My health recovery is incredibly fast.

Board the airship to the next stop, disembark from the airship, and return to the ship with regret.

The murderer was not found, and the details of the crime are unknown. The only gain is:

The altered spatial coordinates of the Sands of Time point to a different spatial coordinate located in a coastal forest in the southwest corner of the Western Continent.

If we could use the coordinates of another location to find the corresponding spot in the coastal forest, it would be possible to recreate the historical scene by reading the local spatiotemporal information and find out who tampered with the spatiotemporal information of the crime scene.

All of this is predicated on the fact that the murderer had visited the coastal forest, read its spatial information, and then copied it onto the Sands of Time at the crime scene.

If the murderer never went to the coastal forest and simply fabricated a spatial information that happened to point to this forest, then this clue has completely gone cold.

Even if the sorcerer investigators come, it won't work.

But this is not the result Xia Zuo wanted.

He was well aware of the investigative style of the arcane mages and the demon hunters—a tenacious and persistent approach to finding their targets at all costs.

Only after presenting them with a satisfactory outcome that dispels their doubts will the investigators return satisfied.

Xia Zuo had already prepared a solution.

Later that day, around 10 p.m.

Dim's airship, carrying Xia Zuo and the arcane investigator, traversed mountains and valleys to reach the southwesternmost corner of the Western Continent.

The boundless sea reflects the bright moonlight, and the sound of the tides drifts through the coastal forest with the sea breeze.

The silent, arcane investigator, wearing a hood and mask, tore open the seal on the spell scroll, releasing a time-space container that enveloped a small patch of forest, reenacting historical scenes within the area.

“This is…” Dim scratched his beard, his eyes wide open, staring intently at the dark figure emanating shadow energy on the historical scene.

Xia Zuo frowned in thought, his lips trembling slightly as he muttered some words full of doubt.

The arcane investigator manipulated a spacetime container, moving alongside the shadowy figure.

Led by the shadowy figure, the group walked towards the edge of the forest, watching as the figure disappeared into the sea not far away.

"What's on the other side of the sea?" Tim pointed ahead. "Why is that dark shadow flying that way?"

Chapter 36 Long-Premeditated

As we all know, planets are spherical.

Traveling west from the Eastern Continent, beyond the extreme storm, one reaches the Western Continent.

There are only two continents on this planet.

Starting from the western continent, continue west across the ocean, and you will reach the western side of the eastern continent, which is the territory of the Church of the Otherworldly Demons.

Many people who are realizing this issue for the first time have this question:

Are there extreme storms on the road westward from the Western Continent?

The answer is yes, and it is wider, higher, and more violent than the Extreme Storm on the eastern side of the Western Continent.

The extreme storm on the eastern side of the Western Continent still has a small, narrow area at its top and the black ocean below it that allows passage, making it far less extreme than the extreme storm on the eastern side of the Western Continent.

The extreme storm on the eastern side of the western continent left no space for communication.

From the bottom of the primordial smoke to the unfathomable depths of the dark ocean, everywhere is shrouded in extreme storms. The relentless, raging hurricanes can churn the seawater and tear everything apart; even Mimar metal can only remain in it for about half an hour.

For this reason, the Temple never considered the possibility that the Church of the Otherworldly Demons might land on the western side of the Western Continent, and the Temple's defenses were always set up on the eastern side of the Western Continent.

Now, that situation has changed.

Under Xia Zuo's behind-the-scenes manipulation, he, along with the arcane investigator and Dim, traveled by airship to the edge of the Extreme Storm on the western side of the Western Continent, where they used a time-space container to witness the shadowy figure disappear into the pitch-black storm.

The investigators who came to investigate the whereabouts of the missing persons obtained a logical and highly valuable piece of intelligence.

Later that day, this extremely urgent and top-secret intelligence was sent away from the Western Continent by the arcane investigator.

With this, the investigation into the missing persons has come to an end.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the Arcane Masters Guild and the Demon Hunter School will likely cease all interest in the missing persons.

In their view, the missing persons were simply taken back to the territory of the Otherworldly Church by the Otherworldly Demons who had smuggled them in.

The focus of sorcerers and demon hunters will shift from finding the missing to exploring the extreme storms on the western side of the western continent.

Understanding how the Otherworldly Demons navigated the Extreme Storm is far more important than finding the missing persons.

No one knew that the dark figure radiating shadow energy was merely a [Shadow Clone] temporarily conjured by Xia Zuo. The moment it flew into the Extreme Storm, the shadow was shattered by the wind blades, successfully completing its mission of misleading the Temple.

Xia Zuo had already predicted the series of chain reactions that would result from this using the [Space-Time Phase Simulator].

For example, the Temple held an emergency meeting to adjust its troop deployment on the western continent and included the western coast in its vigilance zone.

Two organized Temple armies arrived in the Western Continent via teleportation and set up camp in the southwest and northwest corners of the Western Continent.

These changes have not affected Shazo's future plans.

Inside the unnamed mountain peak, batches of heavy weapons were being transported by Blood Element servants to a warehouse located deep underground.

A self-propelled alchemy missile vehicle capable of continuously launching medium- and long-range alchemy missiles and using a missile bay for ammunition supply.

The UFO vehicle, which stores alchemical UFOs for various combat purposes, can launch hundreds of UFOs carrying various energy explosives at once to launch a short-to-medium range cluster bombardment against the enemy.

Equipped with ultra-high strength hard alloy drill bits, the drilling vehicle can drill a straight hole in the desert of the Wild Hammer Kingdom in just 3 minutes.

A portable, all-attribute energy shield generator that provides comprehensive, all-around protection for other heavy weapons.

Xia Zuo's stockpiled homemade heavy weapons were enough for a Temple army of a hundred men to fight a decent small battle.

This is not enough.

Alchemy apparatus cannot function without elements.

Xia Zuo cannot guarantee that every alchemical device is free from vulnerabilities that could be exploited by the Faceless Men.

He must take steps to completely eliminate the possibility of heavy weapons going out of control.

Far off on the eastern coast of the Eastern Continent, the pseudo-blood mage legion, clashing with the garrison of the Otherworldly Demon Church, inevitably engaged in battle with the Otherworldly Demons.

The pseudo-blood mages contributed many exotic magic spells to Xia Zuo.

There was one spell that Xia Zuo was most satisfied with.

...

[Spell Name] Blood Dissolves in Iron

[Spell Type] Blood Magic, originating from the Rust Demon

[Spell Effect]

By using one's own blood runes to permeate metal objects, and combining this with the creation of flesh and blood alchemy, the internal structure of the metal objects can be altered, leaving blood rune marks as control nodes.

...

This blood magic from the Rust Demon looks rather simple, with only one sentence in its description, but Xia Zuo found it truly amazing after using it.

Xia Zuo took a disposable launcher for launching alchemical missiles from the warehouse.

After casting [Blood Dissolves Iron], Xia Zuo changed the activation unit on the launcher, changing it from being driven by elemental energy to being driven by life force.

Before modification, press the button on the launcher. The activation unit will mobilize the elemental energy in the energy storage device for rapid charging, and then launch the alchemical missile using the wind spell [Compressed Wind Cannon].

After the modification, things were different. The activation unit drew life force from the bloodline mark and input it into the [expansion sac]. The [expansion sac] rapidly expanded and exploded with a "bang" after reaching its bursting limit. The highly compressed flesh and blood tissue inside the sac instantly ejected alchemical missiles.

After the modifications made using "Blood Melts in Iron," Xia Zuo completely controlled the crucial activation unit of the alchemical missile launcher. Even if the Faceless Man hacked into other components of the launcher, it wouldn't cause any more trouble besides the Squirt.

There is another advantage to doing this.

Hey.

Xia Zuo could frame the Church of the Otherworld for the battle that took place in the Wild Hammer Kingdom.

All kinds of heavy weapons were corroded by the "Blood Dissolves in Iron" spell, which is only mastered by the Church of the Otherworldly Demons. It is clear that the Church of the Otherworldly Demons sent a team carrying heavy weapons to bypass the Temple army's defenses and attack the Kingdom of Wild Hammer.

With the issue of control over heavy weapons resolved, and the subsequent problem of misleading the Temple's investigation also solved, only one challenge now stands before Xia Zuo:

How do we transport the heavy weapons from the secret base in the Western Continent to the Eastern Continent?

In those future timelines where the Faceless Men faced off, almost all of the "Shazos" lost some of their heavy weapons for various reasons while transporting them, or were detained by the Temple Guards, which led to the pursuit of the Inquisition and the Mystics.

Xia Zuo cleverly disguised and disassembled the heavy weapons, disguising them as ordinary alchemy instruments and placing them in alchemy pouches, then transported them in batches to the base on the Eastern Continent.

However, the Temple has recently increased its scrutiny of teleporters, occasionally conducting random checks on their alchemy pouches.

"Xia Zuo" was selected by the Temple to inspect the alchemy pouch because of his excessively frequent transoceanic teleportations.

In reality, Xia Zuode tries to avoid this.

"What should I do?" Xia Zuo sat in the alchemy room of the secret base, deep in thought.

He had to find a foolproof method, after all, this was reality, not a future timeline where he could make mistakes. He couldn't afford unexpected losses and investigations, and he didn't want to confront the Temple head-on for the time being.

The little golden chaste tree on the desk wiggles slowly in the culture jar. When it sleeps, it makes some sleeping movements like a human—touching its buds with leaves or hugging its flower stem with two branches. In rare cases, it will lose its balance due to excessive movements and wake up suddenly tilting.

Xia Zuo stared blankly at the culture jar, lost in thought.

The little golden thorn flower bud awoke from its slumber, stretched comfortably, and just then saw the worried look on Xia Zuo's face:

"Oh~ What trouble have you run into? I haven't seen that expression on your face since you mastered the new spacetime magic."

Xia Zuo shook his head to come to his senses, picked up the teapot on the table, and took a sip:

"I'm thinking about how to transport the heavy weapons in the warehouse to the Eastern Continent. Alas, while the spacetime magic that predicts the future is powerful, it can't counteract the probability of random checks. No matter how careful I am, there's about a 7% chance that I'll be randomly checked by the Temple Guards and have the heavy weapons in my alchemy bag exposed."

"Are the heavy weapons you made with blood magic golems meant to fight the Faceless Men?" Little Golden Thorn asked.

“Yes.” Xia Zuo nodded.

"Will it be used for other purposes?" Little Golden Vitex asked again.

Xia Zuo pondered for a moment:

"No. Once I've dealt with the Faceless Men, I'll stay in the Starry Night Kingdom, and this secret base will operate at minimal efficiency. I won't be using such heavy weaponry again anytime soon. I'll focus my future energy and time on studying spacetime magic, trying to acquire interstellar travel spells through gentler means."

"Oh...I see..." Little Golden Thorn shook her head, resting a leaf on her chin. "Have you thought about how to handle this? Will the Temple be tracking you down for the conflict with the Faceless Man?"

Xia Zuo rested his head on his hands, looked at the ceiling, and said while recalling the outcome of the battle in the future timeline:

"I saw many possible futures. In more than 90% of them, I defeated the faceless man and watched him turn into a hazy light and disappear at my feet."