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, giving the place a refreshing atmosphere. Yet on the other hand, the trees beyond the city walls were lush with branches and leaves, casting shade everywhere and creating a gloomy feeling.

Especially those towering otherworldly trees that pierced the clouds—they were an eye-opening sight 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, standing perfectly straight before narrowing noticeably toward the top. Dense branches and leaves clustered around the crowns, where emerald-green fruits hung.

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

Avilan glanced at Zhou Yu in surprise and smiled. "You know quite a lot!"

"Unfortunately, that adventurer party's area of activity was too limited, so they could not learn much. Whenever they entered the Messiah Great Forest and found nothing, Virgo Fruits became their final target. As long as they smuggled them across the border and sold them to merchants from hostile nations, they could earn enormous profits. But the risk was tremendous. If they were caught, it was off with their heads." Zhou Yu relayed the information she knew.

Compared to Arthur's dull, rigid reporting style, Zhou Yu's casual, anecdotal way of delivering information made it much easier to remember.

Avilan stood on the broad, crumbling steps of the city wall, quietly gazing at the scenery before him.

The original site of Despair Fortress had once been an icy world of Eternal Night. Influenced by Eternal Night, the atmosphere here had been exceedingly grim, and the sky was often shrouded by thick black clouds. But the scenery now was utterly different.

Before him stretched a beautiful night sky.

Avilan looked up at the heavens and let out a sigh filled with countless emotions. He kept shaking his head, 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.

"Fly."

Freed from the shackles of gravity, Avilan floated lightly into the sky. Then he steadily accelerated, shooting straight upward in one breath.

Although Zhou Yu hurriedly chased after him, Avilan ignored her completely and continued rising. He had no idea how many hundreds of meters he had ascended.

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

The blue-white radiance of the moon and stars drove away the darkness of the earth. Under the caress of the breeze, the swaying grasslands looked as though the entire world were glowing. Countless stars in the sky, along with planets that resembled moons, gave off dazzling brilliance, complementing the scenery below perfectly.

Avilan could not help but sigh.

"It is so beautiful... No, calling it beautiful is far too trite to describe it... If Shen Jiecōng saw this sight, I wonder how he would describe it..."

If Despair Fortress back then had not stood in a dark, frozen land, but had instead been here, 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, yet whenever he looked at it, there had always been a trace of regret in his eyes.

Every time, Avilan had been able to see the thought in Shen Jiecōng's heart through his eyes: If only the environment were a little better.

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 for so long, Avilan wanted to hear once more Shen Jiecōng's love for nature and profound insights into architecture. He gently looked to his side.

Of course, there was no one beside him.

There could not be anyone.

A cool breeze blew past. Avilan, who had already reached the maximum level, actually felt a chill rise in him instinctively.

A chill of loneliness and desolation.

As Avilan sank into melancholy, the sound of flames burning reached his ears. Zhou Yu appeared before him in her transformed form.

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

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

Upon entering the Flame Lord state, Zhou Yu's strength increased by ten levels directly, placing her at level sixty. The cooldown of fire spells was reduced by thirty percent, while their casting speed increased by ten percent.

In her Flame Lord form, Zhou Yu's entire body turned into flames, and even her clothes vanished without a trace. No one could possibly recognize her as the very same refined and graceful, poetic naval commander 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. He reached toward the unreachable morning star in the distance and sighed.

"This place is truly, truly beautiful. It makes one unable to resist wanting to immerse oneself in it and claim all of it."

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

Zhou Yu spoke flattering words.

The sudden remark left Avilan somewhat speechless. Zhou Yu could actually flatter people—and flatter them so comfortably, at that.

Not only that, from such a vantage point overlooking the world, the world seemed exceedingly small, and a bold thought suddenly arose in his heart.

To destroy all this beauty with his own hands, become the sole ruler of this world, and completely control this beautiful, vast world.

"It truly is beautiful. These stars all exist to adorn me! What an interesting thing to say. Perhaps I came here precisely to control this beautiful world."

Avilan stretched out his hand before him, then clenched it tightly. The stars glittering in the heavens 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, I will immediately lead the entire army of Despair Fortress to seize this beautiful world. To offer such beauty to the revered Lord Avilan would be Zhou Yu's greatest honor."

Avilan smiled faintly at the affected declaration.

He wondered if Zhou Yu, too, had become intoxicated by this atmosphere.

"While we still do not know what creatures exist in this world, I can only say that your idea is exceedingly foolish. Those adventurers are merely the lowest rung of this world. Do not underestimate any enemy. But you are right—conquering the world may indeed be quite interesting."

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

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

He knew that Zhou Yu's intelligence setting in Despair Fortress ranked among the top three. She should understand that his talk of conquering the world had merely been a child's joke.