Chapter 609: Meteor Shower in the Depths of the Valley

When parting with Harkley and the others, Donald implanted a faint mental link in the Shield Guardian, allowing him to keep track of Harkley’s team at any time and prevent any accidents from happening to this adventurer group he had a high opinion of. After all, the Shield Guardian was an inanimate object; despite having a certain degree of intelligence, it still had to act according to its controller’s commands, without any flexibility. With Donald’s mental control now in place, any situation could be dealt with promptly!

Donald himself headed straight into the depths of the Withering Valley, determined to uncover its secrets.

The Ashen Forest was known as a dangerous place even demi-gods could not explore thoroughly, which was extremely unfavorable for his saintly avatar, which usually only possessed legendary strength and could only draw upon power borrowed from its true form in critical moments. If he had arrived using a believer’s body, he would not have ventured into such a dangerous area alone for exploration out of concern for safety!

But since Donald’s saintly avatar did not rely on a believer as a vessel, it could simply be created by the Book of Truth. With so many races available in the list of summoning altars, why use the body of a devout believer? After all, when a true god’s will descends into a mortal body, the degree of fusion can cause severe harm to the mortal. Even devout believers cannot sustain the true god’s will for long—only beings like holy spirits, who are already unified with the true god they worship, can accommodate it indefinitely, achieving a more powerful manifestation than ordinary avatars!

Generally, most true gods begin cultivating vessels for descent after becoming lower gods. These vessels often hold high status within the church, usually referred to as holy sons or daughters. They receive the strictest education from a young age and are trained to possess great strength. Their utterly devout faith and relative strength enable them to integrate the true god’s will and power effectively, bringing them close to the state of a holy spirit. They are the best vessels for true gods to descend through!

The avatar of the Goddess of Agriculture that Donald had seen before used this method.

Without such concerns, losing this avatar would not significantly affect his true form, which was why Donald could act so recklessly.

The deeper into the Withering Canyon they went, the more powerful and numerous the undead creatures Donald’s avatar encountered, including some species rarely seen in the main world. To avoid drawing attention from the even more formidable undead further in by revealing too much of his strength, Donald had to move as discreetly as possible. This slowed his progress, and after several hours, the Shield Guardians he sent had already safely escorted the group of adventurers led by Harkley out of the Ash Forest. By the time Donald returned alone to join them, he had only advanced about ten miles.

The undead paid little attention to these lifeless puppets, so the Shield Guardians could move faster than their master!

The Ash Forest covered hundreds of miles across the western part of the continent. Even such a vast forest was divided in two by the Withering Canyon, giving an idea of the canyon’s scale.

After regrouping with the Shield Guardians, Donald accelerated his pace significantly. By dawn the next day, he had traveled hundreds of miles, resolving any unavoidable battles along the way with brute force, aided by the Shield Guardians. Along the way, he also collected many rare magical plants. Though not particularly valuable to true gods, they were still valuable for nurturing in the future to serve the realm and the Natural Guardians Council.

They had now reached the core of the Withering Canyon. Ahead lay the territories of several powerful Golden Undead lords. From afar, Donald could sense the undisguised presence of those high-ranking Golden Undead. Even further away, there were even more powerful Legendary Undead!

Since Donald was only an avatar here and hadn’t brought any divine artifacts, carrying only a projection of Fury of Nature—whose power was roughly equivalent to that of a sub-divine artifact—it would deplete its strength after a few uses and vanish. With no other options, he decided to rely on brute force to deal with the situation.

Donald could sense at least five powerful presences ahead, mostly Legendary or higher-ranked undead. If he were surrounded, he would be at a severe disadvantage, even with the Shield Guardians as allies.

“It’s better to strike first to avoid getting into a tricky situation later!”

With that, under the protection of the Shield Guardians, Donald raised a long spear made of emerald-green light and threw it forward with all his might.

They saw a green meteor streak across the sky and land above the core of Withered Valley, where negative energy was thickest. It then suddenly erupted into a meteor shower that covered almost the entire core area of Withered Valley. That place was precisely where several of the most powerful forces converged! Wherever the green meteor shower fell, everything turned gray and faded away. The once desolate and withered landscape began to take on shades of green, and most of the corrupting and cold negative energy was dispelled. Roars filled with anger and despair could be heard, reaching the ears of all living beings within hundreds of miles at the soul level. What kind of sound was this? Even adventurers like Hakli’s team, who had just left the forest, heard it. “Captain! Look!” The young thief Nick called out to his leader, fear mixed with curiosity. Hearing this, they turned to look in the direction of Ash Forest and saw the remnants of the green meteor shower in the sky. After a while, Hakli regained his composure and said solemnly, “That sound indicated the presence of undead lords at least at the Gold rank, and there were more than one!” Scarred Jason also said gravely, “Are you saying that mage is fighting those undead lords?” “Exactly!” “Only those at the Gold rank or above could cause such a disturbance. Judging by the timing, it must be the time that mage arrived…” Nick said worriedly, “Could that mage be in danger?” Everyone had seen how the robed mage had taken care of them along the way and even escorted them to safety. Some things they hadn’t realized at the time became clear after leaving, so these four adventurers had a great deal of respect for the mysterious mage who had suddenly appeared! If Donald knew how much these four adventurers cared about him, he would surely feel that all his previous efforts had been worthwhile! “We’ve left Ash Forest. This is the path back to Wildhorse Town. How about we camp here for a few days to rest? Maybe that mage will need our help once he comes out.” “I agree!” Young Nick was the first to express his opinion. Hakli looked around at his companions and saw the same expression on their faces. Even the cold-faced female hunter nodded in agreement. So they immediately found a suitable spot to set up camp.