Chapter 002: The Elf King’s Palace

“Commander, how are you going to give me these three thousand griffins?” Looking at the griffins scattered all over the ground, Du Fan began to worry again.
“Haha, Du Fan, that’s your job.” Hearing Du Fan’s words, Tek laughed loudly. With Tek’s laughter, Du Fan immediately noticed faint shadows of countless griffins in his mind.
“Du Fan, I’m leaving now!” With Tek’s last words, over ten thousand griffins took off into the air at once, flying southwestward.
What remained in front of Du Fan were more than three thousand griffins. All of them stared at Du Fan. It was then that Du Fan suddenly realized he could control three thousand griffins at once!
The dense shadows of griffins in his mind each represented one of the actual griffins. With a thought, one of the griffins would take off as per Du Fan’s command, fly in a circle, and then slowly land back among the group.
Thinking about the location of his territory, Du Fan issued a command to these griffins. Soon, countless griffins flew toward the location he had designated.
Watching the sea of griffins take off filled him with awe! A group of level 3,700 magical beasts—even a saintly expert wouldn’t dare confront them head-on!
As the griffins flew northwestward, Du Fan’s eyes sparkled with joy. With that joy, he once again controlled the Green Shuttle and flew swiftly toward the location of the Elf Ancient Tree clan.
……
In the distance, the giant Elf Ancient Tree that reached into the clouds appeared before Du Fan. Even though it was already night, its outline was clearly visible under the bright moonlight!
Like a guiding beacon, the giant tree directed Du Fan’s flight path. Due to the incident with Tek along the way, the destination that Du Fan could have reached in the afternoon wasn’t reached until around 8 p.m.
“Who’s there?” Just as Du Fan put away the Green Shuttle and headed toward Saito’s house, two archers from the Elf clan raised their long arrows and pointed them at Du Fan, demanding an answer.

“It’s me, Elder Du Fan.” Looking at the two nervous elf archers, Du Fan said with a smile. As he spoke, he took out the life gem necklace that symbolized his status as an elder and put it around his neck. The life gem was unique to the elves; no other race possessed it. The necklace, representing the position of an elf elder, could never be fake.

“It really is Elder Du Fan!” one of the archers who had the chance to meet Du Fan immediately said.

“Elder Du Fan, if you’ve come this way, are you looking for Chief Saito?” Upon confirming it was indeed Du Fan, the elf archer quickly asked.

“That’s right. I’m here to see Chief Saito,” Du Fan replied with a smile after hearing the question.

“Chief Saito isn’t asleep yet at this time. Elder Du Fan, go ahead quickly,” the elf archer said.

After bidding farewell to the two archers, Du Fan flew straight up to the ancient elf tree, where Chief Saito lived. Chief Saito’s residence was built atop the ancient elf tree.

On the ancient elf tree, there were many branches that branched out, forming flat and spacious areas. Many elves of the ancient elf tree race chose to build their homes there. This way, they could not only protect the life tree more easily but also absorb purer life energy by living on it.

Soon, Du Fan arrived in front of a simple wooden hut.

“Chief Saito, it’s me, Du Fan. I’m sorry to disturb you,” Du Fan said respectfully as he stood in front of Saito’s house.

“Du? Are you Elder Du Fan?” Hearing the voice outside, Saito was clearly surprised!

Soon, the door to Saito’s house was opened.

“Elder Du Fan, it really is you! Come in, sit down, come in!” Seeing that it was indeed Du Fan outside, Saito kept saying.

“Chief Saito, apart from using the water from the Spring of Life, do you have any way to use natural magic to accelerate this process?” Sitting at the table, Du Fan took out a few seeds of fireweed and showed them to Saito.

“Let me take a look.” Hearing Du Fan’s words, Saito quickly took the seeds from his hand and examined them carefully.

“These seeds contain powerful fire energy. It might not be easy to use them to accelerate the process,” Saito said thoughtfully while holding the seeds.

“Not easy? So, is it possible at all?” Hearing Saito’s response, Du Fan asked immediately.

“Okay, but it will consume more life energy,” said Saito with a smile. Hearing this, Du Fan’s hopes once again sank. He stretched out his palm, and several seeds of fire grass emitted a faint glow in Saito’s hand. Soon, Du Fan felt a strong surge of life energy emanating from Saito’s palm. Under this intense life energy, the seeds quickly cracked open and began to sprout. The sprouts then grew rapidly, and before Du Fan’s astonished eyes, the seeds turned into several large plants of fire grass, radiating strong fire energy. “It’s truly amazing!” Du Fan couldn’t help but exclaim as he watched the fire grass grow at a rate several times faster than with the watering from the Spring of Life. “I’m a mage of the Nature faction, a master of this domain. Growing these seeds is a piece of cake for me,” said Saito with a smile, sensing Du Fan’s astonishment. “Heh, I came here to ask you to help me plant this plant on a large scale,” Du Fan said right away. “How large an area do you need?” Saito asked promptly. “An output of ten thousand pounds per month would be sufficient,” Du Fan replied quickly. “No way! Du Fan, ten thousand pounds of this grass per month?” Saito widened his eyes in shock. “That’s right. Can you guarantee it?” Du Fan asked, feeling a bit uneasy at Saito’s expression. “I can guarantee it, but then all of us mages of the Nature faction will be very busy,” Saito said with a wry smile. Du Fan now represented not only the position of an elder of the elf race but also a noble role as the husband of the elf queen. In a sense, Du Fan represented the queen’s will, so Saito had no choice but to agree to such a request. “Of course. I only need to guarantee ten thousand pounds per month this year. Next year, ten thousand pounds per half year will be enough,” Du Fan continued. “Alright, alright!” Saito’s grim expression immediately returned to normal upon hearing this.

Gripping his teeth and filling his heart with determination, Saito said to himself, “At worst, I can just use a few buckets of Water of Life to irrigate them.” So he used the Water of Life for irrigation and had a mage of the Nature school cast spells to accelerate growth. This way, it shouldn’t be too difficult, he thought. As long as they could get through one year, things would be much easier the following year.

Actually, at first, Saito showed off by quickly making the fireweed seeds sprout. Seeing the fireweed grow rapidly gave Du Fan the illusion that accelerating its growth was a very simple task.

But Du Fan’s assumption was completely wrong. What Saito did in front of Du Fan was only make three fireweed seeds sprout. For a mage of the Nature school with domain mastery, this was indeed easy. However, if Saito were to make 300 fireweed plants grow at the same speed, it wouldn’t be easy even for him, a powerful domain master.

Converting life energy and various trace elements into intense fire energy through the innate properties of plants is indeed challenging! Of course, growing ordinary plants doesn’t require much natural energy, but transforming natural energy into large amounts of fire energy takes considerable effort.

“Alright, I’ll leave these seeds with you. I’ll come collect them once a month,” Du Fan said immediately after hearing Saito agree. He took out the bottle containing the fireweed seeds.

He transferred half of the seeds to another bottle and put that bottle with the remaining seeds in his storage ring, leaving the larger bottle in front of Saito.

“How is the Kayi Tribe now?” Du Fan asked casually after handing the bottle to Saito.

“As the tribe of the Elven Queen, the Kayi Tribe naturally enjoys high status. The entire tribe has moved to the ancient elven tree,” Saito replied promptly.

“How do I get there? I want to see them,” Du Fan said to Saito.

“Go up this main path. After passing through thirteen huge branches, you’ll see buildings that look like palaces. That’s where the Queen’s clan resides,” Saito answered right away.

“Oh, fine then. I’ll go check on them first. After that, I’ll rest for the night and head back right away tomorrow.” Du Fan said hurriedly after inquiring about the residence of the Kayi tribe.
“How is Her Majesty the Queen doing now?” Saito asked immediately upon hearing that Du Fan seemed to want to leave.
Hearing Saito’s question, Du Fan was momentarily stunned. He couldn’t possibly tell Saito that Naixiu was now in his hands and was essentially acting as a professional thug, could he?
“She’s doing very well, really well. You can rest assured about the Saito tribe. With Moses and the fence for protection, plus the guardianship of level 1,800 archers, Her Majesty the Elven Queen is in excellent health,” Du Fan replied quickly after regaining his composure.
……
After bidding farewell to Saito, Du Fan headed straight to the residence of the Kayi tribe. Following Saito’s directions, he soon found the building that resembled a palace.
According to Saito, this place was supposed to be the residence of past Elven kings. Such a place was built with great care; from a distance, although not large in size, it still gave off a grand impression.
Indeed, the residence of the Elven kings was truly extraordinary.
Turning into a wisp of green smoke, Du Fan slipped right into the Elven palace.
After circling the palace quickly, he headed straight to one of the rooms.
Inside that room, an Elven woman was sitting in silence. With a devout expression on her face, she was in deep meditation.
This woman was none other than Elder Lanling of the Elven race.