"What's going on?"
Inside the palace of the Divine Wind Dynasty, Baier frowned deeply.
He wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but in recent years, he felt his cultivation wasn't as smooth as before.
Logically, he had already instructed the people of the Divine Wind Dynasty to reproduce more, and Baier was confident that no one in the dynasty would dare to disobey his orders.
This way, even with some losses from external wars, the newly born children over the years would have already grown. With the inflow and outflow, there should be no impact on him.
However, Baier felt that the mental energy he had absorbed in recent years had not only decreased in quantity but also lacked the previous smoothness, significantly reducing its bonus to his cultivation.
Could it be that too many soldiers had died in the external wars?
After this thought flashed through his mind, Baier shook his head, no longer bothering with it. He closed his eyes and continued his cultivation.
As long as it didn't greatly affect his cultivation, what did the number of deaths matter?
It would recover in a few years or decades.
Although they had established a divine dynasty, Baier and the others who came from the Magic Universe were not the type of people who would manage a force.
Whether it was the Four Great Rule Sovereigns, the Four Divine Beast Lord Gods, or Tina, even their own Sovereign Legions, if they weren't required to participate in the Plane War to maintain the number of gods, they would have been too lazy to form them.
The subordinate forces were all spontaneously gathered behind them by those who wanted their protection.
These people needed their powerful strength to protect themselves, and they, in turn, needed a large number of humans to provide them with mental energy.
Thus, they didn't need to manage the dynasty themselves, but their absolute strength still ensured the entire dynasty operated according to their will.
In Baier's opinion, it was just a few more soldiers who died while expanding outwards; they weren't worth his personal attention.
Instead of dwelling on the deaths of these people, it was better to collect more mental energy and cultivate for a longer time.
It was precisely because of this that Baier missed the opportunity to completely eliminate Theresia before she could make her move.
And after decades of spreading, the cultivation theories and the name of the Divine Wind Dynasty's Theresia had begun to gradually spread throughout the Divine Wind Dynasty, greatly shaking the purity of Baier's faith.
This was why Baier felt that the mental energy he absorbed was slightly impure.
After all, everyone was questioning Lord Baier; how could their faith remain pure?
Thus, while Baier believed the problem with the faith he absorbed was due to the excessive deaths of soldiers during outward expansion, Theresia's reputation began to spread within the Divine Wind Dynasty.
...
Fifty years later, in the Divine Wind Dynasty.
Baier awoke from his cultivation state, his expression displeased.
"Wickliffe, come to the Divine Wind Palace to see me."
His powerful Spiritual Sense spread out, and Baier instantly found the person he was looking for, transmitting his voice through Spiritual Sense.
Soon, a figure radiating green light flew into Baier's palace.
"Wickliffe, greetings, Lord Baier."
Wickliffe was the strongest under Baier's command, now possessing Emperor level strength.
The Divine Wind Dynasty was basically managed by Wickliffe's family.
Yes, if Baier was the supreme god of the Divine Wind Dynasty, then the Wickliffe family could be considered the true administrators of the Divine Wind Dynasty.
However, because Baier claimed the title of Divine Wind Emperor, they dared not proclaim themselves "Emperor."
"Wickliffe, has anything happened in the Divine Wind Dynasty recently?"
"Ah?"
Wickliffe was stunned for a moment and asked confusedly, "Your Majesty, there are no problems in the dynasty."
"No problems?"
Baier raised an eyebrow.
"Boom!"
A powerful pressure emanated from Baier, directly forcing Wickliffe to his knees on the ground.
"Bang!"
Wickliffe's forehead hit the ground, and endless fear surged from his heart. Large drops of cold sweat slid down Wickliffe's face.
What was wrong with Lord Baier?
"Lord Baier..."
Wickliffe trembled, his voice hoarse with fear, "Lord Baier, I have followed you for over twenty thousand years, always doing my utmost to serve you, never daring to have the slightest intention of overstepping. I beg Lord Baier to see clearly."
At this moment, Wickliffe still thought that some subordinate of the Divine Wind Dynasty had slandered him to Baier, causing Baier to become suspicious of the Wickliffe family.
As a subordinate who had accompanied Baier for nearly twenty thousand years, Wickliffe knew Baier's true nature well. He was arrogant, self-important, and stubborn. If he handled the situation improperly, he would likely be killed immediately.
But his arrogance and self-importance also made Baier extremely self-centered. Whatever he decided, even if he knew it was wrong, he would never change it.
No matter what mistake Wickliffe made, he was the administrator personally appointed by Baier. If someone bypassed Wickliffe to report to Baier, Baier would consider it more carefully because he was personally chosen by him.
Therefore, Wickliffe resorted to appealing to their long-standing relationship, hoping to buy himself some breathing room.
Unfortunately, Wickliffe was mistaken this time.
Baier's anger wasn't because someone had slandered him.
Even if someone had, as long as Baier could continuously receive a large amount of mental power believing him to be invincible and the strongest, to aid his cultivation, what did it matter if the entire Divine Wind Dynasty was turned into a demon den by Wickliffe?
Conversely, if he couldn't obtain enough pure mental power, even if Wickliffe governed the Divine Wind Dynasty perfectly, what concern would that be of Baier?
As expected, after hearing Wickliffe's words, Baier became even more furious.
"Boom!"
Baier flicked his sleeve, and Wickliffe was struck by a powerful force. His chest and everything below it instantly turned into a bloody mist, while his head and half of his neck landed on the ground, rolling.
"Ah..."
Severely wounded, Wickliffe let out a half-hearted scream before falling silent, fearing his cries might displease Baier.
"Lord Baier, please calm your anger. It is truly that Wickliffe has somehow offended you. I implore Lord Baier to state it clearly, so that even if Wickliffe dies by your hand, he will die with understanding."
Unlike in the Magic Universe, where God-level experts could connect to the elemental ocean and draw divine power to repair their bodies.
In the Starry Sky Universe, there was no elemental ocean. The power within a cultivator's body was the result of them absorbing the laws they understood into their bodies and refining them, essentially condensed forms of laws that could perfectly manifest the characteristics of those laws.
Of course, as a power equivalent to divine power, the power of laws naturally possessed the ability to restore the body.
However, firstly, the power of laws in the Starry Sky Universe required cultivators to refine it themselves, and the speed of recovery was tied to their level of understanding of the laws.
For someone like Wickliffe, whose body was shattered by more than half, a complete recovery would consume at least eighty percent of his power of laws.
Secondly, the one who shattered more than half of Wickliffe's body was Lord Baier.
Wickliffe feared that if he had just recovered, and Lord Baier felt displeased and struck him again, wouldn't he be doomed?
Therefore, Wickliffe didn't even dare to stop the bleeding. He pitifully tried to evoke sympathy from Lord Baier.
However, Baier paid no attention to Wickliffe's plea.
Instead, he frowned at the ground stained with Wickliffe's blood.
Seeing this, Wickliffe's heart skipped a beat.
Damn, I forgot Lord Baier likes things tidy and clean. This ground is now dirtied by my blood. What good will come to me later?
Without further hesitation, Wickliffe no longer dared to beg for sympathy. He directly consumed a large amount of his power of laws to restore his body, then quickly gathered a green light, completely cleaning up the blood he had spilled in the palace. Finally, he knelt before Baier again, not daring to breathe.
"Hmph!"
Seeing this, Baier's brow relaxed slightly, and his annoyance diminished somewhat.
"So you know why you're dying."
"I asked you if anything major had happened in the Divine Wind Dynasty, and what did you say?"
"You replied that nothing had happened in the Divine Wind Dynasty."
"But if nothing happened, why is the mental power of the Divine Wind Dynasty less than half of what it was before? And why is the intent so mixed, not only not helping my cultivation, but even hindering it?"
"Is this what you call nothing happening?"
"What? Such a thing exists?"
Upon hearing Baier's words, Wickliffe nearly died of fright.
Instantly, he moved his mind and sensed the vast mental power around him. Under its influence, he discovered that the mental intent, which was once incredibly smooth, was now extremely chaotic. Not only could it not assist his cultivation, but it even suppressed Wickliffe's own understanding of laws.
"What... what is going on?"
Wickliffe was flustered and completely stunned.
Because Baier had ascended to Emperor too early, the Wind Element Law recorded by the Heavenly Dao was shallow. This caused cultivators of the Wind Element to feel like there was no path forward and no way to cultivate once they reached the Emperor level. Even with the assistance of a large amount of mental power, Emperor-level cultivators with slightly weaker talent and comprehension felt that they would be stuck at this level for their entire lives.
Wickliffe was one of them. Since he felt no progress, he hadn't cultivated for nearly twenty thousand years, focusing entirely on developing the Divine Wind Dynasty.
He never expected such a major error to occur.
"Lord Baier, this, this..."
"Hmph!"
Seeing Wickliffe like this, Baier knew that for Wickliffe, who hadn't used mental power to assist his cultivation for a long time, it was indeed difficult to detect the contamination of the mental power.
This could be considered a side effect of him seizing the Wind Element Dao Fruit.
However, regardless of the reason, Wickliffe's mistake was unforgivable.
"Wickliffe, I give you one month to find the reason for the mixed mental power, and ten years to completely resolve the issue of the mixed mental power."
"If you can do this, I can spare your family and only punish you."
"Otherwise, the Divine Wind Empire will have to find a new ruler!"
With that, Baier glared, and Wickliffe, who had only recently recovered his body, was directly blasted out of Baier's palace, leaving trails of blood along the way.
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