Chapter 468
Curse [Goodnight]
When he saw Minister Dross’s mind tremble, Eiv realized he had succeeded.
“What do I want?”
Eiv grinned mischievously, “If I say I want nothing… would you be afraid, Charles?”
Hearing this, Minister Dross began to sweat.
If “Eiv” wanted nothing…
Did that mean he wasn’t going to help him?
As Trade Minister, Dross was all too familiar with this – it was better to ask for something than nothing. As long as there was a need, there was a solution. Just as “random” was the hardest dish to make, saying nothing was the most difficult to deal with.
After watching him with a smile for a while, Eiv finally relented. “Alright, how about this…”
When Dross saw “Eiv’s” smile turn gentle, as if he were truly just Eivass Moriarty, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief, a shiver of cold fear running down his spine.
“Answer a few questions for me first, and then I’ll decide whether to help you.”
Eiv said slowly, “If you dare to lie to me… heh.
“Did you know? Human souls can be preserved in gemstones. Although with your ugliness and meanness, you’re not worth wasting a gem on… but once your soul is filled, if I suddenly remember being tricked by some fat man, I can still awaken you from the gem. And torment you like a living person.”
He raised his right hand, resting his chin on it. He lightly chuckled as he discussed how to turn a person into jewelry.
Dross’s pupils instinctively flickered towards the True Fire.
This was still true.
“—What are you looking at?”
Eiv said slowly, “I felt something was off earlier… why were your eyes always drifting towards it?”
As he spoke, he pulled the lamp closer to himself.
Dross immediately broke out in a cold sweat, his limbs turning ice cold.
As a child, Dross had accidentally broken his father’s favorite antique vase. He didn’t dare to admit it, so he carefully glued the fragments back together. He made them reform into a vase and placed it back in its original position.
—This way, his father wouldn’t find out. Even if he did, he couldn’t be sure it was me… and with so many children in the house, maybe someone else would knock it over again. Then it wouldn’t be my fault anyway.
That’s what seven-year-old Little Charles thought at the time.
But he had only just finished when his father burst into the study while he was carefully placing the vase back.
Contrary to what Little Charles had expected, his father recognized immediately that something was wrong with the vase. He walked straight towards Little Charles and the vase—the moment his father picked up the vase and it shattered, Little Charles’s limbs trembled uncontrollably.
—At this moment, Dross felt as if he had returned to that day.
Filled with fear, as if the sky was falling.
“Heh heh, True Fire.”
As expected, “Eiv” saw through it with ease.
In his slightly narrowed eyes, a cold, merciless killing intent flickered, along with the disdain of looking at an ant. The killing intent was so strong and real, as if he was truly going to kill him… or rather, as if he had already killed him!
Minister Dross felt a panic. In an instant, he seemed to see his own tragic death in Eiv’s pupils.
It was as if his entire body was being repeatedly pierced by thousands of ice-cold steel needles—waves of phantom pain coursed through his limbs, almost making him cry out.
It was only when Minister Dross subconsciously touched his neck and felt his heartbeat and body temperature still existing that he relaxed a little. The strange phantom pain finally dissipated.
“Hmph.”
Eiv snorted as he watched Dross slump back into his seat, still shaken.
But Dross didn’t know that Eiv was actually somewhat confused at this moment—what was wrong with him?
An Extraordinary of the Fourth Tier shouldn’t be so easily scared.
Looking at Dross’s suddenly widened, vacant eyes and his violent convulsions like an epileptic fit, Eiv even started to worry about his heart condition.
I haven’t even asked anything yet, don’t scare him to death… that would be too easy for him.
Fortunately… just as Eiv was contemplating whether he should save Dross if he had a heart attack, Dross recovered on his own.
Eiv didn’t dare to pressure him any further.
So he snorted and got straight to the point, “That’s good. Since the True Fire is here…”
With that, he inverted the candlestick and pointed it at Minister Dross.
“So don’t lie, tell me,”
Eiv said leisurely, “I ask, you answer. Answer within five seconds, no thinking.”
“…Yes, sir! I will tell you everything!”
Dross even looked at Eiv with a hint of gratitude. Because the moment Eiv spoke, the illusion of being pierced by something cold, slippery, and sharp completely vanished.
“Who was the person you connected with last time?”
“It was ‘Blood Diamond,’ a Witch. She is my regular contact.”
“How do you contact her?”
“Using the ‘Rusty Blood Ritual.’ I have a bottle of her blood.”
“Where did you hide it?”
“In the Lloyd Society Headquarters Building, on the third floor from the top, in the second storage room cabinet.”
“Where did that wine just now come from?”
“That was indeed [Sacred Tree No. 1]. I spent a lot of money to buy it from the Goblins.”
“And the poison?”
“That was the Curse [Goodnight], given to me by Miss Blood Diamond.”
“Do you know what ‘Goodnight’ is?”
“It’s a poison personally concocted by this generation’s Black Phase, effective only on the Queen.”
“Do you know what Her Majesty thinks of you?”
“Which Her Majesty? I don’t know.”
“Valentine VII—have you met him?”
“No, but we have conversed.”
“Have you met a Red Phase?”
“No. I haven’t had the chance.”
“Then have you met Countess Emma?”
“No, I’ve only heard of her.”
…
They conversed quickly and fluently. This was the most efficient conversation Eiv had since entering.
The True Fire that Dross himself had set up had now become a tool for Dross to interrogate himself.
Soon, Eiv obtained enough useful information.
‘Blood Diamond’… Eiv knew she had been in the dungeon. And the outfit she dropped was quite revealing—it was a tentacles outfit!
Must-clear, must-clear.
…But if Eiv remembered correctly, she shouldn’t have been aligned with the Star Antimony King. Because that dungeon belonged to the Red Phase, and she was one of the Red Phase’s many “daughters” and “lovers.”
This indicated that she might be a spy sent by the Red Phase to the Royal Family. Or she might have defected to the Red Phase later.
Eiv knew the ‘Rusty Blood Ritual.’ It was a curse that caused septicemia by cursing blood, one of the weakest curses.
‘Blood Diamond’ definitely knew Dross was dead. But it was Eiv’s first time using the Rusty Blood Ritual, and he might be able to summon her… After all, so much time had passed, perhaps it was some successor of Dross who had discovered her contact information?
Even if it was risky, even if he knew it might be a trap, she had to come.
Because Star Antimony was in a difficult situation now, they couldn’t give up an opportunity to break the deadlock. As long as Valentine VII thought so, her own thoughts were irrelevant.
However, Minister Dross’s understanding of “Goodnight” was incorrect.
The Curse [Goodnight] was not a poison developed by the current Black Phase… but a poison developed by the first Black Phase who achieved eternal life by becoming an Undead.
Although the original Red Phase and Black Phase were still alive, those positions were still being inherited. Each Black Phase was the Vice Principal of the Spirit Tower, and each Red Phase was the “child” of the original Red Phase.
The first Black Phase’s Path was Adaptation and Twilight, and curses were a skill of the Adaptation Path. And “Goodnight” also possessed extremely strong Twilight power.
The current Black Phase had no adaptability in the Adaptation Path, so how could he have developed a poison?
The strength of “Goodnight” was related to its alcohol concentration. It was actually a curse specifically developed to send Undead to their final rest. “Goodnight,” infinitely close to pure alcohol, could make powerful Undead drunk and put them to sleep… and this curse was a potion that had to be “willingly consumed” to take effect.
And if the alcohol concentration served with the curse was reduced, it would become a potion that killed based on the remaining lifespan of living beings. Its effect was equivalent to the Twilight Path’s necromancy spell [Deathly Slumber]—sending the souls of enemies who had already suffered fatal injuries or were extremely old into the Amber Forest, where they would become one of the amber beads solidified by the Pillar God Amber.
In game terms, it was a Fifth Tier spell that directly killed enemies with less than 1% health remaining. It was basically useless, except when fighting a BOSS, where it could sometimes snatch that 1% health… at other times, it was used as a story spell, specifically for dealing with enemies with a 1% health lock mechanism.
The alcohol concentration of Sacred Tree No. 1 was about 17 proof. It could kill the elderly with less than seventeen months of remaining life, or people whose lifespan had been extended by more than seventeen months in total through lifespan-extension spells.
Therefore, even if all four of them drank this bottle of wine, only the Queen would die because of it.
Eiv realized… it wasn’t that Dross had some special poisoning technique that Eiv couldn’t understand, but that he had simply poisoned the entire bottle of wine.
And he had been lucky, as his own remaining lifespan was sufficient, so the poison only affected Queen Sophia…
But if Dross had little remaining lifespan, he would have been taken away by this cup of wine as well.
“Heh heh…”
Eiv chuckled maliciously.
His laughter made Dross uneasy.
But before Dross could ask, Eiv voluntarily revealed the secret of “Goodnight.”
Eiv was within the radiation range of the True Fire, so Dross immediately realized that everything Eiv said was the truth.
Dross’s expression immediately turned very ugly.
From so early on… had the Star Antimony people wanted to kill me?
—Before he suddenly gained enlightenment and stepped onto the Twilight Path, his remaining lifespan was also coming to an end!
