Blood Butterfly Valley was situated not far to the south of Nata County.
Nata County was in the far northwest corner of the Noah Kingdom. On the map, its location was approximately in the direction of ten o’clock.
From Nata County, one simply had to traverse south over Mount Velen to reach a village.
The villagers living here were unlike those lawless outlaws from Nata County.
This was already a city close to the edges of civilization... Its remoteness also ant that many cursing materials were easily obtainable. Many rchants dealing in cursing materials would occasionally co here to exchange so goods with the villagers.
A distance further east from here lies the Heath Tower of Black.
Many wizards from Heath Tower of Black would also co here to exchange daily necessities with the villagers.
— In fact, this village itself was a ritual.
Because further south from Mount Velen, directly ahead lay the entrance to Blood Butterfly Valley.
Heath Tower of Black used the "vitality and civilization" of this village itself as a pivot for the barrier, sealing off Blood Butterfly Valley. They prevented any blood butterfly from breaking the barrier and escaping.
Once bitten by a blood butterfly, one would contract a strange disease that was incurable and contagious—a wound would bleed incessantly, resembling hemophilia... And once their blood left the body, it would transform into new blood butterflies.
One must employ potent divine arts of exorcism at the bishop level, or simply replace all of one’s blood before treatnt was possible... re dication or applying treatnt spells or rituals were entirely useless.
At best, one could only restore the wound to a healthy state, but if injured again, the previous condition would reoccur.
Should the blood butterflies be killed, they would imdiately regenerate in Blood Butterfly Valley; their number always remained at one hundred seventy-eight. If new ones were added, the first-born would decrease accordingly.
Thus, Heath Tower of Black sealed off the entire Blood Butterfly Valley—they blocked both ends with landslides and sealed the top with a barrier. After exterminating the external blood butterflies... The blood butterflies were reborn inside the cage.
A disaster was averted just like that.
This barrier was not just for "blocking."
The world was never short of foolish and wicked evildoers... Such an important barrier obviously needed protection from outside intrusion.
And the thod thought up by Heath Tower of Black involved using the unnad village at the foot of Mount Velen to obscure the entrance to Blood Butterfly Valley.
They utilized a grand ritual known as "Disconnection of Fate."
In essence, this ritual was a curse—it allowed a person to never again see their loved one or so critical item. It worked by ensuring that, even when brushing shoulders on the street or standing back to back, they could never find each other again—a malicious effect.
Using this effect, wizards from Heath Tower of Black set "Party A" in this curse ritual to be the entire population of the unnad village and "Party B" to be the enchantnt barrier over Blood Butterfly Valley.
Then, the wizards from Heath Tower of Black in return encouraged the villagers to warmly welco guests and constructed a large number of vacant houses for both villagers and travelers to live in.
Through the chaining of curses, an extraordinary effect was ford.
Anyone who traveled from this village forward or was preparing to return after exploration—essentially, those who used this "village" as a landing point or entry point—were cut off from any "fateful connection" with the enchantnt barrier over Blood Butterfly Valley.
They could not see the barrier, which in turn concealed everything within Blood Butterfly Valley. To the south of Blood Butterfly Valley lay an endless poisonous marsh... and the only entry was through this unnad village.
This led all who heard the legend to search for "Blood Butterfly Valley" among the mountains to the west of this unnad village.
But they saw nothing.
Hence, Blood Butterfly Valley beca a place of "myth."
Many even doubted its existence... because nurous adventurers had failed to locate its actual whereabouts.
The core of the "Ritual: Severance of Misfortune" was always safeguarded by Tower Master Hugo. Only he could dispel the ritual, thereby exposing Blood Butterfly Valley.
The reason the "Bloodhand Brotherhood" previously committed a massacre in Nata County, leaving behind the legend of the "Bloody Hand on the Window,"
was actually because they were trying to find Blood Butterfly Valley... yet ultimately, they did not find it.
——And now, the ritual had been broken.
Annan took a deep breath.
At this very mont, he stood amidst the ruins of this unnad village.
Yes, ruins.
The houses had been entirely burnt down, and corpses were scattered about haphazardly.
The vast majority of them were adults—clutching farming tools, bows, and hunting rifles, dead in the streets and alleys.
One could see at a glance.
These were the traces left by the spells of Transcendents.
So people looked as if they had been struck by so invisible force, their faces and chests crushed and deford, embedded in the fiercely burning walls;
Others had been impaled by a row of solid black spikes that erged from the ground, awkwardly slumped over these spikes, their blood congealed upon them, giving off a distinctive reddish-brown color under the sunlight;
While so had been drowned on dry land, others burnt to ashes out of thin air, so withered like firewood, others appeared as if they had fallen from a great height...
It seed as if many Wizards had passed through here.
But Annan knew... all of this was the work of Nicholas II.
In his experints, the vast majority were elderly, won, and children, with only about six or seven adult males.
It was probably during the "capture" phase that the villagers with fighting capability—such as butchers, blacksmiths, and Hunters—resisted his capture and were killed in too great numbers by his spells.
The remaining villagers had their courage shattered and were caged by Nicholas—dragged into Blood Butterfly Valley.
Nicholas had clearly realized the true nature of this ritual.
But he did not have the audacity to storm the Heath Tower of Black and confront Tower Master Hugo like the spirit monks did.
Or perhaps it was because a spirit monk died at the Heath Tower of Black that he dared not repeat such actions.
And with Nicholas’s silence for so long, he had evidently figured out another way to break the "Severance of Misfortune."
Since the ritual concealed Blood Butterfly Valley from destiny itself through this naless village...
He simply killed or abducted all the villagers, left not a single person in the village, and destroyed and burned all properties, residences, and fields—to conceptually erase the existence of this village.
——But Annan knew that if Nicholas II truly wished to reach Blood Butterfly Valley, he actually needn’t resort to such complex thods.
He was a Gold-ranked Transcendent, controlling many fallen ones under his command.
Since he had figured out that the concealing thod for Blood Butterfly Valley was "Ritual: Severance of Misfortune," he could have simply crossed the entire mountain range—spending half a month traversing the rugged mountains to reach Blood Butterfly Valley. The insects, snakes, and fierce beasts that could easily kill a commoner couldn’t harm him in the least.
——He definitely knew this thod.
But Nicholas II did not do so.
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