Chapter 541 Ancient temple
"Rrrrrgghh!!"
Bloody veins popped up in Ella's eyes, and her body spasmed. Her head throbbed in pain and she felt faint, about to lose her consciousness when she heard Max's voice.
"…I… can't… pl…ease… help…" She said through gritted teeth, trying not to blank out but the prospect of fainting so she wouldn't feel pain was too alluring to her right now, so she slowly closed her eyes, a wave of fatigue washing over her mind and body.
Just then, inside her body… near her heart…
The 'showdown' between Max's bloodline energy and the dark pattern came to an end. His bloodline energy had dispersed while the dark pattern flickered faintly, clearly weakened. It then merged back into her heart.
As soon as the dark pattern calmed down, the excruciating pain Ella was feeling vanished. As the wave of relief washed over her, she felt utterly drained and fainted.
Phew!
Seeing she was no longer suffering, Max sighed in relief before waving his hand and causing a bed to appear beside him. He then gently scooped her up in his arms and laid her down on the bed. "Should I wait for her to recover, or should I call Ellie?" He muttered with a frown as he looked down at his still raging dragon. Although his lust wasn't as uncontrollable as before, it wasn't fully quenched and could flare up if not fully satisfied.
After thinking for a moment, he sighed, "Let's wait for a while… I don't want to force her too, if possible."
---
No one knew how big the desert on the western border of the Green leaf kingdom was or what lay inside it, because those who had gone deeper, never returned. Over the centuries, the Green leaf kingdom and other kingdoms that bordered this desert had sent multiple five-star mages and even a few king rank mages to explore this uncharted territory, but the result was the same… none returned.
Thereafter, this desert was named 'desert of oblivion' and all the investigations were stopped. Of course, this information wasn't made public, nor the people were prohibited from entering and exploring. The royal families wished that someone would be lucky enough to return after entering the deeper regions and would bring some useful information to them. But to this day… all those who dared to enter more than 100 miles deep never returned.
The desert covered a vast area, easily bigger than the entirety of the Green leaf kingdom. At the center of the desert was an expansive mountain range. In the depths of the mountain range, in a deep valley where no sunlight reached, stood an ancient temple-like structure. It wasn't big and looked as though it would collapse anytime soon.
Outside the temple, two people sat cross-legged, their eyes closed. One was a middle-aged man, in a khaki robe, with a long beard and unkempt hair, while the other one was an old woman in black robes and had a head full of white hair.
Right when Max's bloodline energy clashed with the dark pattern, the old woman's eyes snapped open and her brows knitted together.
"What is it, old witch?" The middle-aged man asked, his eyes still closed.
"Someone almost removed the bloodline curse I cast on someone." She said and then mumbled, "Although it's been over a thousand years, and the curse has already weakened by quite a lot, no one should be able to remove it. Strange…"
"Tch! Old witch. Apart from those old monsters, who in this backwater place can remove your curse, even though it isn't anything remarkable." The middle-aged man scoffed.
"Sense carefully. Maybe something happened to the cursed one."
Boom!
Old witch narrowed her eyes at him, and an oppressive aura burst out of her, pressing down on him.
"Who do you think I am? I would make such a mistake?"
"There were 589 people that had inherited my bloodline curse and within the past a few hours, everyone died except two. And just now, one of the two had their cursed severely weakened."
Boom!
The middle-aged man opened his eyes and his aura burst forth, countering the old witch's aura, albeit just barely.
However, if someone was here, they would notice that despite their auras being way more powerful than an emperor mage's aura, nothing was destroyed in their vicinity as it should have been. This was the [Aura manipulation] which Max had achieved thanks to his bloodline, but he only touched the surface of it and was nowhere close to their level. They were the true monarch rank mages and were expert in [Aura manipulation].
"Anyone can make mistakes, especially old goats like you." The man chuckled. Despite being a little weaker than her, he didn't seem afraid of her. He then continued, "Or are you telling me that someone really managed to 'weaken' your curse? Who in this backwater place can do it, apart from those old monsters?"
He was perfectly aware how strong the witch was and how strange and wickedly powerful her witchcraft was.
When he called her 'old goat', the old witch's pupil constricted and a murderous gleam flashed past her eyes, but then she glanced at the temple and sighed.
"Yes, you stupid cunt. Someone really did that, and he wasn't one of those old monsters because if it was, it wouldn't merely weaken."
The old witch said and then stood up. "I'm going to take a look. I can't let that bastard's descendents to live freely." Her eyes flashed coldly as she said this and emitted a ghastly aura, which was different from before.
Whoosh!
Saying this, she kicked the ground and flew into the air. Just as she was about to fly out of the valley, a faint voice sounded out from the temple.
"…Stay!"
Swoosh!
As soon as the voice sounded, she froze mid-air.
The old witch had a shocked expression same as the middle-aged man who bowed toward the temple, "My humble greetings, senior. I'm sorry we disturbed you."
"…Mm." Came the answer.
The old witch also bowed, but she didn't have the same the reverent expression on her face. She even looked a little angry as she said, "Why are you stopping me, senior? Didn't you hear somebody dared to mess with me? I have to check it out."
The middle-aged man flinched seeing how rude she was but then sighed because he knew she wouldn't be punished. '…Background is indeed important.' He sighed.
"…That is of no consequence. You should learn to forget your past enmities. Besides, was he really your enemy?" The voice sounded.
"…"
Old witch opened her mouth to refute but then closed it. She then growled, "I still want to go and check who meddled with my affairs. Can I go or are you going to stop me still?"
Sigh!
There was no response for a moment before the voice sighed.
"…If you were her disciple, I would have killed you for this kind of behavior."
Although the voice was still calm, without any ripple, the old witch couldn't help but feel cold chills run down her spine and lowered her head, "…F-Forgive me, senior."
"…Do you know why I stopped you now when I never did before?" The voice asked.
"No, senior. Please enlighten me." Old witch said. Although it would seem the 'senior' stopped her because he wanted her to let go of her past enmities and not waste her time, she knew better.
"…You said there were 589 cursed people, but everyone, except two, were killed. Why do you think they died?"
Old witch frowned, "Maybe someone killed them for fun? After all, they are just ordinary people, with no ability to protect themselves, and they don't have this tiny kingdom's protection. So, anybody could kill them without fearing about the consequences."
"…You are not wrong." The voice said.
"…But if I'm not wrong, they didn't die in the hands of humans or beasts or other races on this continent but the demon race."
"Oh?! They are here again?" The middle-aged man casually asked, not concerned at all.
The old witch's expression darkened. "Didn't I assign that beast to activate the concealing formation when those mad people come? Why didn't he—"
While speaking, she closed her eyes and exclaimed, "Oh, so he has died. What a waste!"
The middle-aged man ignored the old witch and waited for the voice to continue because the main reason why he stopped the old witch was yet to be revealed and he had a feeling that it was something serious.
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