World Tree - 28

After being splashed with cold water, the elves awoke from their short slumber. When they realized what was happening, they jumped to their feet and backed away warily.

"Who are you!?" The leading elf male yelled.

Zhou Fan was immediately astonished to realize that they spoke the same language as him. Although the world was mostly unified by one language, english, he had assumed that these elves were cut off from the world. Therefore, they should have spoken a different language. Instead of thinking too much, Zhou Fan theorized that they used to live on the surface. Who knows what happened to cause them to be down here, unknown to the rest of the world.

"I come in peace, probably." Zhou Fan said. Although he did mutter the last part under his breath. If they shot another arrow at him, he might just kill them off.

"Who are you, no, what are you!?" The elf girl in the back asked in a slightly loud tone.

Zhou Fan was confused to hear her question.

"What do you mean? Do you not know what a human is?"

"Human?" she said, confused, as if he was speaking in a different language.

Zhou Fan quickly understood that she had no idea what a human was. In fact, he didn't know what they called themselves. He had named them earlier because he assumed that they spoke a different language.

"Have you ever left the cave?" Zhou Fan wondered.

"Of course not! The snakes do not allow it." She said as if it was an obvious fact.

"Wait!" The leading elf said. "You wouldn't happen to be from outside the cave, right?!" He said, almost shouting.

Zhou Fan looked at the elfs face and realized that their situation is much worse than he previously thought.

"Indeed, I am from the outside world." Zhou Fan said.

The elves' expressions got visibly excited.

"Please! Follow us!" They said.

When they turned around to lead him, they started to run. Zhou Fan started to 'speed' walk behind them.

It wasn't long before they made it to a gate. The gate wasn't exactly made of wood. Instead, it was simply wooden branches forming a natural looking arch.

"How did you do that?" Zhou Fan asked. Although he could shape wood like that, he would have to use Qi to manipulate it, and from what he has seen, elves couldn't use Qi.

"The door? Do you not have doors outside?" The girl asked, perplexed.

Zhou Fan looked at the girl with a deadpan expression on his face.

"Never mind." He said before quietly following them the rest of the way.

On the short journey, Zhou Fan came to learn the three elves names. Lily, Mark, and Steve.

Lily was the girl, Mark was the leading male, and Steve was the guy who hadn't said anything since his appearance. Although, Steve has been giving him wary looks the entire way.

One minute after passing through the arch, they arrived at the middle of the cave. Here, there was a clearing area and the tallest trees in the cave. Including the huge one he saw earlier.

Mark pointed at the big tree and said, "That is the world tree. It is sacred, and no one is allowed to touch it besides the queen. Even then, she can only do it twice in her life. The day she inherits the throne and the day she passes it on."

When Zhou Fan heard Marks words, most of his confusions were cleared up.

Although sparse, he could see a couple of elves walking around. Some were carrying baskets, while others were simply walking. When they saw him, they all stopped and stared at him for a second. They seemed to notice that his ears were short.

Zhou Fan proceded to ignore them and observe the village. Around the world tree, there were many smaller trees. Although small next to the world tree, they were quite huge. On those trees hanged many tree houses.

Zhou Fan had read about those before. What really astonished him was the bridges connecting every area. There were even big plazas and other gathering spaces.

"Sir," Mark said, interrupting his thoughts. "Please follow us, we are going to take you to the queen."

Zhou Fan was surprised to hear that, he didn't think that he would see the queen so quickly. Zhou Fan walked behind Mark and Lily. Steve had gone off after they reached the village.

It was then that Zhou Fan realized he had left the beasts behind. He was so caught up in the current events that he forgot about them completely.

'Meh, they'll be fine', he thought.

Along the way, Mark talked about the village with Zhou Fan. According to him, there were 129 elves living here. They seemed to have trouble breeding, and one would be lucky to have two kids after 100 tries.

Zhou Fan continued to follow the elves, and it wasn't long before they came to a large palace. Like the other buildings, it was hung up in a tree.The tree it was hung up on was the second tallest tree in the forest. It was also the closest to the world tree.

They made their way up the closest stairway and made it to the palace entrance. The palace was completely made out of wood. Even then, its beauty was undeniable.

Seeing the two guards stationed at the gate, Mark walked up and talked to them in a hushed voice. However, Zhou Fan could naturally hear them.

"We have found an outsider. We must have an audience with the queen." Mark whispered.

The guards' faces instantly changed. Their relaxed and slightly lazy expression twisted in an instant as one of them ran into the palace at his top speed.

As they were waiting for him to get back, Zhou Fan observed the remaining guard. He was clearly very on guard, however, he was trying to be discreet about it. Almost as if he was afraid of offending Zhou Fan.

Zhou Fan ignored him and continued to wait for the guard to return.