Chapter 56: The Scar of the Fallen Star

The Priestess has long been a heritage of the Ancient Spirit Realm.

This identity is not limited to the Western Spirit Kingdom; the Dongyuanzhi Kingdom, Southern Sacred Kingdom, and Northern Cosmic Kingdom also have Priestesses.

The word “Spirit” here does not refer to just the Spirit Kingdom, but encompasses the entire Ancient Spirit Realm.

The Priestesses are noble beings who have received the protection and blessings of the Ancient Spirit Realm. They are exclusively born among women and possess a unique constitution known as “Innate Spirit Body.”

This constitution is quite special; while it does not extend the lifetime of the Priestess and prevents her from absorbing any external energy for cultivation—forever making it impossible for her to become powerful—it allows her to remain youthful before exhausting her lifespan, free from illness… a double-edged sword, if you will.

More importantly, it grants the Priestess the ability to communicate with and “heal” the land.

The factor of destruction.

According to the Qilin, this is the culprit behind the frequent emergence of evil demons in the Ancient Spirit Realm, and the Priestess can alleviate this issue to a certain extent.

Since the arrival of the Four Saints, who quelled the chaos caused by evil demons, Priestesses have begun to appear regularly in the Ancient Spirit Realm. Their births have no discernible origin and occur randomly in any household across the land; they could be the children of noble lineage or merely a baby born in a mountain village.

In each kingdom, there can be at most one Priestess, and the next generation will not appear until the previous one has passed away, often resulting in long gaps.

Because of this, Priestesses are extremely precious. Once a Priestess is discovered, the four nations dispatch envoys to bring her to the capital at once, where she receives the highest level of treatment and specialized education.

As for how the Priestess “heals” the land…

Beneath the Ancient Spirit Realm lies the Spirit Vein, which is the essence and quintessence of this world, capable of nourishing all things and bestowing vitality.

However, the Spirit Vein is a force of balance and harmony; it grants nourishment equally to all things on the land, which includes the existence known as “evil demons.”

During the disaster a thousand years ago, countless evil demons emerged from the earth, bringing dire calamity to the inhabitants of the Ancient Spirit Realm, and their unchecked proliferation consumed a vast amount of the Spirit Vein’s power.

Although the Spirit Vein is vast, it is not absolutely infinite. If it loses its equilibrium and completely depletes, the entire Ancient Spirit Realm will gradually lose its vitality, becoming a land of despair and silence.

Thus, the Priestess’s ability is to sense the problematic Spirit Vein roots and, using herself as a medium, convert energy from a more distant and boundless source to replenish the deficits of the Ancient Spirit Realm’s veins.

As for this more expansive source, no one knows what it is, but even an unknown origin is better than the world facing a slow death, right?

Under the shade of a tree by the official road, after hearing Ling Feng’s detailed account of the Priestesses, Miss Vilyric appeared lost in thought.

“The Spirit Vein… In the world I was in before, there were things similar to that. Although the names and some details differed, it seems the function is quite similar.”

Not only that, the malefic changes that result from the depletion of the Spirit Vein, as mentioned by Ling Feng, suddenly reminded Vilyric of a world known as Aibus.

Even now, she is unsure why the world colloquially known as the “Abyss” has deteriorated into such a grim spectacle, with the land crumbling, silence overwhelming it, and even the light being mercilessly stripped away.

But if… she means if…

Aibus once faced turmoil from evil demons similar to the Ancient Spirit Realm, yet their ultimate fate was failure?

It’s a simple reason; what on earth was this ultra-spec weapon, the Doomsday Cannon, made for?

And—because of “chaos,” if the Demon Realm had not had the other three sovereigns and had continuously plundered and collected energy from the outside world, what would that world look like now?

These seemingly scattered bits of information began to weave together subtle common threads as she delved deeper into the understanding of the Ancient Spirit Realm.

Named “Destruction,” the final destination.

The Black-haired Girl looked up at the blood-red remnants of the setting sun in the sky.

…Hen, are you guiding me to this information? What exactly do you need me to help with?

Forget it; the primary goal now is to find the Princess Ling, who shares her name.

The Priestess turned to her personal maid, He Zhu, who had also been brought here.

“You mentioned earlier that Hen… the current Priestess of the Western Spirit Kingdom is from the same village, right?”

The timid-looking little maid nodded slightly.

“Yes, my lady…”

“Then, what do you want to tell us? Don’t be afraid; speak freely, and I can guarantee your safety.”

“…”

Seeing the other party still hesitating, the Priestess decisively signaled to the others. Ling Feng nodded in understanding and then, along with Bai’er, Murong Yun, and General Ji Xun, turned to leave temporarily to a distance.

“Alright, now it’s just you and me. I’m not an actual noble of the Western Spirit Kingdom. You must have heard about my connection with the Qilin, so just speak openly.”

After examining the smiling Black-haired Girl, she subtly glanced at the Spirit Guards roaming in the distance. As if resolved, the little maid’s tone suddenly became agitated.

“My lady, Hen, the Priestess… the Priestess has definitely been swapped! The current Priestess is not the same person I knew!!!”

“Oh… such a thing really happened?”

Vilyric raised her eyebrows in slight surprise, suddenly understanding the little maid’s hesitation and fear.

It’s no wonder she couldn’t dare speak of such a thing in public, as it would be just as disrespectful as a knight in the United Kingdom shouting, “Our Queen is a fake!” inside the Royal Palace.

After all, the identity of a Priestess is not like an ordinary official; it is much more important and easily verifiable; there’s no way it could be swapped. Such a statement is almost equivalent to slander, the most malicious kind, where losing your head would be a light punishment.

However, since He Zhu and the Priestess are from the same village, it indicates a lot of familiarity between them. Her words could indeed hold some reference value.

Vilyric patted her shoulder and cast a calming spell on the pale-faced, exceedingly agitated little maid.

“Don’t worry, start from when you noticed something was off and tell me everything that happened before and after.”

“Yes… my lady.”

…

He Zhu and the current Priestess of the Western Spirit Kingdom originally were just ordinary villagers from Xinghu Village, Yiyuan County, in the Western Spirit Kingdom. Though they were as close as sisters, they did not share blood relations.

Her sister—Hen—was found by He Zhu’s parents on a mountain over a decade ago.

Reportedly, at that time, the couple, who loved celestial phenomena, went stargazing on the hillside during the night when they witnessed what seemed to be a silver star rapidly falling from the sky, landing in a valley nearby.

He Zhu’s parents were quite astonished and somewhat scared by this unknown sight. Still, curiosity eventually urged them to approach to see this once-in-a-lifetime sight, wondering what it was that shone in the night sky.

But when they finally reached the crash site, they discovered there was no meteorite debris, only a silvery light floating in midair, within which lay an infant who had just been born for a brief moment.

After much hesitation, this young couple stepped forward and carefully took the baby girl out. The silver light then retracted, dispersed, and vanished without a trace.

They brought that child home.

Because she was left behind by a star that fell from the sky, along with her unique silver hair, which was unlike the people of the Spirit Kingdom, that child was regarded as the Child of Heaven. In a certain intangible understanding, He Zhu’s parents decided not to give her their surname but instead directly named her “Hen.”

   

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