Alchemy

"I'll prepare the gift with care."

Lin Yu looked at Nightless Sky Fire Apricot, then said again, "But... what kind of gift would be considered acceptable to you?"

"One hundred million in cash."

Nightless Sky Fire Apricot replied immediately.

Upon hearing this answer, Lin Yu was briefly taken aback. "Respected Lord Nightless Sky Fire Apricot, I'm sorry, I'm penniless."

"Is it appropriate for a Royal Nobles you to ask me, who doesn't even have a title, for money, especially a hundred million?"

Lin Yu asked, Nightless Sky Fire Apricot showed a regretful expression.

"Oh, so it doesn't work after all?"

"Of course not! I'm just a 'Detective,' not a wish-granting machine!"

Lin Yu said helplessly.

Nightless Sky Fire Apricot pondered, "How about giving me something that doesn't exist in this world?"

Is it fair and just?

Lin Yu asked.

"Are you mocking the City That Never Sleeps...? Admittedly, this city is terrible, but in this respect, I am the most benefited Royal Nobles among the vested interests, so why would I want that kind of thing?" Nightless Sky Fire Apricot gave a peace sign. "What I actually meant was, give me... give me some 'Ocean creature'."

"Sure, but it won't be in time for your birthday. I can bring you two fish next time... Do you want them raw or cooked?"

Lin Yu asked.

"Live ones, I've read your books... I really like orcas, get me a pair."

Nightless Sky Fire Apricot said earnestly.

Lin Yu was greatly shocked. "I thought you were a smart person, but it turns out you still retain the part of Royal Nobles isn't very bright?"

"Do you know how big orcas are? If they're alive, where are you going to keep them?"

After meeting Nightless Sky Fire Apricot and witnessing her intelligence and control over Gray Street Three, he initially thought that Nightless Sky Huo Le and the Nightless Sky Family Head's assessment of Nightless Sky Fire Apricot as "eccentric" and "naive" was inaccurate...

In retrospect, it doesn't seem to be entirely inaccurate.

"You seem to be thinking about something very rude."

"Nightless Sky Fire Apricot said with a pout."

Lin Yu nodded. "I've been thinking about the rumors I heard about you before, and they don't seem to be entirely untrue."

"Which part? The ones that say I look like a madman or an idiot, like that?"

As she spoke, Nightless Sky Fire Apricot stuck out her tongue, tilted her head, spread her arms around her face, and stared at her with her eyes moving up and down. "Wow! I'm Nightless Sky Fire Apricot!"

Lin Yu did not deny it. "But overall, you're still pretending, right?"

"Are you testing me on behalf of my dear sister Huo Le?" Nightless Sky Fire Apricot leaned on the table, slurped her tongue back into her mouth, "To be honest, those rumors aren't entirely untrue... Compared to normal people and normal Noble, I should indeed be considered to have some kind of mental problem."

Nightless Sky Fire Apricot said nonchalantly, "I did want them to think I was 'abnormal,' but I didn't deliberately pretend to be crazy—it's just that in front of my family and other Noble, I acted on instinct, did whatever came to mind, and did whatever I wanted. In their eyes, that was madness."

"For example, silently eating what you like at a banquet, attending a family meeting in fashionable Outer City work clothes instead of a formal dress, kicking some Duke's annoying son into a pond, and going wherever you want to go on the street without taking a carriage..."

Lin Yu nodded slightly upon hearing this.

It sounds like what Nightless Sky Fire Apricot did was simply because she disliked the red tape of the Noble.

He felt a little sympathy for Nightless Sky Fire Apricot —simply because she didn't act according to the standards and rules of "Noble," everyone thought she was strange and abnormal, and even the wise Nightless Sky Family Head disliked her because of this.

"... poisoning the kitchen of the Solence Family, infiltrating the Divine Power Group and releasing their modified bio-weapons, electrifying the public swimming pool in the City That Never Sleeps, and randomly knocking out Noble, stuffing them into cars, and dumping them in the Great Wilderness."

"Wait a minute, the events before and after are on completely different levels," Lin Yu realized. "These things you've done are definitely not normal!"

He almost forgot that the girl in front of him wasn't meeting through normal channels, but rather in the underground of the City That Never Sleeps, where she was posing as the "Fairy Queen" of Gray Street Three —with piles of corpses even lying around them.

From this point of view alone... the Nightless Sky Fire Apricot is definitely not harmless.

Upon hearing Lin Yu's words, Nightless Sky Fire Apricot burst into laughter.

"Haha, okay, I admit I'm not normal," she said again, flashing a peace sign and a bright smile, "But there's nothing I can do about it, it's just my nature—like birds wanting to fly, fish wanting to swim, and Raccoon wanting to eat garbage! Yay!"

"The Nightless Sky Fire Apricot is born to pursue things that are chaotic, unknown, and uncertain, and finds genuine joy in them."

Hearing Nightless Sky Fire Apricot, Lin Yu breathed a sigh of relief again.

"Okay, but why do you still want to be the 'Fairy Queen' in Gray Street Three? Just because it's fun?"

"It's not just because it's fun," said Nightless Sky Fire Apricot. "I never hide my true nature at home, mainly to prevent my mother from considering me as her heir—to be honest, among my siblings, only I have completely inherited my mother's terrifying Alchemy talent."

She spoke softly, then raised her fingers and plucked them twice in mid-air, as if strumming non-existent strings.

Then, the neatly arranged corpses of the other side turned their heads and spoke in unison.

"Like this, by the age of eleven, I had already mastered four Advanced Alchemy and one Supreme Alchemy, and possessed my own alchemical system."

Those corpses spoke on behalf of the Nightless Sky Fire Apricot.

Manipulating corpses?

Lin Yu looked at Old Zheng on his knees and asked a question.

Old Zheng responded in a low voice, "It's different from my principle. I manipulate the consciousness left in the body by 'manipulating the residual soul,' which is essentially hypnosis—mind control, you know?"

"But this guy, if I'm not mistaken... he probably uses Alchemy to transform the bodies of the dead into some kind of alchemical Item," Old Zheng paused, then seemed to realize something, "Oh, wait... no, no, no!"

"She didn't turn these dead people into alchemical Item; instead, she turned them into 'parts' of her own body—in other words, these corpses were her external organs, like arms and legs!"

"The Nightless Sky Fire Apricot... she's truly an amazing genius!"