Volume 1, Chapter 0 – Prologue (I)

Abyssal Demons.

Their existence can be described as the nightmare of every race upon the Ancheka Continent. Whenever an Abyssal Demon appeared, the various races of the continent would invariably cast aside their past grievances and join hands to combat this terrifying, mobile catastrophe. These cruel and bloodthirsty monsters, which tore apart and devoured every living thing in their path, spread disasters such as death and plague across the entire land.

Everyone spoke of them with fear, wishing for nothing more than to see them eradicated.

However, the immense power of an Abyssal Demon was by no means something an ordinary person could match. Even specially trained armies and the knights of the Church had to pay a harrowing price to defeat one. Faced with an Abyssal Demon, most people had only one choice: to run for their lives.

As for where the Abyssal Demons actually came from?

At first, the people of the continent did not know. They only knew that these monsters first appeared thousands of years ago within Deepwinter Forest at the northern tip of the continent. It was only after generations of ancestors ventured into Deepwinter Forest one after another to investigate, often sacrificing their lives in the process, that the mystery was finally unraveled.

The Hall of Ten Thousand Demons.

This ancient palace, located deep within Deepwinter Forest, was the source of all evil.

Within the hall resided a strange and eerie black energy, and this mysterious force was the wellspring from which the Abyssal Demons were born. Ordinary magical beasts or animals within Deepwinter Forest would undergo a drastic change in temperament upon coming into contact with this black mist. They would become incredibly bloodthirsty and savage, showing hostility toward almost all living beings, while the power within their bodies would skyrocket.

These creatures, once infected by the black mist, were known as Abyssal Demons.

“The Abyssal Demons come from the Hall of Ten Thousand Demons; it is the evil power within that hall that gestates these monsters!”

The scholars of the continent soon arrived at this conclusion.

Following the publication of this finding, the entire continent was instantly sent into an uproar. To thoroughly end the tragedies brought about by the Abyssal Demons, the major races and empires joined forces to form an allied army. They marched gallantly toward Deepwinter Forest, attempting to locate and destroy the Hall of Ten Thousand Demons.

However…

People had underestimated the number of Abyssal Demons within Deepwinter Forest. Abyssal Demons inherently harbored great hostility toward living beings of other races and would instinctively attack any place where people gathered. When the allied army stepped into Deepwinter Forest with total confidence, they naturally attracted the attention of countless Abyssal Demons.

Among them, there were several Abyssal Demons whose strength had reached the terrifying demon king tier.

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Ultimately, the allied army was trampled.

Fewer than one-tenth of the men returned alive.

Since then, the various powers of the continent no longer dared to proactively gather armies to set foot in Deepwinter Forest. At most, they would dispatch small teams of three to five people to sneak inside, attempting to complete “decapitation missions” without alerting other Abyssal Demons.

Of course, most of these operations ended with the entire team being declared “missing”.

In the end, the major powers decided to shift from offense to defense, constructing defensive lines outside Deepwinter Forest to prevent the Abyssal Demons from leaving. In this manner, several hundred years passed in relative “peace”.

However…

Three hundred years ago, the various empires and races discovered a baffling fact: the number of Abyssal Demons detected around the forest was rapidly declining! Previously, there were over forty sightings of Abyssal Demons every month; by a hundred years ago, there were only about a dozen per month.

Now, there weren’t even ten sightings in a year.

This inevitably led people to wonder: Had some internal change occurred within Deepwinter Forest? Had something caused the number of Abyssal Demons to plummet? Or was the eerie energy within the Hall of Ten Thousand Demons running dry? Did this mean that the danger of entering Deepwinter Forest had decreased?

As similar speculations grew, more and more elite teams from various factions gathered their courage to step once again onto this frozen land. They came for only one purpose: the Hall of Ten Thousand Demons.

Inside Deepwinter Forest, beside the Chegwa Glacier.

A five-person adventure team sat quietly, resting and recovering while remaining vigilant of their surroundings to prevent a sudden assault by Abyssal Demons.

All five members were physically strong and wore white robes embroidered with runes resembling a pair of wings, stitched with rare gold thread. If anyone else were present, they would easily recognize these iconic patterns and identify the group.

They were from the Ashurmos Church, the most powerful sect on the entire Ancheka Continent.

This five-man squad, led by the hero Pix, was a “special forces” unit that had come to Deepwinter Forest under the orders of the Pope to investigate.

However, at this moment, sitting beside the five-man team was an existence that seemed extremely out of place.

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It was a young girl dressed in tattered cloth clothes, looking as agile as she was adorable, like a piece of finely carved jade.

She had beautiful grey twin-tails and spirited eyes that sparkled like emeralds. Her innocent and cute face, combined with her slender and fragile frame, naturally evoked a sense of pity.

Though the girl was young, she was undoubtedly a rare beauty in the making with a promising future.

However, such a beautiful face paired with such dilapidated clothing created a sense of profound dissonance. The sight of this young girl appearing before them so out of place caused the hero, Pix, to furrow his brows slightly.

Strange.

Judging by her clothes, this girl was undoubtedly a child from a poor family. Was she a “wildling” from the area around Mora Village? But in a place like the North, how could a child from a wildling family have such delicate, supple skin? This made Pix suspect the girl’s true identity.

Yet, no matter how he sensed her, he could not detect even a trace of magic power, battle aura, or the Shadow Essence ¹ 寂影之力 (jì yǐng zhī lì) unique to Abyssal Demons from her body.

Is she truly just an ordinary person?

An ordinary little girl appearing in Deepwinter Forest?

How is that possible?!

Pix’s azure eyes were filled with confusion and incomprehension.

While he was pondering the girl’s identity, the two meter tall man named Beckham sitting beside Pix slowly stood up. Carrying a piece of bread, he walked slowly over to the girl.

Then, under the strange gazes of the rest of the team, Beckham smiled and crouched down, holding the bread out to the girl.

“Hey, little girl, this bread is for you.”

“Hmm? Really?”

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The girl looked up, eyeing the dark and burly uncle before her with a look of joy.

“Yes, it’s for you to eat.”

“That’s wonderful!! Thank you, Uncle!!”

With Beckham’s confirmation, the girl excitedly took the bread he offered and held it in her hands as if it were a precious treasure. Her wariness toward the group of five gradually faded.

Seeing this, Beckham flashed a satisfied smile. At the same time, he noticed a simple hairpin made of evergreen wood in the girl’s hair. The hairpin itself was crudely crafted and had no artistic value, yet it was exceptionally eye-catching.

This was because two tiny, exquisite white birds with red crests were currently perched obediently upon the hairpin.

This caused Beckham to raise his eyebrows playfully.

“Little sister, are these two birds your pets? What are their names?”

“Xiao Die ² 小蝶 (xiǎo dié) = Little Butterfly. Having a bird named Butterfly is a bit weird so I will stick to the original Chinese name and Xiao Jing ³ 小晶 (xiǎo jīng) = Little Crystal .”

“Oh, I see.”

While reaching out to play with the two little birds, Beckham sat down beside the girl with an ulterior motive. Seeing that she didn’t react, he even raised his hand to pat her on the shoulder, his smile gradually taking on a hint of lewdness…

The four teammates, including Pix, could not help but cast looks of disgust his way.

Of course, Beckham himself didn’t care about his companions’ strange looks. His attention was entirely focused on the girl’s beautiful face and her budding body. Certain inappropriate thoughts began to fester in his mind…

When he saw that the little girl didn’t feel uneasy or displeased by having his arm around her shoulder, Beckham became even more brazen. His entire massive frame leaned against her.

Such a top-tier little thing…

He had no intention of letting her go.

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“Little sister, why are you in Deepwinter Forest all by yourself? Even the outskirts are very dangerous.”

“I came here to find food. Dangerous? Is it dangerous here?” The girl blinked curiously, her emerald eyes filled with innocence.

Meeting the girl’s pure gaze, Beckham grew even more excited.

“Naturally. This is Deepwinter Forest, after all. With your small frame, if you ran into an Abyssal Demon, you’d be eaten until not even scraps were left. Sigh, how about this? Uncle will take you back later. Where is your home?”

“No need, Uncle. I can go home by myself. But, didn’t you say it’s dangerous here? Why did you come here, Uncle?”

“Haha, us? We’re the elite ‘Sunlight’ unit belonging to the Ashurmos Church. We came here, of course, to find the Hall of Ten Thousand Demons~”

Beckham said with a laugh.

His intention was to use his status as a member of Sunlight to further gain the trust of this innocent girl.

However…

The moment those words left his mouth, the smile on the girl’s face gradually faded. In its place was an indescribable aura of murder. A strange red glow slowly emanated from her emerald eyes, and the surrounding air grew colder and colder.

“Searching for the Hall of Ten Thousand Demons? You… what do you want with my mother?”

Power System Setting:

In the eyes of the people of the Ancheka Continent, cultivators are divided into eight tiers based on the strength of the power within their bodies. Tiers one through six are considered the ordinary ranks, where the vast majority of people on the continent fall.

The seventh tier is the saint tier, and the eighth tier is the god tier (corresponding to the demon king tier of Abyssal Demons). Beings at these two tiers are extremely rare, but their strength is worlds apart from the first six tiers.

(Other details will be gradually supplemented later.)