Chapter 1490: Chapter 1490
In the face of the victories against the Nine Witch Demon Court and the Boneset Country, an inexplicable "confidence" filled the court and the general public. The only truly beneficial aspect was Master Dunn’s smooth implementation of his reforms. Only through genuinely successful reforms could the Wood Dynasty prolong its lifeblood.
The triumphs in several foreign wars could, at most, only be considered repaying a wave of blood debt.
Sun Daren’s prestige in the Wood Dynasty once again reached a peak. With the exception of his enemies, people related or unrelated to him all praised Sun Daren. As for Sun Daren’s enemies... they mostly no longer existed in this world, just like the Little Princess’s enemies. Thus, for a time, there was practically no voice opposing Sun Daren.
However, Sun Daren became increasingly low-key because such a situation was akin to fire boiling oil. Throughout history, powerful ministers who reached this stage... rarely met a good end. Sun Daren wasn’t worried, though. Firstly, he always maintained proper manners towards His Majesty, and the Emperor deeply understood that he had no intention of being rebellious. Secondly, this was a cultivation world, where Sun Daren knew that as long as his realm continued to improve, even the king would be unable to execute him.
While the masses praised Sun Daren, he was actually not in the Summit Metropolitan Office. Apart from a few people who knew Sun Daren’s whereabouts, no one else would have thought that Sun Daren was currently living in the Extinct Village!
Sun Daren had been back for several days already. Uncle and Master Basil’s health got worse and worse, but Sun Daren brought back some Spiritual Pills this time. After taking them, they showed some improvement. The three drank and chatted during the day — Uncle lived leisurely these days, learning some elegant things. He always told Sun Daren, "Now you’re a person of status, you can’t drink from a big bowl like a commoner all day. You have to drink tea and choose the ones with low yield and high price. That’s elegant..."
Master Basil strongly requested to drink alcohol: "Pah! Pretending to be sophisticated for a day, Robert, don’t listen to him. It’s so cold in the village, of course, we have to drink alcohol, the stronger, the better."
After considering it, Sun Daren said to Uncle, "Uncle, you’re right. Let’s not talk about this anymore."
At night, Sun Daren guarded the outskirts of Burning Hillock. He was extremely curious about the "origins" of himself and his siblings, but he couldn’t find any clues. It seemed like his parents in this life just couldn’t survive and had to enter the Extinct Village.
This time, when Sun Daren came out of seclusion, he had a new idea: perhaps he and his sister really came from ordinary backgrounds, and their unusualness might be precisely because they came from the Extinct Village.
The most significant "origin" in Extinct Village was Burning Hillock, and it might be that his sister was influenced by Burning Hillock without him knowing.
The area surrounding Extinct Village was monitored day and night by the Horizon Bureau. Everything here was no different from when Sun Daren was in the village. Each night brought different "dangers." Sun Daren had slain several demon beings on these nights.
Sun Daren closely monitored the void surrounding the Extinct Village using his high spatial law accomplishments — those demon beings were sent down through a portal suddenly opened in the void around the village. Once they arrived in this world, they directly targeted Burning Hillock.
However, although Sun Daren was fully focused, he couldn’t capture any trace from the void. The void portals really showed no signs before opening. The demon beings that were secretly sent in were all extraordinarily powerful, with the lowest being Tier-6 and even a Tire-8 appearing. Sun Daren could only watch as it broke into Burning Hillock, then disappeared without a trace.
These demon beings were truly unstoppable for the previous Extinct Village, and whether they could survive or not depended entirely on luck.
Tonight, Sun Daren decided to change his strategy. Instead of focusing on Burning Hillock, he concentrated mainly on those void portals. The Horizon Bureau built sixteen outposts surrounding Extinct Village and Burning Hillock, and even established a new revered Lord’s post for that! None of these were Sun Daren’s direct orders. Sun Daren simply ordered his subordinates to monitor Extinct Village, but a superior’s single order would be overly interpreted by the subordinates, who would rather do more than fall short.
At the moment, Sun Daren was sitting cross-legged on top of the nearest outpost to the village, having ejected everyone inside. When the moon was overhead, there was a sudden flicker of a wave in the void in a large mountain outside the village. Sun Daren used a "Breaking Void" to rush over.
The void wave suddenly intensified and even disrupted Sun Daren’s "Breaking Void," almost breaking this divine power! Sun Daren didn’t land but lunged through the air toward the rapidly forming void portal.
A giant skull-headed bird emerged from the void portal, its beak pitch-black like a massive sharp blade. Two deep purple flowers bloomed in the hollow eye sockets, each petal entwined with dozens of resentful souls!
The demon being’s body was still within the portal, and a huge skeleton could be vaguely seen. Climbing on the skeleton were dark red vines, on which deep purple flower buds grew, though they hadn’t bloomed like the flowers in the eye sockets.
These vines grew from the withered bones, and they were one with the bones.
The demon being let out eerie wails, sounding like tens of thousands of resentful souls screaming together. It was struggling to break free from the void portal, its strength already reaching Tier-7. With terrifying death energy, it screamed across the land, trees, and wild grass withering in swathes, beasts, and insect monsters stiffening, and blood gradually drying up...