Secrets of the World

"What a powerful aura. So this was Blood Hand Colen!"

Bai Pu was somewhat startled. No wonder the Spirit Realm Will had initially rated the mission's difficulty as high as S-rank!

If Duke William had not joined the battle, there was no way they could have crushed their way through like this. Bai Pu would have had to find every possible means to unite the local village militias, lure away most of the soldiers around Blood Hand Colen, then lead Qin, Yvette, and the others in besieging Colen.

The difficulty of that was obvious, and the time it would consume would be even more extensive. Just uniting the Brandenburg Militia from all the villages would take who knew how many days. Completing this mission within ten days was a very slim hope indeed.

Countdown until Sting Squad entered this plane: 25 hours, 52 minutes, 07 seconds.

Bai Pu glanced at the countdown again. He had not forgotten this greatest variable—if Duke William had not participated, Bai Pu would also have needed to beware of the Sting Squad entering to disrupt things while he carried out the Main Quest! Success would have been even more impossible then.

Duke William slowly stepped forward, his composed bearing forming a stark contrast with Blood Hand Colen's savage roars.

"Your Grace! I suggest taking him alive!" Bai Pu called out.

"Is that necessary?" Duke William paused slightly and turned his head to ask.

If Bai Pu had not earned his Favorability, Duke William would never have bothered asking that question. He would have treated Bai Pu's words as nonsense.

Qin hesitated before saying, "I think it is necessary as well. At present, we lack sufficiently high-end research specimens among the Blood Ring's Aberrant monsters."

"Very well." Duke William nodded faintly.

Listening to them casually discuss how to deal with him as though he were livestock awaiting slaughter, Blood Hand Colen's fury surged! He sprang forward, his massive axe wrapped in crimson light as he brought it down with all his strength.

Duke William shifted slightly aside and evaded the blow. With a sharp crack, the bloody force tore a huge fissure through the wooden deck, sending splinters and rivets flying in every direction.

The destructive power made Bai Pu's eyelids twitch.

Duke William's expression, however, remained unchanged. He drew his eagle-engraved sword again and thrust three times in rapid succession!

The first strike severed Blood Hand Colen's axe-wielding arm.

The next two pierced through Blood Hand Colen's left and right kneecaps respectively!

Thick black blood splattered across the deck. Blood Hand Colen roared and wailed, but his body went limp as he collapsed to the ground.

Blood Hand Colen might have been powerful, but he was only the commander of the Blood Ring Vanguard, equivalent to the boss of the game's first act. He could not be compared with Duke William, the overall boss of this faction.

Zweig Lieutenant stepped forward and bound him with the iron chain from the ship's anchor.

Qin took out a sharp feather tube and gave Blood Hand Colen a "shot." His howls soon ceased, and like a wounded beast, he drifted into a drowsy sleep.

"All right. The Blood Ring Vanguard's defeat should serve as a stern warning to Gustav II. He will not send another army across the Baltic Sea anytime soon."

Duke William mounted his horse. "Mr. Zweig, please remain at the front and prepare for war with the Blood Ring. Mr. Jialan and I will return to Brandenburg to summon the Empire's electors and lords for a meeting and gather an army. Lady Qin, would you like to return with me?"

Qin shook her head and smiled. "I have obtained an exceptionally fine experimental subject. I intend to remain here and study it for a while."

Everyone burst into laughter, all assuming that Qin was referring to Blood Hand Colen.

Yet Qin secretly winked at Bai Pu.

No one else noticed that small gesture, but Yvette saw it. She raised her hand. "I want to stay too..."

"Lady Yvette, I understand your desire to fight and rescue the queen." Duke William shook his head in refusal. "But I am sorry. At the upcoming gathering of Imperial lords, I need you, the person most familiar with Blood Ring Fortress, to attend and prove the immense threat posed by the Blood Ring to the electors and lords."

"..." Yvette was left speechless and could only accept the arrangement.

Stettin Town, Qin's temporary laboratory.

On the experiment table, the unconscious Blood Hand Colen was tightly bound in iron chains. The sharpened iron hooks specially ground onto the ends of those chains had pierced through his shoulder bones, rendering him unable to move.

"Lady Qin... thank you for speaking up for me," Bai Pu said.

"You do not need to address me so formally, Dio." Qin smiled. "Besides, I did not deceive everyone. I truly did obtain a high-end experimental subject."

Bai Pu said, "It seems the experimental subject you spoke of is me."

"Yes." Qin blinked, a trace of seductive charm in her expression. "In exchange, Columbus can be left for you to deal with. No matter why you want to keep Columbus alive, I will not stop you."

Bai Pu thought to himself that he truly could not underestimate the intelligence of the natives. Qin had clearly seen that his suggestion to capture Columbus alive had ulterior motives. Although her Affection Level toward him had reached the "Fluttered Heart" level, she still retained a clear mind.

"I agree to cooperate with your experiment, as long as it does not endanger my life."

Bai Pu said, "However, as your experimental subject, I should have the right to know. May I ask a question?"

"Of course, Dio. To me, you are not merely an experimental subject... because I like men who are smarter than I am." Qin smiled sweetly.

"This is the reward from our last collaboration—the Alchemy Potion you made using my blood."

Bai Pu flipped his hand over, and a bottle of Stimulation Blood appeared in his palm.

"Is there a problem?" Qin blinked.

"If this potion is injected into someone other than me, that person may become my servant. I want to know the principle behind it," Bai Pu said.

"Oh my, that involves one of this world's greatest secrets. Explaining it clearly will take quite some time." Qin smiled.

"That is all right. I have plenty of time to hear a story." Bai Pu remained calm. There were still more than ten hours before the Sting Squad entered.

"Actually, several decades ago, this world possessed no extraordinary power—no Blood Battle Qi, no Blood Magic. Science advanced by the day, technology steadily improved, and the once-prominent knightly class gradually declined, while gunpowder weapons began to flourish..."

Qin rose to her feet and spoke slowly as she paced.

"Until that Cursed Meteor fell upon Scania, extraordinary power appeared.

"At first, there were only rumors from the Scania Region. It was said that at the site where the meteor had descended, warriors capable of facing ten thousand men had appeared, along with wandering Plague Dead.

"At the time, no one knew that the meteor contained a mysterious substance! This substance held the power of evolution. It could drive people to evolve and become stronger.

"Originally, this should have been God's gospel. Unfortunately, the mysterious substance imposed extremely harsh requirements upon its host's constitution.

"Those whose constitutions were incompatible would be deeply affected by Evolution Instinct. Their bodies would become deformed, turning them into ignorant, mindless monsters—the Plague Dead—who knew only the instinct to evolve and chase after flesh and blood.

"Those whose constitutions were compatible would not only avoid interference from Evolution Instinct, but would also adapt to the mysterious substance's power. They thus developed Blood Battle Qi and Blood Magic, gaining power far beyond that of ordinary people—like our duke, Lord Frederick William. Such people were called 'compatible hosts.'

"There were too few compatible hosts. The overwhelming majority of infected humans became Plague Dead. That was why the meteor was called the 'Cursed Meteor,' and the mysterious substance's influence was called Curse Power.

"Ten years ago, Princess Christina passed through Scania and touched that Cursed Meteor, becoming the Ultimate Host of the mysterious substance. From then on, the breath she exhaled merged with the winds and clouds of the sky, while the blood and tears she shed merged with the rivers of the earth... Curse Power spread along with them and now lies deeply hidden in everyone's blood.

Recalling how the Blood Ring Hammer Knights' bodies flickered with crimson light whenever they activated their skills, Bai Pu asked, "Could it be that all the elite soldiers of Blood Ring Fortress are compatible hosts? Can they all use Blood Battle Qi?"

Qin shook her head. "Those Blood Ring elite soldiers were actually modified in batches through Flesh Alchemy by the King of Sweden—now the Blood Ring Emperor—Gustav II."

Bai Pu repeated, "Flesh Alchemy?"

Qin explained, "As I said before, the curse causes the Plague Dead to crave flesh and blood. In truth, that is their pursuit of external energy intake for the sake of evolution, equivalent to Evolution Instinct!

"At the beginning of the curse's spread, some alchemy scholars could not bear to watch their loved ones become Plague Dead. They began researching how to extract the blood of compatible hosts and create Alchemy Potions that suppressed Evolution Instinct!

"Their research failed. The relatives who drank the Alchemy Potions instead became Aberrants even more terrifying than the Plague Dead! They possessed strength comparable to compatible hosts and regained the ability to think, but lost their memories and humanity. Like the Plague Dead, they pursued the flesh and blood of living people.

"The renowned Grand Duke Bergen, Blood Mist Butcher, Scarlet Wing... these most powerful Aberrants were all failed products of the first-generation Alchemy Potion.

"That was the origin of Flesh Alchemy, this emerging field of study."

Flesh Alchemy!

Bai Pu listened with great interest. His understanding of the background of the Flesh Plague: Origin Plane deepened further.

Qin continued.

"After Flesh Alchemy emerged, many scholars joined the field. I was one of them.

"Until Grand Duke Bergen, the representative figure among the first generation of Aberrants, used Blood Magic to drain the entirety of Bergen City and caused the Blood Pool Massacre, the terrified King and lords finally faced the threat posed by the Aberrants and banned Flesh Alchemy research.

"Gustav II, Princess Christina's father, was the sole exception. Not only did he refuse to prohibit the research, he recruited a great number of scholars to Chuk Klona Fortress to conduct consultations on Princess Christina, the Ultimate Host of the mysterious substance.

"At the time, I believed he wanted to save his daughter. But I never expected Gustav II to be researching a means to control Aberrants and fulfill his ambition of dominating the world!

"Later, he succeeded. Chuk Klona Fortress was renamed Blood Ring Fortress, and the Blood Ring's Aberrant legions marched westward, conquering Denmark in a single campaign! Gustav soon took control of the Scandinavian Peninsula, conquered the Slavs' territories, and crowned himself Emperor.

"After Blood Ring Fortress took control of Northern Europe, its invasion did not stop. As you can see, they have now crossed the Baltic Sea and begun invading Brandenburg."

"I understand everything you said. It truly is one of this world's great secrets. It seems that my blood's ability to control others follows the same principle as Blood Ring Fortress's control over those Aberrants... after all, the mysterious substance within me and the mysterious substance within Princess Christina came from the same source," Bai Pu said.

"That is why I like smart men."

Qin smiled. "The principle behind Blood Ring Fortress's control over Aberrants is simple. They use Christina, the 'Matriarch,' to rewrite Evolution Instinct into a magical brand that compels obedience to orders!

"If you can control the mysterious substance within your body, then even without a magical brand, you can control the Aberrants influenced by you. That bottle of Alchemy Potion merely allowed you to realize your future ability ahead of time."

Bai Pu felt a surge of excitement. Though he had yet to awaken, the potential of Evolution Source Blood had already begun to show itself.

The two abilities currently revealed—adapting to external damage and creating Aberrant servants—were both powerful abilities that countless awakened ones would envy!

Bai Pu looked forward to his awakening more and more.

"As a friend, I still have to remind you of something. The enemies that bottle of Alchemy Potion can control cannot be stronger than you," Qin said.

Bai Pu nodded to show that he understood. The Spirit Realm Will's item description also contained the condition "pass a strength check." If the other party failed the strength check, they would become Bai Pu's servant; if they passed it, they would naturally resist the potion's effect.

Bai Pu looked over the Spirit Realm rules' warning prompt again. At this point, there were still 12 hours and 33 minutes before the Sting Squad entered this plane.

"I still want to know one more thing..."