Having prepared everything, Lin Gui carried Clotina's glass bead and walked deep into Gloomlight Forest.
Passing through the crisscrossing fluorescent vines on the outskirts, a true elven town gradually unfolded before his eyes.
Treehouses were built in spirals, clinging to giant, glowing ancient trees.
Vine bridges connected various points like spiderwebs, appearing and disappearing in the hazy green light.
STREETS were narrow and exquisite, paved with polished, smooth purple stone slabs.
Now, however, weeds sprouted from the cracks in the slabs, and many of the vine bridges were broken.
There was only silence.
Lin Gui walked slowly, his gaze sweeping across the empty treehouse windows on both sides.
"Many clans used to live here."
Clotina's voice rang softly in his mind, carrying the fluctuations of memory.
"The Moonshadow Clan excelled at astrology and lived in the highest watchtowers."
"The Thorn Clan were warriors; their outer walls were always carved with weapon crests."
"I belong to the Shadow Clan... Our treehouses were usually hidden behind the densest leaves."
She paused, her soul light dimming slightly.
"My home used to be here."
"Later... because of the matter regarding Shadow Blade Lynn."
"Most members of the Shadow Clan moved to Deepwood Outpost and Shadowmoon City."
"There are no members of the Shadow Clan left here."
Lin Gui walked in silence.
Occasionally, he could see one or two points of faint soul light in the corners.
Those were the remaining elven residents.
But as soon as they sensed Lin Gui's approach, they quickly hid themselves.
They were like startled fireflies.
The entire small town was so quiet that he could only hear his own footsteps.
When the wind passed through the empty houses, it made a faint whimpering sound.
Lin Gui's arrival did not trigger any obvious commotion.
However, the feeling of being watched became clearer and clearer to him.
From invisible corners, gazes were quietly cast toward him.
They fell on Lin Gui, on the pair of forged pointed ears on his head.
They also fell on Clotina's glass bead floating beside him.
A living "elf."
An elven spirit.
Such a combination, in the Gloomlight Forest that had been dead for years...
It was far too conspicuous.
In corners Lin Gui could not see, the gazes multiplied.
In the shadows of treehouses, behind the corners of broken bridges, and even among the crisscrossing vines overhead.
Silent, yet dense.
Not a single sound was made.
The entire city-state maintained a strange, tense silence.
Just then.
Clotina's voice rang in his mind.
It was Mid Rank soul magic—soul transmission.
While this magic was extremely obscure and difficult to understand in the mage community...
For spirits, it was almost an instinct.
In Blackwater City and some other city-states, spirits with nothing better to do...
Often used it to play tricks on unlucky bounty hunters.
「To the left, second floor of the third treehouse.」
「A warrior of the Thorn Clan is watching you.」
「At the break in the vine bridge on the right... three elderly members of the Moonshadow Clan are floating there.」
「They are very cautious.」
「Above you... there are also some. At least five.」
Her whispers sketched an invisible picture for Lin Gui.
The positions and numbers of those hidden soul-shadows, and even their clans...
It was all presented clearly.
Lin Gui did not activate his Eyes of the Netherworld.
He knew that the soul pressure brought by those eyes...
Would scare off these already fragile elven spirits.
He maintained a calm expression.
His footsteps did not stop.
He carried Clotina deeper into this dead elven town.
He did not know how long he had been walking until he reached a central square within Gloomlight Forest.
An extremely soft and thin voice drifted out from behind the ruins of a collapsed treehouse on the right:
"Clotina... Shadow?"
"Is it... you?"
Clotina's soul-shadow trembled slightly.
She turned toward the source of the voice.
Through the broken wooden lattice, she saw the spirit of an elven boy who appeared to be roughly the same age as her.
He had pale purple soul light, pointed ears, and a trace of lingering childishness on his face.
Immediately after, more small soul-shadows drifted out from various places.
From behind tree hollows, between vines, and even from a dried-up well.
They were all elven boys and girls of about the same age as Clotina.
They gathered around cautiously, their soul light flickering slightly.
Clotina was stunned for quite a while.
She didn't seem to recognize them immediately.
Until a girl spirit with twin braids said softly:
"I'm Lia... of the Moonshadow Clan."
"We used to catch silver-scaled fish together by the Fluorescent River..."
A tall, thin boy chimed in:
"I'm Kelan, from the Thorn Clan."
"The time you sneaked out to eat the sacrificial offerings from the World Tree altar... I was the one who kept watch for you."
Memories flooded back like a tide.
Clotina's soul body shook gently.
"Lia... Kelan..."
She called out familiar yet strange names one by one.
With every name, the eyes of the gathered little spirits brightened a bit more.
Soon, a wave of joy filled the air.
"You're still alive! No, I mean... you're still 'here'!"
"We thought everyone at Deepwood Outpost was gone..."
"Where have you been for these sixteen years?"
They surrounded Clotina, all speaking at once.
Their voices were very soft, yet they overflowed with the vibrancy of a long-awaited reunion.
The conversation quickly jumped to the past.
"Do you remember when we played 'Light-Chasing Hide-and-Seek'? You always hid in the brightest piles of moss; you were caught every single time."
"And 'Moonshadow Riddles'—you could never guess the ancient proverbs of the Night Elves correctly."
"During the World Tree Festival, we secretly swapped the sacrificial staff for a branch, making the Moonlight Royalty envoy a laughingstock..."
Lin Gui stood silently to the side, listening to these elven youths reminiscing about the past.
The names and rules of those games, and even the cultural metaphors behind them...
In his ears, they all carried a uniquely elven, elegant nuance.
But when tainted by the laughable antics of children...
It felt a little...
Like an elegant piano being played by a snot-nosed brat in split-seat pants—a strange sense of discord.
The excited reunion of the children was like stones thrown into stagnant water.
The ripples of joy spread outward, layer by layer.
In this small elven town that had been silent for sixteen years...
This vibrant reunion appeared exceptionally precious.
And exceptionally... beautiful.
The faint glow of the fluorescent moss enveloped them tenderly.
The semi-transparent soul-shadows of the boys and girls gathered together, their pale blue halos intertwining.
Soft laughter, suppressed cheers, and the light flickering in their eyes as they remembered...
It was like an old painting that had suddenly brightened in the midst of faded years.
Gradually.
More elven spirits were drawn by the commotion.
From the tree hollows and vines where they had been hiding, from behind broken window frames...
They quietly drifted out.
They came in various forms.
There were elderly elves with steady soul-shadow outlines and a weathered calm in their eyes.
There were middle-aged warriors with condensed soul light, their posture and alertness from life still preserved.
There were even more young soul-shadows, peering curiously as they slowly gathered.
They formed an outer circle around the children.
They did not come too close.
They simply watched the small, warm celebration in the center in silence.
They watched as Clotina and her companions called out each other's names.
They watched them burst into laughter over some childish memory.
They watched as those games and festivals, long buried by time...
Became vibrant once again through the youths' words.
Faint, almost invisible smiles...
Slowly rose on the faces of the spirits.
The smiles were very light.
Yet they were like the first ray of dawn piercing through the mist.
Lighting up the corners of this dead city that had been dark for far too long.
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