Chapter 76: Is this the territory of the Dark Elves? The truth: The Mother Tree and it...

What was going on?

Was everything before him real or false, a dream or an illusion?

Could this be another illusion that crossed time and space, like the one that had appeared when he played and sang the Elven poem?

But that could not be right!

The Elven poem had been infused with magic, which was why it had created an illusion. He had only just cast a low-level purification spell. There was no reason it should have triggered the same phenomenon.

Wait, magic?

Even the lowest-level purification spell was still magic. Besides, the sphere of light had abruptly exploded with terrifying power far beyond anything a tiny Mage Apprentice like him should have been capable of producing.

Shu Li had never forgotten that the “people” within the illusions could see him. When he noticed the two Dark Elves beneath the tree, both emanating sinister auras, he carefully concealed his tiny body behind a branch. He held his breath as much as possible and sat as still and silent as a quail.

Until he understood the situation, he dared not act recklessly.

He had only fought those terrifying Dark Elves a few days ago, and the experience still haunted him. Now two more had appeared, doubling the severity of the crisis. If he exposed himself, his little life would definitely be over.

Shu Li gripped the magic staff tightly in one hand and covered his mouth with the other.

The two Dark Elves stopped in front of the trunk and raised their heads to count the grayish-blue fruits hanging from the branches.

“...Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen... fifteen.” One of the Dark Elves, whose hair was tied back, curled his lips. “Fifteen new fruits this year. In another fifty years, a new group of cubs will be born.”

“The mother tree is producing fruit faster and faster. Twenty cubs were born only half a month ago.” The short-haired Dark Elf frowned.

“Heh.” The Dark Elf with tied-back hair chuckled. “If a race cannot even produce cubs, its extinction cannot be far away.”

“Are you talking about the white Elves?” the short-haired Dark Elf asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Who else?” the other Dark Elf replied sarcastically. “I hear they haven’t had a single newborn cub in five hundred years. How pitiful!”

“They certainly are pitiful.” The short-haired Dark Elf gave a gloomy snort. “And even more hateful.”

The Dark Elf with tied-back hair turned and said leisurely, “Don’t worry. Sooner or later, we’ll return. The Faerie Forest and the Elven Kingdom will both fall into the hands of us Dark Elves.”

“I’ve had enough of this barren land.” The short-haired Dark Elf followed him. “By the way, have you heard anything about Roald lately?”

“Roald? That bastard who sank so low that he joined forces with pirates?” The Dark Elf with tied-back hair spoke with disdain. “It’s true that I haven’t heard anything about him in a long time. Why? Do you need something from him?”

“Six months ago, I commissioned him to find a type of poisonous sandstone used in potion-making,” the short-haired Dark Elf said. “He still hasn’t delivered it.”

The Dark Elf with tied-back hair shook his head. “I’m afraid your money is gone for good. If you could afford to hire him, you would have been better off visiting an underground auction house yourself. It would have been faster.”

“Why?” The short-haired Dark Elf was puzzled. “I met Roald at an underground auction house. He told me that he supplied the auction house and could easily obtain any rare item. He also said his prices were reasonable, several times cheaper than the auction house’s.”

The Dark Elf with tied-back hair turned to look at him. “Effit, are you truly a Dark Elf?”

The short-haired Dark Elf called Effit replied irritably, “Of course I am!”

The other Dark Elf spread his hands. “Then why are you so naive? Even if you only recently came of age, you should know about Roald’s atrocious reputation.”

“I know he was kidnapped by pirates when he was young...” Effit murmured. “But he and I belong to the same race.”

“He hates the Dark Elf race!” the other Dark Elf said gravely. “You should be grateful he didn’t trick you aboard his pirate ship when you met him. Otherwise, you would still be counting his money for him after he sold you.”

Effit fell silent.

The Dark Elf with tied-back hair patted him on the shoulder and softened his tone slightly. “Effit, remember this: any Dark Elf who did not grow up in Vanaku is not a true Dark Elf.”

Effit lowered his head. “Yes. I’ll remember.”

The two Dark Elves continued talking as they walked and soon vanished from sight.

Only when Shu Li could no longer hear their voices did he dare poke his head out from behind the leaf. He lowered the hand covering his mouth and took several deep breaths.

A raging storm had risen within his heart.

When he first appeared in this strange giant tree, he had assumed he had entered another illusion crossing time and space. But when the two Dark Elves mentioned the name “Roald,” he was stunned.

Roald was the Dark Elf who had invaded the Faerie Forest with the necromancer and the pirates.

That meant this was not an illusion.

It was reality.

Vanaku was the homeland of the Dark Elves, unimaginably far from the Elven Kingdom. The strange giant tree he was crouching in was the mother tree that nurtured Dark Elves!

Ten thousand years ago, some Elves corrupted by darkness betrayed their race. They cut a branch from the mother tree, fled to Vanaku, and planted it there.

From that moment onward, the Dark Elves existed on the continent.

The current Dark Elf King was the very “bad person” the mother tree often mentioned to Shu Li.

He had corrupted the branch with the power of darkness and planted it in the heart of Vanaku. Ever since then, Dark Elf cubs had been born in an endless stream, while the mother tree’s main trunk among the white Elves withered by the day and had not nurtured a single new Elf cub in five hundred years.

Staring at the giant tree laden with grayish-blue fruits, Shu Li could not understand how casting a purification spell had somehow “teleported” him into Dark Elf territory.

He certainly did not believe himself so extraordinarily gifted that he could cross space with a single low-level spell.

What was he supposed to do now?

Sitting on the thick branch, Shu Li sank into anxiety.

How was he supposed to return to the Elven Kingdom and the Crystal Castle?

This place was fraught with danger, with evil Dark Elves everywhere. He did not dare move at all.

Even if he somehow escaped Vanaku, he would have no idea how to return to the Faerie Forest.

The journey was far, far, far too long.

Just as Shu Li was burning with anxiety, the familiar ethereal voice sounded in his mind.

“Little Sperien... quickly... While there are no Dark Elves nearby... cast another purification spell on me...”

Shu Li stiffened and stared incredulously at the branch beneath his feet.

“...Little Sperien... can you hear me?”

Coming back to his senses, Shu Li replied uncertainly through his thoughts.

“Mother tree?”

“Yes, it’s me! It’s me!”

“Where... are you?”

“What you’re standing on... is me!”

“You mean... this tree that nurtures the Dark Elves is also you?”

“That’s right... Didn’t I tell you before? A bad person cut off one of my branches... planted it in land filled with darkness... and corrupted me...”

“But you never told me the branch was also you!”

Shu Li was completely dumbfounded.

Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that the mother tree in the Elven Kingdom and the branch in Vanaku shared the same consciousness.

“Were you the one who brought me here?” Shu Li demanded angrily.

“Little Sperien... let me explain... Waaah... I didn’t want to do it either... but only you can help me... Waaah...”

“Stop crying! Why are you so certain I can help you?”

“...Let me explain...”

“Fine. I’m listening.”

Shu Li found a leaf and used it to conceal himself.

He was inside enemy territory and could not afford the slightest carelessness. If he was discovered, no one would be able to save him.

Not even the Elven King.

He was much too far away!

Still, the mother tree truly deserved to be called an ancient divine tree. Her powers were astonishing. She had actually “stolen” him all the way from the Elven Kingdom to Vanaku.

“...It’s a long story... Ten thousand years ago... a bad person cut off one of my branches...”

“Make a long story short! Get to the point.”

“Mmm... All... all right...”

Shu Li listened quietly while the ethereal voice echoed through his mind. After quite some time, he finally understood.

Ten thousand years ago, the current Dark Elf King, Ang Orakiri, cut a branch from the mother tree, took it to Vanaku, and planted it in the most corrupted soil.

At first, the branch showed no sign of taking root or sprouting.

Ang Orakiri used a forbidden object left to him by the God of Darkness and fused it into the branch. Corrupted by darkness, the branch finally accepted the tainted land, took root in that foreign place, and grew into a complete tree.

However, unlike the main trunk, the tree grown from the branch was distorted beyond recognition.

Its branches were purple-black, its leaves were deep green, and even its fruits were grayish-blue. It looked exactly like an evil tree growing in the abyss of hell.

Not only that, but the branch’s root system was extraordinarily extensive.

Over ten thousand years of growth, its roots had stretched underground from Vanaku, crossed half the continent, and reached the Elven Kingdom, where they came into contact with the mother tree’s main trunk.

The branch’s roots wrapped themselves around the main trunk’s root system, severely corrupting it. Even someone as powerful as the Elven King could not purify it.

The roots were intertwined too tightly. They had merged into a single mass and could no longer be distinguished from one another. They could not even be severed.

As time passed, the branch gradually devoured the vitality of the mother tree’s main trunk.

Slowly, the main trunk became a bare, ugly tree, while the branch flourished and bore abundant fruit. Dark Elf cubs were born one after another.

Meanwhile, no new cubs had been born among the white Elves for five hundred years.

As for the mother tree’s consciousness, the corruption of darkness had severely damaged it, leaving it somewhat... intellectually impaired.

All right, “intellectually impaired” was Shu Li’s assessment. The mother tree firmly refused to admit that anything was wrong with her consciousness.

She had been trying hard to save herself and firmly believed that purifying the branch would solve every problem.

“Little Sperien... only you can help me...”

After learning the truth, Shu Li deeply sympathized with the mother tree and felt anxious on her behalf, but he truly was powerless!

“How did you bring me here?”

The most urgent matter was still finding a way back to the Elven Kingdom.

“The roots... The branch’s root system forms a spatial passage... Through it... you can teleport directly...”

Shu Li detected a tiny note of pride in the ethereal voice.

He desperately wanted to make a sarcastic remark, but to coax more information from the mother tree, he could only ask patiently, “If you have a spatial passage, why don’t you teleport the Elves here to purify the branch?”

The purification spells of Mage Sovereign-level Elves had already reached perfection. As long as they exercised caution and avoided confronting the Dark Elves directly, they would have every opportunity to purify the branch. The strongest among them might even be able to steal the branch and take it back to the Elven Kingdom.

“...They can’t... They can’t enter the spatial passage... Only you can... Little Sperien... you are unique...”

Shu Li was astonished. He recalled the strange illusions he had entered several times before and how the “people” inside them had noticed him.

He had once asked the Elven King whether he remembered ever seeing Shu Li before.

The Elven King had said no.

That answer had dispelled Shu Li’s doubts.

However, what had happened today forced him to believe that he possessed the ability to cross time and space.

Perhaps his transmigration from his original world into this other world had not been an accident.

Shu Li’s thoughts were a jumbled mess, rapidly turning into paste.

“How can I return to the Elven Kingdom?”

If he truly possessed the ability to cross time and space, there had to be some condition that triggered it.

“Little Sperien... don’t be in such a hurry to leave... Purify part of me first... We’ll do it secretly... If we’re lucky... we might even steal a fruit and take it back with us...”

“—Have you lost your mind?”

Steal a fruit?

How had she even come up with that?

She should take a good look at who he was!

A tiny, tiny Little Fairy who knew only basic magic!

“You can do it... This isn’t the first time we’ve done something like this...”

“What do you mean, ‘This isn’t the first time’?”

Shu Li frowned.

He was absolutely certain that this was the first time the mother tree had tricked him into entering Dark Elf territory. They had not even begun doing anything yet, so how could this possibly not be their first time?

“...Oh... I misspoke... This is our first time... but we’ll definitely succeed...”

The mother tree sounded somewhat guilty. When Shu Li questioned her again, she refused to reveal another word.

The corruption of darkness really had scrambled her memories and damaged her consciousness, hadn’t it?

Shu Li tightened his grip on the magic staff, unable to decide what to do.

If he refused the mother tree’s request, she might be unwilling to send him back to the Elven Kingdom.

However, casting a purification spell required him to recite an incantation.

Reciting an incantation meant making noise, and making noise would attract the Dark Elves’ attention.

His personal safety was at stake. He had to consider the matter carefully.