36: Flaming Horseshoe

“Boom!!!”

Countless chaotic and fragmented memories, Li Ke a bursting dam, surged into Li Ke's mind.

Hypocritical banquets among nobles...

Bloody transactions in dark secret rooms...

Secrets of the Flame Hoof Bloodline Legacy...

Li Ke remained expressionless, allowing these miscellaneous information to flow through him, precisely filtering, stripping, and extracting the parts he needed.

A moment later,

Baron Varnes's body slumped softly onto the snow, his eyes wide open, retaining extreme fear and unwillingness.

Li Ke withdrew his finger, his eyes as calm as an ancient well.

He turned his head to look at Hatties behind him.

“Bring those bundles over.”

“Yes, my Lord.”

Hatties immediately stepped forward, untying the bundles that Baron Varnes and his guards had carried while fleeing, and respectfully handed them to Li Ke.

Li Ke casually opened one, and it was indeed filled with gold, silver, and jewels, along with some seemingly valuable antique ornaments.

He had little interest in these, only sifting out a few crystals emitting faint energy fluctuations, and a strange, pigeon-egg-sized, fiery red gem with what looked Li Ke molten lava flowing inside.

According to Baron Varnes's memory, this 【Hathera Gem】 was well-known in noble circles and had high collection value.

This single gem alone was enough to buy almost half of Charles Manor.

However, for Li Ke, this was merely a high-energy crystal that could accelerate his Cultivation speed.

He opened another bundle.

Inside, besides some gold pounds, there was a thick book wrapped in unknown beast hide.

The pages were yellowed, and ancient Empire characters recorded the core Legacy of the Varnes Family: 【Flame Hoof Knight Breathing Method】.

Li Ke casually flipped through a few pages.

The Flame Hoof Bloodline focused on speed and explosive power, and its attacks could inflict scorching flame damage, making it a decent Legacy among many Bloodline Knight paths.

Unfortunately, the Bloodline concentration of the Varnes Family descendants in recent generations was too low, preventing them from unleashing the true power of this Breathing Method, thus wasting this Legacy.

Li Ke put the book away as well.

“Let's go, let's take a look at Varnes Manor.”

Hatties nodded silently, re-tying all the bundles and throwing them onto the carriage, then skillfully driving the horses in the direction Baron Varnes had come from.

......

The carriage slowly entered Varnes Manor.

The Manor was eerily silent, with severed limbs and withered, twisted human figures everywhere, looking terrifying.

“Hehehehe...”

“Giggle giggle...”

At the highest spire of the castle, the Spirit boy and girl sensed Li Ke's arrival and let out joyful, eerie laughter.

Li Ke boneless puppets, they climbed down from the spire with an extremely grotesque posture, using both hands and feet, and walked towards Li Ke.

In a shadow next to the carriage, something wriggled, and a dark, tall figure flickered past.

Hatties's body instantly tensed, the knuckles of his hands gripping the reins turning white.

Although he had long anticipated his Lord's bizarre and unpredictable methods, and had even witnessed some firsthand, the current situation still somewhat exceeded his understanding.

A hint of struggle appeared in his eyes, but he quickly relaxed, as if he had understood something, no longer clinging to his preconceived notions.

Seeing this scene, a look of interest flashed in Li Ke's eyes.

He had originally thought that Hatties would break free from the Phantom Building Fist's restraint under this mental Shock, as his Phantom Building Fist Realm had not recovered much, and the intensity of his mental control was actually very low, more of a psychological guidance and hypnosis.

But unexpectedly, Hatties seemed to have no intention of resisting this hypnosis; in fact, to some extent, he actively strengthened this effect, rationalizing the unreasonable and incongruous perceptions on his own.

This made Li Ke feel the complexity of human nature.

“Go find valuables in the Manor, we'll take them back with us.”

Li Ke ordered indifferently.

“Yes, my Lord.”

Hatties responded softly, quickly jumping off the carriage and beginning to search the corpse-strewn Manor.

In fact, most of the valuable and portable resources had already been sorted out by Baron Varnes for Li Ke during his escape.

What Hatties was doing now was more about filling in the gaps, finding some large assets that had not been transferred or were inconvenient to carry.

Li Ke, on the other hand, walked alone into the Varnes Family castle.

The interior of the castle was also a mess, with solidified bloodstains everywhere.

Li Ke, familiar with the layout, came to a study on the second floor.

The furnishings of the study were still relatively intact, only the bookshelf had collapsed, and books were scattered all over the floor.

Li Ke walked behind the desk, reached out and gently pressed an inconspicuous relief on the wall, then twisted a mechanism.

Creak...

The floor next to the desk silently slid to one side, revealing a dark, gloomy staircase leading underground.

Li Ke walked down the stairs.

Below was a not-so-large secret room.

The secret room was very clean, with almost no debris visible, but a faint, old, and persistent smell of blood still lingered in the air.

Li Ke's gaze fell on a peculiarly textured parchment on the stone platform in the center of the secret room.

This parchment was dull yellow, with curled edges, and twisted patterns drawn on it with dark red pigment, making one feel uncomfortable at first glance.

In Baron Varnes's memory, he found some very interesting information: the Varnes Family actually had some connection and collusion with the Holy Meal Society...

Speaking of which, the Varnes Family had a long Legacy, and their inherent extraordinary Bloodline was not bad, but in recent generations, no descendant with a sufficiently high Bloodline concentration had appeared.

This led to a sharp decline in the Family's strength and a gap in their extraordinary power.

To continue the Family Bloodline, the Varnes Family had tried many methods, but all were in vain.

Finally, they connected with the Holy Meal Society through the Mist, exchanging a bloody and bizarre “Nutrient Supplement Secret Method” at a high cost.

This Secret Method could condense Bloodline by sacrificing multiple Family descendants and then giving it to a young descendant to consume, using the principle of “Li Ke nourishes Li Ke,” thereby forcibly cultivating a descendant with a relatively higher Bloodline concentration.

That young Knight, Carl, was born this way, though he was just a waste.

Li Ke picked up the strange parchment from the stone platform; this was the “Nutrient Supplement Secret Method” that the Varnes Family had traded from the Holy Meal Society.

Li Ke was somewhat interested in this Secret Method, which could forcibly condense high-concentration extraordinary Bloodline.

He rolled up the parchment, put it away, and turned to leave the secret room.

Outside, Hatties had already collected most of the valuable resources that could be taken away, filling two empty carriages found in the Varnes Manor stables.

Li Ke got into his simple carriage.

Hatties led the other two carriages with ropes, and with a “thump-thump-thump,” they left Varnes Manor.