# Chapter 17: The World Star River That Was Brutally Beaten
Joshua's memories returned to not long ago, when he had just arrived at the Fairyland.
Compared to when he first came to the Fairyland, the Fairyland now appeared much more normal. The four elements of Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind cycled in rotation, forming a stable and beautiful world. In this world, whether it was the rosy clouds in the sky or the flowers and grass on the ground, all were imitations condensed from elements. One could see countless tiny particles of light flickering and spinning around these solid substances, emitting a brilliant and gorgeous radiance.
At the same time as Joshua's incarnation descended, he could see a team of small fairies who seemed to have known this in advance, waiting directly at his landing point to welcome him.
"The Empress Queens have long known of your intentions. Please follow us, Lord Radcliffe."
The water fairy at the lead was still relatively proper, able to smoothly speak very normal formal words. But the fairies following behind her were a bit bold and overly curious, hiding behind the water fairy while excitedly pointing at Joshua and making comments.
"Look, that iron lump looks just like a human!"
"Nonsense, he's clearly a human, he just doesn't look like one because his strength is too great!"
"He's clearly not human... where is there a human whose whole body is made of metal? Isn't that just like how there's no fairy whose body isn't made of the four elements?"
The fairies were free and carefree—Joshua had long known this—but hearing them actually arguing over whether he was human or not still made the warrior's face darken.
What do you mean 'only made of the four elements'... Ever heard of the Empire's artificial fairy project? Ever heard of Silver Fairies? Being covered in metal means you're not human? Still too young, too little experience, too simple-minded.
Of course, this carefree thought only existed for a moment. Joshua silently let the lead water fairy guide the way.
This time he came to the Fairyland, it wasn't to enjoy the scenery or relax, but to directly find the Four Fairy Empress Queens, to obtain some important information from these beings who were perhaps the oldest in the current Mycroft Civilization.
The entire Fairyland presented a semicircular structure of round sky and square earth. The flat ground was entirely composed of stable earth elements, while beneath it, surging fire elements formed a structure similar to a mantle. The sky was entirely composed of surging wind elements, with a sun made of fire elements at the center. Water elements formed lakes on the ground and transformed into rain clouds in the sky, creating a great cycle spanning heaven and earth.
The basic cycle of the four elements was roughly like this. Naturally, there were also many details of the cycle, such as volcanoes formed by the mixture of fire and earth elements, or hot spring geysers caused by the mixture of fire, earth, and water elements. Joshua followed the water element fairy, roughly taking in the scenery of the Fairyland along the way.
"Last time you came, the Earth Empress was severely injured, which is why the earth was like that—hazy and chaotic... Normally, such an injury would take decades or even centuries to heal, but with the help of other legendary experts, the Empress Queen has mostly recovered."
Along the way, the lead water element fairy kept explaining the current state of the Fairyland to Joshua, and also mentioned with reverence several human legends who had helped heal the Fairy Empress's injuries.
As soon as Joshua heard the fairies' descriptions of those people, he immediately knew who had helped the Fairy Empress... A kind-looking middle-aged man with nothing on his head, a fastidious old mage with a prosthetic eye, a female spellcaster whose face couldn't be clearly seen, hair like crystal... This was none other than Barbarossa, Baniel, and Faina.
It seemed that after exploring the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, the various legends, to thank the Fairy Empress Queens for lending them the Fairyland as a forward base, had actively helped treat them. It was just that this description was a bit too realistic.
Originally, Joshua thought this might just be a habit of ordinary fairies—they lived year-round in the Fairyland, which didn't require communication with the outside world, and they were powerful themselves, so they maintained this innocent lifestyle... But when he met the various Fairy Empress Queens, he realized this wasn't a habit at all—it was the nature of fairies.
"Ah, I remember you!"
The enormous and magnificent Elemental Furnace Hall, completely unlike anything fairies could build, had four giant fairy statues at least four hundred meters tall carved into its walls. Each fairy statue was composed of pure corresponding elemental magical power, containing terrifying energy signatures sufficient to destroy everything. Facing these four elemental power aggregates that, if they erupted, could likely destroy a world, Joshua merely praised them with "quite big," then calmly stood in the center of the hall, waiting for the four Fairy Empress Queens to gather their will and consciousness from various parts of the Fairyland, transforming into tangible entities that could communicate.
The first to descend was the Earth Elemental incarnation, the Earth Empress happily extending her tiny hand, pointing at Joshua: "You're that human who looks thin in clothes but has a fierce face!"
Joshua, who looked thin in clothes and had a fierce face: "???"
In an instant, the remaining three elemental Fairy Empress Queens also descended in turn.
Unlike the enormous Elemental Furnace Hall, the legendary Fairy Empress Queens didn't deliberately enlarge their forms. They still maintained ordinary fairy body sizes—only about the size of a normal person's palm—floating on the fingers of those four giant fairy statues on the walls of the Elemental Hall... on tiny thrones carved there.
It had to be said, fairies' thoughts were truly hard for ordinary people to fathom. They built four giant statues hundreds of meters tall in the Elemental Furnace Hall, then carved their thrones on the fingers extended by these four statues... If not for Joshua's excellent eyesight, an ordinary person standing on the ground really couldn't see the figures of the four Fairy Empress Queens.
But Joshua hadn't come to criticize fairy customs—if he did that, given how eccentric fairies were, he probably wouldn't finish for days.
The appearance of fairies wasn't much different from shrunken elves, which was related to the fact that when they first determined their racial form, the first intelligent life they saw were elves. And to make it easier to distinguish each other, most fairies grew a pair of differently styled elemental wings.
Unlike the rumors on the ordinary continent, fairies, as pure elemental lifeforms, weren't inferior to dragons in average racial strength. Every adult fairy had the strength of a Silver-rank elemental mage, and they possessed spiritual shields and spiritual bodies, making it difficult for ordinary physical and magical attacks to harm them.
Moreover, fairies had small bodies and extremely fast speed. If they could steel themselves for full-force destruction, they could almost be said to be miniature turrets with very small targets, capable of causing terrifying destruction in certain special areas.
Fairies possessed first-class forging craftsmanship and power inheritance in the current era. They could forge holy swords and divine artifacts, and were the race with the most legendary experts aside from humans and dragons. It was rumored that the forging of the holy sword Mistletoe had the help of a fairy divine smith. In legend, this fairy divine smith even gave his life to allow the all-breaking Mistletoe holy sword to take form.
Of course, this was definitely false.
The Earth Empress, if she had normal human size, would look like a gentle elven matron. The butterfly-style wings on her back had complex patterns formed by constantly flowing earth element fluctuations. It could be seen that those ripples were actually some kind of powerful elemental spell model, and as long as their owner wished, they could easily instantly cast countless such spells.
The Ocean Empress looked like a youthful and beautiful elven girl, with sea-blue long hair floating behind her. However... the wings on her back looked a bit strange. Joshua felt they seemed somewhat like a kind of sail, or perhaps some kind of fish fin? The warrior couldn't quite figure out what style they were, but because there were surging water element fluctuations on them, it didn't seem to matter much.
The Sun Empress, on the surface, was a beautiful woman with a well-proportioned figure. She was looking at Joshua's hair with curiosity, muttering things like "this thing doesn't seem to burn." Joshua coughed, interrupting the Empress Queen's murmuring, but when the warrior saw the style of this Empress's wings, he couldn't help but be somewhat surprised.
Because... they were completely a pair of rocket thrusters!
In the cylindrical fire element structure, flowing flame magical power continuously sprayed out... This structure was basically two rockets suspended behind the Empress, with nothing to do with wings at all!
Finally, there was the Sky Empress. This Fairy Empress Queen was quite normal in both appearance and wings. She had the heroic and spirited appearance of an elven hunter, and a pair of feathered wings like a Winged Human. One could faintly see specks of wind element condensed into energy feathers continuously falling, then dissolving in midair.
Of course, all four of the above Empress Queens were only half the size of Joshua's palm.
Quite cute.
"I know your intentions, Count Radcliffe."
The first to speak was the Sky Empress. This legendary fairy was quite normal in tone, appearance, and posture. Sitting on her tiny throne, she said seriously to Joshua: "You want to obtain from us information about 'world shaping' and certain ancient secrets... We can certainly tell you, but knowledge is priceless. To exchange for it, you must pay with another kind of knowledge."
"Only by giving can you receive reward. This is the rule of our race."
"I have first-hand data on Steel Force condensing into a world embryo, and I can also tell you the location of that place."
Joshua had naturally long known about fairy customs. He had already prepared a large amount of exchange payment.
Saying this, the warrior used Steel Force transmission to send the image of the Void Great Maelstrom, which had completely transformed into a star-forming nebula, to the four Fairy Empress Queens—immediately, one could see all four Empress Queens let out a collective exclamation. It seemed the content was indeed very important to them.
Indeed it was. The sight of countless worlds naturally condensing and being born was undoubtedly priceless to the Fairy Empress Queens, who aspired to create worlds themselves. And this first-hand data of condensing and birth was only possessed by Joshua and Carlis, who were present at the time. The current Void Great Maelstrom had entered a stable phase. Going there now, one would probably have to wait tens of thousands of years to see a single valuable change.
"...Although we knew you must have been prepared, we didn't expect your preparation to be so thorough."
The four Empress Queens happily accepted the data package Joshua had sent, planning to analyze it together later. Having received payment, they naturally couldn't remain silent. Immediately, the Ocean Empress happily spoke: "Then human, ask whatever you want. We'll tell you everything we know... Some things, we still have to keep a little that can't be said."
The Ocean Empress noticed the warning looks from the other Empress Queens and had to awkwardly wave her hand: "I was just happy for a moment, eheh."
Joshua was now somewhat doubtful whether coming to ask the fairies for information had been a mistake.
But now wasn't the time to hesitate. The warrior asked without any delay: "Fairies, as the race with the most complete data preservation and the least impact during the Lost Three Hundred Years, I want to know—how do you view this multiverse after three hundred years, this World Star River we inhabit?"
As soon as this question was asked, the originally somewhat noisy Elemental Furnace Hall fell into silence.
No matter how carefree and unreliable they appeared on the surface, the Fairy Empress Queens were still at the legendary realm. When they became serious, even the world would change according to their will.
One could see tidal waves formed by the four elements surging violently in the hall's dome, mixing and interweaving. Unlike the small, cute humanoid fairies, this elemental frenzy like a tsunami flood was the true form of the Empress Queens. They were four destructive magical power surges sufficient to sweep through the entire Fairyland, even the entire world. Their mixing together was a method of using elemental fusion for secret communication.
After a long while, the Earth Empress, who had become noticeably more serious, stepped forward to answer Joshua's question.
"Although we don't know why Count Radcliffe you would ask this question, since we have already accepted payment, we will answer seriously."
This Empress Queen's expression was calm. She said in a serious tone: "You ask about our views on this multiverse and World Star River three hundred years ago and three hundred years later. We have only one answer: it is very different."
"Specifically, where is it different?"
Joshua inquired. The warrior wasn't surprised by this answer. He had actually already had the corresponding answer in his heart, but wanted to hear it from the fairies' mouths to confirm his thoughts from another angle.
"Many places. First, the number of life worlds."
The Earth Empress smoothed her hair, flapping her wings as she pondered: "You should also know about the so-called 'World Order Resonance Phenomenon'? The formation of an orderly world will cause all surrounding Steel Force to spontaneously condense, becoming world embryos extremely similar to that orderly world. Therefore, around every life world, there are a large number of life worlds with similar living conditions."
"Three hundred years ago during the Lost Era, we hadn't been born yet, but our elders were still alive. According to the information they left behind, at that time the multiverse, or rather our World Star River, was thriving. Even though it suffered the impact of evil gods and countless life worlds were destroyed, there were still a large number of worlds that survived."
At this moment, the Sun Empress interjected: "Perhaps you don't know, but once upon a time, around the Mycroft World, there were over a thousand life worlds. Although most couldn't be normally colonized for various reasons, they served as resource worlds for the Radiant Civilization at that time. And the Mycroft Star Domain at that time was called the 'Thousand Star Domain.'"
"And now, just three hundred years later, never mind a thousand stars, there are less than thirty pitch-black dim worlds left in the entire star domain. I suspect they were lying to me."
The Earth Empress coughed, taking back the right to speak. She nodded, acknowledging that what the Sun Empress said was correct: "Indeed, this is one difference... Besides this, we also discovered that the vast majority of life worlds in this World Star River have disappeared, or rather, changed position, or even been destroyed."
"Look."
Saying this, the Earth Empress also displayed a light screen. In the light screen was the void model of the World Star River drawn by the Church of the Seven Gods after deep space observation. The Earth Empress pointed at the dim stars in the light screen, speaking solemnly: "It shouldn't be. Our World Star River shouldn't have so few life worlds. Even with evil god invasion, it's absolutely impossible."
"Yes." The Ocean Empress nodded with emotion: "The world's self-healing ability is very strong. Even if it suffers evil god invasion, it can't die that quickly. At most, the surface is destroyed and the ecological circle completely lost."
At this, Joshua couldn't help but nod.
What the Empress Queens said was indeed correct. Worlds really couldn't be destroyed that simply.
For example, Earth in his previous life. In the 21st century, the total number of nuclear bombs humanity possessed was enough to destroy their own civilization, but not necessarily enough to destroy the entire continental ecological circle of Earth—let alone the marine ecological circle. Even if you multiplied that number by a hundred times, whether it could completely destroy the crust was questionable. Only when black technology erupted and the era of universal harmony arrived, with interstellar weapons capable of destroying planetary crusts, could a 'world' be threatened.
This multiverse was the same. What evil gods did was simply destroy the ecological circle, not blow the world to pieces. And the world's capacity to endure in this regard was very strong, as was its self-healing ability. Like the Carlis World, even after being destroyed for over a thousand years, it still maintained its self-will, and could even save itself, waiting until Joshua's arrival and help.
"Losing the ecological circle, the world will indeed fall into a low point, but after a thousand years, the remaining seeds will eventually sprout, slowly reviving the world... Yet we haven't seen many worlds that can revive. The vast majority are completely destroyed. This is absolutely abnormal."
The Earth Empress said this. She was a fairy specializing in earth elements and the earth aspect, so she indeed had the most say in this regard.
And Joshua thus thought of the water-rich world the otherworld exploration team had found... Indeed, that world was clearly also reviving, with a large number of oxygen-producing algae rapidly multiplying, restoring the normal ecological circle.
"Moreover, the model of our World Star River is also very strange."
This time, it was the Sky Empress's turn to speak. She rotated the model of the World Star River, filling it with elements to make it a glowing entity: "Look, according to theoretical models, the World Star River generally has only a few forms. A few are elliptical, ring-shaped, and the vast majority are spiral-shaped with several arms... But the World Star River we inhabit is different."
Noticing that Joshua's expression had also become strange, the Sky Empress's tone became somewhat low and deep. She sighed softly: "Yes, you see it too, don't you?"
"The World Star River we inhabit... is concave-shaped."