Guards appeared out of the shadows and picked the bodies and carried them away, it seemed they were used to such occurrences

Another stream of light landed at the door to reveal a middle aged man, the middle aged man then hurriedly approached Dong Li and presented him a space ring silently, from his past experiences with the king, he learned to stay silent in his presence. 

Dong Li took the ring and observed it's contents, he nodded to the middle aged man before disappearing from the throne room.

Dong Li appeared again in a certain cave some distance away from the castle, he stopped at the entrance with a dignified look, the existence that was inside the cave was not something he could afford to be careless with. 

"Northern king, Dong Li pays his respects to the great seer."

"Dong Li have you found the materials I asked you for?" A hoarse voice sounded.

"Yes, everything that you asked for has been found." Dong Li replied respectfully.

"Well then come inside and let's finish our deal." The hoarse voice spoke calmly.

Dong Li walked into the cave after being allowed to enter, inside the cave was a feeble old man who looked like he could collapse anytime, the old man wore tattered clothes and looked like a beggar but the surprising thing  is that when Dong Li saw the old man he was respectful and didn't dare to look down on him.

Dong Li handed over the space ring he had received earlier, the old man took the ring and examined its contents.

"Looks like your luck is not entirely bad, this really is thunder milk." The old man spoke as he grabbed the mist like object that kept flashing, if one were to examine closely they could see tiny lightning flashes inside the mist.

The old man wasted no time and directly swallowed it, his complexion changed in a speed visible to the naked eye, he turned from being a sickly elderly man to a strong old man that still had a couple of years in him.

"With this the old man can live for another five thousand years." The old man exclaimed excitedly.

"Now for our deal," the old man spoke whilst forming complicated hand signs, soon an made out of water started forming, the old man increased the speed of forming the hand signs. An orb roughly the size of a human head was formed.

"Have you ever heard that water records everything that has ever happened?" The old man spoke suddenly while caressing the orb of water.

"What you seek, the water knows you just have to ask." The old man continued talking.

"Now put a drop of your blood essence in the water." The old man instructed Dong Li.

The latter wasted no time and quickly bit his finger, he then extracted a drop of his blood essence and dropped it inside the orb which immediately turned red. .

Suddenly, a bright flash covered the whole room before disappearing.

"What happened?" Dong Li questioned the old man as he tried to look around the room in a panic, the bright flash had temporarily blinded him.

The old man ignored his question and continued to look at the scene that was playing inside the orb.

"You came to me and demanded I perform a divination to see why your wife died, take my advice and leave the matter behind, no use in crying over spilt milk. Do you still want to know?"

"Old man just tell me." Dong Li answered the old man without hesitation, the matter not only involved him but his whole family, he suspected his family was cursed as unexplainable mysteries were unfolding, like the sudden death of his only remaining child, his other had already died mysteriously.

"Then I will start, a long time ago before your father was born, your Dong family and the Lin family were great friends, your ancestor and the Lin family patriarch of that time were friends, they regarded themselves to be more than blood brothers."

" They were both talented individuals, so they worked together and made their families powerful, things started to change when the Lin family patriarch got  lucky and encountered a treasure that speeded his cultivation. "

" Initially, there was no problem, changes started happening they both fell in love with one woman." The old man stopped and observed Dong Li's reaction before continuing.

"The Lin patriarch stepped back for your ancestor as he didn't want to ruin their friendship over a woman, your ancestor seeing this, he  also refused to pursue the woman."

"They made an oath to help each other find different women so that they don't find themselves in the same situation, however, their actions angered the woman as she liked the attention they were giving her."

" The woman thought of a plan to make the two friends go against each other."

"She started seducing your ancestor who was still trying hard to keep her out of his mind but he failed, your ancestor started secretly sleeping with the woman. she fed him poisonous un till he became his mind slave and treated her words as law, soon the woman told him to go and poison the Lin family patriarch and he followed."

"The Lin family patriarch noticed his food was poisoned by his best friend but it was too late, he connected the dots and he knew his friend was manipulated but he still refused to forgive him, on his last breath he used all his remaining power and killed the woman, he then used his bloodline and cursed your ancestor, that his family to be destroyed by a woman."

"Your  ancestor became furious after he discovered his beloved was gone,  he also used his bloodline and cursed the Lin family ancestor, the  same woman that will lead to  his family  downfall will also be the cause to the Lin family downfall." The old man finished narrating the ridiculous story.

Dong Li was taken aback, if he were to follow the story then the curse did come true, when his wife was murdered he went and exterminated the Lin family, now because of his wife's death, he neglected to care about other things and his children were exterminated one by one, now it was only him and a few other distant relatives. Was his family going to be wiped out because of his ancestor's stupidity? No he was unwilling to let his fate be controlled by others, at least now he knew about the curse so he could avoid it.

"Don't think you can avoid a bloodline curse, especially the one the Lin patriarch used. It was so mysterious that it has never appeared again." The old man warned Dong Li, seemingly seeing through his thoughts.

"I warned you not to listen to the story but you stubbornly refused now the curse will attack you many times faster than it was supposed to. If I'm not wrong by now your whole family as we speak is being wiped out, only you are remaining. Now quickly get out of this place before the curse starts to manipulate me to think your head is a wonderful treasure that I should keep." The old man said calmly.

Dong Li wasted no time and went to verify if the old man's words contained truth, he knew deep inside the old man had no reason to lie to him.