441: Chapter 427 Elven Territory, the Withering Tree of Life

Gezhe seemed to be in a great hurry, running nearly at the limit speed of a low-tier Professional, his broken arm swinging with his movements.

This made Zhang Mu feel a bit awkward. The role he was playing was that of an ordinary person; following Gezhe closely clearly didn't fit the character, but running at a normal person's pace left him further and further behind, and Gezhe's back was about to disappear from his sight.

Zhang Mu kept his character in mind and didn't dare to speed up, only calling out to remind him: "Slow down—"

"Stop." Gezhe suddenly skidded to a halt and hid behind a tree.

Speeding up slightly to reach his side, Zhang Mu, deeply immersed in his role, propped his hands on his knees and gasped for breath: "Whew— whew— what..."

"Shh, look."

Gezhe peeked his head out from behind the trunk while waving for him to come over. Zhang Mu stood behind him and stood on his tiptoes.

In the dense forest not far away, two humans were fleeing while supporting each other, looking back from time to time with eyes full of fear.

"Don't even think about escaping!"

The owner of the voice seemed to be overhead. Zhang Mu looked up and saw three elves leaping through the branches in pursuit.

They wore tight, thin leather armor—not full-body armor—leaving their arms and legs exposed. All three had long hair, two males and one female, and held bows and arrows.

"Whoosh— whoosh—"

The three of them fired simultaneously, three arrows flying toward the two humans. Whether intentional or not, the arrows didn't hit their targets; two landed on the ground a few steps behind the humans, while the remaining one skewed to the side and pierced a tree trunk.

"Help!" the two humans shouted in terror, running even faster.

Zhang Mu peeked sneakily from the side, and seeing this scene, he became thoughtful.

Zhang Mu had experienced elven archery before; he couldn't say they were a hundred for a hundred, but ninety-nine out of a hundred was easy. Moreover, no matter how weak these three elves were, they were still Professionals; there was no way they couldn't catch up to two ordinary humans.

What was this? The elven version of "remember to give the animal a slap after treating it"?

"Same old trick." As the three elves and two humans ran off into the distance and quickly disappeared among the trees, Gezhe gave a cold snort.

"What do you mean?"

"They intimidate humans through pursuit to establish a fierce and cold-blooded image for the Elf Clan."

"I have to admit, it's a good method."

"Exactly. Judging by the impression the citizens of Boni City have of the elves, their plan is very successful."

Zhang Mu looked toward the dense forest where the "five" had gone: "The elves are gone, what should we do?"

"Put on a show."

"Stay here and don't move."

Gezhe turned and left. A few minutes later, he returned, lifting a young Berserk Bear with one hand.

"What are you doing?"

"Lie down over there."

Zhang Mu roughly understood his plan. He walked to the tree nearby and lay down, glancing down at the wound on his thigh—it had already healed and scabbed over.

"What a sin," he cursed, picking off the scab with his fingernails. Fresh blood began to flow from the wound.

Gezhe maintained his bear-lifting posture, closing his eyes and listening for something.

"Waiting for those three elves?" Zhang Mu slightly raised his upper body.

"Yes."

"How long until they come back?"

"The depths of the Forest of Spirits are full of danger. They should return as soon as they've escorted the people to the outskirts."

"Oh." Zhang Mu stopped talking and lay back on the ground to wait quietly.

Time passed bit by bit. Half an hour later, Zhang Mu was getting a bit impatient because he had to pick at the scabbing wound every few minutes.

"I say, are they—"

"They're here!"

Gezhe suddenly opened his eyes, tossed the young Berserk Bear to the ground, and smashed a fist into its head.

The young Berserk Bear was punched awake, but its consciousness was still a bit dazed. It held its head with its two paws, its eyes blank, seemingly confused as to why its skull was throbbing with pain.

"Help!" Gezhe ran to Zhang Mu's side and crouched down, taking his upper body into his arms.

His acting was incredibly realistic; not only did his shout contain a tremor, but his whole body was also shaking slightly.

The young Berserk Bear was now fully awake and looked at the "terrified" Gezhe.

After a few seconds, it seemed to recognize Gezhe. Fear appeared in its small eyes, and it scrambled up to turn and run.

Zhang Mu was stunned: "What's going on?"

Gezhe's face was dark: "I didn't use enough strength in that punch just now."

"What do we do?"

"Hmph, trying to run?" Gezhe threw Zhang Mu aside and instantly appeared in front of the fleeing young Berserk Bear. He first gave it a heavy punch to the chest, then grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and dragged it back under the tree.

From the corner of his eye, Zhang Mu saw several flickers of green flying through the distant trees, rapidly approaching them. He urged: "They're almost here."

"I know."

Gezhe turned the young Berserk Bear around to face him, then grabbed the wrists of its two front limbs and pulled it up to stand, feigning a scene where both sides were wrestling.

The young Berserk Bear didn't understand what this demon in front of it wanted to do; its mind was only filled with the memory of being beaten by him, and it instinctively struggled to escape.

However, this was exactly what Gezhe wanted.

He used overwhelming strength to control the young Berserk Bear's movements. In the eyes of the three elves approaching from behind it, unable to see its panicked expression, a magical beast was baring its fangs and claws while hunting humans.

"It's a Berserk Bear! Quickly contact the Cap—"

"No need, it's a young Berserk Bear. We can handle it."

The elf who seemed to be the captain gave a decisive order. The three of them fired several arrows in succession, which pierced the young Berserk Bear's two front limbs and the back of its head.

Gezhe noticed that the young Berserk Bear was still exerting force. He cursed the three useless elves in his heart and secretly surged his mana to shatter the beast's internal organs.

The young Berserk Bear's body suddenly stiffened, fell toward Gezhe, and collapsed onto the ground.

Gezhe lay down with the momentum. In an instant, he noticed that Zhang Mu's body was too clean and the wound on his thigh looked too intentional, so in the blind spot of the three elves, he used the Berserk Bear's claw to give him a harsh scratch on the chest.

Damn you! Zhang Mu was completely unprepared, and his whole body twitched from the pain.

"Remember, don't expose your mana," Gezhe warned in a low voice before closing his eyes and "fainting."

The three elves arrived a few seconds later. Two of them worked together to move the Berserk Bear's corpse aside and check Zhang Mu's and Gezhe's bodies.

"No life-threatening danger." After carefully examining the wounds, they breathed a sigh of relief and stood up to speak.

The elf captain frowned: "The number of humans has increased quite a bit recently."

"It's probably because the jela flowers have disappeared; they think there might be some left in the depths."

The elf captain pondered for a moment and looked at the young Berserk Bear's corpse thrown to the side: "These two humans—one is an ordinary person and the other is a Trainee Knight. How did they survive the Berserk Bear?"

Hearing this, the only female elf ran over to examine the cause of its death.

Mana surged into the corpse and took a circuit. She turned her head to report: "The Berserk Bear suffered a fatal blow; its internal organs are all shattered. It must have been done by a human Professional."

"These two were probably just unlucky and ran into a heavily injured Berserk Bear fleeing for its life," the male elf said.

The elf captain nodded to show he understood, his gaze moving to the two men unconscious on the ground, paying extra attention to Gezhe's broken arm.

"We just sent two away, and now two more have come. Are humans really not afraid of death?"

"What should we do? Save them?" The female elf's tone was calm, as if she didn't care about their life or death, but in her gaze toward the captain, there was a hint of expectation.

After a long silence, he said somewhat helplessly: "The clan has been in constant turmoil lately, and now we have to spare energy to look after humans. Really..."

"If we leave them here, they're dead for sure. Take them back."

The female elf showed joy, hopping over to the captain's side and patting his shoulder: "As expected of you."

"Save the praise for when we have time. Now, hurry back to the clan territory."

He took the lead and walked forward. The female elf followed behind him, while the remaining male elf shrugged. "It's always me," he said, hoisting one person on each shoulder and quickly catching up with his companions.

"Tell me," he asked his companions as he caught up, sounding like he was inquiring but also like he was talking to himself, "which of the two highnesses will be sacrificed?"

The captain's footsteps paused for a moment before he continued walking a few seconds later: "This is not something we should discuss."

"Eh~ just chatting."

"That won't do either."

"So old-fashioned."

The idle chatter of the three reached Zhang Mu's ears, and his brain worked rapidly. It seemed the elves knew the reason why the jela flowers had gone extinct.

By the way, who does "the sacrifice of the two highnesses" refer to? How many highnesses does the Elf Clan have? Is Frederica among them?

Zhang Mu only remembered that Frederica was a high-ranking member of the Elf Clan, but he didn't know her specific identity, nor had he ever asked.

At this moment, his head was full of questions. However, let alone opening his mouth to ask the three elves, he didn't even dare to release his Mental Energy to perceive his surroundings.

Gezhe had warned that the Magic Array covering the Elf Clan territory was a Gods Blessing, and Shadow Technique and Transformation Technique would lose their effect inside. In other words, the special attribute of his mana being "undetectable" would also fail.

Right now, Zhang Mu was just a normal Magister.

The three elves continued walking. The forest terrain wasn't very rugged, and since they were Professionals, their steps were steady; Zhang Mu didn't feel any violent jolting.

About an hour passed, and the light passing through his eyelids dimmed; it was probably getting dark.

Suddenly, Zhang Mu felt the air around his body become viscous.

The strange sensation lasted for a very short time. By the time he realized he was passing through the Magic Array, the air had already returned to normal.

"Take them to the prison."

"Just leave them to me. You guys go to the life tree first."

"Mhm."

The three elves seemed to split up. The footsteps of two of them moved away to the right, gradually fading.

The elf carrying him, however, walked toward the left. From the slight backward tilt of his body, Zhang Mu deduced that the elf was going uphill.

Ten minutes later, the elf's footsteps stopped.

"Two humans, the usual rules," the elf said to someone unknown.

Zhang Mu felt himself being placed on a bed, the touch against his back cold.

"You've been bringing humans back much more frequently lately."

"The jela flowers in the forest have all disappeared. Humans who need them think there might be some in the depths, so..."

"Alright, I understand."

"Sorry for the trouble."

"First put them here. The King said there's an urgent matter to announce later; we'll treat them when we get back."

"That's fine. Their injuries aren't fatal."

Zhang Mu heard two sets of footsteps receding.

Unsure if any elves had stayed behind to watch over them, he didn't dare open his eyes, straining his ears to search for any sounds of breathing.

Where did they put Gezhe?

Is he by my side or are we being held separately?

He hadn't heard the sound of Gezhe being set down earlier, so Zhang Mu couldn't be sure if he was confined elsewhere or if the elf's movements had simply been light.

After listening for a while longer and hearing no breathing nearby, Zhang Mu felt that the elves had likely all left.

However, to be safe, he didn't open his eyes and get up immediately. Instead, he mimicked the state of waking from a coma, his eyelids fluttering a few times before slowly opening.

What entered his sight was the ceiling. It wasn't made of wood or stone slabs, but had a texture like a leaf; he could see a network of veins spread across it, and it was light green throughout.

His eyes darted around. This seemed to be a room. At first, he couldn't clearly see its specific size, but he could confirm there was no one around. He prepared to climb up and observe.

However, just as his hand pressed against the bedboard, Gezhe's voice came from somewhere—"Don't move."

Is there danger?

Zhang Mu continued to faithfully play his role. He didn't dare to project his Mental Energy to sense his surroundings, and relying solely on his hearing, he couldn't find Gezhe's location or identify the source of the danger.

After lying quietly and thinking for a while, he decided to ignore Gezhe's warning.

His character was an ordinary person. Finding himself in an unfamiliar environment after waking up, it was only logical to get up and look around.

Zhang Mu was very decisive. Having made up his mind, he immediately sat up and looked around with a bewildered expression—it was indeed a room, simply furnished with two beds and a wooden table made from a tree stump in the center.

Gezhe was lying on the other bed.

As his gaze scanning the room fell upon Gezhe, Zhang Mu pretended to just now snap out of it, jumping off the bed and running to his side to call out.

"Gezhe, what's wrong, Gezhe? Say something, Gezhe!" Zhang Mu shouted while shaking his body.

"Where is this? Who brought me here?!"

Zhang Mu knew Gezhe wouldn't "wake up" and that all his actions were just to fit his character, yet to his surprise, Gezhe actually opened his eyes slowly, his gaze filled with confusion.

"Ai Li? You're okay? Where is this?" After waking, Gezhe asked three existential questions with realistic acting, while simultaneously transmitting his voice to Zhang Mu—"There are elves outside the door."

Zhang Mu turned to look at the door. It wasn't a wooden door, but a barred prison gate; however, its bars weren't wood or steel, but vines, and they were in a living state.

Beyond the vine bars was the corridor wall. He couldn't see any elves, presumably standing on either side of the gate out of his line of sight.

—"Two Trainee-level elven guards. They can't sense your mana fluctuations."

Hearing Gezhe's words, Zhang Mu immediately transmitted his voice back.

—"What do we do now? Just wait?"

—"Don't take any rash action for now. The Elf Clan has two Gods Blessings; we are no match for them."

—"Will it ruin things if I shout a few things?"

—"Shout what?"

—"Where are we, who caught us, things like that."

—"As you wish."

—"By the way, won't it cause the elves to suspect something if you wake up without shouting at all?"

—"I am in a state of heavy injury."

—"Fine."

Zhang Mu remembered Gezhe's deliberately hoarse voice during his three questions and didn't ask more, standing up and running to the vine-barred gate.

"Is anyone there? Can someone tell me where this is?"

"Trespassing into the Elf Clan territory is a capital offense. Lie down quietly and wait for the judgment of the Academy of Doctrines," the elf guarding outside responded to him.

Zhang Mu was a bit surprised that the elf actually replied, but he didn't show it on his face, using an anxious tone: "But my friend has suffered..."

"Someone will come to treat you later. Rest assured, until the Academy of Doctrines makes its judgment, death is a luxury for you."

After saying that, no matter how much Zhang Mu shouted, the elf no longer paid him any attention.

Zhang Mu felt he had shouted enough; any more would be too fake and would give him away. He walked back " dejected" and sat down by Gezhe's bed.