Through analyzing Yao Bikuni's memories, Xiao realized that the Sakura Dragon, Fountainhead Water, Dragon Carp, Undying Worms, and the Infested were all closely linked, and these connections formed important clues within the Sekiro storyline.
In the Land of Reeds, all sources of immortality could actually be traced back to the Sakura Dragon.
The Sakura Dragon, residing high above in Fountainhead Palace, transformed the dew it generated into blessings and placed them within flowing water, forming the Fountainhead Water.
Those who drank the Fountainhead Water would gradually be assimilated by the Sakura Dragon, losing their human forms and transforming into members of the Okami Clan.
As a result, the Okami Clan also controlled the power of lightning and possessed the ability to wield thunder.
In the distant past, long before Ashina Castle rose to prominence, the Okami Clan quietly established Fountainhead Palace upon this vast land.
People maintained a special connection with Fountainhead Palace, which they referred to as the Divine Realm. This connection stemmed from their faith and reverence for the gods.
They believed that through sacrifice, they could build a bridge of communication with Fountainhead Palace and receive the gods' protection and blessings.
Thus, they continuously sent mortal humans as offerings to Fountainhead Palace, hoping to gain the gods' favor.
They regarded Fountainhead Palace as a sacred paradise, calling it the Divine Realm or Kyoto, and those who resided there were respectfully known as the People of Kyoto.
The people of Fountainhead Palace would also bestow precious treasures, such as the miraculous Fountainhead Water, to display their generosity and blessings. These treasures made the mortal priests loyal and devoted to them.
This also explained the records in the ancient texts: those who married into the Divine Realm had to first drink Fountainhead Water in order to become one of the People of Kyoto.
However, just as the Golden Order's Age of Plenty lasted only a short time,
the Sakura Dragon's blessings, after attracting a large number of followers, also began down the path of harvesting.
Thus, shortly after the Okami Clan established Fountainhead Palace and reached the peak of their era,
the vitality within their bodies began to rapidly deplete, forcing them to research a power capable of absorbing the vitality of other lives to maintain their immortality.
In the years that followed, the Okami Clan descended into internal conflict and panic, and Fountainhead Palace quickly fell into decline.
Perhaps a wise individual emerged among the Okami Clan, or perhaps the Sakura Dragon intentionally guided it.
The Okami Clan unexpectedly discovered that the Sakura Dragon's power could combine with the carp living in the pond, allowing them to evolve into precious carp with golden scales.
These carp, relying upon the golden scales covering their bodies, not only gained the power of immortality but also suffered no side effects.
Through further experimentation, the Okami Clan developed a method of embedding the golden scales of the precious carp into their own bodies to prevent the loss of vitality.
As more and more golden scales were attached, the power of those scales completely transformed the forms of the Okami Clan, and eventually they evolved into the giant Great Colored Carp within the pond.
This made Xiao think of the evil ritual used by his own faction to exterminate dragons in Elden Ring: Dragon Communion.
The power of Dragon Communion originated from a special ritual that Xiao had given to humanity for the purpose of slaughtering dragons. Through this ritual, dragon hunters could obtain the power of dragons by devouring dragon hearts.
However, excessive participation in Dragon Communion would result in backlash, causing dragon hunters to gradually lose their human forms and transform into insane half-dragon, half-human Magma Wyrms, wandering the land while continuing to hunt dragons.
The emergence of the Great Colored Carp and its method of evolution merely replaced dragon hearts with scales imbued with the Sakura Dragon's aura, making Xiao even more convinced that some connection existed between the Sakura Dragon and the Dragon God.
Whether it was the power of lightning, the Great Colored Carp, or the power of the Dragon's Heritage, all of it seemed closely related to the Dragon God.
The appearance of the Great Colored Carp brought new hope to the Okami Clan, who believed it to be a method of achieving eternal life without side effects.
To become Great Colored Carp themselves, the Okami Clan continuously attempted to breed more precious carp in order to obtain additional golden scales.
However, good intentions are often difficult to realize, and reality is always cruel.
The breeding speed of the precious carp was extremely slow, while the Okami Clan's population was large, making the supply of golden scales far from sufficient.
As a result, some members of the Okami Clan, whose vitality was running low, turned their attention toward the Great Colored Carp itself.
They developed highly poisonous bait, poisoned the previous generation of Great Colored Carp, seized its golden scales, and became the new Great Colored Carp.
Although the deceased Great Colored Carp lost all its golden scales, a large amount of the Sakura Dragon's immortal power still remained within its body.
According to Xiao's speculation, the power within the Great Colored Carp should have been reclaimed by the Sakura Dragon after its death. After all, in the original game, the Great Colored Carp transformed from the Pot Noble was initially very small, comparable in size to an ordinary precious carp. The current hundred-meter-long Great Colored Carp only grew to that size later, and Xiao had no idea how much time that process required.
It could be said that every Great Colored Carp was a premium-grade sashimi raised by the Sakura Dragon. Each replacement of a Great Colored Carp occurred because the Sakura Dragon felt it had been fattened long enough and was ready to be slaughtered.
It was a delicious bait, a target used by the Sakura Dragon to harvest the Okami Clan, yet the Okami Clan ironically had no choice but to consume it.
People always find it easy to go from hardship to luxury and difficult to return from luxury to hardship. After experiencing the power and blessings of an Age of Plenty, returning to the past becomes almost impossible.
The corpse of the Great Colored Carp, after losing its life force, gradually sank to the bottom of the lake, where it began to rot and breed parasitic worms that fed upon its flesh and blood.
These parasites absorbed the immortal power remaining within the Great Colored Carp, transforming into Undying Worms that possessed immortal power. They were precisely the larvae of the immortal centipedes found within the Infested.
The Undying Worms flowed downstream with the waters of Fountainhead Palace, contaminating the Ashina region below.
They parasitized the bodies of humans and animals, bringing with them a twisted form of immortality.
The blessing of immortality became distorted, transforming into a curse feared and shunned by all.
The Infested became unkillable monsters that continuously rotted as time passed.
As for the Rejuvenating Waters, they were even more outrageous.
They were merely the diluted corpse water of the Great Colored Carp, originating from within Fountainhead Palace and diluted countless times over.
Drinking this water not only failed to grant eternal life, but instead caused people to become hopelessly addicted and afflicted with the Dragonrot-like immortal disease.
Their bodies would continuously grow wax-like tumors, and eventually, like the Infested, they would continue to rot forever.
It could be said that the Sakura Dragon spread its immortal power throughout the world through the mountain waters flowing down from above.
Yet this immortal power was not true immortality, but rather a curse filled with pain, distortion, and decay.
Xiao could not help but exclaim,
"The Sakura Dragon's methods of harvesting the world are truly interconnected!"
Immortality in this world was even more terrifying than the eternity granted by the Golden Order in The Lands Between.
The tragedy of the Golden Lineage stemmed from the rule of feudal nobles, who did not treat the lower classes as people, but merely as crops waiting to be harvested.
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