Chapter 28: World Tree - 28
After being splashed with cold water, the elves awoke from their short slumber. When they realized what was happening, they jumped to their feet and backed away warily.
"Who are you!?" The leading elf male yelled.
Zhou Fan was immediately astonished to realize that they spoke the same language as him. Although the world was mostly unified by one language, english, he had assumed that these elves were cut off from the world. Therefore, they should have spoken a different language. Instead of thinking too much, Zhou Fan theorized that they used to live on the surface. Who knows what happened to cause them to be down here, unknown to the rest of the world.
"I come in peace, probably." Zhou Fan said. Although he did mutter the last part under his breath. If they shot another arrow at him, he might just kill them off.
"Who are you, no, what are you!?" The elf girl in the back asked in a slightly loud tone.
Zhou Fan was confused to hear her question.
"What do you mean? Do you not know what a human is?"
"Human?" she said, confused, as if he was speaking in a different language.
Zhou Fan quickly understood that she had no idea what a human was. In fact, he didn't know what they called themselves. He had named them earlier because he assumed that they spoke a different language.
"Have you ever left the cave?" Zhou Fan wondered.
"Of course not! The snakes do not allow it." She said as if it was an obvious fact.
"Wait!" The leading elf said. "You wouldn't happen to be from outside the cave, right?!" He said, almost shouting.
Zhou Fan looked at the elfs face and realized that their situation is much worse than he previously thought.
"Indeed, I am from the outside world." Zhou Fan said.
The elves' expressions got visibly excited.
"Please! Follow us!" They said.
When they turned around to lead him, they started to run. Zhou Fan started to 'speed' walk behind them.
It wasn't long before they made it to a gate. The gate wasn't exactly made of wood. Instead, it was simply wooden branches forming a natural looking arch.
"How did you do that?" Zhou Fan asked. Although he could shape wood like that, he would have to use Qi to manipulate it, and from what he has seen, elves couldn't use Qi.
"The door? Do you not have doors outside?" The girl asked, perplexed.
Zhou Fan looked at the girl with a deadpan expression on his face.
"Never mind." He said before quietly following them the rest of the way.
On the short journey, Zhou Fan came to learn the three elves names. Lily, Mark, and Steve.
Lily was the girl, Mark was the leading male, and Steve was the guy who hadn't said anything since his appearance. Although, Steve has been giving him wary looks the entire way.
One minute after passing through the arch, they arrived at the middle of the cave. Here, there was a clearing area and the tallest trees in the cave. Including the huge one he saw earlier.
Mark pointed at the big tree and said, "That is the world tree. It is sacred, and no one is allowed to touch it besides the queen. Even then, she can only do it twice in her life. The day she inherits the throne and the day she passes it on."
When Zhou Fan heard Marks words, most of his confusions were cleared up.
Although sparse, he could see a couple of elves walking around. Some were carrying baskets, while others were simply walking. When they saw him, they all stopped and stared at him for a second. They seemed to notice that his ears were short.
Zhou Fan proceded to ignore them and observe the village. Around the world tree, there were many smaller trees. Although small next to the world tree, they were quite huge. On those trees hanged many tree houses.
Zhou Fan had read about those before. What really astonished him was the bridges connecting every area. There were even big plazas and other gathering spaces.
"Sir," Mark said, interrupting his thoughts. "Please follow us, we are going to take you to the queen."
Zhou Fan was surprised to hear that, he didn't think that he would see the queen so quickly. Zhou Fan walked behind Mark and Lily. Steve had gone off after they reached the village.
It was then that Zhou Fan realized he had left the beasts behind. He was so caught up in the current events that he forgot about them completely.
'Meh, they'll be fine', he thought.
Along the way, Mark talked about the village with Zhou Fan. According to him, there were 129 elves living here. They seemed to have trouble breeding, and one would be lucky to have two kids after 100 tries.
Zhou Fan continued to follow the elves, and it wasn't long before they came to a large palace. Like the other buildings, it was hung up in a tree.The tree it was hung up on was the second tallest tree in the forest. It was also the closest to the world tree.
They made their way up the closest stairway and made it to the palace entrance. The palace was completely made out of wood. Even then, its beauty was undeniable.
Seeing the two guards stationed at the gate, Mark walked up and talked to them in a hushed voice. However, Zhou Fan could naturally hear them.
"We have found an outsider. We must have an audience with the queen." Mark whispered.
The guards' faces instantly changed. Their relaxed and slightly lazy expression twisted in an instant as one of them ran into the palace at his top speed.
As they were waiting for him to get back, Zhou Fan observed the remaining guard. He was clearly very on guard, however, he was trying to be discreet about it. Almost as if he was afraid of offending Zhou Fan.
Zhou Fan ignored him and continued to wait for the guard to return.
Chapter 29: Unbridledly Arrogant- 29
The guard returned after just 2 minutes.
"The Queen has requested you meet her. Please follow me." The guard said, clearly out of breath.
The guard waited another moment to catch his breath before he led Zhou Fan inside.
When he got inside, Zhou Fan instantly noticed the queen sitting on the elevated throne in the middle of the room. The hall had long pillars reaching the floor and ceiling by the sides. Once again, everything was made out of wood.
"Hello outsider." The queen suddenly said. She looked no older than 30. She had the blondest hair he had ever seen and green eyes. Her ears were also noticeably pointier than the other elves he had seen.
"My name is Penny. I am the queen of the valeks." She stated.
'So they call themselves the valeks', Zhou Fan thought. Although he had no plan to change the name he called them, it was interesting to know.
"Hello queen penny, my name is Zhou Fan. I am the strongest human." He said. Since her introduction was so strong, he decided to elevate his status. However, he wasn't lying. He is by far, the strongest human.
When the elf queen heard him, her eyes widened in surprise. However, she fixed her face not soon after.
"I didn't expect a great warrior to come down here. Why did- how did you come down here?" She said, changing her question halfway through.
Zhou Fan stood there in silence as he contemplated how he wanted to respond. More accurately, he was considering how he wanted to continue on with the elves.
He could either become their friend, or subjugate them.
Seeing that Zhou Fan was standing in silence, the elf queen spoke again.
"There is a prophecy told among the successors to the valek throne." She started. "It has been passed down since the valeks moved down here. It states that one day, someone will come from the outside. They will either liberate us, or destroy us. While I'm not quite sure how you could destroy us, I would like to remain peaceful with you."
Zhou Fan was surprised to hear her words. However, they had no effect on his decision.
" I have decided." Zhou Fan said. "From now on, the elf race will submit to me."
Zhou Fan emphasized the word elf. Since he had named them as such, it was only natural that their name would change once they went under him.
"Preposterous!" The elf queen shouted out in a rage. She immediately stood up from her throne and let out a loud shout.
"GUARDS!! KILL THIS MAN!"
All of a sudden, multiple guards burst in through the entrances and surrounded Zhou Fan. Zhou Fan stared at them with contempt.
Zhou Fan naturally hadn't gone crazy overnight. There were multiple reasons why he chose to subjugate the elves instead of befriend them. Firstly, he could sense the ill intent oozing off the queen. She never trusted him for a second. Secondly, Zhou Fan had no connection with them. Although they resembled humans, Zhou Fan felt that they were completely different. Finally, he wanted to research the elves. Specifically, he wanted to learn their history. Since they've been enclosed for such a long time, they should have ancient records.
Watching one of the elf guards suddenly thrusting his spear towards him, Zhou Fan decided to humor them for a bit instead of instantly defeating them.
He grabbed the elfs' spear as it was about to pierce his body and crushed it. He then grabbed the guard by the neck and lifted him in the air. Before the hanging man could pass out from lack of oxygen, Zhou Fan saw a bunch of arrows coming towards him.
Instead of dodging, Zhou Fan used the captured man as a human shield. Since the arrows were coming from every direction, Zhou Fan had to swing him around like a ragdoll to block them.
By the time arrows stopped being shot, the man resembled a porcupine. Without a doubt, he had died. Zhou Fan didn't feel anything after killing him. It was weird to him. Logically, since they resembled humans, he should feel something when killing them. However, he felt like he had just stepped on an ant, even with the bloody scene before him.
"You shouldn't have shot, he would have lived." Zhou Fan said out loud.
"Bullsh*t!" The queen screamed out. "Continue!"
The elves continued their fearless attack after hearing the queens' order. The queen herself, however, was trying to suppress the growing fear inside of her.
'When he said the strongest human, I didn't think he'd be so powerful.' She thought to herself. However, there was no medicine for regret.
Seeing that the elves were still attacking, Zhou Fan decided to turn it up a notch.
As the closest man neared him, Zhou Fan punched a hole through his chest, killing him instantly.
The rest of the soldiers stopped in their tracks. Fear was written on their faces. This scene reminded Zhou Fan of the first time he killed a man. It was when the bandits attacked the village and Zhou Fan defeated the leader in one hit. An eerily similar scene was playing out right now. The look on the elves' faces resembled those of the other bandits faces back then.
" I will ask once more." Zhou Fan said while releasing his Qi pressure. Just enough to make it near impossible to stand.
"Submit. Otherwise, I will kill every elf in this room."
Perhaps if he had said this without releasing his Qi pressure, they would have continued. However, right now, they couldn't even stand, much less fight back.
After saying his words, Zhou Fan dispersed his pressure. Even then, terror was written on the elves' faces. It was likely that they would never forget what happened today.
The room remained silent for a good 5 minutes. Luckily for them, Zhou Fan was a patient person. After 5 minutes, the elf queen finally spoke up, fear etched on her face.
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