Chapter 1 Baptiste's Transformation

Baptiste had indeed forgotten most things, including Beatrice's name and a large portion of his own life experiences—in fact, he knew nothing except who he was and that he had to come to Purgatory to find someone. As for the necessary knowledge to be a wizard, it was engraved in the magic core within him. Such a wizard, having completely transformed himself, was difficult to categorize. Hesperianna didn't even know whether to consider him human or undead, an alchemical construct or an elemental being, or even whether to regard him as the "Baptiste" he once was.

In a sense, Baptiste had died eight centuries ago, when he first transformed his life form. Now, what stood before them was merely an alchemical magic core created by that wizard before his death, covered with a layer of ash-made skin, and filled with an obsession that even he himself didn't understand.

Baptiste maintained an instinctive vigilance towards everyone. Although his memory was now a blank slate, he hadn't become a harmless and honest person as depicted in most stories. This wizard knew well when his memory was complete that he would become an enemy of humanity, so he set a series of combat instincts and suspicious personalities towards strangers in the magic core. This way, even if he lost his memory, he wouldn't easily fall into the trap of demon hunters or other enemies. However, these settings were ultimately limited; he couldn't escape everyone's sight here.

Duncan and Cassandra came to the wizard, inquiring about his situation in detail. The latter answered some things in a daze—although he subconsciously resisted Duncan and Cassandra, the memory loss made this resistance not too serious.

"He thinks he's a wizard's apprentice," Cassandra emphasized the word "apprentice" when reporting to Hesperianna. "He only retains sporadic memories of when he was human. He has forgotten the experiences of the eight centuries after transforming into… this strange form. He doesn't even remember what Doomil Town is. He only vaguely remembers following a witch to learn secret arts, and also depending on that witch for life."

"That witch should be Beatrice," Hesperianna said, subconsciously rubbing her brow. "It seems that this wizard was just an apprentice when Beatrice fell into Purgatory. No wonder his undead transformation had such big problems; he must have been too hasty. What else did you find out?"

"Almost nothing. He doesn't remember what he's done," Cassandra shook her head slightly apologetically. "But he seems to know that what he did was definitely not a good thing. Maybe there are some sporadic impressions left."

Hao Ren bent down in front of Baptiste, staring into his eyes, "Do you know what the ritual to summon the Blood King is?"

"Blood King?" Baptiste repeated the word confusedly. "What's that?"

Hao Ren clicked his tongue in disappointment. Just as he was about to stand up, he saw Baptiste, in a dazed state, extend his finger and draw a magic circle on the mud ground, while muttering: "It takes two people to perform the ritual, using a magic book, and placing bat teeth in these corner positions and…"

Hao Ren stared wide-eyed: "Don't you not know?"

"I don't know what this is," Baptiste frowned, "but this seems to be what you're asking about."

Vivian patted Hao Ren's shoulder: "He engraved the knowledge of magic in his body, so even if he has amnesia, he can continue to find a way to open the gates of Purgatory. But I'm afraid you can't ask him how he studied this summoning ritual."

Hao Ren stared at Baptiste for a while, then suddenly stood up and exhaled, "Take him to Beatrice's grave."

Soon, the wizard was escorted by two tribal warriors to the vicinity of the temple inside the Eternal Pillar. They stopped in front of the tombs of the past saintesses, and Hao Ren pulled Baptiste to Beatrice's burial place, pointing to the inconspicuous pile of stones: "This is the person you're looking for."

Baptiste slowly bent down in front of the tomb, reaching out to touch the strange words on the stone pillar with a bewildered expression. He had no real feeling at the moment, because he didn't even know the name or appearance of the person he was looking for. But slowly, he seemed to feel a sense of peace rising from the bottom of his heart, as if a long-standing mission had finally been completed, and he let out a long breath.

This chaotic, bizarre, mysterious, and elusive wizard sat down cross-legged in front of the grave, and a burst of black flames slowly rose from his body, engulfing him, but he seemed to be unaware. Under the gaze of everyone, the wizard quickly turned into a pile of ashes, and this time, he would never return.

With a soft "clatter," a hard and ugly obsidian device rolled out of Baptiste's ashes. Its shape was a bit like a human heart, and its surface was carved with dense runes and magic circles. This hard thing was the wizard's heart. The black flames just now had no temperature, and the obsidian heart was therefore ice-cold, just like Beatrice's tombstone.

Lily gently tugged on Hao Ren's sleeve, and murmured, "Is he really dead this time?"

"Probably," Hao Ren stepped forward and picked up the cold, hard heart. It was hard to imagine that a person could survive for eight centuries relying on such a thing. Then he looked at Gazel and Bernia beside him, "Although it's a bit presumptuous—but could you please put this heart in Beatrice's tomb?"

Vivian also took the initiative to speak: "That's what I want too."

Gazel immediately bowed to Vivian: "According to your will."

Several tribal warriors and Bernia stepped forward together to prepare to open Beatrice's tomb. Bernia untied a small bag from her waist, took out some strange green powder from it and sprinkled it into the air, and then began to recite a prayer to comfort the dead. The green powder seemed to emit starlight like fireflies in the sound of the prayer, slowly gathering on the tomb stone pillar and covering Beatrice's name. After completing this ritual, the tribal warriors began to clear the heavy stones together—there were established rules for opening the tombs of the dead in this world.

The tombs in this world were unusually simple. Whether it was an ordinary tribesman or a saintess and elder of the clan, their tombs were simply a stone mound. Therefore, the stones were quickly cleared, revealing the dark tomb below. The witch buried hundreds of years ago and her coffin had long rotted away. There were only some messy remains in the tomb. After a few tribal warriors whispered comfort to these remains, they threw Baptiste's obsidian heart down. But just as they were preparing to close the tomb, Vivian suddenly saw something in the tomb out of the corner of her eye.

"Wait—there seems to be something there."

As Vivian spoke, she summoned a few small bats at random. The small bats flew into the tomb and worked together to clear away the stones and bones covering a certain item, and finally brought up a strange piece of scarlet crystal.

Vivian took the crystal from the small bat's mouth and looked at it carefully, feeling vaguely familiar. Nangong Wuyue next to her asked curiously, "What is this?"

"It seems to be an ornament that the witch wore on her body," Bernia said softly, "I saw it in an ancient book, saying that the witch always wore a red crystal pendant, and she drew magic power from this pendant to treat people—but in the end, she still couldn't cure herself."

"Pendant? Why do I feel this kind of crystal is a bit familiar…" Vivian frowned and racked her brains to think about where she had seen something similar. Suddenly, she sensed a breath that was about to dissipate completely from the crystal, and her eyes lit up, "That's right! I remember! There's also something like this in the small box Paul gave me!"

Paul was one of Vivian's servants hundreds of years ago. He kept several items that Vivian had given him before her last sleep, including Vivian's diary manuscripts and a strange red crystal.

However, no one knew what the crystal was used for at the time. Vivian carried it with her for a while and didn't find anything special about it, so she simply gave it to Hao Ren—she thought Hao Ren's personal space was safer than her own.

Hao Ren quickly took out the crystal and compared it with the crystal in Beatrice's tomb. He found that although the shapes and sizes were different, the materials were exactly the same!

"This crystal should be mine…" Vivian looked at Beatrice's tomb in surprise, "Do I know this witch named Beatrice?"