Death... and me

Cynthia pondered in silence over the situation for a bit before coming out. "Everyone, stop the caravan for now. Come and see me after that."

The caravan soon stopped, and the travelers quickly gathered around Cynthia. Obviously, Rean and Roan did the same.

Seeing that everyone was there, Cynthia began to talk, explaining, "I just received news that Ukilas Valley has already been occupied by bandits again. Our travel was based on the window created by the Royal Army's clean-up, but we decided to stop for the lake, so we lost it. Now, we have two choices ahead of us. We can either go around the valley, which will increase our travel time to at least three more weeks, and there's no guarantee we won't find bandits on the way either. Or we can go through the valley and fight our way if we get attacked. The good thing is that the army has just passed by there, so there shouldn't be many enemies. Perhaps we won't even need to fight at all."

Cynthia then looked at the merchants who paid for the protection with a serious expression, asking them, "So, which one do you want? The long route or the short route?"

The merchants began to discuss with one another through Divine Sense before they finally came to a decision. "We must take the short route as our goods can't wait that long anymore. If we take the longer path, we will lose most of them. We might as well try the valley and abandon the caravan's goods if things really go south."

Another merchant then spoke with a smile on his face, saying, "In any case, the Divine Stream Lake alone was already worth more than the profits we could get from the sales. Even if we do lose everything, we won't end up on the losing side anyway."

The guards couldn't help but laugh as they agreed. "Hahaha! Well said! We wanted a good challenge to get used to our new cultivations anyway, so this will be a nice opportunity."

Rean and Roan didn't really care that much. If anything, Roan agreed with what the guard said.

Cynthia nodded in the end, accepting their decision as she said, "Well, Ukilas Valley it is."

Sure enough, they didn't encounter many obstacles on their way to the valley other than a few random attacks from demon beasts. Along the way, Rean and Roan saw the arid environment gradually turn green and lush. Eventually, they arrived at the valley's entrance.

Ukilas Valley was anything but small. The mountains surrounding it were innumerous, and each one of them was too tall for one to see the top with their eyes alone. As for the path in between, that was who knows how many times longer than any other valley Rean and Roan had seen in the past.

Well, in fact, they hadn't seen anything yet. It was Cynthia who explained to them how big it was when she was inquired about the distance to pass through.

'Can this even be considered a valley? If she's telling the truth, the total distance should be at least five or more thousand kilometers! Holy shit!' Rean couldn't help but comment on it through Divine Sense with the others.

Sister Orb knew what everyone was thinking, so she explained. [You can't judge the Realm of Gods by your planet's standards. Divine Energy affects everything in the Realm of Gods, just like how Spiritual Energy did in the Realm of Mortals. For example, did you notice how much 'bigger' everything in this half of Universe with Spiritual Energy was compared to the other half that doesn't have it?]

Sister Orb continued. [Take Rean's Earth for comparison. Sunkan Planet alone would be enough to fit over a hundred Earths. Now we're in the Realm of Gods, where Divine Energy exists. As a higher type of energy, it's only proper that most things get even bigger. They have the support of Divine Energy to turn out like that.]

Rean and Roan had been to the other half of the universe before in their previous life, so they had to admit Sister Orb was right. Especially Roan, who had seen many planets and races. There wasn't a single planet on the side of the universe without Spiritual Energy that could compare to Sunkan alone.

If Rean and Roan were still in the Realm of Mortals, they wouldn't care that much about such a distance. After all, they could fly, and the power they could display was ten times bigger or maybe even higher than what they could do in the Realm of Gods. One must not forget that the restriction on everyone's power due to the Realm of Gods' environment made them much weaker.

'Even if we fly on Kentucky's back all the way, we would need at least three or four days.' Kentucky's flight speed was obviously affected as well.

'Cynthia said that the caravan will move at a higher pace to try and clear the path in two to three weeks at most,' Roan said. 'Though, it isn't as if this is a lot of time.'

Celis also pointed something out. 'That explains why there are so many bandits here. Many caravans probably try to pass undetected due to the valley's size. It's just that Cynthia wanted to use that Royal Army's clean-up or whatever to bring a much bigger caravan in a single go. That's where the problem resides as the numbers here will make it quite hard to hide.'

'Don't worry, I can at least prevent us from being ambushed.' Kentucky looked very confident. 'After all, I can scout from the air for any dangers.'

Roan nodded as he looked at everyone. 'We haven't had the chance to fight under the Realm of Gods' rules since only small amounts of weak demon beasts have appeared so far. This is probably the best chance to test it against sentient enemies, and we'll most likely bump against them. I've been trying it out, and I believe the power we can display at the moment is equivalent to what we unleashed when we were at the Core Formation Realm or Stage Three. Fight with that in mind.'

Rean, Celis, and Kentucky nodded in response. 'Alright.'

The caravan traversed Ukilas Valley until...nothing happened.