Endless Debt

The feeling of communicating with Aimou was even more peculiar than Bologue had anticipated.

This feeling is hard to describe; Aimou is like a strange combination, sometimes appearing very mature, and at other times very childish and innocent. She is like an ignorant new life, with great enthusiasm and curiosity for everything. She is quirky and can suddenly say things that sound philosophical.

Yet Bologue did not feel much relief from this, for this brand-new life had only a book-based understanding of humanity, without touching upon the darker and deeper aspects, let alone realizing she herself was caught in the vortex.

"To let the traces of existence continue?" Bologue smiled, his voice carrying a touch of comfort, "I am an Undead. If I'm lucky, I will carry your traces until the world's end."

The Silver Snake swiftly retreated into Bologue's sleeve, then crawled out from his collar like a small animal hiding in a cave, slightly sticking its head out to peer at Aimou.

"Undead? You mean... you cannot die?"

Aimou could not understand; every life is bound by destined death. She could not conceive of someone evading the end of death.

Her eyes lit up, literally lit up, as Bologue could clearly perceive the increased brightness in the halo within Aimou's eyes.

"Something like that. No matter how many times I'm killed, I can stand up again... Want me to demonstrate for you?"

The Silver Snake coiled around Bologue's neck, ready to strangle him.

With Bologue's personality, he wouldn't do such a meaningless thing, let alone such a meaningless death. Yet he suddenly wanted to test Aimou.

To observe what this artificial life would do upon witnessing another's death, even knowing in advance that he wouldn't die.

"Don't."

Aimou crossed her hands in a gesture of strict refusal.

"I won't die," Bologue said.

"Whether you will die or not, don't die."

Aimou held a serious attitude towards life and death, even if Bologue spoke about it as if it were a joke.

To her, death is a matter of extreme seriousness and cannot be joked about, even though Aimou herself is not human, and her existence as life is questionable.

"I need to maintain myself now."

After stopping Bologue's action, Aimou turned away and left. She seemed upset, and though as an Alchemy Puppet, she couldn't make expressive facial expressions, her emotions were still easy to guess.

It was like a quarrel with a little girl; Bologue couldn't comprehend if this counted as a quarrel or why Aimou suddenly got angry.

But he had confirmed some matters, some very important matters. Now he needed to find Teda for a talk as what these Alchemists were doing was more complex and terrifying than he had imagined.

When Bologue found Teda, he was in the second-floor experimental area. After a brief wait, the sealed iron door opened. Teda was side-facing to him, his whole body bent over the workbench, wearing a monocle like a watchmaker, tensely processing a piece of metal.

Bologue did not disturb him but waited by the door. After a long while, Teda finished his work. He removed the monocle, and since he had worn it for a long time, there was an indentation around his eye socket.

"All tidied up?" Teda asked.

"Yes, it's just some physical work," Bologue pressed the button by the door, and the iron door sealed itself again, "Then... shall we talk about my matters?"

Bologue also had dealings with Teda, assisting Teda in researching his Alchemy Matrix. During the research process, Teda might also help Bologue further master Secret Energy and even plan his path.

After a Condenser's promotion, different sub-disciplines will emerge. They balance between "Narrow and Sharp" and "Broad and Dull." Every decision leads to different changes in the Condenser's Secret Energy, making it increasingly elusive and mysterious.

The different choices in promotion are pieced together and called a "path," like the growth trajectory of a tree that needs continual pruning and optimization until it becomes perfect.

Palmer is considered the best successor in the history of the Clarks, largely because the Clarks, after countless generations of effort, have thoroughly researched Secret Energy·Wind Source.

In countless records, historical members of the Clarks have traversed different paths. Some carried "Narrow and Sharp" to the end, some reached extremes in "Broad and Dull," and others balanced in between.

Aside from the orientation of Secret Energy, let's not forget the sub-disciplines these people developed.

The mix of main and sub-disciplines causes a qualitative change in Secret Energy, and different combinations evolve into different powers.

Integrating these diverse paths together, the Clarks created a near-perfect path known as the "Path of Wind Fury."

The Clarks, using unknown testing methods, determined Palmer as the most suitable candidate for the Path of Wind Fury. Therefore, as long as Palmer lived well and continued to ascend, his potential was tremendous.

Of course, provided this unlucky guy could fortunately survive until then.

Many Extraordinary Organizations, Secret Societies, and Hidden Clans, with the bolster of their long histories and innumerable predecessors' trial and error, have crafted perfect paths. Even if not optimized to perfection, their ample data can provide future generations with adequately useful advice.

But all these have nothing to do with Bologue. The Alchemy Matrix he implanted belonged to Overlord Xilin; this matrix was extremely mysterious and powerful. Before Bologue's appearance, the Order Bureau had never successfully implanted it.

Bologue was a guinea pig, the first to make mistakes, and during his advancement, he couldn't find any examples to determine his next direction.

This troubled Bologue for quite some time, so he could only pin his hopes on Teda. Before confirming his path, he needed to understand his own powers sufficiently, and Bologue hoped Teda could help him.

"It's the weekend, come to me during your weekend rest. Our research requires a lot of time, but as a token of sincerity, you can take these materials back to look over."

Teda said, pulling a document out from a pile and handing it to Bologue. He had prepared it long ago. "This is some research I did at the Order Bureau about Overlord Xilin, along with numerous speculations."

From that time, Teda had started his research. In some aspects about this power, he understood even more than Bologue.

"I still have a lot of research to deal with now, but based on my previous experience, if you want to better master Secret Energy, you need a lot of training, constantly getting familiar with your Secret Energy, making your own control over it more precise to align with Ether."

Teda was like a teacher to Bologue, instructing him.

"Training, huh? I've done quite a bit of training," Bologue said, in terms of diligence, few could surpass him.

"What does your training entail?"

"Using your Secret Energy to shape various small objects?" Teda asked.

"Pretty much, I often shape things using Secret Energy."

"How accurate is it?"

"It's alright."

"What about complexity?"

Bologue didn't reply. Under Teda's persistent questioning, he was somewhat perplexed, unclear about the kind of training Teda was referring to.

"In the theory of Alchemists, the more aligned you are with Ether, the closer you are to the 'Secret Source,' and the most obvious improvement this brings is mastery of other Ethereal Skills."

Teda turned around, searching for something on the workbench, while making sure to continue speaking.

"Your training doesn't really count as training, it's at most familiarizing with Secret Energy... Do you know? People from the Clarks are all skilled at throwing knives. From the moment they implant Secret Energy·Wind Source, they have to control airflow to drive flying knives in the harsh weather of Wind Source Highlands, through extremely complex environments, and precisely hit their targets."

Teda took out a damaged mechanical watch, covered in dust and rust.

"Take it to train."

"Repair it with Secret Energy?"

Bologue took the mechanical watch, knowing that to shape an object, he must first understand its structure, just like when he shaped weapons initially. Once familiar with the mechanical structure, Bologue might be able to summon something suitable.

"No, use your Secret Energy to reshape a mechanical watch out of metal and ensure it can operate normally."

Teda even deliberately provoked him.

"This shouldn't be too difficult for you, right?"

Bologue was silent for a few seconds, then put away the mechanical watch. An expert is never defeated by difficulty; if defeated by difficulty, it only shows a lack of professionalism.

The two confronted each other again for a while, Bologue said nothing, as if he didn't understand the atmosphere due to low emotional intelligence. Teda, on the other hand, was sizing up Bologue, thinking that Bologue should leave, but he didn't, hiding things in his eyes.

Bologue was actually hesitating, unsure how to broach the topic, and the previous conversation was him looking for the right moment to insert it.

"She... Aimou, she's even more special than I imagined." Bologue finally spoke up.

"Of course, she's my finest work."

Teda smiled, thinking Bologue just wanted to say this, but the subsequent words froze Teda's smile.

"I don't know much about Alchemy Puppets, nor about the history of your research, and I don't understand what kind of power created Aimou..."

Bologue was sorting out his words, launching a verbal attack towards Teda.

"But I've met many people, all kinds of chaotic, diverse people. Aimou is a naive life form, yet she not only has consciousness but further has... personality?"

Aimou was too lively, almost like a real person.

"How did you do it, Teda? How did you 'activate' her?"

Bologue stood in front of Teda, blocking the iron door behind him, leaving no room.