บท 30: Hidden Entrance- 30
"W-w-what are you?" The elf queen managed to stutter out.
"I am a cultivator. No. I am The cultivator." Zhou Fan said, putting an emphasis on 'The'. Although he had no proof that he was the only cultivator, it didn't matter. He felt it in his soul, he was the first cultivator. If he was wrong, so be it.
By the elf queen's expression, you could tell she had no idea what he was talking about.
"... We submit." She unwillingly said. Although she had no idea what a cultivator was, she was intimidated enough to accept her fate.
"Kneel to the new king." The elf queen said to her surrounding elves. Although the elves had unwilling expressions, they too didn't have the heart to resist.
However, as they were falling to their knees, Zhou Fan spoke out.
"I am not your king," he said. "I have no intention to control or affect you in any way. Just don't try to fight against me."
Zhou Fan looked at the elf queen and spoke.
"Do you have a library?" "Yes," she responded.
"Take me there," Zhou Fan commanded.
The elf queen wasted no time and led him out of the palace. As soon as they left, the elves in the palace let out a breath of relief.
"Why was he calling us elves," one of the elf men said.
"If you're asking me, who should I ask," another elf responded.
"I believe he has named our race that," the oldest elf in the room commented.
"Preposterous!" One of the elves angrily exclaimed. "We are the proud valeks! How dare he change the name of our race!" He angrily shouted.
"Oh," the old elf sounded. "So are you going to tell him that? Why didn't you tell him to his face while he was forcing you to the ground earlier." He mockingly said.
The angry elf deflated and lowered his head. Deep inside, he knew that if Zhou Fan called them the elves, no one would dare resist.
"Maybe 'elf' isn't a bad name," one of the elves said in an attempt to keep some pride.
The rest looked at him understandingly and sounded out their agreement.
As they were talking, Zhou Fan followed the elf queen to the world tree.
"Why are we here?" He said, confused.
"You'll see," the elf queen said, trying to seem mysterious.
The world tree had a perimeter of about 300 feet. Therefore, there was a backside that was outside of the elf village. In fact, that entire area is considered a forbidden zone according to Mark.
The elf queen made her way to that area. Although the passerby's were astonished to see the elf queen roaming about, none stopped their journey.
It wasn't long before they made their way to a hill right behind the world tree. The elf queen went to a seemingly normal stone and pressed down on it.
"The library is sacred. Even I rarely go to it. Therefore, it has to stay hidden." She said.
Zhou Fan was confused why she pressed the stone. After pressing the first one, she went around pressing stones in a seemingly random fashion.
On the twentieth stone a creaking noise was heard. All of a sudden, a 4 foot by 4 foot area on the ground opened up like an entrance to an outside basement.
Zhou Fan was dumbfounded. This was the first time he had seen something like this.
"It works similar to a gate bridge." She said.
Zhou Fan recalled that the gate bridge was a bridge that could be drawn upwards and then lowered by a pulley. It was usually featured over a pit of lava in story books.
"Of course, it's 100x more advanced than that." She said smugly.
Although Zhou Fan had the urge to slap her, he just stood there and watched as she walked down the stairs under the hidden entrance. He soon followed.
Zhou Fan and the elf queen went down about 100 feet before the stairs came to a stop. In front of them, there was a long narrow hallway lit up by torches on the walls.
The elf queen grabbed the nearest wall torch and led Zhou Fan down the hallway. They walked around 100 feet before a big door appeared. Zhou Fan now estimated that they were directly under the world tree.
The elf queen walked over to the side of the door and pulled a big lever. When she did, the big door opened.
"Now this is closer to the gate bridge." She said.
Zhou Fan ignored her and walked in front of her. When he entered, he saw bookshelves lining the wall. There was no natural light, yet there were so many torches that the room was without a hint of darkness. There were roots along the ceiling and a giant one pierced directly through the middle.
"Wait," Zhou Fan suddenly stopped and said. "How are all these torches lit?"
Zhou Fan was confused. The elf queen said that she rarely came down here, therefore, it was weird that both the hallway and this room were lit.
"Ah yes." She said. "A long time ago, we elves created a substance that could burn for 2 years before it had to be replaced. We considered the invention of the ages. However, it is extremely hard to make. It took an equivalent of 1 million gold coins to make a batch the size of a barrel. Luckily, the prior elf empire was so rich that they made thousands of barrels. We are still relying on those today. Every two years, I come down here and re-light the torches." She used the word elf instead of valek due to Zhou Fan's earlier words.
2 years! 1 million gold coins! Thousand of barrels!
The more she talked, the more Zhou Fan was amazed. Something that could burn for two years! Who could make something like that? A million gold was more than an average kingdom's treasury would contain. Also, thousands of barrels meant billions of gold coins!
You would need to combine the treasury of 3 or 4 of the top 10 empires to have that amount.
"Wait," Zhou Fan stopped. "Elf empire?"
He thought he heard her say such a thing earlier.
"Indeed. Read through the library, you will find everything about the elves here."
Nodding, Zhou Fan looked around. By quick estimations, there were 2000 bookshelves here. Zhou Fan inwardly prepared himself and got ready to read.
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