Chapter 447. A Hand-full of Colossal Tasks - 1

Chapter 447: 447. A Hand-full of Colossal Tasks - 1

William left the barbarian settlement without looking back, while Dereck, Helios, and Bob quietly followed behind him as the four figures gradually disappeared into the endless white landscape that stretched beyond the borders of the barbarian tribe.

The howling winds that constantly swept across the frozen plains had become strangely insignificant beneath the cries of agony echoing from behind them, and although the icy storms continued to carry snow across the mountains as they always had, the blood staining the once-pristine white ground had transformed the barbarian settlement into a place where suffering would linger for a very long time.

William had never intended to grant them the mercy of a quick death.

Death was an escape.

It was an ending that released a person from both pain and consequence, and he had deliberately decided that the leaders of the barbarian tribe deserved neither of those things.

Every chief, elder, and warrior who had participated in the torture of his subordinate had been left alive, but their bodies would never recover from the punishment he had inflicted upon them.

Their wounds had been sealed in a perpetual state between healing and destruction, ensuring that flesh would continuously decay while simultaneously preventing death from ever claiming them.

The variance energy William had infused into their injuries would render healing useless and relentlessly consume their bodies, making every passing day a reminder of the consequences of provoking someone they should never have challenged.

At the same time, William had carefully distinguished the guilty from the innocent.

He had spared every woman, every child, every elderly tribesman, and every ordinary civilian who had played no role in the cruelty committed against Bob, though the culture of the barbarian tribe was filled with crude practices and cruel beliefs; yet William believed that if time demanded it from them, then even barbarians would have to change themselves.

Before departing, he had given them only a single choice. They could either accept the authority of the Eternal Sun Empire and survive beneath its protection, or they could stubbornly cling to a pride that would inevitably lead to their extinction.

Until now, no one had voiced any resistance against his idea. There was simply no point.

The strongest warriors of the tribe had either been crippled beyond recovery or reduced to trembling spectators incapable of lifting their weapons again.

The authority upon which the tribe had relied for generations had collapsed within the span of a few minutes, and everyone present had witnessed that collapse with their own eyes.

If the barbarians wished to survive the coming winter, submission was no longer a matter of politics or pride. It was a matter of survival.

Food itself was not their greatest concern.

The frozen mountains contained enough beasts for experienced hunters to sustain their people, provided they possessed the strength necessary to hunt them. The real danger lay elsewhere.

The Yeti beasts dwelled in the northern forests; this race of beasts was only found in this part of the Aris. They were merciless, massive ape-like monsters who loved to feast on human flesh.

Every winter, enormous herds of the snow beasts descended from the higher mountains in search of prey, and they regarded human flesh as no different from any other meal. For generations, the barbarian warriors had protected their settlements against those creatures through sheer cultivation strength.

Now that strength no longer existed, the anklet worn by the barbarian chief, which was the artifact that had protected the tribe for so long, was now lying in William’s inventory for inspection later on.

The barbarians were completely stripped of any choice; without the empire’s protection, the coming winter would transform the entire settlement into little more than a feast waiting to happen.

William walked leisurely through the snow-covered landscape, seemingly unconcerned with the events that he had just left behind.

Rather than immediately returning to the empire, he allowed himself to quietly observe the surrounding terrain while committing every detail to memory.

This region was still largely unfamiliar to him.

The Sunspire Range had always served as a natural boundary separating the civilized empires from the frozen northern territory of barbarians, and very few people possessed accurate knowledge regarding what truly existed beyond the barbarian lands.

William’s gaze gradually shifted farther north. He could only see a vast expanse of cold forests and unadulterated mountainous land.

Beyond these hills and forests was supposed to be a seemingly endless blanket of dense white clouds concealing Aris from whatever lay beyond this land.

Beyond the Babylon Empire, crossing through another cloud barrier had eventually led him to the Prison of the Gods. However, that only answered one question while raising countless others.

What lay beyond this cloud barrier? Was it another isolated realm similar to the Prison of the Gods? Or was it an unexplored region of Aris that no one had successfully documented?

Or did the clouds lead to a completely other realm?

The more William learned about Aris, the more convinced he became that the continent concealed far more secrets than the novel had ever described.

His thoughts naturally drifted toward another location. The eastern edge of the continent.

Beyond the Ashfall Empire.

That region held particular significance because, according to the original storyline, Ethan was destined to travel there soon for his physical awakening.

It was there that he would inherit the true legacy of his bloodline. William narrowed his eyes slightly.

Ethan’s past had always been peculiar.

The novel had devoted hundreds of Chapters to Ethan’s rise yet had almost completely ignored his origins. His parents had barely been mentioned, and the circumstances surrounding his birth had remained strangely absent till the part William had read.

Considering everything he had learned since arriving in this world, it seemed increasingly likely that Ethan’s background had never been ordinary to begin with.

The physique Ethan possessed certainly wasn’t.

The dormant physique sleeping within his body had once belonged to one of the Heaven’s Chosen from the ancient era, an existence whose name had been lost beneath the passage of time.

The gradual appearance of Ethan’s crimson hair served as proof that his inheritance had already begun awakening, and once the process advanced further, destiny itself would naturally guide him toward the ancient trial site waiting beyond the eastern borders.

Of course, merely reaching the trial site would not be enough.

William still remembered the most troublesome condition required for Ethan’s complete awakening.

To fully inherit the ancient physique, Ethan needed to defeat a Divine Physique holder three times while that individual actively used the power of their physique during battle.

It was an absurd requirement.

Especially considering how incredibly rare Divine Physiques were.