Novel Full Chapter 674: The Clue Aldany Left Behind
Chapter 674: Chapter 674: The Clue Aldany Left Behind
After a brief moment of thought, the governor of the Atacama Desert finally decided to help the crown prince.
“No problem, Your Highness. I’ll draft the reply to His Majesty as soon as possible,” the governor said seriously.
Though he had his differences with the crown prince, he didn’t dare refuse him to his face.
The crown prince smiled and stood up.
“Very good. Can you finish it within three days?”
“Yes! I’ll start right away.”
With that, the governor turned and left.
The prince’s smile stayed on his face until the door closed behind the man.
Then, in an instant, the smile vanished completely.
He might have solved one issue for now, but the other two still weighed heavily on him. His mood hadn’t improved at all.
“How should I replenish the soldiers?” he muttered, gazing out the window. “Even if Father doesn’t blame me for that exaggerated promise, he’ll probably refuse to send me more reinforcements.”
At the same time, deep beneath the Serpent’s Eye Lake Oasis, Charles was moving through the underground river network under Mousie’s guidance.
Although Mousie had been badly injured in the previous battle and hadn’t yet fully recovered, it could still use its unique abilities to find traces in the darkness of the underground river.
Half an hour ago, in one of the river’s side tunnels, Mousie had found a strange shadow—one that carried Aldany’s lingering presence.
Because Charles had fought Aldany for a long time, Mousie was extremely sensitive to that aura.
Once Charles confirmed Mousie wasn’t mistaken, he ordered it to keep tracking the trace of Aldany’s energy.
Now, the two of them were in a far more dangerous area.
Just moments ago, Charles had run into a cursed and twisted Sandworm.
Normally, he would’ve killed the creature without hesitation.
But time was too precious now, so he chose to avoid it instead.
After sprinting for another fifteen minutes or so, Mousie suddenly stopped at a fork in the tunnel.
Both paths ahead led deeper underground.
“Has Aldany’s trail vanished?” Charles asked softly.
Mousie looked up at Charles and shook its head.
“His presence hasn’t disappeared,” it said. “I stopped because both tunnels carry his scent. I don’t know which one we should follow.”
Charles went quiet for a moment, then said,
“Let’s take the one on the left first. The right path… gives me a very bad feeling.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Mousie moved into the left tunnel.
Charles followed right behind it.
Before leaving, though, he turned and took a long look at the right passage.
A chilling feeling was coming from inside that tunnel—something dark and unsettling.
He hadn’t found anything unusual there, but he chose to trust his instincts.
After all, those instincts had saved his life more than once before.
Once inside the left tunnel, Mousie picked up its pace and moved fast.
Half an hour later, it finally stopped at the edge of a massive underground lake.
The moment Charles saw it, he froze.
He had never felt such a strong curse energy before.
The entire lake seemed to be made of pure cursed power.
Its surface was pitch-black, like a huge gem of darkness buried deep beneath the earth.
What shocked him even more was that all the curse energy was sealed inside the lake itself.
Not a single trace leaked out.
Only when he got this close could he sense how terrifyingly dense that power was.
“So this is where Aldany got his curse power,” Charles muttered to himself.
“The energy here… it’s not like anywhere else. It’s purer—and far harder to erase.”
As he spoke, he slowly stepped closer to the lake.
Now, he was right at the edge—one more step and his foot would touch the surface filled with cursed energy.
Just then, he felt Mousie tugging at his clothes.
“I know it’s dangerous here,” Charles said quickly. “I won’t take another step forward.”
He knew exactly why Mousie was trying to stop him, so he spoke calmly.
But even after he said that, Mousie kept pulling on his sleeve.
That made Charles frown in confusion.
“Why are you still pulling me? Is there another danger? Or… did you find something else?” he asked, turning to look back.
Mousie let go of Charles’s sleeve and motioned for him to look ahead.
Following Mousie’s gaze, Charles saw a blurry human figure lying not far away.
He quickly moved toward it.
When he was only a few meters away, he immediately recognized who it was—Aldany.
“This must be one of his clones,” Charles said at once, making a quick judgment.
“That old fox… he’s even more cunning than I thought. He actually left more than one clone hidden in the underground river network beneath the Serpent’s Eye Lake Oasis. No wonder he managed to escape me before.”
The moment he saw it, Charles finally understood why his earlier hunt had failed.
But this time, he didn’t feel regret.
After all, Aldany had already died during the Battle of Withered Tree Fortress.
The man could no longer pose any threat to him.
And this clone—this leftover remnant—might still hold plenty of useful information.
“Seal off the area. I’m going to start the spirit summoning ritual,” Charles said sternly.
Mousie immediately moved aside.
Its body melted into the surrounding shadows, and soon those shadows spread out, wrapping the entire space around Charles in darkness.
Now, the area was completely sealed.
No one could interrupt him.
“Let’s see how much you were still hiding from me,” Charles muttered coldly.
As the ritual began, Aldany’s clone suddenly opened its eyes wide.
For a brief moment, Aldany’s soul returned to this body.
But the soul was in a dazed state—it couldn’t recognize who Charles was, nor could it understand what was happening.
That was normal. Most souls summoned through spirit rituals were like this.
And because of that, the information gathered through such rituals was often considered highly reliable.
“Was the curse on the Serpent Empress your doing?” Charles asked quickly.
“How did you trigger it? And most importantly—how can it be broken?”
Aldany’s spirit, still lost in confusion, nodded slowly.
“The curse on the Serpent Empress was indeed cast by me,” he said. “I didn’t need any special trigger to make it erupt. When two different kinds of curses overlap, they naturally explode on their own.
I don’t know how to remove the curse from her body. In fact, when I placed it on her, I took a huge risk myself. I even lost two of my clones because of it.”
His answer didn’t surprise Charles.
Charles nodded slightly and continued,
“Tell me all the schemes you planned. And after you joined the Stellar Empire, did you work for their crown prince? What kind of plots did you create for him?”
Aldany’s spirit began to speak, revealing every plot he had ever planned.
Most of them had nothing to do with Charles—they were all about suppressing his rivals and controlling his subordinates.
There were only two schemes that involved Charles.
The first was the rebellion Aldany had orchestrated, which Charles already knew about—and had personally crushed in the end.
The second was a secret alliance with the Desert Goblins. Charles hadn’t known about that one, but since the Desert Goblins had already been heavily wounded in previous battles, it was no longer a real concern.
After finishing his confession, Aldany’s spirit began to waver and grow unstable.
Charles knew he couldn’t ask any more questions.
A spirit summoning ritual always consumed the soul’s remaining energy, and since Aldany had been dead for a while, his soul was already fragile. After this, it would collapse completely.
“So, this is all we can learn,” Charles muttered to himself. “Our earlier guess was right—the curse on the Serpent Empress came from the underground river beneath the Serpent’s Eye Lake Oasis. Which means… the way to break it must also be hidden here.”
When the ritual ended, Charles stood still, whispering under his breath.
“It seems I’ll have to explore deeper. Mousie, let’s move.”
He had barely finished speaking when a piercing scream echoed from the distance.
It was Zara’s voice.
“Zara followed us here?” Charles said in surprise.
But in the next instant, his expression turned from shock to deep worry.
“Damn it! That cursed Sandworm must have attacked her! Zara’s in danger—I have to get there fast!”
Without another word, he dashed off in Zara’s direction at full speed.