Diana subsequently revealed a lot of information, both about the Bloodline Seeds as well as the three major factions of the Iron Armor Empire.

Yet, though she seemed completely honest most of the time, she would immediately shut her mouth and refuse to say anything every time Liora wanted to dig deeper into the secrets of the Holy Church.

Clearly, Diana knew what she should say and what she should not.

Revealing some useless information might help her win Liora's favor, but revealing the Holy Church's secrets went against her beliefs.

Liora did not mind this.

The information she had obtained was already enough to satisfy her for now.

Moreover, Diana would not go anywhere.

If she ever needed to know something in the future, she could always come and ask her. Though Liora would have to judge at that time whether to trust her answer.

Done dealing with the hostage for now, Liora shifted her focus back to the spoils of the previous battle.

With a casual wave of her hands, another book flew in front of her.

It's just that, unlike the research diary she had read just earlier, this book was related to Knights.

To be more accurate, it was the Knight Technique of the Lavender family.

As Liora quickly flipped through its pages, the entire Knight Technique was imprinted in her mind, as if she had practiced it for years.

Having recovered most of her strength and having experienced the power system of this world, she was able to understand this Knight Technique many times faster than when she obtained the technique of the Black Tulip family.

"The two techniques are pretty much the same. Both focus on the continuous transformation of one's Life Energy, either through consuming outside resources or through hard training. The way to achieve that transformation is also the same..."

However, there was one major difference between the two Knight Techniques.

"The Lavender technique actually contains information regarding the realm above Great Knights."

"King of Knights...", she muttered.

Liora was not surprised when she read this title.

She had already heard of it while infiltrating the Necronomicon Sect's stronghold, coming straight out of Marquis Lavender's mouth.

What actually interested her were the details of this rank.

After all, a Great Knight possessed strength equal to a ranked Young Devil.

This meant that a King of Knights was equivalent to a Lesser Devil, matching the strength Liora had at her peak.

"The advancement to a King of Knights follows the previous path of Knight training. It still focuses on transforming one's Life Force. It's just that the transformation that a King of Knights must go through is different."

"Rather than increasing the quantity and quality of their Life Force, they have to transform their Life Seed into a Divine Core and their Life Force into Divine Power."

"And to do this, all they have to do is accommodate a Bloodline Seed in their body."

As soon as she read this information, Liora's previous questions were answered.

Why did Marquis Lavender not use the results of the research to enhance his talent and thus advance to a King of Knights?

The reason was simple—because he couldn't. Or rather, he didn't need to.

All that was required for his advancement was for him to obtain a Bloodline Seed and accommodate it into his body.

Then, he would naturally advance.

When Liora read further and saw the method for one to accommodate a Bloodline Seed, she understood why he kept it a secret from his son.

"There is a large number of requirements, but the main one is relatively simple. One only needs to use the life of their closest family member to 'ripen' the Bloodline Seed..."

Seeing this bloody and cruel method being described in great detail, Liora couldn't help but sneer.

At the same time, she brought the two Bloodline Seeds closer and took a look at them.

She had confirmed during her conversation with Diana that the seeds looked perfectly normal to her, like divine items bestowed by the Gods.

Clearly, without the status or strength of a Lesser Devil, people couldn't discover the true identity and appearance of the Bloodline Seeds.

"Though not confirmed just yet, the Marquis mentioned that there were 108 of such seeds."

"Reaching the peak of the Great Knight rank is indeed difficult for the humans of this world, but there must have been many people who have accomplished this over the past two centuries. One would expect that there should be a lot of King of Knights."

"So, where are they right now?"

Although Liora had not come into contact with such beings so far, she could make a rough estimate regarding their number.

Judging by the fact that Dukes—the highest of nobles—were only Great Knights, it was obvious that only the three main factions possessed Knights reaching the King of Knights rank.

But in Liora's opinion, Kings of Knights should be rare even within these three factions.

Overall, she guessed that the number of King of Knights in the entire Iron Armor Empire could be counted on two hands.

"The Lavender Technique mentions that a King of Knights has already half-ascended to Godhood. If they wish to, they can leave this world, 'ascending' and entering the Divine Realm."

The Divine Realm was described as a higher realm, the place where the true Gods resided.

But Liora would, of course, not believe this.

If there was indeed a Divine Realm and Gods were real, hers and the unknown Devil's existence would have been detected a long time ago.

In a world with Gods, Divine Punishment would have arrived the moment they entered it, blowing them to smithereens.

Rather than believing in the existence of the imaginary Divine Realm, Liora was more keen on believing that there was something wrong with the King of Knights' rank.

Or more accurately, with the Bloodline Seeds.

But this also made perfect sense.

To others, accommodating a Bloodline Seed to advance was perfectly normal, just like how they had previously consumed resources to train and improve their physical strength.

But in Liora's eyes, accommodating Bloodline Seeds was nothing more than embedding the blood of someone else in one's body.

Worst of all, the source of that blood remained unknown.

Even Liora could not recognize it.

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