Chapter 112: Father

"……"

The last Legend looked at the fluorescent plants scattered all around, and silently furrowed his brow.

His looks could be considered outstanding even among all dark elves; though he appeared to be just past twenty, every gesture he made radiated a special, mature charm.

The dark elf hesitated for a moment, then followed the path through the woods toward the depths.

He darted swiftly through the forest, and soon arrived before the giant tree at its center.

That was……

He stopped in his tracks, hesitated, and did not rashly approach. From a distance he called out clearly: "Sivni! It's me, your father!"

He waited a while; seeing no movement from the treehouse, he pressed his lips together, pushed down the unease in his heart, and continued to call out:

"I know you resent me, feel that I caused your mother's death."

"Your mother's death… was indeed not an accident, but none of it was my fault!"

He clenched his teeth, took a deep breath, balled his fists, and shouted loudly toward the treehouse:

"It was all her fault!"

"She defied the Matriarch, refused to obey the clan's orders, and even assassinated the clan's priest. In the end, the Matriarch ordered her removed."

"I couldn't bear to do it myself back then, but you know the clan's rules — if I hadn't acted, I and all of you would have died! Every single one of us would have died!"

"Everything I did back then was for you!"

"You can't possibly fail to understand all this!!?"

The forest remained deathly silent; "Father" could clearly hear his own heartbeat pounding faster and faster in his chest.

Thump-thump-thump-thump—

A nameless fear hung over him the whole time, making him dare not let down his guard, dare not force his way into the treehouse to take her away.

Why?

What on earth had happened to her? Why was I feeling so uneasy?

Finally, after barely suppressing the agitation in his heart, "Father" switched tactics and said sorrowfully:

"Your sister, Stila — she's gone mad. She personally killed every one of my kin. Right now… you're the only family I have left."

"Sivni, can you really bear to watch me be killed by her?"

"Come with me! We can definitely take back everything that belongs to us!"

After "Father"'s impassioned speech, another moment passed, and the treehouse finally gave a response.

Creak-creak-creak…

The giant tree's branches and leaves swayed; a thick root pushed out from the ground, and slowly reached toward "Father" like a hand.

"Father" felt a quiet sigh of relief in his heart, and reached out as well, wanting to touch it gently.

Finally got her to fall for—

"Cough!?"

Hiss!

When the root was only a meter away from "Father," it suddenly shot forward, ruthlessly piercing through his chest and swiftly binding him up.

"Sivni, what, are, you, doing?"

Wounded, "Father" immediately tried to escape, attempting to use the legendary assassin's Shadow Step to cheat death.

But he failed.

Right now, in this fluorescent forest — there were simply no shadows at all!

!!!

The suppressed fear exploded in that instant, completely shattering the expression "Father" had been wearing, and he let out a piercing shriek.

"No!"

He had considered that Sivni might not agree with their methods, but he never imagined she would want to kill him… no, wait!

Didn't you agree to it!?

In that instant, "Father" suddenly understood everything.

It was a trap.

All of this — every bit of it — was a trap to lure them here!

"You tricked me!"

He wanted to escape, but simply couldn't.

More vines burst forth, coiling around his wrists, ankles, neck… tightening slowly yet irresistibly.

Creak, creak!

Death.

Icy death wrapped around "Father"'s neck, making him tremble out of control, his voice cracking with terror: "I! Cough, but, I'm your father!!?"

"I don't have a father."

Sivni's phantom avatar finally materialized before the giant tree. She looked indifferently at "Father," bound by the roots, and slightly furrowed her brow.

"What on earth… have you been talking about this whole time?"

In a matriarchal society that reveres the mother, determining a child's exact father is a relatively difficult matter.

After all, a father is not necessarily your biological father, but a mother is always your biological mother.

So in dark elf clans, a child has only a mother — there is no concept of a father…

As for those males who should originally have been called "biological fathers," in the dark elves' view they are nothing more than the mother's companion, toy, or communal slave.

She looked at "Father," whose life was fading, and suddenly spoke: "Dolice."

"……Wh, at?"

The strangled "father" grew weaker and weaker, now at death's door, and looked almost unconsciously toward Svanje.

Why would you bring her up at a time like this?

"You forcibly sacrificed Doris's soul to 【Lust】, using Its power to slip past the monastery and send word to me."

"Heh, you…"

"Is this revenge for her!?"

"No, I don't care about her death."

"I brought her up only to tell you one thing — to me, she was nothing more than a fellow kin who shared my blood."

"Whether alive or dead, I will not waver."

Svanje shook her head slightly, fixed her eyes on the "father's," and said coolly:

"You are the same."

The Forbidden Scholar's expression never changed from beginning to end.

No anger, no sorrow.

Only a faint contempt in her eyes.

She looked at her blood-father as though he were a scrap of meat on an experiment table.

Under that cold gaze, the "father," who could no longer speak, shed mottled tears of blood.

Not only did it fail to move Svanje, it made her eyes grow even more disgusted.

"Put away that clumsy performance of yours; I'm already growing weary of it."

"If you truly cared about so-called blood ties… why would you only appear before me today?"

"You don't feel remorse — you only know you're about to die."

The final whimper was strangled in his throat.

The "father" could no longer respond.

The roots drained his blood, devoured his flesh, and sealed his soul.

Svanje watched calmly as the "father," pierced through by several spikes and utterly dead, then slowly drew her gaze back.

"Good. With the previous generation's parental data, my research can continue."

Only when she thought of her research did a faint ripple pass through her eyes.

"I will surely find the one true path."

……

【You, my father.

Upon that sorrowful height.

Now, with your hot tears, curse me, and bless me.】

"Hah…"

When it was all over, Herbert did not keep writing. He set down his charcoal pencil and looked out toward the distant sea.

The blood moon hung high in the sky, its somewhat darkened reflection mirrored on the sea's surface.

The night was blood-red, yet here it felt especially peaceful.

He turned to look back at the Misty Mountains behind him — the lightless peaks lay like crouching giant beasts, silently watching him as well.

Suddenly, a fierce cold wind swept out from the Misty Mountains, blowing his hood down and revealing his pure-white hair.

Herbert shook his head, letting his hair drift in the night wind; the white strands were also stained a haunting blood-red by the moon.

"Heh heh…"

He laughed, shook his head, lowered his head, and slowly yet firmly wrote the final stanza of the poem.

【I beg you, do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.】

Snap.

With one final forceful stroke, the tip of the charcoal pencil broke, leaving a savage diagonal slash across the notebook.

Like a sharp engraving, embedded into the story.

And so…

Total time elapsed: twenty-five minutes, thirty-seven seconds.

Heretical intruders: twenty-five in total.

Including five Legends, and twenty mid-to-high-rank Professionals.

All slain.

Good news — the editor finally told me when it'll go live. This Friday after 12, I'm guessing I'll still do the scheduled update at 18:00.

Counting the word count, by then I'll probably be at 250,000 words. (Pressing palms together)

Compared to some books that go live at 150,000 words, I've saved everyone a hundred thousand words' worth of money. (Quick, praise me!)

Some readers told me to cut back on updates and bulk-post after going live, but I thought about it and figured there's no need.

Fewer updates just means about eight thousand words less — still saving everyone money, I suppose.

Also, my launch speech, after nearly a week of patching and polishing, has officially broken past 11,000 words… clearly I wrote too many childhood stories back in the day.

Can't compete on other counts, but let's see if I can snag first place for launch-speech word count on Qidian. Lol.

Which means, on Thursday everyone can see 6k of main text + 11k of launch speech.

You guys really got the bargain!

Tomorrow's Tuesday, I need to PK for the new-book strong recommendation — please, please follow along tomorrow!

This one's important too~

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(End of this chapter)