"Boom."

As soon as Merlin drifted into the third layer subspace, blood-red light filled his vision. It was as if his consciousness was about to be ripped apart by an immense force.

Nonetheless, Merlin's consciousness was unlike an ordinary person's. This bit of power was naturally unable to cause his consciousness any harm. Therefore, he inspected with his consciousness and soon discovered that this crimson subspace only contained one colossal will.

"Someone has finally come in and with a decent consciousness too. It's just a shame that it's a tiny fellow who's selected to merge with a puny Two-headed Pterolycus. With such a lowly bloodline, I, the great Blood-eye Dragon, won't follow you!"

A deafening voice sounded in Merlin's ears which rumbled unceasingly and was filled with a tyrannical presence.

This was the high-tier almighty beast's will that was sealed within the third layer subspace – the Blood-eye Dragon!

The Blood-eye Dragon was a high-tier almighty beast. It had been a terrifying and formidable almighty beast, even in ancient times when almighty beasts ran amok. Furthermore, the Blood-eye Dragon had an obvious, unique advantage; it belonged to the Vipera Dragons class.

Vipera Dragons were descendants of the legendary Sacred Dragon, only their bloodline was thinner. Moreover, they had cross-bred with other almighty beasts. Naturally, their strength was far inferior to the legendary Sacred Dragon.

Nonetheless, they were still Vipera Dragons and possessed a trace of the Sacred Dragon's bloodline. Apparently, if one could stimulate a Vipera Dragon's bloodline to its limits, they might unleash the true Sacred Dragon bloodline.

Of course, myths were just myths. Sacred beasts were mythic beings in the first place. Who could actually possess the power of sacred beasts? This Blood-eye Dragon itself was already extraordinary enough. Even if only its will was left, it was still equipped with such immense strength. Furthermore, it maintained an intellect on par with an average person. Merlin was somewhat amazed.

"Blood-eye Dragon, a high-tier almighty beast's will. What, you don't wish to parasitize my body?" Merlin answered with a laugh.

This was not up to the Blood-eye Dragon. Perhaps others might be unable to handle the Blood-eye Dragon's will but Merlin had the Illusory World and powerful Mind Power. Only the will of the Blood-eye Dragon remained. To Merlin, this was no threat at all.

"For you to choose a mere Two-headed Pterolycus, you evidently possess no willpower nor intelligence. If I choose to parasitize you, won't I be forever unable to recover my peak strength? If that's the case, I'd rather stay sealed in this Bead of Infamy. Go away, I won't choose to parasitize your body. If you continue disturbing my sleep, I'll swallow your consciousness and turn you into an idiot!"

This Blood-eye Dragon's will was rather vicious and already started to threaten Merlin.

Merlin only gave a careless smile and did not take the Blood-eye Dragon's threat to heart. Still, he did not stay on in the Bead of Infamy and retracted his consciousness.

It was not that Merlin did not wish to immediately switch the Two-headed Pterolycus's will for the Blood-eye Dragon. One was a mere low-tier almighty beast's will, the other was a lofty, incomparably powerful high-tier almighty beast's will. It was also a Vipera Dragon that was a preeminent existence even amongst high-tier almighty beasts.

Nevertheless, Merlin could not switch his almighty beast's will so easily at that point.

In truth, Hosts had two methods in dealing with an almighty beast's will. The first was, they could switch immediately upon locating a stronger almighty beast's will. Even so, they must start from the beginning, slowly progressing from the first-form onwards.

This would take up vast amounts of resources which was what Merlin lacked now. He knew that the Blood-eye Dragon's will was indeed formidable but for him to reach the first-form required more materials for the Nourishment Pond than what it would need to take to reach the Two-headed Pterolycus's fourth-form. With Merlin's current financial ability, he was incapable of creating this Nourishment Pond.

Even if he requested this from Count Stanwin, it would be limited. Hosts used up a lot of resources, especially with a powerful almighty beast's will. The resources needed for that was inconceivable.

Of course, there was the second method which was to merge the almighty beasts' wills together. In that manner, one would not need to slowly progress from the first-form onwards.

However, that required a powerful almighty beast's will as the primary will first. Only then could one slowly attempt to merge other almighty beasts' wills into the first one, inducing mutations.

At that moment, Merlin only had the Two-headed Pterolycus which definitely could not act as the primary will. Conversely, if he merged with the Blood-eye Dragon in the future, he could try using this method. Still, merging with other almighty beasts' will and slowly upgrading the almighty beast's will was extremely dangerous. It would take a long time, many attempts, and Merlin was still very far from this stage.

Therefore, what he could do now was to solve the issue of Nourishment Pond's materials. Merlin could only smoothly merge with the Blood-eye Dragon with abundant resources and then rapidly advance it to its first-form or even beyond that.

"It's impossible to earn enough money in a short time span. Even if I did, preparing the materials of the Nourishment Pond won't be cheap. I'd only be able to use the Nourishment Pond once or twice, which isn't much help."

Countless thoughts zipped past Merlin's mind. He had many ideas but rejected each of them.

Suddenly, Merlin recalled Curator Heroult who had helped him merge with the Two-headed Pterolycus back in Boulder City. Back then, Heroult asked Merlin to follow him into Holy Dragon City but Merlin refused.

After that, Heroult left only an address for Brews Castle, so that Merlin could look him up at any time.

"It looks like it's time to look for Heroult. With Brews Castle's address, it won't be hard to search."

Merlin made up his mind and immediately left the laboratory, then boarded the carriage. After finding out the specific location of Brews Castle, he directed the carriage straight to this destination.

…

A thin drizzle came down from the sky. The weather during the beginning of spring was still chilly. Raindrops felt icy as they landed on one's face.

A carriage slowly stopped before an ancient castle. Merlin slowly disembarked from the carriage and looked up at this castle.

This here was Brews Castle, a rather ancient castle. There were no guards outside, and a quick glance into the castle revealed no human figures.

Nonetheless, the lawn within was well maintained, proving that this was not an abandoned castle but one that had residents.

Merlin instructed the coach driver to wait outside. He removed his gloves and draped himself with a black cloak. After a moment of hesitation, he pushed the iron gate open straightaway and walked towards the castle's hall.

As soon as he entered the castle, Merlin detected an odd, unpleasant odor. Frowning, he looked upwards to the castle but discovered nothing out of the ordinary.

Soon, Merlin stood before the sturdy doors of the castle. Reaching out, he knocked sharply. The clear sound resounded within which sounded empty, giving him an eerie feeling.

"Creak."

Under Merlin's attentive gaze, the castle's doors were slowly opened from within.