"You're lying," the wolf butler suddenly turned around and ripped off his bowtie, looking ready to attack.
"Is that so? Then just wait until you become a pile of scrap. Perhaps Alice will create a new wolf butler after you turn into junk?" Su Xiao's words caused the wolf butler's face to contort. He wasn't afraid of dying; what terrified him most was Alice making a new wolf butler and forgetting about him.
"Or perhaps your twisted loyalty to Alice has turned into affection? When a new wolf butler appears, you'll be nothing more than a pile of scrap metal. Your Queen Alice will forget about you. Or worse, what if something happens between her and the new wolf butler? What might unfold between your queen and your replacement? Interesting, isn't it?"
Su Xiao's words were like knives stabbing into the wolf butler's heart, even though he didn't have one.
"That's impossible. The Queen will never forget me," the wolf butler's hands trembled. This was his deepest fear. He had been with Alice for so long that he never thought of anything happening between them. He just wanted to stand behind her. But now, he was about to become a heap of lifeless alchemical materials.
"Who knows? Half a month ago, I created an alchemical raven. Thinking about it now, I seem to have forgotten where I left it. Oh, here it is." Su Xiao took out the discarded alchemical raven. He hadn't forgotten about this raven; it had helped him accomplish many tasks.
Seeing the alchemical raven in Su Xiao's hand, the wolf butler's pupils constricted.
"This is a little toy I made casually. Its shared vision ability was quite good, but unfortunately, its core alchemical array broke."
Bubuwang rolled his eyes, thinking, "He said he forgot, but he kept it in his storage the whole time."
"A pile of discarded alchemical materials, that's its current state. It's impossible to repair, and as for transforming it, I don't have that capability right now."
The wolf butler stared at the alchemical raven, thinking about his fate. Would he become like this raven? No, he would. He would become a heap of discarded materials, left in some corner of the castle. He would no longer host the castle's games, and if he were lucky, he might become a decoration while a new wolf butler stayed by Alice's side.
"Butler, haven't you noticed?"
"Noticed what?"
The wolf butler's thoughts were interrupted by Su Xiao.
"Your core material… it has been reused. You might be a replacement for a previous wolf butler. You are the second wolf butler, or perhaps the hundredth? Where did the previous butlers go? Could it be that Alice used those discarded materials to create other things? Recycling waste is something alchemists often do."
Su Xiao's words were not just knives stabbing at the butler's heart but a broadsword piercing from his head to his feet.
The wolf butler stood in shock. He had considered this possibility before. Since he could remember, the castle games had been going on without a hitch. The old prisoners in the castle seemed very familiar with him.
Seeing the wolf butler's reaction, Su Xiao's eye twitched. He had just been guessing, but it seemed he had guessed correctly. There had been previous wolf butlers before this one.
"Will the transformation process pose any risk to the performer?" the wolf butler asked, regaining his composure.
"Who knows? As I said before, I don't know much about the transformation."
Su Xiao fell silent, both sides entering a quiet standoff. However, a seed had been planted, and when it would sprout depended on how much time the wolf butler had left. High-level alchemical creatures like him could exist for hundreds of years.
Rumbling noises indicated that the wooden house had stopped. The wolf butler pushed open the door, and Su Xiao observed him closely. The hostility hadn't disappeared; it had grown stronger. But the butler no longer showed it openly. As long as there was hope, the likelihood of the wolf butler choosing mutual destruction was low, unless Alice directly ordered it.
Su Xiao exited the wooden house and entered what seemed more like a palace than a treasury. Inside were square stone pillars and rows of antique wooden shelves filled with numerous items.
Alice's collection totaled 52,043 items. Judging by the quantity, this treasury was immense.
The lighting in the treasury was dim, casting a dark golden hue over the place. Red carpets embroidered with gold threads covered the floors, and several murals adorned the ceiling. Su Xiao paused to study them.
The first mural depicted a female warrior with a long sword battling a wolf-headed man. An iron cage, shrouded in darkness, was nearby.
The second mural showed the warrior raising her long sword, her eyes blood-red, with a more sinister art style.
The third mural had the warrior with one arm severed, surrounded by voids. The warrior was stepping on the iron cage.
The fourth mural showed the warrior with her arm restored, her long sword dripping blood, and holding a wolf head in the other hand. The iron cage was gone.
The fifth mural depicted a headless body holding the iron cage, from which two arms reached out to grasp the headless body's hands.
The sixth mural showed the headless body collapsing, and the iron cage opening.
The murals told a story. After studying them, Su Xiao sensed a similarity between the wolf-headed man and the wolf butler, but only a similarity.
A line of text accompanied the last mural:
'Yin Ebo, my dearest love, you exchanged your life for my freedom. I shall not merely survive; you will eternally remain in my castle.'
From the murals, Su Xiao surmised that Alice once faced a crisis and was saved by a wolf-headed man named Yin Ebo.
One thing was certain: the wolf-headed man was not the wolf butler. Their mannerisms and features differed. Perhaps the wolf butler was created as a substitute, a contradictory one. His core was made from that iron cage, yet he resembled the wolf-headed man, symbolizing both imprisonment and salvation.
The wolf butler was also gazing at the murals, his thoughts unreadable.
"You have ten minutes to choose," the wolf butler said before heading deeper into the treasury.
"Ten minutes..." Su Xiao looked around, feeling he was being set up. The antique wooden shelves indeed held many items, but they all seemed unremarkable. He tried touching one.
Quality: Sealed Category: Sealed Rating: Sealed Description: Sealed
Except for the name, everything else was unknown. Were all of Alice's treasures valuable? The answer was no. More than 90% were likely memorabilia, items left behind by previous game participants. Su Xiao had already found evidence.
On a nearby shelf was a familiar item, a broken pair of glasses. They undoubtedly belonged to the golden-eyed man.
This was not surprising. With 52,043 items in the treasury—now 52,044—many were likely memorabilia. The value of these items lay not in their intrinsic worth but in their significance.
Su Xiao needed to find something valuable among these 52,044 items, a daunting task.