But the voice was no longer human; it sounded more like that of a wild beast.
In He Jinqiu's brown eyes, the pupils had turned into the vertical pupils of a wild beast; everything was heading in the worst possible direction.
The fifth brother sat in front of him and said listlessly, "I thought that after Mr. He from Kyushu injected the drug, he would give me some unusual surprises, but he turned into this beast-like monster. What a pity."
He Jinqiu continued to roar as if he hadn't understood what he was saying, as if he had lost his memory.
The fifth brother laughed and said, "Someone, get him a dead rat. Let's see if he's like the other gray-skinned monsters, eating any kind of flesh and blood."
A soldier carefully approached with a mouse in his hand and offered it to He Jinqiu's mouth. But the next moment, He Jinqiu swung her legs in mid-air and quickly moved closer to the soldier, trapping him between her legs.
The fifth brother was stunned for a moment. He saw the gray-skinned monster clamp the soldier between its legs and bring him to its mouth. It then bit the soldier's neck and tore off a piece of flesh.
Ignoring the soldier's death, the fifth brother clapped his hands and exclaimed, "Brilliant! To still possess such strength after being held captive by the vines, that's interesting!"
The fifth brother stood up: "Now that you've become a beast, you're worthless. It was a waste of my trip... If it weren't for capturing you, the Joker might not have had the chance to be possessed by the third brother."
Thinking of this, the fifth brother was furious and raised his whip to lash He Jinqiu repeatedly.
The whip was made of soft metal wires. Each strike left a deep blood groove on He Jinqiu's body, but the blood that flowed from the groove was a clear liquid, not red blood.
Just then, the fifth brother's phone rang. The Silver Duke said on the phone, "Don't kill He Jinqiu. I still have a use for him."
"Understood, elder brother," the fifth brother said, lashing out a few more times in anger before turning and leaving.
With a loud bang, the dungeon door slammed shut.
He Jinqiu was suspended in mid-air, swaying slightly. On her lowered face, her eyes, which were originally vertical pupils, had returned to normal.
But he was puzzled as to why he hadn't become a monster; he didn't even crave the feeling of flesh and blood.
Just like a normal human being.
It seems that during his time coexisting with cancer cells, he entered some kind of magical realm...
In that dream, he was dangerous.
It's as if if someone in his dream tells him to give up and regret it, he will turn into a monster.
However, the old squad leader in his dreams always had a simple and direct way to pull him out of his despair.
Don't want to run five or ten kilometers? The old squad leader pulls him along, and he can't stop even if he wants to.
Don't want to stand at attention? I'll beat you up first.
Don't want to make your bed? Do 100 squats first, then continue making your bed.
Don't want to practice on the horizontal bar? Then go run 10 kilometers!
He Jinqiu felt as if he was trapped in a loop in his dream, with the old squad leader haunting him relentlessly, refusing to let him go.
Whenever he said he didn't want to be a soldier anymore, they would train him until he vomited, so he wouldn't have time to think about those things...
Eighty percent of the psychological trauma He Jinqiu suffered after enlisting in the army stemmed from Zheng Yuandong…
Finally, on the afternoon He Jinqiu was to leave for the peacekeeping force, he packed his bags and prepared to leave when Zheng Yuandong suddenly came up to him and asked, "Do you still regret it now?"
He Jinqiu said she has no regrets and dares not regret them.
The dream ends here.
The pain and beauty in his dream helped him keep his mind at ease.
Or to be more precise, the old squad leader saved his mind.
That's amazing.
He Jinqiu examined the differences in her body: long, sharp fingernails and fangs in her mouth.
There was still a faint heartbeat inside my body.
He couldn't sense the presence of the Jade Heart Sword, but he could feel the superhuman strength within his body. If he were freed from the ropes and the hooks on his collarbone, he might be even stronger than before.
He saw that the whip marks he had just received from the fifth brother had healed rapidly in just a few minutes.
Is this the power of cancer cells?
At this moment, He Jinqiu recalled what Lao Wu had said earlier.
Possession of the Joker...
These black knights actually...possessed Qing Chen?!
This is perhaps the only thing that has made me happy in the past two days.
So, the third brother I met when I was taken off the airship was probably Qing Chen in disguise.
Once the enemy sees him, they will definitely come to his rescue. Moreover, there is a demigod and eleven A-rank beings here. Not only that, this is also the headquarters of the Black Knights, with ferocious war robots, countless drones, armed helicopters, and airships.
Trying to rescue someone here would likely be extremely risky, with only a slim chance of survival.
No, we can't wait for Qingchen to save us; we have to save ourselves.
It wasn't that He Jinqiu was arrogant enough to think he could definitely escape from here, but rather that Qing Chen had already been in danger for him once, and he didn't want to owe someone another favor.
Since you're already in such a terrible state, don't drag others down with you.
...
...
Inside the Black Knights headquarters above the dungeon.
The Silver Duke sat in a soft leather sofa, gently swirling a glass of amber-colored whiskey in his hand. Opposite him sat a Virtuoso dressed in a black robe.
The fortune teller said, "Where's the poisoned wine cup? You've had it for so many years, shouldn't you return it?"
The Silver Duke asked curiously, "What poisoned wine cup?"
The Fate Master sneered: "Trying to break the contract?"
The Silver Duke shook his head: "It's not that I wanted to break the contract, but that you broke it first. According to the agreement, you were supposed to hand the Joker over to me personally, but suddenly something unexpected happened. Your royal family's fifth princess, the Fate Master, actually wanted to take the Joker away!"
The Virtuoso frowned. What was really disgusting about this was that the King hadn't explicitly said he wanted to kill Vera, so Vera remained a member of the royal family and a member of the Virtuoso.
Vera's intervention is tantamount to the royal family taking action.
The Fate Master said solemnly, "The poisoned wine cup is very important, and the Joker is already in your hands. I hope you will carefully consider this decision and not bring disaster upon yourself."
The Silver Duke laughed: "Threatening me? It won't work. You can kill me and then let your seven ancestors lie in bed for a few hundred more years. Maybe they will wake up naturally."
This poisoned cup is out of the question. You see, if the Roosevelt royal family gets their hands on it, they could summon seven old monsters at any moment for a desperate fight.
Seven demigods of the Fate Masters, who could stand that?
Even if these old monsters were to come back to life, they would only be able to fight one battle before dying.
But this thing is like nuclear deterrence; as long as it exists, the Silver Duke's plan to establish a nation in the Eastern Continent cannot be implemented.
But how did this poisoned wine cup end up in the hands of the Silver Duke?
More than two hundred years ago, the seventh princess of the royal family fell in love with the Silver Duke. The Silver Duke played along with her, taking the seventh princess on trips around the country and bewitching her.
The royal family did not agree to the marriage, so the Silver Duke tricked the seventh princess by saying that if she stole the poisoned wine cup from her father's side, he would be forced to agree to the marriage.
Afterwards, the Seventh Princess actually stole the poisoned wine cup for him.
After obtaining the poisoned wine cup, the Silver Duke turned his back on them, and the Seventh Princess, under condemnation from within the royal family, hanged herself.
The Fate Master stood up with a cold laugh: "It seems that the Silver Duke still has no intention of handing over the poisoned wine cup. Back then, you used despicable means to obtain this forbidden object and hid it away like a treasure... The royal family knows all of your real names."
The Silver Duke downed his whiskey in one gulp: "Then kill me with my real name, let me take all my secrets to my grave... But, does the royal family know our birthdays? If not, we'll just have to create some trouble."
“Then we’ll wait and see,” the Fate Master said with a smile. “That Joker, we can give it to you, and we can destroy it as well. We know what you’re trying to do, but it’s just wishful thinking.”
The Silver Duke frowned.
"Oh no!" he suddenly stood up and strode outside. "Prepare the airship, let's go find the third brother!"
He realized what the royal family was up to: they wanted to use all the forces they had planted in Silver City to destroy the third brother, which meant destroying the Joker's body and memories.
No, the Joker's secrets haven't been fully uncovered yet; they haven't even mastered the Breathing Technique!
The third brother can't die!
The Fate Master slowly stood up, walked out of the Black Knights headquarters with a cold smile, and boarded his airship to leave Silver City.
...
...
After leaving the Black Knights headquarters, Qing Chen did not go home. Instead, he sat in the convoy and let the convoy drive around the city in circles.
This is to remember the way to Silver City.
He searched through the third brother's memories in the car, and found many secrets.
For example, the second son once slept with the ninth son's wife.
For example, the Silver Duke once had the third son secretly kill the apprentices of the second and fifth sons.
For example, the fifth brother once wanted to kill the third brother, and even wanted to kill the Silver Duke when he possessed his disciple. In the end, the Silver Duke was saved by the third brother.
There is much more information above, but Qingchen felt it was not enough to shake the foundation of the entire Black Knights Order.
But there are two most important pieces of information:
The first piece of information is that the third brother knows the real names of all the Black Knights.
It's not just jesters and judges who need real names; marionettes need them too!
On the Roosevelt continent, everyone was forced to live in anonymity by the Fates and the Arbiters, using code names whenever possible and never using their real names.
Even if Qingchen's marionette grew a seventh thread, it would still be useless.
Now, Qingchen is willing to call this information the most valuable aspect of Lao San.
The second piece of information left Qingchen feeling somewhat suffocated. He learned from the third brother's memories about the existence of the seven old monsters, the Fate Masters, and that the Silver Duke had stolen the Poison Cup, preventing the seven old monsters from reviving. He also learned that the Poison Cup was hidden in a place known only to himself!
The Black Knights' deal with the royal family this time was to exchange him for the poisoned cup!
No, we can't let the Virtuoso get his hands on the poisoned cup. We must kill the Silver Duke and make him take the secret of the poisoned cup to his grave.
Otherwise, if seven more Fate Master demigods suddenly appeared, the Eastern Continent would be in danger!
However, at that moment, a war robot suddenly fell from the front and landed right on the hood of Qing Chen's vehicle.
With a loud bang, the long, bulletproof car's rear end was lifted off the ground by this stomp!