Elf Kingdom

More than eight hundred years had passed since Lu Zhiyu created the Elves and left the Space Castle. The flow of time had gradually slowed to four thousand times its former rate. From the outside, not even two months had passed, but for humans, several dynasties had risen and fallen. Even for the Elves, a Longevity Species, this meant that the first generation of Elves had already entered old age!

It had been fifteen hundred years since the Beastmen had appeared, and twelve hundred since humans had come into being. Over more than a thousand years of development, extensive trade, the rise of religion, and the emergence of Blood Knights had further widened the gap between rich and poor and deepened class divisions. Human and Beastmen civilizations had gradually moved on from the primitive age of scattered city-states into the age of nations. States both large and small had begun to appear across the Alan Continent, and as they rose and fell, the territories of humans and Beastmen had steadily expanded.

From the central region of the Alan Continent, they had gradually spread across the entire land. Humans and Beastmen had left their mark everywhere. As they moved from city-states to kingdoms, their smelting techniques had also continued to advance. At last, iron tools began to replace bronze, and both sides started mining iron on a large scale, establishing smelting centers of their own.

Weapons had become iron swords and armor. In agriculture, iron hoes, shovels, and heavy plows had come into use. All kinds of powerful troops had emerged, and they began to conquer the wilderness and the land. These slave-owning nations drove large numbers of slaves to mine iron, marking their full transition from the Bronze Age into the Iron Age!

As farmland and irrigated areas expanded, farming techniques improved, handicrafts flourished, and metal coins were issued in great quantities, Lu Zhiyu watched everything unfolding across the Alan Continent on the Universe Scroll and found it fascinating. The civilization there had already reached the level of Earth in the fifth or sixth century BCE.

Blood Knights had appeared in great numbers in particular. The hereditary abilities Lu Zhiyu had given them through their genes had been extensively activated, giving rise to religious sects and numerous bloodline families. And they had developed not only the abilities Lu Zhiyu had originally designed for them, but also an endless variety of sword techniques and powers that had emerged from later genetic combinations. Some of the strongest even left their own techniques encoded in their genes, passing them down to their descendants!

What surprised Lu Zhiyu even more was that Blood Knights had appeared among the Beastmen, too. Over the past thousand years, both sides had captured large numbers of the other as slaves. As they fought one another, they had also intermingled, and many Beastmen had children with humans.

This had led to the emergence of many Beastmen knights capable of awakening their bloodline abilities. Some had even awakened the genetic abilities of the ancient animals within them. Since Beastmen were already much stronger than humans, their Blood Knights were even more formidable on the battlefield!

Dressed in a cloak, Lu Zhiyu walked across the Alan Continent, observing how it had changed. Everyone could wear clothes now, and fashions had begun to take on all sorts of styles. Different regions had developed distinct ethnic groups, and food had changed as well. All kinds of artists had appeared among the common people: architects, sculptors, painters, musicians, and even makers of unique instruments!

The Beastmen, by comparison, had developed far less culturally. They excelled more in battle, smelting, and craftsmanship. Lu Zhiyu finally reached the sea, where humans and Beastmen had begun to appear along the shore. They were building the simplest of boats and fishing in the coastal waters. The fish fry Lu Zhiyu had collected long ago had grown into all sorts of fish, large and small. He also spotted coral, starfish, jellyfish, and all kinds of other aquatic life in the shallows.

The only disappointment was the lack of large creatures. In such a vast, boundless sea, there was nothing big at all. It hardly did the ocean justice. Without giant beasts and sea monsters, where was the sense of an otherworld?

Lu Zhiyu walked along the beach, watching the fishermen in the distance. "Humans and Beastmen have started venturing out onto the sea. Maybe in a few hundred years, maybe in a thousand, they'll begin their journey to conquer it!"

Lu Zhiyu gazed at the distant sea and furrowed his brow. "The ocean feels too monotonous. Conquering it wouldn't offer any challenge or excitement!"

After seeing how the Alan Continent had changed, Lu Zhiyu immediately passed through the Dimensional Gate and returned to the Yala Continent. The nameless wetland forest from long ago now had a name of its own: the Forest of Life.

Of all his creations, the Elves were perhaps the ones Lu Zhiyu cared about most. Compared to humans and Beastmen, they were far more blessed: they were born with long lives, beautiful appearances, and extraordinary intelligence. He had even granted them the genetic inheritance unique to humans. By every measure, Elves could be considered perfect beings—except for their difficulty in reproducing.

Nearly a hundred thousand Elves lived in the Forest of Life on the Yala Continent. They all dwelled in the forest without a care in the world. Their extraordinary intelligence and comfortable surroundings had allowed them to create a culture unlike those of humans and Beastmen.

The Elves had created an elegant written language, Elven Script, and fashioned the unique Zither-Harp of their people. Music was popular throughout the Elven Kingdom. They had master sculptors and painters, and could make exquisite Elven swords and bows. In every aspect of their lives, it was clear that they were a people who revered and cherished art.

Recently, however, this harmony had begun to falter. Fear had spread throughout the Elven people because their sacred tree had started to wither. The Divine Tree of Life, which had nurtured countless Elves and embodied their faith and heritage, was nearing the end of its life alongside the first generation of Elves. It had been unable to give birth to any more Elves for several years now. The Elves could neither prevent its decline nor save it!

The Council of Elven Elders continually debated the cause of the Divine Tree of Life's withering and how to save it. They had tried countless methods and prayed to the God of Natural Order again and again, but nothing worked. The Divine Tree of Life was still lush and green, yet every Elf could sense that it was slowly dying!

The Council of Elven Elders had erupted into one heated argument after another. Without the Divine Tree of Life, the Elves seemed to have lost their spiritual anchor. They had always been divided into two factions: one believed they should stay in the Forest of Life forever and guard the Divine Tree, while the other advocated expansion and exploration of the outside world. The conservatives had once prevailed over the radicals, but the decline of the Tree of Life had once again made their conflict fierce and irreconcilable.

Lu Zhiyu entered the forest. In many places, he saw Elven treehouses and Elves hunting gracefully among the trees with bows in hand. They coexisted with the forest, living within it while also depending on one another.

After passing through a broad stretch of wooden houses and several Elven villages, Lu Zhiyu finally saw the royal capital of the Elf Kingdom—Sylph City. The vast valley that had once stood there had become a great forest. The Elves had built their city around the sacred lake and the Divine Tree.

Among the endless sea of trees, a magnificent stone city had been built along the sheer cliffs, though it had no walls. Countless entrances had been carved into the cliffs, while buildings and trees intertwined and supported one another. Lu Zhiyu could see bridges of every kind, fountains, spiral staircases, distinctive towers, and exquisite buildings. Beautiful Elves lived throughout the city.

They played their Zither-Harps, sang, and did whatever they pleased, living easy, carefree lives. Their long lifespans and peaceful way of life gave them ample time to bring their ideas to life.