Chapter 019: It Would Be Strange If Not

“The Dwarf Territory is just the most difficult passage to reach the Divine Ruins. Of course, aside from the dwarfs, there’s danger almost everywhere in the Dusk Mountains.”
Lan Ling saw no need to dampen Du Fan’s spirits, so everything she said was fact.
The Kayi Tribe was far from the Divine Ruins. Even without any obstacles, it would take over a month to arrive. With obstacles along the way, three months or even half a year might be required—nothing strange about that.
Dangers lurked everywhere in the Dusk Mountains, full of deadly threats.
It would be very difficult for one person to travel alone…
Du Fan was well aware that without help from others, trying to reach any Divine Ruins was nothing but delusion. But the question now was: Would the elves help him?
If it were just escorting him away, they could probably do that. But having them follow him to the Divine Ruins… it was simply impossible.
Another dozen days passed. The elves of the Kayi Tribe had searched every corner of their territory yet still found no trace of Chenchen.
During this time, aside from trying to get familiar with everything in the Dusk Mountains, Du Fan spent all his remaining time mastering the “Invalid Domain.”
A so-called Sacred Realm referred to someone who had mastered just one extraordinary power—a result of thoroughly understanding the laws of power. As for those who mastered multiple such laws, they were abnormal strongmen who were already infinitely close to what could be called gods. Their every move could alter the world itself.
The Invalid Domain was the strange power Du Fan currently possessed. At first, he couldn’t even control it; it could only be released passively. In other words, he had mastered only half of it.
The power used by the elf sage Lan Ling, according to her, was a divine gift from the Goddess of Nature—a power called the “Law of Void.”
This power of void could transform any attack against her into nothingness. As long as Lan Ling’s power remained unexhausted, she was practically invincible.
However, while no one could harm her in this state, she couldn’t harm others either. It was as if, once she activated this skill, she would go to another dimension, leaving only an illusion in reality. Her enemies couldn’t reach her, nor could she reach them.
Still, Du Fan was quite interested in Lan Ling’s power of void. Such an abnormal skill was practically the ultimate form of invincibility.

Imagine this: no matter what tactics others use, you just stand there, watching various attacks hit you, only for the enemy to be shocked to find that you remain unharmed… Although you can’t attack the enemy in this state, what if you wait until they run out of strength and reveal their true form… But even if they’re interested, it’s useless—such divine powers cannot be learned through study. Divine powers of nothingness can’t be learned, but one’s own nullification field can be gradually understood. The so-called sacred-level field is simply one’s own ability taken to an extreme that only they can comprehend. What Gui Fan is struggling with now is how to make an opponent’s powers completely ineffective against him. If he can achieve this, then his nullification field would be no less remarkable than divine powers of nothingness. Du Fan has never desired power like this before; it’s also the first time he’s seriously studied it. After days of experimentation, Du Fan finally figured out the trick to creating a “nullification field.” Besides activating automatically when in danger, he also discovered that it could be activated when his consciousness enters a state of complete detachment from the world. In other words, when Du Fan stops thinking about anything and does nothing, his nullification field activates on its own to protect him. After countless tests, including having Nanali and her brother shoot at him with bows, he found that as long as he didn’t think about anything or do anything, the nullification field would take effect. Such results filled him with joy, because although he couldn’t become invisible like with divine powers of nothingness, he could still block all attacks—what a remarkable skill! However… one thing disappointed him slightly: in this state, his energy was consumed extremely fast. Just like Nai Xiu using her Divine Arrow Technique, his nullification field couldn’t last very long—with his current strength, it could only last five or six minutes at most. Despite this minor flaw of a time limit, Du Fan was still very satisfied, because in this state, though he wasn’t invincible, he could render most attacks ineffective. To test the limits of his nullification field, Du Fan asked Lan Ling to unleash her divine powers, then entered his own nullification field to see who was stronger.

As a result, Du Fan helplessly realized that he still couldn’t touch Lan Ling—in other words, the effect of his Ineffective Domain couldn’t affect divine power… It seemed there were levels between so-called domain powers and divine powers, with divine power being one level higher than domains. Thus, under the power of Void Divine Power, his Ineffective Domain was completely ineffective. But against attacks below the level of Sacred-tier domains, like Nai Xiu’s extraordinary arrow skills, he could block them all… In short, Du Fan’s abnormal domain was ineffective against those above it but invincible against those below… With such an abnormal domain at his disposal, Du Fan’s desire to go to the Divine Ruins grew stronger again. He had already searched everywhere in the Kayi Elf Tribe’s territory without finding Chenchen. After all this time, if Chenchen really wanted to appear, she would have shown up by now. There was no reason left to stay in the Kayi Tribe any longer. Now, he had two paths ahead of him: either go to the Divine Ruins to seek greater power or leave the Dusk Mountains and return to the human world. Just as Du Fan was thinking about how to abduct a few elves, Lan Ling brought him good news. “Lord Du Fan, in ten days, it will be our elf race’s Millennium Festival. At that time, all the elf tribes in the Dusk Mountains will gather together to celebrate joyfully.” The Millennium Festival was the most grand festival of the elf race, held once every thousand years to commemorate the Nature Goddess who created them. According to Lan Ling, when the Nature Goddess first conveyed her message to her, she said she had already spread it to all the elf tribes in the Dusk Mountains. This meant that as long as someone was an elf, Du Fan would be treated as a noble guest. Du Fan often asked about the Divine Ruins, and Lan Ling wasn’t stupid—she had long understood his intention: he wanted to select a few powerful elves to accompany him. “In the Kayi Tribe, the only powerful elf is Nai Xiu. I… might just qualify as one, but the others are somewhat weaker. But this Millennium Festival is different. There are no less than a hundred elf tribes in the Dusk Mountains, with all elves gathering together. By then, if you want to pick some companions, won’t it be easy?” When Lan Ling said this, Du Fan’s eyes narrowed into lines from smiling. He was increasingly convinced that the so-called Nature Goddess mentioned by Lan Ling was none other than his beloved Chenchen.

If it wasn’t Chenchen, then why would this Nature Goddess help him so much? Ah, could it be… Could it be that Chenchen moved me to the Dusk Mountains so that I could search for the Divine Ruins? Right, that seems to be the case. Thinking about her arrangements, I happened to end up in the elves’ territory, and then there was also this mysterious Elf Goddess… The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Suddenly, Du Fan saw the truth clearly.

It seems this isn’t all a coincidence after all. If it was all arranged by Chenchen, then everything makes sense.

“If I ask you and Naixiu to accompany me to the Divine Ruins, would you refuse?”

Lan Ling had already spoken plainly. With Du Fan’s personality, there was no need to hide anything—speaking straight out was his true nature, one of purity and honesty.

“As a distinguished guest personally chosen by the Nature Goddess, such a request isn’t excessive…” Lan Ling agreed right away, filling Du Fan with joy once again.

Of course, after his joy, he now looked forward even more to the arrival of the Millennium Festival.

The elves’ Millennium Festival lasted for a month, and it took place in their sacred land—the territory of the Ancient Tree Tribe. It was a very mysterious place. According to legends, the first elves were born there.

The day after discussing the Millennium Festival with Du Fan, Lan Ling led over a hundred elves to start preparing anxiously.

There was no need to rush, as reaching the Ancient Tree Tribe required a very special method—a sort of teleportation array. All the elves would stand on it, and when the Millennium Festival began, the Power of the Nature Goddess would activate, transporting them all to the Ancient Tree.

According to Lan Ling, since Du Fan was a distinguished guest personally chosen by the Nature Goddess, the teleportation should not fail. He would arrive at the Ancient Tree along with the other elves, where he could choose strong companions among the many elves present.

Du Fan was stunned. “What? You mean this magic array is activated by the Nature Goddess in the end? And it won’t work unless it’s an elf?”

Lan Ling nodded. “Yes, distinguished guest. But you needn’t worry. The Nature Goddess won’t forget you.”

Of course she won’t…

Du Fan, who knew best what he truly valued, wouldn’t believe that the real Nature Goddess would treat him as a distinguished guest.

It seems things aren’t looking good.