Chapter 159

Chapter 159: Past Events

“The Golden Triad is…”

Upon hearing Audric’s words, Dorothy tilted her head slightly with a hint of doubt and asked, to which he promptly responded.

“It is the highest leadership of the White Stone Craftsmen Guild. Although the White Stone Craftsmen Guild is a relatively loose society, it is sufficiently large and thus requires a strong leadership group to ensure its basic operations and prevent it from splitting apart. This leadership group is known as the Golden Triad, composed of three Golden Tier individuals, typically extraordinary beings on the path of ‘Stone.’ Occasionally, there may be vacancies, in which case an individual at the Red Tier level within the guild is selected as a candidate and provided with guild resources to help them advance to the Golden Tier and join the Triad.”

“Wow, three Golden Tier extraordinary beings as the top leadership. No wonder it’s such a world-renowned society. It’s much stronger than small local societies like the Holy Communion.”

“So, the Golden Triad was missing two hundred years ago. You and that Lu Ke were both outstanding Red Tier members of the Artisan Guild, competing for seats, leading to enmity?” Dorothy continued to inquire, to which Audric nodded in response.

“Yes… Competition was the beginning of our enmity. However, competition alone wasn’t enough to escalate to the point where it became a life-or-d*ath struggle. The deepening enmity occurred during the competitive process.”

“During the competitive process? How did you compete?”

“The competition among craftsmen naturally follows the way of craftsmen. Creating works and showcasing skills is the only form of competition for extraordinary beings of the ‘Stone’ path outside of direct confrontation. Since we were both part of the same guild, we naturally couldn’t fight each other directly. Thus, we competed through our creations.”

“We agreed under the witness of the upper echelons of the guild to create powerful, exquisite, and artistic works within a specified time frame. These works not only reflected the gap in our skills but also served as keys for our future Golden Tier advancement ceremonies.”

“Keys for the Golden Tier advancement ceremony? Do you need to use your own creations for the advancement ceremony?” Dorothy asked in surprise upon hearing Audric’s words, to which he nodded.

“Yes, many paths of ‘Stone’ require their practitioners to pour their entire lives into creating an epic extraordinary work when advancing to the Golden Tier! Actually, the process of creating this work is an important part of the advancement ceremony, and the final quality of the work also affects the success rate of the ceremony.”

Having finished speaking, Audric slowly sipped his tea, and Dorothy, after hearing this information, felt a sense of realization.

“The ‘Stone’ path truly embodies the essence of craftsmanship. It seems that each path consists of various types of craftsmen. Even the ceremony to advance to the Golden Tier involves pouring all efforts into creating an epic work… I estimate that most extraordinary items in the Secret World are created by these craftsmen. I wonder how powerful the extraordinary items created by those who successfully advanced to the Golden Tier are.”

After contemplating this in her heart, Dorothy noticed that Audric had finished drinking his water and continued his narrative.

“My agreement with him was for thirty years. Within thirty years, we were to create our best works, and the Golden Council would evaluate them. The winner would receive guild support to advance to the Golden Tier. However, problems arose during this thirty-year period.”

“What kind of problems?” Dorothy asked further, and Audric replied gravely.

“I’ve told you before that the practice of Bone Craftsman requires human subjects, taking bones and souls. Normally, his minor actions are harmless, but in his desperation to beat me, he crossed a line.”

“Hold on… You said his minor actions are harmless, so you mean that the Bone Craftsman’s method of killing for practice, similar to the Holy Communion, isn’t something the Artisan Guild intervenes in?”

“Why should we intervene? As I’ve mentioned, the White Stone Craftsmen Guild is a relatively loose organization. As long as no fundamental principles are violated, no one cares what members do.”

“The principles of the White Stone Craftsmen Guild are neutrality, contract, transaction, fairness… There is no morality or compassion. We don’t need to have sympathy for ordinary people. Lu Ke dealing with them is his own business; nobody can stop him. In fact, there are many like him in the Artisan Guild. We are craftsmen, merchants, inventors… not knights of justice. Please understand this, Miss Meyshos.”

With a serious expression, Audric addressed Dorothy, who responded with a furrowed brow.

“So… What exactly does crossing the line mean? Since you don’t interfere with indiscriminate killings, what boundary did Lu Ke cross?”

“Heh… We don’t interfere with indiscriminate killings, but other organizations do. Lu Ke went too far to win against me, drawing the ire of other organizations.”

“The constructs of Bone Craftsmen come from the fusion of necromancy and bone. Lu Ke’s creation was a bone artifact that restrained countless ancient evil spirits. These spirits were obtained from excavating ancient city ruins, rumored to be the souls of seven extremely wicked extraordinary beings. He exhausted his resources to create a powerful bone artifact to confine these ancient evil spirits, then used them to enhance the artifact’s power and let them devour ordinary people’s souls.”

“If Lu Ke had only engaged in minor activities, capturing a few people secretly and covering his tracks, it wouldn’t have been a problem. But as his appetite grew, to create even more powerful works, he began to recklessly drive these evil spirits to consume ordinary people’s souls to improve the quality of the bone artifacts.”

“At first, it was a few settlements, then villages, followed by towns. But none of these made him feel secure enough to win against me. So… he targeted a city.”

Sitting in his chair, Audric reminisced as he spoke, and Dorothy, hearing this, exclaimed in shock.

“What, you mean he let evil spirits devour an entire city just to win against you!?”

Dorothy was astonished. In this era, cities could have populations ranging from several tens of thousands to millions. Could this person really prepare to devour an entire city just to advance?

“He planned to do so, but failed. The reason was that his actions were too conspicuous. Secret agents from his country and the Radiant Church jointly took notice. Such a severe extraordinary event involving the lives of an entire city’s population would definitely be intervened.”

“So… it was the secret agents of the country and the Radiant Church who stopped Lu Ke?” Dorothy asked curiously, to which Audric shook his head.

“No, it was the Artisan Guild.”

“What? Didn’t you say the Artisan Guild doesn’t interfere with Lu Ke’s killings?”

“I’ve told you before that the Artisan Guild doesn’t intervene in what members do as long as they don’t violate principles. It’s fine if Lu Ke kills, but the number of people he killed attracted the hostility of other major powers towards the Artisan Guild, which is a big problem.”

“As I’ve said, one of the important principles of the Artisan Guild is neutrality. Lu Ke’s actions amounted to declaring war on a country and insulting the Radiant Church, severely violating the principle of neutrality. Therefore, after the secret agents and the Radiant Church pointed out the issue, the Golden Council investigated and found Lu Ke in serious violation. They expelled him from the Artisan Guild after stopping his actions.”

‘It seems he provoked other forces, and they acted to maintain the principle of neutrality… This White Stone Craftsmen Guild is indeed quite surprising…’

Thinking this in her heart, Dorothy then turned to Audric and said:

“Lu Ke was expelled from the White Stone Craftsmen Guild, losing his eligibility to participate. So, he harbored resentment towards you because he lost his opponent, right?”

“Not only that, Lu Ke suspects that I uncovered his intelligence and reported it to the Radiant Church and secret agents, invalidating his painstakingly constructed facade.”

“And the truth?”

“That’s exactly what happened.”

Audric said with a wave of his hand, and Dorothy thought to herself with a slight twitch at the corner of her mouth.

‘Goodness, so you also play the informant game.’