Qin was at Linköping Cathedral, meeting with the high-ranking members of the Divine Luo Expeditionary Army.

Bai Pu was also present. However, since the alliance had already been decided, he wasn't interested in this meaningless socializing.

Using the excuse of a restroom break, Bai Pu opened some treasure chests.

In this war, Bai Pu had killed quite a few elites and even took down a Level 6 Leader, all of which dropped treasure chests.

He first opened the few blue Elite Treasure Chests, gaining some Spiritual Points and miscellaneous items, a piece of unused blue armor, and unexpectedly, an artifact.

[Whetstone: A natural sharpening stone made from hard siliceous sandstone. A B-level artifact, it takes 5 minutes to sharpen your weapon, giving your sharp-type weapons 10 points of armor penetration, lasting 120 minutes. Usable 3/3 times.]

This whetstone is naturally formed from stone, appearing brown all over with a rough surface and many fine sandstone particles.

The armor penetration provided by this B-level artifact is only 10 points, which looks paltry in the Mid-level Spirit Realm; that's probably why the [Whetstone] is rated lowly.

But if you change your perspective and give it to a Low-level Awakened to use, in a Low-level Spirit Realm where armor is generally not high, the effect becomes quite significant, and its overall usage count of three times increases its value too.

So the [Whetstone] is clearly positioned to be sold to those powerful families nurturing their juniors.

Bai Pu put away the whetstone and then opened the Golden Treasure Chest he obtained from General Sven.

From this treasure chest, in addition to gaining 6000 Spiritual Points, Bai Pu also got an opportunity to draw a selection.

Option A: Without excluding any Low-Valued Cards, draw twice from a total of 48 Spoils Cards.

Option B: Exclude 24 Low-Valued Cards. If you do this, you can only draw once.

Bai Pu chose Option A and drew twice directly.

His luck wasn't bad; he didn't draw any junk items both times.

[You have obtained the Advanced Riding Skill Scroll. Using this scroll will elevate your riding skill to Advanced Level 1. If you already have an Advanced class riding skill, it will increase your riding skill level by 1 (not exceeding Advanced Level 6).]

[You have obtained one Golden Enhancement Crystal.]

Seeing the Advanced Riding Skill Scroll, Bai Pu couldn't help but remember the scene of General Sven charging on horseback, wielding that two-meter-long giant sword, combined with the charge of his mutated heavy-armored warhorse, it was like a rampaging meat grinder.

On a flesh-and-blood-strewn battlefield, a mount is like the general's legs. Without the mount's high mobility and strong impact force, General Sven would have found it hard to pierce through the Swedish Rebel Army's phalanx and would have been beaten to death by a bunch of fearless mutant soldiers.

Even someone as strong as Emperor Gustav, surrounded by mutant elites, could not break through.

Bai Pu's current riding skill level is Basic Level 4, just one basic level away from reaching the Advanced level. He decided not to use this specialty scroll yet and put it away.

As for the Golden Enhancement Crystal, it's used during Dark Gold equipment enhancement, replacing support equipment burning to improve the success rate of enhancement.

One Golden Enhancement Crystal is valued slightly less than a piece of Golden equipment. But in the eyes of a Peak Awakened, the values of the two are about the same.

It's worth mentioning that the Golden Enhancement Crystal can be broken down into three Blue Enhancement Crystals.

Blue Enhancement Crystals are used in place of support burning equipment during Golden equipment enhancement, and their value is close to Blue Armor.

Generally, no one would be so extravagant as to break down a golden crystal into three blue ones, because this operation is irreversible, and three blue crystals cannot be synthesized back into a golden crystal.

Next was the Dark Gold Treasure Chest of Emperor Gustav. Bai Pu thought about it and decided not to open it yet.

Because he once exchanged merit points for an A-level artifact in the world of [Heart Demon: Oath]: Lucky Dice, which allows him to redraw a treasure chest and choose spoils from the results of two draws.

Unfortunately, [Lucky Dice] can only be used up to Leader Level Treasure Chests.

Bai Pu thought that in the world of [Flesh and Blood Plague: Mutation], which belongs to the Mid-level Spirit Realm, merit exchanges might get him an item to redraw Dark Gold Treasure Chests, or he could inquire about exchanging it with the Special Service Bureau or the quartermaster of the Divine Strategy Army when he returns to the real world.

Of course, if tools to redraw Dark Gold Treasure Chests are scarce and he cannot get them for a while, Bai Pu won't wait indefinitely and would open it at least before his next battle.

A servant came looking for Bai Pu, saying that the talks were over.

The formal meeting between Qin and Duke William was over, with Duke William leading a batch of war supplies, retreating back to the southern Malmo Fortress.

Warmth is warmth; interest is interest.

Although Duke William had no plans to annex Sweden, he still requested to keep the Malmo Fortress as a bridgehead and a base for Brandon's forces stationed on the Nordic Peninsula.

As for that batch of war supplies, it was to serve as compensation for the fallen soldiers of the Divine Luo Expeditionary Army—a euphemism for war reparations, actually.

Qin agreed to these two conditions and allied with Brandonburg.

This was something Bai Pu had long expected as a possibility, and Bai Pu deemed it acceptable. Some might see ceding land and paying reparations as humiliating, but the Sweden Empire now needed time to recuperate.

In the future, Qin might slowly recruit the dispersed mutant legion of Gustav, and over time, even if it couldn't restore the might of the Blood Ring Fortress, it would be sufficient for self-defense.

Importantly, this action won Duke William's trust, and he could confidently focus on centralizing his efforts on the European continent, especially on the unification of the German Empire.

While Duke William undertakes the grand mission of unifying the German Empire, Qin and Christina could sit back and watch the tigers fight, seizing the chance for development. Once enough power is accumulated, there may even be the possibility to intervene in the wars on the European continent.

After returning to Stockholm with Qin, Bai Pu saw the end of the Blood Rose War (Final Chapter).

The notification from the Spirit Realm Will arrived:

[You have accumulated 34,851 battle merits in this war.]

[Since you have already joined the camp of the Swedish Rebel Army, you may look for Quartermaster John Oxensterna of the Swedish Rebel Army to exchange your battle merits.]

Bai Pu had already decided; he wanted to exchange for a title first.

Although Bai Pu and Qin already had a very close master-servant relationship, it didn't mean that Qin could "measure the resources of Sweden to please her master" and enfeoff Bai Pu without any limits.

She needed to consider the entire camp's power structure, especially the support of the citizens led by Prime Minister Oxensterna with their "Great Swedish Empire" dream.

If Qin acted arbitrarily and refused to heed advice, these independently thinking citizens would surely stop supporting her. At that time, the Swedish court would only have obedient mutants left, let alone dominate Europe; even maintaining control over the Nordic Peninsula would be impossible.

With over thirty thousand battle merits, Bai Pu was already able to exchange for a count's title.

In the name of the Regent Empress Dowager, Qin conferred the title to Bai Pu. Naturally, he was free to choose his fief, as long as it wasn't the capital, Stockholm.

After considering, Bai Pu chose the southern Scania Region.

Scania's coast stretches several tens of kilometers, right up to the Starfall Islands, a high-level hidden area. Legally speaking, the Starfall Islands are part of Scania, and thus within Bai Pu's domain!

The Awakened gaining a fief benefits in many ways, one of which is not needing a ticket and being able to teleport directly to the capital of their fief!

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