After ten years of unremitting effort, a magnificent Divine Tree Altar was finally completed.
At the center of the Divine Tree Altar, a new Divine Tree flourished.
Whenever the full moon arrived, its branches would bloom with crystal-clear pink Moon Tears, emitting a captivating glow.
These Moon Tears could not only remove various curses but also bestow people with a powerful form of eternal life.
The immortality curse granted by the Moon Tears was essentially similar to creating a lich's phylactery.
As long as the phylactery remained intact, a person could live forever, but at the same time, they could never leave the range of the phylactery.
Furthermore, Frank and the others' ability to revive was not without cost.
The reason they appeared capable of reviving infinitely was entirely because their bound phylactery was the Amazon River.
As the source of life for the entire Amazon, the Amazon River contained vitality and life energy beyond imagination, making its reserves appear inexhaustible.
But in reality, if they had been bound to a nearby stream or a small hill,
it would not have been enough to support such rapid resurrection. Dying repeatedly within a short period would likely have exhausted all the vitality of that land.
Moreover, this kind of land-bound immortal, restricted to a specific region, was unsuitable for use as a soldier.
Therefore, Shaw decided to change the binding target of the immortality curse, at least making it portable.
Based on the characteristics of this curse, Shaw used Moon Tears and gemstones to create a Seed of Immortality, which he named the Soul Stone.
The Soul Stone could change the curse's binding target to the gemstone itself and transfer a person's will into it.
It could be said that as long as one was bound to the Soul Stone, one could use their own will as fuel.
As long as their will did not perish, they themselves would never die.
Only when they fell into complete despair and their will collapsed could they truly be killed.
With the help of the Moon Tears, Shaw successfully assembled an Undying Army for himself.
In a very short period of time, Shaw unified the entire Southeast Asian region and actively joined World War II.
Using the power of the Moon Tears and his Undying Army, he frantically seized enormous wartime profits.
At the same time, he used his vast wealth to recruit top talents from all over the world, allowing them to develop increasingly advanced and powerful weapons for him.
This development model almost perfectly replicated the rise of the United States.
Most importantly, Shaw never had to worry about his subordinates dying in battle, because he possessed the power to grant them eternal life.
Moreover, as long as he held their Soul Stones, Shaw did not even need to worry about betrayal.
The moment they lost possession of their Soul Stones, they would immediately become rigid, motionless corpses.
With advanced technology and a fearless Undying Legion, Shaw's power expanded rapidly, and he began establishing military bases across the world, gradually conquering it.
However, it was at this moment that Shaw was summoned into the Great Firmament Arena.
The Great Firmament Arena officially began.
The representatives of both sides were:
The Lord of Dreams from the Magic World,
and the Undying Emperor from the Fantasy Adventure World.
It was an intense confrontation between magic and modern civilization.
Although the two sides appeared evenly matched on the surface, the reality was completely one-sided.
Before the Lord of Dreams Xiao's massive-area Hypnotic Mist, every member of the Undying Army was completely powerless to resist and instantly fell asleep.
Xiao then dragged all of them into dreams and mercilessly ravaged them.
Against enemies with immortal bodies, there was no need to destroy their flesh.
After leading everyone into dreams with the Hypnotic Mist, the succubi easily drained away their life essence.
Even their soul power was completely extracted, ultimately leaving behind nothing but a pile of residue.
...
...
When the Great Firmament Arena ended, Xiao obtained everything belonging to the Undying Emperor.
His expression became somewhat strange.
After all, the Soul Stone reminded him of a certain BYD's Kyubey.
Overall, however, the Soul Stone was indeed an excellent treasure, and so was the Divine Tree.
Both were worthy of further research.
Afterward, Xiao began studying the Divine Tree's power while incorporating the powers of Emotional Nightmare and Arc of Embodiment Magic into the Soul Stone.
When he held a Soul Stone and had a beautiful young girl make a wish filled with intense emotion,
he suddenly realized that he had truly become QB.
(Arc of Embodiment Magic: A magic capable of turning imagination into reality under certain restrictions and conditions. It requires intense emotions and concentration.)
After acting as QB for a while, Xiao eventually abandoned Soul Stone 2.0.
Using the despair of young girls to cultivate Nightmares and harvest spiritual power felt somewhat cruel.
So, after completing his experiments, Xiao immediately withdrew all the Soul Stones because he simply couldn't bring himself to continue using them.
Instead, he distributed them to the armies of the Undying Empire.
They would maintain their immortality through their steadfast and unyielding will.
Even if their wills eventually burned out and turned into despair, that despair would give birth to Nightmares, transforming into even greater power to continue fighting.
And even if those Nightmares were eventually destroyed, Shaw could still recover a fresh batch of pure spiritual energy.
"Hmm, what a perfect cycle of utilization~"
Xiao couldn't help sighing.
He truly was a little genius, making full use of every last grain of rice in his bowl.
...
Afterward, Xiao once again returned to his peaceful life of pursuing beauty while also keeping an eye on everything happening within Fairy Tail.
He watched Natsu and his companions fight battle after battle.
From their conflict with Eisenwald,
to the S-Class request,
and then to Phantom Lord's invasion, one of Fairy Tail's three major crises,
Xiao remained a silent observer, only making a move whenever there was sufficient benefit.
For example, he researched the Dark Guild Eisenwald's ultimate weapon:
Lullaby, the Cursed Song.
A flute demon created by the Dark Mage Zeref, capable of unleashing devastating large-scale destruction through its cursed melody.
Eisenwald intended to use Lullaby to curse the guild masters of every guild, throwing the magic world into chaos in order to obtain greater power.
Although the plan itself was excellent, Eisenwald's overall strength was simply too weak.
As a result, Lullaby was ultimately sealed away and taken into Xiao's collection.
Through his research on the flute demon, Xiao observed some of Zeref's creation techniques and also acquired Cursed Song Magic.
This magic was somewhat similar to Karthus's ultimate skill, Requiem, as both could curse and kill enemies over an enormous area from long distances, making them extremely effective for clearing out miscellaneous troops.
Later, Natsu secretly accepted an S-Class request without authorization and headed to Galuna Island, only to discover that someone was using Moon Drip to unseal the forbidden demon Deliora, which had been frozen by Iced Shell.
Iced Shell: A forbidden Ice Magic that sacrifices the caster's own life by transforming their body into absolute ice, permanently sealing the target.
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