Chapter 37 The Secret of the Black Sword Knights

Under the detailed scanning of the data terminal, the secrets of the legendary Black Sword Knights were finally being revealed bit by bit.

The truth was astonishing.

Hao Ren had not expected such a black technology situation to appear on a planet that looked to be on the same level as Holletta. According to the data terminal, the Black Sword Knights had essentially broken away from the category of humans. They were actually a kind of extremely complex semi-biological, semi-mechanical synthetic human. Their "raw materials" might have been real humans, but when they wielded their swords, they could no longer be considered conventional living beings.

"Most organs have varying degrees of degradation or functional transfer, there are two sets of blood circulation systems, one is the original cardiovascular system, and the other is maintained by something similar to a mechanical pump. There are intricate pipelines distributed throughout the body, flowing with an oil that can conduct magic power. The bones have been semi-metallized, and the vital parts are covered with additional alloy armor…" The data terminal projected the results in mid-air while scanning. The Charlemagne siblings were already used to the sight. "Brain tissue is severely degraded, the main nerves even show a fibrous tendency, and the atrophied brain only has less than ten percent of its effectiveness. The nerve signals used to control the body are all concentrated near the spinal cord, where there is a complex electronic structure… according to this world, it is a magic-conducting device…"

The entire structure of the Black Sword Knight was projected. On the body covered by armor, traces of mechanical structures eroding and transforming could be seen everywhere. If Hao Ren didn't know this was a world filled with magic, he would have almost thought he was fighting synths with an old-timer from Vault 111…

"Interesting…" Leah also showed an interested expression. Although these technologies were very rudimentary in her eyes, they were obviously several levels beyond the current era in this world. "Zoom in on that artificial nervous system near the spinal cord."

The data terminal zoomed in on the image, and a spindle-shaped object formed by countless thin lines and nodes was presented on the holographic projection.

"Is this his real thinking organ? Wait… no…" Leah frowned, her eyes flashing with a faint light. The real appearance of the spindle structure was quickly revealed under the gaze of the god. "This is just a device for relaying and releasing nerve signals, the real source of the signal is not it…"

"What do you mean?" Hao Ren was stunned. "This is not a thinking organ either? Then how do these Black Sword Knights move?"

"If I'm not mistaken… it's remote control," Leah pointed to the tip of the spindle and said, "This is a signal receiver. It receives instructions from the outside world, then converts them into nerve impulses and controls this body. In other words, the Black Sword Knights themselves cannot think, they are just remote-controlled puppets."

"Remote controlled?!" This time, even Lily, who always had bizarre ideas, widened her dog eyes. "Then who is controlling them? Could it be that Emperor?"

As she spoke, the legendary Dragon Soul Emperor sitting in his palace appeared in her mind, with a map screen in front of him. The Black Sword Knights were arranged into squads on the map. If the Emperor didn't like something, he would just select all and attack…

The husky girl thought her brainwave was brilliant and gave herself a thumbs up.

"Don't think nonsense, it's definitely not what you think," Leah waved her hand. "Remember… this guy fell down after the mechanical sword was destroyed."

Lily: "Huh?"

"Although this conclusion is a bit strange, the most direct explanation is this," Leah nodded. "Rather than saying that the knight is wielding the sword, it is better to say that the sword is commanding these knights. I vaguely felt that their mechanical swords were a bit strange before, always releasing some vague fluctuations. Now that I think about it… that should be the signal emitted by the sword when it remotely controls the knight's body."

Charlemagne and Aiwener looked at each other. They had never heard such a fantastic story from their formal education. The latter blinked and sorted out the statement for a long time before saying incredulously: "That is to say, the soul of the Black Sword Knight is on the sword, and the body is just a tool? So after destroying their swords, they can't move? The truth… is like this?"

"I'm a little strange, hasn't anyone discovered this truth?" Hao Ren frowned. "The Black Sword Knights have been active in this world for so many years, even if they are powerful, they are only elite soldiers. There are many guys more powerful than them, hasn't anyone separated them from their mechanical swords? Or has there been a precedent for destroying the mechanical sword?"

"The mechanical sword and the body are connected through remote control, and the distance is probably not short. The signal receiver in their spinal cord can receive signals within half a planet. For this sealed planet, this distance is completely enough, so separating the Black Sword Knight and the sword should be useless," Leah gave the answer instead of the Charlemagne siblings, "As for destroying their swords… those mechanical swords are very special, the material is strange, and it is much stronger than the knight's body. I think in a normal battle, the knight himself must suffer a fatal injury first, and then it will be the turn of their sword, so the secret of these Black Sword Knights has been kept until today."

"Until they met someone with your kind of extraordinary combat power," Hao Ren glanced at Leah, "directly disassembling their weapons…"

"Moreover, the secret of the Black Sword Knights may not be completely unknown," Charlemagne said, "I have heard some knowledge about the Dragon Empire from my court mentor, and it also mentioned the saying that the Black Sword Knights entrust their souls to their swords—but this statement is usually regarded as a legend in the White City Federation."

Hao Ren nodded: "Information is not smooth, there are too few samples, and exploring the truth will not bring matching benefits, so the secret is kept."

At this time, Vivian suddenly remembered something and exclaimed in a low voice: "Ah, if this is really the case… then none of the three Black Sword Knights we killed before are probably dead. I saw it very clearly at the time, although they were blown away, their swords were intact…"

Aiwener blinked and said softly: "It is said that after the Black Sword Knights are killed in battle, their swords will be recovered by the servants and sent to the 'Sacred Arsenal' of Black Steel Fortress. When qualified candidates are selected, they will take over the mechanical swords from their predecessors and become the new Black Sword Knights. This process is called 'promotion', and the promoted Black Sword Knights will live a life similar to monks, severing ties with their previous life… This is what I saw in the Natural History."

Hao Ren's eyes narrowed: "So, these mechanical swords are passed down from generation to generation, and the knights are consumables that are replaced one after another… but I have another question, are their mechanical swords one less for every one that is broken? Although those swords are very strong, they haven't reached the point of being indestructible, so there will always be some consumption over the years, right? In this case, wouldn't the number of Black Sword Knights become less and less?"

"New mechanical swords will be forged to fill the losses, so the size of the Black Sword Knight Order will not shrink," Charlemagne said, talking about the knowledge he had obtained from his court mentor, "But correspondingly, their scale has never expanded—since the founding of the Dragon Kingdom, the Black Sword Knight Order has had 770,000 soldiers. After that, the empire expanded day by day, and the size of the imperial army has expanded countless times, but the Black Sword Knight Order has never increased by one person, nor has it decreased by one person. Even now that the Dragon Empire has expanded to the point where the scale of the Black Sword Knight Order is difficult to protect the entire territory, Emperor Bolentin has only added a large number of standing army to fill the shortcomings of the Knight Order. The real Black Sword Knights… are still only the 770,000 that they were when the army was formed."

Seven hundred and seventy thousand people, this is a very subtle number. For a small kingdom that has just been established, this scale of super soldiers is enough to sweep all surrounding opponents of the same level, and even sweep across a higher level, but when the Dragon Empire expands to occupy half the planet, this number is obviously not enough to cope with the long border line.

And according to Charlemagne, new mechanical swords can be forged, then the factors that restrict the scale of this knight order are very curious.

"There is only one explanation, they can only forge 770,000 mechanical swords, the quantity of some key raw materials is limited," Vivian thought and said, "Considering the function of these swords, maybe the raw material is the soul… but are souls also limited?"

"Only that Bolentin himself knows what's going on," Hao Ren shrugged, "Anyway, these 'Black Sword Knights' are full of mysteries everywhere, and it's not bad to have one more secret. The reason why they can mutate into this way has not been figured out yet."

The data terminal shook its body up and down: "That's right, according to what these siblings just said, normal Black Sword Knights are no different from normal humans in appearance, and the machine just confirmed this when scanning their body structure—the mechanical transformation in their body only strengthens the body function, and will not cause the external image to become monsters. This is a fairly mature mechanical synthetic human technology, and theoretically there is no toxicity."

"That is to say, there is some other reason that caused these Black Sword Knights, who were originally normal in appearance, to become like relatives of the Mad Lord," Hao Ren rubbed his eyebrows, vaguely feeling that he was getting in touch with some truth, "Leah, can you feel anything from them… 'aura'? Like the influence of the Mad Lord or something."

Leah hummed, and then carefully felt it for a moment, and then the little goddess shook her head: "No, I can't feel it at all."

But then she added: "But the possibility cannot be completely ruled out. Perhaps the aura is too weak, and it has reached the point where it cannot be distinguished, or perhaps the remaining power of the Mad Lord in this world has changed and become something I don't recognize—we still have to keep an eye out, after all, the mutations that have occurred in these knights are full of blasphemy, and it looks like the style of the Mad Lord…"

Charlemagne and Aiwener were confused and said in unison: "What is the Mad Lord?"

"An abstract expressionist artist, who is especially good at ruining your aesthetic sense," Hao Ren waved his hand perfunctorily, "I don't know if I can tell you now, so don't ask. Compared to this, we have a more important question now… Are we sure we haven't gone the wrong way?"