The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 319: Sacred Bones

“…the special items or events that my clan didn’t notice, which might have caused me to be left behind and not involved in the ritual?”

Reluctantly, Boffis repeated Citalopram’s words.

This complicated long sentence was too complex for a ghost who was only over a thousand years old.

After all, Citalopram didn’t speak Elvish.

The two of them managed to interact because Citalopram, as a Half-dead Enchantress, could communicate with all ghosts. However, this conversation happened with a language barrier.

Citalopram could understand Boffis’ words easily. However, in Boffis’ perspective, what Citalopram said was incoherent, seemingly translated by artificial intelligence.

Hence, she had repeated it twice before Boffis finally understood what she meant.

Boffis tilted her head and came into deep thoughts, “If I were to pick out something within the criteria…”

“Oh, have you thought of something related?” Seeing Boffis in deep thought, Citalopram asked in a pleasant surprise.

She asked probingly under Suuankou’s guidance.

The outcome seemed to be giving her some hints.

“Maybe…” Boffis bit her thumb and thought frowningly, “I don’t remember it clearly… Come with me.”

“Alright, Boffis.” Citalopram decided to follow up with the opportunity, “I’m here to collect a cursed material called [Frostwhisperian’s Frozen Blood]. Do you know where it is?”

“Do you have friends who want to advance into [Frostwhisperian]?”

Boffis was a little surprised, “That person must have the element affinity to the Lord of Frost?”

“Yup, he should be.” Citalopram replied in uncertainty, “He is the heir to the Austere-Winter Dukedom…”

“Stop, stop! Not to mention Austere-Winter Dukedom, I don’t even know what the Austere-Winter Kingdom is…”

Boffis said helplessly, “My knowledge of the outside world now comes from the small talk of the wizards who came here…”

“Then do you know [Old Grandmother]?”

Boffis replied with some nostalgia, “Certainly, my mother even collected a portrait of the Old Grandmother before. I saw that painting when I was a child. The Old Grandmother in the painting can move, talk and growl. Only the Elegant Elder could draw this kind of moving painting in our day. Can the people in this era do that easily now?”

“…No, at least I haven’t seen something like that.” Citalopram was silent for a while before replying “no” against her will.

She almost blurted out, “Yes, I see it every day, but we usually call this kind of animate painting a silly meme.gif”.

“Ok…” Boffis looked at Citalopram suspiciously. She obviously noticed Citalopram’s wavering and hesitation. Still, she wisely brushed it off and continued, “Later, my mother sold the painting to a dragon to store the sacred bone in exchange for 40 pax of dragon blood.”

“What is a sacred bone?” Citalopram suddenly heard an unprecedented term that was never seen on the forum.

With Dove and Suuankou’s prompting, the number of players watching her live broadcast increased sharply.

Annan was like the security guard in the CCTV room. He had several windows lined up before him, and he diverted his attention over here.

He had never heard of this term either.

This sounds a bit like a holy relic or something.

“It’s normal that you haven’t heard of it, and I’ve only heard it once or twice,” Boffis answered without hesitation.

She glanced at Citalopram, thought for a while, and asked, “Have you heard of the saints in your timeline?”

“No, I have never heard of them at all.” Citalopram shook her head.

Boffis said with a bitter face, “Do I have to start from the beginning? You should know about the principle of curse, right?”

Should I say I know or I don’t know?

“…Ah, I know it roughly.” Citalopram paused and replied in a low volume.

Boffis breathed a sigh of relief and then explained, “Generally speaking, the saints refer to those great sages who have disclosed their curses to everyone. Since they have many secret keepers, their souls will hardly be eroded.

“But not everyone who exposes their curses to the public can become a saint because many people don’t disclose their curses because they have outstanding willpower and excellent character. They did it more so because they were insignificant, and their curses were hard to exploit.

“To become a saint, the host must first reach the ‘Dyed’ rank and complete the ‘Dyeing’ of the soul. After that, the host will execute the saint’s covenant and integrate the sacred bone into his body.

“For every tenfold increment in the number of secret keepers, the increase of erosion rate in nightmares or when using forbidden power will be reduced by half. Also, they are protected by the oath power, thus reducing the curse that came from the ritual by half. Moreover, the Transcended born from curses can hardly harm the saint.

“Under this magic, the sacred bone will provide great power to the saints since it contains the accumulated power from the previous saint.”

“That sounds pretty strong.” Citalopram was a little tempted.

That’s kind of like a magic engraving?

Boffis shook her head, “It’s really strong, but the sacred bones are rare. There were only six sacred bones in our time, and these bones don’t acknowledge just anyone randomly.

“If a saint deviates from the Covenant of Saint, the power obtained from the sacred bone will be lost. If the saint always follows the covenant, they will gradually become feared by people.”

“…Why?” Citalopram found it a little odd.

If the saints were the strongest Transcended who made their weaknesses public and walked the ground to purify nightmares, people should love them more than fear them.

Boffis sighed and explained, “The virtue of a sacred bone will remain no matter what. In order to acquire the recognition of a sacred bone, it is necessary to establish a covenant that can persuade the sacred bone. You can see the sacred bone as an ‘inheritable’ deity slot.

“At the start, the sacred bone is what was left after the death of a saint who voluntarily gave up on an ascendancy ritual and disclosed the curse after his truth was perfected. The sacred bone is then labeled as the crystallization of one’s soul and the Book of Truth. The bone is nothing more than helping out the saints of future generations.

“For this reason, the concept held by the sacred bone itself cannot be entirely positive. The covenant was created to restrain this highest level curse… the ultimate form of the oath power.

“The deities will also commit a covenant at the end of the ascendancy ritual. But He usually only tells His covenant to His pope, and it is passed down from generation to generation of the pope. The saint will make their covenant public. But no matter how beloved the saint is, there will always be opposers.

“For example, there is a saint in our time whose theme was ‘Benevolence’. And he was a really good guy, overly benevolent… Even for his enemy, he would forgive and try to save those who want to harm him. He would rather suffer alone and save others from hell. He crossed a desert to the empire to help more people.”

“Sounds like a nice guy,” commented Citalopram.

She added in her heart, “I think he has three disciples too.”

[TN: Easter egg to Journey to the West.]

“But the covenant he swore was to never kill anyone. And he was eventually angered by a wicked villain. The moment he killed someone, the sacred bone abandoned him.”

It sounds like the sacred bone has silly judgment.

Or is it to blame the benevolent saint for being too strict with the covenant?

Citalopram frowned slightly, not knowing what to say.

She was silent for a while and then asked, “So, the sacred bone here…”

“Do you remember what I just said about the source of the first sacred bone?” Miss Boffis asked rhetorically.

Citalopram was taken aback, “No way…”

Boffis nodded and admitted it.

“What my mother got back then was the first sacred bone in history.

“—Its attribute is, [Justice].”