Chapter 1 Constance Leads the Way

Under Constance's lead, the group left the lord's castle and boarded an elevator hidden deep within the mountain, which took them directly to the heart of Frostwind City.

Their destination was the "Old Imperial Palace."

"Here?" Vivian's face showed a hint of surprise as she looked at the building, now a historical landmark. "This is where the Black Sword Knights undergo their transformation ritual?"

"Strictly speaking, it's in the basement," Constance said with a slight smile. "And it's where they *used* to perform the transformation ritual."

Hao Ren suddenly recalled his earlier discovery: beneath the Old Imperial Palace was a weak energy source constantly emitting pulsating waves.

He had originally planned to find an opportunity to investigate the Old Imperial Palace today to see what secrets were hidden beneath it. But he didn't expect to have a legitimate opportunity to enter the building before he could even put his plan into action—plans never keep up with change.

With Constance leading the way, the group easily entered the Old Imperial Palace. As they passed through the palace's ancient and magnificent front hall, Constance spoke about the palace's history: "It has been thousands of years since Frostwind City served as the Dragonguard Imperial Capital. To ordinary humans, that's hundreds of generations—so even the most knowledgeable scholars don't fully understand the city's oldest parts.

"People only know that there's an Old Imperial Palace in this old capital, but few know that the Black Sword Knights' first Saint Armory was also in this city, hidden beneath the Old Imperial Palace."

Hao Ren's ears perked up at the words "Saint Armory": "As far as I know, all the black mechanical swords come from the Saint Armory. They were forged and stored here, so for the Black Sword Knights, whose very bodies are swords, the Saint Armory is their true barracks and headquarters."

"That's right, and I'll add one more thing: the Saint Armory isn't just for forging and storing mechanical swords. It's also a… sacred tomb."

Constance spoke solemnly. Standing before her were two fully armed Broken Sword Knights, guarding a door in the Old Imperial Palace that looked no different from any other.

But Hao Ren could sense that one of the energy pulse emitters was behind that door.

Constance was acting through another's body, but the Broken Sword Knights seemed to have a special connection to their master. The two knights standing at the door immediately straightened up and saluted respectfully: "Your Highness!"

"Open the door," Constance nodded. "I'm taking some honored guests to the Saint Armory."

The guard knights immediately obeyed without hesitation. They simultaneously activated the magic devices on either side of the door. The heavy door, which looked like an ancient relic, made a series of mechanical grinding noises as it slowly retreated to either side.

The entrance to the Saint Armory appeared before them.

It was a cylindrical hall, with countless neatly arranged metal prisms embedded in the hall's circular walls. In the center of the hall was a metal platform raised a few centimeters above the ground. As Constance stepped inside, the hall's sensor lights lit up. With a series of soft sounds as magic power was injected, the magic lamps installed throughout the hall brightened, quickly making the place as bright as day.

Although the place had been abandoned for thousands of years, its interior was still as clean as new. This showed two things: first, someone regularly cleaned and maintained the place; second, the materials and construction techniques used in the building were far beyond the current era.

"When the capital was moved south, the real Saint Armory was relocated along with it, along with all the mechanical swords and most of the forging, infusion, storage, calculation, and transformation equipment. All that's left here is an empty shell and some old-model facilities that were difficult to dismantle and move," Constance said as she walked towards the round platform in the center of the room. The two Broken Sword Knights guarded the door from the outside, closing it behind them. "But even so, the Old Saint Armory still has many things that can be used. Plus, what the Inheritors inherit is knowledge, not material wealth, so given enough time, we can rebuild many things from scratch. And I used that knowledge to build some new equipment here, and after connecting them to the old database… they can be used."

Constance stepped onto the platform. A soft female voice echoed through the room: "External connection detected… administrator authentication passed. All systems are standing by, ready to receive commands."

Constance waved to Hao Ren and his group: "Come on, I'll show you what the part we inherited is like."

The group stepped onto the platform, which trembled slightly and began to sink slowly into the floor.

Lily opened her eyes wide and let out her signature little exclamation in a drawn-out voice: "Wow…"

After sinking a short distance, a vast underground space appeared before everyone's eyes. Hao Ren saw a cavern like an inverted giant bowl outside the clear vertical shaft. Part of the cavern's outer wall was covered with heavy alloy, but some areas had exposed rock. In the underground space, they could see many layered areas, with all sorts of massive and unknown equipment installed in each area, forming various fully functional… production lines.

It was like an ancient factory filled with alien technology.

"That's the old foundry," Constance said, pointing to one of the areas. In that area, they could see several precision large-scale devices installed on bases, with conveyor belts and a large number of pipes and cables connected behind them. "Mechanical swords were forged there, but to be honest, the forging of the mechanical swords themselves is the simplest and most superficial part of this place… Although some special materials were used, they were still just mass-produced goods."

"So the constraint on the number of mechanical swords isn't the technical difficulty or the limited raw materials for the sword bodies," Hao Ren immediately realized. "Then what determines the number 'seven hundred seventy thousand'… is probably the soul."

Having gathered enough information, seen the Grand Duke Owen's condition, and witnessed his plan to transform himself into a Black Sword Knight, Hao Ren had guessed seven or eight parts of the essence of the Black Sword Knights. When he said this casually, he hit the truth.

"That's right, souls," Constance nodded gently and pointed to another area below. "Seven hundred seventy thousand immortal heroic spirits… they used to slumber in that place, waiting to be infused into the spirit energy core of the Black Swords."

Hao Ren looked in the direction she was pointing and saw dozens of black cubes arranged neatly. The black cubes were placed on platforms made of alloy, surrounded by countless glowing cables. On each cube, they could see faint lights flickering.

And in the even wider space around those cubes were empty platforms and disconnected lines—obviously, the cubes left behind were only a small part of the original massive number, and most had been moved away.

"There used to be seven hundred and seventy servers here, but most of them have been moved to the new Saint Armory in the south. The remaining ones are servers that malfunctioned during long-term operation and were therefore not worth moving. The souls inside have been migrated, and the machines themselves are in standby mode. I've repaired a small part of them, but to be honest, they're not very useful anymore."

Vivian frowned slightly: "Because there are no souls to use, right?"

"Where did those souls come from?" Hao Ren asked. "If I'm not mistaken, it's the last Epoch…"

"That's right, the warriors of the last Epoch," Constance nodded. "In the last Epoch transition, my imperial father led his legions to defeat the former heroes who had turned into monsters. The warriors who followed him to the end were those seven hundred seventy thousand—almost ninety percent of them weren't Inheritors, but they were still able to cross the Epoch transition and retain the memory of one reincarnation thanks to the power of the Staff of Authority. When the Old Epoch ended, the world was destroyed and reshaped again, and seven hundred seventy thousand souls came to this new world with my imperial father. After many years, my imperial father completed the technology of soul infusion and transformation, allowing them to reappear in the world as Black Sword Knights."

Lily frowned, thought hard, and suddenly realized: "So, you choose the strongest and most excellent soldiers to train as Black Sword Knights, and you're actually using their bodies as containers, right—then did you erase their original souls?!"

As soon as Lily said this, Hao Ren, Vivian, and Leah immediately looked at Constance seriously: this was a very serious matter.

"Of course not," Constance naturally expected them to have this question and immediately shook her head with a smile. "It's a contract."

Hao Ren: "A contract?"

"The original soul is always the most suitable for controlling a body, so Black Sword Knights must retain their original souls. The most important part of the infusion ritual is actually a soul attunement contract: an ancient soul from the previous Epoch, an original soul from the modern era, two souls communicate to jointly control the body and weapon. The ancient soul is responsible for providing knowledge, skills, and experience, while the modern soul is responsible for the specific control and thought process. After complex fusion and adaptation, both souls will be completely extracted and injected into the mechanical sword, becoming a composite AI—that's how the Black Sword Knight is born," Constance explained the process. "Of course, not everyone succeeds, and not everyone accepts. The Black Sword Knight transformation ritual has always had a significant mortality rate, and some trainee knights develop resistance after learning the contents of the contract—since even the slightest resistance greatly increases the probability of failure, those who are unwilling to accept are mind-wiped and dismissed for various reasons. The usual explanation is… trial failure."

Hao Ren raised an eyebrow: "You're quite humane in this regard."

"Humane? No, we've simply chosen the most effective method," Constance said calmly. "We chose this plan only because the control efficiency is higher and more robust after the two souls are fused. If retaining the original soul were unnecessary, we would erase those souls without hesitation."