Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1071: How Could There Be a Path to Immortality in This World? (79) — Master of the Treasure Vault

Inside a pure white space.

Tai Yinzi’s screams gradually faded. At this point, he could no longer maintain his absurd appearance.

His body had turned into a mass of black mist. From within the mist, something began to separate.

Clusters of dim gray light and a small brocade box.

Those clusters of light were Tai Yinzi’s soul. As it separated from the black mist, the crystal trapping him suddenly burst into brilliant light—and at the same time, another crystal emitted the same intense glow.

The light filled the entire white space.

No one knew how much time passed. Beside the black mist, Tai Yinzi’s soul had vanished, replaced by a sphere of golden light—originally inside the other crystal pillar.

Exchange.

Tai Yinzi’s soul had now been transferred into the other crystal pillar—the golden sphere suddenly shot into the black mist!

At that moment, the black mist inside the crystal pillar began boiling like hot water, churning continuously! It spread like ink dispersing in water.A form began to take shape—limbs, a torso, a head... Everything gradually became clearer.

At last, a gray-black body appeared inside the crystal pillar—one with near-perfect proportions, as if meticulously calculated.

Undeniably, it was the embodiment of ideal beauty—but without any visible gender.

A flawless face, but no male or female traits… a genderless being.

The crystal pillar softened instantly, like liquid collapsing, pouring onto the base.

The nearly perfect, gray-black body stood silently on the pedestal.

Finally, it slowly opened its eyes—there was a hint of joy in its gaze.

It looked down, inspecting its body and hands—even closing its eyes again, breathing deeply, clearly enjoying the sensation.

“…At last.” Its voice was neither sharp nor deep, but very pleasant.

But that joy didn’t last long—barely a moment, in fact.

Its eyes snapped open, joy replaced by anger. “Why is the Source of Anomaly concentration so low?! Gaia!”

【Universal Prototype Treasury Administrator Gaia, at your service, esteemed creator of the Treasure Vault.】

“Prototype?” Its brows furrowed. “Why is it a prototype instead of the Valkyrie-class Special Combat Model?”

【Response: All Valkyrie-class Special Combat Models have perished.】

“Perished?” It looked slightly surprised. With a tightened brow, it turned to the prototype Gaia and said coldly, “Open the memory system.”

【Understood.】

The prototype Gaia’s body suddenly cracked with fissures—splitting apart from the upper body. From within, a diamond-shaped crystal was revealed.

It walked to the crystal, reached for it, and closed its eyes. After a while, it opened them again—its expression had turned dark.

“The Treasure Vault has been accessed by an external buyer… Impossible. I clearly shut down all access and denied all visitors. How could such a combatant exist in this world? This clearly goes beyond the ‘script’ written by Unit 003, Alaya!”

“But the ‘script’ should be fixed…”

“There’s only one possibility that could alter the script…”

Its expression shifted rapidly before it strode to a white cylindrical device between the two crystal pillars—operating the one that had previously contained Tai Yinzi’s soul.

Inside the pillar, a colorful, liquid-like substance slowly began to emerge. Eventually, it morphed into a 30-centimeter-long metallic statue resembling a dog.

Tai Yinzi’s soul was then forced into this metallic canine body by a strange power.

“Awaken.”

The dog-like metal beast slowly opened its eyes—Tai Yinzi regained vision and felt like the surrounding world had become gigantic.

Before him stood a man so unbelievably beautiful that even Tai Yinzi himself was momentarily stunned… Wait, that man seemed to be missing a certain something?

“What the hell…” Tai Yinzi instinctively tried to scratch his chin.

The next moment shocked him—he stared blankly at the reflection on the crystal surface… at his own appearance.

A dog… he had actually become a dog?!

This clearly wasn’t the Black Soul’s ability—Tai Yinzi felt nothing like his Black Soul form. His heavy body clanked with metallic sounds as he moved.

“You… What did you do to me? Who the hell are you?!”

“Drekeya,” it said calmly. “You may call me Count Drekeya, one of the heads of the Eternal Kingdom’s top research institution.”

“I don’t care who you are! Turn me back now!” Tai Yinzi couldn’t accept being turned into an old metal dog. “I don’t care if you’re a Count or a King—if my master finds out, you’re dead!!”

“Your master?” Drekeya’s expression didn’t change, but he spread his fingers toward Tai Yinzi.

Suddenly, Tai Yinzi felt like his brain—if he still had one—was about to explode. The canine eyes shot out two beams of light.

Like a projector, the beams displayed scene after scene… the entire life of Tai Yinzi.

These memories flashed by rapidly. Within moments, the lights stopped, and Tai Yinzi collapsed, limp like he’d been trampled by a horde of metal dogs.

Drekeya’s expression was now terrifyingly cold, his chilling eyes fixed on Tai Yinzi.

“So… you’re the student of the one who broke into my Treasure Vault and destroyed my entire battle regiment.” Drekeya sneered. “What a coincidence.”

“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about… but… my master will never… let you get away with this…” Tai Yinzi stammered, lacking conviction. He could only bluff—it was clear this place was deeply connected to the club.

“Hmph. Too bad the current proxy of the Root is just a rookie.” Drekeya sneered again. “If it were the previous proxy… even knowing it was all calculated, I wouldn’t have dared act.”

Tai Yinzi struggled to get up.

Drekeya laughed coldly. “You’re not what I contracted for… but by mistake, it ended up being you. Fine. I’ll remember this debt.”

“You… you’re the club’s financier?” Tai Yinzi finally realized something.

But Drekeya ignored him. Instead, he turned toward the brocade box that had separated from Tai Yinzi’s original body.

The box floated to Drekeya’s hand and opened effortlessly—shocking Tai Yinzi, as its contents were tied to a major secret of his sect.

“Do you know what this is?” Drekeya asked with a mysterious smile.

“No idea!” Tai Yinzi turned his head defiantly… but after realizing this guy had forcibly viewed his entire life’s memories, he grew fearful again. “What… what are you planning to do?”

"In your eyes, this is something belonging to so-called immortals." Drekeya sneered as he slowly took the item out of the Brocade Box. "Your so-called Penglai Grand Gathering—every final ritual is all about trying to use this item to summon the legendary Immortal of Penglai and fulfill your wish for hope, isn’t it?"

It turned out to be a severed hand!

"But what’s laughable is that this Penglai Immortal has long been dead—killed by me!" Drekeya sneered again. "Though I don’t know why his hand was left behind and ended up with your sect, in the end, it still returned to me… Do you know what that means?"

"Means… what…?"

"Your so-called master is just a newly appointed proxy."

Drekeya let out a soft laugh. "It’s not even been a full year since their appointment, and they’re already slacking off. Probably still worried about their own life draining away, right? A beautiful soul? What a joke. For something like that, they didn’t even try to build their own strength! A guy like that probably hasn’t even opened the Multiversal Door, right? No, probably not even powerful enough to rewrite… no, maybe not even affect the permissions of this 003 Main World’s sub-admin, Alaya!"

Old Tao... Old Tao doesn’t understand a thing you’re saying!!!

"The master of Penglai is already dead, but the permissions from the Source still remain… If I replace him and settle the remaining transaction quota, then the permissions of Penglai will transfer to me!" Drekeya laughed wildly. "I thought that after this resurrection, just becoming the secondary proxy of the Source by replacing Penglai would already be enough… but who would’ve thought the new proxy was just a rookie! Hahahaha!!!"

Tai Yinzi opened his mouth.

He still didn’t understand a single word of what this clearly delusional, crystal-tube-addled maniac was saying—but it seemed like this guy might be capable of taking down his boss?

Emmm… Should I defect?

But just then, a tremor suddenly rippled through the pure white space.

Drekeya frowned and reached out to touch the nearby pillar. Instantly, a large number of blue screens appeared all around.

They displayed various scenes from inside the Penglai Treasure Vault. Drekeya quickly locked eyes on one screen—it was clearly the Universal Material Pool!

"Specialized Combat-Type Valkyrie units?" Drekeya’s frown deepened. "Maximum output mode… Who gave that order? That’s a waste of my Universal Material! Shut it down!"

However, when Drekeya slammed his palm against the surface of the pillar, the printing process in the Material Pool didn’t stop. A message popped up in front of him: Insufficient Permissions.

"Subordinate Permission?! Damn it…" Drekeya’s gaze shot toward Tai Yinzi. He roared, "You defective piece of junk!!"

"I…" Tai Yinzi was furious.

I didn’t want this either! What the hell was I supposed to do?!

He had no choice but to continue lying down.

But the idea of defecting was instantly crushed—apparently, his presence had caused some major cracks in this guy’s seemingly perfect plan?

Drekeya only gave Tai Yinzi a vicious glare, then turned and strode toward the prototype Gaia.

It reverted to its usual appearance, and Drekeya spoke sternly, "All combat units were supposed to have been destroyed. Why is there still a maximum alert protocol in place?"

【Cause: Unknown】

Drekeya frowned. "Analyze. Think!"

【Intelligence system severely damaged. Analysis module failed to launch.】

"You piece of junk!" Drekeya cursed in frustration, biting his finger and pacing back and forth before rushing back to the pillar.

His consciousness had only just awakened from dormancy, and he didn’t yet understand the full situation. More intel was needed.

"Mainframe malfunction… Was it affected during the elimination of that unusual power source last time?"

He quickly pulled up records from the Universal Material Pool again and then slammed the pillar angrily. "The prototype's intelligence has regressed to the infant stage! My hidden directives only respond to the prototype now! The newly printed units… don’t even recognize my hidden commands! Damn it! Even a Level 2 permission would be enough!"

Tai Yinzi shrank back slightly—even though the crystal pillar was cramped, he had a strong feeling that this madman might take out his rage on him at any second.

"I need to reboot the mainframe and bind it to this current identity to regain absolute control over the Treasure Vault." Drekeya took a deep breath, calming himself.

"Prototype, come with me to the main control room."

Now composed again, Drekeya issued the order to the prototype Gaia—currently the only unit still responsive to his commands. For many of the operations ahead, he would need this prototype’s cooperation.

His new body had an extremely low Source of Anomaly ratio—so low that he didn’t even have permission to enter the control room.

【Understood】

Drekeya turned, and as he did, a strange uniform—something resembling military attire—materialized over his form.

As he strode away with the prototype Gaia following, Tai Yinzi, still stuck in the crystal pillar, blinked his shiny new metal dog eyes.

"I’ve been shelved? Woof woof… Let me out!!! Woof woof… Ptooey!!"

(End of Chapter)