Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Backed by the newly appeared lavender mecha, Luo Wenqing feigned ignorance. "What setup? I don't know what you're talking about."

"The Valkyrie, a top-tier mythological mecha from the Nordic series. I presume Miss Isabella is currently piloting it."

In just a few concise words, Eve exposed the lavender mecha's origins, then cast a half-smile at Luo Wenqing. "Last night, Sister Wenqing was complaining that I was unfair, yet you're the one who closed three deals at once and are now blaming me. Or perhaps, as expected of the Luo family heir, your business acumen is truly impressive."

Seeing through her pretense, Luo Wenqing readily admitted it, answering frankly: "Yes, but isn't this excellent? The Medici Patriarch wanted your combat records, so I arranged for another chief deity-level mythological mecha to serve as his sparring partner. Isabella wished to witness the S-class Mental State, the Luna Butterfly, so I invited you on her behalf. And you, as a participant in both, acquired Hecate. Everyone benefits—what's wrong with that?"

"It sounds that way, but Hecate was originally purchased by the Medici family, so it shouldn't be counted as part of this three-way transaction. As for the Luo family acting as the middleman, you've certainly pocketed an extra profit."

Eve calmly pointed at the Luo family researchers on the high platform. "—Those aren't just mecha researchers up there, but Mental State researchers too, aren't they?"

"You also want to collect information on the Luna Butterfly."

She looked at Luo Wenqing, leaving unsaid that, by this calculation, the Luo family still owed her a reward.

Isabella, seated in the Valkyrie’s cockpit, frowned upon hearing this and attempted to call Luo Wenqing privately, but Luo Wenqing dismissed the call without a glance.

After observing Eve for a moment, Luo Wenqing’s slightly frivolous smile faded.

Luo Wenqing stated calmly: "I was inconsiderate. I'll arrange other compensation for you later, little Eve."

"Sister Wenqing is so kind," Eve said, grinning broadly. It was easy to converse with someone so understanding. Since Luo Wenqing had said so, Eve willingly climbed into Hecate.

Just before the canopy fully sealed, she leaned out again and said to Luo Wenqing, "But there is something I need your help with. It's nothing excessive—just promise you'll keep it a secret for me, okay?"

"What..."

Before Luo Wenqing could finish her question, Isabella, who had been waiting impatiently in her mecha on the other side, saw that Eve had already entered her mecha but was still chatting with Luo Wenqing. Her patience had worn thin. She grabbed Luo Wenqing by the collar of her oversized shirt, much like holding a cat by the scruff of its neck, and deposited her outside the combat line.

"I'll agree on her behalf," Isabella’s voice, transmitted through the mecha, was deep and carried a sharp, almost blade-like intensity. "Now, focus your attention on me, your opponent."

The Valkyrie’s right arm extended, wielding a massive and imposing Starfall Sword.

"—What the heck, agreeing on someone else’s behalf just like that."

Luo Wenqing, wearing sandals, walked "clip-clopping" from outside the protection line toward the observation platform, complaining only half-heartedly: "I never gave you that authority."

Isabella: "I'm paying."

Luo Wenqing was overjoyed: "Bella, I hereby officially appoint you as the Luo family’s primary spokesperson. No one is allowed to defy you."

Isabella ignored her antics, her gaze fixed intently on Eve as she urged: "Draw your sword. Fight me."

Eve: "...Give me a moment to get accustomed to this mythic mecha."

Just moments ago, when she first linked with Hecate, due to her inexperience, she had connected all her psychic energy without any safeguards. Instantly, it felt as though a black hole had appeared in her consciousness, "crackle" as it drained all her psychic energy.

The connection was established, but Eve awkwardly realized she had no psychic energy left to operate the mecha.

It was a strange sensation—perhaps "operate" wasn’t the right word to describe using a mythological mecha. It was more like merging with the mecha’s body.

Her vision heightened, her senses sharpened. Her breathing and pulse were replaced by the interlocking gears of steel. Her own existence felt infinitely diluted; the physical body in the cockpit seemed strangely foreign, while her soul had been poured into a new body named "Hecate."

Eve tried moving her right hand, and then—

Hecate’s left foot jerked spastically. The tail, which had been hanging behind, suddenly lashed out, slamming against Valkyrie’s leg and sending out a shower of sparks.

Eve: "Uh, my bad. Still getting the hang of it."

Isabella: "..."

She raised her sword expressionlessly: "I think you’ve got the hang of it."

Eve: "No, no, not at all—"

Before she could finish, Isabella was already rushing her with sword raised. Once Valkyrie entered combat mode, its lavender exterior turned into a vibrant red, wreathed in flower-like swirling flames. Eve instinctively dodged to the side but, due to her lack of familiarity, got grazed by the flames. Intense pain jolted through her nerves, though Hecate’s exterior showed no damage.

It was flame that acted directly on the mecha’s operator.

In her panic, she finally drew Hecate’s weapons—a pair of slender Emei daggers extending from the arms. Before she could even comment on the hybrid design, Isabella changed direction, twisting around and charging again. The flame-wreathed crimson Valkyrie resembled a blooming red lotus, bearing down on her menacingly.

No, it wasn't just resembling a red lotus—an enormous flaming red lotus was actually blooming out of thin air, and the mecha stood firmly at its center.

Eve was quite well-versed in Mental States and recognized it at a glance: this was Isabella’s Mental State, the S-class Karmic Red Lotus. Its attacks acted directly on the spirit—the greater the level gap between the attacker and the victim, the more intense the pain.

Isabella possessed S-class psychic power, while Eve, at best, topped out at A+. She was naturally at a disadvantage in this matchup.

Not daring to underestimate the situation, Eve knew that the effects of pain weren’t something one could simply endure, as inspirational stories often claimed. Severe pain could cause damage to neural perception, affecting performance. So, under pressure, Eve had no choice but to call forth the Luna Butterfly.

The moment the platinum butterfly appeared, Hecate’s form shifted and shrank, tucking the mecha’s frame perfectly within the range the Luna Butterfly could control. The silver-and-black mecha blinked out of existence. Valkyrie, losing its target, came to an abrupt halt, looking momentarily disoriented.

From the observation platform, Luo Wenqing raised an eyebrow upon seeing this and instructed the researchers around her: "Record the time from when Miss Medici connected with Hecate until just now when she transformed. Log it as the adaptation period for the mythological mecha."

"Yes, ma'am. Should it be recorded as first-time use of a mythological mecha?"

Recalling what Eve had told her earlier about not having a mythological mecha, Luo Wenqing pondered for a moment before nodding: "Record it as first-time, but change the psychic level to A+."

She also needed to continuously collect new data to further improve the mecha’s psychic energy link threshold.

Meanwhile, Eve clenched her teeth privately. Only now did she realize with alarm that the combat experience of an heir from a military family was nothing like what Cecil, an academic, could match. Isabella had not hesitated to summon her Mental State at the very beginning of the fight. And now, having lost sight of Eve, she only paused in confusion for a moment before making a new decision—she expanded the damage range of the Karmic Red Lotus infinitely.

This move undoubtedly equated to channeling psychic energy like opening a floodgate, but Isabella was betting that the Luna Butterfly’s stealth couldn’t ignore wide-area damage—or that Eve’s mastery of the Luna Butterfly hadn’t reached that level.

In a way, her response was similar to Maria Medici’s.

...And she bet right.

An invisible blade suddenly closed in on Valkyrie, its bright, sharp aura almost bursting from its tip.

Isabella bet that the Luna Butterfly couldn’t immune area damage; in return, Eve bet that Isabella, having expanded the Karmic Red Lotus to such an enormous range, was now running on fumes and would react slowly.

Eve was also afraid that the Karmic Red Lotus’s flames would cause too much pain and affect her accuracy. So, she built up plenty of momentum, relying solely on it to charge into the lotus’s burning zone. Under searing pain, the little psychic energy she had left was entirely focused on maintaining her attack posture.

Her eyes were fixed intently on that crimson focal point, completely unaware that the Luna Butterfly was now firmly perched on Hecate’s shoulder, its wings drawn back. A deep, low-frequency hum pierced through the mythological mecha’s steel armor like a golden arrow shot by the Fate Goddess from afar, striking directly into Isabella’s consciousness.

The sudden resonance scrambled all of Isabella’s thoughts, causing Valkyrie’s movements to stall abnormally.

Under the intense overhead lights, from this strange angle and extremely close distance, Isabella finally slowly caught a glimpse of a cold, gleaming light right before her eyes.

But it was too late.

The Emei daggers suddenly crossed and twisted.

"Bang—!"

Valkyrie was knocked flying meters away like a discarded toy, a deep gash left on its shell. Only the difference in grade between mythological mechas prevented it from being shattered outright by the force.

However, Hecate didn't get off easy either after landing the blow. Eve crawled out of the cockpit, her face contorted in a painful grimace, and immediately collapsed to the ground, curling up in agony.

It hurt—so much that it felt like she had run through fire, her skin torn and bleeding, covered in gruesome scars. Anyone would find it unbearable.

"Eve! Isabella!"

Luo Wenqing hadn't expected the duel between the two to conclude so quickly. The moment Hecate's figure vanished, the karmic flames slowly swept through the surroundings, and in an instant, a sharp, cold light flashed—one red and one white figure were sent flying in opposite directions, and the karmic flames abruptly disappeared.

She hurried down from the observation deck and rushed to help Eve up first—simply because she looked to be in too much pain.

Sweat soaked Eve's silver-white bangs, her eyes tightly shut, her face pale with an unnatural flush. When Luo Wenqing pressed her hand against Eve's forehead, it was burning hot.

A faint blue whale shadow materialized behind Luo Wenqing as she emitted a soft blue glow from her hands. Only when Eve's expression eased slightly did she withdraw her spiritual state.

A slender hand gripped Luo Wenqing's wrist tightly, then pressed a small slip of paper into her palm. She looked down and asked, "What is it?"

"This is a cipher engraved on an alchemical product I purchased from the Alchemist Association," Eve murmured, her eyes still closed, her voice weak but urgent. "Do me a favor, Wenqing. I need a new alchemical product, but it can't be from the Alchemist Association."

The cipher on the slip was copied from the crystal ball Ludwig had given her.

Eve had already confirmed that this cipher contained elements of consciousness projection—and it was obvious where it projected the user's consciousness.

Asking Luo Wenqing directly for black market credentials would be too obvious, so it was better to be indirect. Aside from the Alchemist Association, only the black market dealt in alchemical products. This way, she could reasonably prompt Luo Wenqing to offer black market credentials herself, and might even get a high-quality new alchemical product from her in the process.

Killing two birds with one stone.

With her goal achieved, Eve finally relaxed, sinking into a deep, unconscious slumber.

Over there, Valkyrie had already reverted to its lavender-blue hue, lying upside down and motionless as if pondering life—or perhaps still stunned by the sudden defeat.

Isabella was wondering why she hadn't reacted in that final moment.

Luo Wenqing lifted the temporarily unconscious Eve into her arms and walked over to Valkyrie. With practiced ease, she kicked a specific mechanism on the mech's side. *Click.* Valkyrie emitted a thick cloud of white smoke, and a humanoid figure was ejected from the cockpit.

The figure tumbled stiffly across the ground before landing face-up. A pair of bright golden eyes, now unfocused like an undercharged robot, stared blankly at the ceiling.

"Hey, Isabella," Luo Wenqing said, eyeing her clearly disoriented childhood friend with suspicion. "Did you really get knocked silly? Well, I'll have to demand compensation from the Medici family then."

"Don't disturb me, I'm thinking."

"Thinking about what? About how you damaged Valkyrie and now have to pay our family a hefty sum for repairs?"

"......"

At the mention of repair costs, Isabella finally bothered to look at Luo Wenqing. "Do we always have to make everything about money?"

Luo Wenqing patted her cheek gently. "Can't be helped, dear. Feelings are expensive, you know."

-

By the time Eve woke up, she was already in a Medici family medical pod. As she opened her eyes, the waiting medical staff helped her sit up. Coincidentally, the nurse attending to her was the same physician who had treated her and Grace after the conflict with Cecil.

Still groggy, Eve didn't notice much else—her eyes immediately fixed on the silver-white ring on her right ring finger. It was Hecate's Spatial Ring.

She had actually gotten to keep it.

The physician felt her forehead and asked concernedly, "How are you feeling now? Still unwell?"

Eve lowered her right hand and shook her head. "I'm fine."

"That's good. You suddenly experienced excessive pain, and your neural center couldn't handle such intense stimulation, which is why you fainted. Physically, there's no real injury—at most, you overexerted your spiritual power," the physician said, picking up a pure black envelope sprinkled with gold from the nearby table and handing it to Eve. "Miss Luo brought you back. She said this envelope contains the payment she owes you."

Eve thanked the physician and took the envelope back to her room. Closing the door, she opened it with an unreadable expression. Inside was a small booklet detailing six alchemical products, all crafted by a Four-Star Grand Alchemist. These were also the six highlight auction items for the upcoming black market auction next week.

Luo Wenqing had also sent her a terminal message, telling Eve to choose one of the six items. She could reserve it in advance, and the cost wasn't a concern—Isabella would cover it.

Eve didn’t scrutinize the six incredibly valuable alchemical products just yet. Instead, she flipped to the end of the booklet—a promotional flyer issued by the auction house, which also served as an invitation.

The black market was essentially a dark web. Its URL was no secret, but only registered members could access the site. Membership was invitation-based, with invitations graded into tiers. To facilitate tracking accountability for those who violated black market rules, all black market accounts could be traced back to their inviters through invitation codes—a kind of mutual guarantor system.

Eve smoothed out the slightly thick folded corner of the booklet, then slid her slender fingers inside, prying open the oddly placed adhesive layer. The moment she saw the string of codes hidden within, her lips curled into an involuntary smile of delight.

—It was a black market invitation code, with the Luo family as the guarantor.

Moreover, as an invitation code attached to a promotional flyer, it was randomly assigned upon sealing, meaning the Luo family couldn’t trace back to see who activated the account using this code.

It seemed her suffering hadn't been in vain. Dealing with someone who understood the game was always better—gifts that hit the spot.