After the slave owners went bankrupt, they all wanted to keep me as a mistress.

"Zero consumption?"

Mu Qiu was slightly disappointed, but then he thought that maintenance and possible repair costs were the real expenses.

If he simply lets the maids practice with the puppets more often, controlling them during the day and letting them practice on their own at night, accumulating combat experience for the puppets, wouldn't he be able to afford to repair them?

Don't ask what use combat experience is for puppets, just tell me if puppets can spar with each other!

"It's a pleasure working with you, Master Richie."

After handing over the high-grade starstone, Mu Qiu smiled slightly and asked, "Are you keeping these puppets with you right now?"

"Ahem... As for these, they're still in my workshop. I'll deliver them this afternoon! Please rest assured, sir, these alchemical dolls will definitely satisfy you!"

Aldridge chuckled dryly. He actually had it with him, but he needed to go back and replace the doll that was originally meant for the Duke.

Let's leave the good stuff to this rich young master.

Anyway, the duke doesn't inspect his alchemical dolls anymore; he just uses low-quality ones as a token gesture! What could possibly go wrong?

Chapter 131 She mistook my promise to buy magic potions for a confession!

That noon, Aldridge returned to the alchemy workshop beneath Duke Blaine's castle with great excitement.

His excitement stemmed from the twenty high-grade starstones. For a legendary alchemy master like him, gold coins were no problem; the truly scarce resource was starstones!

Many rare materials of legendary quality or higher can only be purchased by bartering other legendary items or by using Starshine Stones.

Gold coins, and even purple gold coins, can only be used to purchase some common legendary materials, as well as legendary potions that are produced in large quantities.

In this respect, there is actually no difference between purple gold coins and gold coins.

However, since professionals use gold coins for consumption, starting from the second-tier bronze professionals, gold coins have become the main currency for professionals.

To highlight the status of the nobility, some high-end auctions that are only open to the nobility will require buyers to purchase with only gold coins, thereby filtering out ordinary nobles and ordinary professionals who are not of high enough status.

In addition, in large-scale national commodity transactions, purple gold coins are sometimes used for settlement to facilitate inventory and transportation.

Starshine Stones are a resource that legendary-level professionals urgently need. Furthermore, their production channels are completely monopolized by the Star Council and the Truth Association, making them the primary currency for professionals of legendary level and above.

With low-grade Starstones, you can buy most legendary items.

Mid-grade Starstones can be used to purchase some extremely rare legendary items, and even some epic items.

Superior-grade Starstones can be used to buy almost all items below the legendary level, and many legendary items can also be purchased using Superior-grade Starstones.

Although Aldridge is an alchemy master, there is a rather awkward aspect to being a legendary alchemy master... legendary alchemical puppets do not possess the legendary rank.

Alchemical dolls of Mithril grade and below are generally slightly stronger than ordinary professionals, but professionals can make up for this disadvantage with potions and equipment.

If one is a professional skilled in puppetry, then it is possible to defeat several ordinary professionals of the same level, or even higher-level professionals such as arcane mages and dragon knights, by using alchemical puppets.

But the opposite is true once you reach the Legendary level.

A legendary alchemical puppet is inferior to a legendary professional in terms of raw strength. If you take into account the various means a professional uses after advancing to legendary status, such as potions, equipment, and skills, many legendary professionals can defeat a legendary alchemical puppet of the same level in one minute or even half a minute.

If you are a high-level professional, or a professional who has forged a legendary long-level character with high-grade starstone, you can even kill a legendary alchemical puppet of the best quality in one go!

This has led to a situation where the status of legendary alchemists has become awkward.

For low- to mid-level blacksmiths, the price of ordinary equipment has been driven down to a very low level due to the combined impact of mass-produced equipment from the Dwarven Factory and dungeon equipment. Its price is far lower than that of alchemical puppets of the same level, and even comparable to that of consumable potions.

However, once you reach the legendary level, the curses on legendary dungeon equipment are usually extremely terrifying, so professionals dare not easily wear legendary dungeon equipment of unknown origin. In addition, the Dwarf Factory has no ability to produce legendary equipment.

Almost every piece of legendary equipment requires a private customization or purchase from certain auction houses.

The legendary tier itself also provides an enhancement effect to legendary equipment, which makes legendary professionals pay more attention to legendary equipment. After reaching the legendary tier, the price of equipment far exceeds that of potions of the same level.

The price of a legendary alchemical doll is not only far lower than that of legendary equipment of the same level, but it is even lower than that of a magic potion!

This means that legendary alchemical dolls cannot be exchanged for legendary potions and legendary equipment.

To improve his alchemical skills, he needed to create more legendary alchemical artifacts, and even new legendary alchemical artifacts.

Those three alchemical creations, which were half-legendary in nature, were Aldridge's masterpieces.

Even if the same type of alchemical creation is repeatedly made, it can only improve the alchemist's success rate and output quality when creating that alchemical creation. However, if you want to go further in the path of alchemy, you need to keep trying to create new alchemical creations.

However, the awkward problem is that Aldridge needs to use a large amount of mithril-grade and legendary-grade materials, as well as some relatively rare legendary materials, to create legendary alchemical dolls.

The former can be purchased with gold coins, while the latter can often only be obtained by bartering with legendary items or exchanging with starstones.

However, no one was willing to trade these legendary alchemical dolls created by Aldridge with legendary items, and they were also difficult to exchange for starstones. Only wealthy nobles were willing to buy them with gold coins.

What if I don't have any Starshine Stones?

Aldridge had no choice but to bite the bullet and acquire Starstone at a premium.

While others can exchange 50,000 to 60,000 gold coins for a low-grade Starshine Stone, he would buy it for 70,000, 80,000, or even 100,000 gold coins. This way, if someone urgently needs gold coins and wants to sell their Starshine Stones for gold coins, they will come to him immediately.

However, this method can only acquire low-grade starstones, and occasionally some mid-grade starstones.

Therefore, Aldridge had no choice but to serve the Duke of Blaine.

A legendary alchemist like him has no shortage of gold coins, but he is very short of starstones.

Duke Blaine was able to access powerful figures, even legendary professionals like himself, through the smuggled black gold stones, thus gaining the right to purchase certain treasures.

Then, they used the enormous wealth they had earned from smuggling black gold over the years to purchase those treasures.

Those powerful figures, out of consideration for his years of smuggling black gold, would allow him to use gold coins and black gold to buy some treasures that were not particularly valuable to them.

Finally, the Duke of Blaine put these treasures up for auction at his personal auction house.

This gave Duke Blaine a considerable number of low-grade and mid-grade starstones, and allowed Aldridge to finally conduct many experiments that had been put on hold due to the high cost of materials.

But for Aldridge, high-grade starstones are still a rare and valuable resource!

With twenty high-grade starstones, he could even buy epic-grade materials!

Perhaps... he has a chance to create an epic alchemical artifact!

Compared to that, the offerings the Duke has given him over the years seem insignificant!

Aldridge acted quickly, storing the batch of alchemical dolls that were originally intended for delivery into his storage ring, planning to send them to the inn that afternoon.

Then, he opened several dusty storage cabinets deep inside the workshop.

Inside were the low-grade mithril golems he had made in his early years when his skills were not yet refined.

Then, he took out three low-grade legendary puppets from his storage ring.

"His Excellency only needs cleaners to handle some shady matters; these should be enough... Although puppets of this quality have a chance of being destroyed suddenly in battle, with so many puppets, we can't let them all be destroyed, can we?"

Aldridge tried to reassure himself while activating these inferior puppets and performing basic adjustments.

"Anyway, they are mostly used for odd jobs or as disposable cannon fodder. Being too good would be a waste."

He organized the batch of inferior puppets used to make up the numbers and arranged them neatly in the workshop.

After doing all this, Aldridge wiped away non-existent sweat and let out a long sigh of relief.

Almost immediately after he finished his work, there was a knock on the workshop door.

After Aldridge responded, the legendary bard Lorenzo led in a group of about sixteen men, dressed in black and exuding a chilling aura.

These assassins had blank stares and moved in perfect unison, clearly indicating that they had undergone specialized training.

“Master Richie,”

Lorenzo remained as nonchalant as ever: "His Grace the Duke sent us to collect the cleaners. Are you ready?"

Aldridge pointed to the row of alchemical puppets and said in a loud voice, "Of course, all of these are ready. These are mithril-grade, and the three over there are legendary-grade."

As he spoke, he handed over a recording crystal: "This is the test record of the alchemical puppet."

Lorenzo took the crystal and put it away without even looking at it. He didn't care about the details of these alchemical creations. Aldridge, as a legendary alchemist, was definitely more knowledgeable in this area than they were.

After all these years, how could we possibly fabricate anything?

It won’t happen!

Lorenzo gestured to the group of men in black behind him, and the assassins silently stepped forward, each skillfully establishing a connection with a mithril golem and storing it away.

The three legendary puppets were under the care of Lorenzo himself, along with two assassins who served as captain and vice-captain.

"Master, these cleaners should be performing well, right?"

Lorenzo asked casually.

Aldridge's heart skipped a beat, but he forced himself to remain calm, stroking his white beard as he said, "Don't worry, these are all my hard work. They are more than enough to handle ordinary troubles. As long as we don't encounter any truly top-tier experts or get bogged down in a long and arduous battle, we should be able to complete His Excellency's mission without any worries."

"That's good."

Lorenzo nodded slightly to Aldridge: "Well then, Master, we'll take our leave now."

As Aldridge watched Lorenzo turn and leave, his lips moved slightly.

The task the Duke has asked Lorenzo to undertake this time seems to be of utmost importance.

Even the entire "Pale Hand" team has been mobilized.

This suddenly made Aldridge a little worried.

He initially thought it was just a minor problem, but judging from the situation, it was probably more serious than he thought...

It remains to be seen what trouble the Duke has gotten himself into this time.

Aldridge stroked his white beard and exhaled a long breath.

However, the Duke always leaves room for maneuver in his daily work. Even though the quality of these alchemical dolls is low, with this "pale hand" around, he should be able to solve the problem... right?

……

After receiving the alchemical doll from Aldridge, perhaps because he had been thinking about it during the day, Mu Qiu's consciousness once again sank into the depths of his dream that night.

But this time, the surrounding scenery was no longer that abyss hall, but a towering and solemn hall of knowledge shaped like a spire.

Countless enormous bookshelves reached to the ceiling, displaying rows of scrolls and classic texts.

Just standing here, Mu Qiu felt a surge of knowledge flowing through his mind.

It's as if someone is telling him the truth all the time, but it goes in one ear and out the other. The truth goes in and out of his mind, but it never leaves a trace.

Ok……

To put it more bluntly, it's like a mediocre student accidentally wandering into a place where professors are discussing profound academic theories.

I could clearly sense that this was very profound knowledge, and I could hear it all, but I had absolutely no idea what the professors were talking about!

Mu Qiu felt exactly that way at that moment.

[Host, is this your first time visiting the Temple of Truth?]

Yes/Yes

Temple of Truth?

Mu Qiu blinked.

No wonder he felt like a mediocre student had stumbled into a professors' discussion; it turns out that a truth had indeed flashed through his mind just now, leaving no trace!

"You've already given me an option, so what else can I choose? Of course, this is my first time here!"

Mu Qiu mentally complained as he chose "yes".

[Host, is this your first time visiting the Temple of Truth? Then I guess you haven't seen the Temple of Truth's token yet. Let me show you one!]

[Ding! Congratulations, host, you have obtained the Temple of Truth Token. You can use the token to teleport to the Temple of Truth at the Pinnacle of Truth at any time. The token will not be consumed, but it needs to be charged. The maximum charge is 2/2, and it will be automatically recharged every twelve hours.]

Ok?

Why does this reward seem somewhat familiar to him?

As Mu Qiu pondered this, he looked around.

Then, his gaze was quickly drawn to a slender figure standing by the railing at the edge of the hall.

The first thing that catches the eye is that incredibly striking waist and hip curve.

A deep purple dress, its full curves creating a breathtaking arc.

The dress cinches at the waist, outlining a slender silhouette, but then flares out at the waist, strongly supported by the rounded, full hips.

Further down, a pair of long, beautiful legs encased in black stockings can be vaguely seen, their lines smooth and powerful, exuding a sense of imposing pressure even when still standing.

Her long, jet-black hair cascaded down to her waist, with a few strands occasionally brushing against the juncture of her voluptuous waist and hips, adding an indescribable allure.