“Oh, she really spoiled you then.”
“Because... she watched me grow up. In a sense, I really am her child.”
A trace of loneliness flickered in Yinzhi's eyes, but she quickly cheered herself up, patted her cheeks, and walked toward the dark passage.
“So? Since you went through the trouble of bringing me here, you must have a way to send me out, right?”
Qimeng followed behind the active Wood Elf with leisurely steps.
“We can try.”
“I remember there's a tree vein passage down here. Although it's usually sealed off, the Mother Tree quietly told me how to open it in the past.”
Yinzhi drawled as she walked.
“Maybe if we follow it, we can perfectly bypass all those guards on the surface and lead straight out of the valley.”
“Oh? An emergency escape route?”
“Yes, it was left behind when we rebuilt our tribal grounds. Back when the Sacred Spirit Mother Tree was still alive, absolutely no one was allowed to easily come near this place.”
“Sounds like there might be some secrets hidden inside.”
However, the operation of the emergency passage seemed to have gone slightly awry.
After groping around in the pitch-black old passage for quite a while, the expected valley exit did not appear.
Instead, as Yinzhi infused a wisp of mana into the node of tangled vines ahead, their field of vision suddenly opened up.
The next second...
Rumble!
Accompanied by a loud crash, the rock wall before them burst open.
But what lay before them was not a path to the outside world, but a massive, empty underground space.
After stepping through that archway of vines, Yinzhi was completely dumbfounded on the spot.
“Strange, how could this be... This isn't the exit. It's the place where I was born, the core holy ground of our tribe, the 【Wood Elf Incubation Room】. Perhaps the Mother Tree's withered state caused the spatial mana to go haywire, connecting the old passage to this place...”
“The place where you were born? The Incubation Room? Wait a minute...”
Qimeng caught a whiff of gossip.
Narrowing her eyes, she stepped forward and surveyed her surroundings.
“I say, don't you Wood Elves all grow on trees like fruit?”
“How could it be like that! The Mother Tree serves as the nurturing ground, but the actual seeds come from the Wood Elves themselves.”
Yinzhi gazed toward the center of the massive cavern. Looking at the dry soil arranged like a honeycomb, her eyes dimmed.
Crouching down beside a raised mound of earth, she began to explain softly.
“When a Wood Elf is near the end of her lifespan, or is willing to pay the price, she will pour all of her life force into this place.”
“In the magical soil near the roots of the Mother Tree, she will condense a 【Spirit Core】 from her own life and mana essence and bury it underground. This Spirit Core carries a portion of her lifelong inheritance and memories.”
“Next, the roots of the Mother Tree will wrap around this Spirit Core like swaddling clothes, providing nutrients and mana vein energy to nurture it into a 【Spirit Bud】.”
“After growing for years or even decades, the Spirit Bud will mature, break through the soil, and be sent to the surface, giving birth to a new Wood Elf infant.”
Qimeng looked out in the direction of her gaze.
However, in the Wood Elf Incubation Room at this moment, the countless Spirit Buds that should have been brimming with the rhythm of life had all shriveled and died along with the withering of the Mother Tree, turning into a floor of debris.
Those lives that should have come into this world had met their end before they even had the chance to be born.
“If... if that accident hadn't happened back then, I would have shriveled up in the dirt just like the Spirit Buds here. It would have been impossible for me to ever come into this world.”
Yinzhi's eyes grew moist as her fingers lightly touched the dry soil.
“It was my mother who did not hesitate to use her own power of nature to forcefully ripen my Spirit Bud so that I could survive. Because of this, she lost most of her power, and not long after, she met an untimely end.”
Looking at Yinzhi, who was lost in sorrow and seemed so small and helpless...
Qimeng clasped her hands behind her head.
Putting away her usual trademark laziness, she revealed a pure, gentle smile.
“Well, in a sense, she hasn't truly died, has she? Isn't the fact that you can stand here safe and sound exactly what she wished for with all her might?”
“Since you carry a portion of her inheritance and memories, aren't you yourself the best continuation of her life?”
“So instead of sitting here feeling sad over dry soil, why don't you have a grand feast later? After all, only by filling your stomach to the brim can you live up to that foolish mother who risked her life to give birth to you, right?”
“Eh...?”
Yinzhi was taken aback. She turned her head in astonishment, looking at this heartless, slightly devilish black-haired monster in disbelief.
That exquisite and beautiful profile looked incredibly holy under the soft glow.
This person named Qimeng was truly an incredible eccentric.
She was clearly so unreliable usually, yet at critical moments, she was so gentle it made one want to cry. This invisibly radiating sense of reliability was completely off the charts!
After a moment, Yinzhi vigorously wiped the corners of her eyes, holding back her tears.
In this dim space, she faced Qimeng once more, sweeping away her previous gloom and revealing an incredibly bright, relieved smile.
“Mhm... Yes! You're right. Thank you, Lady Qimeng.”
The knot in Yinzhi's heart that had troubled her for so long seemed to find redemption at this very moment.
“This is wonderful. Lady Qimeng really is so reliable...”
Yinzhi was immersed in an incomparable wave of emotion, ready to cast an admiring gaze at the reliable, black-haired beauty before her.
But she suddenly realized that Qimeng's vibe seemed to have gone a bit off.
She saw that the other party had turned her back to her at some point.
Aided by the soft glow emitted from Shimmer Secretion, those clear emerald eyes were, at this very moment, flashing with a dangerous... green light.
It was a highly ominous glint, like a hungry wolf eyeing a piece of fat meat.
And Qimeng's gaze had already landed on the ancient wooden boxes around them.
W-Wait a minute?
This place... was practically the secret treasury of the Wood Elf tribe!
Aside from countless precious natural materials, this place also perfectly preserved the unique spell scrolls and various secret arts of the Wood Elf tribe. It was a holy ground that only the high-ranking members of successive generations had the right to enter and study.
However, in the current Qimeng's eyes, the nature of this holy ground had completely changed.
This was heaven!
It was a luxurious, unguarded, free-for-all buffet where she could do whatever she wanted!
In an instant, the salted-fish instinct within Qimeng evaporated at an alarming speed, seamlessly switching to a fanatical predator mode!
Rate on N.U.
