Chapter Forty: The Record

ICP Registration Number: Xiang B2-20100081-3
Internet Publishing Permit: Newly Issued Online Certificate (Xiang) No. 11
Network Culture Operation License: Wen Wang Wen [2010]128

This was Avril’s first time sneaking about.
For this princess, long accustomed to her lofty station, the clandestine adventure brought a peculiar thrill—freed from fear of consequences, she treated it as a delightful game.
Pierre’s laboratory was on the sixth floor. They moved quietly, careful to avoid the apprentices. As for the puppet warriors—whether they hid or not made little difference; without orders, those automatons were nothing more than ornaments.
Nearing the sixth floor, Gong Hao listened intently for any sounds, nodded to Avril once he was sure the coast was clear, and together they swiftly slipped through the door of the laboratory.
“Oh, this is so exciting!” Avril clutched her chest, fighting the urge to burst out laughing. “Hugh, it’s wonderful being with you. There are always new experiences I’ve never had before. I never imagined being a thief could be such fun.”
Gong Hao quickly pressed his hand over her mouth. “Lower your voice, my princess. If you’re going to be a thief, you must have a thief’s resolve.”
As his hand touched her, he felt the soft warmth beneath his palm and was suddenly aware that she was a princess; perhaps he was being too forward…
Indeed, Avril stared at him in alarm, her gaze flickering repeatedly to his hand.
No man had ever treated her so intimately.
“I’m very sorry,” Gong Hao said awkwardly, withdrawing his hand.
Avril’s cheeks flushed crimson. “It’s… it’s alright.”
Yes, it truly was nothing. Only her heart pounded all the harder.
She bit her lip and whispered, “If my father were to find out you brought me to steal, and even dared to cover my mouth…”
“I imagine His Majesty would go mad,” Gong Hao replied coolly.
The young lady giggled behind her hand, paying no mind to his irreverent tone.
Gong Hao strode quickly to a workbench, lifted a black cloth, revealing a crystal orb beneath.
“Avril, come help me.”
“What should I do?” Avril hurried to his side.
Gong Hao deftly rotated the orb. “There are forty-eight observation nodes inside the castle and seventy-six outside. Through this orb, you can connect to all of them and see what’s happening in every corner. I need you to watch these three spots—here, here, and here. If you see Pierre returning, alert me at once so we can leave in time.”
“Alright.” Avril nodded immediately.
All these arrangements were details Gong Hao had long since observed and memorized. Half his reason for bringing Avril was to have her watch for any movement outside; the other half was that, if they were discovered, he could use the princess as a shield, claiming they were only seeking ingredients for making fireworks.
With the imperial princess as both his eyes and his final safeguard, he could now search Pierre’s chambers for what he sought with peace of mind.
Pierre’s laboratory was not large; aside from essential equipment and tools, everything was clearly visible.
But Gong Hao’s focus was nowhere near the materials he’d mentioned. On the contrary, he concentrated on places most would overlook.
Secluded corners, behind storage cabinets—these drew his attention. He even climbed onto the small bed nearby, rapping on the boards to listen for any secret compartments.
A painting on the distant wall caught his eye.
Though he wasn’t versed in art, he saw at once it was a mediocre landscape, neither valuable nor particularly well painted. What puzzled Gong Hao was that, judging by Pierre’s ascetic and efficient style, and what he knew of the man, Pierre was not one to indulge in such things.
A suspicion stirred in his heart. He gently lifted the painting and, sure enough, found a small hole behind it.
Reaching in, Gong Hao drew out a box.
Inside were several medicine bottles.

What he saw in those bottles made his heart pound violently—they were precisely what he had been searching for.
A few blood-red pieces of flesh, preserved in chemicals, were still as fresh as if alive, even after twenty years.
Glancing back to see Avril still dutifully on watch, Gong Hao quickly returned the bottles to the box and let out a long breath.
Though it was only a glance, he’d seen clearly: inside were female sexual organs, immature uteruses and genitalia.
Yes, Bailey’s dossier had described such a thing: during Pierre’s years as an alchemy teacher at the Academy of Magic, there had been a series of disappearances involving young girls. All the missing girls were under fourteen, and when their bodies were found, they had died tragically—raped before death, several important body parts mutilated.
Not long after, the Bureau of Law and Politics launched an investigation. At first, it seemed promising, but then it suddenly went cold for reasons unknown. Pierre lost his chance to become a core instructor, and even lost his teaching post.
It seemed Pierre, after a hard life and finally achieving success through his own efforts, had paid the price in a mind increasingly twisted. Clearly, the authorities had discovered his crimes, and he had escaped consequences likely only through Heinz’s help. After being forced to resign, he soon followed Heinz into exile on Purgatory Island.
To him, his life might as well have ended then. The twenty years on this island had likely driven him nearly mad with repression.
Tormenting the young servant boys, listening to their death struggles and pleas—this had probably become Pierre’s greatest pleasure.
Perhaps in the dead of night, Pierre would clutch the things in these bottles and sink into sleep…
The thought sickened Gong Hao.
He was about to return the box when he noticed something else beneath the bottles.
Curious, he took it out—a thin booklet.
He opened it and was instantly captivated.
“Hugh, I see Pierre—he looks like he’s coming back,” Avril whispered.
“Understood. I’m almost done. Don’t disturb me now,” Gong Hao replied without looking up.
He was frantically copying the contents of the booklet. Fortunately, he always carried paper and pen.
“What are you doing?”
“I said, don’t distract me.”
Avril pouted in displeasure, but deep down she rather liked the serious look on his face and the air of coolness about him.
Gong Hao quickly finished copying the last section, crammed the booklet back into the box, and replaced the box in the hole behind the painting.
“Let’s go,” he said.
“But you haven’t taken anything. You said we came to find materials.”
Gong Hao picked up a bottle at random. “This will do.”
“But Hugh, that’s just a bottle of clear water.”
“With me, even water will taste sweet, won’t it, darling Avril?”
That last phrase made the young princess’s face burn scarlet. She instantly forgot any connection between water, sweetness, and fireworks, and forgot to question Gong Hao’s odd behavior.
She followed meekly behind him, unable to utter a word.
Heavens, her heart was about to leap out of her chest.
Her face was burning!
As they reached the second floor, they came face to face with Pierre. Pierre hesitated for a moment upon seeing Avril, a greedy light flickering in his eyes as he regarded the girl.
Previously, Gong Hao might not have minded, but now he understood all too well what lay behind that gaze.

He gently pulled Avril closer and said to Pierre, “Her Highness wished to see our workspace, so I’m showing her around.”
Pierre nodded. “I hope Your Highness enjoys your visit.”
Avril tossed her head, exposing a swath of snow-white skin, and said haughtily, “I imagine I’d enjoy myself much more if I didn’t see you.”
With that, she followed Gong Hao downstairs.
Pierre watched her graceful figure, feeling all his pent-up desires ignite.
Twenty years—twenty years with only the ‘treasures’ in his bottles for company, never another girl.
He longed for the vibrant beauty of youth, longed to hear the cries and moans of dying girls.
Now, that long-forgotten heat surged through his body once more.
Casting a final, burning glance at Avril’s swaying figure, Pierre slowly ascended the stairs.
No matter what, she was a princess—not to be touched lightly.
Leaving the Alchemy Tower, Gong Hao said to Avril, “From now on, don’t let anyone know about what happened just now. I must return to my room.”
“You won’t stay with me?” Avril asked, disappointed.
“No, Avril, I need to prepare the fireworks for you. While I work, set off a firework each day and think of me, and the stories I’ve told you, alright?”
Avril bit her lip. “Very well, Hugh. But before I go to sleep tonight, you must come keep me company.”
“Rest assured, I will,” Gong Hao promised solemnly.
After parting from Avril, he returned to his room and began reconstructing the hurried notes he had taken. In his rush, he had only managed to record some of the contents, relying on memory for the rest and compressing the text as much as possible. Now he set about restoring the notes in full—as if in a dream, he’d never expected to find records of top-level alchemy among Pierre’s secret possessions.
It was truly a case of seeking a chick and finding a golden egg.
The notes covered almost all experimental data on advanced alchemy, including many completed and unfinished projects: the verified formulae for magical rune engraving, research notes on the creation of the Giant Demon God, studies of spatial rings and teleportation arrays, and even records of spirits and a copy of that Electra manuscript…
Only now did Gong Hao realize the real reason for the one-year limit imposed on the island's boys: after a spirit seed entered the body, it would inevitably emerge after a year, even without inducement—it was life, after all, and would bear fruit in its own time.
For this reason, Heinz had developed a special potion for Gong Hao to suppress the seed’s growth, making it impossible for the spirit to emerge even after a year. Of course, if he stopped using the potion, the seed would instantly mature.
Heinz naturally had no idea that the spirit seed in Gong Hao’s body was already gone; the demon seed’s formidable evasive abilities made it impossible for Heinz to confirm whether it was still there. In a way, it was a blessing in disguise.
The greatest stroke of luck, though, was that Heinz now believed Gong Hao would never dare betray him, even if he uncovered the secret.
Thinking of the spirit seed, Gong Hao couldn’t help but recall his new resident parasite.
How much longer would this little creature dwell within him? It had already been more than half a year.
True, this new tenant had promised a more “gentle” birth, but every time Gong Hao thought of the spirit seed’s chilling method of emergence, he felt a shiver run down his spine.
“I hope you understand that keeping one’s word is a virtue. Otherwise, no matter how powerful you are, I’m confident I could kill you before you kill me.”
A comforting sense of reassurance welled up in his mind—the new guest’s response, it seemed.
So well-behaved; Gong Hao felt much more at ease.
His only regret was that he hadn’t had time to copy Pierre’s Electra notebook.
But perhaps, before long, he wouldn’t need to copy it at all…