Divine Emperor of Death

Shirley stamped her feet, her expression full of frustration.

She folded her hands and stared at the Ninth Hidden Pagoda that was shining, waiting for Dewzai to come out so she was ready to kick her ass despite the rumbling aura of the Empyrean Stage Crystal Beast above her.

Looking up, she saw one of them was overly pissed than the other as its growl was even more grating.

It was a Empyrean Stage Crystal Beast Tiger.

Crouching on the branch and looking at her menacingly, it looked as though it was going to pounce on her, yet it did nothing except growl threateningly. It only validates Shirley's theory that these beasts cannot enter this area due to the presence of the Hidden Pagoda.

She wondered how Dewzai managed to pull one over their eyes and plunder one of that massive crystal fruit from them, from the crystal tiger, to be exact.

She turned to look back and saw that there were remnant undulations from the Empyrean Stage Crystal Beasts. There were many such craters in the outer area, and she wasn't surprised to see them since they did bombard it after she left in order to keep Dewzai here.

However, she sensed that Dewzai's remnant immortal soul force lay in one of those craters, allowing her to come to the speculation that Dewzai must've sent her soul body there as a distraction, allowing her to climb up the tree.

Shirley glanced up once again and saw the branch holding that crystal fruit had its stem burned by devilish flames. This made her narrow her eyes, knowing that Dewzai some cut the stem using one of her Divine Techniques and made the crystal fruit fall.

But before Dewzai could make it down, she was spotted, and the Empyrean Stage Crystal Beasts attacked at once.

Shirley knew Dewzai would've naturally activated the Defensive Talisman, but ordinarily, they wouldn't expect it to work against such creatures. Evidently, Dewzai had been critically injured, but her immortal body was alive enough to participate in the Ninth Hidden Pagoda's trial.

'A simple yet quick plan. While the Empyrean Stage Crystal Beasts were distracted by Dewzai's soul body, she swiftly climbed and attacked the fruit and used the Defensive Talisman when defending, barely making it out alive…'

Shirley pursed her lips, calming down.

She didn't know if Dewzai would complete the trial in her injured state. Then again, she also didn't know if they were going to use their real bodies to compete in these strange pagodas that seemed to have space inside like they were life rings or led into a new region.

There were too many unknowns, but she felt Dewzai would return sooner or later with a peal of victorious laughter or a sore look on her face.

Shirley decided to wait, setting up traps for Dewzai.

==========

Davis watched all this with a calm appearance.

Shirley was waiting for Dewzai to come out of the Hidden Pagoda, Isabella was mining with Zahara and Yeyin and Evelynn was with Rea Tyriel, the two of them carefully wondering how to intrude on the Hidden Pagoda they had chanced upon.

While it seemed to be going somewhat well for Evelynn, Isabella, and Shirley had encountered a setback.

Isabella particularly faced discrimination because she was his wife, which left Davis wondering what he should do.

"Girias from the Dark Lightning Moon Serpent Clan and Harmon from the Soul-Devouring Blood Vulture Clan. What should I do…?"

Davis stood up, his voice prolonged as though he was voicing out his concerns without talking to anyone. He stretched his body, appearing to yawn before he put his head down and closed his eyes.

"The Soul-Devouring Blood Vulture Clan. Never heard of them, but I investigated and came to learn that they are similar to Cyan Soul Rats. They're magical soul beasts."

Mingzhi uttered.

She also yawned.

At first, she thought she was just infected by Davis's yawn but then saw everyone doing the same before realizing that watching the projection actually drained their focus. She was surprised only for a second before nodding in acceptance.

After all, the massive projection formation that covered the entire First Haven World was also interacting with their karma, and through that karma, their retinas were being flashed with who or what they wanted to see.

"Oh well-" Mingzhi shrugged, "The Dark Moon Lightning Serpent is already in war with another power. Heck, it could be said the majority of the First Haven World has gone up in flames right now. All the alliances have now declared war on anyone who attacks them and their people, so following them, even the smaller powers within their jurisdiction have no choice but to raise arms."

"A chaotic period…" Lea uttered in a calm voice, "It happens at the beginning of a new era every time as those who moved to gain advantage will prosper while the rest would eventually disappear before the next era even appears."

"Yes~" Mingzhi nodded before she returned her gaze to Davis, "As for the Soul-Devouring Blood Vulture Clan, their whereabouts are unknown. They might be the same as the Luminous Temple, hiding behind some mini realm that even a High-Level Immortal Emperor Stage might not necessarily not be able to locate."

"Then do we not take action?" Davis raised one of his brows.

It caused Mingzhi to giggle, "Of course not. We're thrashing anyone who bullies my sisters~"

The two of them smiled at each other, seemingly planning something evil.

"This girl Shirley is too bold… daring to stand right underneath a group of Empyrean Stage Crystal Beasts…"

Myria shook her head as though being disappointed.

Where did the skills she taught for survival go?

Davis laughed lightly as he saw Myria worried about Shirley, but he shook his head.

"Don't worry. As far as I can tell, Shirley is not letting her confidence get to her head. She had always been careful but the fact that Dewzai entered the Ninth Hidden Pagoda just happened to be a bout of luck on her side as she barely survived. Even I wouldn't go as far as to offend the Empyrean Stage Beasts when all I have to do is collect twenty five High-Level Immortal Crystal Vein Sources, so Shirley cannot be blamed for it." Novel Fire - novelfire.net

"I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about her initial response when she arrived at that location."

"Oh-"

Davis chuckled wryly, "She's just willfully honest in wanting to experience an adventure. She had always been like this, a fiery fairy who likes a sisterhood as she loves being the center of attention but we met and she fell in love, making her accommodate to our- my lifestyle. I say we let her have some fun."

"How is a face-off with a group of Empyrean Beasts fun?"

Myria shook her head as that wasn't something even she would dare to face in her previous life but eventually, she sighed, knowing that if such beasts were to exist in this space, it wouldn't be without restrictions as the World Master did not needlessly wish for death and maintained a certain amount of fairness.

So far, the ones who had died either got unlucky or were fairly killed.

Raising her head to look at the projection, her focus shifted to the Immortal Dreams Palace.

There, the number of people who managed to still live appeared in her eyes.

[Candidates: 768]

From 916 to losing some in the initial hours before almost an entire day later, only 768 opponents were left. Those were some significant numbers that left Myria feeling strange since she didn't know if they all died or if some managed to leave the Crystal World.

Regardless, she also saw the Rankings and was surprised to see Rea Tyriel's score having gone up from eight points to nine points.

Was this because she cleared the First Hidden Pagoda?

While she was thinking, a surprised squeak could be heard.

It was none other than Mingzhi who looked at Davis with a pleased smile.

"Tanya, Tia, and Mira finally found the entrance to the Luminous Temple's mini realm."