Chapter 541: Forest of Elves

Chapter 541: The Elven Forest

Li Wei caught sight of several figures among the trees not far away.

It seemed he now knew where he was.

"The wooden people the Beast King spoke of... so he meant elves..."

Li Wei was speechless, finding it somewhat amusing.

Clearly, the Beast King didn't hold the elven race in high regard.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have called them “wooden people.”

Legend had it that the elves were born from the fruit of the World Tree.

So calling them wooden people wasn’t entirely inaccurate.

Li Wei and Saint Xi stood still where they were.

Soon, several elves surrounded the two of them.

"Humans? Beastkin? What a strange combination. Why are you here?"

The elf who had encircled Li Wei asked in the common tongue of the continent.

All the elves looked at the pair warily.

They had seen both Li Wei and Saint Xi fall from a spatial rift.

To emerge unscathed from such a rift—neither could be ordinary humans or beastkin.

Saint Xi, being referred to as a beastkin, was displeased.

"I’m not a beastkin," she said.

The female elf who had spoken raised an eyebrow, glancing at the twin horns atop Saint Xi’s head.

"Weren’t those a beastkin trait?"

"If not a beastkin, then what are you?"

Li Wei placed a hand on Saint Xi’s head and said, "Esteemed Elves, we apologize for our sudden arrival. But we are also victims—we were forcibly cast down here by someone else."

"Hmph. Regardless of your origins, leave the Elven Forest at once. This place has no welcome for humans or beastkin."

A male elf wielding a curved blade shouted loudly.

The female elf frowned upon hearing this and said, "Kolte, wait. Their arrival is rather suspicious. We must ascertain their identities first."

"Leya, you mean to take them back to our territory?" Kolte asked, surprised.

He hesitated. "But without the Sage's permission, no human or beastkin is allowed within our lands."

"This is a special circumstance. I'm sure the Sage will allow it," Leya replied.

"But... but—" Kolte still looked unconvinced.

Leya interrupted him sharply, her tone serious. "Kolte, do you know why I’ve never liked you?"

"Because you're too indecisive."

At that, Kolte’s face fell as though he’d lost a parent.

Leya made the decision to bring Li Wei and Saint Xi back to their territory for identity verification.

"If anything happens, I’ll take full responsibility," she declared honestly.

Seeing this, the others raised no objections.

Most sided with Leya anyway.

There was no helping it—they had all witnessed Li Wei and Saint Xi falling from the spatial rift with their own eyes.

If they were merely lost humans who had wandered into the Elven Forest, they could simply be driven out.

But the way these two arrived was too extraordinary.

Everyone wanted to uncover the truth behind it.

Leya turned to Li Wei and Saint Xi. "Please cooperate with us."

"If you refuse, I’m afraid I’ll have to resort to forceful measures."

Li Wei and Saint Xi exchanged a glance before replying, "Alright, no problem. We’ll cooperate."

Inwardly, Li Wei couldn’t help but sigh.

The gap between beastkin and elves truly was vast!

One side barbaric and brutish, the other civilized and elegant.

No wonder elves and beastkin had never gotten along.

Leya and the others escorted Li Wei and Saint Xi toward the elven territory.

Saint Xi and Li Wei communicated secretly in their minds, keeping their expressions unchanged.

Saint Xi: *The second artifact is up ahead.*

Li Wei: *Oh? Is it in the territory we’re heading to?*

Saint Xi: *Probably not. I feel there’s still some distance left.*

Li Wei: *Then it must be deep within the Elven Forest. Perhaps even in the imperial capital of the Elven Empire.*

He deduced this based on how the stone had been located in the beastkin imperial capital.

Li Wei was curious—why would the sacred dragon’s relic be hidden in places as unrelated as the beastkin empire and the elven empire?

Did the elven and beastkin empires even have any connection to the sacred dragons?

He asked Saint Xi about it.

"Did the sacred dragons have deep ties with elves and beastkin in the past?"

Saint Xi: *I don’t think so. I have no memory of such things.*

Li Wei: *Is that so?*

He remained uncertain. Perhaps Saint Xi simply hadn’t awakened those memories yet.

Whatever the case, he’d take it one step at a time. Eventually, the hidden truth would reveal itself.

Suddenly, Li Wei recalled something the Beast King had said.

An ominous feeling stirred in his heart.

If the second artifact really was in the hands of the elves, they might not be as willing as the Beast King to hand it over.

The Beast King had mentioned that the second artifact held unusual significance for the elven race.

Following the elves, they entered the elven territory.

The land was filled with towering trees, thick vines linking them together to form aerial walkways.

The elves lived in natural hollows formed within the massive trees.

Apart from the hollows in the trees, the ground was still covered with a great number of giant, plant-based structures that had grown from fruit.

There were massive pumpkins turned into dwellings, measuring over twenty meters in diameter and standing more than five meters tall.

Virtually no man-made urban architecture could be seen anywhere.

Levi found himself thoroughly surprised; was the Elven race truly so deeply entwined with nature?

Long ago, in the ancient era when the Elves ruled as the sovereigns of the Firmament Continent.

The ancient Elves had always been renowned for their nobility and magnificent, gilded splendor.

With so many years having passed, had the once-noble ancient Elves truly degenerated to such a point?

Or could it be that the Elven race had simply returned to nature.

The arrival of a human and an orc in the Elven territory drew many curious glances from the clansmen.

Quite a few fine-featured, elegant Elves with sharply pointed ears poked their heads out from their chambers to peer at the passing duo.

The Elves, regardless of gender, possessed an exceedingly exquisite beauty.

Levi had heard that the nobles of the human empires were particularly fond of purchasing Elven slaves.

Whether male or female, keeping them in the household was highly pleasing to the eye.

However, whenever such nobles were discovered by the Elven race, their ultimate fates were usually far from pleasant.

The vast majority of the Elven slave trade was conducted in the shadows.

Few people dared to bring it into the light or trade in Elven captives with open defiance.

Though the Elven Empire had grown weak and retreated to the security of the Elven Forest.

They had, at the very least, once been the rulers of this world; a starved camel was still larger than a horse, and their strength remained formidable.

This state of affairs was quite similar to the plight of the Orc Empire.

The only difference was that the Elven Forest inhabited by the Elves was markedly superior to the northern wastes where the orcs resided.

Thud!

Levi and Sanxi were locked inside a wooden cabin.

The grated door was shut tightly by the Elven guards.

He looked back through the wooden bars and saw the few Elves who had brought him into the territory walking toward a colossal baobab tree.

That was the largest tree within this entire Elven settlement.

Sanxi looked toward Levi and asked, "What do we do next?"

Levi replied, "No need to rush, let us first figure out exactly where we are."

The two sat down facing one another.

Levi quietly cast an illusion art, shaping a tiny illusory bee that flew out through the gaps in the grated door.

The guard at the threshold glanced at the bee flying past his side, finding it slightly strange, but he did not give it much thought.

Within the forest, many small creatures naturally lived out their lives, and the Elves would never actively harm animals or insects.

Even when it came to the living trees, they would never choose to cut them down.

Because of this, Levi could see that the entirety of the Elven territory was composed of naturally grown flora.

Levi used the little bee to scout the Elven territory, eavesdropping on the conversations of the Elven folk to understand their current location.

The Elven people conversed entirely in the Elven tongue.

Levi had never learned it.

However, he had acquired the spell "Comprehend Languages" from the mage tower back in Maple Leaf City.

Comprehend Languages was a second-tier spell.

Once the spell was active, Levi could understand everything the other Elven folk were saying.

Sanxi, on the other hand, possessed the innate high-tier language comprehension inherent to the Dragon clan.

Dragons were naturally capable of understanding the languages of the vast majority of living creatures.

This was perhaps one of the reasons why dragon-blooded creatures were so widely distributed.

"Did you see the two outsiders who arrived in the Green Tree Territory today?"

"I heard it is a human and an orc; how could a human and an orc possibly be together?"

"The humans outside have been entering the Elven Forest to poach so frequently of late, it is an endless nuisance; what should we do?"

"This must be a test by the humans against our race; we must strike back fiercely and teach them a lesson!"

"Regrettably, the Lord does not permit us to leave the Elven Forest."

...

Levi guided the little bee across the Green Tree Territory, overhearing a great deal of conversation among the Elves.

He gained a preliminary understanding of their current location.

"This is the edge of the Elven Forest, very close to human territory, and it is frequently subjected to human harassment."

"This Elven domain is called the Green Tree Territory, and the highest authority is the Lord."

Levi looked toward the massive baobab tree not far away; that ought to be the manor of the Lord of the Green Tree Territory.

Thus, the few Elves who had left earlier must have gone to find the Lord of the Green Tree Territory.

One could only wonder what the attitude of this Elven Lord might be.

If possible, Levi naturally hoped to obtain the second token peacefully.

At the very least, he wished to reach the imperial capital of the Elven Empire in peace.

This was merely the edge of the forest, while Florence, the imperial capital of the Elven Empire, was located at the very heart of the Elven Forest.

There was still a considerable distance left to travel.

The sound of footsteps approached from not far away, drawing Levi back from his thoughts.

He looked outside to see the female Elf who had previously brought him to the territory walking over.

Behind her followed two Elven sentries clad in green armor.

The female Elf said to the guard at the door, "Open the gate, the Lord wishes to see them."

Seeing the two personal guards of the Lord behind her, the sentry nodded, turning to unlock the heavy door of the cage.

"Come out."

Levi and Sanxi exchanged a glance and stepped out of the confinement.

The female Elf addressed the two of them, "The Green Tree Lord wishes to see you both; if you can answer his questions, you will leave this place unharmed."

Levi said, "Thank you."

The female Elf offered no pleasantry in return, simply turning to lead the way.

The Lord's personal guards stepped beside Levi and Sanxi, saying, "Please follow us."

Liwei and Sanxi were led before the colossal baobab tree.

The titanic baobab, spanning over fifty meters in diameter, loomed like a grand edifice.

Numerous window-like hollows punctured its flank, allowing shafts of sunlight to pierce the massive interior.

Guided by the lord's personal guard, Liwei and Sanxi ascended the wooden stairways winding through the baobab's heart, arriving at the pinnacle of the manor.

There, they met the master of the Green Tree Territory.

He was a handsome elf with golden hair, whose visage appeared youthful, yet his eyes bore the weathering of ages, and the faint lines tracing the corners of his eyes betrayed a span of years far greater than his appearance suggested.

The elven race typically endured for millennia.

The Lord of the Green Tree before them was in all likelihood an elf who had already lived for centuries.

"My Lord, we shall take our leave now."

"Mhm."

Thud!

The elven guard shut the heavy door upon exiting the chamber.

Only Liwei, Sanxi, and the Lord of the Green Tree remained within the room.

The lord seemed entirely unconcerned that Liwei and Sanxi might have come to assassinate him.

This stemmed partly from an innate confidence in his own prowess.

And partly from Liwei's identity as a mage.

The Lord of the Green Tree spoke, "Greetings, archmage of humanity. I am Delven, the Lord of the Green Tree Territory."

Seeing this, Liwei hastily returned a proper magus salute.

He introduced himself, "Greetings, honorable Lord. I am Liwei, and she is Sanxi."

"We are both travelers who have arrived in the Elven Forest by mere accident."

Netzha Delven nodded and said, "Yes, I have heard of your plight. It was indeed a peculiar accident."

"However, I am somewhat curious—who was it that sent you into the Elven Forest?"

S