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A genuine smile appeared on Zong Mi’s face. It was faint, but in the siren’s eyes, it was like a flower silently blooming from the depths of his heart.
[Quest Item: Sea God’s Royal Orb has been placed in your inventory.]
Now that he had obtained the quest item, it was time to head to the next destination.
Zong Mi showed nothing on his face. He even spared some attention to looking cheerful, but inwardly he was calmly calculating his next steps.
Of the seven divine relics, he had already collected five:
Only two remained:
After such a long journey, only the final stretch remained.
Once all seven divine relics were gathered, he could travel directly to Central Continent’s Sky City, open the lost City of the Gods, and return as its conqueror.
“Lyle, can you send me to the Spring of Life in the Natural Forest?”
After considering it, Zong Mi pursed his lips and made a probing request.
He knew the siren would agree.
Although sirens were unquestioned emperors of the sea—ruthless predators capable of tearing apart level eighty sea bosses like great white sharks with their bare hands—in front of Zong Mi, Lyle was more like a dangerous beast that had carefully hidden its claws and fangs. He gave endlessly without expecting anything in return.
“Okay.”
As expected, Lyle agreed without hesitation.
His tail gently wrapped around Zong Mi again.
“Do you want to go now?”
He had not seen Zong Mi for a very long time. His dark green vertical pupils carefully traced the bard’s face again and again, unwilling to part.
“You know that the Elf King is my teacher.”
Zong Mi casually made up an excuse.
“A plague seems to be spreading across the continent lately. I want to ask my teacher if there’s a way to deal with it.”
“A plague?”
Lyle’s handsome brows knitted together.
He searched through his inherited memories for information related to the term.
As the king of the seas, a siren’s inherited memories were incredibly vast. Even ancient secrets of the continent were recorded within them.
In those memories, plague had already existed during the Age of Gods.
In other words, plague was something that had been born alongside the Descending Continent itself.
Anything born at the origin of the world had the potential to give birth to a god.
The sun gave birth to the Dawn Goddess.
Life gave birth to the Life Goddess.
War gave birth to the War God.
Night gave birth to the Night Goddess.
The sea and magic likewise produced their own deities.
Plague was also one of those primordial existences.
Yet plague never gave birth to a god.
Perhaps because of that, it lacked divine restraint and had ravaged the continent since ancient times.
Wherever plague spread, grass withered, corpses piled high, and death followed.
Endless darkness once crawled across the map of the continent.
Even more terrifying was the fact that those who died from plague received no blessing from the Life Goddess.
Unlike ordinary deaths, they could not become undead.
Death by plague was true death.
Final and irreversible.
However, those events were too ancient. Lyle had lived far away in the ocean, so even his inherited memories contained only fragments.
He knew only that a horrifying plague had once erupted during the Age of Gods and was eventually suppressed by the combined efforts of the gods.
Now, ten thousand years after the Twilight of the Gods, plague had returned with terrifying force.
This time, there were no gods left to stop it.
Lyle wanted to ask the human if he would stay in the sea with him.
There, he could avoid the plague.
But then he remembered his palace at the bottom of the Abyssal Sea.
A place without sunlight.
Without day.
Without light.
Perhaps only a siren could endure such an environment.
Humans were creatures who loved light.
The worship of the Dawn Goddess alone proved that.
The light in Lyle’s dark green eyes dimmed slightly.
Even if he traded countless treasures to sea witches in exchange for potions that would allow humans to survive in the deep sea, he could not reverse nature itself and bring sunlight into the abyss.
He didn’t want the golden-haired human to suffer any hardship.
“Yes. The elves govern life. Staying in the Natural Forest should be much safer…”
In the end, he could only say that.
His tail gently lifted Zong Mi.
Warm water from the heart-shaped celestial pool wrapped around Zong Mi’s body, protecting him from the cold during spatial water travel.
In an instant, the scenery changed.
What replaced it was an overwhelming aura of life.
Looking around, endless trees stretched into the distance.
At the center of the forest stood the Spring of Life.
And in the center of the spring rose a towering World Tree.
Its countless branches hung down like flowing curtains. When the wind passed through them and stirred the floating particles of life in the air, the scene was breathtakingly beautiful.
“As long as there’s water…”
Lyle paused.
He gently raised Zong Mi’s left hand and carefully brushed the tip of his ring finger with the back of his claw.
A curse mark remained there.
The mark he had left behind long ago.
Whenever Zong Mi needed him, he only had to place that finger in water and activate it.
Lyle would sense it immediately.
Just like when Zong Mi fell into the River Styx.
No matter where.
No matter when.
He would cross all barriers of space and appear at his side.
Lyle wanted to say much more.
How much he missed him.
How he would come the instant he was needed.
But all of those words were swallowed back down.
“Plague is very dangerous. Take care of yourself.”
After saying that, Lyle looked deeply at him one last time.
His tail curled around Zong Mi once before plunging back into the spring.
The waters rippled.
Space folded.
And he vanished.
Though sirens ruled the sea, the ancient elf race was no less formidable.
Since the Elf King, Vister, was Zong Mi’s teacher, Lyle naturally could not linger.
Yet the moment he arrived, the alarm spread through the inner regions of the Natural Forest.
Countless arrows emerged from behind leaves.
Moon-white-haired elves appeared among the branches.
Every arrow pointed directly at Zong Mi’s heart.
Elves were born archers and warriors.
Most were above level seventy and skilled in nature magic.
If one of those arrows struck him, he would definitely experience the pain of being shot through the chest.
Incidentally, because Descending was an immersive virtual reality game, players could freely adjust their pain settings.
Yet Zong Mi stubbornly kept his at one hundred percent.
Meaning death in-game felt almost exactly like dying in reality.
Fortunately, he wasn’t worried.
Floating calmly in the Spring of Life, he watched the last ripples left behind by Lyle disappear.
Then he raised his head.
A faint smile appeared on the bard’s face.
“It’s me, Teacher.”
Silence fell over the forest.
Moments later, the golden particles of life floating through the air seemed to receive a summons.
They gathered into a brilliant ribbon of light and descended from the World Tree, lifting Zong Mi from the water.
The elves who had been ready for battle lowered their bows.
Many placed their hands over their chests and bowed respectfully.
Some even waved and whistled at him.
Although ten years had passed since the last expansion update, for elves with lifespans measured in millennia, ten years was little more than the blink of an eye.
After all, Zong Mi had once lived here and was the only apprentice personally acknowledged by the Elf King.
Most elves knew him well.
Following the ribbon of light, Zong Mi placed his hand on the World Tree.
The moment he passed through it, his private message window suddenly began flashing.
[Xu Yue]: Boss, are you there?
[Xu Yue]: Remember the incomplete main-story dungeon I told you about? The one gathering all the top-ranked players? It’s about to open, so I’m here to let you know.
[Xu Yue]: Honestly, we’re a little underpowered. The advance teams all got sent straight back to the resurrection springs. Senior Bai Li specifically told me to ask whether Rank One would be willing to lead us. You can pick any loot or equipment from the dungeon, and the payment can be negotiated separately.
[Xu Yue]: Sorry for any past offenses. Please forgive us. (Fist-clasping emoji)
Zong Mi glanced at the messages and replied mentally.
[Zong Mi]: Sure. Where’s the dungeon? I’ll come after I finish what I’m doing.
He already intended to get involved in the main storyline anyway.
As for rewards?
The more money the better.
Xu Yue replied almost instantly.
[Xu Yue]: Great. We’ve gathered most of the top thirty players on the ladder rankings. Standard large-raid setup.
[Xu Yue]: Meet at 8 PM tonight at the tavern in Kadina City, on the border between the two Southern Continent territories.
[Xu Yue]: With you joining us, our chances improve by at least ten percent.
Zong Mi memorized the location.
Just as he was wondering whether Kadina City might attract the black wizard’s attention, a cold, ethereal voice suddenly sounded before him.
“Finally decided to come back?”
Zong Mi immediately stiffened.
He exited the private chat window and stood properly, like a guilty student facing the principal.
“Something urgent happened before, and I forgot to inform you. That was my mistake.”
“Ten years passed before I knew it. Teacher, I’m sorry.”
To be fair, as a teacher, Elf King Vister was extremely responsible.
He was strict.
Demanding.
He never lowered his expectations simply because Zong Mi was human.
He taught him nature magic, taught him the elven language, and once Zong Mi met his standards, allowed him to travel freely while completing training assignments.
At first, Zong Mi had used various tricks to become the Elf King’s sole apprentice.
But over time, he truly came to regard Vister as a respected elder.
One of the few genuine relationships he had.
The Elf King sat atop a massive leaf of the World Tree, looking down at him.
His features were sharp and elegant.
Long white hair cascaded down like flowing moonlight.
His pale blue eyes seemed shrouded in endless mist.
Though dressed only in a simple silver-white robe embroidered with ancient elven runes, he carried an indescribable nobility.
Every time Zong Mi met those eyes, he felt immense pressure.
As though every secret inside him had been laid bare.
Most humans viewed elves as beautiful, innocent, mysterious, kind, and long-lived.
In reality, the elves of the Descending Continent were extremely warlike.
The fighting instinct in their blood rivaled even dragons.
They simply preferred peace.
And Vister was unquestionably one of the continent’s strongest beings.
Alongside the Black Wizard of the Black Forest, he was recognized as one of the two greatest powers in the world.
“It’s good that you’ve returned.”
After staring at him for what felt like forever, Vister finally spoke.
Only then did Zong Mi breathe a sigh of relief.
The hardest part was over.
He had actually come here hoping to use the elves’ intelligence network to investigate the plague.
“Come here.”
Suddenly, Vister beckoned.
Confused, Zong Mi used wind magic to float toward him.
The Elf King’s face remained expressionless as ever.
Then he lightly tapped the air.
A spatial crack silently opened.
Before Zong Mi could react, the wind spun him around.
A crimson robe settled across his shoulders.
The elf’s fingers were cold and elegant.
Far more artistic than those of the Black Wizard.
As those fingers passed around Zong Mi’s neck to fasten the robe, a shiver instinctively ran down his spine.
“Don’t move.”
The voice sounded close to his ear.
Wrapped in the faint fragrance unique to elves, Zong Mi froze.
[Quest Item: Life Goddess’s Royal Robe has been placed in your inventory.]
He barely had time to process the notification.
The familiar sensation returned.
Heat surged through his eyes.
The world shattered like broken glass.
Space dissolved into fragments of colorful light.
[When Zong Mi’s eyes finally adapted to the vision of the future, he widened them in shock.
The scene was still inside the World Tree.
The same golden-green surroundings.
The same crimson robe draped over his shoulders.
It was impossible to tell when in the future this was.
“Teach—”
Before he could finish speaking, the world spun.
An arm wrapped around his waist.
A hand pressed against his chest.
He was pinned down.
Golden hair spread across the giant leaf.
The crimson cloak slipped slightly open.
Confusion still filled his expression.
His eyes carried a faint red hue from the strain of using his foresight.
Vister’s face hovered directly above him.
White hair spilled around them.
The pale blue eyes that were usually calm and detached had become dark and unreadable.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
A sense of dread rose in Zong Mi’s chest.
He tried to sit up.
Effortlessly, Vister pinned both of his wrists behind his back.
“Teacher…? You…”
For perhaps the first time, genuine disbelief appeared in Zong Mi’s eyes.
“Be quiet.”
Vister’s voice was cold.
His fingers traced lightly across the bard’s lips.
Those misty blue eyes contained nothing but absolute certainty.
The Elf King pulled loose the belt of his white robe.
Lowering his head, he let out a mocking smile filled with self-contempt.
“To hell with being your teacher.”]
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