"Lady Liyana, please do not cause trouble for others."
The astrologer walked over, grabbed Liyana by the back of her collar, and dragged her away.
The astrologer reminded her, "You are the future Elven Queen, and you must start paying attention to your image... First, you need to master elven court etiquette. In addition, since the elven race frequently engages in diplomacy with humans, you must also learn human court etiquette..."
"No! I don't want to! I'd rather die than learn those things! I am a free adventurer! I won't learn it..." Liyana, who was being dragged along like a mop, started to throw a tantrum like a child.
"You cannot be so willful, Lady Liyana. The elven race is facing a crisis, and it can only be resolved by relying on your power." The astrologer turned her head and glanced at Xia Lun and Aina.
"I'm too weak! I have no power! Don't look for me!" Liyana hollered loudly.
The astrologer bent down and whispered something into Liyana's ear.
Liyana instantly froze. Not daring to make another fuss, her face turned ashen, and the light gradually faded from her eyes.
Afterward, Liyana was dragged away like a corpse.
Aina tickled the palm of Xia Lun's hand and exchanged a glance with him.
"What do we do next?" Aina asked softly.
Naturally, they couldn't just abandon Liyana and leave the Elven Forest like this. After all, Liyana was their teammate.
Moreover... the responsibility for Liyana being chosen as the Elven Queen might actually lie with them. After all, anyone who knew Liyana was well aware that, despite being an outstanding archer, she was absolutely not cut out to be a queen.
Therefore, if this was the choice of the Divine Tree of Life, the reason Liyana was selected as the next Elven Queen was already quite clear.
The Divine Tree of Life did not dare to directly interact with Xia Lun and the others, but it could interact with Liyana... Liyana was an elf, and she had a high reputation among her people. Her becoming the Elven Queen was, on the surface, perfectly reasonable.
If Liyana faced a problem she couldn't solve, Xia Lun and Aina would not just stand idly by.
Liyana becoming the Elven Queen was merely a front; the Divine Tree's true objective was to borrow Aina's power.
This was an overt scheme directed at them.
Liyana was detained due to the elves' affairs. If the problem went unresolved, she wouldn't be able to leave with them... It was essentially forcing them to help.
However, what surprised Xia Lun was what kind of crisis could make the Divine Tree scheme against them so deliberately.
Perhaps it really was just as Aina had said earlier: "Maybe the elven race is doomed."
Xia Lun felt... the Divine Tree was going about this the wrong way.
There was absolutely no need for such scheming. If it had just directly explained the situation, Xia Lun, as a Hero, could not possibly have stood by and watched; he definitely would have been willing to lend a helping hand... Not to mention, he owed the Divine Tree a favor. His very heart belonged to it.
Could it be that it was so terrified by Aina back then that it didn't dare to take the initiative to negotiate? To the Divine Tree, its heart was the crystallization of its life force, yet it was directly snatched away by the Demon King...
"What is it, Xia Lun? You keep staring at me."
"Because you are beautiful, of course, Aina." Xia Lun stroked Aina's cheek.
Aina playfully scolded, "You're never serious."
Though she said that, the expression on her face showed she quite enjoyed the compliment.
"Aina, how did you take the heart of the Divine Tree of Life back then?" Xia Lun patted Aina's head.
"How else would I take it? I just asked it for it." Aina lifted her little head, speaking as if it were a matter of course.
Xia Lun was a bit surprised. "The Divine Tree of Life agreed?"
"Of course it didn't agree. So I beat it up, and then it agreed." Aina waved her little fists, looking incredibly cute.
Xia Lun: ...
He finally understood why the Divine Tree didn't dare to provoke them directly.
In the Divine Tree's heart... Oh, wait, it probably didn't have a heart right now.
In the Divine Tree's perception, Aina was definitely a terrifying Great Demon King. It couldn't defeat her in a fight, and it couldn't run away. It could only allow itself to be slaughtered by her... How could it possibly dare to ask Aina for help?
The crowd gathered in front of the council hall began to disperse, and the small street vendors also started to pack up and leave.
Several astrologers walked out of the council hall, whispering to each other about something.
"Lady Sletta seems to be in a very good mood lately."
"Is she?"
"Wasn't she always frowning before? Lately, she seems to be smiling a lot."
The blue-robed astrologers drifted further and further away, disappearing into the night.
Sletta must be the astrologer who took Liyana away.
Astrologers also held a pivotal position among the elves. The council was originally established by astrologers, and the plan to build Calanris was first proposed by them as well.
If the elven race were viewed as a nation, the astrologers would be akin to Grand Advisors.
Unlike witches, astrologers did not tinker with all sorts of potions. Instead, they focused more of their energy on exploring the Spirit Realm and making prophecies.
As for the "stars" that the astrologers divined... they were likely not just the stars in the night sky, but rather the Evil Gods in the Spirit Realm, residing beyond distant spaces, whose soul forms were so massive that they could be observed directly.
The Spirit Realm was an existence of disorder and chaos. However, everything that happened within it would, in one form or another, affect reality to varying degrees, much like the butterfly effect.
Astrologers, on the other hand, were able to observe the fluctuations within the Spirit Realm, or the movement trajectories and changes of the Evil Gods from other worlds. Through calculations, they could foresee disasters that might occur in the future.
This was undoubtedly an extremely dangerous undertaking. Those Evil Gods were not to be trifled with, and they could notice the gazes directed at them... If an ordinary witch dared to do such a thing, she would certainly meet a rather miserable end.
But astrologers worshipped the Divine Tree. With the protection of the Divine Tree of Life, their minds were shielded from being corrupted by the aura of the Evil Gods, allowing them to escape unscathed.
And in this world... there were also beings not to be trifled with. The Evil Gods did not dare to strike out rashly either; they could only endure being pried upon by these ants.
The very existence feared by the Evil Gods was currently enjoying head pats from Xia Lun.
"Let's go back, Xia Lun. I want it." Aina casually blurted out something quite outrageous.
"This... then what about Liyana?"
Xia Lun glanced toward the council hall. Within the hall's architectural complex, there was a tower-like structure that led directly to the upper levels, which was the royal palace of the elves.
"What's there to worry about with Liyana? She's not in any danger." Aina tilted her head. "We can just come find her tomorrow."
Xia Lun nodded.
Aina gave a light leap and climbed onto Xia Lun's back from behind.
"Hurry back, Xia Lun... I feel like I'm in good shape today."
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
