# Chapter 18: The Present
Although the Fairy Empresses seemed frivolous, when questioned, they gave serious answers.
After revealing the 'concave' shape of the World Star River's true form, neither Joshua nor the other Empresses spoke again, and the entire Elemental Furnace Hall fell into silence once more.
"In short, this is what we discovered—the changes in the entire World Star River and the Multiverse... Actually, we're not very clear about the Multiverse, after all, it's far too vast. Our observational capabilities can't even extend beyond a few dozen neighboring star domains."
The one who said this was the Scorching Sun Empress. This seemingly lively fairy looked somewhat dejected as she continued: "To be honest, if we hadn't been unable to find a high-element world suitable for fairies to live in, why would we have taken root here for hundreds of years, creating the Fairyland? Really... I haven't traveled in centuries."
"I roughly understand."
After the shock passed, Joshua regained his composure. He etched the 'concave' shape of the World Star River deep into his mind, feeling somewhat regretful that he hadn't noticed this himself—but who would be bored enough to connect all the endless stars together? Moreover, with the existence of the Void Great Maelstrom and the Star River Scar, it was easy for anyone to overlook that starless dark zone.
After digesting this information, Joshua raised his head and asked again: "However, these are merely the 'differences' you discovered. What I want to know is your perspective on this situation."
This wasn't because Joshua wanted to force the Fairy Empresses to provide more information.
It was mainly because he was, after all, only a human around thirty years old, who had only been in this world for a mere nine years. He might know many hidden secrets, but he couldn't distinguish whether these pieces of information were strange or not, because in his cognition, they were all normal and taken for granted. Only the fairy race, spanning two eras, could accurately distinguish the differences between two ages.
"My perspective..."
The four Empresses spoke in unison, then exchanged glances, deferred to each other, and finally decided to let the Ocean Empress speak.
The Ocean Empress cleared her throat and said in a gentle female voice: "Our perspective is actually quite bizarre. You humans might find it hard to understand, but please don't say we made it up to fool you."
Joshua waved his hand, indicating he wouldn't. Only then did the Ocean Empress relax and speak frankly: "I think our World Star River was beaten up by someone, which is why it looks like this!"
Joshua: "???"
But after a moment of confusion, the warrior quickly understood the Empress's meaning: "You're saying that the concave shape of our World Star River isn't a special natural formation, but was caused by external force?"
In fact, Joshua had thought about this himself. After all, he knew what a natural galaxy should look like, but since this was a Multiverse with various supernatural powers, he couldn't be one hundred percent sure that all World Star Rivers looked this way... Only with confirmation from the fairies, who were natives, could he ensure his thoughts weren't constrained by personal cognitive limitations.
"Indeed... but this idea is too absurd. Beating up a world is one thing, but who could beat up a World Star River?"
The Ocean Empress seemed unwilling to continue this topic. She quickly shook her head, making her sea-blue hair ripple like waves: "Actually, we still have some research materials from the Era of Radiance here. Would you be interested, Lord Count?"
"Of course I'm interested."
Joshua could tell that the Fairy Empresses didn't want to delve deeper into this topic, so he readily let them change the subject: "Do I need to add some other information as a supplement? For example, about other forms of fairies."
Originally, the four Empresses wanted to be generous and give Joshua the information for free. As for other fairy forms, they had planned to mock them—like the Empire's artificial fairy project, which they didn't need to mention since they had supported it from behind... But when Joshua displayed the phantom image of a Silver Fairy, all four Fairy Empresses gasped, their wings stopping their fluttering, looking small and adorable.
"Isn't this... inappropriate?"
The Earth Empress was the first to become restless. She could sense that although this fairy's form was vastly different from all elemental fairies, it had additional reference value for her.
The four Elemental Fairy Empresses were creating the Fairyland, attempting to make it a complete world. This was something all Legendary beings knew, but no one understood that the Four Elements alone couldn't perfect this world.
According to the Empresses' plan, after creating the world's prototype, they would gradually create other forms of elemental and non-elemental fairies—such as Light and Dark Fairies, Aether Fairies, Psionic Fairies, and Holy Light Fairies... Only with all elements present would a world take shape and then be perfected.
But this endeavor encountered a huge problem from the start—the four Elemental Fairy Empresses' forms and thought patterns were too extreme, too aligned with their respective elements. They fundamentally couldn't create other forms of fairies themselves to perfect this world.
Therefore, they helped the Imperial Royal Family, the Diamond Family, bestowing fairy blood upon them to observe the consequences of blending fairy and human bloodlines. Therefore, they agreed to the artificial fairy project, creating the prototype of the Divine Mechanism.
But none of this had fully succeeded. The Diamond Family's bloodline was so chaotic that it was impossible to tell if the changes were caused by fairy blood, and the artificial fairies had only reached the seventh generation before the test site, the 'Sealed Land,' was blown up by Joshua. Although Ying and Lin had evolved into fairy-like beings with some Aether and Psionic characteristics, they were increasingly evolving in some unknown direction rather than toward fairy forms.
So when they saw the highly complete, highly referential 'Silver Fairy' in Joshua's hands, they lost their composure.
"A win-win situation. I want to entrust them to your care, to teach them culture and etiquette, to help them quickly become intelligent beings with power like fairies. In return, you can obtain the information you want from them."
Joshua said calmly: "As their creator, I don't have time to teach them, which is somewhat embarrassing."
"Rest assured, we will definitely teach them seriously!"
Before the other Empresses could agree—they were still immersed in the Silver Fairy's energy structure—the Earth Empress immediately made the decision: "From now on, Lord Count Radcliffe, you are our honored guest! Do you need us to infuse some fairy blood into your family? Absolutely effective, greatly enhancing elemental affinity!"
"No need. Our Radcliffe family are normal humans; we don't need bloodlines from other races."
Joshua waved his hand, declining her goodwill.
After a commotion, the Fairy Empresses finally came to their senses and clearly and smoothly relayed the information they had originally intended to tell Joshua.
"According to the previous generation of fairies—the true fairies who crossed the Lost Three Hundred Years, connecting the Era of Radiance and the Era of Falling Stars—the civilization of the Era of Radiance, like us today, used various means to explore the entire Multiverse. They even conducted extremely profound research on the ancient past of the Multiverse."
The Earth Empress cleared her throat and continued: "According to the previous generation of fairies' accounts to us fairies born in the new era, in the research of the Era of Radiance, the ancient World Star River—even the entire Multiverse—once experienced an incredibly beautiful era."
"In that era, the entire Void was filled with habitable worlds. Even the most barren stars nurtured wondrous life. Even within the sun, there were life forms similar to fairies but more intense."
"In that era, the entire Multiverse was peaceful. Compared to war, everyone preferred to exchange and share their knowledge and insights—because the entire Multiverse was habitable worlds, civilizations didn't need to fight each other to obtain abundant resources."
"That era was the ancient of ancients, existing only in the memories of stars. No contemporary civilization could know the stories of that era. Only gods, extracting information from worlds and Steel Force, could know a fraction of it."
"But that beautiful era suddenly ended one day."
The Earth Empress narrated calmly. The other three Empresses and Joshua listened quietly. When the gentle Earth Empress reached this point, she gently shook her head and continued: "Then, everything fell into dead silence and darkness. No star contained records of that era. It was a lost era far longer and more terrifying than the Lost Three Hundred Years."
"And after that lost era, Void Behemoths and Ancient Dragons were born."
The Earth Empress looked at Joshua and said calmly: "Many might think that Ancient Dragons and Void Behemoths are eternal life forms that have existed since the birth of the Multiverse, but this is wrong. According to the research of the Era of Radiance, Ancient Dragons and Void Behemoths both appeared abruptly after the beautiful era and the lost era. And at that time, the Era of Radiance had extremely unique insights into these two powerful but different Steel life forms."
"They believed that the existence of Void Behemoths was to ensure that even in the worst, most terrifying, most destructive circumstances of the Multiverse, worlds could still be born."
"And the significance of Ancient Dragons was to ensure that even when all stars were extinguished, countless worlds fell into termination, silence, and darkness, they could still gradually recover and nurture habitable worlds."
After saying this, the Earth Empress fell silent, seemingly only willing to say this much, and only knowing this much.
The entire hall momentarily froze.
(You, why are you saying so much?!)
(Pick something nice to say! A good exchange, and you've killed the conversation again!)
The other Fairy Empresses had been frantically signaling the Earth Empress, hinting at her, but she hadn't paid attention.
Since the atmosphere was too oppressive and Joshua's extremely serious expression was somewhat frightening, the Scorching Sun Empress casually picked a topic to continue: "Anyway, our initial idea of creating a world was roughly because of this... We wanted to find a method of creating new worlds, excluding the possibilities of Void Behemoths, Ancient Dragons, and natural Steel Force gestation."
"Mm." The Ocean Empress nodded, echoing: "So we directly abandoned the process of Steel Force condensation and directly shaped stable world structures."
As she spoke, she condensed a cup of tea and passed it to Joshua through the air: "Have a drink. You must be thirsty."
"Not thirsty, but thank you anyway."
Joshua happened to be ending his contemplation. He picked up the teacup and drank it all in one gulp. Hearing the Empresses' obviously forced topic, the warrior couldn't help but laugh: "It must be very difficult."
"Of course!"
Seeing the atmosphere lighten, the Ocean Empress immediately regained her spirits: "Super~ difficult! Look at the four of us, exhausted to the point of mental confusion. We haven't relaxed for centuries, spending every day fighting with this world and various unexpected phenomena!"
"Tell me about it. I really regret accepting the inheritance from the previous generation of Fairy Empresses."
"Completely deceived. I thought being an Empress would be easy!"
Hearing this, Joshua couldn't help but raise an eyebrow curiously: "The previous generation of Fairy Empresses? You mean those ancient fairies who lived through the Era of Radiance and the Lost Three Hundred Years?"
"First of all, you can't call them ancient. If they were still alive, they'd be angry." The Sky Mist Empress shook her head, then said: "As for whether they were, we're not sure. They should count. Anyway, before the calendar of the Era of Falling Stars was established, they died of severe injuries."
"Yes." The Scorching Sun Empress curled her lips: "During the Lost Three Hundred Years, the gods fought civil wars. Except for the strong who entered the Sanctuary, all races joined that war... Many Legendary beings, many gods weren't killed by Evil Gods, but were almost completely wiped out by civil war."
"At that time, it was like being under mental bewitchment. Killing was everywhere. The previous generation of Fairy Empresses didn't participate in the war but had to deal with attacks from other races... Anyway, even if some survived, looking at this barren land, most committed suicide out of shame, self-sealed, or even self-annihilated... Who knows why they fought so fiercely, even the Sage couldn't bear to watch and just left."
"Ah, don't talk about it. It's bad for the body..."
The Ocean Empress looked at the increasingly angry Scorching Sun Empress and couldn't help but sigh, advising kindly: "Have a drink of water."
"I'm not drinking your bathwater!"
The Scorching Sun Empress looked at the small teacup condensed before her and flew into a rage.
"This is part of my body!" The Ocean Empress also flew into a rage: "You despise me!"
"I do despise you! Isn't this just your bathwater? No, it's even more terrifying than bathwater! And I'm a Fire Element Fairy, why would I drink water? Take it away, take it away!"
Joshua didn't pay attention to the two Fairy Empresses' argument. He looked at the teacup in his hand and fell into contemplation again.
(What's wrong with these fairies...?)
The Earth Empress also didn't bother with her companions' petty squabbles. She slowly flew down from her throne, came before Joshua, and said softly: "Actually, the Sage might not have left because of disappointment."
"According to my speculation and the guesses of the previous generation of Fairy Empresses, the Sage might have discovered something. This matter must have been extremely urgent, far more important than the entire civilization of the Era of Radiance, which is why he had no time to stop the gods from killing each other and hurriedly left the Mycroft World."
The Earth Empress sighed: "However, he has long since departed. Instead of concerning ourselves with ancient legends, we should focus on the present."
"Don't you agree, Lord Count Radcliffe?"
Joshua didn't hesitate for long. He shook his head, then nodded: "Ancient things naturally have their time of need. Using past information as a guide, we can find more clues... But you're right."
"Everything serves the present."