Chapter 357: 132. The Moon Princess’s Teacher
In the depths of the Sema Mountain range, no one had ever recorded such a phenomenon. The space here twisted and folded; clearly, a mountain peak was right in front of you, yet as you walked toward it, you would suddenly find yourself at a very distant peak. Your sense of sight was constantly deceived, and only the mist floating among the distorted snow mountains added a certain charm to this utterly unimaginable scene.
“Be careful, the paths here are strange. If you take a wrong step, you might suddenly end up in a very far-off place, a place that even our elders haven’t documented; if you go there, you won’t be able to come back.”
Fisher had originally intended to ask this group of female trolls about Valentina’s tribe, taking advantage of their respect for her. However, these individuals were clumsy with words and remembered very little, mostly just the situation of their own male trolls. When asked anything, they would always suggest, “Why don’t you ask the elder in the tribe?” Fisher was left speechless.
In the end, without other options, he could only follow this group of trolls to see where they lived. The air around was still thin, and the cold wind blew incessantly. Facing such wind, he slowly pulled his thoughts away from the terrifying depiction of Baemon that Emhart had shared earlier, though he still tightly gripped the frame of that picture.
Valentina saw him holding the painting and thought he was worried about Baemon. She realized that she wasn’t able to help him, so she gently reached out her little hand to rub his shoulder, interrupting Fisher’s contemplation about the clues regarding Renee.
He turned to look, only to find that Valentina had buried her head behind him, making it impossible for him to see her face.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, nothing. I just think this place is so magical, even the space is twisted. Can nature really do such things?”
Fisher remembered the myth he had seen in the corridor. Suddenly, he recalled that the corridor had been very dark, and she hadn’t seen anything. He realized he had forgotten to tell her about that myth, so he took the chance during this journey with the trolls to summarize the myth for her.
Valentina listened with great interest, seeming to have never heard this story elsewhere. Emhart, who had finally begun to revive from the trauma of Baemon, suddenly said while looking at the distant twisted sky, “The World Tree, right. Fisher, have you heard of the Elf Race?”
“No, is it a type of subhuman?”
“Ah, and it’s a very disgusting and cruel mythical race that likes to use other intelligent beings as seeds to grow trees. They live in a large tree even further south than the Southern Continent. That tree is their home, their mother, and the deity of their faith. They call that disgusting being the ‘World Tree,’ which sounds a lot like the giant tree in this myth.”
When the Elf Race was mentioned, Emhart felt energized, almost wanting to burst out of Fisher’s arms to slap those trolls. However, perhaps because of the lingering fear from Baemon, he only flipped around in Fisher’s pocket and said angrily, “Those guys are enemies to the Holy Spawn; they’re truly wicked. Luckily, they and that damned tree perished in the Mythical War; otherwise, you all would have been turned into trees by them. But I’ve heard that they can travel to different places in the world through the branches of that World Tree.”
Fisher silently noted what Emhart said, but he currently had no other evidence to indicate the relationship between the previous giant tree and the World Tree.
“The World Tree, huh.”
At that moment, Valentina raised her head and gazed at the twisted mountains floating in the sky. In a daze, she seemed to see Cangniao flying freely in the sky, and along the path they were walking, there should have been many different races walking around. Further away, there should be countless voices in conversation, many buildings floating in the sky, and the faint glow of Ice Divine Light.
Valentina rubbed her eyes, and in the next second, the lively scene disappeared without a trace, leaving only the cold howling wind and the trolls that accompanied them.
Was this a prophecy?
Or was it the past of this place?
Valentina didn’t understand, only feeling that the environment around her was incredibly mysterious. At that moment, she noticed that her originally pale silver eyes had become increasingly bright, as if two beautiful Ice Crystals were embedded in her eyes.
“Hazara is back!!”
“Wait, it seems they brought someone else back.”
Reaching the trolls’ dwelling wasn’t easy, as the path leading to the depths of Sema Snow Mountain was an area these trolls needed to organize patrols for. Even though these individuals were four meters tall, it would still take half an hour to return.
When the trolls led Fisher through a spatial leap, they suddenly appeared in another mountain hidden in the mist. Upon entering this misty peak, Fisher suddenly heard lively voices. He looked around and saw a massive stone structure in the flat area between the mountains, similar to the broken walls and ruins he had seen before.
In several tower-like buildings, where the doors were six or seven meters high, many green-faced female trolls were continuously looking this way and shouting from a distance. Outside this settlement, several troll children of similar height to Valentina were playing, and farther away, Fisher thought he heard some animal cries, accompanied by a few male trolls with blue appearances carrying stone basins and stone bowls out of their rooms.
Fisher focused on the group of male trolls. The female trolls usually stood four to five meters tall, while the male trolls were generally only two to three meters tall. They were relatively slender and handsome, and their faces had no tusks, instead sporting smooth blue long hair. The markings on their faces were not sharp but rather soft and delicate like clouds, which made Fisher raise his eyebrows in surprise.
No wonder the Sardinian people inheriting troll blood would exhibit such a peculiar situation of “Yin and Yang reversed”; the difference in appearance between male and female trolls was too obvious!
“Haraza, who did you bring back? Didn’t the elder say that any creature that intrudes through the ‘Phoenix Bridge’ should be killed?”
At that moment, a male troll dressed in a white robe, standing over two meters tall, approached. Unlike the stammering female trolls, the male troll had a gleam in his eyes and spoke with clear logic. He glanced at Fisher and Valentina on his back, then shot a glare at Haraza, who had shrunk back.
“I’m not the Phoenix; the Phoenix has come back! Her eyes are just like what the elder said, filled with the light of divine ice.”
“The Phoenix?!”
“Let me see!”
“It’s the Frost Phoenix! It’s the Frost Phoenix my father spoke of that has returned!”
As soon as this was said, all the trolls exclaimed, and the previously quiet village immediately became noisy. The male troll in the white robe was slightly taken aback. He furrowed his brows and quickly locked his gaze on Valentina, leaning against Fisher. After a moment of hesitation, he turned to Fisher and said,
“Can you let her open her eyes and take a look?”
Fisher was slightly taken aback upon hearing this. He turned to look behind him, only to find that Valentina had leaned entirely against his back, breathing heavily and seemingly struggling to catch her breath.
“Valentina?”
Hearing Fisher’s call, Valentina slowly opened her eyes. In his somewhat surprised gaze, her originally single silver eyes had transformed completely into the color of divine ice, as if thick vapors of pale blue and silver were swirling around, with streaks of golden green crossing through. Now, the trolls didn’t even need to determine it; even Fisher felt that her eyes were far from human now.
“Valentina, it seems like you’ve been unwell since you came here?”
“I’m fine.”
Valentina bit her lip but found that Fisher was still looking at her. This time, she smiled and said, “Well, I feel a bit uncomfortable. My back and legs hurt a lot, and I’m having a little trouble breathing. I might really be about to transform into a Phoenix covered in feathers.”
She didn’t want Fisher to worry too much, so she added a statement that sounded a bit like a joke.
The male troll in front squinted his eyes, examining the light in her eyes, before promptly lowering his head and quietly saying,
“In that case, I understand. Please follow me immediately; our elder has been waiting for you for a long time, noble Blood of the Phoenix.”
The male troll straightened up and waved at the group of female trolls who had brought them here. Just as they were about to turn away, he suddenly spoke again,
“By the way, Haraza, starting tomorrow, you will no longer need to patrol by the Phoenix Bridge. Wait for my orders afterward.”
Then, he led Fisher and Valentina deeper into the village.
As they walked, Fisher and Emhart in his arms kept observing their surroundings. On these high mountains, the living conditions of these trolls were quite rudimentary. The surrounding tower-like buildings had no aesthetic appeal whatsoever; they were merely constructed by roughly hewing the stones they could find. Let alone their own living spaces.
Even so, in the center of the village, Fisher still saw a very familiar object, the only thing that could be considered “delicately carved” for this group of trolls—a gigantic statue depicting a large tree.
That was the statue of the Frost Parasol Tree.
Fisher looked at the statue for a long time until he followed the male troll ahead to the end of the village, where in a grand hall, a huge female troll was sitting cross-legged in the center. The hall was dimly lit by flickering candle flames. The troll appeared to be holding a large carving knife, sculpting a stone block in hand.
Around the hall, various items, such as stone bowls and stone tables, were piled together. Of course, there were also some toys and rough crafts that small trolls would like, and these everyday items used by other trolls seemed to have been carved by the female troll sitting with her back to Fisher.
“Elder Daliwu, the Phoenix has returned.”
As soon as the male troll spoke, the female troll, who had been facing away from Fisher and Valentina, suddenly stopped her carving motion. She blanked out for several seconds before abruptly trembling her shoulders and covering her face while sobbing.
“Woo woo woo woo woo.”
The leading male troll sighed and closed his eyes, unsure of what it meant. Meanwhile, Fisher was intently watching the female troll, and even Valentina, who felt a little unwell, opened her eyes to watch the troll’s every move.
“Little Kokoliah, even if you don’t like me, you can’t say such a stimulating lie! Even if the Phoenix comes, our mission isn’t over; you still have to be my partner; there’s no escape!”
The weeping female troll suddenly tossed her carving tool aside and turned to throw her arms around the male troll next to Fisher, who was called “Kokoliah.” However, Kokoliah skillfully stepped back, causing Daliwu to fall to the ground in an unfortunate tumble.
“Ouch, that hurts.”
She fell in a very ungraceful manner, but Kokoliah wasn’t ready to let her go. He immediately stomped on her head, glaring fiercely as he scolded, “Daliwu! Can you be serious for one day? You’re a thousand-year-old troll, yet you still behave like a child! I said, the Phoenix has come! If you don’t fulfill the promise left by your grandmother, then just jump off the cliff and give the elder position to me!”
“Woo woo woo, why reward me, Kokoliah? Are you really saying someone else has come?”
The female troll, who had her head stepped on, wrinkled her nose, then froze for a moment as she raised her head to look at Fisher, who remained expressionless, and Valentina, who raised her eyebrows slightly at the noise. Upon seeing Valentina’s eyes, she suddenly sat upright, her massive four-meter body causing the ground to tremble slightly.
“I’m so sorry, I thought someone was teasing me.”
The female troll in front slowly straightened up. Uncertain if it was an illusion, the previously dim flames around suddenly brightened considerably, revealing the figure of this troll dressed in a black robe. Kokoliah also sighed and stood beside her, lowering his head and speaking to the two in front.
“I truly apologize, noble Blood of the Phoenix. Our personal matters have amused you, but as descendants of trolls, we have never forgotten our ancestors’ teachings and the responsibilities passed down.”
Kokoliah earnestly apologized, while Daliwu glanced around restlessly, first at her partner’s back and hair, then at the handsome yet expressionless human man in front of her. It was at this moment that she unexpectedly caught sight of the painting Fisher had been holding onto.
Her expression suddenly turned surprised, and she extended a finger toward Fisher, interrupting loudly, “Hey, human! Where did you find the Moon Princess’s item? I lost this thing years ago, and I don’t know where it went; how did you suddenly pick it up?”
“Lost it?!”
Kokoliah’s face instantly changed at these words, and he turned angrily to Daliwu, exclaiming, “The key to the princess’s sacred items has always been in your hands! We male trolls can’t go in. I reminded you several times to take care of it; when did you lose it? Why didn’t you tell me?!”
Daliwu grumpily covered her ears and then quietly said, “A few years ago, the princess’s storeroom had a pile of things that had been stored for thousands of years. I thought I’d take them out to sunbathe, especially the painting; I was worried it might get damp, so I took it out. I didn’t expect to accidentally misplace it when I brought it back. I was worried you’d scold me, so I didn’t tell you. Oh, it’s all right; you see, it’s not like someone didn’t pick it up and return it!”
“Daliwu! For the love of God, which one did you lose?!”
Kokoliah darkened his face and pulled out a branch of some kind of plant from his white robe, approaching Daliwu. In response, Daliwu covered her head and frantically retreated, closing her eyes and shouting, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I definitely remember it’s the painting of the Moon Princess’s teacher! Don’t hit me!”
The moment this was said, Fisher, who had been watching from a distance, suddenly changed his expression, looking down at the painting he was holding with disbelief.
The Moon Princess’s teacher?
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(End of Chapter)
