spirits.

The Winged Ones occupy the sky and live on sky islands, while the Haunted Ones live underground. They dislike sunlight, and other races don't particularly enjoy being around these "ghouls."

Their destination—the Tide Spirits—lives in the ocean beyond the continent.

“Come on, Moore, let’s go check out that merchant guild,” Richard said to the machine beside him.

The machine race member known as Moore looked at Richard, seemingly wanting to say something but holding back.

"...Sir, shouldn't you try to disguise yourself? We're here to investigate, not to destroy that chamber of commerce."

"investigation?"

Richard chuckled twice, then shook his head slightly and said, "Moore, your understanding of civilization devourers is still too shallow. Our mission this time is both to investigate and to destroy them."

Allowing such a thing to exist for even a second longer is irresponsible towards the safety of this world.

With that, Richard casually waved his hand, and a force enveloped Moore.

The next moment, the two figures disappeared beside the World Tree, and when they reappeared, they were already on the boundless ocean next to the continent.

The deep blue ocean stretches to the horizon. Today, there is no wind, and the sea appears calm and tranquil.

Richard patted Moore beside him, snapping him out of his dazed state from the spatial teleportation.

"Moore, it's your turn to shine. Go and contact those Tide Spirits."

Moore's body shuddered, and a piercing mechanical grinding sound came from within him. Then, Moore spat out a shower of sparks, which appeared to be iron filings.

"Okay, sir, I'll go right away."

Moore gave a somewhat stiff reply, then leaped from the sky into the boundless ocean.

Richard looked at the mole submerged in the water, a thoughtful look flashing in his eyes.

"This little guy's physical structure is fine; no one has tampered with him. But why do I always feel like someone is watching me?"

Moore was a member of the corrupted machine race, but because his corruption was relatively minor and his strength was relatively high, he was assigned by the machine race chief to be his assistant.

But ever since this Moore came into his life, he has always felt that someone is watching him.

Richard trusted his senses and didn't believe it was a delusion caused by his oversensitivity, but he couldn't find the source of that feeling.

"A new technology?" Richard wondered to himself.

Shortly after Moore went to sea, he sent Richard a magical message.

"Sir, I'm in trouble."

trouble?

Richard raised an eyebrow, and a magical probe wave shot out from his body. Soon, the situation on the seabed came into view.

"Huh? Are they just dropping the pretense altogether?"

Deep in the ocean, Mole is being besieged by a group of furnace people.

boom!
A weapon resembling a trumpet-shaped musket in the hands of a furnace-maker exploded with a loud bang, and the powerful shockwave directly pushed away the seawater at the mouth of the trumpet, creating a brief vacuum on the seabed.

Upon seeing this, Moore shrank back, his entire body instantly shrinking into a smooth metal rugby ball.

The Machine Race can almost be seen as natural-born alchemists. They do not have a fixed form, and each Machine Race member changes their form according to their working environment.

Moore is a soldier who, on the battlefield, is responsible for controlling thousands of mechanical golems to attack or defend.

Therefore, his offensive ability is irrelevant, but his defensive ability must be strong.

The shockwave traveled along the seawater to Moore, and the next moment, wrinkles appeared on his smooth body surface, as if it had been crumpled into paper.

Clearly, Moore's skills were no match for the weapons of the furnace people.

However, this is enough.

An invisible field suddenly enveloped the furnace people. Before they could react, they were imprisoned by the seawater beside them and turned into amber-like objects.

"Good grief, so they're just not going to perform because no one's coming from underwater?"

Richard's gaze passed over the furnace people in front of him. Behind them, the underwater city that originally belonged to Xiling was now filled with furnace people's buildings.

These furnace-built structures were entirely black, with dark red veins resembling blood vessels visible within them. At their feet, erosion had spread to the seabed. And if Richard wasn't mistaken, this city was situated at a medium-sized leyline node.

"Is this... going to erode an entire world at once!?"

As Richard surveyed the underwater city, a horrifying thought suddenly flashed through his mind: Pollution seeping into the earth's veins, then spreading across the entire world via those veins. This kind of erosion is like boiling a frog in slowly heating water; by the time it begins, the whole world will be doomed.

This was a form of erosion he had never seen before.

The erosion of civilizations by devourers is often extremely brutal, with a sense of "it's none of my business if they kill you." Yet, this method of erosion carries a hint of calculation.

"Do they respond differently to different situations?"

Richard remained silent, his figure suddenly vanishing and then reappearing. When he reappeared, he was already in that underwater city.

His mental energy surged out of his body like a tide, instantly surveying the entire underwater city inside and out.

Suddenly, a cold glint flashed in Richard's eyes. With a casual grab, a building four kilometers away from him shattered, and a strange-looking machine flew out and landed in his hand.

It was a very strange machine, constructed from flesh and bones. It looked like an old-fashioned phonograph, but on its base was a keyboard made of white bone.

"A cross-border communicator?"

Richard narrowed his eyes, surprised that although the number of people working at the stove was small, the supplies were quite complete.

They even have cross-border communication devices.

It's important to understand that even now, the Wizarding Alliance relies on interdimensional travel channels or the Alliance dimension for cross-dimensional information transmission.

But the thing in front of him could directly cross global communication, without the need for dimensional or interdimensional travel channels.

As Richard sealed the object, ripples appeared in the space around him, and then a golden flame of miracles flew out from it.

Richard remained expressionless and casually waved his hand, sending the Miracle Fire landing on the underwater city.

The furnace dwellers put up a futile resistance against Richard, but their efforts weren't even enough to cause fluctuations in Richard's energy field.

The flames of miracle burned fiercely, and soon the city was reduced to nothingness.

Richard retrieved all the Miracle Flame and then flew to other underwater cities.

Richard believes there is more than one such underwater city.

……

The Tree Spirit Mother World.

"A cross-border communicator?"

The Great World Tree's gaze froze as it looked at the sealed artifact Richard had tossed aside.

“Yes,” Richard nodded slightly, his expression somewhat somber, “found in the hands of those who were infected.”

Looking at this interdimensional communicator, the Great World Tree felt as if all its leaves were about to fall.

The existence of interdimensional communicators indicates that at least two worlds have been corrupted by civilization devourers. If the situation is dire, who knows how many worlds this contamination has already spread to?

The Great World Tree had never imagined that the Natural Federation had stepped on a landmine. If they were to leave, this landmine would obliterate the entire Natural Federation.

"Can this thing be cracked?" Richard asked the Great World Tree.

"I need coordinates."

The Natural Federation governs even more worlds than wizarding societies. Nearly 20,000 worlds exist under its rule. If they were to investigate each world one by one, who knows how long it would take?

Moreover, checking each case one by one is very likely to alert the suspect.

Richard didn't want to play hide-and-seek with these things.

“It can be cracked,” the Great World Tree said. “Give me three days. The essence of this thing is still the interdimensional communicator of the Alliance back then, only with some technology from other civilizations added to it.”

Give me some time, cracking this won't be a problem.

Richard nodded: "Okay, I'll leave it to you."

With that, Richard stood up and, using the connections between the pantheons, made contact with Ulysses.

"Ulysses, how's the situation on your end? I've discovered that the city in World Three has been transformed into a Hearth City."

"The City of the Hearthmen?"

Federal World No. 5.

Ulisses listened to Richard's news with a hint of surprise in his voice.

"I went to that place. When I went there, it was still a city of octopus people. How come it has become a city of furnace people in just a few days?"

"What? You mean, those cities were still Xiling people's cities just a few days ago?"

“Yes, otherwise I would definitely report to you,” Ulises retorted. “Do you think I’m that unreliable?”

Richard remained silent, the news of Ulysses echoing in his mind like a thunderclap.

If these cities were Xiling's cities a few days ago, why did they all become Luren's cities when he went there?
Is someone trying to cover something up? Or is someone trying to mislead him?
Richard could sense that a web of conspiracy had enveloped him. Someone wanted to use him to achieve a certain goal.

Richard rubbed his temples, his gaze fixed intently on the interdimensional communicator.

He was certain that the Great World Tree could decipher a coordinate from this communicator.

The direction of these coordinates will help him rule out any suspicion of being a particular race.

(End of this chapter)