Divine Emperor of Death

Chapter 5239: Blessings Bestowed By The Golden Era

Dark clouds hung low over a seemingly endless stretch of emerald mountains.

Countless peaks rose from the earth like gigantic spears, their slopes covered in ancient forests whose trees reached thousands of meters into the sky. Mist drifted between the mountains, carrying an unusually dense wood and water-attributed heaven and earth energy that caused even ordinary vegetation to flourish beyond reason.

Fairy Qiyra Darkstar emerged from a spatial tunnel above one of those mountains.

Her dark purple robes fluttered lightly as she came to a stop, her gaze sweeping across the surroundings.

According to the map Davis had pieced together, one of Epsila’s marks should be somewhere within this region.

It wasn’t one of the seven star marks, but that hardly meant the treasure here was insignificant. She had come here first because it was closer. As long as it was in a harvestable state, they could be taken if they hadn’t matured yet. She figured Davis would figure something out with his life energy.

Fairy Qiyra Darkstar closed her eyes.

Her senses silently spread, and a few seconds later, her eyelids opened, revealing a pair of limpid eyes that glittered like cold stars.

”Found it.”

She disappeared as her figure crossed tens of millions of kilometers in mere moments before descending into a mountain valley.

However, she stopped before she could get close.

Her gaze sharpened as she recognized that there was a powerful concealment formation, and it didn’t seem like it was merely one formation either.

Multiple formations overlapped one another, concealing the valley from soul senses while simultaneously isolating the heaven and earth energy within. From the outside, there was nothing unusual about this place. Even the dense wood-water energy she had sensed had been carefully redirected through the surrounding mountain range to prevent anyone from tracing it back to its source.

It was exceedingly sophisticated.

More importantly, the formation didn’t seem to be ancient since it was being maintained.

Fairy Qiyra Darkstar’s expression remained indifferent.

Her figure faded into the darkness.

A few seconds later, she appeared beyond one of the outer formations without disturbing so much as a single ripple.

The scenery before her changed completely as she walked unbridled.

A gigantic valley stretching thousands of kilometers appeared before her eyes. Heaven and earth energy mist blanketed the land while streams of translucent green water flowed between countless medicinal gardens connected to lakes.

At the very center stood an enormous tree.

Its trunk appeared to be deep sapphire with a translucent quality, as though it were carved from ancient ice-blue jade. Countless pale blue roots were visible beneath the crystalline waters, while its enormous crown possessed silver-blue leaves that perpetually glistened with droplets of water.

The fruit was large, almost the size of a human.

It resembled a translucent blue fruit with an almost liquid interior. Looking through its skin through ocular techniques might reveal currents swirling within it like a miniature ocean. At its center would be a tiny silver sphere resembling a full moon submerged beneath the sea.

Even from this distance, Fairy Qiyra Darkstar could sense the terrifying vitality contained within it.

’A World Hegemon Grade water-yin attributed treasure, Profound Moonwater Essence Fruit...’ She recognized it.

Moreover, judging by its aura... she felt it was close to maturity.

But Fairy Qiyra Darkstar’s attention quickly shifted away from the treasure.

There were people everywhere.

Millions of cultivators occupied the valley, tending to the medicinal gardens, maintaining formations, controlling the flow of energy, and carefully monitoring the enormous divine tree.

Most surprisingly, they didn’t belong to a single power since their robes were of different designs and carried three completely different insignias.

Fairy Qiyra Darkstar narrowed her eyes.

She understood that this was likely a secretive world with three hidden major powers who could be termed as ancient families since she could sense Peak Exalts within. She could even sense a few astral cultivators.

From the information she had gathered after entering the Six-Headed Hydra Upper Realm, she vaguely recognized two of them. They were old powers that rarely interacted with the outside world, possessing territories buried deep within inaccessible regions.

Apparently, they had jointly discovered this exalted tree long ago and had been nurturing it together ever since.

However...

’They stayed?’

Fairy Qiyra Darkstar was genuinely surprised.

The Desolate Era had descended.

People had abandoned their territories one after another as countless powers fled toward the Twelve Bastion Cities, desperately seeking passage before calamity swallowed every source of heaven and earth energy, yet these people hadn’t moved.

Judging from the dense population and countless buildings scattered across the distant mountains that didn’t look abandoned, their entire powers might have remained here.

Suddenly, boisterous laughter echoed throughout the valley.

”Hahahaha!”

An old man flew out from one of the palaces, his face glowing red with excitement.

”Joyous tidings! Joyous tidings!”

His voice thundered across the mountains, causing numerous cultivators to immediately turn toward him.

”Ancestor!”

”Did something happen?”

”Could it be...?”

Another elderly figure shot out from a different mountain.

”Joyous tidings!”

He laughed so loudly that his voice shook the clouds.

”The divine fruit has entered its final maturation! What would take another ten million years would finally finish within a hundred or two hundred years! It’s confirmed! Even the Mystic Diviners agree!”

”What!?”

”Already!?”

”It should’ve required another ten to twenty million years, but with the advent of the Desolate Era, we were afraid...!”

Excited voices erupted everywhere.

A white-haired woman appeared above the glowing tree, clasping her hands behind her back as she gazed at the fruit with an enormous smile.

”The Golden Era!”

Her voice trembled with excitement.

”It must be because of the Golden Era!”

Silence briefly descended before the entire valley exploded.

”The Golden Era!”

”Hahaha! The heavens haven’t abandoned us!”

”Joyous tidings! Joyous tidings!”

”We made the right choice as we endured!”

”Our ancestors nurtured it for two hundred millions of years painstakingly! How could we possibly abandon it just because some Desolate Era arrived!?”

”Exactly!”

”Now we can allow four to five World Hegemons to soar among us and enter the Greater Realm with glory!!”

”Hahahaha!”

Fairy Qiyra Darkstar’s lips twitched.

She stared at them for a moment, thinking these people were insane.

The Desolate Era had arrived; the realm was slowly heading toward destruction when the heaven and earth energy went out first, and rather than fleeing, three entire powers had apparently decided to remain behind because they couldn’t bear to abandon a treasure their ancestors had nurtured for generations.

Sure, this World Hegemon Grade Treasure could support them if they used it to empower the environment, but it might not even last a thousand years without the necessary formations.

Now that the Golden Era had caused the treasure to mature earlier than expected, they were celebrating as though they had already transcended.

”Joyous tidings!”

Another roar echoed and kept echoing across the valley in a jubilant chorus, ”Joyous tidings! Joyous tidings!”

”...”

Fairy Qiyra Darkstar silently turned around as though she had seen enough.

Davis had specifically said that treasures nurtured by other powers were off-limits.

Besides, even if he hadn’t said so, she had no interest in robbing three powers that had stubbornly remained behind during the Desolate Era just to protect the culmination of their ancestors’ efforts.

If anything, she respected their madness.

Her figure silently passed through the formations once again.

Not a single person noticed that a powerful Exalt, but most horrifyingly, a Divergent, had entered their most heavily protected territory, inspected the treasure they had nurtured for countless generations, listened to their celebration, judged them all to be insane, and left.

Once she was several million kilometers away, Fairy Qiyra Darkstar took out the map.

She crossed out the first mark.

”One down.”

Her finger moved toward the next closest location.

It was nearly eight billion kilometers northwest.

Fairy Qiyra Darkstar put away the map before darkness enveloped her figure. She rode on the cloud like a demonic figure, astral energy quickly enveloping her before she used the long river of purple-white clouds to wisp from one place to another in an instant, her movement techniques seemingly endless.