Chapter 08
Attack
“You don’t need to be so polite. You have excellent talent. If there’s anything you don’t understand in the future, you can always come to me for guidance. At the same time, I hope that once you’ve grown stronger, you’ll be able to protect this place… protect this planet.”
“I will.”
After their conversation ended, Murong Xiao walked over to the pool filled with the Water of Life. She removed her clothes and slowly stepped into the water.
This was Murong Xiao’s second time entering the pool.
The feeling was completely different from the first time. Back then, entering the pool had been agonizingly painful, and she had mentally prepared herself to endure the suffering. This time, however, all she felt was incomparable comfort.
At the same time, she felt the magic power within her body instantly return to its peak. In that moment, Murong Xiao finally understood her master’s thoughtful intentions.
Here, she could use magic to study the little black sphere without worrying about exhausting her mana. Furthermore, this method of rapidly restoring magic power came with no side effects whatsoever.
Cherishing both the opportunity and the time she had, Murong Xiao found a comfortable spot to sit down. She took the black sphere her master had given her out of the gemstone on her necklace and began cultivating while studying it, trying to figure out how to unravel its secrets.
Perhaps because it didn’t want to disturb her cultivation and research, the Tree of Life never spoke again, allowing Murong Xiao to remain there in peace.
Since she could use magic freely without restriction, she also cast an enhancement spell on herself during her research to sharpen her senses and improve her perception.
To outsiders, the object in her hands looked like nothing more than an ordinary black sphere.
But in Murong Xiao’s eyes, it was completely different.
She could clearly see countless elemental patterns covering its surface. They intertwined like tangled balls of yarn, creating an incredibly chaotic web. Staring at them for too long even made her dizzy.
Fortunately, she was immersed in the Water of Life.
Otherwise, she doubted she would have been able to endure for very long.
Even so…
She loved this kind of challenge.
Like carefully unraveling tangled threads, Murong Xiao cultivated while gradually analyzing the elemental structures inside the black sphere, cautiously extracting them one by one with her own magic.
Only when she felt that even the Water of Life could no longer keep up with her growing mental exhaustion did she finally end that cultivation session.
After bidding farewell to the ancient Tree of Life, she used the teleportation array once more and returned directly to her room.
Murong Xiao guessed that the elves outside didn’t particularly like her. Therefore, during her free time, she rarely wandered around and looked for trouble.
As for food, her master would conveniently bring her meals whenever she came to instruct her.
Thus, Murong Xiao’s daily life became a simple routineāmoving between only two places, day after day.
…
Before she knew it, an entire year had passed.
After a year of cultivation and steady growth, Murong Xiao had become far stronger than she had been a year ago.
She could now skillfully cast all kinds of small-scale spells and even freely switch between her different forms.
This transformation allowed her to change between her human form and her elf form.
Only half-elves like her possessed such an ability.
However, certain things remained unchanged after transforming, such as her overall appearance, age, height, gender, and so on.
Because of this, Murong Xiao still couldn’t use the transformation to turn back into a boy.
Even though it couldn’t restore her original sex, the transformation was still extremely useful.
In her elf form, she could wield much more powerful elven magic and accomplish feats impossible for ordinary humans.
Meanwhile, her human form was better suited for using the human magic taught to her by her master, Murong Yudie.
As for the black sphere…
Not only had Murong Xiao completed her assigned task during that year, she had exceeded it.
After hearing that she had finished, Murong Yudie gave her an even larger black sphere.
But by then, Murong Xiao had already become highly proficient at understanding elemental structures, and her magic had improved tremendously.
As a result, the speed at which she dismantled the spheres became faster and faster.
What had once been an extremely difficult challenge was no longer difficult for her.
Today, as usual, Murong Xiao sat inside her small cabin reading books while cultivating her magic.
Although she now possessed perfect recall, Murong Yudie owned an enormous collection of magical texts and generously allowed her to study all of them.
Since Murong Xiao was deeply interested in anything that could increase her strength, reading these books had become one of her favorite ways to pass the time.
Suddenly, a spatial rift opened inside her room.
By now, Murong Xiao had long grown accustomed to such scenes.
Unfortunately, her own strength was still insufficient.
Otherwise, she would have loved to possess the ability to teleport anywhere she wished like this.
Sure enough, in the next instant, Murong Yudie’s figure stepped out from the spatial rift, just as she always did.
But unlike her usual calm and composed demeanor, the moment she appeared, she immediately grabbed Murong Xiao by the wrist and activated another teleportation spell without saying a word.
Boom!!
Almost the very instant the two of them disappeared, Murong Xiao’s tiny wooden cabin was blasted into dust.
By the time Murong Xiao came to her senses, Murong Yudie had already brought her to a hidden location inside the Tree of Life.
And they weren’t alone.
There were many young elves there whom Murong Xiao had never seen before.
“Elder Die!”
The moment they saw Murong Yudie arrive, the young elves immediately rushed toward her as though they had found someone they could rely on. They crowded around her, chattering anxiously as they asked about the situation outside.
Murong Xiao had just been about to ask her master what had happened.
But after hearing the questions from the young elves, she quickly pieced everything together.
An outside force had invaded this place.
But that shouldn’t have been possible.
Didn’t the elves possess a method of making an entire planet perform a spatial jump?
Murong Xiao couldn’t understand it.
Just then, Murong Yudie gently placed a hand on Murong Xiao’s head and instructed her,
“Stay here with them and don’t leave. Once everything outside has been resolved, someone will come for you. This place is safe.”
The battle outside was clearly extremely urgent.
After saying those words, Murong Yudie didn’t even wait for Murong Xiao’s reply. She turned around and immediately disappeared again using spatial magic.
As soon as Murong Yudie left, the young elves who had been focused on her shifted their attention to Murong Xiao.
At the same time, they searched through their memories, trying to recall whether they had ever seen her before.
Although they were called “little elves,” they were simply underage elves.
Some of them were even taller than Murong Xiao.
One particularly bold elf stepped forward and voiced the question everyone was wondering.
“What’s your name? How come we’ve never seen you bef
