My health recovery is incredibly fast.

“Helmsster!” the hairy little man growled. “I must remind you. Our deal is over. I wouldn’t have let Fritz take the risk if you hadn’t wanted to join us!”

The little man with the hair paused, then softened his tone and continued:

“This is a test for you, Helms. And let me tell you, I almost got spotted by those bastards while trying to get Fritz to the canyon to meet you.”

The little man with the frizzy hair stomped his foot angrily, "Why is there an extra Demon Hunter in this inspection team?! Huh? Helms? Why didn't you tell me Rexor was coming here? That damn bald guy, he's been chasing me for half a month!"

Helmst's lips moved, his face was ashen, and he sighed, saying:

"I...I really don't know. I heard that a student with an extremely high talent for poison alchemy came from Xingye Academy, which attracted the people from the Demon Hunting School."

Uh… Xia Zuo, hiding on top of the locker, felt like he had a pot on his head…

The little man with the hair shook his head and pondered for a moment, then, while trembling and splattering blood, said:

"Alright, alright, alright. That's the end of this communication. Just wait patiently and try to stall for time. Use all the methods you've prepared. Don't hold back now. We don't even know if we'll ever be back here. Use whatever you need to."

Strands of hair fell onto the table, and the scattered blood lingered on the table for a few seconds before disappearing without a trace.

Helms took a deep breath and took out a band-aid from the drawer to bandage himself.

He held his head in his hands, resting his elbows on the edge of the desk, lost in thought.

About half an hour later, Hemst stood up and inspected the alchemy room, cleaning up the blood from the cracks in the floor to make sure he hadn't given himself away, then walked out with bloodshot eyes.

Shazo wanted to stay and search the other's alchemy room, but he didn't forget Dim's instructions—to always keep an eye on the people and things Hemsster came into contact with.

He hesitated for a moment, then drifted away following his target.

Helmster rubbed his temples, looking as tired as an alchemist who had stayed up all night to create something new, and headed towards the depths of the third floor.

Xia Zuo followed the other person to the dormitory and witnessed the other person taking a shower, getting into bed, and entering meditation.

He waited for another half hour, and after confirming that Helms wouldn't be going out that night, he floated back to the alchemy room door.

Unfortunately, the iron gate was locked too tightly, leaving no gaps to squeeze through.

Xia Zuo had no choice but to return to the hotel, report what he had seen and learned that day to Dim using the secret communication ring, and then, after calculating the time of dawn, drink the corresponding dose of calming potion to meditate.

The secret communication ring that Beatrice brought has a communication range of up to 500 kilometers, but it has a drawback—the longer the communication distance, the greater the delay in delivering the secret message.

The secret message sent at 1 a.m. tonight will reach Dim in about an hour, and I'll see Dim's reply when I wake up.

Chapter 34 The Ritual of Corruption

Early morning.

Xia Zuo awoke and raised his left hand to read the message on the secret communication ring:

[I am aware of the target's unusual behavior. I have notified the garrison mage of Sprill City. The target has been forbidden from leaving the Warriors' Guild. Keep a close watch on the target. Do not reveal yourself. Remain vigilant. We'll discuss this further upon meeting.]

The secret message I sent to Dim yesterday mentioned the hair-like figures, Fritz, the puppets, and Helmst's backup plan. Dim agreed to discuss it further upon meeting, so I won't press him for details.

Xia Zuo sat up, quickly washed up, touched his stomach, and compared the duration of the effects on the character template. He then drank three potions: one for satiety, one for hydration, and one for constipation, refreshing the duration of the three effects to their maximum value.

He transformed into a cloud of energy, floated to the Warriors' Guild, and followed yesterday's route to find Helmst dining in the restaurant.

Anxious and uneasy, Hemst seemed to want to go out. After finishing breakfast, he headed straight for the gate of the Warriors' Guild, but was forcibly stopped by the guards.

Helms's expression changed, and while arguing with the guard, he winked at the alley across the street.

Xia Zuo followed his gaze and locked onto a coachman dressed in tattered clothes, memorizing the coachman's facial features.

Unable to reach an agreement with the guards, Hemsworth raised his hand and shouted, "Fine! I'm not going out! I'll go back and stay here!"

The coachman heard Hemsworth's words clearly, flicked the reins, and drove the coachman out of the city.

Helmster glanced around and, seeing no sign of the carriage, gave a low hum and walked toward his alchemy room.

Xia Zuo, hovering on the roof beam high above the doorway, witnessed everything.

Helmsster has been targeted by the garrison mage; there's no escaping him. If he could evade the gaze of a formal mage, why would he need to wait for someone to come to his aid?

Now all we have to do is wait for Dim to arrive in Sbreel and capture Fritz.

So...should we follow that driver?

Xia Zuo thought for a moment. Since Dim had repeatedly emphasized keeping a close eye on the target and demanded that he not expose himself, he would do as he was told. What if Hemsster went into the alchemy room, locked the iron door, and didn't come out all day? That would be a disaster.

He circled in the air once, found Hemst entering the corridor, and followed him into the alchemy room.

After discovering he was confined to his quarters, Helmst outwardly feigned composure, but the moment he closed the iron door to the alchemy room, his inner unease and restlessness were laid bare.

He paced back and forth in the alchemy room, grabbing his hair and venting his anger for several minutes before finally making a decision with a ruthless expression.

Helmster strode to the desk, untied the alchemy pouch from his waist, and placed the contents of the pouch on the table to examine them one by one.

As an alchemist from the Eastern Continent, he possessed quite a lot of possessions.

Besides alchemical attire, he also had three rather luxurious Western Continent-style robes, two telescopic canes, a two-handed staff, four money bags filled with coins, and many notebooks of varying sizes and thicknesses.

Hemsted his messy hair as he sat at his desk flipping through his notebook. If he found anything inappropriate on a page, he would tear the whole page out and set it aside.

Taking this opportunity, Xia Zuo browsed the other party's alchemy diary.

Honestly, bioalchemy is a fascinating branch of alchemy that can give learners a deeper understanding of life.

The ultimate goal of this alchemy is to pursue eternal life while maintaining human form.

How can we achieve a longer lifespan?

Slow down aging, resist aging, strengthen the body, resist disease, and prevent disability...

These methods of prolonging life, as understood by ordinary people, are far too inefficient from the perspective of bioalchemy.

The most efficient method, of course, is to take the regeneration potion.

On one page of Helms's diary, he recorded his own evaluation of the regeneration potion:

Extremely expensive.

A basic revitalizing potion requires four kinds of powerful monster materials, each of which has a public price of no less than 200 gold coins in the Eastern Continent.

正常人服用的前10支入门级新生药剂，每支可延长寿命2年左右。从第11支或第12、13支开始，后续服用的药剂效果迅速衰减。

At this point, you need to switch to the Proficient Rejuvenation Potion, each of which can extend your life by 2 years, and costs more than 2000 gold coins per vial.

When Xia Zuo saw these numbers, he was secretly astonished. He had actually drunk 11 bottles of beginner-level rebirth potion and swallowed more than 8,000 gold coins.

In terms of points, each entry-level newbie potion costs 8000 points, and you can exchange one potion after delivering poison orders for about 26 consecutive months.

The Biological Alchemists' Guild's additional reward for recruiting alchemists to conduct research in the Western Continent is 10 beginner-level newbie potions and 10 proficient-level newbie potions, to be settled in a lump sum upon their return to the Eastern Continent. Basic rewards for research on circumventing worms and breathing techniques are calculated separately.

From this series of information, Xia Zuo learned a crucial piece of knowledge:

1 point of vitality = 1 year of life.

He now has 58 vitality points and 30 free attribute points.

In other words, his current lifespan is 58 years longer than his initial lifespan, and he also has 30 free attribute points that he can use to extend his lifespan at any time.

For every extra year of lifespan, there's an extra year to grind experience and level up. Currently, each level up grants 5 free attribute points.

If all these points were converted into gold dollars…

Xia Zuo, who had transformed into a cloud of energy, shook his head, banishing these thoughts from his mind, and continued reading Helms's alchemy diary.

Everyone in the Biological Alchemists' Guild knows the drawbacks of the Rebirth Potion.

Therefore, they intend to improve upon ancient methods of extending lifespan in order to obtain a cheaper lifespan.

The word "ancient" is often associated with barbarity, backwardness, and primitiveness, and may even lead to bloody and cruel acts.

Ancient bio-alchemists—or so Hemsworth's journal put it—this group sought to merge themselves with long-lived beings in order to achieve longevity.

For example, they merge with long-lived trees and animals, becoming a half-plant, half-human, or half-animal, half-human form.

In this day and age, thanks to the existence of the Temple of the Mage, such acts of desecration of the human body are no longer permitted.

The Bio-Alchemists Association would never dare to cross this red line.

They proposed another approach: to strengthen the body through symbiosis rather than fusion or parasitism.

The specific product of this idea is the secret medicine of breathing techniques.

The Cyclops used in the Breathing Technique Elixir is controllable and can be eliminated. After elimination, it can restore the original bodily functions and mutated body parts, making it almost equivalent to having no side effects. This is why it was approved by the Mage Temple and widely used within the Warrior Guild.

During his previous investigation with Emily, Xia Zuo had already learned that:

The Cyclops worms used here in the Western Continent are the type with the fewest side effects—the Grade 1 painless Cyclops worm.

This type of anthrax has never been found in the eastern continent.

This led to the mysterious person controlling the hair-wearing figures having to travel from the Eastern Continent to the Western Continent, eventually connecting with Hemst, who was in charge of recycling the Ring-Breathing Worms, in order to obtain Level 1 Painless Ring-Breathing Worms through trade, and then handing over the modified Ring-Breathing Worms to others for live experiments.

No wonder Emily didn't find anything unusual when she inspected Helmster's alchemy room. Helmster hadn't taken on any side job modifying the ring-breathing insects; the creator and distributor of those dozen or so strange ring-breathing insects were someone else entirely.

The pages Helms tore off were the fabricated records used to document illicit transactions.

He tidied up from morning till late at night, only stopping when three large piles of waste paper appeared on his desk.

"boom!"

Helms lit the furnace on the alchemy table, picked up a handful of papers and threw them into the fire. As he watched the raging flames engulf the papers, a strange smile appeared on his face.

After burning all the waste paper, he returned to the table, sat down, picked up his pen, and took out a new notebook, quickly writing down words.

The writing was disorganized, the sentences were incoherent, and there were many grammatical errors. Only a few place names were spelled correctly and appeared repeatedly.

Hemst wrote for nearly an hour, and only put down his pen as midnight approached.

He flipped through the pages, nodded in satisfaction, and placed the notebook on the corner of the table, facing the door.

0:01 PM.

Helmster tore off the bandage, bit his fingertip, grabbed a handful of hair, and summoned the hair doll.

"What's going on today?" The little man with hair looked around. "Are you trying to threaten me again?"

“No.” Helmst shook his head slightly, his smile growing increasingly strange. “I’m going to execute the perfect escape plan.”

He sat down in the chair and bowed humbly to the little man with hair, saying, "This requires your help, sir."

"Oh?" The little man with hair put his hands behind his back.