Chapter 51 Qingyu's Message: She Saw Vivian

Ancia's magic surged, sprouting green wings. With a flap of her wooden wings, she flew towards the Tree of Life.

The elf cub chased after him, muttering a string of words in Elvish, but Ancia couldn't understand a word. She just kept accelerating, gliding toward the giant tree in the very center of the Misty Moon Forest.

She weaved through the dense forest, her ethereal wooden wings piercing through the tree trunks, colliding and dissipating into pale green specks of light. Her damaged wings were immediately replenished by magic, leaving a trail of green meteors in the air.

Hurry up, even faster.

Ancia could already see the enormous barrier surrounding the Tree of Life. Beneath the Tree of Life were many elves, divided into two distinct factions, fiercely arguing about something. In the middle was a pale stone altar entwined with thorns, upon which ancient, blood-red runes had already been drawn.

When the elves behind Erlan saw the stone altar, a hint of sorrow flashed in their eyes, while Minos and the elves behind him wore indifferent anticipation.

The howling wind instantly drew the attention of all the elves, who saw the humans descending from the sky.

Minos laughed mockingly, "You don't really think you're a queen, do you? Just wait until you run into the barrier..."

Ancia landed straight between the two factions of elves, her wooden wings slowly dissipating, just like Minos's face.

The elves all turned to look at Erlan, their expressions suggesting they wanted to see something out of his face. The young elven king could no longer maintain his composure; a hint of anger and emerald light flickered in his eyes. "What are you looking at?"

Minos's face flushed and paled in a daze. "Fine, you've got guts. But the Tree of Life is an internal affair of our Elven race, and you, a human, cannot interfere."

Ancia frowned. "What did you say? Find someone who speaks Common Tongue to communicate with me."

The elf cub came running in, panting heavily, and leaned on its knees. "I... I speak Common Tongue, I'll translate."

After he caught his breath, he translated what Minos had said into Common Tongue and repeated it to Ancia verbatim.

Ancia: "So, what are you planning to do?"

When facing Ancia, Minos's arrogance inexplicably diminished. "Make Erlan abdicate. He is no longer suitable to be the king of the elves."

Ancia: "The king of the Elf race is born from the Tree of Life. The fruit of the king needs to be nourished by the Tree of Life's energy for a hundred years. Only when the previous king is about to pass away will the fruit of the new Elf king be born. If you don't want Erlan to be the Elf king, who do you want to be? Yourself?"

The elf cub translates: "You want to usurp the throne?"

Aerlan's brow twitched; this translation was far too concise.

Minos retorted loudly, "Slander! I have no intention of coveting the throne! Erlan must abdicate, and Vivian is the most suitable candidate to be the Elf King. As long as Erlan abdicates and Vivian ascends the throne, the Tree of Life will return to normal!"

Ancia sneered, "Completely baseless. Ellan may not have found a way to heal the Tree of Life yet, but he is a qualified king! You keep calling for him to abdicate, but what have you done for the Tree of Life? You only drag your people down. I really can't help but curse you."

The elf cub translates: "If you say another word, I'll scold you."

Arlan could no longer bear to listen to the elf cub's radical changes, so he took out a tattered crown from his spatial jewelry and placed it on Ancia's head.

With the appearance of this crown, Erlan once again became the focus of everyone's attention, and some older elves even sighed with disappointment.

Wang, please don't love me like that, okay? You look worthless.

Ancia touched the top of her head. The crown seemed to be woven from branches and vines, its rough and cracked texture reminding her of the Tree of Life. Wearing it made her feel a tightness in her chest, a feeling she wanted to release. This crown had a subtle influence on her personality, amplifying the irritability in her heart. She had to solve the problem quickly and reduce the time she used it. This was perhaps the effect of the Tree of Life's disease, even the Moon Crown made from the branches and leaves of the Tree of Life had produced side effects.

Minos: "You even gave her the Moon Crown, a symbol of the king? Erlan, you've been bewitched by humans! Abdicate immediately!"

Ancia suddenly understood what Minos was saying. "Huh? I can understand Elvish now?"

Aerlan: "The Crown of Moonlight possesses wisdom; wearing it allows one to understand all languages. I don't mean anything else; I just can't stand his translations anymore."

His sharp gaze fell upon the elf cub, who smiled calmly.

Being able to communicate directly with Ancia only made Minos more nervous. He didn't even want to talk to her and turned his anger towards Ellan, saying, "When will you finally realize that as a king you should protect your people? The source of all disasters is your existence. As long as you abdicate, the Tree of Life will heal. As for the sacrificial ritual, it can't save the current Tree of Life at all. It will take a thousand years for a new Tree of Life to grow! If the same thing happens again in the future, will the Elven race happen to have a new king to sacrifice?"

Sacrificial ceremony.

Ancia then understood the purpose of the magical materials prepared on the ground. She looked at Ellan and slowly said, "Ellan, my dear friend, can you explain what the sacrificial ritual means? You asked me in advance when I could return to the Eternal City so that you could do this after I leave?"

A chill ran down Erlan's spine. "Ancia, this sacrificial ritual doesn't necessarily mean death..."

Minos gloated, "Ha ha, he's just making excuses."

Ancia glanced at her coldly, "What are you getting involved for? Don't force me to curse you too."

“Quiet, Minos.” The moment Elran spoke, all the doubts vanished. He looked at Ancia, his emerald eyes now only calm. “He’s right. The Elven race cannot end here. If you’ve seen Beatrice’s notes on rituals, on the last page she mentioned using royal blood for a sacrificial ritual to irrigate the roots of the Tree of Life, with a chance of giving birth to a new species. My only responsibility and right is to use my blood to exchange for a future for my race a thousand years from now. This is my duty.”

As soon as Erlan finished speaking, the elves fell silent. All the arguing stopped, and the eyes of the elves who supported him were filled with sorrow and reluctance. Even the elves behind Minos held their breath at this moment, shocked by the resolute determination of a king.

Ancia felt a pang of unease in her heart as she looked at Erlan's calm profile. An indescribable bitterness and anger welled up in her heart, amplified by the Moon Crown on her head.

The stone altar in front of me is vast and enormous, with countless ravines forming a mysterious totem. How much blood would it take to fill it?

Heligalo was like that, and so was Ellan; they always valued duty above life. She was annoyed by their choice to always sacrifice themselves first, yet she had to admit that their souls shone brightly in that moment.

“What a duty.” Her voice choked with emotion. “Before you fulfill your duty, let me fulfill my duty as a friend! The sacrificial ritual is suspended. Let me try the Qingyu communication array first.”

Minos snapped out of his daze and immediately retorted, "Why should I? This is an internal matter for our Elven race."

Ancia interrupted him, speaking rapidly and aggressively, "Because I have full affinity for wood elements! Because I can use Beatrice's ancient magic circle to teleport directly from the Eternal City to the Misty Moon Forest! Minos, you keep saying that Ellan's abdication can cure the Tree of Life, where is your evidence? Unless you possess some secret we don't know, you are using the Tree of Life's illness to seize the throne!"

This pointed accusation made Minos's face turn deathly pale instantly. "I didn't! I didn't..."

"Shut up if you don't have one!" Ancia looked at him coldly.

Vivian smiled and smoothed things over, "Alright, this child was just in a hurry. Let me prepare the materials for the Azure Whisper Communication Array for you."

Ancia shook her head. "No need to trouble yourself. I have plenty of materials from my mentor in my space."

She dumped all the magical materials from her system backpack at once, including the wand and the Radiant Wedge she had used before. Ancia picked out the magical materials she needed and then realized that the elves were all looking at the Radiant Wedge, which was radiating pure light energy.

Vivian's gaze remained fixed on the Wedge of Radiance, and she instinctively took a half-step forward. "This is..."

Ancia remained unfazed, stuffing the Wedge of Radiance and everything else back into her system inventory. "The lamp base given to me by the Church of Light."

With the etching materials gathered, Ancia began etching the Azure Whisper Communication Array in front of the elves.

Vivian looked at her with concern. "Your Majesty, are you really going to let her try? If she fails in front of all the elves, won't it damage her confidence? After all, she's just a human girl. It seems you've given her your trust too easily."

Aerlan's gaze never left Ancia's figure. He calmly replied, "It is precisely because she can rise again after a failure that she deserves this trust. I believe in her, just as I believe in the choices made by the Misty Moon Forest and the Tree of Life."

This was the first time Ancia had etched a magic circle in front of so many people, but she was no longer aware of the gazes around her. Her world consisted only of the ever-expanding magic circle structure, with pale green magic emitting a soft glow. Standing within it, she felt her consciousness float up, fly into the air, pass through the clouds, and finally land on the crown of the Tree of Life.

She gently placed her palm on the tree trunk, conveying goodwill to the Tree of Life, and prayed in her heart, begging for success; she didn't have many chances to make mistakes.

The leaves rustled, and an ancient and weak voice answered her, "You...good...save me..."

Anxi was startled, then overwhelmed with joy. The Azure Whisper Communication Array had really worked!

"Please tell me the reason for your illness, and I will definitely cure you!"

The Tree of Life's consciousness was very vague. Its leaves rustled even more violently, but it couldn't utter a single word. In desperation, it could only connect with Ancia and transmit its memories and emotions to her.

Ancia's soul was immersed in the long and distant river of memories. Each leaf carried a memory of the Tree of Life. Flowing downstream, she picked up one of the leaves, which was a fragment of Beatrice's communication with the Tree of Life.

What about your most recent memories?

The leaves of the tree in the river swirled toward her, but only one leaf was a memory of the Tree of Life from the past three years.

The moment Ancia picked up the leaf, a wave of bloating and nausea, as if she had been forced to swallow an excessive amount of indigestible food, surged up, causing her to clutch her stomach uncomfortably. She endured the strange pain and quickly flipped through that memory.

She sensed the darkness creeping closer, the silent panic that began when the disease started to spread, and the desperate attempt to save herself in desperation...

Then, she saw Vivian.

Countless times, Vivian has performed rituals from this very spot, but Ancia clearly sees that the magic flow in Vivian's hands has never truly etched out the legendary magic circle. They are always incomplete, cleverly broken at the most crucial structural points, merely a beautiful but empty deception.

The Tree of Life listened to every request for communication, but never received a truly complete connection to the magic circle. Its calls fell into the void and received no response.

The leaf slipped from her grasp. Ancia gazed down from the sky, her anger slowly intensifying until she ignored her physical nausea. The Tree of Life's hundreds of moments of despair and anticipation, the elves' hundreds of hopes and disappointments, and Elran's thousands of attempts over the past three years—all had been severed by a meticulously crafted deception.

And the fraudster is standing below, wearing a mask of worry on his face.