The Elderly Elf wore a bitter look. He sat in his chair, treating the wounds those Sorceresses had left behind. The Dual Blade Sorceress had pinned down the strongest one, so he’d assumed the rest would be easy to handle. And in truth, they were.

Those Sorceresses weren’t that strong. As long as he set down a Formation, they couldn’t do anything to him. If he then deployed that highly lethal Formation in time, he could’ve cut them all down.

But the situation back then was this: just as he was about to complete the Formation, the three Sorceresses pulled out the forbidden books that had gone missing a few days ago.

They first used the three forbidden books to turn them into chains and wrap around the Elderly Elf’s limbs. The Elderly Elf only paused the Formation in his hands to break free from the chains binding his arms and legs.

He yanked hard with one arm, and one chain came loose at once. Even with the forbidden books, the users were only so-so. They couldn’t trap him at all.

But at the very instant he was about to break free, the Sorceress leader fighting the Dual Blade Sorceress threw out a murky bottle from her robe. A shadow crawled out of the shattered bottle, and under the leader’s control, it rushed straight toward the bound Elderly Elf.

The Elderly Elf caught a trace of a smell from that shadow, one that made him instinctively sick. He broke his left hand free, then kept forming seals with both hands. A Formation slowly took shape before him.

The Formation activated and shredded the shadow in front of him with ease. Then he turned his palm, and a beam of light spat from the Formation, slicing apart the last chain.

His combat strength wasn’t all that great, but he wasn’t weak either. If he couldn’t even deal with a few juniors weaker than himself, how could he carry the banner of the elves as they were now?

But right then, a familiar voice sounded behind him. He whipped around and found another shadow standing there. Through that shadow, the Elderly Elf saw an old man with the same pointed ears.

That old man had appeared in his memories before. He could be counted as one of the leaders of their generation, hailed as the number one druid of the elf race. He had created a brand-new way to command Monsters. He was someone worthy of respect.

But when the Elderly Elf had only just begun learning to read, that old man had already passed away. And now, he was standing before him once more...

The moment the Elderly Elf saw him, he grew alert. The old man before him was very strong, but he had no life in him. He felt much like that shadow, and there was no telling whether he was friend or foe.

“Oh, so it’s you, little one... I remember you. You’ve grown this much already? Has it really been that long?”

The moment those words came out, more than half of the Elderly Elf’s guard faded away. Was this thing in front of him really that druid from back then?

But before he could finish the thought, the shadow suddenly trembled, condensed into a thin needle, and stabbed into the Elderly Elf’s brow. Taking advantage of the instant he was entangled by that shadow, the three Sorceresses simultaneously drew out the Abyssal Aura within the forbidden books. Those clusters of Abyssal Aura slowly attached themselves to the Elderly Elf’s body.

Attacked from both sides, the Elderly Elf panicked for a moment.

“If that’s the case, then hand your soul and body over to me... This is your only way to live.”

The old man’s voice echoed through the Elderly Elf’s mind. The Elderly Elf gritted his teeth and made his choice at once. He would protect his soul first. With his physical body, he could still hold out against the forbidden book’s Abyssal Aura for a while. It would just be more troublesome to deal with later. But if his soul were erased, that would mean death.

Because he had spent years studying Formations, his mind and soul had been tempered for a long time. That gave both his spirit and soul a solid foundation. On the path of the soul, he wasn’t among the very best, but he wasn’t weak either.

In the battle inside his head, he came out slightly ahead and successfully drove the old man out of his mind. But the clusters of Abyssal Aura on the surface of his body, born from the forbidden books, had grown stronger after devouring a small portion of his Mana. Now they were becoming troublesome.

He locked the room tight and activated the grand Formation to prevent outsiders from barging in while he healed. The Abyssal Aura had already corroded its way to his spine. He flicked his sleeve and formed a healing Formation, then took out the Magic Stones he had treasured in a box to purge that stubborn mass of Abyssal Aura.

The reason forbidden books were forbidden was because the Abyssal Aura inside them was slightly different from ordinary Abyssal Aura. When ordinary Abyssal Aura met Mana, the two would clash and might even explode. But the Abyssal Aura in the forbidden books fed on Mana and used it to strengthen itself.

Calling them Abyssal Aura didn’t quite feel right. These clusters felt more like some kind of Monsters. If they kept growing like this, they might really transform from Abyssal Aura into Monsters... He remembered that an elf who had studied Abyssal Aura once proposed a theory: the earliest Monsters may have evolved from Abyssal Aura.

Looking at it now, that might really be true.

There were two ways to deal with this thing. One was to teach it a lesson with Mana far beyond its upper limit. The other was to drive it out with Abyssal Aura.

And the method the Elderly Elf had used back then was the first one, when he expelled those clusters of Abyssal Aura from that librarian.

“Finally... it’s done.”

After several days of effort from the Elderly Elf, the final wisp of Abyssal Aura was crushed by overwhelming Mana. He took a deep breath and collapsed weakly into the chair. He decided he’d go check the ruins later, to see whether any forbidden books had been left behind. Otherwise, those things might come out and harm people again.

After that, he would go find Night Frost. During the time he had been treating himself, the scroll monitoring Night Frost had stopped working. It was very likely Night Frost had discovered it and destroyed it. Thinking carefully, it had already been over a week since he last checked on Night Frost. By now, Night Frost had probably almost finished deducing that Formation.

He had to go take a look.

This concerned the entire elf race. So they had to find a way to reach the surface world.

At that moment, Night Frost was staying in Lurie’s house. A few days ago, Lurie had been attacked by the undead, and only after several days of care from the elves had she recovered a fair bit.

When Lurie saw Night Frost return, she specially boiled a pot of hot water for her. After all, Night Frost had rarely come back these past few weeks. The task the elder had given her must have been incredibly heavy.

“I might be leaving soon, so I came back to say goodbye. (Elvish)”

In her father’s notes, Night Frost had found a rough map. It was old, but it seemed able to lead her to the Abyssal Rift once traversed by the Calamity Dragon. More than that, the notebook also recorded things such as the Formation carved onto the surface of the white sphere inside Night Frost’s body. All of that needed to be studied by Night Frost.

“When? (Elvish)”

Lurie was a little reluctant. Night Frost called herself an adventurer, and she was never going to stay in this city for long. She would leave sooner or later. Maybe Night Frost had originally planned to leave directly, but had been delayed by the elder and various other matters.

Lurie asked when Night Frost would be leaving, so she could at least see her off.

While the two of them were chatting idly about everyday things, someone knocked on the wooden house outside. Night Frost sensed the Mana and realized it was that Elderly Elf from before.

There was a trace of displeasure on his face, as if he had learned something about Night Frost.

Night Frost pushed open the door, and the Elderly Elf walked straight in. Lurie was so startled that she hurriedly bent at the waist, but the Elderly Elf ignored her and fixed his gaze on Night Frost.

“What’s with that pile of rubble underground? (Elvish)”

The Elderly Elf seemed to have just gone to the underground site where the Formation had been. Night Frost had already wrecked the place beyond recognition. Even if he went there, he probably wouldn’t find anything useful.

The real purpose of the Elderly Elf’s visit was likely the notes Night Frost had taken from underground, especially the location of the passage that could leave this Abyss and lead to the surface world.

Lurie very consciously went outside to wait. Whatever the elder and Night Frost were about to discuss was definitely not something she should hear.

Night Frost called out the Eye Orb and Li Dogegg, especially Li Dogegg. It was a gold-medal translator. The Eye Orb had rich social experience, enough to keep this old monster from laying verbal traps.

According to the contract, Night Frost didn’t hide anything. She placed part of what she had obtained onto the table, naturally including that crude map.

The Elderly Elf asked for nothing else. He only wanted that map. A trace of hope flashed through his eyes. Perhaps with this map, the elf race could survive.

“Can you tell me why? Why have you always been so determined to reach the surface world? Is it because of the sun in the sky? (Elvish)”

A trace of confusion flashed through Night Frost’s eyes. When they signed the contract, she had seen the Elderly Elf write on the paper: [Ensure peaceful coexistence between the elf race and the life of the surface world.] That was exactly why Night Frost had felt safe enough to show him the map.

“Do you know the book Seven Days of the Elves? (Dragon Tongue)”

Perhaps to make communication easier, the Elderly Elf switched to Dragon Tongue. Li Dogegg could translate his words for Night Frost more effectively.

“This book tells of the disaster we once faced. It’s a fairy tale book, but no elf is willing to read such a cliché children’s story... Yet everything recorded in that book is real. (Dragon Tongue)”

“Fifteen hundred years ago, I was only a little over five hundred years old. Back then, a disaster broke out among the elf race. Those seven horrific days swallowed the lives of countless elves. (Dragon Tongue)”

The Elderly Elf’s voice trembled slightly, but his movements were quick and smooth. He picked up the tea Lurie had brewed for Night Frost and started drinking it himself. This old man really had no shame.

Night Frost snatched the teapot back and poured herself a full cup too. Lurie had brewed that for her. She couldn’t let this old man drink it all.

“A plague broke out in the forest, and drought followed after. A second sun slowly rose in the west... All food rotted in a single day. All rivers dried up in a single day. All life in the forest... died in a single day. (Dragon Tongue)”

“One druid, one archmage, and one valiant elven warrior joined forces and preserved the Tree of Life that the elf race depended on to survive. They were the heroes who allowed the elves to continue on. (Dragon Tongue)”

“But with only them, there was no easy way to survive that disaster. The legendary Dragon of Prophecy, Dragon of Nature, and Dragon of Life took action. They prayed for sweet rain and food for the elf race, and only then did we survive that calamity. (Dragon Tongue)”

“But in the end, the Dragon of Prophecy left behind a prophecy:

‘Nothing has ended,

it has only begun.

In days to come, suns will hang in the sky.

First the forest,

then the grasslands.

Not a single living thing will be spared,

including us.’”