Zhan's pov~

The prison was dark, gloomy and cold. I passed through the cells looking for the Wang family, they were the only ones who could tell me what was wrong with Yibo.

The emperor accompanied me, while my brother stayed with Yibo.

Once I reached their cell, I saw that they did not look good. Mrs. Wang sat in one cell and Alaric and Adam were in the other cell.

They looked at me and for some reason their faces looked pale, as if they were sick too.

"What are you doing here?" Alaric asked as he looked at me with anger. "I had not expected this from you. Were you the one who instigated Yibo against the crown! Because of you Yibo had such thoughts!"

I looked at Alaric with a hard and cold glare and asked, "Were you the one who caused those wounds on Yibo's body?"

Emperor Simon looked confused but said nothing, while Adam spoke in a weak voice, "He betrayed the king, he badmouthed the crown and he was planning to join the rebels, what else could we have done?

We tried to reason with him, we tried to explain things to him but he wouldn't listen! In the end he had to be punished! Thinking anything against the crown is a sin for us Wangs! We cannot let that slide, even after all those beatings he did not come to his senses."

I clenched my fists, feeling rage run through my veins, I was shaking at this point. Yibo had realized the truth and had spoken against it, but was punished and branded for it and it was done by his own family! The very family for which Yibo could do anything! He was abandoned by them.

But if Yibo had already found the truth and was ready to go against the crown, then why did he come to attack the tribe?

I asked another question, "What about the wound on his chest?"

"Anyone who goes against the principles of the Wang family is always branded as a traitor and a failure, a sign of shame, and is discarded, they are thrown out of the family to die alone."

I nearly lost my balance when I heard that, not only was he abandoned, he was branded as a shame to the family. My Yibo, my proud and dignified Yibo was treated so poorly, I grabbed the cell door and asked, "Why the fuck would you do that to him! He is your son! And he was right! Why would you treat him like an animal!"

Emperor Simon kept a hand over my shoulder trying to calm me down, suddenly Mrs. Wang spoke, "Because he is going to die."

I looked at her and she finally stood up and walked towards the cell, I looked at her and saw that she looked so pale and so weak, she looked like a ghost as she stood in front of me. "Our Wang family is cursed, Zhan, we are under a slave contract with the crown, we do not have our own free will, we do not have the right over our lives, it belongs to the crown!"

She said before she started to laugh maniacally. "I lost my father and my brother to this curse and now I am going to lose my son!" she then burst into tears.

"What curse!" I asked. "WHAT CURSE!"

She cried and cried before she spoke, "Hundreds of years ago our Wang family had an ancestor by the name of Roderic. Roderic was a greedy man, he always got what he wanted.

Roderic was also the cousin of the then emperor and countless times he had tried to assassinate the emperor and kill him, as he wanted to be king. He was arrogant and a tyrant. He always wanted to be at the top; he wanted to be the most powerful man.

He often disrespected religion, and hated the worship of any kind of god. Hate was fine as long as he kept it to himself but he would often torture people who were devotees of the goddess and often disrespect and many times kill priests as well.

One day he ventured straight into the forest, where he got injured during hunting. However he was rescued from there, the ones who rescued him belonged to a tribe named Aja. The Aja tribe were the biggest devotees of the goddess Ankh.

The chief of the tribe worshipped the goddess daily and sang her praises, Roderic was not happy to see that. Despite being his saviors Roderic hated the Aja tribe for being so blindly devoted to the goddess. One day Roderic saw a precious gem in the hands of the tribe chief. Roderic was mesmerized by the gem and he asked the chief to give him the gem, but the tribe refused, he said that it was for the goddess.

Roderic was pissed and argued over the gem but they refused to give him the gem. Roderic was enraged, however he calmed himself and instead of the gem asked for the hand of the chief's daughter in marriage, however the daughter refused stating that she would not marry anyone who disrespected goddess Ankh.

Enraged, Roderic went away and came back with his men, he threatened the chief to accept him as god and destroy all the statues of goddess Ankh, but the chief refused again and so Roderic ordered a massacre of the tribe.

He ordered his men to kill everyone; his men followed his lead and did as they were told. The chief's daughter died in that attack and Roderic got the gem. The chief and his men fought Roderic, but seeing his daughter die, the chief cursed Roderic and sacrificed himself at goddess Ankh's altar so that his curse could take place, the chief cursed Roderic that he and his entire family would fall ill.

The entire Wang family would slowly lose their minds and go insane, their bodies would rot from inside, their hearts would shrink, and their minds would become their biggest enemies, their skin would rot, and would be covered with wounds and pus and maggots. From here on, goddess Ankh will no longer bless you, she will no longer accept you.

Roderic ran away from that place, however the curse had already taken place, slowly, slowly the members of the Wang family started to suffer from the curse.

Roderic did everything he could, he even wanted to beg the goddess for forgiveness but he couldn't enter the temples without feeling immense pain.

And in the end the emperor of that time stepped in. The emperor back then was in love with a daughter of the Wang family, and she was also suffering from this curse. Unable to see his beloved suffer the emperor begged for a solution from the temple priests.

And they suggested a soul contract, the emperor himself was a big devotee of the goddess and it is said that the crown in the royal family was given by the goddess herself to the first emperor.

So, if the Wang family became the crown's slaves and served it, they would be free from the curse, but they would not have their own free will, they would have to do whatever the crown asks them to do, they cannot question it, they cannot deny it. If they do then they will die a brutal death because of the curse. Even our bodies would not listen to us if the emperor ordered something then we have to do it., if we resist we fall sick."

I was baffled when I heard that, I looked at the emperor and he looked just as shocked. Yibo's mother broke down and cried.

I asked, "So what about you guys? Didn't you also fail to protect the emperor?"

Alaric spoke, "Failing a task and willingly disobeying the crown is different, the emperor did not assign us any task or give us any order before he died, we never thought of rebelling against the king. Whenever a new emperor is appointed, a ceremony is performed between the king and the Wang family, the ceremony symbolizes that the ownership of the Wang family is passed to the new king.

If the ceremony is not performed then the curse will take effect again."

Emperor Simon spoke, "So that's why you all look so sick?"

Alaric nodded, and looked helpless.

This time the emperor spoke, "What happened to your brother?" he asked Mrs. Wang.

And she replied, "My brother, the true heir of the Wang family, unfortunately he fell in love with a woman from a small merchant family, she was also a close friend of mine, we were close, it was through me he met her and wanted to marry her but someone had their eyes on her, it was Nathan Aberdeen, that beast kidnapped her and raped her, he invited his friends including the emperor to torment her, in the end she couldn't take the shame and died.

When my brother learned of this, he went insane and wanted to rebel, he wanted to fight the emperor and Nathan and get justice, but my father stopped him, my father and mother supported the emperor and called my friend names instead, they locked my brother up, used several tactics, such as beatings, isolation, everything to change his mind but he did not.

Slowly, slowly my brother lost his mind, and one day he escaped and killed my parents and then he killed himself."

I had no idea that the Wang family had such a cursed history, this family was born and raised in bloodshed. My heart was beating very fast as I thought about Yibo and his condition. "So if we perform the ceremony then Yibo will be saved?"

Mrs. Wang looked at me and answered, "Maybe, but I don't know."

I looked at the emperor and he gave me a nod before I said to the Wang family, "Tell me how this ceremony is performed."