"This ancient castle has undergone nine major renovations." Erin lifted the velvet carriage curtain, her now flesh-and-blood index finger tapping a crisp rhythm on the windowsill. Her fingers were slender and beautiful, like works of art. "The westernmost tower used to house our ancestral armor—of course, it’s all been replaced with Alchemy Puppets now."
Erin parked the carriage at the main gate and led Li Xiang inside, introducing the place as they walked.
To Li Xiang’s surprise, in such a magnificent ancient castle, there wasn’t a single living soul besides the two of them. Everything was an Alchemy Servant. Even the cats and dogs were Alchemy Creatures.
’Jeez, she lives here all by herself. How lonely must she be?’ If it were him, Li Xiang would never want to live in a haunted house like this.
He much preferred bustling places, which was why he had built the scenic area near his home. It swarmed with tourists every day, and beautiful young women like Yao Yao, Zhao Xueqing, and Lei Xiaohui worked there. Li Family Village was brimming with life.
’If it were me,’ he thought, ’hmm, I’d turn this ancient castle into a tourist attraction. It wouldn’t matter if it made money; at least it would bring some life to the place. Besides, the profits could be used to hire servants, create jobs, and fund the castle’s upkeep.’
Eventually, Erin led Li Xiang to an enormous dining hall.
The dining hall was like a palace. A massive chandelier descended from the vaulted ceiling, causing Li Xiang’s pupils to contract. Within tens of thousands of teardrop-shaped crystals, flickering Ghost Fires were sealed, their eerie blue light casting a cold, sinister gleam upon the silver cutlery on the long table.
In a dining hall spanning several hundred square meters, only the two of them were present for the meal.
When Erin rang a gilded bell, twelve skeletal puppets with inlaid gears filed in, carrying dinner trays. With each step, steam valves at their joints rhythmically hissed clouds of white mist.
"Guinea fowl with Burgundy Truffles." Erin elegantly pinched the stem of her glass with her slender fingers, sending fine ripples across the dark red wine. "This bottle of Romanée-Conti has slept in an oak barrel for forty years. It should be worthy of the mysterious Armored Warrior’s palate."
She looked at Li Xiang, a smile in her eyes and a flicker of cunning in her beautiful cobalt-blue irises. ’Do you know why I insisted on treating you to such fine wine and food?’ she thought. ’To drink and eat, you have to take off your Face Armor, don’t you?’
With a mere thought from Li Xiang, the section of the Face Armor covering his mouth and nostrils vanished, leaving everything else tightly concealed.
Erin: "..."
She was momentarily speechless with frustration, but at the same time, her curiosity only grew. She desperately wanted a glimpse of Li Xiang’s true face. To her slight relief, however, his lips, teeth, and the shape of his nose were all quite handsome.
’Hmm, judging by his skin tone, he doesn’t seem to be Caucasian, but...’ The image of the clean-cut Chinese man she had glimpsed from afar at the Louvre Museum that day suddenly flashed through her mind.
"Ah, so it was you!" Erin de Merovingian slapped her hand on the table and shot to her feet, crying out in utter astonishment.
"You know me?" ’Impossible,’ Li Xiang thought. ’I was speaking perfect French.’
"You have very handsome lips and a fine nose, but you’re definitely not European. You’re... Chinese. We saw each other at the Louvre Museum today. I had a feeling someone was secretly watching me. Do you really need to remain so hidden, Mr. Armor?" A smile played on Erin de Merovingian’s lips, her cobalt-blue eyes glistening.
Li Xiang sighed softly. ’This woman is pretty sharp,’ he thought. ’And to recognize me just from my mouth and nose... yeah, that’s impressive.’
Instantly, the Giant Whale Saint Armor retracted into his body, revealing his true face.
’It didn’t matter. With an Extreme Speed of Mach 12, a Giant Power of 110 metric tons, and a miraculous Full Earth Superpower like the Earth Pivot World Record, he was arguably one of the most powerful beings on the planet. He feared no one.’
’He was Tier Ten, while the woman before him was only Tier Two.’
"It really is you." Erin de Merovingian’s face blossomed into a radiant smile, and she finally felt at ease. The noble Mr. Armor who had saved her life was incredibly handsome, perfectly fitting her tastes. And what’s more, he had an exotic allure.
’Such a clean-cut, handsome Chinese man, who also happens to be a world-famous, powerful Armored Warrior.’ Erin de Merovingian suddenly felt her heart stir. It was the first time she had ever felt this way about a man.
"Cheers." Erin de Merovingian, now in high spirits, elegantly raised her glass, inviting Li Xiang to drink with her.
"Good wine." Li Xiang took a small sip. He then picked up his knife and fork, speared a small piece of food, and placed it in his mouth. He couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. The morsel, enrobed in an amber-colored glaze, was succulent and so tender it melted on his tongue. The distinct earthy aroma of the mushrooms was perfectly balanced by the brandy.
"Tell me your story," Li Xiang said with a nod.
"...It was five years ago..." Erin de Merovingian honored her promise and began to recount her experiences. Her cobalt-blue pupils suddenly split, reforming into the shape of twin irises. Her fingertips unconsciously scraped against the tablecloth, producing the harsh sound of metal on fabric.
"It was my sixteenth birthday. That night, I fell and scraped my knee in the cellar of our ancestral estate." She pulled her collar open slightly, revealing a diamond-shaped scar below her collarbone. Beneath the skin, liquid metal seemed to flow faintly. "When my blood dripped onto the rusted armrest of a throne, an image from over a thousand years ago suddenly stabbed into my mind—a man wearing that crown, pierced through the heart by a Long Sword, his blood turning silver-white in the moonlight."
"I am a descendant of the Merovingian Dynasty—its sole surviving heir. The man from the memory fragment left on the throne’s armrest must have been my ancestor, the first king, Clovis I."
(The Merovingian Dynasty was the first royal dynasty of the Frankish Kingdom. It existed in Western Europe from 481–751, its territory encompassing most of modern-day France and western Germany.)
"The dormant Merovingian royal Holy Blood within me was activated. My genetic code fractured, and a tome titled the ’Nibelungen Secret Technique’ appeared in my mind. Before long, I condensed my first Spiritual Power Vortex and awakened the ’Alchemy’ Superpower. I used this power to create many Alchemy Creatures, including the carriage from earlier and the numerous servants in this castle."
"But the good times didn’t last. Early this year, when I broke through to the Second Tier of the Extraordinary Realm, a ’Vibranium’ Inscription manifested with it, floating within my second Spiritual Power Vortex. It then triggered the ’Holy Blood Thorn Reversal.’ Gothic runes that seemed to breathe appeared all over my body, my pupils split into a twin-iris totem, and my entire body would metallicize."
"It’s likely a curse on my family. It is both a gift and a curse."
Looking at the young woman, Li Xiang suddenly couldn’t help but ask, "What about your parents?"
"My parents?" An expression of immense pain crossed Erin de Merovingian’s face. A brutal image surged up from the depths of her memory, nearly causing her to transform again.
It was an accident that happened three years ago, while she was Forging an alchemical creation in her laboratory.
Dozens of metal puppets suddenly went berserk, nailing the terrified butler to a cross pieced together from gears. Her parents rushed in shortly after, only to meet the same tragic end.
At the time, she had collapsed, completely unconscious.
She had once been a bright, cheerful young woman, but after that day, she became exceptionally withdrawn and preferred to live in solitude.
"It was my fault my parents died, and our old butler..." Erin de Merovingian’s face became a ghastly, twisted mask of pain. But she was exceptionally strong-willed. After a long moment, she finally recovered slightly from the heart-rending agony and continued her story.
"With the Holy Blood Thorn Reversal, the backlash intensifies tenfold with every Tier I break through."
"I scoured my family’s ancient records and finally found a sliver of hope." Erin’s mind drifted back to a night one week ago.
She was kneeling in the astrology chamber of the Merovingian castle. Moonlight streamed through the stained glass, casting a dappled, rainbow-hued light upon her silver-gray gown. Twelve bronze candelabras hovered in mid-air, their flames flickering in time with the path her fingertips traced through the air. The Sheepskin Scroll spread open on the table glowed with a blood-rust hue, its ink gradually revealing floating gothic runes in the moonlight.
The Iris Pattern Shield on the Sheepskin Scroll suddenly began to ooze a silvery-white liquid. It flowed up her fingertip and traveled along her body. When the liquid reached her right calf, touching the metallic portion of her skin, the entire scroll spontaneously combusted. Within the flames, the ethereal illusions of seven distinctly shaped crowns appeared.
"By the blood of Merovingian, be my guide!" Erin bit her left index finger. The moment the bead of blood fell into the flames, an Alchemy Array surged up from the cracks between the floor tiles. The bronze candelabras trembled in unison, their flames converging into a curtain of light that projected four flickering lines of ancient Latin:
*The Seven Kings’ Crown is hidden where power changes hands,*
*The blood heir must tread the ground of coronations and depositions.*
*If seven lunar cycles pass and the thorn is not unbound,*
*The Holy Blood will congeal into eternal metal.*