RPAGF Chapter 1007 She Wants
Chapter 1007 She Wants
Shen Yanzhi placed the new manuscript in a camphorwood box, placing it alongside Qin Yue's files. The lock snapped shut with a soft sound, as if bringing this past event to a close. "Azhu, clean the peachwood sword." Shen Yanzhi walked to the wall and removed the scabbard. The peachwood sword, untouched for three months, was covered in a thin layer of dust, yet a faint scent of pine could still be smelled—he had specially fumigated it with pine needles to preserve the spiritual power of the talismans on the blade. Azhu brought a fine cloth. [The Flower of Ashes? Chapter 1: Rebirth in the Bone Prison] Elena's eyelashes fluttered as the scent of rotting bones reached her nostrils. She struggled to open her eyes, and everything she saw was shrouded in a dark crimson—the dome of the skull, oozing blood. The seams between each bone were clotted with half-dried blood, like some kind of ugly spiderweb. A sharp pain shot through her wrist, where the rough iron chain dug into her flesh. The sacred symbols carved into the iron ring glowed with a pale golden light, burning her skin. "Awake?" a hoarse male voice called from the shadows. Elena rolled her eyes and saw an old man in a white robe standing outside the bone cell. He held a silver staff tipped with a sapphire the size of a pigeon's egg, its light casting distorted specks of light on the damp stone floor. The corners of his robe were stained with mud, indicating he had just returned from outside. The brass bell at his waist twitched gently with his breathing, making an irritating tinkle. "This is the seventh time." The old man tapped the bars of the bone cell with his staff. The crackling sound of skulls clashing made Elena's temples throb. "It takes so much effort to put you back together each time. Can't you just die like the other sacrifices?" Sacrifice? Fragmented memories suddenly flooded her mind. She remembered the burning castle, her mother pressing a warm crystal into her palm, the sharp pain of the Crusader's longsword piercing her chest. Finally, she saw her father's back, crucified on the cross. White-robed monks held sacred scriptures and sang hymns, and flames danced in his silver-gray hair. "Let me go." Elena's throat felt like it had been rubbed with sandpaper, and every word she uttered was tinged with blood. She tried to move her fingers, but found her limbs chained to the four corners of the bone prison. The holy patterns on the chains grew increasingly hot with her movements, and her skin was already charred black. The old man chuckled, like the friction of dead branches. "Let you go? Let you summon abyssal monsters like your mother did? Don't forget, it's witches with filthy blood like you who have caused the plague to spread throughout the city-state." He pointed his silver staff at the mark on Elena's collarbone—a black rose bud, about to bloom, now moving slightly with her heartbeat. Elena suddenly remembered her mother's dying words: "Our blood flows with the gift of the abyss, yet also carries a cursed fate. When the rose blooms, we will either destroy the world or be destroyed by it." She had dismissed it as mere alarmism, until now, feeling the surge of power within her—like countless tiny snakes swimming through her veins, eager to break free from the constraints of her skin. Heavy footsteps echoed outside the Bone Prison, and two armored knights entered, carrying an iron cage. Curled within was a skeletal youth, his flaxen hair matted with mud, yet unable to conceal his amber eyes—reminiscent of the mead in Elena's memory from the castle gardens. "Today's 'nourishment' has arrived," the old man stroked the gem on his silver staff, his eyes gleaming with a fervent glint. "The sacred text says that watering a witch's bones with pure virgin blood purifies their tainted veins. Unfortunately, the first six didn't survive until the rose bloomed." The knights opened the cage, and the youth was roughly dragged to the Bone Prison. He struggled to raise his head, and upon seeing the rose mark on Elena's collarbone, he suddenly ceased resisting, his lips moving as if about to speak. Elena noticed the half-piece of jade pendant hanging from his neck. The pattern of the jade matched the broken crystal in her palm. "Do you recognize this?" Elena lifted her wrist with all her might. The crystal in her palm shone a faint blue in the dim light. The young man's pupils suddenly constricted, tears filling his amber eyes. "Sister..." The name was like a key, unlocking the floodgates deep within Elena's memory. She remembered: this was her long-lost brother, Leo. When the castle was breached, their mother had a loyal servant take him to the northern wastes. She had never expected to meet him again in such a place after three years. "Let him go!" Elena's power suddenly surged. The sacred pattern on the chain glowed blindingly, and the skull in the bone prison began to tremble violently. The old man's face paled. He raised his silver staff and pointed it at her: "Quick! Use the holy oil! She's about to awaken!" The knights hurriedly opened the clay jars, and the pungent scent of the holy oil filled their faces. As the oil poured over Elena, the rose mark on her collarbone suddenly burst open. Black vines spread rapidly along the chains, melting the golden light of the holy mark like ice and snow wherever they passed. "No—" the old man screamed in terror. Elena heard the sound of bones cracking, not from her, but from the knights. Black vines wrapped around their armor, growing wildly between flesh and steel. In a blink of an eye, the two tall figures were transformed into two skeletons covered in black roses. The young Leo collapsed to the ground in fear, but he stared at his sister in the bone prison. His eyes were not filled with fear, but with disbelief and shock. The chains broke piece by piece under the vines' pull. Elena emerged from the bone prison, her bare feet on the cold stone ground, leaving a trail of footprints burning with a faint blue flame. She reached out and touched Leo's cheek. The warmth of her fingertips made the boy tremble uncontrollably: "Don't be afraid, sister is here to pick you up." The old man tried to raise the silver staff to attack, but was pierced in the throat by the vines thrown by Elena. The sapphire rolled from the top of the silver staff, bounced a few times on the ground, and finally stopped at Leo's feet. The boy picked up the gem and suddenly found a line of small words engraved on the inside of the gem - "The Gate of the Abyss, the Rose is the Key". Elena's eyes fell on the old man's body. A bronze token was revealed at the hem of the white robe. The eagle emblem engraved on it made her pupils shrink suddenly. That was the symbol of the Supreme Tribunal of the Holy Church. It was this group of people who burned her family three years ago. She bent down to pick up the token, and the flame on her fingertips burned it to ashes: "From today on, I, Elena Morningstar, swear in the name of the Abyss that I will uproot the Holy Tribunal." Leo suddenly grabbed her wrist, his amber eyes full of worry: "Sister, your body..." He pointed at the skin on Elena's arm, which was becoming transparent at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the flowing black blood vessels could be vaguely seen. Elena then realized the backlash of the power in her body. The Rose Mark brought not only power, but also cursed vitality-every time she used magic, her life would pass away faster. The crystal stone left by her mother was hot in her palm. She could feel that there was a certain power sealed in it, but she didn't know how to awaken it. "