Ch 1 - Death Valley
The sun is slowly setting behind the Apennine Mountain Range of the Roman Empire. The last rays are falling on the emblem of the god Mithras slaying a sacred bull. A few priests are offering evening prayers. It's the holy temple of the mysterious Mithraea Warrior Sect!
Two very beautiful eyes are looking at the setting sun. He had distinct facial features with a trace of childishness. He is wearing a white tunic which is now stained with blood and vomit. He is Amadeus. A servant disciple who had stayed in the Mithraea Warrior Sect for less than one year. Amadeus looked over his shoulder. He was carrying a middle-aged man covered in blood and with broken bones. The middle-aged man on his back is the lowest wilding in the Mithraea Warrior Sect, the wilding with no human rights!
Amadeus exhaled deeply, then he looked at the Apennine Mountain Range, which runs north to south in the Roman Empire. It was connected to a thousand miles of land, like a hibernating flood dragon. Amadeus started walking again. His destination was the Thought Valley!
"Are we there?" The middle-aged man asked. He coughed and spittled blood. "Not yet!" Amadeus said, and kept walking.
The Sibylline Mountains were faintly discernible; they are the home of Mithraea. There were countless palaces and training arenas built there. The cranes and apes lived in the mountains, giving off a kind of heavenly charm.
After the Punic War, a great gladiator passed through the Apennine Mountain Range. Seeing that this place was filled with the blessings of Mithraea, he settled down here. He offered his allegiance to God Mithra and created a large sect called the Mithraea Warrior Sect. After years of development, the Mithraea Warrior Sect had become the overlord of this region. It is one of the nine top sects in the Great Roman Empire. It dominated Ravenna, Milan, and Naples. Currently, there are more than a million disciples in the sect. Even the Royal Family didn't dare offend the sect. In Ravenna, Milan, and Naples, it is worthy of being called a peerless
overlord. Before the previous Prefecture Masters of the Three Paths were appointed, all of them had to pay a visit to the Mithraea Warrior Sect first.
"Are we there yet?" The middle-aged man asked again, as he was about to die. He is breathing slowly with effort.
"Not yet." Amadeus replied. He looked at the old man. He looked at himself. He knew this dying man's fate, and his fate was no different. He is just above him. The man is named Wilding, and he is the servant. He kept walking. He was dragging himself and then he saw the Thought Valley.
"We are there," Amadeus told the man.
"Ohh! Iā¦ I neverā¦ wantedā¦ thisā¦ kind ofā¦ kind of death." "The middle-aged man said before collapsing to the ground."
Amadeus looked ahead of him. It's a small valley between the mountains. The valley isn't very big, but it is several miles wide. There are many graves in the valley, and many of them were even dug out by wild beasts. The coffins and bones were clearly visible. It was obvious that no one had come to pay their respects for many years. Not to mention filling the ground and repairing it. From time to time, black crows circled around it, letting out terrifying cries. It made one's hair stand on end!
It's called "Thought Valley," but more accurately, it should be called "Death Valley." This is the graveyard for wildings buried by the Mithraea Warrior Sect.
"This is your last resting place, wilding. There is no other place on earth like it. This is where you have to die. " Amadeus told the man.
He looked at the man. The man has stopped breathing.
"Oh, the wildingsā¦" Amadeus showed some emotions.
He knew very well, the wildings, just as their name suggests, were used by those servant disciples in the Mithraea Warrior Sect to kick and beat without restraint. It could be said that they were the lowest group of people in the Mithraea Warrior Sect. They were even worse than pigs and sheep that were kept in captivity. Every
day, wildings were beaten to death, and then their corpses were abandoned in the Thought Valley. If they were lucky, they might even be able to obtain a tomb. Those who were unlucky would be randomly thrown into the Thought Valley. Then their spirits wail on the corpse at night as the wind blows and the sun dries it, and the spirits watch in horror as their bodies get eaten up by wild beasts.
Amadeus started dragging the body, towards the valley. He staggered; his breathing was disordered. He panted heavily from time to time, and his sweat drenched his clothes like rain. He is a warrior who has opened the Pneuma, but he is still in the early stages of training. Carrying the hundred or so kilogrammes of wilding on his back, he walked dozens of miles in a single breath. He had almost reached his limit. He moved his foot and stopped.
The sound of thunder rumbled. The black clouds twisted and entangled in midair like a black dragon. Streaks of lightning suddenly pierced the night sky like sharp swords.
"The weather is really changing now." Amadeus's expression changed slightly, and he could not help but quicken his pace.
Suddenly, a white light cut through the void. It was bright and dazzling. Amadeus closed his eyes, and he heard a loud sound. Airwaves rolled by, and it was as if the tempestuous waves had struck his body.
Amadeus was caught off guard and sent flying. The corpse of the servant on his back is thrown several metres away.
Amadeus's eyelids twitched. He saw a huge pit with a diameter of three feet in front of him. The pit is a few feet deep, and it is charred black. Green smoke is still rising from it, and the smell of burnt things can be smelled in the air.
"This hole was struck by lightning!" Amadeus swallowed his saliva, and then he felt a lingering fear. If he had taken one more step, he might have died!
"But, why did the lightning suddenly strike down?" Amadeus looked up at the sky. The glance made his heart jump.
The sky seemed to have turned into a boundless, giant whirlpool. The dark clouds are like long black Hydra, rolling and stirring in the air. Within the dark clouds, the sound of thunder rumbled, and from time to time, streaks of lightning flashed. Amidst the rumbling, heaven and earth trembled.
Amadeus had never even heard of such a terrifying scene. He was so scared that he trembled.
For him, it is the end of the world coming near. The dark clouds are rolling in, layer after layer. They carry destructive energy. The space around us seemed to have frozen. The sound of thunder rumbled as if a heavy hammer was pounding on people's hearts. Lightning flashed, and the night sky seemed to have been torn apart by several ferocious holes!!
The lightning flew through the clouds like a griffin. It is like a sharp blade that could split open the sky. And it actually forcefully tore open the night sky.
The thick, dark clouds parted to the sides, revealing terrifying giant thunderbolts.
"The majesty of the heavens does not allow us to speculate!" Amadeus raised his head and looked at the sky. Boundless respect surged up in his heart.
In an instant, thunder and lightning collided with each other, and electric currents filled the sky. The sound of thunder was deafening. The heavens and earth seemed to tremble along with it, and Amadeus even felt the ground beneath his feet shake.
The rumbling thunder seems to hit him continuously. For a moment, Amadeus' heart stopped beating and the blood in his body stopped flowing. It is as if death is right in front of his eyes!
Suddenly, a purple thunderbolt tore through the void and struck Amadeus's head. Its momentum is as terrifying as a meteorite. The trees in the mountains began to sway, and the surrounding scenery turned into the simplest black and white color. The purple thunderbolt instantly entered Amadeus's limbs like countless fine
droplets of snow, and then penetrated deep into his bone marrow!
An indescribable pain violently hit Amadeus's brain, like billions of ants devouring his heart, making him wish that he could die just like that. Amadeus deeply understood what it meant to live a life that was worse than death!
He had no idea how much time had passed. It might have been a moment, or perhaps ten thousand years.
Amadeus felt as if something had exploded in his head. Then he saw countless pieces of information surge into his Sea of Consciousness. However, before he could check it out, the scene in front of him suddenly changed. The pain disappeared without a trace. Amadeus is shocked to find out that he is actually floating under the starry sky.
Countless stars are suspended in the sky. Spiral-shaped nebulas are drifting quietly. The Milky Way is bright and long, and the huge meteorites, full of holes, are dragging their long tails as they cut through the void. Amadeus is in it, and he is like a tiny speck of dust!
"Where is this? Why am I in the universe? " Amadeus looked around blankly. His heart is beating fast. He looked into the distance and felt as if all the blood in his body had stopped flowing.
In the endless starry sky, countless gladiators are fighting with their lives on the line. These gladiators are all top experts. Even the strongest gladiators that Amadeus knew were less than one ten-thousandth of them. The stars shattered and space was destroyed with a single wave of their hands. The Cosmic Storm was like a peerless evil dragon that swept across everything.
In front of these terrifying experts, Amadeus felt that he was not even comparable to an ant that could be easily killed on the ground. As long as they casually blew at him, he would die without a burial ground!
Terrifying! Amadeus felt his entire body go soft, and his teeth began to creak uncontrollably. He kept trembling. If it is not for the support of a mysterious force, he would have collapsed like a pile of mud.
In a trance, a loud sound was emitted.
Countless mysterious Runes exploded in Amadeus's mind, "Heaven and Earth Devouring Method, a Blood Essence that can take away the fortune of the heaven and earth, devour all living creatures, and forge a supreme Holy Bloodline, establishing a peerless foundation. . . . "