“My identity, at least in the black market, is no secret… Although it won’t betray me outright, for safety’s sake, I shouldn’t return to that inn anymore!”
Wu Ming always prepared meticulously for any endeavor. When he left this time, he carried with him not only the credentials of a freeman but also money and equipment, making it easy for him to leave immediately without hesitation or entanglement, not even needing to return to the inn.
“Let’s go… We’ll leave the city!”
Wu Ming said to Beatrice, “A freeman adventurer plus a girl covered in sores—that combination is a bit too conspicuous… We’ll return after curing your wounds. With the current volume of people coming and going in Howling City, it will be next to impossible for them to find us again…”
…
Beatrice felt deeply ashamed.
As a thirteen-year-old girl born into nobility, she had already started menstruating and was of an age to be betrothed, ready to take on the responsibilities of a wife and mother.
Yet now, she was nearly naked, soaking in hot water before a strange man.
The man who bought her looked very young, probably not even twenty, yet surprisingly powerful. She could never forget the image of him casually killing six black-clad men as if strolling in a garden.
If only she had possessed such strength back then, perhaps her family wouldn’t have suffered such a fate.
Unfortunately, this self-proclaimed William was a bastard with no nobility or manners to speak of!
After leaving Howling City, he had brought her to this cave and prepared a pot of strange hot water.
The smell of mixed roots and animal entrails, which would have made the former young lady faint at the slightest whiff, now surrounded her as if she were being boiled into a stew.
“Are you going to eat me?”
Wu Ming finally heard Beatrice speak.
“I almost thought you were mute!”
Amused, he asked, “Why would you think that?”
“Don’t witches in stories always do that?”
Beatrice replied matter-of-factly.
“I need to clarify a few points: first, I’m not a witch! Second, I have absolutely no interest in eating you! Third, climb out and wash yourself thoroughly, then apply this all over—don’t miss a single fingernail!”
Wu Ming handed Beatrice a basin of something resembling soot. “Don’t forget… You’re my slave now! You must obey me!”
“Yes, sir!”
Beatrice climbed out, wiped her body, and applied the dark-gray soot.
Clearly, she was a clever girl who had already realized this person wanted to heal her, and she had the desire to survive.
“He must be a highly skilled physician…”
As Beatrice smeared herself into a little black figure, feeling the pain on her skin ease somewhat, she mused silently.
The previous slave owner had also sought many people to heal her—doctors, apothecaries, scholars, even priests from the church… Unfortunately, wave after wave of hopeful visitors could only leave in disappointment, and eventually, even the slave owner himself gave up.
“A blue-blooded aristocrat, with seemingly quite pure blood—excellent material…”
Wu Ming mused silently, taking out a glass vial the size of a thumb.
Inside the vial, a single drop of pale yellow grease lay still, semi-solid.
“The essential element for a knight’s initiation—Holy Oil…”
He murmured softly, uncorking the bottle.
A fragrant and crisp aroma spread out, tinged with a slight sharpness.
“Essence of vanilla orchid, stone snake orchid…”
Wu Ming mused silently, naming two ingredients. “And a hint of something unusual—black fish oil…”
What he was doing now was reverse-engineering the formula for Holy Oil to uncover the secret of the knight’s initiation.
“A knight’s initiation requires three elements: physical limits, mental requirements, and Holy Oil—none can be missing… The final secret ingredient in the Holy Oil should merely be a catalyst—perhaps directing the activation of life potential…”
A knight’s initiation lasts several days, with the specially prepared Holy Oil applied daily to the body, followed by prayers in a quiet chamber.
In Wu Ming’s view, this was a process of stimulating life potential, or rather, burning life energy for transformation.
With a high-level understanding and grasping the general direction, his progress in researching the Holy Oil was rapid thanks to his accumulated knowledge of herbal medicine. Only the final mysterious ingredient remained unidentified.
“Probably… I’ll have to conduct consumptive research!”
Wu Ming took out a piece of scrap paper, recording his current research findings and listing several branches and hypotheses.
Then, he deftly dipped his finger into the vial, precisely extracting a small amount of Holy Oil.
Cold… then immediately hot.
Feeling the sensation on his fingertip, Wu Ming smiled faintly: “Indeed, it’s the path of burning life potential and breaking limits… To put it in terms of his past life, it’s accelerating cell division and directing evolution?”
“A small amount like this is still too little for a complete bodily transformation…”
He mused, his expression suddenly changing: “No! Wait!”
After the cold and hot sensations, he suddenly felt an odd force in the Holy Oil begin to seep into his fingertip and spread outward.
Unfortunately, the amount was too small and was immediately rejected by Wu Ming’s body.
“This is… the effect of that final mysterious ingredient?”
Wu Ming took a deep breath, beginning to understand: “Bloodline power?”
If this had occurred before his experience in the Divine Martial World, he wouldn’t have been so clear about the composition and source of this power.
But precisely because martial artists in that world ultimately pursued the path of bloodline activation and returning to their roots, and he had achieved the martial arts pinnacle of shattering the void, he had studied martial artists’ bloodlines extensively and was highly sensitive to this.
Therefore, he immediately sensed it now.
“This should be the bloodline of a superior race… exerting suppression and influence over inferior beings and capable of being fixed in the genes to form certain abilities…”
“Some kind of powerful creature’s bloodline?”
Wu Ming quickly figured out the effect of adding this bloodline: “Releasing powerful life energy combustion and providing specific enhanced genes… Relying on bloodline, it’s almost like a sorcerer?”
“This powerful bloodline should be available from any superior being… Perhaps several substitutes can be found, and the formula adjusted accordingly…”
…
“Master… I’m… done!”
As Wu Ming was pondering, a timid voice came.
He saw Beatrice, now resembling a mud monkey, and couldn’t help but laugh: “Hmm… Indeed very even, but… your address?”
Wu Ming pointed at Beatrice’s neck.
That was where she used to wear the slave collar. Although it had been temporarily removed, it didn’t mean Wu Ming had abandoned his authority over her.
After all, he wasn’t some kind-hearted person.
“I can pay a ransom…”
Beatrice bit her lip. Although she had once felt utterly hopeless, she now couldn’t help but feel a glimmer of hope with the possibility of recovery.
“Self-redemption? Don’t forget, the Ross family has already perished…”
Wu Ming smiled faintly: “And even if they left behind any hidden treasures, according to the common laws of the Seer continent, everything created or obtained by a slave belongs to the slave owner… So, do you want to use my property to redeem yourself?”
At these words, Beatrice’s body swayed immediately.
She bit her lip and performed a half-kneeling gesture: “I understand… Master!”
“Good! Recognizing reality clearly!”
Wu Ming nodded in satisfaction: “Come here!”
Beatrice gritted her teeth but still obediently stepped forward, watching Wu Ming take out a fine needle, prick her finger, and squeeze out a drop of blood as red as a garnet.
In the center of the blood drop was a hint of blue, easily overlooked.
“Bloodline of Taler the First, proof of nobility… Blue blood!”
Wu Ming gazed at the drop of blood, his expression suddenly changing, showing both disbelief and delight.
“It’s actually…”
He looked at the vial containing the Holy Oil, his face showing complex emotions: “The final mysterious ingredient… is the inherited bloodline of the blue-blooded nobility?”
Wu Ming immediately had a guess.
The original conqueror, the King of the Windfire Plains, Taler the First, must have been an extremely powerful bloodline user!
With unparalleled strength, he conquered the Windfire Plains and embedded the seed of power as a gift within his bloodline, passing it on to his descendants. This was the origin of all blue-blooded nobility!
“Ordinary blue-blooded nobles usually have quite diluted bloodlines, often in a recessive state… The Holy Oil is the catalyst that transforms this recessive trait into an active force, and through formulation, becomes the trigger for activating life potential and breaking through the extraordinary…”
Wu Ming’s eyes flashed with contemplation: “At least… this is how it’s done among the nobles of the Windfire Plains. This bloodline might be replaceable—dragons, winged snakes… any legendary high-energy beings would work, and naturally, human bloodlines powerful enough to reach a certain limit would also be viable…”
To confirm this hypothesis, all he needed to do was obtain the highland Holy Oil used by Viscount Garcia and compare the differences between the two.
“In that case, this little one has great potential. If her bloodline power can be fully developed…”
The influence of bloodlines diminishes with each generation.
The pure blood of second and third generations might be born with extraordinary traits, but by now, blue-blooded nobles are not much different from ordinary people—except for a slightly higher chance of producing geniuses!
“Those who possess power inevitably hold authority! Blue-bloods are smarter, stronger, and more likely to rise in rank than ordinary people… hence, they have always been nobles!”
Wu Ming speculated that the knight’s initiation was originally a secret method used by nobles to activate their bloodlines.
By introducing the dominant bloodline, they activated their recessive bloodline to gain strength.
Later, this method was extended to ordinary people, thus giving rise to the concept of knighthood!
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