Chapter 903: The Legend of Sunborne

The hallways of the Council Mountain were mostly decorated with reliefs depicting major historical events of the continent, and Tang San observed them with interest.

After passing through several corridors and walking nearly a kilometer, a pair of massive stone doors appeared before Tang San.

The two doors were five meters tall. The left door was intricately carved with the vibrant image of the Scorching Sunflower—a sunflower plant with nine large blooms. The right door depicted a single grand sun, towering high above.

The Scorching Sunflower Nymph King whispered, "Each Emperor has their own private residence within the Council Mountain. Although most of the time they reside in their own palaces, they occasionally stay here."

It was clear the Scorching Sunflower Nymph King was trying to be friendly, so Tang San nodded and responded politely, "I see, thank you."

There was no doubt that behind these doors lay the residence of the Sun-Nurtured Sunborne Nymph Emperor within the Ancestral Court. This Emperor was the subject of many legends across the Daemon Continent.

According to legend, when the Sunborne Nymph Emperor was born, he was considered a defective product. Yes, that was the exact term: "defective product."

Plant-type nymph clans dedicated plenty of effort to breeding stronger offspring. They used various methods like hybridization and cross-pollination, attempting to enhance their bloodlines by combining the strongest traits. Most of these clans followed this practice; the Blue Gold Tree clan was a rare exception. Due to the presence of the Ancestral Tree, their bloodline was already strong enough, and they saw no need to mix it with others. Unlike most other plant bloodlines, the Ancestral Tree's bloodline was exclusive, and maintaining the purity of its life force was paramount.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The Sunborne Nymph Emperor was a "new breed" developed by the Scorching Sunflower clan, but at the time of his birth, it appeared as if the experiment had failed. The new Scorching Sunflower was not only severely lacking in terms of bloodline power, but also far weaker physically than a normal Scorching Sunflower, with a high risk of dying prematurely.

Newborn seedlings were barely sentient and required a long period of nurturing. Only when their life force reached a certain threshold could they gain true intelligence and be considered actual nymphs. The Sunborne Nymph Emperor was left in the Scorching Sunflower clan's ancestral land to receive the same nurturing as the other seedlings. However, due to his inherent weakness, he could only remain at the edges, unable to truly bask in the sunlight that nourished his peers.

Days turned into years. Generation after generation of Scorching Sunflowers were cultivated. Due to the inherent strength of their clan, a typical Scorching Sunflower could reach maturity and become a true nymph within ten years—an extremely fast pace for a plant-type nymph. After gaining sentience, they would leave the ancestral land and continue cultivating to strengthen themselves.

A notable difference between demons and nymphs was the baseline cultivation. For instance, Scorching Sunflowers would reach the sixth order at maturity. Meanwhile, the highest-tier demon clans often started at the seventh or eighth order

at birth

, and in the case of the dragon and phoenix races, some were even born at the ninth order. On the other hand, in the case of nymphs, a sixth-order cultivation upon reaching adulthood was more or less the upper limit. However, the growth rate of nymphs actually kept up in the later stages of life, while demons' cultivation speed decreased rather dramatically.

As for the Sunborne Nymph Emperor... Twenty years passed without him showing any signs of reaching maturity. The clan members responsible for nurturing him eventually gave up. Since he was already left in a corner, no one paid any attention to him, letting him grow slowly on his own.

The standard in the Scorching Sunflower clan for seedlings being considered true nymphs was the blooming of nine flowers. Upon awakening from their vegetative sleep, they would have true intelligence and could manage things on their own. But the Sunborne Nymph Emperor only ever produced a single flower; he couldn't grow a second one. Over time, he became more of a background fixture in the Scorching Sunflower clan's ancestral grounds. As he produced no more flowers, the clan believed he would never gain intelligence.

But that lone Scorching Sunflower continued to grow over the years, becoming larger and larger.

A hundred years passed, and the Sunborne Nymph Emperor remained in the corner, growing slowly. By then, his single flower had become more than ten times larger than a normal one, and it was continuously absorbing sunlight and radiating Sunfire.

It wasn't until the Scorching Sunflower Nymph Emperor of that generation paid a visit to the ancestral grounds that the strange flower was noticed. Curious, the Emperor approached to assess the energy within this mutated flower.

But before the Emperor could touch it, the golden flower suddenly erupted with brilliance as intense as the sun, and the Emperor was immediately devoured. Yes, the Scorching Sunflower Nymph Emperor was eaten in one gulp, like a fly landing on a carnivorous plant.

It was said that before Jin Miaolin and the Ancestral Tree's recent feat, no Emperors had been slain since times immemorial—this was quite literally true, as only a handful of people alive remembered the last time it had happened. Only a few Emperors were alive two thousand years ago, when the Scorching Sunflower Nymph Emperor was devoured by a member of its own clan.

At that time, the Scorching Sunflower Emperor was by no stretch the strongest, but it was nevertheless an Emperor! Who could have imagined that an Emperor would suddenly become nourishment for a lesser being?

The Sunborne Nymph Emperor gained sentience at that moment, though he was not even aware that he had devoured the Scorching Sunflower Nymph Emperor, much less how or why. The devouring was so complete that even the Emperor's divine consciousness was consumed, and its throne was inherited immediately. Thus, the Sunborne Nymph Emperor became the only Emperor in history to ascend without the usual path, gaining the throne through devouring another Emperor.

The death of the Scorching Sunflower Nymph Emperor was instantly sensed by every powerful being and it came as a massive shock to the entire continent. As for the Scorching Sunflower clan, they were in utter chaos. But just a few moments later, a brilliant light shot up into the sky, scattering the clouds that had formed and transforming into a great sun that illuminated the world.

The Sunborne Nymph Emperor was born!

Upon evolution, the Sunborne Nymph Emperor possessed perfect intelligence, having absorbed the divine consciousness of the former Scorching Sunflower Emperor. Naturally, he immediately understood what was going on and where he stood.

A hundred years was a long time for anyone, whether demon or nymph, but in terms of ascending to Emperorhood, it was relatively short. More remarkable still, this new Emperor was not even an intelligent being at the moment of his ascension. This made the Sunborne Nymph Emperor an eternal legend.

The method by which the Sunborne Nymph Emperor had appeared into the world became a taboo within the Scorching Sunflower clan, sealed away forever. After all, no one wanted to be devoured by another. The Sunborne Nymph Emperor himself also remained silent about the specifics, and since he was the most powerful Nymph Emperor, no one had the standing to question him. And while the bloodline improvement efforts of the Scorching Sunflower clan only redoubled after he appeared, neither seedlings born from his own bloodline nor any other seedlings ever became anything special.

Tang San was now about to meet such a legendary figure. Along with wariness, there was a strong sense of curiosity. From what Tang San knew, despite being the Solstice Empire's strongest and true ruler, the Sunborne Nymph Emperor rarely involved himself even in his own country's day-to-day affairs, let alone in power struggles with the Empyrean Dominion. Yet this powerful and detached figure was now requesting a meeting. Certainly, it could be because the Ancestral Court's Council had decided to give the Blue Gold Tree clan a grand welcome, but... was that really the only reason?

The massive stone doors slowly opened, and the Scorching Sunflower Nymph King stood outside, gesturing for Tang San to enter. However, the Nymph King had no intention of following him inside.

Tang San stepped inside, entering a vast hall.

The hall had a ceiling over ten meters high and spanned more than five hundred square meters, appearing very spacious. The surrounding walls featured windows that allowed in sunlight, though they were clearly at the very center of a mountain. After observing them for a moment, Tang San realized each window was actually not a sheet of glass but a spatial portal!

Damn, these Emperors sure know how to be extravagant.

To the right of the hall was an elegant wooden desk, and the wall behind it was lined with bookshelves, holding a variety of books. On the opposite side were two sets of luxurious sofas, embroidered with images of sunflowers on white leather.

Behind the desk sat a figure who, at least on the surface, appeared indistinguishable from a human.