Please be my partner.

The vibration did not affect Mellen. As the sky river flowed back, he sat back and a blood-red throne pulled him up and floated him in the air. Spike was also leisurely pulled up by the blood mist and squatted beside him.

The destruction of the earth continues, and large amounts of Black Abyss iron ore are continuously absorbed by the sea of blood.

From afar, the sea of blood covered the sky and the earth was surging. It was a terrifying scene like a natural disaster that had destroyed the world.

Dana and other knights who had not walked far were stunned again when they saw this scene. Especially the terrifying demon shadow looming in the sea of blood. The pressure of ferocity and evil made their souls tremble and wail. It seemed that just by looking at it, the evil breath would meander over like tentacles, as if to wrap around them and drag them into the eternal bottomless abyss.

"Wake up! Turn around and don't look over there!"

Dana let out a loud shout, and the water element carrying rich life force hit the other knights, waking them up.

The knights were terrified when they woke up. They had a feeling that if Dana had not woken them up in time, they would have been corroded and assimilated by the evil aura and degenerated into some unknown monsters.

The knights no longer cared about anything else and fled into the distance with a mad burst of power.

Mellen glanced in the direction where Dana and the others escaped, then looked away.

The knights' feeling was not wrong. Although Xiao Honglian was only a fourth-level legend, as a blood-septic demon who plundered part of the origin of the endless sea of blood, he actually possessed some of the essence of a fifth-level saint, including the ability to infect other lives with his breath and make them his own blood servants.

Of course, you can call it by other names, it doesn’t matter.

However, Xiao Honglian is now a fourth-level legend after all, and her control over her followers is not perfect. If a creature has extremely strong willpower, even if its flesh and blood are deformed into a blood servant, it is possible to break free from Xiao Honglian's control mentally.

Based on the tradition of the Endless Blood Sea's life force, just as the Septic Blood Demon is a rebel against the Endless Blood Sea, a rebel belonging to it may also be born among the followers created by Little Red Lotus. Although the probability is very low, and this probability will be reduced by hundreds or thousands of times as Little Red Lotus's strength level increases, it will never be zero.

Therefore, at the current stage, Melen is not planning to let Xiao Honglian create a bunch of followers. For the time being, having [Bloody Minions] is enough.

After all, [Bloody Minions] is Xiao Honglian's innate skill, so there is no possibility of betrayal.

Melen was stunned for a moment, and suddenly thought of a question, that is, since there is no world suppression in the space-time rift, does it mean that it will be easier to break through the legend here?

If this is true, then it is great news for Spike, who is about to reach the limit of the third level, and Garuru, who has been improving rapidly in recent times.

But this is not the point. The point is that the Knights of Dusk are guarding such a precious land, so will the number of legendary strongmen be unexpectedly large?

The thought of the day when the Order of Dusk is fully mobilized and three, five, or seven legendary Knights of the Dawn suddenly appear is truly a beautiful picture.

Although based on the information currently available, it seems that only the Dawn School among the Knights of Dusk can reach the legendary level.

However, this is just the conclusion that Melen drew from the public information about Lance, Gad, and the Earth School. Whether this is true or not, and whether there is really no second legendary school inheritance in the Dusk Knights, is still unknown.

Although this speculation may sound alarmist, it is not impossible.

In the short time that Mellen was thinking, the sea of blood had turned the demon camp and the surrounding area upside down, and the Black Abyss Iron Ore Vein also came to an abrupt end more than a hundred meters away from the demon camp as if it had been abruptly cut off.

After counting, more than 300 tons of Black Abyss iron ore were excavated, and about 20 tons of Black Abyss iron could be refined.

Although handing over the Black Abyss Iron to the Order of the Dusk would earn him an astonishing amount of merit, Mellen was not prepared to do so. He had other plans.

When exploring the secret space of the Source Energy User, in addition to obtaining the Source Energy User's inheritance, he also obtained two blueprints of mechanical creations, one is the Giant Fortress, and the other is the Titan Colossus.

Forget about the Colossus Fortress. Both the huge resource requirements and the manufacturing technology are beyond Melen's reach at this stage. But the Titan Colossus is different. Compared with the former, it is much simpler and requires far fewer resources.

If we use the more than 20 tons of black abyss iron in hand as the main material and add some other auxiliary materials, we can almost build two Titans.

The legendary mechanical creation Titan is very cool just by hearing about it.

After counting the harvest, Melen set off to return, ending his first journey of exploring the space-time rift.

Melen didn't know that just as he was letting Xiao Honglian show her full form, other places were not peaceful.

The Knights of Dusk, the headquarters of the Dawn School.

Dawn Knight Dal looked in the direction of the space-time rift, with a thoughtful look in his eyes.

Deep in the space-time rift, the blood-filled light and vicious aura in the sky alarmed some powerful beings.

Some of them just glanced casually and then looked away, while others showed interest, their eyes flickering, as if they were planning something.

Dana was running desperately while also having to take care of the injured knights to prevent them from falling behind. She was gradually feeling exhausted.

What worried her even more was Melen in the demon camp.

In Dana's opinion, the bloody aura that just filled the sky should be the work of a powerful demon sleeping in the demon camp. Although Mellen and Spike are strong, they are likely to be in danger if they encounter such a strong man.

What made Dana even more upset was that when she came back to her senses from the shock of the terrifying and ferocious aura, the only thought in her mind was escape. It was only after she had run for a long time that she remembered that her savior, Mellen, was still there.

Although she understood the situation at that time and there was no point in staying or turning back to rescue, she just felt uncomfortable.

Just as Dana's mind was becoming increasingly confused, a figure suddenly appeared in front of her, giving her a start.

After a moment of distraction, he realized that it was a knight in black armor.

Dana's eyes lit up, and she mustered all her remaining strength to quickly run over and shout, "Sir Black Knight, there's a demon camp not far behind us. It's suspected that a powerful demon is sleeping there. The newly joined dog knight and his beastmaster are currently there, and their fate is unknown. Please find a way to rescue them quickly!"

The Black Knight, affiliated with the Black Knight Guard, is directly under the commander. It is said to symbolize the darkness before dawn and is the last line of defense guarding the Knights at dawn.

Only the Dawn Knights of all generations know the exact number of people in the Black Knight Guard. Every Black Knight is at least a third-level strongman, and there are many who have reached the level of pillars of the kingdom. They are the sharpest swords and the toughest shields in the hands of the Dawn Knights.

At this moment, after hearing Dana's words, the black knight couldn't help but show a strange look on his face.

Seeing that Dana was about to continue speaking, the Black Knight interrupted her and said, "Hasn't the person you were talking about returned safely?"

Dana was stunned for a moment, then turned around suddenly and saw a man and a dog walking towards her at the end of her sight as if they were strolling in the garden.

After Dana's brain went offline for a few seconds, an unbelievable thought suddenly came to her mind.

The Black Knight said in a deep voice: "Knight Dana, take your knight team back to the Knights to heal your wounds."

Dana came back to her senses, replied with a complicated expression, and then continued forward with the knights.

After walking for a while, she inadvertently looked back and saw the black knight saluting respectfully to the young man.

Melen looked at the black-armored knight in front of him, who had taken off his helmet and had a respectful expression on his face, and asked, "What do you want from me?"

The Black Knight said respectfully, "Sir, I apologize for disturbing your pleasure, but there are still some things in the space-time rift that require your attention."

When Melen heard the word "elegant interest", his expression was a little strange.

He guessed that most of the people in the Twilight Knights mistakenly thought that he was an old monster who played games with the world, so they regarded his bringing Spike into the Twilight Knights as some kind of evil game.

This thought flashed through his mind, and Mellen asked, "What are the things you said you need to pay attention to in the space-time rift?"

The Black Knight said solemnly, "Every inch of the rift is stained with blood, both from demons and knights. After a long battle, we've reached a tacit understanding with the demons: when fighting in the rift, we won't use legendary powers."

Melen looked puzzled and asked, "Since we are at war with the devil, what is the meaning of this tacit understanding?"

The Black Knight said, "Firstly, if life-and-death battles break out frequently, even a legendary warrior would be unable to withstand it. Secondly, we and the demons are waiting."

"Waiting?" Mellen pondered for a moment and asked, "Waiting for what?"

The Black Knight said, "The demons are waiting for the moment when the two worlds are closest. By then, the power encroaching from the Abyss will far exceed its current power, and the power of all demons will increase significantly."

Mellen pressed on: "What about us? What are we waiting for?"

The Black Knight was silent for a moment, then said, "..."

Chapter 199: Double Blossoms: Third Order Branded Knight

"I'm sorry, sir, this is a secret of the Knights, and I'm not qualified to know."

Mellen had a blank expression on his face and actually felt like cursing.

But he was not too surprised by this result. After all, he had just joined the Twilight Knights not long ago. How could he expect them to be so open-hearted and reveal all their secrets as soon as they met?

Melen thought for a moment and said, "When is your leader free? I want to meet him."

"Well..." The Black Knight didn't expect Mellen to say that. After a brief pause, he hurriedly said, "Sir, the captain is busy recently, but I will report your request to the captain as soon as possible. I believe the captain will arrange a time immediately after receiving the news."

"Alright." Mellen waved his hand indifferently and said, "Let's do this for now."

After saying this, he continued to return under the respectful gaze of the Black Knight.

Soon Mellen caught up with Dana and her group who had not walked far, and he naturally joined the team.

On the way together, except for Dana who looked at Meren with a strange look, the other knights quickly became friends with Meren and Spike.

Two of the little female knights seemed to want to touch Spike, but they were hesitant and didn't dare to do so.

The return journey was much faster. Even though this team of knights were injured and exhausted, they were no match for the sporadic demons they encountered. Basically, any group of demons they encountered on the road could be dealt with with just a charge.

It was also the first time for Melen to see the Branded Knights fighting in a group. Although they were pretty good, the way they charged without mounts and simply relied on running did not look like knights at all, but more like heavy infantry.

For orthodox knights, mounts are an important component of strength. A good mount can even double a knight's strength. The orthodox knight's skill system also includes a large amount of content that cooperates with mounts.

But the Branded Knights are different. The Branded Knights use the brand as their main body, but they use the same life force as the orthodox knights as their core, which is why they are called knights.

In fact, Branded Knights and Orthodox Knights are two completely different professions.

The only minor setbacks they encountered on the return journey were harmless ones, and after about half a day, they arrived at the Road of Glory.

At this point, they were basically in a safe area, and all the knights, including Dana, breathed a sigh of relief.

Generally speaking, knights who are training or fighting are not allowed to approach the watchtower, but if a knight is seriously injured and needs urgent treatment, he can go to the watchtower to receive temporary treatment and shelter.

Soon they crossed the Road of Glory and arrived at the barrier of the Knights' headquarters.

The garrisoned knights didn't care when they saw their behavior, and some even smiled.

This is certainly not a malicious ridicule. You have to know that going to the space-time rift, even if it is just to train in the outer area, is not safe. Being able to return with only some injuries is itself a thing to be happy about.

After a brief inspection, they were allowed to pass.

Although Dana still had a garrison mission, because she was not in good condition, the captain of the garrisoned knights directly decided to let her go back and rest. The other garrisoned knights were also very concerned and looked at her with concern.

It can also be seen from here that Dana, who has a gentle personality, has good popularity.

After bidding farewell to these knights of the Raging Waves School, Mellen returned to the headquarters of the Earth School.

He first went to the mission hall to submit the tasks he had accepted, which increased his merits by more than ten points. Then he went to the merit exchange place and exchanged the knowledge related to several brand combinations, including the [Heart of the Earth], which he had long been interested in, as well as some basic brand runes. The remaining merits were exchanged for a rare resource called 'Earth Condensate', which could accelerate the growth of the brand to a certain extent.

Back in his own cabin, Melen began to practice in seclusion.

In fact, as an official knight of the Dusk Knights, he usually has various assigned tasks, such as patrol missions, garrison missions, training missions, hunting missions, etc., and the time he can freely use is actually very little.

But the top leaders of the Dusk Knights knew some of Mellen's background, and no one issued any mandatory tasks to him, so he was free to decide what to do next.

[Heart of the Earth] is composed of three basic brand runes: [Body of Earth and Stone], [Confluence of Earth Element], and [Mastery of Earth Element].

[Body of Earth and Stone] can fill the body with a large amount of earth elements, making it hardened to the size of earth and stone.

[Earth Element Convergence] is a passive ability that allows the power of the earth element to flow through the body more quickly. It not only increases the power of the earth element brand, but also speeds up the use of the brand ability to a certain extent.

[Earth Element Expertise] is also a passive ability, just as its name suggests, it can greatly enhance the strength of the earth element's imprint.

The combined [Heart of the Earth] is equivalent to the sublimation of the effects of the three. At the same time, the [Heart of the Earth] itself can also serve as a carrier of energy, greatly enhancing the Branded Knight's vitality limit and greatly improving his endurance in combat.

It can be said that [Heart of the Earth] is the core of the third-order combined imprint [Body of the Earth].

It has to be said that 'Earth Condensate' is indeed effective in branding the Earth School.

When Spike first trained the basic brand, even with the help of the "plug-in", it still took him ten days to fully train a basic brand.

Afterwards, as strength grows, the efficiency and amount of spiritual energy utilization are greatly improved, and in fact, the effect of training is also gradually improving.

However, they didn't have the new basic brand runes at that time, so there was no way to make a comparison.

Now, Spike discovered that it only took about six days to complete the engraving and tempering of a basic brand rune. After using the "Earth Condensate", the speed could be doubled to three days.

Of course, the effect of 'Earth Condensate' is best for basic brand runes, and its effect on second- and third-order combination brands will decrease in turn.

Ten days later, Spike successfully forged the three basic brand runes of [Body of Earth and Stone], [Earth Element Convergence], and [Earth Element Expertise], and combined them into [Heart of the Earth].

Mellen re-planned Spike's future training plan. Originally, it would take about half a year to be promoted to the third-level Branded Knight, but according to the current progress, perhaps three months would be enough.

Mellen and Spike also found that as more brands were engraved, the overall strength of the brands themselves continued to increase.

This improvement is not the ability of the [Earth Element Convergence] and [Earth Element Expertise] imprints themselves, but more like a union and resonance between the imprints. In the terms of the game in the previous life, it is...bond.

So next, Melen planned to let Spike engrave a brand rune every day in addition to training, until all 87 basic brand runes discovered by the Earth School were engraved.

At the same time, Garuru united with Pinocchio and other mechanical masters in the fairy tale kingdom to begin a deeper interpretation of the design drawings of the Titan Colossus, including the mechanical structure, energy circuits, source energy imprints, alloy properties, etc.

There is no restriction on the use of a specific metal when building a Titan, but all aspects of the materials used in the final manufacturing process must meet the standards, otherwise it will not be enough to support the normal movement and combat of such a huge mechanical creation.

Moreover, depending on the different materials, the final Titan Colossus will have different focuses, and may even produce different unique abilities due to the activation of source energy.

Although there are three ready-made templates on the design drawing that can be used in various situations, Melen still plans to create a Titan Colossus with Black Abyss Iron as the main body. He has a vague premonition that this special metal may be able to gain some powerful abilities when activated by source energy.

With the two lines running in parallel, Mellen actually had more free time. He only needed to take Spike to the space-time rift every once in a while to collect some merits.

In this process, although the spiritual energy obtained from killing demons is only equivalent to a 'mosquito leg', at least the amount is large. After continuous hunting, it is also a considerable harvest.

At the same time, in order to prepare for a rainy day, Melen is also collecting more Black Abyss Iron, and will even post the extra achievements in the mission hall for bounty missions.

If the Titan statue made of black abyss iron is successfully made and the effect is good, the second and third ones will naturally be made in the future...