Elias did not linger in the cellar. He grabbed Jack by the collar of his coat and dragged the young man from Landon all the way back up to the surface.
The two went upstairs and sat opposite each other at the wooden dining table.
Elias rested his chin on his interlaced fingers. Though he appeared calm, a tempest was raging in his mind.
【Moon Gate】.
Back when Old Ed was still connected to his mind, Elias had heard him mention this spell.
According to ancient mystical records, once activated, this spell could open a passage to any other realm, or allow the caster to instantly travel across limitless distances to any region on the continent.
This was something that touched upon God's Domain!
Elias stared intently at the pendant on Jack's chest, his pupils trembling slightly.
Before this, he hadn't really felt much of a concrete impression regarding the so-called supernatural nobility of the Kingdom of Velen.
Even when Jack had casually pulled out so many spell scrolls and moon silver powder earlier, Elias had merely thought it reasonable for a prominent family from Landon to possess such a heritage.
But now, the nature of the situation had completely changed.
An illegitimate son who couldn't even cross the threshold of a Seventh Agency branch office was wearing a pendant around his neck that had a direct connection to a supreme spell of God's Domain!
Currently, the strongest known figures in the Kingdom of Velen were merely Scale Seven Saints walking the mortal world.
Yet these nobles actually had supernatural artifacts of God's Domain tucked away in their private possession.
Elias sucked in a cold breath, his tendency to overthink running wild once again.
Was it possible that within the estate of some supernatural noble lord in this country, there lay hidden some “ancestor” who had already broken through mortal limits and reached God's Domain?
Were these big shots hiding in their cellars all day, acting like ancient, reclusive turtles?
Then again, in a world like this, a few hidden ancestors didn't seem all that strange.
Elias stared at the pendant for a long time, his lips pressed tightly together, unable to utter a single word.
“Mr. Rockland?”
Jack called out tentatively, noticing Elias's dazed expression.
“...I have heard of it.”
He suddenly snapped out of his thoughts, stiffly rolling his neck as he forced down the shock he felt toward these grand, feudal families.
“So, you're saying this pendant of yours can open the 【Moon Gate】?”
“Theoretically, yes.”
Jack lowered his head, his fingers twisting together nervously, appearing somewhat hesitant.
“But...”
“But no one has ever succeeded, right?”
Elias sneered, cutting him off to finish his sentence.
“Forget about the out-of-reach Scale Eight. What does this have to do with your curse?”
He tapped his knuckles on the table, the crisp sound pulling the conversation back on track.
Jack sighed, completely casting aside his reserve.
“My mother's ancestors once included a Bishop of the Ascetic Society of the Three-Phase Moon.”
“This pendant has been passed down through the generations since then.”
Jack pointed to his chest.
“And the reason this curse is called a ‘bloodline curse’ isn't because of some toxin. It's because this pendant possesses a consciousness of its own.
It randomly selects the most suitable candidate from the next generation's bloodline to establish a bond.”
“Once the bond is established, the pendant will periodically drain all of the host's overflowing spirituality.”
Elias raised an eyebrow, gesturing for him to continue.
“By my grandfather's generation, the family had inevitably fallen into decline.”
“My great-grandfather ultimately chose to leave the Ascetic Society. To maintain a final shred of dignity, they sold or even returned most of the supernatural grimoires and relics left behind by our ancestors.”
“But they kept this pendant, which is known as the Waning Moon Key.”
“That's easy to understand. Aside from your family, no one would want to touch such a thing.”
Elias switched into his venomous tongue mode without mercy.
“Well, now we know the main reason your family went bankrupt.”
Jack choked on his words, his face flushing red.
He even seriously suspected that Mr. Rockland's day job was working as a quality inspector at a Hope County chemical plant.
Otherwise, how could the words coming out of his mouth be as toxic as arsenic trioxide?
Fortunately.
After experiencing the slaughter of his family, fleeing for his life, and the hysterical emotional release in the cellar just now, his nerves had grown significantly tougher. His mental resilience was much stronger.
The young man tried his best to steady his breathing. Instead of letting his composure crumble, he braced himself and continued:
“That was indeed the primary cause.”
“This forced bond meant that when my grandfather reached adulthood, he had the misfortune of being the only one among his siblings to inherit the bloodline curse.”
“The vast majority of his spirituality was sucked dry by the pendant every single day.”
“But thanks to his exceptional talent in alchemy, he managed to make a living and eventually secured a tenuous foothold in the Society of Freemen in Hope County.”
“My grandmother passed away early, leaving my grandfather to raise my mother by himself in the lower district.”
“The turning point came over a decade ago. By chance, while in the Society of Freemen, my grandfather crossed paths with my paternal grandfather—the old Marquis of Sorenstein at the time.”
“Originally, they had a purely professional relationship based on contracts; my grandfather completed alchemical commissions for him.”
“But because my grandfather was so talented, the tasks were not just completed, but executed beyond expectations.”
“The Marquis was highly pleased. Upon learning that this destitute alchemist had a daughter, as a gesture of generosity, he offered my mother a chance to re-enter Landon's high society.”
“At the time, my mother was just a teenage girl.”
“To restore our family's former glory and ensure his daughter would no longer suffer with him, my grandfather was naturally more than willing.”
“And so, my mother went to the Sorenstein family in Landon.”
Hearing this, Elias let out a soft, knowing chuckle.
He pointed a finger at Jack's fair, handsome face.
“So, let me guess the next part of the story. Your noble father fell in love with this young girl at first sight, right?”
Elias leaned back in his chair and shook his head.
“Just like ‘La Dame aux Camélias,’ ” he thought to himself.
Jack nodded, looking a bit embarrassed.
“Yes. It was also because my mother possessed extraordinary talent.”
“After drinking the Scale One potion, she directly solidified five of the Moon Lord's spells within her Rational Circuit!”
Holy crap.
Elias raised an eyebrow in his mind.
Solidifying five spells in a single day.
While that couldn't compare to a cheat-code user like him who could do nine at once, among normal transcendents, she was definitely an absolute genius worthy of having her forehead kissed by an Archbishop.
“Naturally, my father deeply admired my mother. Within the family library, they transcended their class boundaries and fell in love.”
Jack's voice grew quieter, his expression turning somber.
“But at the time, as the direct heir of the family, my father already had a political engagement with the daughter of a powerful duke.”
“He wanted to abandon everything and elope with my mother.”
“But their execution was too clumsy. Before their carriage could even cross the borders of Hope County, they were intercepted by my grandfather's men.”
“To make matters worse, that very same week, my maternal grandfather met with an accident during a dangerous commission. Nothing of his body was left.”
With the transition of the bloodline, the Waning Moon Key officially established its connection within his mother's body.
Jack let out a long sigh.
“My grandfather wasn't a cold-blooded man who couldn't tell right from wrong.”
“For the sake of the deceased alchemist, he didn't make things difficult for my mother. Overriding all objections, he let her stay in the family's side manor.”
“But at the time, no one—including my mother herself—know she was already pregnant with me.”
“A few years later, my grandfather passed away.”
“With his death, the title of the Sorenstein family was officially handed over.”
Jack's eyes filled with a complex mixture of resentment.
“And because of this thing, the spirituality of the Moon phase pathway within my mother was heavily absorbed by it.”
Jack held up the pendant in his hand.
“Her supernatural rank could never advance any further.”
“As for my father, after marrying his official wife and inheriting the title, the massive burden of family affairs and political compromises fell entirely on his shoulders.”
“Even though he had withstood the pressure of all the elders back then to guarantee our safety in the side manor, afterward, my mother and I barely saw him once throughout the entire year.”
“The servants at the side manor occasionally withheld our allowances. Exhausted in mind and body, my mother's health deteriorated, and she passed away in grief a few years ago.”
Jack closed his eyes in pain, his hands tightly gripping the hem of his coat.
“And unfortunately, as my mother's only child in this world, the moment she died, the bloodline curse of the pendant naturally fell upon my head.”
“It sucked dry my spirituality, making me look like a useless failure who couldn't even reach Scale One. I was chased away like a fraud from the gates of the Seventh Agency in Hastings Port by those fools.”
His voice trailed off.
The quiet cottage fell once again into a silence so profound that one could hear a pin drop.
Elias sat opposite him, slowly nodding with a rather peculiar expression on his face.
He looked at the Landon teenager before him, whose eyes were red from exhaustion and grievances.
Finally, he leaned forward slightly and summarized:
“Your father is a total scumbag!”
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