Golden Dragon: Six Thousand Years of Empire-Chapter 891 493: The Old Days Are Dead, the Golden Sun Shall Rise

"Achoo~"
The bone-chilling cold wind blew, and the young boy couldn't help but tighten the coarse cloth garment stuffed with stiff cotton wool on him, but it was of no use at all. The piercing wind was omnipresent, making him shiver uncontrollably, forcing him to sneeze.
"Damn it, the weather's getting colder and colder, what's going on? If not killed by those filthy things, we'd freeze to death."
A curse-laden voice came from one side. The boy, already frozen to the point of having a runny nose, deeply agreed and couldn't help but nod.
"The clothes hung out to dry at my house haven't dried in three days."
Hearing the reply from the neighbor next to him, the boy, Dante, couldn't help but look up at the sky, only to see a pale disk hanging in the dust-covered sky, with a somewhat hazy aesthetic.
But this disk, which only evoked a chill in people's hearts, was the Sun, yet no one could feel the light and warmth the Sun should emit.
Clearly, it was already spring, the season when the earth should warm up, but the Sun's brilliance grew weaker and weaker, while the bitter cold wind howling over the earth became increasingly fierce, little better than winter.
Under such abnormal climate, numerous strange events frequently occurred.
Just on the street where he lived, a few doors away, with some blood relation calling for an uncle, a relative's household suffered a tragedy due to an accident. The uncle who went out to work was crushed to death by a carriage dragged by a runaway mad horse.
This accident brought immense sorrow to the family, but after the grief, life had to go on. Yet, after collecting the remains and hurriedly holding a funeral, the aunt and children were struck by misfortune before they could brace for the increasingly difficult future.
On the night after that uncle was buried, neighbors next door heard the sound of sharp claws scraping, and by dawn the next day, passersby discovered no living soul left in that household.
Bloodstains and claw marks covered the doorway and the walls inside the house, and on the floor, only the wife's terrified, contorted face and empty entrails resembling what a beast might devour of three children.
Most horrifyingly, when city detectives were about to investigate the murderer, they found the uncle's grave similarly collapsed. From the signs at the scene, it wasn't dug by grave robbers, but something burrowed from underground, causing the collapse.
Ghoul
This was the speculation Dante heard from adults talking—those adults said the guy who was unfortunate to be crushed to death by the Nobles' carriage left him with no substance in his stomach when he died, thus his resentful death turned him into the legendary monster—a Ghoul.
It's said that on the first night of its resurrection, a Ghoul would aim its bloodthirsty claws at its closest kin and loved ones from its lifetime, tearing and devouring all who shared its bloodline.
But the matter didn't end there. The woman and children, suspected to have been devoured by their transformed Ghoul husband, seemed deeply unsatisfied with their tragic deaths.
This time, the neighbors didn't even need to mention it. Dante himself in the midnight hours could hear indistinct wails of a woman from outside his window, though at times it sounded like children playing.
Because of this eerie strangeness, after enduring days of fear, the nearby townsfolk rapidly reached a consensus to burn down that house brimming with ominousness and weirdness, dispelling all oddness, as if fire could cleanse everything.
"You still hope to dry it out? In your dreams! Better to chop more wood and burn a fire to dry it."
"Burning a fire? I can't afford such extravagance, and besides, I haven't even prepared this month's kindling tax, where would I find extra firewood?"
"Damn skinflint!"
"Without enough firewood, in this weather, in this world, one simply can't survive."
Listening to the adults' conversation, Dante just felt his limbs weak and his body even colder. The kindling tax was a new levy issued by the Lord since the prolonged winter, delayed spring, and the Sun growing colder.
Supposedly, it was an order from the Capital, but Dante couldn't comprehend why those lofty figures in the Capital would need to chop wood and burn fires for warmth. Isn't it said there's the legendary Magic Crystal Stone? Just a thumb-sized piece could make an entire palace remain spring-like warm throughout winter.
However, as the prolonged winter continued, the price of firewood consistently skyrocketed; not just firewood, but all objects that could burn for warmth had their prices soaring.
The Sun's color shifted from golden yellow to pale red, then to light yellow, ultimately becoming the pale hue seen now—an evolution witnessed by all.
No one knew how long the Sun's anomaly would persist, nor did anyone step forward to tell them when the Sun would return to normal.
But one thing was certain: in the frigid climate, without warmth, one could easily freeze to death, and in the present situation, accidental death had a high risk of turning one into malevolent spirits.
As such, the newly proposed rule in the territory was that anyone dying accidentally must be cremated, but for common households, this was a heavy burden, as what burned wasn't just wood—it was money, it was food.