Virgo Fruit

Leaving the outer city of Despair Fortress and entering the Messiah Great Forest, Avilan was greeted by a breathtakingly beautiful sight.

The weeds around the forest were short, creating a fresh atmosphere. Yet the trees beyond the city walls were lush with dense branches and leaves, casting shade everywhere and creating a gloomy feeling.

Especially those towering alien trees that reached into the clouds—they were a true eye-opener for Avilan.

The giant trees nearby were at least two hundred meters tall. Occasionally, he could even see trees three or four hundred meters high, their trunks thrusting straight into the heavens.

Only trees like these could conceal Despair Fortress.

Their trunks were at least twenty meters thick, straight and noticeably narrowing upward. Dense branches and leaves grew at their crowns, bearing emerald-green fruit.

Noticing Avilan's gaze, Zhou Yu immediately explained, "Those are Virgo Fruit, a specialty of the Messiah Great Forest and an essential ingredient for making recovery potions."

Avilan gave Zhou Yu a surprised glance and smiled. "You know quite a lot!"

"Unfortunately, that adventurer party operated within too limited a range and could not learn much. Virgo Fruit was their final objective whenever they entered the Messiah Great Forest and came away empty-handed. As long as they smuggled it across the border and sold it to merchants from hostile nations, they could make enormous profits. But the risk was tremendous. If they were caught, they would lose their heads." Zhou Yu shared the information she knew.

Compared to Arthur's stiff and dull reporting style, Zhou Yu's way of presenting intelligence through casual anecdotes made it much easier to remember.

Avilan stood atop the broad, crumbling steps of the city wall, quietly gazing out at the scene before him.

The place where Despair Fortress had originally stood had once been a cold world of Eternal Night. Influenced by Eternal Night, the atmosphere here had been exceptionally sinister, and the sky had often been shrouded by thick black clouds. But the view now was completely different.

Before him was a beautiful night sky.

Avilan looked up at the sky and let out a deeply emotional sigh, shaking his head repeatedly as though unable to believe the sight before him.

"This world is truly beautiful..."

Never in his life had he seen such a clear night sky.

"Flight."

Freed from the shackles of gravity, Avilan floated lightly into the sky. Then he kept accelerating, shooting straight upward in one burst.

Although Zhou Yu hurried after him, Avilan paid her no attention and continued rising. He had no idea how many hundreds of meters he had ascended.

Only then did Avilan slowly decelerate. He said nothing—or rather, he was speechless at the sight of this world.

The blue-white glow of the moon and stars drove away the darkness covering the land. Swaying beneath the breeze, the grasslands looked as though the entire world were glowing. Countless stars in the sky, along with planets resembling moons, radiated brilliant light, complementing the scenery below.

Avilan could not help but sigh.

"It is so beautiful... No, such a stale phrase as 'beautiful' is not enough to describe it... If Shen Jiecōng saw this sight, I wonder how he would describe it..."

If Despair Fortress had not been built in that dark, frozen land back then, but had stood here instead, it would surely have become a romantic castle found only in fairy tales.

Avilan remembered that after Despair Fortress had been built, Shen Jiecōng had been proud of it, yet every time he looked at the fortress, there had been a trace of regret in his eyes.

Every time, Avilan could see the thought in his eyes and in his heart: It would be better if the surroundings were nicer.

If Shen Jiecōng saw this world, who knew how excited he would be? How passionately he would discuss it in that deep voice of his.

Missing his old friend whom he had not seen in so long, Avilan dearly wished to hear Shen Jiecōng's love for nature and profound insights into architecture again. He gently glanced beside him.

Of course, there was no one there.

There could not be anyone there.

A cool breeze blew past. Though Avilan had already reached max level, he instinctively felt a chill.

A lonely, desolate chill.

As Avilan's ears filled with a somewhat melancholy mood, he heard the sound of burning flames. Zhou Yu appeared before him in a changed form.

Massive flaming wings radiating scorching heat had appeared on her back, and her appearance had changed from that of a handsome young man into that of a Flame Lord. This was Zhou Yu's demon form.

Some aberrant races possessed several different forms. Within Despair Fortress, there were basically no complete human forms; every servant had another form.

Entering the Flame Lord state directly raised Zhou Yu's strength by ten levels, bringing her to level sixty. Her fire spell cooldowns were reduced by thirty percent, while her fire spell casting speed increased by ten percent.

In her Flame Lord form, Zhou Yu's entire body turned into flame, and even her clothes vanished without a trace. No one could possibly recognize her as the refined, elegant, poetic naval admiral Zhou Yu from moments ago.

Avilan shifted his gaze away from Zhou Yu, who had transformed into a Horned Demon, and looked once more at the stars glittering overhead. Reaching for the untouchable morning star in the distance, he sighed.

"This place is truly so, so beautiful. It makes one unable to resist immersing oneself in it and claiming all of it."

"This world is so beautiful because those lovely morning stars exist to adorn Lord Avilan's greatness!"

Zhou Yu spoke flattering words.

The sudden remark left Avilan somewhat speechless. Zhou Yu actually knew how to flatter people, and she did it so pleasantly.

Not only that, but looking down upon the world like this made it seem incredibly small, and a bold thought suddenly surfaced in his heart.

Destroy all this beauty with his own hands, become the sole ruler of this world, and completely control this magnificent land.

"It really is beautiful. These stars are all here to adorn me! What you said is interesting. Perhaps I am here precisely to take control of this beautiful world."

Avilan stretched out his hand before him and clenched it tightly. The stars shining in the sky seemed almost to fall into that hand. Of course, that was only because his hand blocked them from view. Avilan shrugged at his childish behavior and said to Zhou Yu:

"What an alluring statement. If that is your wish, then with a single command from you, I will immediately lead the entire army of Despair Fortress to seize this beautiful world. It would be Zhou Yu's greatest honor to offer everything so beautiful to the beloved Lord Avilan."

Her affected words made Avilan chuckle softly.

He wondered whether Zhou Yu had also become intoxicated by the atmosphere.

"While we still know nothing about what creatures exist in this world, I can only say that your idea is quite foolish. Those adventurers are merely at the bottom of this world's hierarchy. Do not underestimate any enemy. Still, you are right—conquering the world might be quite interesting."

After saying that, Avilan could not help but laugh. Those words sounded exactly like something a great villain in a novel would say.

Conquer the world, then be defeated by some hero who appeared and liberated it again.

He knew that Zhou Yu was set to be among the three most intelligent beings in Despair Fortress. She should understand that his earlier remark about conquering the world had merely been a childish joke.