The Emperor’s Angel of Death

In Ricas's memory, the earth usually began to awaken during the White Sands, but this morning it had become restless, which seemed to foreshadow an unusual day.

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"You must remember, His teachings are the most beautiful notes, His footsteps are the most exciting drums."

Ricas clasped his hands together, standing with his head bowed behind the chanter. Beneath his feet was soft yellow sand, and in front, behind, to the left, and to the right, was the boundless sea of sand. The air was scorching hot from the sun, and the searing heat tried every means to penetrate the defense of his light yellow robe and invade his pores.

He couldn't concentrate. It was too hot here, with sand hot enough to scorch skin under his feet. Besides the sound of the wind, all he could hear was his mentor's steady chanting.

The chanter, wearing a white robe and a white turban, spread a piece of white cloth on the sand, then knelt down, facing the direction of the rising sun, bowing while chanting. Behind him, besides the "little chanter" Ricas, were more than a hundred people from the caravan, but they didn't have mats. The only thing that could separate them from the scorching sand was their robes.

No one knew the chanter's real name, neither the servant who cleaned his tent nor his disciples, because once someone became a servant of the Sun Emperor, people could only call that person "Chanter," and the most prestigious, those who reached the age of 80, would be called Great Chanter.

Ricas began studying with the chanter at the age of 6. Now, at 15, he was not too young, with gray-white short hair, hands with protruding veins, a physique that was considered strong and a steady chanting voice compared to his peers.

Although he had read the chanted chapters countless times, Ricas still didn't truly understand them, because their meaning was indeed obscure, and the language of the chant was very different from the language of his tribe. As a 15-year-old boy, he could only understand the most superficial meaning—He is the master of all, the master of the stars and the sky. He is the eternally burning two-headed eagle, and only by being completely loyal to Him can one avoid the demons in the dark night from invading one's soul, and only then can one ascend to a paradise full of sweet milk and oases after death.

Of course, Ricas wasn't without his questions. Sometimes he wondered what was above the stars? What was beyond paradise? Was the bloody battle between angels and demons described in the Sun Sutra real?

And his mentor never explained his doubts, even telling him not to think about it.

"Just memorize it."

One of the most important criteria for becoming a chanter was the ability to recite an entire thick book of the Sun Sutra. This was not only the only classic of the Order, but also the faith, and it also contained the laws and lifestyles that people must abide by. It could be said that the Sun Sutra was the foundation of the Ata civilization.

Soon, the morning lesson ended, and the caravan became busy again. They had to reach the next hiding place before the sun was directly overhead, otherwise the Sun Emperor's anger would turn them all into dried corpses in the sea of sand.

This was the world Ricas was in. Everyone, from the day they were born, had to accept the harsh test of the sun.

Just as the chanter taught, He was never a merciful master.

His people called their world Ata, which translated to a somewhat vulgar term—Sand Boat.

Before Ricas began to be a little chanter, he didn't even know what "sweet dew" was. His mentor explained that it was the Sun Emperor's greatest mercy, that is, precious water would fall from the sky, and the last time sweet dew appeared was said to be two thousand years ago.

At least as far as Ricas knew and had seen, their world was only desert, barren mountains, and the daytime temperature was enough to kill people, and the night's cold was extremely deadly. Under these circumstances, there shouldn't be any life at all.

However, people are always tenacious. How the earliest ancestors survived was long gone history, and the caves carved into the rolling mountains were the oldest civilization ruins in this world. In this world scorched by the scorching sun, there was still a small world sufficient for life to live in. The ancestors kept digging down and finally found an underground river said to have originated in the far north. They called it the Worm River, because in ancient myths, this underground river was carved out by a huge underground worm.

In fact, in Ricas's view, the unbelievably smooth underground passage didn't look like it could be carved out by a worm at all. He even noticed the spiral-shaped marks that had almost been erased by time.

But anyway, this underground river nurtured the life of this arid world and also built the world's sparse civilization.

Due to the complexity and darkness of the underground world, and the huge drop in the underground river due to the terrain, this world did not form a unified country in the general sense. Most civilizations existed in the form of tribes and small city-states. Their residences were often built in the temperate zones of the northern and southern hemispheres, away from the equator and the poles, and most were built around the huge underground caves in the desert, or even directly built complex semi-underground cities along the giant mouth-like caves. This way, they could enjoy the sunlight and plant their most needed staple crop, the breadfruit tree, and easily draw water from the deep underground.

Although the terrain and climate caused most settlements to be isolated, with the successful domestication of a large drought-resistant pack animal called the Sand Haan beast more than a thousand years ago, long-distance trade became possible, and thus large and small caravans were born.

With the rise of caravans came the Sun Order. The Sand Haan beast was one of the gifts brought by these messengers said to be from the stars. They brought not only the Sun Sutra, but also the civilization of this world, which enabled the golden two-headed eagle symbol to be quickly established in most tribes and city-states of the Ata world.

Well, of course, coming from the stars is just a legend. The earliest missionaries of the Order have long become withered bones in tombs. Where they came from may forever be a mystery.

Anyway, Ricas didn't know, and he didn't plan to provoke his mentor, after all, he was already this old and still not a chanter. If it wasn't for the sake of his dead father, his mentor might have already told him that he didn't have the talent for it. This time, following the caravan to Saga City, on the one hand, his mentor was attending an Order gathering, and on the other hand, it was for him to take one last chanting exam—the Sun Order has no hierarchy, chanters are equal in principle, and Great Chanters are just an honorary title. Their only power is to "wrap the head" and "transmit the book" to a chanter, that is, to grant the qualification of a formal chanter.

However, Ricas himself didn't have much confidence. If it didn't work this time, then the soon-to-be 16-year-old would have to take off his chanter's robe and go back to his hometown to find a living and marry a wife, but it might be a bit difficult for a loafer like him without parents.

Or he could become a city-state guard or a ranch bodyguard. Although he wasn't good at reciting, he was good at wielding weapons.

Soon, the entire temporary camp was boiling. The coolies were working hard to drag the Sand Haan beasts, which were taller than two people, covered in scales and coarse hair, with thick limbs, necks held high, and furry heads with flat hard beaks, out of the cave.