Chapter 268: Chapter 249 Dragon Blood Curse Chapter 268: Chapter 249 Dragon Blood Curse Hake Stone’s expression was extremely excited, so much so that it even rubbed off on Amberser.

This guy hadn’t even used up all his question time when he ran over to tell him about it, which must mean it was indeed a monumental discovery.

Amberser could only continue drawing the magic array while saying to him, “You talk, I’m listening.”

Hake Stone was quite dissatisfied with Amberser’s perfunctory attitude; this was a super discovery that could cause a major earthquake in the history of the continent.

However, he couldn’t make Amberser change his attitude, so he could only explain, “Arthur Laine must have encountered a very serious physical problem back then, which is why he left without saying goodbye.”

“A Legendary Holy Warrior, sick? Do you have any evidence?” Amberser asked, puzzled.

Those paladins who keep saying “Holy Light, ah”—as if it’s a catchphrase, making it seem very unclassy—actually have a very good thing in their hands. Theoretically, paladins should not get sick; they only age.

Arthur Laine was an exceedingly strong Holy Warrior, practically a demigod.

Such a person, what kind of physical ailment could they have?

Hake Stone assertively said, “After chatting with that Heroic Spirit majesty, I can confirm the character of the Arthur Laine back then. Just as the historical records show, this Holy King was humble, benevolent, resolute, and very responsible. Such a person wouldn’t just abandon the empire all of a sudden. There’s only one reason: he encountered an insurmountable force.

“But he is the Emperor of Laine; what insurmountable force back then could have made him leave his own empire? It couldn’t have been the deity’s doing, because the Lord of the Dawn wouldn’t watch his devout follower be secretly harmed by other deities. So the only possibility is that Arthur Laine had a problem himself.

“I’ve carefully compared the records of that time. Laine had indeed made large purchases of various medicinal materials and had records of looking for doctors all over the continent. However, the reason given at the time was that an epidemic had appeared in Laine, and they needed the medicinal materials and a large number of doctors to treat it. But think about it, the empire bathed in Holy Light, what epidemic would they fear? Aren’t the healing techniques of the Light Priests effective enough that they need to rely on other doctors?”

Hake Stone’s analysis made a lot of sense; it was highly possible that Arthur Laine had contracted some kind of incurable disease that even the Holy Light couldn’t heal.

Amberser thought for a moment but still felt there was something not quite right and asked, “So his disappearance was actually to seek treatment? That doesn’t add up. If it was just for treatment, there was no need to leave without saying goodbye. He could have just discussed it with those senior officials of the Laine Empire, right? Who would have stopped him from getting treatment?”

Hake Stone smiled confidently and said, “That’s right, you’re quite smart to realize that so quickly. What if I told you that this incurable disease could not be revealed to anyone else in Laine?”

Amberser paused in his action and couldn’t help saying, “An incurable disease that can’t be told to others? Arthur Laine didn’t have a sexually transmitted disease.”

Other emperors might have been too promiscuous and contracted an illness they dare not reveal.

But Holy Light heals all STDs; that was never a problem for Arthur Laine.

“Hehe, want to know?” Hake Stone said proudly to Amberser, “For the sake of our relationship, how about 200,000 Gold Coins?”

“Sorry, my interest in this question isn’t worth 200,000. Why don’t you sell it to the Laine People? I believe they would give you two million to keep it a secret.”

Amberser decisively refused; listening to historical stories was enough. Even if he knew the deepest secrets of the Laine Empire, the Paladin Legion wouldn’t just vanish into thin air; the impact wasn’t that great.

Hake Stone saw he wasn’t going to get any money and immediately became anxious, “Why are you so stingy? I’m telling you, this secret is definitely worth 200,000, because this is about the key to the corruption and degeneration of the Laine royal family, and it’s related to the Magic Dragon Tyrant.”

“Related to the Magic Dragon Tyrant?” Amberser completed the last line of the Teleportation Circle and then, stroking his chin, fell into deep thought. After a moment, he asked Hake Stone, “Did Arthur Laine get struck by the Dragon Blood Curse?”

“Err…”

Seeing Hake Stone’s expression, Amberser laughed and said, “Hehe, looks like I can save those 200,000.”

The Dragon Blood Curse was a very obscure thing. Dragons were rare to begin with, and the conditions for the curse were extremely stringent. First, it required a dragon of the Legendary Rank; second, the dragon had to harbor a deep-seated hatred, preferring to destroy its own soul and infuse it into its blood to cast the curse; and finally, there must be a dragon slayer, capable of killing the dragon and bathing in its blood.

“When the Magic Dragon Tyrant was killed by Arthur Laine, did it choose to destroy its own soul and inflicted Arthur with the Dragon Blood Curse? That doesn’t make sense; this curse is so strong that it can affect deities, how did Arthur Laine live to over a hundred years old? He should have died long ago.”

Hake Stone was indeed very annoyed to see that Amberser had deduced most of the content. Damn lich, how many books did he read on a regular basis to even know about this? Dragons had been extinct for over a thousand years, and he had only discovered this curse after sifting through thousands of books and finding it in ancient tomes left by the Dragon Worship Sect. And yet, this lich seemed to know about it too.

But now that Amberser had already guessed it, Hake Stone could only sigh and say, “I guess it was the Lord of the Dawn who intervened to suppress the curse. So when Arthur Laine got old and could not suppress the curse anymore, that’s why he left voluntarily.”

However, Amberser shook his head and said, “There’s still something that doesn’t fit. The Dragon Blood Curse was Arthur Laine’s glory, the proof of his slaying of the Magic Dragon Tyrant. There was nothing shameful about it, so why would he need to hide it and abandon his vast empire without saying goodbye?”

“That, I’m not too sure about, but this is the result of a conversation I had with Arthur Laine. When they were crusading against the Magic Dragon, they made targeted preparations for the various abilities of the Magic Dragon Tyrant. It wasn’t as simple as just stealing the Divine Artifact from the Magic Dragon Tyrant.”

“Can you elaborate?”

“Will you pay me?”

“You can choose not to tell me.”

…

Hake Stone gritted his teeth, knowing that it would be impossible to squeeze even a Gold Coin out of the hands of the Lich, so he thought about keeping quiet. But he couldn’t hold back. Such a huge secret, and now there was no one but Amberser to share it with.

Hake Stone was inherently very gossipy, otherwise, he would not have taken an interest in archaeology. In the end, he couldn’t hold back and disclosed his intelligence to Amberser.

The Magic Dragon Tyrant had three abilities that were nearly invincible back then.

The first was time control power as a Time Dragon. In order to further control time, he even forged such a Divine Artifact. With this Artifact, the Time Dragon was immortal. No matter the damage, they could instantly recover, and even if killed, they could resurrect on the spot.

The second ability was the Time Dragon’s breath. Any creature struck by the breath would turn to ashes, and the power of time could not be withstood by anything.

The third was his immortal Dragon Soul. Even if his body was completely destroyed, his Soul could exist independently and was immune to most attacks. Neither the Paladin’s Holy Slash nor any other Spell or Divine Art could harm his Dragon Soul, it was as if it existed on another plane.

To solve these three massive issues, Arthur Laine spent many years. First, he stole the Hourglass Artifact and replaced the wisp of Dragon Soul the Magic Dragon Tyrant had left on the Artifact with his own will. Then, using this wisp of Dragon Soul, he forged a divine sword capable of harming the Tyrant’s Dragon Soul.

It sounds simple, but Arthur Laine had over a dozen companions at the time who almost all sacrificed themselves for the plan. In the end, only three remained, one of whom was the old King of the Elf Tribe.

As for the Magic Dragon’s time breath, Arthur Laine could not come up with any solution. The only thing to do was to slay the Magic Dragon Tyrant before it could release its breath.

So, in the end, it was Arthur Laine alone who faced the Magic Dragon Tyrant and with the sword forged from the Dragon Soul, he slayed it with a clean stroke, completely obliterating even its Soul.

The Heroic Spirits were not aware of the final outcome, but they had all the preparations for the earlier stages in their memories. Therefore, Hake Stone deduced the element of the Dragon Blood Curse. This divine sword could slay the Tyrant’s Dragon Soul. It was very likely that the Magic Dragon Tyrant, realizing his certain death and the destruction of his soul, chose to cast the Dragon Blood Curse in a final act of vengeance against Arthur Laine.

Of course, there was no proof, Hake Stone believed that only the Dragon Blood Curse could render Arthur Laine utterly helpless.

“It still doesn’t add up in the end. Why would Arthur Laine keep this from everyone?”

The Holy King was not someone prone to affectation. On the contrary, he was optimistic and open-hearted, not the type to hide his condition with some trivial excuse like, “not wanting to trouble others.”

Unless, he had grown old and had become sentimental?

But the likelihood was very low. Those who became Paladins had extraordinarily steadfast wills; time rarely altered their personalities or habits.

Hake Stone couldn’t figure it out and could only say, “Maybe I could find some other documents.”

Amberser consoled him, “Although we haven’t clarified the truth, it’s quite impressive to have unearthed so much information. By the way, my Alchemy Factory will be established soon. Regarding alchemic products commonly used by civilians, do you have any suggestions? What sells best among the Desert People?”

Hake Stone replied without a second thought, “Vitality Potions, what man can do without them?”

“Uh…” Amberser caught the implications of Hake Stone’s words.

But it seemed to make sense; indeed, every man couldn’t do without Vitality Potions… after all, men need to do manual labor, right? A single potion and they can keep going for another hour.

Could it be that he should design a new type of Vitality Potion to break into the market?

But the difficulty was high, because Vitality Potions had been around for many years and had been optimized over time. Amberser didn’t think he could come up with a cheaper, more effective formula.

If he couldn’t introduce a new product to dominate the market, then it wasn’t of much significance to him.

However, if he couldn’t corner the market for men, perhaps he could consider the market for women?