Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Tale of the Seven Knights

"Senior Brother Liu, did you see another mechanical pig head?" Liu Zong looked at Liu Chun with a puzzled expression. "Was it that An Qiang who came to find you?"

"An Qiang didn’t come to me. Also, that wasn’t a mechanical pig head. It was the main control core of a Type IV Seven Knights. Your grade for Necromantic Architecture will very likely depend on that thing," Liu Chun replied with great certainty.

"Type IV Seven Knights?" Liu Zong was completely lost, realizing the situation was growing ever more complicated.

Liu Chun nodded, then began to recount the legendary tales of Storm Archipelago to Liu Zong.

It was a story from ages past, when the map of Storm Archipelago had just been unlocked. A princess, fleeing from her stepmother's pursuit, escaped to the Storm Archipelago, accompanied by seven knights who shielded her through the outer storms.

Thanks to the protection of the seven knights, the princess settled in the Storm Archipelago and established the first kingdom there. Each of the seven knights was granted a fiefdom.

After the princess passed away, the seven knights gathered at her tomb. Believing their strength existed only to protect her, and that being lords with their own lands meant they could no longer fulfill this duty, they summoned their descendants and passed their power to one among them, who would remain to guard the princess’s grave. Thus began the first generation of Seven Knights.

With each passing generation, when a knight died, their power would be passed to one descendant, who would continue to stand guard over the princess’s tomb.

This continued until one day, invaders descended upon Storm Archipelago, destroying six of the seven fiefs. The invaders finally reached the princess’s tomb, and only then did the Seven Knights rise to fight, driving the enemy back to the archipelago’s periphery.

After restoring their lost lands, the Seven Knights became the de facto rulers of the Storm Archipelago. Each year, one would stand guard at the princess’s tomb, but otherwise they were occupied with defending against hostile races. Over time, they gradually forgot their original oath and the sacred duty of protecting the princess.

As the wars continued, most of the Seven Knights’ lineages dwindled, some teetering on the brink of extinction.

At this critical moment, the power of the Seven Knights was still the key to resisting their foes. It was then that a sage proposed creating mechas, the Seven Knights Armors, to serve as weapons of war.

They spent thirty years extracting the final bloodlines and powers of the Seven Knights to forge the first-generation Seven Knights mechas, named Vermilion Blaze, Yellow Sand, Green Crystal, Blue Ghost, Black Stone, Azure Vine, and Violet Thunder. The ancestor of the Zhu Yan family was the builder and pilot of the Vermilion Blaze prototype.

Using these prototypes as models, they rapidly built a vast number of mechas, sweeping through the entire Storm Archipelago.

At that point, the last of the Seven Knights remembered his sacred duty. At his request, the seven original mechas were interred within the princess’s tomb to serve as the final guardians, ushering in the Mecha Age of the Storm Archipelago. These mechas were known as the Type I Seven Knights.

Because the Type I Seven Knights became the main force in battle, the construction of mechas became critical for every fief. They extracted underground energy in great quantities, depleting the resources of their lands, which grew barren and difficult to live in.

Just then, new invaders appeared—this time, a species capable of absorbing energy itself. Wherever they went, all energy was consumed.

Once again, six fiefs were lost before anyone reacted. The remaining Type I Seven Knights were gathered and thrown into battle.

In the end, all the Type I Seven Knights were destroyed to eliminate the threat. But the enemy had only sent an advance party, and the fiefs no longer had the energy to build more Type I mechas. They had no choice but to research and create the Type II Seven Knights.

Compared to the first generation, the Type II Seven Knights were much larger. If the earlier ones were individual mechas, the Type II were more like massive warships.

A Type II Seven Knights mecha was typically operated by five people: one main operator, one for movement and evasion, and three handling attacks.

With the Type II Seven Knights, they preserved what remained of their kingdoms, defeated their foes, and even learned from the enemy a method to forcibly extract underground mana and convert it into energy.

Believing that, with no external enemies, civil war was inevitable, the people of the Storm Archipelago devised the Type III Seven Knights.

As they had foreseen, in the absence of outside threats, the seven kingdoms split into two factions and fought for a thousand years, reducing the once promising archipelago to its current devastated state.

Of course, how much of this was due to player intervention is unknown. Ultimately, the Storm Archipelago became a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and it was only under the protection of the final Type IV Seven Knights that survivors managed to establish a few small outposts.

Compared to the previous three versions, the Type IV Seven Knights were even more colossal, integrating both combat and daily life into massive, armored mechanical creatures. Externally, they were bristling with weaponry, while people and seeds were hidden inside, relocating to safety as the mecha moved. The Type IV could disassemble into camps or other structures, with their heads buried underground to absorb residual energy.

But as energy in the Storm Archipelago dwindled and the map’s level dropped, the number of Type IV Seven Knights decreased. By the time Liu Zong and his companions arrived, the inhabitants no longer had any functioning Type IVs.

This time, Zhu Yan wasn’t searching for such a residential Type IV Seven Knights. She wanted the original prototype built and piloted by her ancestor.

Given the current state of the Storm Archipelago, it was impossible even to leave an outpost for a day or two without risking death, let alone reach the princess’s tomb.

That’s why Zhu Yan needed to spend time mobilizing any Type IV Seven Knights buried near Jin Song Valley or other outposts—only a Type IV could bring them safely to the tomb’s vicinity.

This was also why An Qiang wanted to seize control from Liu Zong; he, too, coveted a Type IV Seven Knights of his own.

As for whether An Qiang had other motives, Liu Zong did not know. He himself was now intrigued by the Type IV Seven Knights, though what he wanted was not complete control, but rather the blueprints for their construction.

Liu Zong looked at Liu Chun, somewhat puzzled, and asked, "Since you’ve told me all this in such detail, Senior Brother Liu, what is it that you wish to obtain?"