Chapter 131: Constantine, the King Who Best Understood Alchemy

"Ah."

Lu Mingfei slumped helplessly, his body flowing from the chair to the floor like liquid. From a distance, he looked like a puddle of mud that could not be scraped up.

At this moment, his state of mind was on the verge of collapse. Previously, to prevent Norton from going berserk, he had spent a day and a night grinding away at a limiter, but the result was only an increasing number of bugs. He could not see any path forward, and his mentality was gradually fracturing.

Just before he completely broke down, however, Constantine from the Dragon King Flagship Store arrived, offering a glimmer of new hope to the exhausted Lu Mingfei.

But behind that hope lay an even greater disappointment: he could not solve the issue of Constantine's identity, meaning he could not use Constantine to deal with Norton, leaving him trapped in a different kind of predicament.

"What is this?"

Constantine looked at the Pyro Delusion that had fallen out of Lu Mingfei's pocket and asked, puzzled.

"Just a little toy with no real value," Lu Mingfei replied nonchalantly.

The manufacturing of the limiter relied on the basic principle of the Delusion absorbing will. Therefore, before creating the limiter, Lu Mingfei had made a Pyro Delusion beforehand to use as a reference for its basic structure. While it was possible to think through it in his mind, it was too mentally taxing and far less convenient than having a physical reference.

"May I take a look?" Constantine asked again.

"Take it yourself; I don't have the energy to move," Lu Mingfei said, lying on the floor, his eyes gradually drifting out of focus.

"Alright, then."

Constantine’s mouth twitched slightly as he picked up the Delusion from the floor and examined it closely.

*An alchemy construct I’ve never seen before. The elemental structure is different from the alchemy systems I am familiar with; it’s as if it were constructed under an entirely different system.*

*This thing seems to possess the functions of converting and storing power. Based on its elemental structure, it seems capable of manifesting fire elements. Furthermore, it ignores the user's innate talent, effectively becoming an external organ for the user, granting them the immense power to control fire.*

*What a wild and imaginative idea!*

After observing it for a while, Constantine began to grasp the basic structure of the Delusion and roughly guessed its purpose. He attempted to infuse a small amount of his will into it, releasing fire elements through the object.

"Whoosh!"

Crimson flames ignited instantly, burning fiercely on Constantine's hand. As he watched the fire, he reached a new conclusion.

*The construction of this thing is quite extraordinary. It can likely allow an ordinary person to gain the special ability to control elements, and it doesn't require a powerful dragon bloodline to use because the object itself acts as a vessel for the power, bypassing the need for the body to convert it.*

*But this doesn't mean it’s perfectly safe or that everyone can use it. The biggest problem with the Delusion is that the consumption rate is enormous for an ordinary person; for them, using it is equivalent to burning their own life force. Moreover, high concentrations of elements are highly toxic to ordinary people who lack special bodily adaptation.*

Yet, even so, it was enough to be called a monumental, epoch-making invention.

"Did you make this?" Constantine asked.

"Yes, but it's not very useful on its own. It has to be combined with alchemy to ignite its properties and be constructed into a specialized alchemical weapon before it can unleash its true power," Lu Mingfei replied helplessly.

"Ignite its properties?"

Constantine was clearly stunned for a moment, then wore a strange expression as he said, "Wait, by 'ignite its properties,' you don't mean unlocking the limiter, overloading its alchemical circuits, and then wrapping it in a shell to slow down the self-destruction, effectively turning it into a high-powered, one-time-use weapon, do you?"

"Seems... that's about it," Lu Mingfei thought for a moment and replied.

"You... you are squandering a masterpiece!"

Constantine’s expression turned to one of utter disbelief. He looked at Lu Mingfei with a bizarre gaze and said, "Why didn't you use secondary transformation alchemical circuits to cover it, then amplify the conversion rate to form a more efficient and powerful weapon?"

"Furthermore, you could have further enhanced it using the logic of Conceptual Armament, imbuing it with conceptual power to forge an alchemical weapon that surpasses Gungnir! How could you have such a strange idea as to just ignite it and use it up?"

"Huh? Is using it that way... strange?" Lu Mingfei asked, confused.

"Of course it's strange!"

Constantine became more and more agitated as he spoke. He held the Delusion as if it were a precious treasure and said with great solemnity, "Although this thing looks simple on the surface, it actually contains fragments of laws. Without the power of laws as a core driver, such a simple alchemical circuit could never exert such a great effect."

"Simple, clear, straightforward. Its construction seems to have been optimized countless times, without a single redundant part. Its circuit structure exists solely to run the power of the law fragments. What a great creation! Even in my prime, I fear I would have been unable to craft such an alchemical tool."

"Is it really that hard?" Lu Mingfei tilted his head slightly. He could make one of these in a day or two, and if he were in a rush, he could shorten that time even further.

"Of course it's hard! It requires law fragments, it requires alchemy linked to the level of laws to construct this. The difficulty isn't in the alchemical circuit construction; it's the laws themselves! As long as you have the power of laws, construction is simple. Without the power of laws, no matter how strong your alchemy is, it is difficult to construct."

Constantine sighed and continued, "Only alchemists like my brother Norton and me, who have mastered alchemy to its limit and can even touch upon the laws, could attempt to replicate its existence. Where on earth did you get this? It doesn't look like something that should exist on this planet!"

"Uh... is it that serious? Can't all four Elemental Lords control the laws and fully master elemental power?" The confusion on Lu Mingfei's face deepened.

"That's different!" Constantine emphasized again. "The essence of alchemy is to kill matter and then imbue it with new properties through our power. Furthermore, the foundation of alchemy is actually quite similar to Spirit Words, only that alchemy... (omitted)."

"...The law fragments contained in this thing are much more difficult to access than the threshold for Conceptual Armament. Conceptual Armament only allows the user to utilize conceptual abilities in its corresponding domain, but this thing can directly grant the user the ability to construct elements—it possesses possibilities far exceeding that of Conceptual Armament!"

"Is it really that amazing?" Lu Mingfei was a bit dazed.

In the world of Teyvat, Delusions were not rare. If Delusions were this powerful, how could the people of Teyvat be easily slain by him? The Knave also possessed a Delusion, but it hadn't displayed such possibilities in front of him; it was merely suppressed by his control over elements.

*Something isn't right.*

*Delusions don't seem that powerful.*

*Wait, is there a possibility—I'm just saying, a possibility—that the Delusions I create are not the same as those in the world of Teyvat, and therefore their nature is actually different?*

*I carry the Law of [Immortality] within me. When I use power, the power I employ is stained to varying degrees with the properties of [Immortality]. Perhaps when I created the Delusions, they were also stained with some of those properties, thus generating these special, stronger Delusions.*

"Of course it is. Where did this come from? It doesn't look like something that belongs in this world. I admit that the speed of technological development is currently fast, but alchemy has an absolute ceiling, and a peak Dragon King is an insurmountable limit."

"Therefore, judging by its structure and composition, it absolutely cannot be something that a person in this world could have conceived. While it is true that some might come up with wild ideas, they must have a basic foundation; it cannot be something created entirely out of thin air."

Constantine stared at the Delusion and continued to himself, "Its structure is too concise. The person who created it must have optimized it countless times, which means the creator is certainly a master of alchemy. But the problem is, in our alchemical system, those proficient in alchemy would not have the idea or the ability to construct such a thing. Therefore, the person who made it is likely not from this world."

*Met a real expert,* Lu Mingfei said to himself.

Constantine's achievements and knowledge in alchemy were top-tier. He could discover so much just by looking at the Delusion, whereas a certain "strongest" second-generation dragon had held a Delusion for so long without any reaction—she probably hadn't noticed any of this.

*There are gaps even between Dragon Kings.*

*Wait, she was a second-generation dragon? Then never mind.*

"..."

Seeing that Lu Mingfei did not answer directly, Constantine merely glanced at him casually and analyzed, "If it isn't from someone from another world, then it is most likely the creation of life from another planet, or perhaps an ultra-ancient civilization—the crystallization of a civilization from the pre-Black King era. Of course, it is also possible that it was created by an existence similar to Liu Xiu."

*Liu Xiu? Similar?*

Constantine's heart trembled. He subconsciously looked at Lu Mingfei beside him and muttered to himself, "Could it be that you created this? No, that's impossible. With your level of alchemy, how could you craft such an exquisite and concise alchemical artifact? It would be more realistic to say you copied it from something similar."

"However..."

His voice paused slightly, then his brow smoothed out, and he continued, "With your current abilities, perhaps you really could easily replicate this thing. After all, its structure is not complex; it's just that what it contains and the logic behind its creation are very valuable. To someone with the ability, replication is not difficult. Hmm, I can probably understand why you don't feel any heartache when wasting them."

The doubts in Constantine's heart gradually dissolved, but many unknown questions remained. He sighed helplessly and looked at the ceiling of this strange room. He suddenly realized he was now in front of Lu Mingfei, and Lu Mingfei happened to be an extremely powerful existence.

*Was I too offensive just now?*

*Blast it. Whenever I talk about alchemy, about the field I excel in, I instinctively show this abnormal confidence in front of outsiders, and I always subconsciously overlook things when I talk, just following my own train of thought.*

Thinking of this, a look of embarrassment gradually appeared on Constantine's face, and he apologized, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Whenever I talk about alchemy-related content, I get a bit carried away. I hope you don't mind; I really didn't mean to."

"It's okay, I understand," Lu Mingfei replied.

He truly was the King of Bronze and Fire, the greatest master of alchemy. Everything he deduced was correct. The template for the Delusion did indeed come from another world, though the original object itself wasn't rare in that world; it just had a good structure that could exert decent effects through fragments of authority.

The core of Constantine's shock was actually that Lu Mingfei's authority was higher-level than the authority in the Teyvat world, thus pushing the Delusion to a height it did not originally belong to.

In Teyvat, the original Vision was just something for people to use.

Lu Mingfei's Delusion could not only be used, but also possessed more possibilities; it could be modified and amplified through alchemy to form even stronger conceptual armaments, far more useful than his previous Flame Spear.

"Can you give this to me? If I have the assistance of its authority, I can optimize and change its functionality by constructing new alchemical circuits... (omitted)... Then I can complete the addition of my existence in my current state and add a new identity for myself," Constantine asked with a shy smile.

"...Alright, of course you can."

Lu Mingfei replied with a smile, though it was a bit bitter. Even though they were the same items, the Delusion could only be used as a self-destructing Flame Spear in his hands, yet in Constantine's, it could unleash even greater power.

Lu Mingfei didn't understand a word of what Constantine was saying. He felt that he didn't really know alchemy at all; he only knew how to use the "heavens and earth as a furnace" to forge iron. True alchemy was far more profound than he had imagined.

What he excelled at was simply using brute force.

Although the composition of the Flame Spear had technical elements, compared to Constantine, this level of technicality was like a modern person's compound bow compared to a primitive man's slingshot. The effects were worlds apart. Without the blessing of [Immortality], the effect of the Flame Spear might not necessarily be stronger than Gungnir.

"Thank you for your help. My brother and I will definitely thank you properly," Constantine said with a smile.

"Oh, right, why is it that even though your brother resurrected earlier than you, he has no memories? And even though he has been resurrected for so long, he still cannot use causality separation? It's so strange," Lu Mingfei asked, puzzled.

"Because he is my brother."

"Brother?"

"He died at the same time as me, and the time of his resurrection should be close to mine. My brother right now is in the same 'premature' state as I am. His power has not recovered at all. He is so weak that he has even lost his memories; it is only because of his obsession with waking up early to protect me that he woke up ahead of time."

"Is that so..."

"That is the kind of brother he is."

Constantine lowered his brow slightly, a look of attachment showing in his eyes. Such a brother was the person he loved and respected the most.