Chapter 309 - 207: Hidden Quest Triggered! Queen Medusa’s Bloodline

Chapter 309: Chapter 207: Hidden Quest Triggered! Queen Medusa’s Bloodline

"Is that your brother?" Su Xuan asked Veronice.

"Yeah!"

Veronice replied in a disgruntled tone, "My brother must be following orders from those old geezers, telling me to go back and accept the clan’s punishment!"

After a brief silence, Su Xuan immediately understood what mistake Veronice had made.

He said slowly, "If you have nowhere to go right now, I can let you live at the Guild."

Veronice asked curiously, "Does your Guild have one of those soft, mushy swamps?"

"No."

"Then I’m not going!"

"..."

Su Xuan couldn’t help but feel a little speechless. Veronice’s hobbies were certainly unique.

However, according to the records, Black Dragons did seem to have a preference for living in terrain like swamps.

But there was no way he could build a swamp for her in the Guild. After all, Black Dragons liked to immerse their entire Giant Dragon bodies in the swamp’s mud, and there wasn’t enough space inside the Guild to accommodate her needs.

Besides, who would build a swamp in their home?

What made Su Xuan a little curious, however, was that even though Veronice liked rolling around in swamps, her jet-black scales seemed to possess some magical power. They kept her completely free of mud and foul odors, and she even gave off a faint, exotic fragrance.

A short while later, Veronice dropped them off near the village.

The moment she landed, she instantly transformed into a beautiful young woman with long, black, straight hair.

Seeing Veronice’s human form, Su Xuan couldn’t help but feel a flicker of surprise, his eyes lingering on her.

"What are you looking at me for?" Veronice asked, confused, with her hands on her hips.

"Oh, nothing." Su Xuan smiled and shook his head, replying casually, "I just didn’t expect a Black Dragon who loves to roll around in swamps would turn out to be a beautiful young lady."

After he finished speaking, he turned his gaze to the villagers who were gathering around them.

"A Gi-Giant Dragon!" The villagers’ faces showed a mixture of fear and awe when they saw Veronice’s true Giant Dragon form.

Just then, an old man with graying hair and a face covered in Snake Scales walked out from the crowd. His scales were much denser than the other villagers’, covering almost half his face.

He was the village chief. Though he was an ordinary person, according to what Su Xuan had learned earlier, he had already lived for over one hundred and fifty years.

The chief walked cautiously toward Su Xuan, his body hunched over, and asked in a slightly trembling voice, "Lord Adventurer, has the Demon in the swamp been eliminated by you?"

"Yes, the Demon is dead." Su Xuan nodded, giving an affirmative answer.

"Wonderful! Our village can finally be at peace again!" Upon hearing this, the chief let out a long sigh of relief, the wrinkles on his face seeming to smooth out a bit.

Then, he turned his world-weary eyes to Su Xuan and asked with a smile full of hope and gratitude, "Lord Adventurer, in the process of eliminating it, did you happen to find the treasure it stole? If you were able to find it and return it to us, I, on behalf of the entire village, will thank you for your good deed with a handsome reward."

"Treasure?" Su Xuan was slightly taken aback and began to recall the scene.

The Snake-man’s body had been completely incinerated by Veronice’s Dragon Breath, reduced to ashes, leaving no treasure behind.

Su Xuan quickly replied, "I didn’t find any treasure. The Snake-man’s corpse was completely reduced to ashes."

"Reduced to ashes?" Hearing this, a trace of disappointment and confusion flashed across the chief’s face. "How could that be? How could that ultimate treasure have been reduced to ashes in the battle..."

"I really didn’t see any treasure," Su Xuan emphasized again, while also feeling a bit strange himself.

He remembered clearly that when he landed to inspect the Snake-man’s corpse, there was truly nothing there besides ashes.

If there really was a treasure like the chief said, it would have been impossible not to notice.

"Besides, if you wanted Adventurers to retrieve a treasure stolen by a Demon, you should have clearly stated that in the quest description instead of being so secretive. Or is it that you have some ulterior motive?" Su Xuan said in a low voice.

Normally, after completing a quest, one would simply return to the Guild to turn it in. But Su Xuan chose to return to the village because he had sensed a potential clue for a hidden quest.

After all, this village was co-founded by a human man and a Snake-man Race woman.

Yet the quest objective was to hunt a Snake-man. It was hard not to be suspicious of the connection.

And the village chief’s reaction only confirmed his suspicions. ’There really is a hidden quest!’

"This..."

Faced with Su Xuan’s questioning, the chief’s expression turned grave. After a short silence, he finally spoke. "Alright, it was us who hid the truth of the matter."

"Lord Adventurer, please listen patiently as I explain. This is how it all began..."

The chief began to tell Su Xuan the whole story in detail. It turned out that the Snake-man Race woman also possessed the bloodline of Medusa. She had fled her clan and come here with her lover.

As for the Snake-man that Veronice had just killed, he was actually that Snake-man Race woman’s fiancé.

Of course, he hadn’t come to find his fiancée, because the female Snake-man had already passed away a century ago.

His real target was the Snake-man Race woman’s heart. Legend has it that Snake-men who have drunk the blood of Queen Medusa gain unparalleled Power, and this Power coalesces within their hearts.

Even after a Snake-man dies, their heart remains intact and is passed down to the next Snake-man.

And that Snake-man Race woman’s heart was especially precious.

The blood consumed by other Snake-men was only the faint remnants of power, diluted over many generations.

However, this Snake-man Race woman had been lucky enough to drink pure, untouched blood that came directly from Queen Medusa!

Although no one knew how she obtained this blood, her heart became a priceless treasure coveted by everyone in the Snake-man Race.

This was precisely why that Snake-man Race woman had chosen to leave the Snake-man Race.

However, this raised another question. The villagers themselves had no idea where their ancestor’s heart was hidden, either. They only knew that the Snake-man had been searching for the heart’s whereabouts deep in the swamp.

As for whether the Snake-man had successfully found the heart, the villagers were inclined to believe he had already succeeded.

This was because a brilliant light had once flashed in the swamp, like the sign of a rare treasure being born into the world!

But when they heard Su Xuan say there was no treasure, their faces showed their confusion.

Meanwhile, Su Xuan’s thoughts turned to another question: ’How did that female Snake-man get the Medusa blood in the first place?’

’And where on earth was her heart hidden that even her own descendants knew nothing about it?’

"Lord Adventurer! Could we ask you to help us find our ancestor’s heart? We are willing to offer an even more handsome reward!" the chief pleaded with Su Xuan.

[Hidden Quest Triggered: Find the Snake-man’s Heart!]

[Quest Reward: 10 Gold Coins, 50,000 EXP, one piece of Epic-grade equipment]

But faced with this hidden quest, Su Xuan didn’t look happy. The swamp was vast; looking for the female Snake-man’s heart was like finding a needle in a haystack!

Unless...

[You have received a message!]

"Hm?"

Su Xuan raised an eyebrow slightly, opening the chat interface in confusion.

[Xia Yu: Damn it! Su Xuan, whatever you do, don’t go into that hole in the ground south of the swamp! I stepped on a trap the second I went in and was instantly Petrified! I had no choice but to use a resurrection coin to revive. Thank god my Adventurers are okay, but there’s no way to get that Silver Scale Armor out! What rotten luck, this is a huge loss!]