Copenhagen, a highly classified laboratory. One hundred and one silver-cast crosses were lined up in a row, with one hundred and one mutated blood kin, from Prince Friederich down, chained tightly to the crosses by shackles inscribed with countless runes and spells. Their limbs had been pulverized; only the central sections of their torsos remained bound to the wood.
Intense sun lamps hung high overhead, casting beams of ultra-high-intensity ultraviolet light potent enough to cause skin cancer downward. A faint azure vapor rose from the bodies of Prince Friederich and his descendants.
Behind thick protective glass on one side of the laboratory, the Bearded Commander cheerfully introduced the high-tech integrated laboratory, freshly completed six months prior, to Fuya Ming and Jin. The Bearded Commander was in excellent spirits; Fuya Ming and Jin were the highest-ranking visitors since the lab’s inauguration. In the Commander’s estimation, even the status of ‘Poison Wolf’ didn't surpass Fuya Ming's prestige.
Especially after learning about the unusual relationship between Fuya Ming and Gu Xichen, the outspoken Bearded Commander held nothing back. He blabbered out every detail of the lab’s background, almost revealing the exact color and fabric of the standard-issue underpants provided to the research staff.
“Although this is a fully enclosed secret lab, we pay close attention to our researchers' personal matters. For instance, the condoms provided free of charge here are all brand-name goods!” The Bearded Commander spoke quickly. Although he tried to avoid mentioning the specific details of the standard underpants, once he got going, he couldn't stop himself, unleashing a torrent of information that sparked considerable curiosity in Fuya Ming and Jin.
“What is a condom?” Jin looked curiously at the Bearded Commander, whose large face was turning shades of red and purple, clearly intending to press the matter further.
The Bearded Commander sharply slapped his own mouth, stammering as he turned toward the protective glass window outside. He let out a dry laugh: “Look, what is that fellow doing?”
Gu Xichen stood before Prince Friederich, quietly assessing the defeated captive.
Prince Friederich also watched Gu Xichen in silence. After a long pause, he managed a dry voice, “It was you, after all.”
Gu Xichen gently shook his head: “Not me. The Holy See and the Pantheon of Gods were vying for a relic they accidentally discovered. Both sides suffered heavy losses. I just picked up a bargain. Was that relic called the Wrath of the Light God, or the Wrath of the Dark God?”
Pursing his lips into a faint smile, Gu Xichen said calmly, “That’s not important. What matters is that the relic was taken by His Excellency Bishop Andre of the Holy See. Many people witnessed it. I also possess high-definition recordings…” He trailed off slightly before continuing, “It was a relic shaped like a crossbow bolt, taken by Bishop Andre. You must admit that!”
Friederich sighed deeply: “If you do not die, you will be a great menace to our race.”
After a moment of silence, Gu Xichen asked indifferently, “Your race? Is it the Angel race, or… the Blood Kin?”
Another stretch of silence followed before Friederich sighed again: “Both, perhaps. My heart leans toward the light, but it is undeniable that half of the blood flowing in my veins comes from the Blood Kin.”
He gazed deeply at Gu Xichen. Friederich nodded in appreciation: “You are neither a hero, nor a tyrant, perhaps not even a cunning schemer. But I believe they will all fall to you.” After a brief hesitation, Friederich lowered his voice: “Whatever you plan to do with me, I believe I can at least be considered a hero. Can you grant the dying request of a hero?”
Should Friederich be considered a hero?
Gu Xichen asked himself in surprise. After a moment, he nodded: “Indeed, you can be considered a hero. Whether you led the dark forces against the Holy See, or joined the Holy See against the Romans, you were a true hero. However, you are my enemy, so I can only agree to consider your request.”
He glanced to those nearby. Friederich lowered his voice: “Release the former Speaker of the Federal Upper Council, Prince Friederich, whom you have captured.”
Gu Xichen stared at Friederich in astonishment: “He is?”
Friederich lifted his head, and a gentle smile touched his ashen face: “He is the descendant I left behind with a human woman. Not just a successor, but my direct descendant of flesh and blood. By my count, he should be my thirty-ninth generation grandson. Friederich—that is a very glorious surname in history.”
He sighed, a hint of weakness surfacing in his eyes: “I have protected this lineage in darkness for over a thousand years. I cannot look after them any longer. Release him. Will you?”
“You loved that woman?” Gu Xichen asked Friederich, surprised.
“She loved me too!” Friederich laughed softly. “If you don't believe me, look at my chest.”
Gu Xichen tore open Friederich’s robes. Over his smooth, pale chest was tattooed a vibrant red rose, encircling the name of a woman, surrounded by ancient Latin script: You live forever in my heart, my dearest ‘Maltisha’.
Gu Xichen thought of the Federal Council members who had been captured days ago after being battered by wind, rain, lightning, and thunder. After a moment of silence, Gu Xichen nodded: “Then, I will release him. But he cannot remain in the Earth Federation. I will arrange for him to go to the Papal States.”
Friederich hastily shook his head: “No. Do not send him to the Papal States. Send him to the Pantheon of Gods. I have a few old friends there who know of their existence; they will care for them.”
“Agreed!” Gu Xichen stepped back a few paces, granting Friederich’s request.
Friederich closed his eyes and smiled faintly: “Then, you may proceed. Whatever you intend to do, do it now!”
He let out a self-mocking laugh, muttering, “Ever since I was possessed by that damned Ten Commandments slab, I foresaw that I would inevitably end up in a lab being researched.”
Gu Xichen smiled calmly: “Your premonition was keen and entirely correct, but I will not be researching you!”
He hooked his finger. A massive man, well over two meters tall and possessing strength at the high-end Mars-level standard, strode forward. He puffed out his chest and gave Gu Xichen a perfect military salute: “Sir, Colonel Anderson, Battalion Commander of the First Special Operations Battalion, Ninth Main Force Regiment, Hadewar Defense Company Operations Department, pays his respects.”
Gu Xichen smiled and punched Anderson squarely in the chest. He chuckled: “Would you mind if your future child was a half-breed?”
Anderson froze, tilting his head to study Gu Xichen for a moment, then frowned and asked, “Will he be a fine man?”
Gu Xichen nodded vigorously: “A sturdy, fine man!”
Anderson snapped to attention immediately and laughed: “Then, it doesn’t matter. After all, whether Black, White, Yellow, or even Roman women—I’ve hooked up with quite a few. I have no racial prejudice, respected Sir. I am a man of universal affection.”
Gu Xichen burst out laughing. He laughed and kicked Anderson: “Damn it, that’s why I like you people! Ha! I like you affectionate fellows!”
He turned to Fuya Ming and asked, “Fuya, things might get a bit bloody in a moment. Are you sure you want to watch?”
Fuya Ming squinted at Gu Xichen and made a hand gesture assuring him. Kong tugged at the blushing Bearded Commander’s sleeve, relentlessly pressing her point: “What is a condom…”
Gu Xichen shot the Bearded Commander a strange look, made a face at him, and then knocked Anderson unconscious with a single slap.
Under Prince Friederich’s horrified gaze, Gu Xichen seized one of his descendants. His five fingers, transparent as profound ice, plunged deep into the descendant’s chest. Accompanied by the shrill sound of tearing muscle, his hand slowly burrowed into the man’s body.
The descendant writhed madly. The intense pain instantly tightened every muscle, and his once robust frame suddenly shrunk into a small ball.
A dazzling crimson light slowly began to flicker around Gu Xichen’s fingers. A primal, ancient, disquieting chant slowly drifted from his lips. The red light enveloped both Gu Xichen and the descendant. Slowly, amidst the descendant’s shrill, desperate cries of torment, Gu Xichen’s hand gradually retracted from within his body.
Friederich shrieked: “What are you doing? You demon!”
Gu Xichen’s eyes shone with a faint, ghostly green light, like two will-o'-the-wisps. He continued murmuring the spell that caused every hair to stand on end, slowly withdrawing his arm. The descendant’s body shriveled, dehydrating, turning into a mummy in the blink of an eye. The next instant, this proud descendant of Friederich crumbled into a wisp of black sand.
A strange mass, writhing like flesh yet also like condensed blood-light, pulsed in Gu Xichen’s palm. One could vaguely make out this odd red mass convulsing violently; its general shape resembled the vessels, nerves, and bone marrow remaining after a person's bones, muscles, and organs had been entirely extracted. Essentially, this was the condensation of a person's entire life force.
The chanting suddenly grew high and sharp, like countless gods and demons roaring and shrieking in the ears from the highest heavens.
Even through the thick protective glass, Fuya Ming and the others instinctively covered their ears. Prince Friederich and those close by nearly fainted from the sheer force.
Gu Xichen waved his hands repeatedly, injecting streaks of bizarre, bloody light into this strange crimson object. Finally, the blurred, twisting mass unfolded, transforming into a complete network of blood vessels, meridians, and bone marrow. Faint, ghostly wails continuously emanated from this terrifying network. Gu Xichen chanted the spell with tension, his hands moving as if hoisting a weight of ten thousand jin, slowly pressing this network toward Anderson’s body.
With a hiss, as if cold water had been dumped into a pot of boiling oil, a large cloud of blood mist erupted from Anderson. Deep, bone-visible gashes appeared on his skin.
That bizarre network, suspended between solid form and light, invaded Anderson’s body. Led by the streams of bloody light continuously sprayed from Gu Xichen’s hands, it began to voraciously consume Anderson’s own blood vessels, meridians, and bone marrow. Anderson, knocked unconscious by Gu Xichen, convulsed violently, his eyes suddenly flying open to emit a cry of near-total collapse. The agony, boundless agony, nearly shattered his soul.
“Damn, that hurts so much?” Gu Xichen muttered, slamming a Soul-Calming Seal onto Anderson’s brow, plunging his soul into a death-like slumber.
The invading blood vessels, meridians, and bone marrow rapidly devoured and merged with Anderson’s original network. The power originally held by the Blood Kin gradually permeated Anderson’s body, slowly fusing with the powers he already possessed. During this fusion, Anderson’s body was torn apart. His internal organs, brain, and other tissues were directly exposed to the public view; the scene was as gruesome as a slaughterhouse.
Fuya Ming’s face was slightly pale, but her expression remained unchanged. Behind her, several of her personal Yaksha female officers had already fainted from terror.
Jin watched Gu Xichen’s actions with composed amusement, initially smiling dismissively. But when tens of thousands of capillaries and nerve endings drilled into Anderson’s viscera, churning his insides into a mess as chaotic as the tomato sauce she had for lunch, Jin abruptly turned away, snatched a bulletproof helmet from a Hadewar mercenary’s head, and vomited violently into it, hacking up even bile.
Gu Xichen carefully regulated Anderson’s body as if crafting the most exquisite work of art. He meticulously regulated and merged the newly formed bloodlines and marrow, subtly guiding the flow of the nascent power—a mixture of Blood Kin blood essence, Holy See sacred power, and Federation martial true qi—throughout the body.
He expelled a ball of Taiyin Brilliant Flame, refining Anderson’s body with meticulous detail, much like forging a magic artifact.
Gu Xichen then retrieved the Four Directional Beast Crest Water Deity, nourishing Anderson’s body with True One Profound Water. Activated by the Taiyin Brilliant Flame, the True One Profound Water, imbued with profound vitality, hardened Anderson’s physique until it was as tough as Vajra forged through a hundred refinements.
After some contemplation, Gu Xichen cautiously extracted an infinitesimal portion of Primordial Clear Qi and Primordial Murky Qi from one of his own somatic cells. With extreme caution, he infused this amount of spiritual energy—negligible to him—into Anderson’s body. The result was that Anderson’s innate true qi transformed into true essence, ultimately forming a peculiar energy core in his heart, situated somewhere between a Golden Core and the energy nucleus of the Blood Kin.
“Roar!”
Having completed everything, Gu Xichen awoke Anderson.
Feeling immensely energized, Anderson sprang up and let out a howl like a wolf toward the sky. He flexed his arms, shaking them forcefully; the intense energy fluctuations nearly destroyed the laboratory. Gu Xichen’s divine sense scanned Anderson’s body, and he nodded with satisfaction. The power was nearly equivalent to that of a Nascent Soul cultivator, and the energy attributes were bizarrely potent, delivering astonishing destructive force.
With ample experimental equipment available, Gu Xichen personally conducted various tests on the newly formed Anderson.
Powerful strength, grotesquely tough physical resilience, the ability to repair injuries using sacred light, and when energy reserves were depleted, the capacity to rapidly restore energy and heal by absorbing blood. Furthermore, he could now preliminarily utilize certain spiritual artifacts and possessed mental power far exceeding that of ordinary espers—or rather, he had preliminarily acquired a divine sense.
This was an astonishing achievement.
The Blood Merging Fiend Art, learned by Gu Xichen from the Great Desolation Scripture, had been a resounding success!
In the following days, Gu Xichen poured his heart and soul into transferring the bloodlines of Friederich’s one hundred descendants into the bodies of the one hundred most senior and loyal mercenaries of the Hadewar Defense Company.
One hundred powerful warriors, approaching Nascent Soul strength, were thus created. Because of the strange attributes of the power within them, combined with Gu Xichen’s refining of their bodies using the Taiyin Brilliant Flame and modification of their energy attributes with Primordial Clear and Murky Qi, these hundred warriors were completely undetectable, even when standing directly before someone. Even facing the Void Realm Grandmasters of the Dao Alliance, they were effectively invisible; only Gu Xichen, who created them, would know their true capabilities; others would simply perceive them as one hundred ordinary men.
Gu Xichen stood before Friederich, whose face was as ashen as a corpse, and calmly examined him.
Friederich managed a dry chuckle: “How much time do I have left?”
Gu Xichen said faintly: “When my senior brother returns, I will preserve your bloodline for him.”
Friederich looked deeply at Gu Xichen and said somberly, “Remember your promise.”
Gu Xichen nodded: “As long as they don’t return to the Earth Federation to cause trouble, I won’t harm them.”
Before his words had fully settled, the laboratory door was kicked open, and Siren, eyes blazing with black flames, strode in.
“Boss! I want to teach that bastard Ducat a lesson! He controls two hundred Roman super-dreadnoughts! Two hundred!”
Siren roared furiously: “Why aren't we attacking proactively? We can wipe out the entire Roman fleet right now! I want to personally flay Nightwalker and the Mad Angel!”
Gu Xichen turned to Siren and offered a delighted smile.
Hearing Siren’s complaints, Gu Xichen shrugged helplessly: “Well, the subspace communication isn't secure enough, so this military secret has to be told in person!”
He paused, then leaned close to Siren, smiling at the siren’s bewitching face: “Two hundred super-dreadnoughts, only two have completed power system modifications—only two are capable of normal combat. The other one hundred and ninety-eight dreadnoughts are all just decoys.”
Siren was stunned. He laughed and cursed: “So the fleet Ducat is leading is just for show?”
Gu Xichen frowned: “Yes, just to scare people.”
He began counting on his fingers, speaking slowly and clearly: “Even if all the dreadnoughts had their power systems modified, we still couldn't fight the Romans.”
He counted on his fingers, emphasizing each word: “For each dreadnought to reach maximum combat effectiveness, it requires two and a half million crew members. We have two hundred dreadnoughts. We need five hundred million crew members, dear Siren. Five hundred million—not fifty thousand, not five hundred thousand—five hundred million well-trained crewmen and soldiers!”
Siren’s eyes glazed over. He stared blankly at Gu Xichen, utterly speechless.
Gu Xichen stated each word deliberately: “We hold a certain advantage, but we do not have an absolute strategic advantage. The enemy is powerful, and the road ahead is rough.”
Gu Xichen turned toward Prince Friederich and said slowly: “That Pol Pot already commands a force capable of matching me. If that weren't the case, why would I have taken the risk of calculating against the Holy See and the Pantheon of Gods?”
Clatter, clatter. Gu Xichen’s personal terminal chimed.
Poison Wolf’s stern face appeared on the screen.
“Brother, General Xiao Liefeng and Councilor Xiao Yusheng wish to see you.”
Sixth update. Even chapters of this length are not small, comrades, where are the monthly votes? For the rest of the story, please log in to [Website Address] for more chapters. Support the author.
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