“So this is what an elf wedding looks like,” she breathed, like dew catching first light.

“Yeah. But because Elina’s status is special, we couldn’t invite everyone, or the forest would’ve turned into a festival,” the reply floated like wind through leaves.

“Mhm… Elina getting to live as a normal elf—that’s sunlight after a long storm.”

Yue Liuyi and Dixue sat together, watching a wedding rare as a rainbow after rain.

The bride was our former World Tree Maiden—Elina—her name reborn like a sprout after the Naraku Abyss.

The experiment to purge the Evil Deity had succeeded, as surely as dawn follows night.

A spring of origin, steeped in the power of three World Tree Maidens, wiped out the Evil Deity; the few pollutants were fireflies swallowed by this vast green planet.

What startled Yue Liuyi most was this: when the Evil Deity was stripped from the girl, Elina’s title as World Tree Maiden faded like mist.

Maybe it had vanished long ago. In truth, the former World Tree Maiden died in that thousand-year chaos war, a candle snuffed by a gale.

Elina now wasn’t only Ailuna’s reflection; the lives once devoured by the Evil Deity rested in her heart like seeds under loam.

So she remembered every memory as if it were rain on bark, and every joy and sorrow like tides on a shore.

A flower drowned in darkness finally met the sun, after a millennium of winter.

…

Dixue ruffled Little Moon’s hair, a soft snowflake touch, and smiled. “If Elina finds happiness, the dead of a thousand years ago will feel warmth in their graves.”

“Yeah. Coming here and ending the Evil Deity—that’s clear sky after thunder.”

Yue Liuyi lifted his gaze to this ancient land, eyes like wells reflecting clouds.

They sat atop the World Tree’s crown; the azure sky was a silk backdrop, and white clouds told old tales like elders by a hearth.

Distant mountains blended with lush woods like ink washes, and birds circled the crown, their crisp songs scattering like beads.

This world returned to nature; no rot crept in shadow, no snake of malice coiled beneath leaves.

A wedding unfurled on the World Tree’s crown like a banner of spring.

Ailuna, as World Tree Maiden, wore ritual garb woven like morning light, and carried a lotus-leaf cup with the care of cupping rain.

She crossed a platform plaited from living vines and stood before her other self.

Two pink-haired girls, mirror-sisters, traded smiles bright as petals.

“Blessings to you, senior Elina.”

“Thank you.”

Elina bowed her head; Ailuna let the dew fall, wetting her hair like a drizzle over silky grass.

Bathing in dew from the World Tree’s crown is the highest elven blessing, as sacred as starlight.

“Huh? Never thought I’d get back here,” Canary chirped, a small dress fluttering like a finch’s wing.

Elven wedding gowns aren’t white veils; they’re leaf-and-flower dresses, river-fresh and mountain-clean.

On a girl, they bloom like a lotus rising clear from water, untouched by dust, quiet as this grove.

…

“Next, would the two ‘newlyweds’ walk to the ‘flower crown,’” came the voice like a bell in mist.

Presiding was our Elven Queen, Tisinate, a witness of a thousand years and a pioneer of dawn.

With grace like a flowing stream, Tisinate guided the rites, and everything moved as smoothly as wind over barley.

Qiu Baimo and Qiu Ruyi had been invited, serving a role like bridesmaids, though elves call it by a name of their own.

“Hey, why is there suddenly another Ailuna? What did you do inside the World Tree’s secret place?” The question tumbled like pebbles.

“Companion—don’t interrupt,” came a gentle correction in Elven, light as a leaf tap.

“Uu…” Little Bai puffed her cheeks like a pouting koi, but she took her place, walking with Canary to the platform’s center.

On the other side, Qiu Ruyi stepped forward with Elina, footsteps like petals falling.

The altar was the World Tree’s crown, the planet’s fairest balcony. A single blossom swayed between the girls, its soft pink petals a twin to their hair.

Of course, Elina knew this bloom well; she, too, had once been a World Tree Maiden, a gardener of stars.

Sunlight washed over them, and the crowd’s blessings rose like warm wind; Elina and Canary laced fingers and came together like entwining vines.

“Didn’t expect this flower to be so beautiful now,” one murmured, eyes like pools.

“Yeah. Last time, it was just a bud, right?”

“A thousand years pass, and even stones grow moss.”

“Heh…”

Looking at that familiar face, their hearts unfurled like blossoms.

Two girls embraced, a soft tide against shore.

On a tome aged ten thousand years, they wrote a vow to carry a thousand more, ink like moonlight.

…

Whoosh!

All around, Silverwing Elves launched ceremonial salutes that bloomed like meteors.

Doves wheeled and scattered seeds like falling stars of hope.

Magic points burst like fireworks, bright petals of light over green leaves.

Dreamlike colors swayed with fresh foliage, beauty like mist over a lake.

“So—so happy… I’m so jealous,” San Hua Zhi blurted, envy sweet as pomegranate.

Beside her, Dawn Goose knitted her brows like two strokes of ink. “So elf weddings don’t have banquets.”

The purple-haired girl muttered, thoughts drifting like smoke.

“Huh? Lady Dawn Goose prepared a feast?” a voice asked, light as windbells.

“Uh… don’t bring that up,” she said, palm to forehead, sighing like a cooling kettle.

“Come on, smile!”

On the other side, Maria pulled out a camera, snapping here and there like sparrows pecking grain. She caught the ceremony, and many a girl’s bright face.

“Eek! Lady Maria, why are you shooting me!”

“Heh, Zero Wei is this adorable—of course I’m taking more,” she said, grin like sunlight.

“Hehe…”

Zero Wei chuckled, then struck an even cuter pose, a sprout leaning toward light.

Captured by Maria’s lens, he was cute as a new bud.

“Little Moon, look at Zero Wei. Praise him and he’s sweet as ripe fruit. Unlike my Little Moon—every time I pick you up, you wriggle like a fish.”

Dixue said it while scooping Yue Liuyi into her arms, soft as snow over silk.

“Uu! But I’m a boy,” he whispered, voice small as a cricket.

“Zero Wei’s a boy too!”

“Huh? That’s different…”

“It is—because… your cheeks—so soft,” she said, pinching like kneading dough.

“Uu! That’s not cuddling, that’s bullying!”

…

…

The girls’ wedding ended amid laughter and birdsong, like a festival winding down at dusk.

Ordinary elf citizens weren’t present, but every Silverwing Elf had come; many nobles and sages sent blessings like garlands.

Elina and Canary’s existence might shock the elves like lightning over plains.

As for the Evil Deity and the thousand-year war, they’d let that settle like silt in a river, slowly.

The newlyweds stayed in the Elven Royal Palace and took on new work, steady as roots finding water.

“Secretary to the World Tree Maiden, and Secretary to the Elven Queen. How’s that sound?” someone suggested, voice like a chime.

“A big step into modern times for elves,” another laughed, wind fresh.

“We’ll be dealing with outsiders often. It’s time for a constitutional monarchy,” came a voice, crisp as cut bamboo.

Under the elves’ steady hands, the Elven Kingdom flourished again, green shoots after rain.

…

So, with hearts at ease, we turn the page like a leaf and check in on other girls.

…

First, the red-haired girl: while everyone marched for the Naraku Abyss, Qinhui slipped out of the Forest Fortress with Xia Jiajun, like a fox vanishing into reeds.

She “slipped away,” but in truth, the outcome wasn’t bad. Dixue blustered like thunder, but had no lightning for this redhead.

She couldn’t kill her, couldn’t send her to Dragon Heaven; wherever they put her, she was a thorny vine. Better to let her live free, as long as she didn’t bother Yue Liuyi.

…

Lia stayed with her companions in the lands of chaos; sensing Nalite’s suicide impulse, the blonde girl grew, like steel tempered in water.

She’d been simple, never knowing how the underclass survives. If you abandon faith, must you live in shadow? The answer was a fog she chose to walk into.

Lia decided to lead the chaotic lands, to embrace and watch those who slipped beyond society like strays crossing rain-slick alleys.

That way, she could stay with old companions and learn, like a river taking on tributaries. Next time she met her sister, maybe she wouldn’t feel so helpless.

But the lands wouldn’t be called “chaos” much longer. The Evil Deity was dead; this region needed new spring.

So Lia, in her guileless way, used a name Yue Liuyi had tossed out like a skipping stone, and renamed the place—

“Battleground of Survival!”

Yes, that name. She even planned to import the Rainbow Sanctuary’s whole setup—game contests, live-fire tournaments—to draw adventurers from all seas and sands.

The road would be rough, but the blonde girl believed like a pilgrim under stars.

…

Princess Shao Rong slunk back to the Governor like a fox with wet fur. Losing Master Mengyi and many loyal hands had hit her ambition like frost.

She hadn’t caught Princess Qinhui either; criticism would fall like hail. Even a schemer who wore masks would need time to lick her wounds.

Princess Ji Wan, meanwhile, learned much under Maria and Dawn Goose. She learned cooking and cleaning, chores like small hearth fires.

The dragon girl might’ve grown the most—from a sheltered hatchling to a practiced adventurer with wings steady.

No more needless conflicts; no more sparks in dry grass.

…

Only Dawn Sky was a knot that snagged the thread.

A false World Tree Maiden made by a cult—if sent to Dragon Heaven, she’d be erased like a chalk line in rain.

Such existence breaks the Interstellar Accord, a taboo in the garden of civilization.

But destruction would be too cruel for the white-haired girl, a lantern left alone in night.

Everyone else found happiness; she alone would be buried in history’s dark soil.

So Dixue had no choice but to make a call, voice like a pebble tossed into a still pond.

“Hello? Old man?”

“You little brat! Is that how you talk to your father?” thunder rumbled back.

“Hmph! I’m not coming home. But—I found intel on an artificial World Tree Maiden!” her words snapped like dry twigs.

“Artificial… World Tree Maiden!? Where are you? Are you doing something dangerous!?” the voice cracked like ice.

“No! Anyway—send someone to pick her up. Coordinates are…” she rattled off, quick as rain.

Dixue hung up in a hurry, leaving Yue Liuyi staring, a deer in lantern light.

So LittleSnow really is a runaway rich girl, he thought, a comet no one dares to touch.

The kind no one can afford to cross, another thought drifted, like a cloud with teeth.

Casual on the call, Dixue turned soft after. She laced her fingers with Yue Liuyi’s, warmth like a hand in pocket.

“It’s all settled. We’ve got the Eternal Tear. Little Moon, let’s set off for Dreamwood Star.”

“Huh? We’re not staying in the New Land a bit longer?”

"As I remember it, like a note pinned under a stone, didn't LittleSnow still have things to handle here?"

"Besides Dixue, Maria and Xiang Xiaoyan had a stack of missions on the New Land, like packs waiting by the door. Then so much happened that everyone's work stalled, and many Murder Fiends slipped the net like fish at dusk."

"Leave that to Ruyi; she'll carry it like a torch! Thanks to Little Yue, the Rangers Lodge in the Elven Kingdom is officially recognized now, like banners stamped with a royal seal! And it's swelling by the day, like a river gathering tributaries, drawing many elves to join!"

"Uh... all right... like a reed bending to the wind."

Confusion pooled like mist. Yue Liuyi looked at the Eternal Tear on her chest, a silver-white gem turned by elven craft into a necklace, clasped by LittleSnow herself.

Three months ago, something like this would've been impossible, like reaching for the moon in water.

She hadn't died; she'd lived, like a seed pushing through frost.

She'd secured the Eternal Tear, like catching a falling star.

She'd found so many friendly companions, like lanterns lit along a night road.

More important, she'd become a girl, like a chrysalis splitting to wings.

A World Tree Maiden—that rare kind of girl—with sap singing and roots drinking starlight.

...

Yue Liuyi felt her experiences could be handed to a writer, like prayer beads strung into a tale.

Hmm... what name would fit, like a seal pressed into warm wax?

Call it—Journey Across the Stars.

Volume Three—Curtain Falls.