The Alchemist's Guide to Flesh and Blood Ascension

Uriel squinted, letting out a long, deep sigh of satisfaction.

The bishop first helped up his confidant, the Holy Prayer Seth, who was kneeling on the ground, motionless.

The latter, with Uriel's help, slowly rose to his feet, his gaze lacking the shrewdness and calculation that had been displayed in the Morse Desert...

Instead, it was filled with boundless compassion and piety.

"Lord Uriel," Seth said slowly, "I understand what you mean... I will give my life for the birth of my god when necessary."

The crimson bishop nodded and patted Seth heavily on the shoulder. This confidant's life lately could be described as a straight line between four points, making him truly deserving of the title of "model worker".

Seth frowned slightly, feeling a sharp pain in an old wound that he couldn't quite pinpoint when Uriel patted his shoulder.

Then, Uriel's gaze shifted from the cultists whose heads were pressed to the ground to the "dried corpse" again, and he reached out and placed his palm on the cold container wall.

A faint sense of being watched came from the ground, but the crimson bishop just sneered, after all, everything was still under his control.

The outermost layer of inferior "Purifiers" had gaps during rotations, and many of the cultists patrolling the fortress were outwardly strong but inwardly weak...

This is all just fancy packaging, deliberately made to impress those self-important alchemists.

The real killer move has always been the "magnificent buildings" left behind after the church took root in Hart City.

"Your Excellency... that alchemist has shown up in the inner city with an etheric vessel," a priest rushed over and knelt before Uriel, asking, "Should we activate those covert extermination squads now?"

"No, let him continue..." Uriel's purple eyes were incredibly deep at this moment. "If he thinks he's doing a flawless 'infiltration,' then let him do it."

He raised his hand towards the sand table in the distance, and the thousands of tiny, lava-like holy nails lit up instantly!

"The entire city is our disintegration array... He survived, the etheric carriers survived, but those little things are doomed to die."

In Uriel's view... when the black-robed alchemist stepped into Hart again, no matter how capable he was, he would not be able to turn this "dead end" into a new chapter.

"The advantage lies with me."

As Yunevo and Iseria walked further and further away from the inner city, Yunevo said leisurely, "I suppose that's what Uriel thinks. He believes that everything we do is under his watchful eye."

The black-robed alchemist's gaze shifted to the weeds that had been cut in half on the grass. "Unfortunately, the 'roots' that grow in the shadows can never be eradicated in this way."

The pale-haired girl nodded, agreeing with the former's point of view, and then asked, "Then... are we just going to let Uriel do as he pleases?"

"To be precise, this is called a counter-strategy, using a feint attack to deceive those outposts that are completely unrelated to the actual battlefield... Our real objective is the core area."

He squinted, feeling the "Unquenchable Firewood" within him pounding even more violently. "That strange thing in the core area... will undoubtedly be our priority strategic target."

What if Uriel has other tricks up his sleeve?

The black-robed alchemist paused in his tracks.

A new set of countermeasures means more unpredictability and more sacrifices—after winning the battle, will "Root" be able to survive completely?

"This... is, after all, a battlefield where the outcome is determined by high-end combat power," Yunefu's fist clenched unconsciously, "and I might have to face Uriel directly, and that disgusting... god."

He turned to look at Iseria, who was trying to share the burden, and gently placed his hands on her shoulders, his tone heavy: "Iseria, you have just as much to do as I do."

"Ether is a 'surprise weapon' they know about, but can't defend against," Yunevo said, revealing a hidden entrance to the "Root" as the two reached the outskirts of the city. "Fight once, then move to another location."

The girl with beige hair nodded thoughtfully.

"I have to admit, Uriel had thought everything through meticulously, even down to how to dig the hole and how to bury it."

Younevo took out the topographic map that Lao Liu had given him from his storage bag again, and with a charcoal pencil, drew a thick loop line directly on the waterproof layer.

"This drainage system is something that even the remnants of alchemists in 'Root' never discovered..." He circled the location of "Root" again, "Or rather, this is the real 'Root'."

"The conversion array formed by those red nails is simply an attempt to convert the energy of the core alchemy engine for its own use, if I'm not mistaken..."

"This is also crucial to the revival of that controllable god," Yunevo said, suddenly pinching his cheek and falling into deep thought.

In the black-robed alchemist's mind, what role would Seth, the traitor who had clearly betrayed the church and even handed over his soul contract to his own, play in this war?

After Lin's sacrifice, this holy prayer man almost completely severed ties with the entire "Root," and no one knew what he was tinkering with.

But this "mole" had told Ionevoy that Uriel's plan to create a god would not succeed.

He regained his composure, staring at the moss dripping water aimlessly above him, listening to the low rumble of the turbine in his chest for a long time.

"This is troublesome," the black-robed alchemist sighed. If Seth really did use his own life and the lives of nearly a hundred elite cultists to set up a trap about "trust"...

He took out the soul contract and examined it for a long time.

The triangular symbol above that represents the "soul"...

To be precise, it is a trapezoid, a fragmented figure composed of a smaller triangle, not a complete large triangle.

"Tsk, you'd better be real..." The black-robed alchemist's fingertips brushed over the pattern, his doubts growing stronger.

But he didn't have that much time to think further.

"Iseria... Plan one: have everyone 'arrive as promised' to set up the 'empty shell feedback device'," Yunevo said, lifting his leg as he walked towards the "root".

"Secondly, there was the feint attack that occurred alongside the blitzkrieg... At the same time, I had to confront that 'god' that had not yet taken shape."

The rustling sound of the heavy iron plate being moved attracted many underground creatures.

Gazing at those pairs of bloodshot eyes peeking out from the darkness...

Yunevo stretched out his hand, his fingertips tracing the void, and a stream of dark golden sand slowly flowed through the air, forming two words—"Zero Hour".

"Everything is proceeding according to plan..."