Chapter 401: Like a Fishbone in the Throat
Covered in mud and with her small face red from the cold, Luna, whose clothes were somewhat tattered, sobbed as she walked forward slowly. She exerted effort to pick up the bloodstained “round stone,” surprisingly finding that it wasn’t heavy.
She examined the stone under the moonlight and discovered it was a stone human head. Startled, she threw it away. The stone head rolled a few times and surprisingly ended up at her feet again.
“What is this thing!”
Luna was on the verge of a breakdown. The stone emitted a faint luster. Her expression gradually settled as she said in a calm voice, “That’s right, this is a sculpture. A hollow head sculpture. The village chief has one in his house; it was bestowed upon him by a noble lord. This is a good thing; I want to take it.”
With a peaceful expression, Luna hugged the head sculpture, which still had some bloodstains, and walked briskly toward the village. Under the cover of night, the bloodstains on the sculpture gradually disappeared, and the mud on her body along with the scratches from the grass and trees also healed one by one.
A few blind monsters seemed to have targeted her. Just as they were about to approach Luna, their bodies suddenly convulsed; they foamed at the mouth and fell unconscious.
Just like that, Luna stepped on the moonlight and returned to the village. She was holding a head sculpture larger than two of her own heads. Although she returned to the village so late, no one questioned her. The night watchmen let her in naturally, as if everyone felt this was a very normal thing.
Luna’s home was at the east end of the village. She passed through the potholed dirt road of the countryside and returned to a dilapidated wooden house. This wooden house seemed to have been in disrepair for years, with many breaks and several holes in the roof.
Back home, Luna naturally placed the sculpture in a corner. With her stomach rumbling, she carefully pushed aside the dust on the floor and lifted a wooden board. Under the board was a small earthen pit containing an oilcloth package, faintly smelling of bread.
“The last of the bread. The butter ran out long ago.”
Luna said with some worry. She opened the oilcloth package, revealing black bread as hard as iron. She tapped the black bread a few times gently, producing a crisp sound.
Luna put down the bread, went to the yard to pick up a few pieces of firewood, returned to the house, and started a fire. She placed the black bread over the fire to roast. As it roasted, the black bread gradually became less hard and even had a somewhat crispy texture.
Luna took a few bites and seemed to choke. She coughed dryly a few times with force, trying hard to swallow the black bread.
“Cough, cough, water..water.”
She took out a clay pot, scooped a pot of water from the vat at home, and placed it on the stove to boil.
This was her deceased mother’s instruction: never drink raw water, no matter what. Luna’s father was a hunter who had been killed by monsters when she was very young. Her mother raised her until she was ten, finally dying bedridden due to long-term frailty and overwork.
Luna’s grandfather was a bard, so her mother knew many legends and stories. Luna’s favorite story was “Lyla the Favored One”. She had always dreamed that one day she would be selected by the Deities, become a Favored One, and completely escape her current predicament.
Ace watched quietly as Luna busied herself, listening to her whispering the story of Lyla, lost in thought.
The night gradually deepened, and the bright moon hung high in the sky. Luna had fallen into a deep sleep. Ace floated in the dilapidated small yard, inhaling and exhaling starlight, slowly recovering his mana.
As the sun gradually rose, Ace transformed back into the appearance of a sculpture.
The mist of the dream had slowly dispersed in this village. Ace had already observed the entire village; there were no Divine Descendant nobles here. It was just an ordinary, mundane village.
Cautious, Ace did not rush. While everyone was asleep under the cover of night, he pulled the village chief into his mental imagery dream world and easily obtained intelligence about this place.
“This is located in the Artemis Region of the Old Continent. It is the only exception in the Old Continent. The entire region has only one country, the Artemis Kingdom. Apart from this, no kingdom in the Old or New Continents can exclusively occupy an entire region.”
True Spirit Ace listened to the village chief’s narration and fell into thought. Ace naturally knew who Artemis was. She was the eldest sister of the twelve Titan Main Gods, the incarnation of the Bright Moon, and the Lady of Night. She was a virgin goddess, yet she had numerous offspring.
The Moon Goddess Artemis seemed to have had a conflict with the God King Kronos. Although the two gods eventually shook hands and made peace, Artemis also suffered significant injuries.
Legend had it that Artemis did not emerge for several civilization cycles because of this. When She emerged, numerous children appeared under the dress of the night, and every single one of them was a Deity.
“This place is guarded by the Night Deities. The offspring of the great Main God Artemis protect this place. Different cities are guarded by different Night Deities. Our village belongs to Byrne City, ruled by the blood descendants of the great Sleep God Byrne.
“The Night Deities are merciful. They also bestow grace and glory upon ordinary mortals. Every year, mortals are favored by the Deities, becoming Favored Ones and possessing incredible authorities.”
True Spirit Ace frowned. This situation was something he had never encountered. In Medimus City-State, although he was called the “Favored One of the Goddess of Wisdom” by everyone, Ace knew clearly that he didn’t have a single coin’s worth of relationship with the Goddess of Wisdom.
True Spirit Ace asked majestically, “What is the attitude of the Divine Descendants here towards the Favored Ones?”
The village chief answered respectfully, “The Divine Descendant lords have a very close attitude towards the Favored Ones. As long as one becomes a Favored One, they can obtain a status equivalent to a Divine Descendant lord. In the words of the current City Lord of Byrne, Hill Byrne, the Divine Descendants and the Favored Ones rule this land together!”
True Spirit Ace sent the village chief’s consciousness back to his body, then successively pulled the consciousness of others in the village into the mental imagery dream world. The intelligence obtained was largely the same.
“It seems that in the Artemis Kingdom, Divine Descendants and Favored Ones are integrated. Although Favored Ones do not have divine bloodlines, they have the grace and blessings of the Deities, and sometimes they are even more popular than ordinary Divine Descendants.
“Anyway, I have already arrived in the Old Continent. Even returning to Salia isn’t something that can happen in a moment. I should recover my mana first, then restore my body. While traveling here to understand the situation of the Old Continent, I can promote the runes of the Death Element series.”
Ace gradually determined the idea for his next move. A section of bone finger from the legendary skeletal giant dragon and a mass of sealed dragon breath floated before his eyes. The golden Eye of Truth flickered, prying into the mysteries within.
Under Ace’s vision, the material shell of the bone finger and dragon breath was slowly stripped away, revealing the rune structures and mana fluctuations contained within.
Although he observed with all his might, Ace could not fully observe the rune structures and the characteristics of specific runes clearly. A golden wizard could not effectively observe things of level 3 mystery, and the rune mysteries contained within were even more impossible to understand.
It was like a fishbone stuck in his throat. He was just one step away from perfecting the Six-Element Ring into a 4-ring spell, yet he was stagnant here.
Advance chapters at Nightjar Reads · nightjarreads.com