Cultivation Online

“I… devoured everyone in the City of Blood…?” Supreme Ruler Dena muttered in a voice of disbelief.

“Hmm?” Grand Abyssal Elder raised his eyebrows after hearing her mumbling.

Since Supreme Ruler Dena was still in her disguise, he had no way of knowing of her true identity.

Seeing how depressed she looked, Yuan placed a hand on her head and said, “I’m sure there’s a good explanation for it. Like it was caused by that curse. So, you don’t need to feel too guilty about it.”

“But it won’t change the fact that I devoured them…” she sighed.

“Wait… what are you two…?”

Yuan looked at the Grand Abyssal Elder and revealed, “Oh, I forgot to mention. She’s Supreme Ruler Dena.”

“She’s—?!”

The Grand Abyssal Elder jumped from his seat again and kissed the wall with his back.

Seeing his reaction, Yuan smiled and assured him, “Don’t worry, she won’t devour you.”

“…”

The Grand Abyssal Elder’s mouth was agape with shock and disbelief. He couldn’t believe that two of the worst murders in history were currently inside his room at this moment.

His gaze shifted to Lev, silently wondering about his identity.

Noticing that the Grand Abyssal Elder’s gaze on him, Lev smiled and said, “You don’t have to worry. I am just a nobody.”

Of course, his reassurance didn’t calm the Grand Abyssal Elder even in the slightest.

09:11

Yuan then asked, “When did it happen? When did she devour the entire city?”

“It happened shortly after she returned from her trip to the Boundless Expanse.” Grand Abyssal Elder said.

“So it happened after she devoured the Eternal…” Yuan rubbed his eyes and sighed.

The Grand Abyssal Elder continued, his tone growing more solemn, “When she returned from her trip, a troubling rumor began to spread. They said something had changed within her—that she was barely responsive, often lost in a daze.”

“Once the rumor became widespread, people began to worry that she might have turned into a Forsaken.”

“Then, a few years later, the entire population of the City of Blood vanished overnight, with ‘her’ being the only presence left. With that, people could only come to a single conclusion—that she’d devoured everyone.”

Yuan raised his eyebrows at this new information and said, “Wait… so nobody actually witnessed Dena devouring the people?”

The Grand Abyssal Elder shook his head.

“No, but there is no other logical explanation for why everyone in the city vanished, as only she had the capability to erase such a massive population overnight without anyone noticing.”

Yuan fell silent to ponder.

Since Supreme Ruler Dena had been under the curse’s influence—unconsciously devouring demons within the Deprived Crimson Valley—it wouldn’t be far-fetched to assume she had done the same to the people of the City of Blood.

However, something about the situation didn’t sit right with Yuan.

‘If she had only just returned after consuming the Eternal, would it have truly developed into a curse so quickly—enough for her to devour an entire city?’

‘No… the Eternal didn’t become a curse until after she was exiled to the Deprived Crimson Valley. So that likely wasn’t the cause.’

‘In that case… what could have driven Dena to devour an entire city… assuming she was even responsible to begin with?’ ‘Moreover, if the curse was really responsible, nobody would’ve been able to stop it, much less toss her into the Deprived Crimson Valley.’ Yuan pondered inwardly.

After all, he was only able to wake up Supreme Ruler Dena because he wielded Eternal Essence. Had it been anyone else, they would’ve been devoured long before they could even get close to her.

The more he thought about it, the less convinced he was that Supreme Ruler Dena was responsible for the disappearance of the people of the City of Blood.

“I don’t believe Dena is responsible,” he announced some time later.

“Based on what evidence?” Grand Abyssal Elder inquired with intrigue.

“I have no evidence, just as there’s no solid evidence that Dena is responsible. It’s my gut feeling,” he calmly replied.

“I’m glad you trust me so much, but it won’t change the fact that everyone in the City of Blood had vanished without a trace, and I don’t have any recollection of anything that happened after I consumed that crystal,” Supreme Ruler Dena sighed. “Most importantly, the people of this world believe that I have done it.”

“…”

Yuan then asked the Grand Abyssal Elder, “Do you have any more information on the subject? Any detail related is fine, too.”

“Hmm… give me a moment to think about it.”

A minute later, the Grand Abyssal Elder said, “Well, the one who discovered the incident first was the Supreme Adviser at the time, who also became the 10th Supreme Ruler after replacing her.”

“The Supreme Adviser?” Yuan mumbled.

The Supreme Adviser was a position that was only below Supreme Ruler Dena. “He was also the first to accuse her of devouring the people of the city.” the Grand Abyssal Elder added.

Yuan glanced at Supreme Ruler Dena and said, “I don’t remember much about the Supreme Adviser, but I do recall disliking him. He always struck me as… ambitious—and not in a good way.”

“Because he was,” Supreme Ruler Dena replied calmly. “He often spoke of surpassing me one day, even in my presence. Personally, I found it rather amusing.”

Yuan turned to the Grand Abyssal Elder and asked, “What became of the Supreme Adviser? Who succeeded him? And which generation of Supreme Ruler are we currently on?”

“The current Supreme Ruler is the 14th. As for the 10th Supreme Ruler… he actually disappeared after only just a few thousand years of being in power. Nobody knows where he went, nor have we heard or seen from him since then.”

“He disappeared?” Yuan wore a suspicious expression on his face.

A few thousand years in the Demonic Realm was akin to a few months to humans in the Nine Heavens. For the Supreme Adviser to disappear so shortly after becoming the Supreme Ruler was simply too suspicious no matter how he looked at it.