Chapter 429: 46. Illusory Dawn
The sunlight descended from the heavens, dyeing the enormous, translucent World Tree a dazzling golden color. Two golden orbs in the sky locked onto a few large birds flying quickly by and swiftly darted out from the direction of the World Tree, instantly devouring them completely, leaving no trace behind.
“Fisher, you must visit the Chuan Kingdom next time. We have a beautiful subhuman race there called the Celestial Fox, with nine tails, fluffy white fur, and cat-like ears. They’re really lovely and handsome; I’m sure you’ll like them. Next time, I’ll have them attend to you, along with many others.”
Chuan told Fisher that as long as they found the phoenixes at the Phoenix race’s residence and mentioned Duke Chuan’s name along with their request to go to the Royal Capital, the phoenixes would ensure Fisher and his group could safely reach the Elf Royal Capital.
After hearing Chuan’s arrangements, Fisher and the others no longer lingered. Early the next morning, they prepared to leave the Chuan Kingdom quickly, as Lord Shiran also needed to return to his own realm due to the Royal Capital’s prohibitions.
At that moment, as they parted at the entrance of the Chuan Kingdom, the young Lord Shiran, completely sober after his drunken state, glanced regretfully at his rare confidant and comrade, inviting him one last time.
“I’ll definitely visit next time.”
Fisher pondered calmly for several seconds. It seemed that, in maintaining his persona, he was drawn to the subhuman race mentioned by Chuan, but had to reluctantly abandon the thought due to the immediate issues they needed to address.
“Goodbye,” Lord Shiran nodded, sitting back into a vehicle made of many twisted intertwining branches that could float in the air, though it was uncertain if it would drift directly to its destination like this.
Just as he was about to depart, he remembered something, hesitated for a moment, and sincerely advised Fisher:
“By the way, the rules of death have become quite strange. The change in the rules only concerns the True God. This is a major matter for the world, yet the Royal Capital subtly insists that we remain silent in our respective realms. This indicates that either the king or the World Tree doesn’t want this matter to be known by the Holy Realm or the Dragon God. And you, as an envoy from the Holy Realm, would be very risky to go to the Royal Capital, so if possible, it’s best to return first and come to celebrate when things stabilize here.”
Fisher was slightly taken aback by these words, but given the circumstances, he had no way to retreat.
Not only was he being pursued by death, but there was also Emhart still in the hands of their opponents, and he vaguely felt that this change in death had some indescribable connections.
“Thank you for your warning, but we must go to the Royal Capital.”
“Then be extra careful, goodbye.”
“Goodbye.”
Lord Shiran smiled faintly and said no more. He lightly patted the wooden vehicle beneath him, and soon the branches on the vehicle twisted upwards, wrapping around him, while branches sprouted from the ground beside him, enveloping the soldiers he brought along.
To Fisher’s surprise, the wrapped branches began to gradually shrink and quickly vanished from sight.
He stared blankly at the branches that returned to the ground and disappeared, frowning as he contemplated Lord Shiran’s earlier words.
At that moment, a breath scented like fragrance suddenly tickled his ear, sweeping perfectly over every inch of Fisher’s ear with a gentle breeze, bringing a light prickling sensation. His pupils slightly contracted, and when he turned to look, he saw Hela smiling, hands behind her back, floating barefoot in mid-air, watching him.
“Oh, your ears seem a bit sensitive~”
After Renee’s earlier teasing, Fisher had developed considerable immunity to such provocations. Furthermore, given that he was in a “reformed” state, he could not engage with Hela’s teasing. Instead, he replied to her,
“The elves are acting quite strangely. Such events happen on the Tree Continent, yet their Royal Capital urges them to keep it under wraps. But the changes in death are a matter of rules, and theoretically, they cannot be hidden unless the changes only occurred on the Tree Continent. But how is that possible? The God of Death, Heya, is an unconscious True God; how could there be such subjective differences?”
“Mm-hmm, you’re right. Last night I contacted the Great Archangel Remiel, who told me that no such changes have occurred either in the Holy Realm or Dragon Continent. He relayed this information to Salie, who firmly believes that something must have occurred in the Royal Capital or involving the World Tree, hence she urged us to investigate the Royal Capital.”
Fisher looked at Hela and said,
“Right now the Tree Continent is in turmoil. As outsiders, our appearance in the Royal Capital, aren’t you afraid of dying there?”
“Well, upon reflection, isn’t this chaotic situation more interesting? The more tense and dangerous a person is, the deeper the enjoyment they feel.”
“Hela.”
Fisher furrowed his brow, dissatisfied with her playful attitude at a time like this. Despite how long she had been slacking off during this period, now that the situation had come to light, she still relied on such a flimsy excuse of ‘fun’ to brush him off, making him feel that the disparity in Rank was no longer an issue as he called her out by name.
Yet she showed no anger, looking extremely pleased as she observed the somewhat annoyed Fisher.
But just as Fisher was about to get angrier, her playful smile gradually faded. Although still curved, its meaning was entirely different.
She extended a finger toward Fisher’s ear. Fisher instinctively wanted to dodge, but in the face of her mythical rank, all his movements seemed futile.
He watched her face, his body’s hair seeming to sense the breeze from her outstretched hand, even without looking, he felt her finger nearing his ear.
But even though Fisher’s body and senses had warned him countless times: this woman was about to touch his ear, her finger never made contact, merely hovering next to it, maintaining an almost touchless distance.
“We’re currently in a bit of a quandary, but leaving is absolutely impossible. If the insides of the continent are this strict with rules, how would the borders be? Rather than that, it’s better to take a gamble and head to the Royal Capital to uncover the truth. This way, the Nineteen Rank Remiel and Salie would have a reason to protect us, and the Holy Realm, with its equal size to the Tree Continent, might even tilt in your favor due to your value.”
“Hehe, angels are good at being oblivious. You could give them information anytime, and when that time comes, don’t say it’s a promise made by Pandora; she would be lucky not to treat us as discarded pawns.”
Hela smiled as she withdrew her hand from Fisher’s ear with a meaningful shake of her head, saying,
“Well, there’s still me here. I won’t let you become discarded pawns. Your ears really are quite sensitive, Fisher.”
“…”
This woman truly was…
Hela didn’t continue explaining to Fisher. Of course, her words were overheard by Gouwen and Mikhail, each contemplating Hela’s credibility. Only Tang Zeming Asuka, the naive one, had no awareness of the current situation. She merely watched as even a reliable adult like Fisher seemed to be on the defensive against Hela’s angelic charm.
She somewhat envied Hela’s presence and strength. Although Hela typically displayed a frivolous demeanor, she proved to have very strong charisma at crucial moments. Asuka wished to become such a person.
But Tang Zeming Asuka had not fully exited her excitement from last night’s magic lesson with Fisher. She had been somewhat distracted and was possibly still fantasizing about whether she could become a legendary magical girl.
“If there are no objections, let’s set off. The residence of the Phoenix race is quite far from here, I need to use a bit of magic to teleport us there.”
“I have no objections.”
Gouwen raised his hand to vote honestly, while only Mikhail sighed and said,
“I was already free; I shouldn’t have agreed to Mikhail to wade into this mess. But now that I’m here, there’s no escape.”
Speaking of which, he was indeed the most unfortunate one among them. He had been honestly helping Mikhail work for half a year, and just when freedom was in sight, he was swept back into chaos due to the arrival of uninvited guests like Tang Zeming Asuka and Fisher.
Hela smiled at him, the morning light in her hand growing ever brighter. Just as that bright morning light was about to engulf them all, she said,
“Mm-hmm, if you hadn’t stayed, there wouldn’t be so much trouble, would there? Anyway, you have nowhere to go; maybe Lord Michael would even take you in again?”
Mikhail was slightly taken aback, seemingly thinking of something, as a hint of awkwardness surfaced on his forty-year-old face.
“Let’s leave it be.”
Gouwen looked curiously at Mikhail, as if wanting to ask about the situation between him and Michael. He felt something was off since Hela had him go steal something from Michael.
But before he had a chance to ask, Hela mischievously activated the light in her hand without warning, instantly engulfing them completely as they disappeared.
From where they vanished, a black-haired elf named Chuan quietly watched the direction they had gone, seemingly lost in thought.
The warm morning light was not a real, tangible existence, yet it brought a sensation of comfort.
It felt like keeping watch on the shoreline all night, the night stretching on, and in an incredibly weary moment, seeing the sun slowly rise on the distant horizon; like just waking up, in a haze, being called awake by a gentle light; like when getting old and feeling unable to move, yet still feeling vibrant upon seeing the sun.
Yet even though this light felt so real, Fisher simultaneously sensed a subtle sense of the illusory and contradictory, as if the light was merely an illusion, much like Hela’s extremely unpleasant personality.
The morning light soon disappeared, and when Fisher opened his eyes, he found himself quietly lying on a green hill. He sat up blankly, turning to look around, only to see Tang Zeming Asuka, who was also sitting up, holding her head.
“Teacher Fisher, ugh, it feels like I bumped my head.”
Fisher hurriedly stood up. He looked at the sky and found that the sun had not moved notably, meaning time had not changed; they had just been teleported to a far-off location by Hela’s morning light.
They should be very close to the residence of the Phoenix race; Duke Chuan had told Hela where the phoenixes were stationed at the moment.
But the problem was, why were only he and Tang Zeming Asuka left? Where were the other three?
If it were anyone else, Fisher would suspect a teleportation error; however, regarding Hela, Fisher was always inclined to view her with the greatest skepticism.
She must have intentionally separated them.
“Tang Zeming, are you alright?”
Fisher looked at Tang Zeming Asuka, who was still groaning while holding her head, and quickly moved closer to check her head. He found no apparent injuries, perhaps just a bump on the ground from the teleportation, and it wasn’t long before she was almost better.
“Ugh, wait, where’s Hela and Gouwen? Didn’t we teleport to the same place?”
“Well, it seems that way now.”
Fisher nodded, looking somewhat helplessly at the quiet surroundings. His instincts told him that the current distance between them might still be quite significant, otherwise, it wouldn’t be so quiet after a few minutes.
“Let’s hope Hela really did teleport us near the residence of the Phoenix race. Since our destination is the same, we can go there directly to gather without having to waste effort looking for them. The Phoenix race resides in the ‘Wutong’ Kingdom; its ruler is quite brutal, so we need to be careful. Let’s go.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Before Tang Zeming Asuka could fully regain her composure, Fisher had already made the corresponding decision. She quickly got up, patted her white robe, and said to Fisher,
“Let’s set off, Teacher Fisher.”
“Not in a hurry; we also need to find out which direction the Phoenix race’s residence is.”
Fisher looked around. This area was filled with primordial jungles, making it somewhat difficult to find the right direction.
He sighed and sat down, took out his carving knife, and prepared to use magic to solve the problem. The magic contained runes that excelled at tracking, which was just right for the task.
Just as he was about to pick a suitable stone to carve magic onto, he suddenly remembered something and looked at Tang Zeming Asuka, who was staring intently at him.
“I’m going to carve magic to find the right direction. Since you want to learn magic from me, I’ll take this opportunity to share some basic knowledge about magic while I carve.”
Fisher lifted the wind magic rune he had previously carved onto a leaf, which was the one Tang Zeming Asuka had replicated on the wall last night, and said to her,
“Firstly, the definition of magic: Magic is a human-designed, universal tool that helps humans achieve various specific purposes. It encompasses every function you can imagine, with over seven thousand known types of magic, of course, excluding some designed by certain magicians privately that haven’t spread.
“Magic can theoretically achieve any effect you desire, but making the magic rune possess the desired effect doesn’t mean you simply write the idea onto the rune and it comes to fruition. It is achieved through different parts of the rune and forms a final effect as a whole. In summary, the success of designing a brand-new magic relies 40% on the magician’s theoretical level and 60% on luck.
“The reason magic has such properties is determined by its essence. The fundamental rule of magic operation is: to use the magic power contained within the soul through specific channels and methods (i.e., magic runes) to pry the world’s response from the spirit realm, causing various changes in reality.”
Fisher paused for a moment, recalling his previous impressions about magic, and thought about the responsibility he perhaps bore to guide future magic lords down the right path. Thus, he pondered over his words and added,
“So essentially, magic is an extremely dangerous and forbidden technique, and one must use it with caution.”
Tang Zeming Asuka listened attentively to Fisher’s teachings. Although it had been anticipated, it was undeniable that learning involves pain. Yet, she dedicated a level of focus far beyond the usual hundredfold she had during high school math classes to remember Fisher’s instructions.
As Fisher’s teachings deepened, the quiet wilderness was filled only with Fisher’s intermittent teachings and the appropriately rhythmic sound of the wooden fish.
“Bang bang… bang.”
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(End of this chapter)
