[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-ember-dragon":3,"chapter-ember-dragon-ember-dragon-chapter-399":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Ember Dragon",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},1162165,1504,"Chapter 399: Soul Elegist","ember-dragon-chapter-399",399,"\u003Cp>Chapter 399: Soul Elegist\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Soul Elegist...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Orest.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cassius uttered the name.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The trees in the Valley of Bewilderment were towering and twisted, their branches and leaves blotting out the sky, casting eternal shadows over the land.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Deep within this dark forest stood an ancient castle built from black stone—Soulweeper Castle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its master was a lich known as Orest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hundreds of years ago, this place wasn’t called the Valley of Bewilderment, nor was there a black forest. There was only a mage’s tower, and Orest had once been a revered mage in this land.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the magical desert of the Northlands, mages held a high status, and Orest, as a gifted archmage, was even more esteemed. The people built him a grand castle, and the surrounding nobles offered him thousands of slaves, allowing him to live a life of ultimate luxury, treating mortals as mere insects.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For nearly a century, Orest indulged in such depravity before realizing—he was dying.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To the laws of the world, even mages were but mortals.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how mysterious and powerful, death loomed ever near, though it was not unavoidable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, Orest pursued immortality at any cost. He discovered an ancient ritual in hidden tombs, made a pact with Myrkul, Lord of Bones, and sacrificed his castle and thousands of slaves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, Orest bound his soul to a phylactery through the ritual, drank a transformative potion mixed with poison and sacrificial blood, and had his soul drawn into the phylactery, reviving his corpse as a lich.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He died.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or rather, he achieved immortality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He continued to exist in a new form.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What had once been a lush garden became a sinister black forest, the once lavish castle turned into the decayed and dark Soulweeper Castle, and the once spirited mage degraded into an undead lich.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet Orest wasn’t satisfied. A lich’s soul remained bound to its phylactery—and he sought true immortality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He began drawing countless magic circles, creating hordes of skeletons and undead, planning to sacrifice the souls of the entire Carter Principality to achieve eternity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the hidden side quest of the Northlands in the previous life—[Soul Elegist of the Valley of Bewilderment].\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The questline was quite convoluted. Players had to first accept a [Haunted Basement] quest from a family in Antonio City to track ghostly traces. They would then follow those traces into the underworld and discover remnants of a sacrificial circle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Next, they had to visit the Northern Grand Library to scour thousands of books for the circle’s origin, learning the true name of \"Soul Elegist\" Orest, and locate historical witnesses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Following this, players investigated multiple locations like taverns, bureaus, and adventurers’ guilds, eventually finding an old beggar who knew the history but had long gone mad.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The old beggar subjected players to bizarre and challenging tasks, such as \"retrieving fresh chimera dung,\" \"pulling the filthiest tooth from a hill giant,\" or \"snatching food from an ogre’s mouth.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These tasks were, in fact, tests of players’ strength and reliability.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The old beggar, having witnessed countless tragedies and deaths caused by the Valley of Bewilderment’s taboo, wanted to kill the lich but refused to let innocents sacrifice themselves in vain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only after completing all the tasks would the beggar provide a crucial clue, guiding players to an ancient tomb.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Players would explore the tomb, overcome countless traps, endure attacks from terrifying undead creatures, and find the lich’s phylactery in its deepest chamber.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, they could proceed to the final quest location—the Valley of Bewilderment—to completely destroy the lich’s plans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The [Soul Elegist of the Valley of Bewilderment] quest series required players to complete over a hundred challenging stages, spend months navigating its extensive storyline, and gather hundreds of clues and quest items.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the previous life, players affectionately dubbed this questline \"malice of the devs,\" \"toilet-cleaning king of quests,\" and \"hidden task even dogs won’t touch.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wasn’t until the 2.0 expansion [Clash of Kings] that a determined and skilled player, Singo, led a team to finally complete the questline.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even Singo enlisted fifty professional players, all with an average level of 11.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They barely managed to kill the lich, splitting the hefty quest rewards and nearly acquiring a staff considered an artifact—highlighting the quest’s difficulty and frustration.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Cassius was different from the players.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He knew the storyline, had absolute control over the surrounding area, and possessed the power to utterly crush the lich.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In other words, he was fully prepared to deal with the lich, though he hesitated about how to handle it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Orest isn’t some lunatic obsessed with magic. He’s just a cowardly egotist terrified of death, albeit one with unparalleled magical talent.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Greedy yet fearful—such a character is easy to manipulate.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Perhaps... I can make him serve me.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cassius squinted, the fire in his pale golden eyes flickering. However, he soon shook his head and chuckled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Now that I think about it, Anzeta is truly a land of calamity. Despite being such a remote region, it’s overflowing with talent.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Dragons, devils, demons, shadows, giants, vampires...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"And even a lich.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This wasn’t just Cassius’s opinion—players in the previous life often joked about it. On forums, the saying \"A humble Northland, a talent-rich Anzeta\" became a running gag.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even in the 4.0 expansion, high-level players traversing the astral realm still unearthed new discoveries from this \"starter zone\" of Anzeta.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was understandable, though—Anzeta had experienced dominion by dragons, giants, and elves, once hosting a glorious civilization.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, endless wars had utterly devastated the region, reducing its grandeur to ruins. The local Weave became fragile, leaving it abandoned by Mystra and turning it into a magical wasteland—yet it buried countless remnants of ancient civilizations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Empire now boasted a specialized archaeological team, including many players working in related professions. This team had earned the nickname \"Arcane Tomb Raiders\" on the forums.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They scoured the Anzeta Wasteland, unearthing long-lost secrets buried underground, bringing knowledge and treasures back to the Ember Empire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cassius turned his gaze toward the ancient tomb hundreds of miles away, his vision piercing the distance through the [Cataclysmic Dragon Eye] and [Omniscient Eye].\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The tomb, once the resting place of Myrkul’s priests, was now the site of the lich’s phylactery.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For mortals, finding the ruins in the vast wasteland would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. But Cassius, as the Emperor of the Ember Empire, held absolute authority within its borders.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Orest.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Are you ready to welcome me?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cassius grinned, revealing a menacing smile. To him, the lich, a nightmare to mortals, was little more than a duck ready for the taking. He was determined not to let it escape.\u003C\u002Fp>",1103,"2026-06-03T12:47:02.952Z","2026-06-03T12:47:07.061Z",1,"novelbin.me","15134600d6fe722c2f2bb77ae7fb8bac6f8d961e7a663fb7b5bed31a1a809e01","ember-dragon-chapter-400","ember-dragon-chapter-398",603,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fember-dragon-cover.jpg"]