Damned Healer-Chapter 632: Losing And Getting Back

Alaric fixed his gaze on Darian, curious, feeling a strange sense of anticipation. "You have a method?"

Darian nodded and turned to Ramel. The young man took a deep breath, understanding. Without hesitation, he snorted, and the muffled sound of something breaking inside his body echoed softly.

The very next second, Alaric’s eyes locked onto him and widened.

Ramel began to glow, and then his transformation completely unraveled.

"You!" Alaric was utterly stunned.

He had never imagined he would see a pure Heaven-Devouring Sparrow again in his lifetime. That Divine Beast had been declared extinct a few years ago. Of course, no one was foolish enough to believe the Bloodline couldn’t exist somewhere. But if it did, it would certainly be a hybrid with extremely diluted blood, something nearly impossible to discover.

Yet... the small Sparrow before him was completely pure, with a radiant and unmistakable Bloodline.

In the next instant, Alaric remembered Ramel saying he had managed to enter the Golden Sky Mountain. In the past, the only race capable of entering and leaving that place was the Heaven-Devouring Sparrows, precisely because of their innate power.

And the former leader of their clan was the only person Alaric knew who could do it with ease.

"My father’s name was Ramsey." Ramel’s voice sounded, making Alaric’s expression grow even more dazed.

Darian spoke calmly. "You must have heard that I once declared myself the heir of that clan. But the truth is that Ramel is the son of the former leader, possesses pure blood, and is the true heir."

"H-he... can he use the clan’s core technique?" Alaric said, stuttering slightly.

"Of course," Ramel replied seriously. "My father taught me everything and hid me from the world, knowing that the Primordial Empire and the four clans would act sooner or later..."

After receiving Darian’s permission, Ramel explained everything he had gone through and everything he knew to the City Lord.

Meanwhile, Darian and Niara carefully observed Alaric.

Even as he listened to the entire story, his initial emotional fluctuations were genuine joy at learning that Ramsey had a son and that he was alive. But as he kept listening, anger nearly burst from his chest.

Niara cast a light glance at Darian. He nodded. Alaric was someone trustworthy and genuinely honorable. This had been a test. If he showed even the slightest hint of greed or any ill intent, he would not have left that place alive.

After Ramel finished, Alaric took a deep breath and lost himself in thought for a few minutes. Then he turned to Darian.

"What do you plan to do?"

Darian nodded. "I’ll enter that place with everyone and then take away the body sealed there."

"That’s impossible." Alaric interrupted him seriously. "There’s an extremely high-level Void power sealing the body in the mountain. I can’t even dream of dealing with that."

Darian smiled faintly and then turned to Ailik.

She nodded and took out a small pearl, holding it with her four hands.

"The Supreme Treasure!" It was obvious that Alaric recognized it. That was the supreme treasure of the Heaven-Devouring Sparrow clan.

In the next second, Ailik closed her eyes, and the eye on her forehead opened. Then, the entire surroundings seemed to freeze.

Alaric’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets. He clearly felt all the Void power in the area being dominated by a terrifying external force. That wasn’t entirely abnormal, since he himself could do something similar, but he would need to activate all his strength.

Yet this young Nethergod Spirit didn’t emit any fluctuation of power at all. If he weren’t seeing her with his own eyes, holding that object with such intense focus, he wouldn’t even know the source of that disturbance.

That could only mean one thing: she was using the Supreme Treasure in a perfect and absolute manner. Compared to the city’s Sacred Treasure, only when the City Lord worked together with the Treasure’s spirit could something similar be achieved.

"Understand now?" Darian asked softly.

"S-she... she can really do it..." Alaric murmured. At that moment, Ailik opened her eyes and deactivated everything.

Darian nodded. "Yes. She has a natural talent for manipulating Supreme Treasures..."

"Supreme Treasures?" Alaric asked, staring at Darian in confusion. He had used the plural. That meant there was more than one?

Darian smiled and didn’t answer. It wasn’t the time to reveal that yet.

Silence filled the place.

Alaric swallowed hard and thought quickly. With Ramel’s power and his clan’s Supreme Treasure being used to the fullest, something that had immense control over Void power... there truly was a chance. Still, it was almost impossible.

He raised his head and looked at Darian. That young man was becoming a greater and more frightening mystery with every passing second. Who was he, really?

Darian spoke in a steady tone. "In short, my plan is to enter that place and take the entire body. That way, the Sacred Treasure, which will only try to devour it at the very last moment, will realize something went wrong far too late. When it fails to draw in the body, it will create a massive opening. Then it’ll be easy for you to act, without needing to sacrifice yourself, right?"

With a sigh, Alaric understood. After a few seconds, he made his decision. "Alright. I’ll trust you. Let’s take the risk."

Seeing the confidence Darian showed, Alaric couldn’t help but feel moved. Deep down, he also harbored a secret hope that the Sacred Treasure could return to its original state. For him, personally destroying it had always been only the last option, when all other paths were exhausted.

Everyone there felt relieved and encouraged.

At that moment, Niara asked bluntly, "Alaric, is it true that you don’t have any heirs? What’s going on?"

That was an extremely private matter, improper to discuss at the dinner table. However, Niara didn’t have many limits or taboos.

"This has to do with the Sacred Treasure, right?" Darian asked another question, seizing the topic.

"Sir Darian is quite perceptive." At first, Alaric didn’t want to say anything, but when Darian immediately guessed everything, he decided to explain directly.

The main Bloodline of the Celsiel family ended with Alaric, as he was the only one with high blood purity.

If he died, there would be no one in the Celsiel family with a Bloodline pure enough to obtain the qualifications necessary to become the next City Lord.

Although there was no concrete proof, Alaric suspected that the situation had been caused by the city’s Sacred Treasure. This drastically reduced the number of people in his family who could use it.

Even though the other clans had produced City Lords in the past, the Celsiel family was always the most powerful and had ruled about ninety percent of the time. Therefore, reducing their numbers made it much easier to wipe them out completely.

"If that’s the problem, I might have a solution," Darian said.

"Really?" Alaric jumped up from his chair immediately. "What solution? Can you tell me?"

Alaric’s voice trembled. He wasn’t afraid of death. However, there was one issue that tormented him and even frightened him: having no descendants.

As the last member of the main Bloodline, if he died without heirs, he would be considered a sinner by his family. Even if he sacrificed himself to stop the Sacred Treasure, he felt he would have completely failed his ancestors.

That was why he couldn’t contain his excitement when he heard that Darian had a solution.

Niara said, "The life energy and Yang in your body are still vigorous, and there’s nothing wrong with your essence."

"If your wife has no issues and you still can’t have a child, then it must be because of a curse," Darian added. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"A curse?" Alaric asked, disbelief clear in his voice.

Darian shook his head as he explained, "This kind of curse is different from those that come from ordinary Nether Beasts. The Sacred Treasure is the legacy artifact of all City Lords. Over the countless Lords throughout history, it must have absorbed a bit of each one’s Bloodline."

"Nether Beasts are known for their curses, right? So, by using the soul power of that Divine Nether Beast absorbed by the Sacred Treasure, together with the Bloodlines of all past City Lords, it wouldn’t have been hard to create something this subtle. Sir Alaric, as the current City Lord, you’re the most affected. But I imagine the other clans that once had City Lords are affected as well. If that’s the case, my theory is correct."

"Yes, you’re right!" Alaric exclaimed.

The other four clans were in the same situation as him, just not as extreme. While their secondary branches didn’t seem too affected, the reproduction rate of their main Bloodlines had dropped drastically.

The best example was Caofeng. In his generation, the main Bloodline had been reduced to only seven people, whereas important families like his would normally have thousands of children per generation.

That was also why his grandson, Caoming, had become an idiot, not knowing how to fight Darian despite his immense talent. Because of the lack of successors, the elders didn’t allow members of the main Bloodline to take risks. That was also why Caofeng did everything he could to make sure his grandson didn’t die.

Saelil and Maeyu, on the other hand, were both from secondary branches of their respective clans. Even so, Saelil had been named the genius of her generation simply because there was no heir in the current generation of the main branch.

This curse also affected the other two clans. However, everyone believed the problem was related to the cultivation techniques they practiced, never suspecting the Sacred Treasure.

At first, Alaric hadn’t fully believed Darian’s words, but now he was certain Darian was right.

"That Sacred Treasure is pretty cruel," Niara muttered coldly.

"That’s normal. If you think about it, if you lived forever but were always under someone else’s control and gained nothing from it, would you endure it?" Darian replied quietly.

Everyone there swallowed hard as they imagined themselves in the position of that consciousness born within the Sacred Treasure.

Since it had no physical body, weapons and treasures with life and soul could live forever, almost like immortals. However, the downside was that they could never be completely free, depending on others to use their power or even to protect themselves.

So that Supreme Treasure had seized the chance to free itself by absorbing that Nether Beast. Even knowing it might lose its sanity and become something else, wouldn’t it be better to take the risk in exchange for freedom? Everyone understood the logic.

"You’re saying you can break the curse?" Alaric asked seriously.

Darian shook his head. If the curse were broken, the Sacred Treasure would know immediately.

"In fact, your chances of having children are so ridiculously low that even if you lived forever, statistically, you wouldn’t succeed even in ten million years. But... they’re not zero." Darian said, waving his hand as a pill appeared.

The moment the pill appeared, the entire area was flooded with terrifying Primordial Yang. Alaric’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"My sister-in-law is an alchemist. She made this some time ago and gave it to me, but I don’t really have much use for it. It should multiply your Yang hundreds of times for a short period, increasing your fertility countless times and bypassing the curse. So..." Darian turned to Niara. "Could you give him one of your pills?"

Niara’s eyes changed abruptly.

She snorted and nodded, taking out a pill. A supreme and extremely pure life energy spread, felt by everyone present.

That was something Veyle had made for her. Niara had never mentioned it to Darian, but she had asked Veyle for those pills to increase her own chances of getting pregnant.

The two pills floated over to Alaric. "You take the Yang one, your wife takes the other. I think the chances will go above ninety percent if it’s on the right day."

Alaric stood there, completely dazed, sensing the nine circles on each pill and their frighteningly pure energy.

After so many years without an heir, he had scoured the entire world looking for something that could help him. Yet not even the finest pills made by the greatest alchemists had reached three circles.

Everything had been in vain. He hadn’t felt even the slightest hope all this time, but now his heart was beating wildly as he held those pills.

"I... I don’t even have words to thank you!" Alaric exclaimed.

Before Darian or Niara could say anything, Alaric had already swallowed the pill and dashed off. "Excuse me!"

He left abruptly, leaving everyone exchanging looks, speechless.

Ramel couldn’t help commenting, "Isn’t he being a bit too impatient?"

"Maybe the feeling of losing something and then getting it back is impossible to control," Darian replied with a shrug.