"Volcano Manor, full of perverts." Siluria's simple statement labeled everyone in Volcano Manor as perverts, including Ember and Patches.
Ember and Patches were initially lured into Volcano Manor as "heroes." Ember's referrer was Rya; Patches' referrer was unknown.
Anyway, when Ember was tricked into the Great Serpent's mouth, he wondered why Patches didn't want to come with him.
After all, to complete Volcano Manor's tasks, they had both sacrificed several clones.
Later, the Great Serpent got its throat stuck with Ember and choked to death. The legendary spear that supposedly suppressed the Great Serpent was also found by Ember after he crawled out of its throat; he didn't even need to use it.
"Agreed, it was all perverts before!" Ordovis nodded. Volcano Manor used to be a place that made people's blood run cold.
Once you entered, no one was ever seen coming out.
Let's put it this way: in The Lands Between, the judgment and execution of death sentences were separate.
The judgment was at Volcano Manor, and the execution was at Shaded Castle. But later, Shaded Castle had no more work because both judgment and execution were handled entirely by Volcano Manor.
No one could count how many people died in Volcano Manor.
"So, Charcoal Daly liking Tanith was nothing. Just a love triangle."
Charcoal Daly liked Tanith, Tanith liked the Great Serpent, and the Great Serpent liked to eat people—a perfect love triangle!
It just seemed to be missing someone's place in it.
"To fall for a guilty person is already a knight's disgrace!" Siluria raised the tree spear in her hand and slammed it heavily onto the ground.
"Just a reminder, most of The Lands Between has died once already," Ordovis whispered to the indignant Siluria.
"Even so, it's still unacceptable! To fall for someone who was once guilty is also a disgrace!" Siluria's voice showed no signs of weakening.
"No problem, Big Sister Siluria's opinion, I, Ordovis, wholeheartedly agree!" Ordovis shrank his head upon hearing this and immediately caved in.
Unfortunately, Crucible Knight armor is seamless and leaves no gaps, so Ordovis shrinking his head looked like nothing happened to those outside.
"No? You two talk about others all day, but what about yourselves?" Ember saw Ordovis and Siluria arguing about what constituted a knight's honor and disgrace and couldn't help but ask.
Crucible Knights; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call them the strongest knights in The Lands Between. But few people knew the price of this "strongest."
Ember looked up at the Crucible Knights. Their bodies were tall, a full size larger than a Mitachurl.
But Mitachurls are flesh and blood, while Crucible Knights are bodies of steel.
He looked down at the ground and saw sand flying up as the Crucible Knight's crimson leg armor sank deep into the earth, indicating the immense weight of their armor.
The Crucible Knight's body of steel was not a metaphor but a fact. The toughness of their bodies far exceeded that of steel.
Ember always felt it was inappropriate to describe Crucible Knights as having bodies of steel.
The bodies beneath the Crucible Knight's armor were not bodies in the conventional biological sense. Their bodies were forged directly from extremely pure power.
The "Crucible" in the Crucible Knight title refers both to the remnants of the primordial life crucible in their power and to their cultivation method of refining their own bodies like a crucible.
Through prolonged refinement, the Crucible Knight's flesh had long been purified of all impurities. Skin, flesh, tendons, and bones—these were all considered useless and refined away.
Tempering these was merely for greater power, so the Crucible Knights directly abandoned their physical bodies and pursued power itself.
Crucible Knights themselves are pure power, power without any impurities. No matter what Prayer they use or what weapons they wield, they cannot escape the term "power."
A Crucible Knight standing on the earth is the embodiment of power.
Ember had known this for a long time. Mainly because Ember found that Crucible Knights would never bleed no matter what; no matter how much force impacted them, only golden-red crystalline fragments would fly out from the gaps in their armor.
Strictly speaking, to describe Crucible Knights, one should not use "they" but rather "it."
Compared to conventional life, Crucible Knights are more like a mass of ultimate power, only this mass of power prefers to maintain a human appearance.
As a mass of power, what Crucible Knights think about is nothing more than how to strengthen themselves and how to wield their power.
In terms of behavior, Crucible Knights only do three things: cultivate, fight, and stare blankly.
However, the only thing that gave Ember some comfort among them was Siluria; Crucible Knights have no gender, but her voice had a distinct female tone, and he wondered if she was finally developing some personality.
But this was not enough. The Lands Between today did not need such strong power to survive well.
So Ember hoped that the Crucible Knights could shift their focus elsewhere, not just fight and lift weights all day.
The Crucible Knights, a total of fourteen individuals, only did two things—it would be too laughable to say that out loud.
"Ourselves? I'm doing pretty well, teaching little kids is much more interesting than fighting." Ordovis chuckled a few times, seemingly quite satisfied with his current life.
"Really?" Siluria glanced at Ordovis. If it were truly as he said, then why did he immediately follow her after seeing her fully armed?
"My priority now is to execute the King's will!" Siluria answered Ember's question directly, not waiting for Ordovis's response.
"I think you just can't find anything to do!" Ordovis secretly taunted Siluria.
During the Shattering War, the First Elden Lord was exiled from The Lands Between, and the Crucible Knights scattered.
Ordovis and Nibon Reite wanted to rob tombs but were locked in by others and couldn't get out.
Siluria ran to the Deeproot Depths, guarding her only set of clothes besides her armor all day, staring blankly.
Jurogi was considered the most opinionated among the Crucible Knights. He wanted to join the Blood Dynasty; his idea was beautiful, but reality was harsh—he got lost.
All these things were utterly ridiculous. The most powerful Knights of Favonius in The Lands Between, and not a single one could be found in major locations; they were all hiding in nooks and crannies.
Ember felt stifled for them. This was the consequence of having only muscle and no brains, so Ember greatly hoped the Crucible Knights could change.
"Alright, I understand." Ember nodded to Ordovis and Siluria, then he shifted his gaze to the other Crucible Knights.
"Since your big brother and big sister are like this, you must be pretty good too!"
Ember's tone carried some anticipation. Ordovis became a teacher, Siluria was hurtling down the path of a muscular Barbie, and Charcoal Daly had some new ideas. Surely the others were also doing well?
"Bricklaying!"
"Mining!"
"Demolition!"
...The Crucible Knights' voices were much like those of aged buffalo, carrying a dull, muffled aura no matter what they said.
But no matter how unique their voices were, it didn't change the fact that the Crucible Knights were all doing manual labor now.
In Ember's view, this was equivalent to no change at all. Because the Crucible Knights' daily routine was combat and body tempering, the physical labor they were doing was probably just being used as a warm-up before their actual training.
Ember clutched his chest, nearly having a myocardial infarction. He finally understood why Ordovis and Siluria could become the chief Crucible Knights.
It turned out Godfrey was really good at judging people; two of the three relatively outstanding individuals were chosen.
Ember looked at the steel statues standing before him. Gradually, their bodies began to merge with a single figure.
Ember rubbed his eyes, and the figure became clearer: he had short, bright brown hair and wore a long red scarf—this figure was Childe.
There was a Childe in the Fatui, which was good, because there was a lot of hard work he could do.
And now Ember had thirteen Childe, and they were super-enhanced versions.
As for whether that was good or not, only heaven knew.
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