Chapter 206: The History of Purebloods and the Forgotten Loot
Chapter 206: The History of Purebloods and the Forgotten Loot (Please subscribe, favorite, and recommend)
Hermione seemed to have an epiphany from the gift, her eyes widening in disbelief as she looked at Liam. Liam nodded solemnly in response.
"Your guess might be right. Accepting this gift is actually very similar to how the ancestors of the Pureblood Families gained their unique powers and became Pure-blood Wizards. If we were to explain it scientifically, it would be a form of Directed Genetic Mutation."
As he spoke, Liam recalled the information about human augmentation left by Slytherin in the Chamber of Secrets. He paused for a moment before continuing, "Of course, not all Pureblood Families obtained their power through Contracts with powerful beings. Some powerful Wizards also managed to stabilize their powers within their bloodlines through their research, passing them down from generation to generation."
"After acquiring this power through bloodline heritage, these Pure-blood Wizard families gained unprecedented advantages. After all, during that time, Wizards were still in the early stages of understanding and utilizing magic. Relying on bloodline heritage ensured that their families wouldn't be cut off due to various reasons."
"Once they established their advantages, they naturally gained more resources. The more resources they had, the greater their advantages became. In this virtuous cycle, their family strength grew exponentially, eventually forming the Pureblood Families that rule the British Wizarding World today. They are called Purebloods because, in the early days, they had to resort to intermarriage to preserve the power in their bloodlines."
"However, over time, even intermarriage couldn't prevent the gradual decline of the power in their bloodlines. As a dentist's daughter, you should know the dangers of such close marriages. Therefore, many Pureblood Families had to choose to marry other Purebloods or even Muggle-born Wizards. However, because they had accumulated enough advantages, even if the power in their bloodlines vanished completely, it didn't threaten their ruling status."
"There were, of course, some stubborn families, but they gradually faded into history. Now, I know of only two families that have managed to preserve the power in their bloodlines."
"Wait, the Dark Lord was a natural Parseltongue. Could his family be one of those that inherited the power through their bloodline?" Hermione asked after listening to Liam's explanation.
"You're right. I found old newspapers in the School Library that mentioned the Gaunt Family as descendants of Slytherin. However, from the newspapers a hundred years ago, the family was notorious for the mental instability and extravagant spending caused by intermarriage. By fifty years ago, the family had completely disappeared, with the last member being imprisoned in Azkaban for murdering a Muggle and eventually dying there. The other family is the one that has the ancestral Phoenix of our Headmaster Dumbledore. Fortunately, their family signed a long-term Contract with an Immortal Being, so they didn't need to resort to intermarriage like the Gaunt Family."
"I see." Hermione nodded and then picked up her teacup to sip her tea quietly. At this moment, Liam remembered that besides the two drops of blood, he had also obtained some items from the Pyramid as loot. However, the busyness of this world had made him forget about this loot.
Hermione was sipping her hot tea in small sips when she heard a clinking sound. She looked over to see Liam taking a dirty leather pouch from his belt and placing it on the table.
“What is this?” Hermione asked curiously, waving away the dust with her left hand.
“It’s the loot we got from the Blood Deity the last time we were at the Temple. I’ve been so busy that I completely forgot about it. You reminded me just now. Let’s see what’s inside, shall we?”
This was the highly anticipated moment of opening the treasure chest. Liam rubbed his hands together, muttered a quick prayer, and then opened the pouch. To his surprise, although the pouch was a Dimensional Bag, the dimension inside was particularly small, barely larger than a book bag like Dobby’s.
“Why is the dimension so small?” Liam complained, somewhat dissatisfied.
“Dimensional equipment that could be carried around was extremely rare a thousand years ago. At that time, it was popular to use certain animals with natural dimensional powers, processing them to create Dimensional Bags. For example, this one is clearly made from the skin of some animal, which was then shrunk to the size of a palm using special techniques,” Hermione explained, placing her teacup back on the saucer.
Sure enough, when Liam examined the bag closely, he noticed the animal’s limbs and tail, and the animal’s mouth had been fashioned into the bag’s opening.
“How do you know this?”
“This was covered in class. Clearly, you weren’t paying attention in Professor Binns’s lectures. He specifically mentioned this when he talked about the magical world a thousand years ago,” Hermione said quickly.
“It’s not my fault,” Liam shrugged. “Apart from you, I can’t think of anyone else who could stay focused through an entire class with Professor Binns.”
With that, Liam took out a small arm-length plain golden box and a few natural crystal vials from the bag. Through the vials, he could see some black, murky substance at the bottom.
“This is probably the blood of some magical creatures, but it’s too old and has gone bad,” Liam observed. He uncorked the vials, sniffed them, and then set them aside. He then picked up the golden box.
The box had only one clasp. Liam walked to the center of the living room and used magic to open the clasp.
As soon as the lid opened, a dead scorpion fell out.
“This is a very rare Rune-Engraved Golden Scorpion, highly venomous. It was likely one of the Blood Deity’s minions, but it died when the Blood Deity did,” Liam explained to Hermione, turning to face her. As he spoke, the dead scorpion quickly turned to ashes.
Liam took the box back to the table. Inside, there was a silver dagger, and the lid was inscribed with many words. After a moment, he realized it was actually a letter, describing how the Blood Deity had been injured during the process of obtaining the Bloodstone. The box contained the weapon that had injured him, and he had sworn to one day use it to strike back at his master.
“It seems his Bloodstone was found in Europe, as this dagger is clearly of European style,” Liam said, examining the silver dagger with a ruby embedded in it.
“I think we’ve found something valuable,” Hermione said excitedly after taking a closer look at the dagger.
“Oh, when did you learn antique appraisal?” Liam asked curiously. From the dagger, he could only determine that it was of European medieval style and possibly made by Goblins, but he couldn’t tell much else. He was intrigued by how Hermione had identified it.
“Look, it’s clearly written here,” Hermione pointed to the dagger’s guard. Liam then noticed a series of letters engraved on it.
“I was a bit careless,” Liam said, taking the dagger and examining the letters. To his surprise, the name engraved on the dagger’s guard was one he recognized well: Godric Gryffindor.
(End of Chapter)
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