Chapter 244
The dream itself was woven from the memories of the Elven race, and as the dream shattered, Ye Bai caught glimpses of these fragmented memories.
The shadows of war reflected in Ye Bai's silver-hued eyes. Even though these memories were silent images, the brutality within them was palpable.
With a sigh, Ye Bai understood the intense hatred that Ainu Lucia had expressed earlier.
According to the Lower Queen, her memories had split into three parts. The Lower Queen held the memories of constructing the Emerald Dream after the war, while the Middle Queen's memories were stuck in the midst of that very conflict.
In such a situation, it was only natural for Ainu Lucia to react violently towards an outsider bearing the aura of the Abyss.
And now… what would happen after this layer of the dream shattered?
Whether out of empathy or due to the two fruits of the Tree of Life he had previously encountered, Ye Bai truly did not want to fight Ainu Lucia.
However, at this moment, the dream was merely breaking apart; he had not gained any experience points. Perhaps the Middle Ainu Lucia had a high chance of surviving, but he couldn't be sure if the system required the deaths of all three Queen avatars to count as experience.
Time slipped away like fleeting shadows. After ten seconds, the effect of the silver protection faded, and a nervous Ye Bai found himself still falling. The only silver lining was that he was no longer suffering any environmental damage.
Would he fall out of the dream entirely, or would he return to the Lower Queen?
Lost in thought, Ye Bai suddenly felt a corner of his cloak tugged, halting his descent.
He looked up to see that it was a familiar fuzzy face that had caught hold of his cape.
“Ottofis!” Ye Bai exclaimed in delight.
In critical moments, we can always count on our magical donkey!
Ottofis, upon hearing this, made a series of comical expressions at Ye Bai. Despite the absence of solid ground around them, it somehow found the strength and foothold to toss its head back and, with a mighty heave, pulled Ye Bai back up.
With this action, Ye Bai felt himself no longer falling but being lifted, eventually landing on a soft layer of clouds.
Looking down, he saw a gentle green beneath his feet, pulsing with the familiar energy of the Tree of Life.
“Is this still a dream?”
“Ah!”
Exchanging a glance with Ottofis, Ye Bai scanned the surroundings and soon spotted the only unique presence in this strange space—
The Tree of Life.
More accurately, a part of its trunk.
The space Ye Bai found himself in, devoid of anything else, seemed to fit the definition of ‘Middle Layer.’ It resembled a cloud high in the sky, with the trunk of the Tree of Life piercing through the clouds, revealing some of its branches.
Ye Bai walked step by step toward the location of the Tree of Life.
Next to the trunk, the consciousness of the elves flickered like fireflies, swirling around a green figure that was beginning to take shape.
The outline of this figure was unmistakably familiar to Ye Bai; it was the Elven Queen Ainu Lucia, who had previously been petrified and shattered.
Seeing this, Ye Bai's heart stirred as he recalled what the Lower Queen had said about how the entire Emerald Dream was constructed by her and the Tree of Life.
Given the dream's uniqueness and the Tree of Life's terrifying regenerative power… even though Ye Bai had just severely injured Ainu Lucia with his Petrifying Gaze, shattering the dream, she could still slowly recover using the Tree's strength.
The aura of the Abyss… should be gone now, right?
As Ye Bai approached, he hesitated and stopped in his tracks.
If this were a boss battle, the Elven Queen before him might hold a grudge, potentially entering a second phase. Moreover, several of his crucial survival techniques had been depleted during the dream's shattering. If a fight broke out again, the most effective method would still be to use Time Rewind to activate Petrifying Gaze.
Just then, Ainu Lucia, still forming her human shape, noticed Ye Bai and spoke up:
“Who are you?”
Hearing Ainu Lucia's calm and curious tone, Ye Bai was momentarily taken aback, then realized something: “You don’t remember?”
Ainu Lucia paused, uncertainty flickering in her eyes. “As you can see, my current state is not good. I… don’t remember, perhaps it has something to do with an invasion… Oh, I remember now, it was an invasion from the Abyss.”
As she spoke, Ye Bai noticed the figure taking shape became clearer, revealing Ainu Lucia's stunning facial features.
At that moment, Ainu Lucia was ‘looking’ at Ye Bai: “Guest, what is your purpose for coming here? I sense the pulse of the Tree of Life's branches within you. Though my memories are hazy, I know it is important.”
Observing Ainu Lucia's demeanor, Ye Bai confirmed that the Abyssal aura she sensed came from his Petrifying Gaze, and the battle that had occurred earlier seemed to have been ‘reset’ along with the shattering and reformation of the dream, forgotten by the current Elven Queen.
After all, the three Elven Queens now possessed fragmented memories. While the Lower Queen's memories might still progress, for the Middle and Upper Queens, their memories were forever frozen at a certain stage of their lives.
Realizing this, Ye Bai let out a sigh of relief: “I’m here to retrieve another key.”
As he spoke, noticing Ainu Lucia was still in a state of memory confusion, Ye Bai explained the situation regarding her division into three parts that he had learned from the Lower Queen.
“Is that so? No wonder I’ve always felt my memories were incomplete…” Ainu Lucia said, enlightenment dawning upon her. “Thank you for telling me this.”
After saying this, Ainu Lucia seemed to recall something else: “A guest has arrived…”
Hearing that familiar tone, Ye Bai knew what was coming next.
Sure enough, in the next moment, the hospitable Ainu Lucia radiated light, and a spatial passage appeared beside her, connecting to a part of the Tree of Life's branches.
Immediately after, two familiar emerald-green fruits flew out from the passage, landing in front of Ye Bai and Ottofis.
Ah, this… how embarrassing.
Ye Bai instinctively glanced at Ottofis, who was already happily munching away without a care in the world.
I really need to learn from Ottofis!
So, Ye Bai indulged in another fruit of the Tree of Life.
【You have consumed a ‘Fruit of the Tree of Life.’ Maximum health +4000; Maximum spiritual energy +2000; All attributes +30; Experience points +1,000,000.】
The third fruit of the Tree of Life retained the same effects as the first, but the fourth would see diminishing returns… but would there even be a fourth? Thinking of the existence of the Upper Queen, Ye Bai felt a flush of embarrassment.
Ainu Lucia, meanwhile, looked curiously at the other end of the spatial passage: “Huh… are there so few? Damn it! They must have been stolen by those wretched Abyssal fiends!”
‘Abyssal fiends,’ Ye Bai thought, coughing lightly…
…
After finishing the fruit of the Tree of Life, Ye Bai recalled many of his previous questions and continued to inquire about the past from the Middle Queen.
This Queen, still undergoing ‘memory reset,’ had only a rough outline of memories, lacking in details. However, Ye Bai learned a new piece of information he hadn’t known before:
“The trigger for the Abyssal invasion seems to have begun with internal strife among the human races… The two major human principalities suddenly fell into civil war, and one side summoned Abyssal creatures to fight, which led to the invasion of the Abyss on the surface.”
“The Abyssal demon sought to ignite the Tree of Life as a second core of the Abyss, making the Emerald Forest its primary target.”
Ye Bai listened intently, fully understanding why the Abyss would choose the Emerald Forest as its first target for invasion. As a manifestation of the laws, the Tree of Life was gentler yet equally powerful. If it were truly fused with the Abyssal core, the Emerald Forest could indeed become a new Abyss.
What surprised her was that the initial trigger would originate from the human races.
The two major human principalities, one allied with the Deep Sea race and the other with the Ethereal race, suddenly going to war—could this be related to those two races?
In Ye Bai's impression, these two races were practically worlds apart. The Deep Sea race would weaken in combat when on land, and their connection to the human principalities was merely due to their coastal proximity. They should have little interest in matters beyond the sea, with their main concern likely being how to feed their leader, Kraken.
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