Chapter 355: The Borderlands of the Dark Elves

Morthoshidan, in the Dark Elf language, means “Land Where You Must Stop.” It is the Dark Elf city closest to the Demon Realm.

Most life forms regard the Underdark as a dangerous place, filled with countless murders, conspiracies, and demonic monsters.

Too many ancient aberrations and dangerous creatures, left behind by time, now roam underground; to surface dwellers, stepping into the Underdark is tantamount to entrusting life and death to fate—death by murder could come at any moment.

But for the Dark Elves themselves, their homeland is comfortable; every death has a reason.

True, this place teems with danger and murder, but danger has purpose, murder follows rules and calculation; if you prepare thoroughly and plan well, your chance of sudden death is even lower than on the surface—at least, that’s how they’ve grown accustomed to it. If faced with certain death, they often first reflect on where they themselves went wrong.

“It’s like some countries with zero gun control—you go to certain areas and curse with an N-word, isn’t getting killed just inevitable?” Li En tossed out the example offhand; no one understood, but Emma, ever carefree, chuckled twice in apparent amusement.

But the Clove Gorge, just one step from “Land Where You Must Stop,” is different—it is true Demon Realm, a place of irrational life and death.

“Can’t you find even one guide willing to go there?”

Li En’s party had already circled the city twice but still found no guide willing to show them the way.

“No one wants to go. It’s insane even on ordinary days—one moment the sun blazes, the next, torrential snowstorms engulf everything; fire creatures and ice creatures appear side by side, utterly incomprehensible.”

For powerful transcenders, the most unbearable reality is this absurd “random death”—those who walk the Demon Realm have already surrendered their lives to fate.

The true enemy isn’t even the greater number of aberrations within the Demon Realm—it’s the environment itself. One moment it’s a normal plain; the next, it becomes a half-frozen, viscous bog of ice-mud, dragging you straight under.

This bizarre environment obeys no logic, no rules; normal life struggles to survive. When you’re trapped, those monstrously abnormal demonic creatures will likely emerge in packs for a feast.

The ancient creatures here are notoriously insane—you might encounter any species from any era, from any other world.

This damned place can only be safely inhabited by extremely powerful demonic creatures and users of natural forces; high-level users of natural forces can alter the environment and communicate with demons and animals, persuading them not to attack.

The more brutal and rich in natural forces a primal land is, the more natural power a Druid can draw upon—and the more invincible they become.

In fact, had it not been for the utterly irrational Sapphire Dragon, that Druidic order would never have been trapped there.

“Headache. I thought I could recruit some local guides here.”

Li En sighed, ignoring the wary or hostile glares around him.

The fact that these surface dwellers hadn’t been directly attacked or murdered yet was thanks entirely to their companions.

“Keep looking longer, maybe you’ll find one—but you can’t wait, can you?”

Victornia scanned the surroundings warily, her hand instinctively reaching for her alchemy pouch every few moments; the eyes of these “kindred” made her deeply uncomfortable.

She hadn’t expected that, after only a month or so, returning to the Dark Elf world would make her so ill-at-ease. The docks were chaotic and full of villains, but compared to a Dark Elf society where “everyone is evil” and “everyone is preparing murder,” it was nothing alike.

The greatest difference between Dark Elves and ordinary high-risk zones is this: in normal dangerous areas, criminals are numerous, so you must be cautious; in traditional Dark Elf zones, if you show the slightest weakness, every Dark Elf will commit a crime.

Not commit a crime? Then you’re unfit—you’re a weakling who should have been eliminated early.

“Tch, this is even more chaotic than Morthodilka. At least six groups have marked us as fat prey, and two of them have already started fighting privately.”

Alekne Tarabal rubbed her chin and smiled cheerfully; the surrounding “evil” filled her with inexplicable excitement.