Chapter 164: The Female Alchemist

Moving to a new room, this one offered a view across the courtyard's rockery straight into Belinda's window on the opposite side.

After Candice returned over there, it was unclear what she was discussing with Belinda, as she stayed inside and did not come out. The other mercenaries from the Flames Mercenary Corps had been assigned by Candice into two rooms immediately adjacent to Belinda's.

The three individuals who had been closely following Candice entered the inn and stayed right next door to Han Shuo and the others. Utilizing a magical mirror device, Han Shuo and Emily were able to monitor the movements of the three people in the neighboring room.

This group of three consisted of men with plain, unremarkable facial features, yet they shared an astonishingly high degree of similarity in appearance—looking very much like three brothers. After moving into the adjacent room, one of them leaned against the window to observe Belinda opposite them, while the other two seemed exhausted and collapsed directly onto their beds to sleep.

Since it was still daytime, neither of these two factions made any major moves, maintaining a steady and tranquil atmosphere. After observing for a while and finding nothing unusual from either side, Han Shuo returned to Emily's side. After a moment of thought, he said, "Watch over things here for me. I'm going to make a trip back to the Death Tomb to check on the situation inside before coming back."

"Huh? How did you suddenly think of going back to the Death Tomb?" Emily asked, staring at Han Shuo with a puzzled and surprised look.

With a mysterious and faint smile, Han Shuo replied, "I recently took in a little underling. I want to go see if his injuries have healed yet."

As he spoke, Han Shuo walked into the inner chamber, lifted the wooden panel of the wardrobe, and set up a teleportation array inside. Emily had long since grown accustomed to Han Shuo's mysterious ways; seeing that he was about to leave, she didn't ask too many questions and simply said, "All right then. I'll stay here to keep an eye on them. If anything comes up, I'll pull you back. You'd better not wander too far inside the Death Tomb."

"Right, don't worry. I'll just be inside the Death Tomb. If there are any abnormalities, you can come in and find me at any time," Han Shuo answered. With that, he stepped into the teleportation array, pulled the wooden doors of the wardrobe shut, and activated the formation.

"Gilbert, where the hell have you been?" As soon as he returned to the Death Tomb, Han Shuo raised his voice and shouted.

With a whoosh, Gilbert the lecherous little dragon appeared before Han Shuo. Dropping immediately to his knees in prostration, he said pitifully, "Respected Master, you have finally remembered your loyal servant! There's nothing fun in this ghost of a place, and since I'm not allowed to go out, I've been dying of boredom."

"Did you carefully watch over that area for me like I told you? You didn't slack off, did you?" Before leaving, Han Shuo had instructed Gilbert to keep an eye on the corpse-land where the Earth-armored Corpse was being refined, just in case any trouble arose there.

"Of course I didn't slack off! But there really isn't anything interesting to look at in that place; nothing has changed at all since you left. Oh, respected master, when are you going to take me out to look for beautiful women?" Gilbert whined, looking at Han Shuo with a grievance.

Compared to his previous charred appearance, Gilbert now sported a pitch-black robe that gleamed brightly, and his hair was meticulously groomed. Looking quite young, aside from skin as black as charcoal, Gilbert could almost be considered handsome.

"How are your injuries?" Whether or not to bring Gilbert out depended heavily on his physical condition. Although this lecherous little dragon was unruly, as a blacklong possessing extraordinary strength, he would undeniably be a great helper.

Upon being asked, Gilbert puffed out his chest and boasted arrogantly, "No problem at all! As a member of the mightiest black dragon race on the continent, that kind of injury cannot defeat me."

"Cut the crap, how are your injuries really?" Han Shuo glared at him and rebuked lightly.

As his master bound by a contract, Han Shuo could sense his physical condition to a certain extent. Although he was much better than he had been a while ago, Han Shuo could feel that he hadn't fully recovered yet, which made him unable to resist scolding the boastful dragon.

Shrinking his neck, Gilbert offered a timid, ingratiating smile and said, "They aren't fully healed yet, but it's nothing major anymore. I definitely won't hold you back."

Nodding, Han Shuo said, "All right, I'll consider taking you out, probably in the next couple of days. Make sure you honestly focus on recovering your strength. If you hold me back when I need you in the future, I certainly won't let you off." With those words, Han Shuo stood up and walked toward the corpse-land used for refining the Earth-armored Corpse. At the center of that corpse-land, the burial spot of the Earth-armored Corpse had sunk deeply into a large depression, and dense primordial earth energy continued to flow into it slowly.

After observing his surroundings, Han Shuo concentrated his mental energy and established a connection with the zombie inside. The moment he did so, he instantly felt a surging vitality. This vitality was brimming with rich earth-elemental energy, immediately making Han Shuo realize that the refinement of the Earth-armored Corpse had now entered the right track.

Normally, when an ordinary zombie was summoned and connected through mental energy, one could only feel utter desolation. Only extremely powerful dark creatures, such as evil knights, could emit traces of vitality. Yet this zombie warrior now possessed dense vitality and abundant earth-elemental energy, which indicated that after absorbing the earth essence of this earth-blighted land, he was truly growing.

"Alright, stay here and properly recover from your injuries. I'll let you out in a few days." Seeing that everything was fine in the Death Tomb and that both Gilbert the black dragon and the Earth-armored Corpse were gradually recovering, Han Shuo's mind was put at ease. He stood up and prepared to return to the upper level.

Having received Han Shuo's promise, Gilbert appeared extremely excited, continuously praising Han Shuo's supreme wisdom and martial prowess right by his side. His flattering smile left Han Shuo unsure whether to laugh or cry.

Walking back into the Death Tomb proper, Han Shuo was just about to use the teleportation array to leave when he suddenly remembered he hadn't entered the underground secret chamber in quite some time. Now that his mental energy had improved once again, Han Shuo intended to test whether he could push through to the next level down.

Leaving Gilbert in place, Han Shuo walked down to the secret chamber alone. The barrier on the first level was easily shattered once again under the reinforcement of Han Shuo's mental energy, allowing him to walk in smoothly.

Arriving at the familiar spot on the lower level, Han Shuo concentrated his mental energy, then rushed forward abruptly in an attempt to descend to the next level of the Death Tomb.

With a loud *thump*, Han Shuo crashed into the barrier and was instantly bounced backward, a sharp tingling pain jolting through his head.

Sitting down hard on the ground, Han Shuo slowly stood up, immediately realizing that his mental energy was still insufficient to push through to the next level. A thought flickered through his mind. Holding the Pupil of Darkness in one hand, he retrieved the bone staff from his spatial ring as well.

This Death Tomb had once been the holy land of necromancers, and the emerald Pupil of Darkness served as the key to unlocking it. The bone staff possessed an amplifying effect on necromantic magic; although its function differed from the Pupil of Darkness, both were artifacts of necromancy. Han Shuo held both items in his hands to compare them, trying to see if they shared any commonalities.

Gazing at the two items in his hands, Han Shuo couldn't help but concentrate his mental energy. Suddenly, the Pupil of Darkness flared brilliantly, erupting with a bright green light. A surge of energy invaded the bone staff, and instantly, a beam of black light shot out from within the bone staff, vanishing straight into the Pupil of Darkness.

Startled, Han Shuo ignored the Pupil of Darkness and focused his mental energy entirely, invading the interior of the bone staff. Han Shuo, who previously could sense nothing out of the ordinary when his mental energy entered the bone staff, suddenly discovered an arcane, miniature magic array hidden inside it.

"It's actually a magical imprint barrier array! No wonder that Belinda was able to sense this bone staff." After sweeping his mental energy through the bone staff, Han Shuo's mind instantly cleared and he understood.

In Clayton's memories, there existed a type of magical imprint barrier that could be inscribed onto weapons and clothing, typically manifesting in the form of a magic array. Within a certain range, the master who released the array imprint could sense its existence through their own unique method.

As it turned out, such a magical imprint barrier array existed inside the bone staff. Originally, residual magical elements inside had not only hindered Han Shuo's mental exploration during his last attempt, but the presence of those lingering magical elements was also what allowed Belinda to sense the staff's existence.

Now, perhaps due to the effect of the Pupil of Darkness, those magical elements within the bone staff had been absorbed. Without the support of magical elements, the transmission array inside the bone staff could no longer be maintained, which in turn allowed Han Shuo to finally peer into its inner workings.

Han Shuo's mental energy sank inside, sweeping around the magic array to inspect it, and he discovered a line of tiny characters inscribed within: *Scourge Church Alchemist Belinda, Work No. 17.*

"So she really is from the Scourge Church," Han Shuo muttered softly. Deciding not to linger in the Death Tomb any longer, he stood up, headed back to the upper level, and returned to the inn via the teleportation array, intending to carefully calculate how to deal with that woman Belinda.