"The Golden Three Seats are..."
Hearing Aldrich's words, Dorothy tilted her head slightly in confusion and asked, and the other party immediately answered.
"They are the highest level of the White Stone Craftsmen's Guild. Although the White Stone Craftsmen's Guild is a relatively loose association, it is large enough, so it also needs a strong enough leadership team to ensure the basic operation of the association and prevent division. This leadership team is the Golden Three Seats, composed of three Golden Tier Extraordinary, usually of the'Stone' pathway. Occasionally, there will be a vacancy, at which point a candidate will be selected from the Scarlet Tier Extraordinary within the association, and then the association's resources will be poured in to help him advance to Golden and enter the Three Seats."
'Good heavens, three Golden Tier Extraordinary are the highest level. As expected of a worldwide grand association, much stronger than small associations in small places like the Holy Communion Society.'
"So, the Golden Three Seats had a vacancy two hundred years ago, and you and that Deer Skull were both top Scarlet Tier members of the Craftsmen's Guild, so you competed for the position, and this competition led to enmity?" Dorothy continued to press, and Aldrich nodded in response.
"Indeed... competition was the beginning of the enmity, but competition alone wouldn't have escalated to this life-and-death situation today. The deepening of the enmity occurred during the competition process."
"During the competition process? How did you compete?"
"The competition among craftsmen naturally takes a craftsman's form. Creating works and competing in skill is the only way'Stone' Extraordinary compete with each other outside of outright fighting. At that time, both of us were members of the same association, so it was naturally inconvenient to fight each other, thus we both used our works as a means of competition."
"Under the witness of the entire upper echelon of the association, we agreed to create works that were powerful, exquisite, and artistic enough within a specified time. These works would not only be a testament to the difference in our skills but also be the key to our future Golden Tier advancement rituals."
"The key to your Golden Tier advancement rituals? Do your Golden Tier advancement rituals require the use of works you've created yourself?" Hearing Aldrich's words, Dorothy asked back in surprise, and Aldrich also nodded.
"Yes, many branches of the'Stone' pathway require pouring all of one's life's effort into creating an epic Extraordinary work that conforms to the characteristics of their branch when advancing to Golden Tier! And in fact, the process of creating this work is an important part of the advancement ritual, and the final quality of the work will also affect the success rate of the final advancement ritual."
After speaking, Aldrich slowly took a sip of tea, while Dorothy, who heard this information, felt a slight realization.
'The'Stone' pathway is indeed worthy of being the craftsmen's pathway. It seems that their various branches are all different types of craftsmen. Even the ritual to advance to Golden Tier is to pour all of one's effort into creating an epic work... It's estimated that most of the Extraordinary items in the entire Hidden Spec Ops are created by this group of craftsmen. I wonder how powerful the Extraordinary items created by those craftsmen who successfully advanced to Golden Tier are.'
Dorothy finished lamenting in her heart, and Aldrich, who was on the other side, also slowly finished his water and then continued to speak.
"The time limit we agreed upon was thirty years. Within thirty years, we were to create our best works and have them judged by the Golden Council. The winner would receive the association's support to advance to Golden Tier, and the problem arose during this thirty-year production process."
"What problem?" Dorothy continued to ask, and Aldrich replied in a deep voice.
"I told you before that the cultivation method of the Bonecrafter pathway requires using living people as materials, taking their bones and souls. It was nothing when he did it on a small scale, but this time, he was too eager to win against me and seriously crossed the line."
"Wait... you said it was nothing when he did it on a small scale, do you mean that your Craftsmen's Guild doesn't care about his killing and cultivation method like the Holy Communion Society!?" Hearing Aldrich's words, Dorothy said in surprise, and Aldrich responded calmly.
"Why should we care? I told you before, our White Stone Craftsmen's Guild is a relatively loose organization. As long as you don't violate the basic principles of the association, no one cares what you do."
"The principles of the White Stone Craftsmen's Guild are neutrality, contract, transaction, fairness... there is no morality or benevolence. We don't need to have pity or sympathy for ordinary people. It's his own business if Deer Skull wants to attack them, and no one can control it. In fact, there are many people like this in the entire Craftsmen's Guild. We are craftsmen, merchants, inventors... not righteous crusaders. Please understand this, Miss Meisihuos." With a serious expression, Aldrich said to Dorothy, and Dorothy frowned and asked back.
"Then... what exactly do you mean by crossing the line? Since you don't care about indiscriminate killing, how did Deer Skull cross the line, and what line was it?"
"Hehe... we don't care about indiscriminate killing, but other organizations do. Deer Skull went too far in order to win against me and incurred the dissatisfaction of other organizations."
"The constructs of a Bonecrafter are derived from the combination of undead and bone. Deer Skull's work is a bone artifact that restrains countless powerful ancient evil spirits. These evil spirits were obtained by him during the excavation of ancient city ruins, rumored to be the souls of seven heinous Extraordinary. He exhausted his fortune to create a powerful bone artifact to restrain and control these ancient evil spirits, and then he made these evil spirits even more powerful, so he let them devour the souls of ordinary people."
"If Deer Skull had done it on a small scale, only secretly capturing a few people to refine souls and cleaning up the traces, it would have been nothing. But his appetite grew larger and larger. In order to create more powerful works, he began to recklessly drive the evil spirits to devour the souls of ordinary people to improve the quality of the bone artifact."
"At first, it was a few settlements, then a few villages, then a few small towns. However, none of this made him feel confident that he could win against me, so... he set his sights on a city."
Sitting in the chair, Aldrich recalled the past as if reminiscing, while Dorothy, listening to his words, opened her mouth in astonishment.
"What, do you mean he let evil spirits devour a city to win the competition!?"
Dorothy said in surprise. The cities in this era had populations of several million, the smallest had tens of thousands. This guy was actually preparing to devour a city just to win a competition and get promoted?
"Hehe... he was preparing to do so, but he didn't succeed. The reason is that his series of actions were too large, and he was targeted by the Hidden Spec Ops of the country where he committed the crimes and the Shining Light Church. It's impossible for them not to intervene in such a serious Extraordinary event that endangered the lives of an entire city."
"So... the country's Hidden Spec Ops and the Shining Light Church stopped Deer Skull?" Hearing this, Dorothy asked in surprise, but Aldrich shook his head in response.
"No, it was the Craftsmen's Guild."
"What? Didn't you say the Craftsmen's Guild wouldn't care if Deer Skull killed people?"
"I told you before, as long as they don't violate the principles, the Craftsmen's Guild doesn't care what its members do. Of course, it's okay for Deer Skull to kill people, but the number of people he intended to kill was too large, which caused hostility towards the Craftsmen's Guild from other major forces, and that's a big problem."
"I said that one of the important principles of the Craftsmen's Guild is neutrality. Deer Skull's actions were equivalent to declaring war on a country and slapping the Shining Light Church in the face. This seriously violated the principle of neutrality of the Craftsmen's Guild. Therefore, after the Hidden Spec Ops and the Shining Light Church came to them and explained the problem, the Golden Council investigated the situation, determined that Deer Skull had seriously violated the rules, and after stopping his actions, expelled Deer Skull from the Craftsmen's Guild."
'So it was because he provoked other forces, and they only intervened to ensure the principle of neutrality... This White Stone Craftsmen's Guild is really a bit speechless...'
Dorothy thought this in her heart, and then after thinking for a moment, she said to Aldrich again.
"Deer Skull was expelled from the White Stone Craftsmen's Guild, so he lost his qualification to compete, and therefore he resented you because you no longer had an opponent?"
"Of course, it's more than that. Deer Skull also suspected that I had investigated his information and reported him to the Shining Light Church and the Hidden Spec Ops, rendering all his painstaking efforts to disguise himself useless."
"And what about the truth?"
"That is exactly the truth."
Waving his hand, Aldrich said with a raised eyebrow, and Dorothy, after hearing this, thought with a slight twitch of her mouth.
'Good heavens, so you also play the reporting game.'