SUPREME ARCH-MAGUS - Chapter 1009: Beneath the Bunyan Tree

Chapter 1009: Beneath the Bunyan Tree

The streets of Red Silk City were once a haven of culture, renowned for its artisan markets and glowing night lanterns. But the scent of fear now lingered in the air, replacing incense with suspicion and steel.

On the fourth morning after the Royal parade, the city gates trembled under the arrival of armored riders bearing the crest of the Kai family’s Royal Division.

Clad in blackened crimson armor, their helms forged with dragon scale edges, they moved with brutal discipline. Each step they took sent a message: We are here to cleanse, not to ask. Don’t anyone dare hinder the royal soldiers.

At their center rode Lanxia, a woman wrapped in layered violet robes, her face veiled by silver thread, but her piercing aura enough to silence even the city’s loudest street criers. She was the second princess of the Kai Empire—and she had come not for diplomacy, but vengeance.

“We seek the women associated with the man known as Kaban King,” Lanxia’s voice echoed across the marketplace, spoken from the top of her snow-white cloud beast. “Those who aided, served, or shared affection with him. You will hand them over, or we will burn down every hiding place.”

The citizens dared not speak his name aloud—Kent, the man whose mysterious identity had thrown the political scales of the continent into chaos. After kidnapping noble heir, he escaped and vanished like a ghost, the world branded him the most dangerous wildcard in centuries.

The fact that he now bore the legacy title of the King family—a lineage thought vanished—only made the Kai family more desperate to erase all traces of his past.

But Red Silk City was no ordinary city. And Kent was no ordinary man.

Three days passed under dark clouds. Lanxia’s troops interrogated sects, raided herbal inns, and tore through spiritual artifact shops. Several suspected safehouses were burned to ash using spirit fire. But none of Kent’s women were found.

Until—

“Commander! We found something. A cloaked group was seen leaving the outer district near the south ridge at moonfall two nights ago. They passed by the wild Bunyan tree.”

Lanxia’s eyes glinted coldly.

“Search all the houses around the tree.”

They reached the ancient wild Bunyan by dusk. Towering as high as the spirit towers themselves, its branches spread across nearly four streets, shading an entire patch of the city like a divine umbrella. The place looked undisturbed—too natural to be suspicious.

Until they found a large villa, concealed spiritual barrier embedded into its roots.

But when Lanxia and her guards broke through with spell-etched drills and spiritual blades, the villa chambers were empty—completely deserted.

Only fading traces of female qi, used bedding, and minor illusions hinted that a group had stayed there. Just days before.

Lanxia stood in silence, hands behind her back, wind tugging at her veil.

“They were here.”

Her voice was calm, but her eyes gleamed with deadly resolution.

“Tighten the net. They couldn’t have gone far.”

—-

Far beneath the city’s eastern district, below the shell of a seemingly abandoned tofu shop, a round man with a braided beard wiped his brow as he handed out warm blankets and fresh steamed buns to the small group of cloaked women huddled together.

Fatty Ben was hardly the image of a revolutionary—his belly bounced with every step, and he often laughed at the wrong moments—but his heart burned brighter than most sect leaders. In his own strange way, he was Kent’s most loyal friend.

Tonight, he wore an elaborate silver mask and a green-stitched robe, blending in as a local apothecary assistant. His wife, a clever and sharp-tongued woman, passed food packets and protective talismans to the younger girls.

One of them, a soft-voiced woman with long chestnut hair, pulled her hood down slightly.

“Thank you, Brother Ben,” said Sophia, voice tired but warm. “I never thought we’d become fugitives overnight…”

“I knew this day would come,” Ben replied with a grin. “Master Kent may have angered half the continent, but when he acts, he never does so alone. I’ve prepared for this moment for months.”

Another girl, her eyes glittering with resolve, leaned forward. Lily was perhaps the boldest of them all, her loyalty to Kent unwavering.

“They’re after us just to reach him.”

“They won’t find you here,” Fatty Ben assured, tapping the floor with his foot.

With a faint hum, a glowing sigil activated, revealing an invisible barrier beneath the chamber floor—a deeper level lined with spirit stone, protected by spatial formations and even a concealed teleportation gate linked to another nation.

“I call it the Cloud Belly Nest,” Ben said proudly. “My own little shelter from the gathered treasures.”

“Looks like a miracle,” Amelia muttered as she gazed at the depth and design. “You built this just for survival sake?”

“I built it for you all,” Ben said seriously. “Because you’re his

He took a seat beside them, the flickering light of the hidden lanterns catching his round face.

“With my connections, spirit merchants, and a few rogue formations I ’borrowed’ from the Dark Alchemy Guild, we can survive here for years if needed. Food, medicine, robes, books… we’ll endure.”

He looked at each of the women in turn. Most were exhausted. Some teetered between courage and fear. But in every pair of eyes, he saw something deeper.

Faith.

“I believe Master Kent will come soon,” Ben said firmly, his voice filled with unshakable certainty. “And when he does, he’ll wipe the Kai family clean. They’ve gone too far. And they’ll learn what it means to touch a dragon’s tail.”

Sophia reached out and held his hand.

“You’re risking everything for us. Thank you, Ben.”

His smile widened.

“I’m fat, not foolish. When the Kaban King returns, I’d rather be on his side than anyone else’s.”

Lily nodded.

“Until he returns, we remain shadows.”

“Yes,” Amelia whispered, “but even shadows wait for the dawn.”

Above, the Kai soldiers moved like hounds across the city, unaware of the invisible pathways, illusion barriers, and spatial folds that protected Kent’s circle. Even Lanxia, sharp and tireless, had no idea that her prey now rested mere twenty meters beneath one of the city’s most ordinary courtyards.

And even she couldn’t predict the storm that would descend when Kent returned.

He would come—not for glory or inheritance, but for them.

And when he did…

The skies over Red Silk City would burn.

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