Imperial Throne

Chapter 136: Memory

Two figures were moving through the mountain forest.

Both were dressed in leather armor, but the armor had clearly undergone customized modifications, specially adapted so as not to hinder their movement.

The one on the left carried a warbow on his back, but had no quiver; the one on the right had a long item wrapped in white hemp cloth slung behind his back, and a longsword hanging at his waist.

These two were Akar and Yam.

At the moment, they were located in a forested area about half a day’s walk from Ruby Village.

“According to Raven, it should be around here.”

Akar surveyed the surrounding terrain before speaking, though his tone carried a hint of uncertainty.

Yam looked exasperated and asked, “What exactly did Raven say?”

“Leave Ruby Village from the west, then keep heading southwest until you reach a mountain path with three withered trees, then follow the trail up until you see a tree struck by lightning…”

As Akar described it, Yam recalled the route they had taken and realized they hadn’t taken a wrong turn.

They were now at the mountainside, facing a large, clearly lightning-struck withered tree.

Judging by the size of the withered tree, it must have once grown lush and vigorous.

“That’s all Raven said?” Yam asked.

“Yes,” Akar nodded. “He said once we reached here, we would find it.”

“He’s deliberately making things hard for us, trying to force more negotiations,” Yam shook his head. “But Raven is a very clever man, so he knows that if his story didn’t match from beginning to end, it would only make us trust him less. That’s why the entrance to the ruins must be here—there’s just something preventing us from seeing it right away.”

“So what now?” Akar asked.

“Back when Arsen and the others found this place, there must have been a reason. Even if it was accidental at first…”

Yam walked toward the lightning-struck tree.

He inspected it thoroughly, but didn’t find anything inside or around the tree as he had expected. So Yam began examining the surroundings. Half an hour passed, and still, nothing.

“When you met Raven, was he holding anything?” Yam asked.

Akar thought for a moment, then suddenly remembered. “He had a pickaxe!”

Yam’s gaze immediately turned to the nearby cliff face.

Since they were halfway up the mountain, a cliff wall was indeed nearby. It was steep and not suitable for climbing. Furthermore, there was a clearly more accessible path up the mountain, so unless there was a special reason, no one would choose to climb this cliff.

But the Iron Wolf Mercenary Group was clearly different.

As mercenaries, if a mission required it, not to mention climbing a steep cliff—there had even been cases where someone jumped into the village latrine.

Still, Yam decided to take out the Demonic Sword first.

...

When Akar had approached him, Robin had already heard about this matter.

After all, Yam had hidden him in that private study room, so he was privy to everything the Soderbell Family discussed.

But listening to Akar talk about how Arsen had found him in the ruins, and that Arsen had a child, and even that the Bourbon Family had gained their former countship with his help, Robin found it all very strange. It felt like everyone was discussing him, yet he himself couldn’t make sense of it—like he was listening to some cryptic scripture. Because he truly had no memory of any of it.

However, once Yam brought him to this place, Robin genuinely began to feel a subtle sense of unease.

Fragments of images began surfacing in his mind.

Most of the scenes were from the perspective of an observer watching one or more people; a smaller portion showed a group performing totem-like ritual ceremonies. They even killed Magical Beasts, then poured the blood over his sword, and only occasionally would he respond to such behavior, granting them some form of True Blood from a Magical Beast—sometimes one kind, sometimes another.

In short, all the blessings seemed completely arbitrary, without any discernible pattern.

But for some unknown reason, those who worshipped him began to reduce the types of Magical Beasts used in the rituals, focusing on just a few, mostly Fire-elemental beasts.

Later scenes began to show more battles and slaughter.

Some of them included Forest Witches.

There were scenes of the Forest Witches hunting them, and others of them hunting Forest Witches. Robin couldn’t make out when the enmity had begun, but from these images, he roughly understood why the Forest Witches had killed Arsen, and even attacked Yam upon sight.

Because they had remembered his "scent," the Forest Witches would launch an immediate, relentless assault whenever they saw someone involved with him.

There were more images, but they weren’t very clear—just a very blurry scene.

Yet among all these images, Robin remembered one crucial point.

Why had the Bourbon Family hunted Forest Witches back then, to the point of mortal enmity?

Because of the blood of the Forest Witches!

The Forest Witches were born with Bloodline Imprints. Although they didn’t possess corresponding bloodline abilities, their blank Bloodline Imprints were even more valuable: as long as enough Forest Witch blood was gathered, Robin could compose an entirely new Bloodline Imprint.

The Bourbon Family’s Raging Flame Lion bloodline was one such creation of his.

Its specific bloodline advancement path was: First-tier Fire-Tailed Rat, Second-tier Flame Demon Hound, Third-tier Flame Tiger, Fourth-tier Fire-Stepping Wolf, Fifth-tier Wrath Python, Sixth-tier Furious Flame Lion, and finally the Seventh-tier Raging Flame Lion.

Among them, aside from the First-tier Fire-Tailed Rat, everything from the Second to the Seventh tier required enhancement and mutation through his Purification ability to generate the corresponding bloodline abilities. Otherwise, no matter who followed the formula to brew the Bloodline Potion, the resulting potion would only cause the drinker to die instantly.

It was precisely because of this that the outside world believed the Bourbon Family’s bloodline to be the Raging Flame Lion.

But in fact, the bloodline imprint Robin had composed for the Bourbon Family wasn’t just this one.

The Hell Three-Headed Demon Hound and the Flamewing Demon Dragon were also experimental creations of Robin.

In particular, it was the Flamewing Demon Dragon bloodline that brought catastrophe to the Bourbon Family: having three distinctly different bloodlines, all tied to fire, led some powerful figures to mistakenly believe the Bourbon Family's true bloodline was Fire of the Four Extremes, which then led to the extermination.

After all, the Flamewing Demon Dragon, as a dragon-type bloodline, was naturally linked to the Dragon bloodline. But the Dragon bloodline holders of the Draggon Family had never successfully advanced, which triggered a series of events.

Until the Bourbon Family was annihilated, the Flamewing Demon Dragon bloodline formula became monopolized by the Draggon Family and was integrated into the Dragon bloodline. Thus, the fire-elemental dragon bloodline advancement path came into existence.

This also occurred because, unlike the Raging Flame Lion and Hell Three-Headed Demon Hound, Robin had not used Purification on the Flamewing Demon Dragon bloodline path. So once the last Bloodline User of that bloodline died, it became ownerless and naturally gravitated toward the Dragon bloodline, being absorbed into it and becoming part of it.

Fire, Wind, Earth, Water, Thunder—the Draggon Family’s Dragon bloodline had already grasped five elemental dragon advancement paths, and the Dragon bloodline was one of the noble Eight Golden Bloodlines. This was why Raven had said that the potential of the Eight Golden Bloodlines was not inferior to the Four Extremes.

But now, recalling these fragmented scenes, Robin understood that there was a reason why the Four Extremes were considered more noble than the Eight Golden Bloodlines.

This involved a very critical factor:

Bloodline Suppression.

Take the Fire of the Four Extremes for example—when someone with the Dragon bloodline followed the Flamewing Demon Dragon advancement path and encountered someone with the Fire bloodline, their abilities would be suppressed and they wouldn’t be able to unleash their full strength.

This was the true reason why the Bloodline Nobles longed for higher-tier bloodlines. This was the foundation of their family’s standing, not Raven’s theory about longevity—so whether it was Bloodline Nobles of the Eight Golden Bloodlines or those of the Twelve Silver Bloodlines, they didn’t mind their family’s advancement routes being spread. In fact, they preferred for all Bloodline Users in the world to derive from routes connected to their own bloodline.

Because only then could they truly stand at the pinnacle of the world!

Therefore, the more ancient the Bloodline Nobles' lineage, the worse their relationship with the Hall of Spirits.

After all, the Hall of Spirits had spread so many bloodline advancement routes, many of which were completely unrelated to their bloodlines. This made it difficult for them to exercise Bloodline Suppression, giving rise to the idea of the weak overcoming the strong among Bloodline Users.

After recalling all this, Robin couldn’t help but focus his gaze on the remaining Forest Witch blood inside the sword.

Just this little amount of Forest Witch blood was not enough for him to compose a new Bloodline Imprint.

Thus, in the next moment, Robin finally sent a message to Yam: Hunt Forest Witches.

...

Yam had just unwrapped the white linen cloth around the Demonic Sword when a look of surprise appeared on his face.

“What is it?” Akar had been watching Yam closely and immediately noticed the change in his expression, so he asked.

“I just felt… a message from the Demonic Sword.”

“A message?” Akar was stunned. “Wait, you too? Besides Cindy, can you resonate with the Demonic Sword?”

“No, it’s not that,” Yam shook his head. “I can’t resonate with the Demonic Sword. But just now, in that moment, I truly sensed a message—it needs us to water it with Forest Witch blood, and it promises that when we’ve hunted enough of them, it will grant us a blessing.”

“A blessing?” Akar frowned. “What kind of blessing?”

“A Bloodline Imprint.”

Upon hearing this, Akar’s breath became noticeably faster. “A Bloodline Imprint?!”

“Yes.” Yam took a deep breath and steadied his emotions before continuing. “I’m not clear on the specifics, but that’s the message from the Demonic Sword… Hunt Forest Witches in exchange for a blessing, and that blessing relates to a Bloodline Imprint.”

“Could this be the secret of the ruins?” Akar’s mind clearly ran wilder.

“I don’t know,” Yam shook his head. “But… since the Demonic Sword reacted here, that’s proof enough that a ruin really exists nearby—we just haven’t found the exact location yet. But now that we’ve confirmed this much, there’s no need to say more.”

“I’ll go back right away and get help.”

“No!” Yam stopped Akar. “Are you crazy?”

Akar paused, then realized. “I got too excited.”

The history of the Bourbon Family had clearly been deliberately buried, whether in the Tyrella Kingdom or the Southern Region. So if a Bourbon Family ruin suddenly appeared now, and their Soderbell Family was the first to discover it, with everything inside gone—there’d be no way for them to explain it.

Ion had obviously anticipated this, which was why he specifically instructed Akar to find Yam, and the two of them came to verify the ruin’s authenticity.

He didn’t even let the two brothers excavate it.

“Now that we know the ruin is real, what we need to do is bring back Big Brother’s child as soon as possible,” Yam said calmly. “As for everything else, including exploring or excavating the ruin, we can put that off for now.”

“But what about the magical beast materials Raven wants…”

“Sherry has already set out. Even at the fastest, it’ll take three months to reach Iceport. If they’re lucky and there’s stock, we could bring Big Brother’s child back in half a year. If not, we need to prepare for a year—or longer.”

Akar gave a slight nod and didn’t speak further. “Then, this place…”

“No need to worry,” Yam shook his head. “Tell Father that there’s definitely a ruin here, but the exact location is still unclear. There’s no reason to let Raven continue pushing—we just tell him we’ve found it.”

“Alright!”