Haoyun nodded, indicating that King Er's guess was indeed plausible. After all, both his armor and Yan Chaoyue's armor were modified by Countess, so there must be some commonality between them. Perhaps this hidden commonality within the armor enabled Yan Chaoyue's dagger to control his own armor. Thinking this, Haoyun decisively took the dagger from King Er's hand without hesitation and carefully examined it.

"Huh? What's this?" When Haoyun saw the engraved pattern on the dagger, he couldn't help but marvel with suspicion. He rubbed his eyes and leaned closer to scrutinize the intricate pattern, ordering the system to conduct a finer scan of the engraved pattern on the dagger.

"Oh my! There's a small section of runes here!" Haoyun suddenly exclaimed excitedly.

Upon closer scan by the system, it was confirmed that within the engraved pattern of the dagger, there was indeed a segment of runes inscribed in a milky white color that even the system couldn't identify. These strange runes were almost transparent and subtly hidden on the surface of the dagger's engraving.

Seeing Haoyun discover the hidden inscription on the dagger, King Er coughed and said, "I just remembered—I discovered this inscription on the dagger a long time ago. I also asked Her Majesty about it. According to her, this inscription was specially engraved later on each dagger by her. She ensured that each dagger had a unique inscription. The purpose behind this was to facilitate the application of spells on each dagger and to allow her independent control over each one."

"I see." Haoyun responded simply to King Er, but he was deep in thought.

As far as Haoyun was concerned, with Yan Chaoyue's strength, she had no need to engrave a rune on each dagger to better control her exclusive weapons. Moreover, even if Yan Chaoyue did want to inscribe a rune on her dagger, it should have been done with the exclusive divine script of the Spirit Realm, not with an unfamiliar rune that even the Meiling Energy Tracking System couldn't identify. Why then did Yan Chaoyue illogically engrave such an unknown rune on her weapons? Could it be that she obtained this rune through some extraordinary encounter, and it could make her weapons even more powerful?

At the thought of such an encounter, Haoyun couldn't help but shiver. As far as Haoyun knew, the only person Yan Chaoyue would consider as such an encounter was Countess Gogolnikyeva. Haoyun immediately thought that Countess once mentioned helping Yan Chaoyue repair her weapons. Therefore, when Yan Chaoyue spoke of the "later inscriptions on the dagger," did she mean that Countess had deliberately added a unique inscription to each of her daggers while assisting in their repair and modification?

Thinking this way, Haoyun gradually formed a bold idea. Could it be that Countess inscribed runes on Yan Chaoyue's daggers to establish a connection with each piece of Dark Yin Spirit Realm armor she had repaired? Without further hesitation, Haoyun immediately instructed the system to precisely capture this intermittently appearing inscription and then copied and pasted this segment of runes into the armor's prompt dialog box, "Enter the key."

Cough cough cough!

Just as Haoyun anticipated the reaction of his armor after entering this rune segment, a series of extremely discordant laughter that sounded like it had been stuck in the throat for thousands of years suddenly and unexpectedly appeared in Haoyun's mind.

Upon hearing this laughter, Haoyun felt as if he had entered an ice cave, involuntarily shivering. Because Haoyun was all too familiar with this laughter—wasn't this the Countess's laughter?! How could her laughter appear in the system?

Could it be that he had fallen into a trap? Was this a trap set by Countess? Would entering the key cause his Meiling Energy Tracking System to be attacked by a virus, just like clicking on those "adult" kung fu movie websites, immediately making his system under her control, and turning himself into her puppet? Thinking of this, Haoyun's heart instantly chilled, and he almost collapsed because his legs suddenly went weak.

Just as Haoyun regretted not being vigilant enough to randomly enter unknown runes in the system in search of the so-called key, the somewhat crazy voice of the Countess echoed again in his mind: *Cough cough cough! Congratulations on successfully unlocking the new function of the armor! Oh dear! Did you miss me? Did I scare you? Do you need to change your pants quickly? Cough cough cough! Wait until my strength increases a bit more, maybe someday in the future, I might really figure out how to hack your system! Cough cough cough! Remember, nothing is absolute, everything has two sides. Enjoy using your new function! See you next time! Cough cough cough!

After hearing the Countess's words, Haoyun discovered from the rapid self-check results of the system that the words spoken by the Countess were just a voice message she had implanted in the armor in advance. Thus, after confirming that things would not develop as badly as he imagined, Haoyun weakly stood upright against the wooden box beside him with one hand and took a deep breath.

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However, even though Haoyun was so frightened by the sudden appearance of the Countess's voice, he stubbornly retorted in his heart: Go to hell! I wasn't scared shitless by you! Yeah! That's right! My pants are still dry!

King Er and Tie Ta naturally couldn't hear what the Countess had said in Haoyun's mind, but they were still greatly alarmed by Haoyun's sudden reaction, as if he had suddenly been possessed. Not only did he almost collapse to the ground, but his panicked appearance was truly unsettling. However, since Haoyun had regained his composure and did not want to explain further, the two could only link the abnormal reaction that had just appeared on Haoyun with the rune he had just used on the dagger.

"Ding! Key correct, hidden function activated! Please check the new function introduction for specific information."

"Warning! Warning! Armor energy too low, unable to use newly acquired functions!"

"Ding! Attention! Attention! Energy source detected for armor charging. Would you like to proceed with charging?"

"Warning! Warning! Necessary energy conversion device missing, unable to proceed with charging! Please confirm if the charging device is in place."

... ...

Just as Haoyun was starting to sort out his somewhat confused thoughts, his Mold Spirit Energy Pursuit System began emitting a series of synthesized electronic prompts. Simultaneously, the system interface in Haoyun's consciousness and the holographic projection he summoned displayed multiple notification messages.

"Oh my! We did it! Lord Haoyun actually unlocked the hidden functions of this armor! Lord Haoyun! Quick, look at this! What new functions are hidden in your armor?!" King Er exclaimed excitedly as he looked at the various prompts on the holographic display.

Upon hearing this, Haoyun quickly retracted the holographic screen before King Er and Tie Ta could see more information. He felt it necessary to conceal the newly discovered functions on his armor. After all, he was alone and away from home, so caution was necessary. He couldn't divulge all his cards to others, even if they were allies standing before him.

However, Haoyun thought again. He had only unlocked the armor's hidden functions with the help of King Er and the others. Moreover, according to the system prompts, he needed the dagger in their possession to charge the armor. So, not disclosing the new functions wasn't justifiable and could hinder their future cooperation.

More importantly, upon confirming the newly unlocked functions, Haoyun was extremely disappointed. Thus, after retracting the holographic screen, he muttered in frustration, "Oh my goodness! I thought I would unlock some great functions! Turns out this armor only has two hidden functions: one called 'Dig Dog Hole' and the other 'Snitch Must Die.'"

At this point, Haoyun couldn't help but silently curse the Countess and her entire family. What kind of nonsense were "Dig Dog Hole" and "Snitch Must Die"?! These names sounded completely frivolous! Moreover, Haoyun began to suspect whether these so-called new functions might be some prank by the Countess, given her eccentric style of doing things.

Upon hearing the names of these two functions, King Er and Tie Ta looked at each other in confusion. Haoyun could tell that if not for his status as a high priest, these two would probably have sternly questioned him with something like, "Are you kidding me?"

Haoyun helplessly waved his hand and said, "I agree with your thoughts. These two functions sound very strange upon first hearing. Anyway, let's put them aside for now! My armor can now sense an energy source available for charging, but I think we should charge the armor first and then slowly investigate what this is all about! Moreover, if we want to know what these two new functions in the armor are, we must ensure the armor has sufficient energy!"

King Er and Tie Ta both nodded repeatedly, agreeing with Haoyun's proposal. As for the details of the two functions Haoyun mentioned, they respected Haoyun's wish to keep them secret. Of course, if Haoyun was willing to share more about these two new functions, they would be more than happy to listen.

"However, before we start charging the armor, I have one more question," Haoyun continued.

"Lord Haoyun, please ask," King Er said respectfully, inclining slightly to indicate his willingness to clarify Haoyun's doubts.

So, Haoyun asked, "Even if my armor gathers all the energy here, how are we going to deliver this armor to Yan Chaoyue? Honestly, I don't think the three of us have the strength to forcibly break into the Eternal Star Palace and use the teleportation array in the harem to escape back to the Mu Star Palace. After all, that Destroyer has already proven difficult for me to handle. If King Er, due to vigorous activity, loses his suppression of the Mold Spirit Energy, then soon..."

Although Haoyun didn't finish his sentence, his meaning was already very clear. Tie Ta had formidable combat power, but it wasn't enough to face a massive Mastanian invasion. Therefore, in a battle, Tie Ta would not only be unable to provide much combat power but would also become a protected target.

As for King Er, Haoyun was even more worried. Because he needed to use strong mental suppression to control the Mold Spirit Energy within him, he couldn't afford to be distracted by enemy attacks. If King Er did so, not only would it accelerate the weakening of his mental strength, but it would also disrupt his concentration in suppressing the Mold Spirit Energy.

Therefore, in this way, King Er's willpower might soon be dissolved by the Mold Spirit Energy, allowing the Mold Spirit Energy to occupy his mind. And once this happened, Haoyun would be forced to fight against the fusion of two Mold Spirit Energies, a situation he definitely didn't want to face.

King Er naturally understood Haoyun's concerns, so he said, "Please rest assured, Lord Haoyun. I know my limits and will not risk my life to suppress the Mold Spirit Energy. Once it approaches the critical point of suppression, I will immediately inform you to avoid quickly. After all, we have a long way to go, and I don't want to easily become a puppet of the Mold Spirit Energy. I also want to maintain my state of struggle with it for as long as possible, so that we can find a way to deal with the Mastanians before adding another fierce general to their ranks."

"Your Majesty, how are you feeling now? Do you need to rest?" Since the topic returned to King Er, Tie Ta asked with concern.