Chapter 588 - 584 – RESTRUCTURING FALLING STAR CITY AND THE SHADOW OF A BLOOD RAIN IN THE FOREST OF DEATH

The dust of a dark past history had been swept clean from the Central Plaza of Falling Star City. The ten corpses of the corrupt officials and the former mayor who had been absolutely executed by Sylvia’s Authority of Death had been cleared away by the new soldiers sworn to loyalty under the banner of the First Princess, Hua Zhaoyue.

Yet the emotional and psychological impact of that public execution still lingered strongly throughout every corner of the city. The blind fear that had once choked the common people had now transformed into a sense of safety, admiration, and unshakable loyalty toward their new ruler. Over the following days, the governor’s administrative office was crowded with citizens, small merchants, and independent hunter groups who came in droves to declare full support, bring agricultural produce, and report various small injustices that had long been covered up by the old regime.

Inside the main office of the governor’s residence, the atmosphere that had once been gloomy and filled with documents of fund embezzlement had now changed into a center of highly dynamic and purposeful activity.

Hua Zhaoyue, clad in her official governor’s robe with ice-blue accents and a silver tiara crown on her head, was busy reviewing the city’s restructuring reports. Beside her, several honest young bureaucrats who had previously been sidelined by the old regime had now been reinstated to lead various important departments, ranging from food logistics and city-wall defense to the recovery of the trade economy.

"Report from the Eastern Sector, Your Excellency," said a middle-aged bureaucratic official in a tone full of respect, bowing deeply before Zhaoyue’s desk. "The distribution of food and logistics taken from the former mayor’s secret storage rooms has been completed and distributed to the families of border soldiers and the poor citizens. There is no longer any hunger in the refugee districts."

Zhaoyue nodded in satisfaction, scratching an approval signature with a golden quill pen on the parchment document. "Good. Also ensure that the price supervision of wheat and medicinal herbs remains stable. I do not want any price speculators trying to seek profit in the middle of this power transition."

"Understood, Your Excellency!" the bureaucrat bowed once more before withdrawing orderly from the room.

After the door closed tightly, Zhaoyue leaned her back against her small throne-like chair. She drew a long breath, relaxing her shoulders that felt tense after working for hours without rest. Although the workload in the Southern Star Province was far heavier compared to her life in the Holy Palace of the Capital, Zhaoyue did not feel burdened at all. On the contrary, there was an extraordinarily great inner satisfaction. For the first time in her life, she felt the true meaning of leading not merely the false political struggle for power, but building the people’s lives to become better with her own hands.

Yet in the middle of that sense of relief, the room door was suddenly knocked in haste.

Tok! Tok! Tok!

"Enter," Zhaoyue said in a firm tone.

The door opened wide, and a commander of her personal female knight guards stepped inside with slightly ragged breathing. The knight’s face looked tense as she carried a red parchment scroll, a military emergency signal.

"Your Excellency, we have just received an urgent report from the foremost observation post on the western border," the knight commander reported quickly.

Zhaoyue immediately straightened her body, her brows furrowing sharply. "What is happening on the western border? Has a faction from the capital tried to send provocative troops?"

"Not from the capital, Your Excellency... but from within the Forest of Death," the commander answered in a voice trembling with restraint. "The post guards report extremely abnormal monster activity fluctuations over the past two days. Thousands of mid-rank mutant monsters have begun gathering along the forest border line, and several scouts have seen the shadows of colossal Alpha Rank 6 creatures moving back and forth among the ancient trees. They appear... restless and frightened."

Zhaoyue fell silent for a moment. The Forest of Death was a high-level danger zone stretching to the west of the Southern Star Province. Although the forest was filled with thousands of fierce monsters from Rank 5 to Alpha Rank 7, normally those monsters each held their own territories and rarely moved massively toward human settlements unless there was extreme weather change or... something extremely terrifying driving them out from the depths of the forest.

"Is this because of the presence of Sol and Noir when we arrived yesterday?" Zhaoyue thought anxiously. The disaster-level aura of those two great dragons might have triggered severe disruption in the forest’s ecosystem.

"Send reinforcements to the western border post," Zhaoyue ordered quickly, making a decision like a mature military leader. "Order all the mana crystal cannons on the city walls to prepare at high alert. I will go there immediately to survey the situation."

"Wait, Zhaoyue. You need not go to the trouble of mobilizing the entire army just for a few overheated forest lizards."

A melodious yet cold voice cut through the princess’s instructions.

The side door of the office opened casually, and Sylvia stepped into the room. The jet-black-haired girl wore an elegant lace-trimmed casual gown, while behind her Sol (in golden-cat form) and Noir (in black-cat form) walked side by side with lazy steps.

Zhaoyue turned in surprise. "Sylvia? You heard it?"

"Of course. A Demigod’s hearing is far sharper than you imagine," Sylvia answered with a thin smile, walking closer to Zhaoyue’s work desk. She took the emergency report parchment from the female knight’s hand, glanced at it briefly, then set it back down with complete indifference.

"The Forest of Death..." Sylvia murmured, the corner of her lips lifting into a smile full of interest. "A high-level danger zone filled with mutant monsters from Rank 5 to Alpha Rank 7. I heard the meat of several monster types there has an extremely chewy texture and is rich in natural seasoning if cooked in spicy mala broth."

Zhaoyue lightly slapped her forehead, feeling a little dizzy at her friend’s extraordinarily extreme culinary hobby. "Sylvia, this is not the time to think about hotpot! If those mutant monster packs perform a stampede or a mass attack wave out of the forest, the walls of Falling Star City will be in great danger! Our border soldiers are not yet fully ready to face a large-scale assault!"

Sylvia snorted softly, patting the head of Sol who was yawning widely. She regarded Zhaoyue with a gaze full of absolute certainty.

"Who said they will attack the city?" Sylvia said in a casual tone. "The monsters in that forest are not stupid, Zhaoyue. Although they are fierce, they possess survival instincts far more sensitive than humans. Yesterday, when Sol and Noir landed in this city, our true dragon aura seeped through the ground and air for dozens of kilometers. The creatures in the Forest of Death must be trembling in fear inside their dens, suspecting that a far more terrifying peak predator has come to seize their territory."

Sylvia walked closer to the large window that faced directly westward, where the silhouette of the dark trees of the Forest of Death stretched along the horizon line.

"On the contrary," Sylvia continued, her eyes glittering sharply. "Rather than waiting for them to come out and create chaos in your new territory of power, it is better that we go there. I need a supply of high-quality Mutant Beast Cores to refill the energy reserves of our base, and of course... some fresh food ingredients for dinner."

Zhaoyue swallowed hard. Taking two disaster-level dragons and the Queen of Death to ’hunt’ inside the most dangerous monster nest in the southern region... that was not a military expedition; it was a one-sided massacre.

"Very well..." Zhaoyue murmured in resignation yet feeling far calmer. "But please, do not level the entire forest into ash, Sylvia. We still need wood and rare herbs from there for the city’s economy."

Sylvia waved her hand without turning. "Relax. I will only pull out the root of the problem."

Several hours later, at the western border edge of the Forest of Death.

The atmosphere around that ancient forest felt extremely dark and oppressive. Gigantic black-trunked trees towered high, blocking the sunlight and creating a dense canopy that kept the forest floor always in a grayish twilight mist. The smell of wet earth, sulfur, and dried blood mixed into one in the air.

Normally this area was filled with the growls of monsters, the hisses of gigantic snakes, and the hunting cries of predatory birds. Yet today the entire forest had fallen into an extremely strange silence. Dead quiet. There was no sound of insects, no flap of bird wings. All the inhabitants of the Forest of Death seemed to be hiding inside their deepest caves, lying flat against the ground, trembling in fear without daring to make the slightest sound.

In the middle of a muddy footpath at the edge of the forest, Sylvia stood gracefully. Beside her, Sol and Noir had already released their disguises, standing in their true forms: the 50-meter Golden Dragon and the 70-meter Black Dragon. Although they did not release any roars, the mere presence of the two disaster-level dragons was enough to make the air pressure around the forest curve downward.

"You two, do not get too excited," Sylvia commanded her two dragons through telepathy while smoothing the sleeve of her gown. "Do not destroy the good monster crystal cores. I want the heart parts still intact for cooking ingredients."

"Understood, Master," Sol and Noir answered simultaneously through the mind with resigned tones. As great dragons that crossed dimensions, their fate in the hands of the Queen of Death had truly shifted from rulers of catastrophe into ’personal hunting chefs.’

Sylvia stepped into the dense Forest of Death. Every time she took a step, a tiny fragment of her Authority of Death spread around her, clearing the toxic mist and wild miasma that blocked her path.

It did not take long for them to find the source of the monsters’ unrest in that forest.

In an open valley in the middle of the forest, dozens of high-rank mutant monsters including three Rank 6 Iron-Armored Grizzlies and one Peak Rank 7 Shadow Panther Alpha were gathered in a state of panic. Those house-sized fierce creatures crowded against one another, growling low toward the ground, as if they were trying to distance themselves from something terrifying at the center of the forest.

When the shadows of Sylvia, Sol, and Noir entered that open valley, the Peak Rank 7 Shadow Panther Alpha which had previously been the most terrifying nightmare for border hunters suddenly turned around.

The glowing red eyes of the alpha panther widened in horror. It stared at the figure of Sylvia standing in front of the two gigantic dragons. Its animal instincts screamed hysterically, realizing that what stood before it was not prey, but the absolute embodiment of death itself.

Grrr... rrr... huff...

The Shadow Panther lowered its body to the ground, crawling backward with violent trembling. It did not even intend to pounce or roar in challenge. Fear crushed all of its courage.

Sylvia stopped walking. She regarded the Shadow Panther Alpha with an evaluating gaze, then smiled thinly.

"Your size is quite large. The meat of the thigh part seems tender enough to be grilled with spicy spices," Sylvia said softly, her voice sounding like a death sentence to the monster.

Without raising her hand or chanting any spell, Sylvia merely gazed straight into the eyes of that Shadow Panther Alpha.

Through her True Sight, the thick, dull-black life-fate thread of the monster was clearly visible pulsing in the air. Sylvia raised her index finger, then made a motion as if she were severing a thin thread.

Kring!

An invisible snapping sound rang in the air.

In the blink of an eye, the life-fate thread of the Peak Rank 7 Shadow Panther Alpha was cleanly severed. All the muscles in the monster’s body instantly went limp. Its glowing red eyes dimmed, losing the light of life, and its gigantic body collapsed onto the forest ground with a heavy thud. It died instantly without a single drop of blood leaving its body.

Seeing their strongest leader die in a single blink of an eye without any resistance, the dozens of Rank 6 mutant monsters around it immediately lost the remainder of their sanity. They scattered in panic in every direction, trying to save their lives from the presence of the Queen of Death.

"Where do you think you’re running?" Sylvia smiled in amusement. She lightly waved her hand in the air, calling dozens of invisible black threads from the tips of her fingers.

On that day inside the dense Forest of Death, a very clean and efficient cleansing took place. There was no great battle, no ear-splitting monster roars, and no massive environmental damage. There were only a series of elegant finger movements from Sylvia, plucking one by one the life-fate threads of the forest’s ruling monsters.

In less than one hour, all potential threats in the Forest of Death from Rank 5 monsters to Alpha Rank 7 had been completely cleaned by Sylvia. Hundreds of high-quality Mutant Beast Cores fell onto the forest ground, radiating pure energy glows that were automatically absorbed into Sylvia’s System Inventory.

Sol and Noir, who were tasked as ’monster-meat shopping-basket carriers,’ could only sigh in resignation while using their gigantic claws to gather the best meat parts according to their master’s request.

"Master," Noir complained through telepathy in a desperate tone while lifting a gigantic mutant wild boar on its fangs, "we are dragons that rule cosmic abysses... why has our task now become similar to that of a butcher in a border market?"

"Be quiet and carry that meat properly, Noir," Sylvia replied in a cheerful tone. "If the cooking tastes good tonight, I will give you an extra portion of snow-berry syrup."

Hearing the words ’snow-berry syrup,’ the eyes of the gigantic black dragon immediately sparkled with happiness, forgetting all of its complaints in an instant.

Back in Falling Star City, when Sylvia and her two dragons returned toward evening carrying thousands of high-quality Mutant Beast Cores as well as a mountain-sized supply of fresh monster meat inside her System Inventory, Zhaoyue who welcomed them at the city gate could only shake her head in amazement.

In less than a single day, the Forest of Death that for decades had been the most terrifying nightmare for the entire border military of Tianhua had now transformed into a ’backyard garden’ providing food ingredients and resources for Sylvia and Princess Zhaoyue.