Changes of the Years

In the future, on the Kalimdor Continent, in the Durotar region, the Horde capital Orgrimmar.

On a quiet night, Warchief Thrall stared at the smoldering brazier before him, his worries never easing. Broxigar and his scouting party had been gone so long, still without any word, and that strange disturbance had vanished too—what in the world had happened?

Suddenly, Thrall shot to his feet, the Doomhammer in his hand beginning to crackle with lightning.

A human in a black robe slowly materialized. "No need to be tense, Warchief. I mean no harm. I've only come to return something." With that, a pair of axes appeared in the mysterious figure's hands.

"I don't recognize these axes, human. Though... there seems to be a familiar aura about them?" Thrall eyed the axes with suspicion.

"These axes belong to a Champion. He fought alongside us, and in the end, he sacrificed himself to buy us precious time. Broxigar was a hero—he deserves the eternal reverence of the orcs."

Thrall's eyes widened. By the time he reacted, the axes were already in his hands, and the mysterious figure had vanished. Thrall immediately rushed outside, but the guards looked bewildered, reporting that no one had entered at all.

Just then, a dragon's roar rang out. Everyone looked up to see a red dragon beating its wings, about to disappear into the distant sky.

"Remember him, Warchief! In the War of the Ancients, Broxigar wounded the Dark Titan himself with those axes." The mysterious figure's voice echoed in Thrall's mind.

*********

Ten thousand years ago, after the War of the Ancients ended.

A magnificent new city, Darnassus, appeared atop the World Tree Teldrassil, where the Night Elves would thrive for generations. A massive floating city also hovered beside the World Tree, slowly revolving around its main trunk.

Suramar City had been set in order. The Council of Truth governed the city and the Highborne, maintaining a strong cooperative relationship with their Night Elf kin. The World Tree's blessing also extended to them.

Not far from the World Tree, on the sea surface, stood a towering spire that plunged straight into the deep ocean. This structure was built entirely from precious Thorium and Fel Iron, its silver-white surface covered in mysterious magical runes.

What rose above the sea was only the tip of the iceberg. Beneath the depths, connected to an even larger circular building, lay the slumbering sanctuary built jointly by the Night Elves and Highborne for the Divine Emissary.

Hu Feng led Elisande into the deepest secret sanctum, where no one could enter. It was empty inside, save for a stable portal. At that moment, Hu Feng and Elisande had already returned to the Sargeras planet.

The upper structure had become a training ground for the fervent mages and priests who worshipped the God of Magic. Here, countless towering Faceless Ones served as teachers and guards, imparting Mind Magic and spiritual arts. The zealots were chosen to undergo ascension here, attaining a higher form—the Nightborne.

Their bodies grew more slender, magical circuits shimmering on their skin, their eyes composed entirely of energy, and an arcane ring floated behind their backs. The Nightborne formed a fanatical organization: the Crusaders of the Truth, independent of the Council of Truth. Their greatest wish was to die in battle for their god, ascending to the divine kingdom to become legendary magic-wielding Chosen of the Gods, akin to angels.

As the years passed, the Night Elves began expanding their territory anew. Small cities and villages had sprung up in the nearby Darkshore and Ashenvale regions.

Exploration of Felwood had also begun, and friendships were forged with the local Woodland Furbolg tribes.

Except for uncommunicative intelligent beings like Murlocs, the Night Elves established relations with every native group they encountered, allowing their territory to expand rapidly.

Religious conflicts were fierce, but fortunately remained within healthy competition. The Ashenvale region was unquestionably the domain of the Druids, after all, the Forest Demigod Cenarius resided there.

Tyrande's Temple of the Moon and the Sentinels served as defense and clergy across the lands.

The Highborne mages were much slower, preferring to build Mage Towers everywhere, select a few talented apprentices, and shut themselves away as recluses. Still, they lent a hand when needed, so everyone let them be.

Garrond Shadowmoon had laid down his heavy responsibilities and retreated into seclusion. He knew he was a good warrior but not a good leader in peacetime, and now lived a quiet, untroubled life in Teldrassil.

Much later, news came from an adventurer across the sea: the self-exiled Dath'Remar and the Sunstrider Family, after countless hardships and with the help of a primitive race called humans, had pressed on and finally established their own city and home in a place called Quel'Thalas.

Now they called themselves High Elves, and using a small vial of Well of Eternity water that Dath'Remar had brought, they rebuilt a magical font: the Sunwell.

Since the High Elves lacked the World Tree's blessing, they aged and died, and the long years had changed their skin from pale violet to white.

Yet, being elves, the High Elves also adopted a reclusive diplomatic style. Even their expansion was limited to small-scale growth. The Night Elves planted endless forests as barriers, while the High Elves raised the towering Wall of Quel'Thalas to isolate themselves.

That adventurer was a High Elf. After a narrow escape, he finally returned to the Kalimdor Continent, bringing news of their former kin to the Night Elves. After devoutly worshipping at the slumbering place of the God of Magic's Divine Emissary, this High Elf adventurer set off on his return journey. Since then, no further word came of the High Elves or the other continent.

As for Hu Feng, he was living quite comfortably. By day, he watched the Nightborne diligently construct buildings on the Sargeras planet or practice controlling Void and Fel energies. By night, he fooled around with Elisande, doing some shameful things.

In between, Elisande had returned a few times. Each time she emerged from the deepest part of the slumbering sanctuary to inspect Suramar City, the Highborne and Nightborne grew even more fervent. Maintaining a proper presence and occasionally performing miracles—that was Hu Feng's first principle.

Now everyone knew that the massive blue-glowing planet visible to the naked eye in the distance was the God of Magic's divine kingdom, and every so often, changes appeared on its surface, proving that structures in the divine kingdom were rapidly increasing.

Time flowed on. Hu Feng finally fully controlled the Old Gods on the second Sargeras planet, then awakened them.

These two Old Gods were the Mill-Eye Demon and the Ten-Thousand-Throat Beast. One was covered in eyeballs, the other in fanged maws—two disgusting, mountainous masses of flesh.

Suppressing his revulsion, Hu Feng ordered the Ten-Thousand-Throat Beast to burrow into the Sargeras planet's core. Its future task was to control the planet's changes and assist in the incubation of Hu Feng's Titan Core.

The Ten-Thousand-Throat Beast excelled at influencing and corrupting minds. Its whispers echoed throughout Sargeras, making all life on the planet unconsciously grow more fanatical and loyal to Hu Feng.

The Ten-Thousand-Throat Beast's second job was to collect the faith from all of Hu Feng's Faceless Ones and elven followers on Azeroth, then transmit it to the Titan Core at the planet's heart. Combined with Hu Feng himself constantly absorbing vast amounts of faith energy, his Titan Core grew ever stronger, but its incubation time became even longer.

The Core needed to simultaneously absorb and master faith energy, Void Energy, and Fel energy from all sides. Compared to the struggling Azeroth, Sargeras's incubation was infinitely better.

The second Old God, the Mill-Eye Demon, was deployed by Hu Feng to Azeroth, burrowing into the deepest depths of the sea beneath the slumbering sanctuary built by the elves.

Soon, the Highborne mages training in the Tower of Slumber discovered tentacles sprouting everywhere in the tower, each topped with a large round eye scanning around. A divine oracle descended: this was the Sacred Beast Eye of Truth sent by the God of Magic to the mortal world. Its eyes could see through any illusion and hostility, and its Mind Magic and corruptive power could influence all things.

The deepest chamber was now occupied by a small part of the Mill-Eye Demon's body exposed above ground. The portal was swallowed into its body; without Hu Feng's command, no one could enter or leave.

The Sacred Beast's appearance made the Highborne even more ecstatic. They had finally seen the legendary Eye of Truth!

The Highborne's emblem was an eye symbolizing the truth of all things, and the Sacred Beast's arrival further confirmed their righteousness.

Countless Highborne began pilgrimages to the deep chamber to worship. Though called a Sacred Beast, the Mill-Eye Demon was still an Old God, and Old Gods possessed unparalleled wisdom—otherwise, they couldn't bear the burden of corrupting Titans.

A deep voice resounded through the slumbering sanctuary. The Old God's whispers taught the Highborne while influencing them toward greater fanaticism and loyalty.

But the Mill-Eye Demon had an even more important task: it had to resist the corruption of Azeroth by other Old Gods aligned with different factions serving the Void Lords, and instill in the nascent Titan Azeroth the theory that Hu Feng was a great guy and a reliable friend...

Hu Feng's staff, "Origin of Divine Power, Azeroth Binder," was enshrined atop the high tower in Suramar City. This was where Hu Feng had once lived, now converted into a temple.

After Elisande stepped down, the Council of Truth elected a new Archmage. Only the Archmage was qualified to use this Artifact Staff when needed—though "Origin of Divine Power, Azeroth Binder" had its own will. If it didn't approve of the user, even the Archmage couldn't wield it.

The Night Elves lived in perfect peace, but that peace was soon shattered.

An oracle descended, commanding the Night Elves and Highborne to construct a wall encircling all elven territory—passing through Darkshore, Ashenvale, Felwood, Mount Hyjal, and Winterspring—and to build military fortresses at every strategic pass and checkpoint.

Garrond Shadowmoon would emerge from retirement to serve as the Grand Commander of the Elven Border Army.

Though the elves did not fully understand this decree, they nonetheless obeyed the oracle and launched a grand, sweeping construction effort. This was the influence of Hu Feng's pre-transmigration mindset at work; he had gloriously carried forward the traditional Chinese defensive philosophy of stockpiling grain and building great walls, aiming to turn the Night Elves' territory into an impregnable iron fortress.

Thus, a version of the Great Wall from another world slowly took shape. The Keepers of Time—the Bronze Dragons—were nearly in tears over it. In the original history, the Night Elves had never done anything like this!

Needless to say, it had to be another scheme cooked up by that Divine Emissary. Only he had the authority to command the entire elven race to undertake such a massive endeavor. Yet they dared not stop him, especially since the King of Time, Nozdormu, had repeatedly ordered that any changes related to the Divine Emissary were to be treated as if they had never happened.