Peeking at Bathing

Chu Zeming felt utterly awful.

Why were so many elves watching him take a bath?

The old elf led a crowd of elves sprawled along the shore, endlessly muttering, "Holy Maiden, think thrice."

Chu Zeming was naked, so he hugged himself and hid beneath the hot spring water, his face black as thunder.

"Leave first."

"If the Holy Maiden refuses to accept the Holy Son's blessing, we won't leave!" the old elf cried in a trembling voice. "For the sake of the Elf Tree, we beg you, Holy Maiden."

"We beg you, Holy Maiden—" A group of elves fell to their knees and pleaded in unison.

Chu Zeming glanced at Yue Lian, who was standing openly in the Sacred Spring with his bird on display, an eyesore to behold. With a dark face, he dragged him into the water as well and warned in a low voice, "With so many elves here, you're still standing around with your balls hanging out. Do you not know what shame is?"

After saying that, Chu Zeming raised his head and said with a hostile expression, "I agreed. Stop guarding this place. I don't like people seeing me naked."

Only then did the old elf rise. His eyes flickered as he looked at Chu Zeming. "The Holy Maiden has the clan in her heart. What great fortune for Elfkind!"

The other elves stood as well and shouted thunderously, "What great fortune for Elfkind—"

Chu Zeming helplessly pressed a hand to his forehead.

"...Enough. Hurry up and leave."

The elves answered obediently, then reluctantly pulled their gazes away from the two people in the Sacred Spring.

A moment later, they had all vanished without a trace.

Chu Zeming grabbed Yue Lian in the water and was about to throw him out of the Sacred Spring when his gaze suddenly stopped on a clump of bushes beside it—there was a pair of pointed ears there.

The aura around Chu Zeming gradually turned dangerous.

With a thought, the clump of bushes was instantly uprooted by fierce spiritual power and flung into the distance. At the same time, the elves hiding inside were exposed... There was not just one, but three elves hiding there and peeping.

After being discovered, the three elves looked somewhat bewildered.

"Who got exposed?"

"Not me."

Chu Zeming took a deep breath and looked at every bush surrounding the Sacred Spring. The Luminous Glaze Sword swept through them like a gale scattering clouds. Within a few breaths, every shrub and patch of grass had been shaved clean, revealing seventy or eighty pointy-eared elves disguised as bushes while peeping.

Some were squatting, some sitting, some lying down, their poses a riot of variety.

The veins on Chu Zeming's forehead throbbed wildly.

These weren't fucking elves. They were a pack of filthy old perverts...

"Ahahaha... We'll leave now."

"We're really leaving! It was boring, not interesting at all."

"Going home, going home."

Throwing away the branches in their hands, all the elves stood up, then vanished in a flash.

Chu Zeming covered his temples, feeling his emotions nearing the point of explosion.

Only after truly confirming that only he and Yue Lian remained did Chu Zeming haul the water-playing Yue Lian back up. "Stop playing. When you said we should play it by ear, did you mean coming to this Elfkind Sacred Spring to fool around with men?"

Yue Lian froze slightly. After considering what Chu Zeming meant by fooling around with men, he nodded. "Yeah."

Sure enough, he was greeted by a vicious beating, and Yue Lian floundered endlessly in the water.

Deep in the distant forest, over a hundred elves pricked up their pointed ears and listened carefully to the sounds from that direction.

Their hearing was exceptional, a gift from the God of Nature.

Listening to the violent splashing from the Sacred Spring, every elf wore a meaningful smile.

—The Holy Son was mighty indeed. What a fierce battle.

Five minutes later, Chu Zeming was tired from beating him.

He carried Yue Lian out of the bath.

The Sacred Spring fell silent.

The elves in the distance rushed over in a frenzy, scrambling to be first. They wanted to see what the Holy Maiden, who had received the blessing and transformed back into an elf, looked like.

Chu Zeming sensed the commotion from that direction and raised a brow at Yue Lian.

He signaled that if Yue Lian did not hurry, they would be exposed soon.

He had no idea what method Yue Lian used to turn into an elf.

But he was the protagonist. He would always have a way.

Yue Lian lowered the hand covering his face and said coyly, "...Kiss me once, and I'll put elf ears on you."

Without question, it was another showy move that stole no chicken and lost a handful of rice instead.

By the time all the elves arrived in high spirits, the Holy Maiden, who had originally looked human, had already changed appearance. His flamboyantly beautiful features had softened considerably. His black hair fell to his waist, and because of the intense exercise just now, both his cheeks and pointed ears were tinged with pale pink, making people want to take a bite.

He was so adorable that the whole crowd of old perverts howled wildly.

Yue Lian coughed, then used his body, covered in bluish-purple marks left behind by "lovemaking," to block the perverts' line of sight. "Want to go into a tree cage? Keep looking, keep looking—look again, and I'll gouge out your eyes!"

The old elf was the first to react.

He withdrew his wandering gaze, heavily planted his cane against the ground, and declared, "Since you have recovered your identity, it is time to proceed to the Elf Tree and begin the ritual."

After speaking, the old elf made a gentlemanly gesture of invitation to Chu Zeming and Yue Lian. "Honored Holy Son and Holy Maiden, please follow me."

Chu Zeming hurried after him.

Yue Lian quietly moved closer to Chu Zeming and whispered, "Senior Brother, they're all watching. We have to hold hands."

Chu Zeming raised a brow and glanced at Yue Lian, his eyes full of warning—don't force me to make a move in front of so many people.

But Chu Zeming was not imposing at all right now. That warning glance looked like the shy, angry pout of a lover, and little people were jumping around and howling in Yue Lian's mind.

Yue Lian was instantly satisfied.

"It's fine if we don't hold hands."

Following behind the old elf, Chu Zeming arrived before a peculiar giant tree—the massive tree had a luxuriant canopy that blotted out the sky and covered the earth. Its leaves were not green, but transparent like glass, shining with a dazzling rainbow of colors beneath the sunlight.

This was the Elf Tree of Elfkind within the Divine Wood Realm.

However, the tree was now showing signs of abnormality. Large swathes of leaves had withered and yellowed.

Chu Zeming was considering what the restoration ritual would be like when a group of elf girls dressed in red and green suddenly surrounded him and Yue Lian. They softly chanted an ancient ballad, their steps light and swift.

After the ritual dancing had gone on for the time it took an incense stick to burn, the elf girls withdrew, drenched in sweat. The old elf stepped forward, solemnly knelt before Chu Zeming and Yue Lian, and said quietly, "We will leave the rest to you two."

After saying that, the old elf rose and departed with the elf girls.

Beneath the enormous Elf Tree, only Yue Lian and Chu Zeming remained.

What they needed to do next was find the reason the Elf Tree was ill and awaken the Spirit of the Divine Wood.

Chu Zeming looked at the yellowed, wilted giant tree, his expression turning grave. He took two steps forward and carefully observed the massive Divine Elf Tree from all sides. Yue Lian followed behind Chu Zeming and observed carefully as well, except the object of his observation was not the tree... but the person.

With time pressing, Chu Zeming endured him for now.

There was no obvious problem with the leaves. Chu Zeming bent down and touched the soil surrounding the Elf Tree. There was nothing unusual about it; it felt moist, indicating that the Elf Tree had ample water to draw from as well.

After examining the Divine Elf Tree for a long while without finding any problem, Chu Zeming frowned and slowly lifted his head. Then his gaze stopped at a spot on the enormous trunk—there was a tiny, inconspicuous tree hollow there.

Chu Zeming flew up to that spot and hovered close to inspect it. He saw little white creatures crawling in and out one after another.

Termites.

The Divine Elf Tree had fallen ill because it was infested with termites.

Chu Zeming's expression turned grave. He summoned the Luminous Glaze Sword and thrust it into the Divine Elf Tree's trunk through that tiny termite hole.

Attacked, the Divine Elf Tree began to tremble in pain. Chu Zeming continued forcing the sword deeper into the trunk. Once it reached a certain depth, he gathered spiritual power and carved open a huge gap in the tree trunk. The sight inside made Chu Zeming suck in a sharp breath—

Dense swarms of termites had occupied the interior of the Divine Elf Tree, writhing in a seething mass. They had already gnawed the Elf Tree nearly hollow. Seventeen or eighteen pale termite queens, each as thick as an arm, were still laying eggs without pause. If no one discovered them, one day the Elf Tree would die, the Spirit of the Divine Wood would vanish, and the entire Divine Wood Realm would meet its end.

Even while sunk in slumber, the Elf Tree still retained some consciousness. Its canopy swayed faintly, as though it were weeping in pain. Yet for hundreds of years, no one had heard its cries for help.

Chu Zeming touched the Elf Tree's rough trunk and said softly, "Endure it."

Then he put away the Luminous Glaze Sword, gathered a ball of blazing fire in his hand, and hurled it at the densely squirming termites.

Crackling sounds rang out, and a strange scent of cooked flesh spread through the air.

It took nearly half an hour of burning to destroy all the termites within the Elf Tree's trunk.

Chu Zeming withdrew the flames from his hand and slowly returned to the ground.

By then, elves had already filled the area around the Elf Tree.

They held bows, arrows, and weapons, as though they had sensed something wrong and prepared for battle. When they saw Chu Zeming descend, every weapon in their hands abruptly fell to the ground, and all the elves knelt before him.

Because behind the beautiful elf wearing a flower wreath and holding a long sword stood the Elf Tree, whose vitality was visibly recovering before their eyes.

The old elf prostrated himself on the ground, tears streaming down his aged face. "Thank you for saving my Elfkind..."

Chu Zeming put away the Luminous Glaze Sword and said, "You're welcome. This is what the Holy Son and I should do. Take good care of it from now on."

The old elf wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and slowly said, "There is no need to keep pretending. I actually knew long ago that you two were not members of our kind. But Elfkind has clan rules: those who are not elves may not approach the Elf Tree. I had no choice... You two have done Elfkind a tremendous service. Our clan is willing to grant each of you one wish. I heard the Holy Son say that you wish to reach the tenth level. Our clan can activate the secret formation and send you both up."

Chu Zeming suddenly understood.

So the true spirit of the Divine Wood Realm was not only the Elf Tree, but all of Elfkind as well... Yue Lian had known this all along?

This was something the original novel's plot had never mentioned at all. It should have been the kind of secret lore that even someone like He Wuwei, a great expert who had entered and exited the Divine Wood Secret Realm several times, would not know.

The more Chu Zeming thought about it, the stranger it seemed.

He turned his head and looked suspiciously at Yue Lian, only to meet a pair of big eyes that had been secretly watching him. Then... Chu Zeming received a bashful, love-filled glance.

The corner of Chu Zeming's mouth twitched, and he slowly looked away.

Forget it. Pretend he had not thought of anything...

Yue Lian had thoroughly burned his eyes, so Chu Zeming closed his eyes to rest for a while before speaking again. "Then I'll trouble Grandpa Elf to send us to the tenth level of the Divine Tree."

"That is only proper. Why thank us? Also, Elfkind has always stayed out of worldly disputes and made no enemies. This... shall be returned to you two." As the old elf spoke, he waved his hand, and two elves emerged from behind the crowd, jointly carrying a tree cage on poles.

—Inside the cage sat Fu Hongchen, looking utterly devoid of the will to live.