"Curses? May I take a look? I have some knowledge about curses."
Madam Lin didn't hesitate for a moment. "Of course."
Lin Jiusan frowned, clearly displeased. He thought Li Cunxu was here to cause trouble. If even the director of Holy Healing Hospital couldn't discern the curse, he didn't believe a young lad like Li Cunxu could.
However, since Madam Lin had already agreed, Lin Jiusan couldn't say much.
"Please, remove her hood."
The girl took off her cloak's hood, revealing an exceptionally beautiful face. The only flaw was the hideous Golden Dragon Scales covering both sides of her cheeks.
Li Cunxu didn't pay much attention to the scales. Instead, he was captivated by the beauty mark beneath the girl's eye, momentarily lost in thought.
Dragon scales? A curse?
Is there a connection? Yes.
Li Cunxu took the girl's hand and rolled up her sleeve. Her arm was as smooth as fine jade, but the dragon scales marred its beauty.
The girl was beautiful, and the scales were striking, like works of art. Yet, when combined, they created an odd dissonance.
"Can she still speak?"
Madam Lin was puzzled. "What do you mean?"
Li Cunxu pointed at the girl. "Can she still speak?"
Madam Lin replied, "She can speak when she's conscious, but when she's in a daze, she can't communicate."
Madam Lin, Lin Jiusan, and the girl were all taken aback. How did he know she couldn't speak?
Madam Lin quickly asked, "How did you know Qingwei can't speak?"
Li Cunxu didn't answer. Instead, he posed another question.
"Does she emit a sound like a dragon's roar?"
Madam Lin exclaimed, "Yes!"
"Has she shown any signs of harming others?"
"Yes."
Madam Lin grew even more excited, rolling up her sleeve to reveal three scratch marks on her wrist.
The more Li Cunxu explained, the more excited Madam Lin became, as it clearly showed that he understood the curse.
Li Cunxu murmured softly, "She's transforming into a Dragonkin. This shouldn't be happening! How could such a curse appear in this era?"
He truly knew!
Lin Jiusan urgently inquired, "Young man, do you know what curse my daughter Qingwei is under? If you can tell us, we will be deeply grateful."
Li Cunxu paused, then said, "She's under the Evil Dragon Curse, also known as the 'Resentment Extinction Curse.'"
Lin Jiusan looked bewildered, clearly unfamiliar with this curse.
Li Cunxu shook his head. These NPCs were truly ignorant. This was a curse that had shaped an entire era, yet they knew nothing about it.
"In a distant era, the dominant force on the continent was the Dragon race, divided into two factions: the benevolent dragons and the malevolent dragons. The benevolent dragons were friendly toward humans, while the malevolent dragons despised them. To suppress the benevolent dragons, the malevolent faction colluded with the Extraterrestrial Evil God, the Calamity Extinction Dragon God, ultimately driving the benevolent dragons to the faraway Dragon Valley. This act of collusion with the Extraterrestrial Evil God enraged the world's will, leading to the creation of numerous Dragon-Slaying Weapons. Countless people took up these weapons and marched against the malevolent dragons, drastically reducing their numbers.
When the number of malevolent dragons dwindled to a hundred, a ten-thousand-year-old cursed dragon, unwilling to die, sought revenge against those who had slain it. Using the resentment of countless fallen dragons, it cast a curse that would turn dragon slayers into malevolent dragons."
"The dragon slayer kills the evil dragon, the dragon slayer becomes the new evil dragon, the new dragon slayer kills the new evil dragon, the new dragon slayer becomes the new new evil dragon, thus the evil dragons are endless and can never be completely eradicated. Later, people discovered the Evil Dragon Curse that causes dragon slayers to eventually become evil dragons, and instead of killing, they began to seal the dragons, which finally led to the disappearance of the evil dragons."
Madam Lin raised a question, "My daughter didn't slay any dragons, so why did she get cursed?"
Li Cunxu replied, "I think it's possible she picked up something that carried the Evil Dragon Curse! When an evil dragon is sealed, it will naturally die of old age, but the curse remains. It can attach to the dragon's scales, or its bones, or even its treasure."
"Could it be this?"
Madam Lin thought of something and hurriedly ran into the house, bringing out a sandalwood box.
Inside the sandalwood box was a golden yellow gem, with a miniature golden dragon at its center.
[Curio·Dragon Blood Gem (Golden Dragon)]
[Quality: Three Stars]
[Bearing Point: 8]
[Description: A Dragon Blood Gem formed from the essence of a Golden Dragon. When embedded in the Beast Taming Space, it can cause a golden mineral vein to develop beneath the soil.]
Li Cunxu's heart burned with desire for this Dragon Blood Gem.
In truth, such resource-type Curios are not considered precious among Curios. What does it matter if it can create a golden mineral vein? There are plenty of golden mineral veins in the wild.
The resources on the Deity Taming Continent are abundant, especially after the Great Cataclysm, when the world changed and resources became even more plentiful. It's common to find gold and jade in the wild.
Curios that aid in battles, healing... those that assist in Pet Beast combat are the truly valuable ones, hard to come by.
Resource-type Curios are mostly used by Breeders, and Beast Tamers disdain using them.
Some Beast Tamers would rather let resource-type Curios gather dust at home than use them, of course, this is also related to the difficulty of removing them once used.
Li Cunxu wanted resource-type Curios not because he had resigned himself to being a Breeder, but because there is a hidden way to use them.
This method was invented by a certain genius player. Resource-type Curios can evolve the Beast Taming Space, continuously using them to evolve the world, eventually transforming the space that only allows Pet Beasts to enter and exit into a portable small world with no restrictions, where anything can be placed, and farming and fishing can be done.
This portable small world has many uses, it can be used as a spatial shelter to hide from enemies, it can collide with others' Beast Taming Spaces to make them unable to defend properly, or it can be dragged down to smash enemies. A whole world crashing down, you tell me if that's not scary.
Madam Lin said, "Qingwei picked this up before she got sick, could it be the carrier of the curse?"
Li Cunxu looked at the girl's dragon scales, golden and yellow, very much like the scales of a Golden Dragon.
"It should be it, where did you find it?"
"Qingwei found it in the river across from here."
Madam Lin pointed to the small river by the door.
What incredible luck, it's hard to say whether it's good or bad.
Li Cunxu asked, "Have you touched this Dragon Blood Gem?"
Madam Lin was a bit nervous and scared, "My husband and I both touched it, are we cursed too?"
"How many days has it been since you touched it?"
"Seven days."
"Then you're fine."
Li Cunxu felt a tinge of disappointment. Both Madam Lin and Lin Jiusan had touched the Dragon Blood Gem, but after so many days, there was no sign of them transforming into dragons. This indicated that the Evil Dragon Curse on the gem was a one-time deal.
His disappointment wasn't because Madam Lin and Lin Jiusan hadn't been cursed, but because he himself couldn't be affected by the Evil Dragon Curse.
The Evil Dragon Curse would turn a person into a mindless, malevolent dragon, committing countless atrocities. To others, this was the worst possible fate, but in the eyes of a grand curse master, it wasn't a curse at all—it was the lost power of the evil dragon.
Lin Jiusan asked the question that concerned him the most, "How can the Evil Dragon Curse be lifted?"
"The Evil Dragon Curse has no cure."
"How can there be no cure? Are you perhaps not skilled enough, young man?" Lin Jiusan said.
Li Cunxu was a bit displeased. How could he speak like that?
If he, Li Cunxu, wasn't skilled in curses, then there were few in the world who could claim to be.
Suppressing his dissatisfaction, Li Cunxu explained, "The Evil Dragon Curse is tied to the resentment of an era of evil dragons' deaths. It's impossible to lift—even a King-Ranked Beast Master specializing in curses couldn't do it."
"However, I have a way…"
Seeing the suspicion on Lin Jiusan's face, Li Cunxu remembered the principle of not revealing too much to someone he wasn't deeply acquainted with, and swallowed the words he was about to say.
It was no wonder Lin Jiusan didn't believe him. Li Cunxu had just said that even a King-Ranked Beast Master speciali
zing in curses couldn't solve it, and the next second, he claimed he had a way.
Could it be that an underage brat like you knows more about curses than a King-Ranked Beast Master specializing in them?
(End of Chapter)