Chapter 1552: Livestock?

"Then... should we go and take a look?" another knight asked tentatively. "If the secret of the Red Star is truly hidden in there, could it help us avoid the Red Star in the future?"

"But isn't that too dangerous?"

"Hmm... indeed, after all, we have many residents here. What if something goes wrong?"

"Any place related to the Red Star doesn't seem simple."

“……”

After discussing for a while, everyone turned their eyes toward Lord Wuji. After all, the Eternal Domain had only one absolute leader; whether to go or not was up to him.

Lord Wuji had remained silent throughout, his brows furrowed in deep thought.

The knight was right; if he were alone, he would have gone to investigate the nature of that chaos regardless of the risk. It was related to the Red Star and was suspected to be the greatest secret of the Abyss of Mockery—a hidden region that even the Nine Lords had never set foot in.

Furthermore, the Eternal Domain was, in a sense, a superweapon. With Lord Wuji here, his combat power could rival a World-Ending Calamity without falling behind; he had almost no rivals left in this era.

But the problem was that there were many Wuji residents here... without knowing the level of danger inside, entering would always be a gamble.

"Actually, it might not be dangerous, right? Didn't those calamities from the Abyss of Mockery go in? With Lord Wuji here, we are far stronger than them." A knight had a sudden thought and spoke up again.

"That also makes sense..."

The group's opinions shifted again. They were like two little figures standing on Lord Wuji's shoulders—one saying to go in and look, the other saying to play it safe—making Lord Wuji feel annoyed.

"Enough." He interrupted their discussion.

"We will approach it first. If there is any real danger, we can just leave immediately."

With Lord Wuji’s command, the knights naturally had no objections. As a low, deep rumble echoed from beneath the Eternal Domain, this massive floating fortress began to rotate, inch by inch, toward the direction of the Embers of Civilization...

At the same time, Lord Wuji added, unhurriedly:

"This region is behind the Abyss of Mockery... Since that is the case, that person must know the truth about this place..."

"I will go and ask him. Perhaps, I will find the answer."

……

Knock, knock, knock—

"Xiao Chen, get up for breakfast," the woman’s voice called from outside the door.

"Hmph, don't you know what this brat is like? Will he get up for breakfast? It'll be a miracle if he doesn't sleep until noon..."

"I'm just worried he's hungry... You're the one to talk, you beat him so late last night, you stayed up too."

"Fine, fine, let him sleep a bit more. Let's just have our breakfast..."

Creak—

Just as the woman turned to leave, the sound of the door being pushed open came from behind her.

The boy had already dressed early and walked straight out of the bedroom, rubbing his stomach as he said, "Dad, Mom, good morning... I happen to be a bit hungry, let's eat together."

The entire living room fell into dead silence.

The middle-aged man, who had just sat down at the dining table, stared at his "rebellious son" who had already finished washing up, his mouth hanging open in shock...

The woman looked toward the boy’s bedroom, only to see that the quilt and pillows on the bed were folded neatly, and the Gomoku set they had bought him years ago had been taken out and placed on the table, looking as if it had been played for a long time...

"Xiao Chen, you... you got up so early today?"

"It's not that early, just past six."

"Past six??"

"Couldn't sleep, so I got up and played a few games."

The boy didn't sit down carelessly as usual to wait for his mother to serve him food; instead, he walked straight into the kitchen, scooped himself a bowl of porridge, and even grabbed three pairs of chopsticks on the way...

Then he sat down at the table and began his breakfast, unhurriedly.

The man sitting opposite him had a look on his face as if he’d seen a ghost.

"Uh... Xiao Chen, Dad hit you too hard last night... but... Dad did it for your own good..." The man hesitated, thinking that his beating last night might have given the child some kind of psychological trauma.

"It's okay, Dad, I understand," the boy replied without looking up, casually picking up some pickled vegetables with his chopsticks and placing them in his father's bowl.

The man’s voice cut off abruptly.

He stared at the few strands of pickled vegetables floating in his bowl, his mind blank... Was he dreaming? That rebellious brat who did nothing but cause trouble was actually serving him food? He had only ever seen such a scene of filial piety in his dreams.

Did he actually beat the kid stupid?

The woman beside him walked over, pinched the man hard under the table, and glared at him.

That look seemed to say: You beat him so hard yesterday, look at what you've driven Xiao Chen to now!

"Go fry me another egg, I want to have a good talk with my son." The man felt the pain but couldn't show it, giving the woman a look that said, "I'm going to see what's going on."

The woman glared at him again but turned and walked toward the kitchen.

The man turned his head with a chuckle:

"Xiao Chen..."

"Dad, tell me... what is the meaning of life, really?"

“？？？？”

Clatter—

The crisp sound of a spatula hitting the floor came from the kitchen.

The woman turned around, trembling, her face deathly pale...

"Look, the Eternal Domain is very strange, isn't it?" the boy asked earnestly. "There is no work here, no need for professions. Everyone just needs to follow the rules to get endless resources... But does a life like this really have meaning?"

The man was stunned for a long time. He found it strange that his son would ask such a question today, but looking into those eyes, which were serious in a way he had never seen before, he thought for a moment and replied:

"What's wrong with that? Xiao Chen, have you forgotten how hard we lived in the Xuanyu Domain before coming to the Eternal Domain?"

"I just feel that life shouldn't be like this... Perhaps we need work to prove our own significance."

"Work? No, Lord Wuji has strictly forbidden it. No working." The man shook his head. "Those who tried to argue against this rule and arrange jobs have all been thrown into the dungeon... Xiao Chen, you can say things like this at home, but don't you dare say them outside."

"The dungeon..."

The boy frowned slightly.

Deep in the thoughts that his parents couldn't see, behind the boy, Chen Ling, draped in theatrical robes, narrowed his eyes...

So that’s how it is.

Without work, there are no professions. Combined with the fact that the residents of the Eternal Domain are all refugees from the Xuanyu Domain with no cultural foundation or heritage, the probability of "God-Favored Ones" appearing in the Eternal Domain is drastically reduced...

Is Lord Wuji trying to control the frequency of God-Favored Ones appearing in this way to facilitate "fair" management?