Super Righteous Player
Chapter 610 - 151 Rustless Blood and Great Calamity Curio_1

Chapter 610: Chapter 151 Rustless Blood and Great Calamity Curio_1

After the playwright expressed that his support for Philip wasn’t as strong as Kafney’s...

"Moreover, I never really supported Philip all that much. That was all due to his own cleverness and wisdom. His use of divine power was mostly about using the title to fool those who followed him.

"Even the Goddess of Cup just gave him ’Rustless Blood’ and nothing more. The ’sugar’ he made has nothing to do with the Goddess of Cup’s Divine Arts, nor even with conversion spells; it is merely a product of a ritual."

"Rustless Blood?"

Annan was somewhat surprised, "Is Philip a Blood Eater?"

Blood Eaters are the silver-tier advanced profession of Berserkers. After drinking the Rustless Blood and advancing, they only need to offer a cup of their own fresh blood every month to obtain the Rustless Blood that prolongs their lives.

Upon ingesting it, they would be energetic and have strong self-healing bodies throughout the month, never falling ill and their appearance not aging; conversely, if they fail to take the Rustless Blood in time, their fresh blood would "rust," and they would quickly suffer and weaken to death.

This did seem to fit Annan’s impression of Philip very well.

But...

"As far as I know, Prince Philip is not a Transcendent, right?"

"Indeed, he isn’t,"

the playwright replied with a smile, "Because he is a natural ’Hemophiliac.’ He cannot become a Berserker, nor can he worship the Goddess of Cup like an ordinary adherent.

"His homemade sugar infused with demon blood, his superficial faith in the Goddess of Cup, a deeper layer of faith in the rotting husband, and his actual faith in me—all of it is just a performance to control his subordinates. He conducts rituals daily to the Goddess of Cup and the rotting husband to preserve his youth... but that is just an ordinary ’ritual,’ not a religious ’sacrifice ritual.’

"He is just using this method to create momentum for himself. But in reality, he knows, the Goddess of Cup knows, the rotting husband knows, I know as well... Prince Philip doesn’t believe in any deity.

"He only believes in himself. He is a very simple child... because all he truly wants is pure pleasure.

"It’s just a pity. His background, his fate, his talents, and the disease he suffers from, they all stand in the way of his desire."

——Hemophiliac.

Annan knew this term.

It was the world’s term for hemophilia.

Because their skin would often show signs of unexplained bruising or light bumps that produced bruises that wouldn’t fade away easily, and their joints were abnormally painful and stiff, the urine occasionally turning the color of rust... and most crucially, they would bleed uncontrollably when injured, people believed their blood "rusted."

The people of this world had long discovered through the Divine Arts of the Father of Fire and the effects of spell diagnostics that human blood actually contains a very small amount of "iron."

But they did not know in what form this iron existed...so some wizards explained this phenomenon as "veins are solid, so iron ore is solid; blood is liquid, so the iron in blood should also be liquid, mixed with the blood."

Those wizards were the early physicians and researchers.

They believed that just as iron rusts and becomes "unhealthy," the cause of illnesses in people was because "blood had rusted."

Therefore, the blood given by the Goddess of Cup, which could grant people Eternal Youth and rid them of all diseases, came to be known as "Rustless Blood."

As Hemophiliacs would bleed uncontrollably from a small cut... they could not perform self-sacrifice rituals to the Goddess of Cup.

After all, not all rituals of the Goddess of Cup would reward "Rustless Blood." Only Blood Eaters could obtain Rustless Blood easily and quickly.

So, the Goddess of Cup simply forbade Hemophiliacs from conducting self-sacrifice rituals... meaning that Philip could not sacrifice his blood to the Goddess of Cup.

And the Curse Binding of Berserkers must be of the self-harming type. This is the prerequisite for a Berserker’s advancement.

"...This means, if Philip was a Hemophiliac, he wouldn’t have been able to make a sacrifice to the Goddess of Cup; nor could he be a Berserker. So—"

The answer was on the verge of revealing itself.

What Philip had been drinking was not the "Rustless Blood" exchanged with his own fresh blood.

There were not just one but several Blood Eaters, using their own blood to nurture him!

The time limit for Blood Eaters to change their blood is nine days before and after a month.

The ritual could be conducted up to nine days early, but if it were any earlier, the "Rustless Blood" in their bloodstream wouldn’t have been depleted yet. It wouldn’t be judged by the [Cup] as their own blood.

And if they were nine days late, they would die from decay.

The amount of "a cup of blood" refers to one-ninth of the total volume of blood in the human body, which is approximately 500cc.

Normally, the blood sacrificed to the Goddess of Cup would remain disappeared for nine months before returning to oneself in the form of Rustless Blood... This is also the conventional sacrifice chosen by regular followers of the Goddess of Cup—sacrificing a cup of animal blood every nine days, with a drop or two of their own blood added, to exchange for a sustained state of Eternal Youth after nine consecutive months of sacrifice.

But Philip couldn’t use this method due to his Hemophiliac disease.

And neither divine arts nor self-healing methods could relieve the weakness of the sacrificer. Nor could they regenerate blood.

Because strictly speaking, the blood wasn’t lost; rather, it existed in their bodies in a different form.

Without the ability to regenerate by oneself, losing a continuous 1000 milliliters of blood within the period when Rustless Blood is ineffective could already be life-threatening.

Silver-tier Transcendents wouldn’t just throw away their lives in one fell swoop and offer it cheaply to Prince Philip...

But they still had ways to sell Rustless Blood to Philip.

—As long as there were enough people.

With each sacrifice, they could sell or gift a small part of the Rustless Blood obtained from their own blood to Philip, say, if one-twenty-first was sold, then the maximum survival time would be reduced by one day. Each cup of Rustless Blood from a Blood Eater could keep them alive for a maximum of 39 days. If they drank less, the effective time would also shrink proportionately, and the set nine days of illness would only occur after the complete ineffectiveness.

Rustless Blood has an effectiveness time of 21 to 22 days per month, followed by nine days of ineffectiveness and nine days of illness. By adjusting this flexible period of eighteen days, they could manage an even sacrifice.

"But why was Philip so desperate for Rustless Blood?"

Annan asked with some caution, "You’re not going to say that this question will cost 40 holy light stigmas, are you?"

"This is a supplement to the previous question. I won’t charge for it."

"Well, thank you for that."

"No need to thank me."

The tragedian smiled slightly: "The reason is quite simple... because Philip had aged once before."

"...Aged once before?"

Annan found it difficult to comprehend this statement.

"Yes. He truly has aged once before, and he aged to the point of nearly dying."

The tragedian affirmed, "That was the power of a Great Calamity Curio."