Chapter: Chapter 525
Somewhere in the great forest of the Elf Tribe, a dark spatial rift quietly opened in mid-air, and chaotic spatial energy gushed out, scaring away the small animals feeding nearby.
Several girls walked out of the rift. After looking around, one of the black-haired girls revealed a happy expression, “Silver, you’re amazing!”
The silver-haired cat girl narrowed her eyes, a hint of smugness on her face. It seemed the black-haired girl’s flattery had indeed pleased her.
“Of course, I’m a professional when it comes to traversing worlds,” Silver proudly puffed out her chest. “Alright, you guys go handle your business. I’ll take your sister back to the Demon Realm first.”
“Do you have an estimate of when you’ll be done with your tasks? Give me a rough timeframe so I can pick you up.”
How long would it take? That was a good question. Leticia could only answer that she didn’t know.
“If I’m lucky and the Prophecy Book is in Evangeline’s hands, I estimate it will take a few days. But if I’m unlucky, it might take a month.” Leticia spread her hands. It was still a mystery which faction held the Prophecy Book, so nothing was certain.
“Conservatively, let’s say two weeks. Come pick me up then.”
“Okay, two weeks should be enough time for me to send your sister back to the Demon Realm. I’ll be going now, bye.” Silver waved at Leticia, turned, and jumped into the spatial portal.
Now that she knew the world was facing a crisis of destruction, Silver had become somewhat more diligent.
Watching Silver leave, Leticia turned her gaze to her two companions, particularly her ancestor, Infino.
As for Pao, this little girl was good as a mascot, but expecting her to come up with any ideas was really overestimating her.
“Why are you looking at me? Leticia, you’re the leader of this operation, aren’t you?” Infino looked at Leticia with confusion, indicating that she was just there to assist Leticia.
She wasn’t familiar with the Elf Tribe, and there were no fights to be had at the moment. Infino felt that she was just like Pao, a mascot.
“I’m just thinking about where the capital of the Elf Tribe is. The most important thing now is to find Evangeline, but I don’t know which direction the Elf capital is in,” Leticia said, scratching her head and revealing her current predicament.
The Elf Tribe didn’t have satellite navigation or anything like it. All around were towering trees, making one feel completely lost. Leticia had no idea where she was in the Elf Tribe, let alone how to find their capital.
“Then let’s just search around. As long as we find one elf, we’ll know where the capital is,” Infino shrugged. This was the only clunky method they had left to find their way.
Fortunately, their perception range was large enough, so finding an elf shouldn’t be too difficult… or so they thought.
Half a day later, Leticia suspected they might have landed in the wrong place. They had flown at full speed for half a day and hadn’t encountered a single elf!
Half a day!
Her flying speed was incredibly fast. In half a day, she could cover thousands of kilometers, yet she hadn’t found a single elf!
“Could we have gone in the wrong direction?” Infino’s mouth twitched slightly. She had originally thought they’d find an elf in an hour or two, but after a whole half-day, they had found nothing.
It was utterly bizarre and naturally made them suspect they were heading in the opposite direction of the Elves, accelerating away from them.
“I think it’s possible. If we were flying in the direction of the Elf Tribe, it’s impossible not to encounter a single elf on such a long journey,” Leticia nodded, her expression complicated. She looked up at the darkening sky and said softly, “How about we rest here for today? I’ll try to find clues in the dreams of nearby animals.”
While animal dreams were chaotic, it wasn’t difficult to extract some information. If these animals had seen elves, it would mean Leticia’s group was heading in the right direction.
But if these animals hadn’t seen elves, that would be awkward.
“Why don’t we just ask them directly?” Pao, as energetic as ever, raised her hand and asked, “I can communicate with these cute little guys!”
Perhaps because Pao’s true form was a large bird, her communication with animals was much more efficient than Leticia’s and Infino’s.
Leticia only now remembered Pao’s special skill and quickly asked her to try, “Oh, right, Pao, give it a try! It would be great if you could ask them.”
“Okay, wait for me!” With Leticia’s permission, Pao immediately trotted off to find her animal companions.
About fifteen minutes later, she returned from the dense forest, with a small bird with seven-colored feathers on her shoulder. The bird’s eyes were lively, clearly a spirited hero among birds.
“Sister Leticia, I asked the nearby animals, and they all said they haven’t seen any elves.” The first sentence Pao spoke made Leticia’s heart sink.
Well, it seemed they had truly gone in the wrong direction.
“But this little bird said it heard stories related to elves. It said that a long, long time ago, some long-eared demons attacked from the west, wanting to invade this beautiful forest. Everyone in the forest fought bravely and finally defeated those devils with the help of a guardian spirit.”
“These long-eared demons should be the elves you’re talking about, right?”
A prominent characteristic of elves was their long ears, which was their biggest difference from humans and demons. In this story, long-eared demons appeared, which meant they were indeed elves.
“They came from the west, so that means the Elf Tribe is to our west?”
“Yes, I think that’s what it means, but it’s hard to say for sure. After all, this story has been passed down among these animals, and details like direction might be skewed. Also, Leticia, did you notice another important point in this story?”
“Ancestor, are you talking about the guardian spirit?” Leticia certainly wouldn’t overlook this key point. Who was this guardian spirit that helped the creatures in the forest drive away the elves?
Was it just a particularly powerful giant beast, or perhaps… a true deity?
Since it was called a guardian spirit, Leticia was indeed a little curious about it.
“Exactly. Since it clashed with the elves before, why don’t we find it and ask it where the Elf Tribe is? The accuracy of the information we get will be much higher than what we get from these little guys,” Infino nodded, indicating that she didn’t fully trust what these little creatures had said.
The general information was likely correct, that the elves had come here before and were indeed driven back by the indigenous people, but certain details were truly hard to say.
Perhaps the elves actually came from the north?
“It said the guardian spirit is sleeping in a distant mountain and hasn’t appeared for a very long time.” Pao asked again about the guardian spirit, and the answer was quite clear.
Sleeping in a distant mountain and not appearing for a long time. Could it be dead already?
And mountains, were there any large mountains nearby?
“I’ll go check from the sky. There are no large mountains,” Leticia said, flying up into the sky.
Looking around from the sky and carefully sensing the energy flow in the vicinity, her gaze fell upon a very, very small black dot in the distance.
Even with her exceptionally sharp eyesight, she could only make a vague judgment. That small black dot was probably a mountain. There were no obvious abnormalities in the nearby energy flow, so no clues could be obtained.
Returning to the ground, Leticia shared her findings with Infino and Pao. After a brief consideration, the two quickly decided to head towards the small black dot that Leticia had spotted.
This was the only lead they had. What else could they do?
Having a destination was better than aimlessly wandering in this primeval forest like headless flies.
Thus, the three began their journey again. The small black dot seemed very far away, and in reality, it was indeed very far. The good news was that Leticia hadn’t misjudged this time; it was a very, very tall mountain peak.
And as they approached the mountain, both Leticia and Infino sensed abnormal energy flows in the vicinity, which almost indicated the presence of a powerful being nearby.
It must be that guardian spirit. So, it wasn’t dead yet.
“A demigod-level magical beast? That’s quite rare,” Infino had some speculations about the guardian spirit’s identity. Firstly, she could rule out a deity. If it were a deity, it would have surely detected the three powerful auras rapidly approaching.
In that case, a normal deity would either come out to confront them or flee, and these actions would certainly be noticed by Infino’s group.
However, there were no unusual movements from the guardian spirit’s location, which meant that the being hadn’t noticed the three divine beings rushing towards it.
Moreover, the guardian spirit had existed a very, very long time ago. At that time, deities had barely recovered their consciousness from the seal of divine artifacts.
So, apart from deities, the only ones who could live that long were demigod-level magical beasts. Although their lifespans were not as long as deities who lived in harmony with heaven and earth, compared to ordinary mortals, they were certainly quite long-lived.
When the three of them finally reached the high mountain and found the guardian spirit, they realized their guess might have been a bit too conservative.
The guardian spirit was not in beast form but resembled the mutated beastmen of the Beastmen tribe. It sat cross-legged on a stone platform in a mountain cave, covered in a thick layer of dust.
If it weren’t for the aura flowing from its body, Leticia might have genuinely believed this guardian spirit had kicked the bucket.
Was it cultivating?
Leticia touched her chin, observing the guardian spirit that showed no reaction to its surroundings, her expression growing curious.
In fact, the place where this maiden was hiding was quite concealed, an inconspicuous cave in the mountain, with concealment and aura-blocking spells expertly set up at the entrance. If an ordinary person came looking, they definitely wouldn’t be able to find the guardian spirit.
Unfortunately, the ones looking for the guardian spirit this time were three divine beings. Such concealment spells were completely useless in front of Leticia. In fact, they even made Leticia suspect something was amiss.
If there was nothing suspicious, why would there be concealment spells here? It was obviously impossible!
Then, they skillfully broke the spells, entered the cave, and met the guardian spirit in person.
“There shouldn’t be a problem calling her now, right?” Leticia whispered to Infino.
“There shouldn’t be a problem?” Infino wasn’t sure either. This guardian spirit seemed to be in a state of suspended animation. Who knew what would happen if they forcibly awakened her.
While the two adults were deliberating, Pao wasn’t as hesitant. With a few small jumps, she went to the guardian spirit’s side and patted the beast-girl’s shoulder twice.
The guardian spirit showed no movement, but Pao’s hand got a bit dusty. Looking at the dust on her hand, Pao frowned unhappily and spat out a ball of golden flame, then put her dirty hand into the flame to clean it.
Using fire to wash hands, only this maiden could do something like that.
After cleaning her hands, Pao looked at the unmoving, dusty guardian spirit and decided to help her out by cleaning her body too.
Taking a deep breath, Pao was about to spray fire at the guardian spirit.
“Wait, don’t spray! She can’t take it!” Seeing this, Leticia’s soul almost flew out in fright. With one puff of fire, this guardian spirit would probably merge with the dust.
Perhaps sensing the mortal danger, the guardian spirit, which had been motionless like it was dead, suddenly opened its eyes. Those amber eyes lingered on Pao for a moment, and then she immediately rolled away and hid under the stone platform.
“Great lords, please spare me! I haven’t done anything bad!”
A light and cute voice came from behind the stone platform. Despite her likely advanced age, the guardian spirit’s voice sounded very young.
Leticia quickly pulled Pao to her side and said to the trembling guardian spirit, “Don’t be scared, don’t be scared. We’re not bad people. We just want to ask for directions.”
A dusty little head peeked out from behind the stone platform. The guardian spirit’s eyes held a hint of vigilance. “Ask for directions? Where do you want to go? I’m not familiar with this area either.”
“How to get to the Elf Tribe.”
“Elves?! You were sent by them?!”
