Chapter 2780: The Worms Underground

Startled and suspicious, Xia De immediately extinguished the floating light orbs around him and looked into the cave that had abruptly appeared in the darkness:

"An underground cavity? How is this possible? How could my High-Level Spatial Perception not detect such a large underground space here?"

Although Mithril, as a special metal, could indeed trigger supernatural phenomena near mineral veins, this absolutely did not include the ability to block spatial perception.

Standing at the melted cave entrance, Xia De looked down into the darkness, hesitant. He certainly wouldn't recklessly jump straight down, and in the vision provided by "Darkvision," the space below looked more like a naturally formed underground cave, completely empty inside.

This place was not entirely sealed; the cave had underground fissures connecting to other locations. It was only because his "High-Level Spatial Perception" had inexplicably failed here that Xia De didn't know what this cave really was.

However, he suddenly recalled the content of his conversation with Professor Yu Ke-Wu just now, so he found a green leaf that had been turned into a toy from his pocket. But after placing it before his eyes, nothing happened, which meant Xia De was not affected by the so-called "hallucinogenic gas."

He then replaced that ordinary green leaf with the "Ye Zi of Eternal Youth." This time, after placing the leaf before his eyes and waiting a moment before taking it away, the world seen by his right eye was indeed different.

It wasn't that an illusion had been dispelled, but rather that things originally hidden had manifested.

Huge tree root systems burst from the bottom of the underground cave, spreading across the entire cavern and extending along those fissures toward places unseen.

And on those pitch-black tree roots, white vesicles—or rather, things like insect eggs—were adhered to them. To be more precise, those eggs were translucent, appearing white only because of the white mist constantly churning slowly within them. The vesicles emitted a faint glow in the darkness; the light was not intense, but it changed brightness slowly along with the churning of the white mist inside.

It was precisely because of the transparent vesicles and the white mist that Xia De could clearly see insects in a deep slumber inside those eggs.

The size of those insects was about the same as a normal adult, but looking at their appearance, they were undoubtedly "Paradox Worms."

"Tree roots growing upward from the ground instead of downward, and these Paradox Worms..."

The Mithril ore Xia De was looking for was indeed here. Although he didn't dare to summon light orbs for illumination, he could see patches of silver phosphorescence on the cave walls; Mithril ore was exactly this color.

The silver phosphorescence and the light from the eggs on the thick, ancient tree roots reflected off each other. This scene deep underground was actually extremely shocking, and Xia De even held his breath without realizing it. Gradually, as the time since the 【Ye Zi of Eternal Youth】 left his eyes grew longer, the tree roots and eggs hid themselves once again.

Just as Xia De wanted to cover his eyes with the leaf again, white mist suddenly surged up into the previously empty underground cave.

The thick fog, symbolizing the concept of "Time Chaos," filled the entire bottom of the underground cave in almost a single breath. At the same time, a buzzing insect sound clearly appeared in the depths of the cave, and it was getting closer and closer to Xia De's position.

Xia De decisively took the key from his chest with his left hand. As the ritual array appeared beneath his feet and the 【Staff of Yggdrasil】 was grasped in his hand, he slammed the bottom of the long staff against the ground beneath him:

"Stability Principle of the Ancient Elves!"

Obviously they recognized their feeder, and still recognized her even if she was three years younger.

"Little Chocobo~ Xia De, when you said there were Chocobos here, I didn't believe it."

Emilia said happily, but she didn't really touch the little Chocobo, just stood on the side to observe it, and joined the team again after Xia De, Miss Danister, and Luvia also walked over.

When the clean little beast walked to the little Chocobo, it stretched its head to arch it, causing it to somersault and fall to the ground, and then arched it up, only then happily following the team.

And Angelina, who suspected that her charm had recently decreased, also approached the little Chocobo after that, and only breathed a sigh of relief after finding that it didn't dodge.

It was just that two adult Chocobos popped their heads out of the grass again, probably because they heard the whimper when the cub was knocked over just now. They didn't want to attack Angelina, just wanted to issue a "warning" to her not to continue approaching, but immediately the two Chocobos saw the cat on the human's head that looked unkind, so they shrank back again.

The elf girl in the forest didn't go out. She seemed to know early on that someone would visit this morning, and even prepared tea for everyone early.

After the group arrived under the big tree, the elf girl who had been waiting for them jumped down immediately:

"Good morning, Xia De, good morning, Luvia, Miss Danister."

She greeted the "familiar" people, but didn't greet the "stranger" Angelina and Emilia. However, the little princess looked suspiciously at the tall elf, and then looked more and more familiar.

Then she had a flash of inspiration. Even if she hadn't obtained the so-called "amazing wisdom," Angelina still recognized who this was. She looked carefully at the elf's figure at this time in surprise, and showed an expression of being betrayed.

As for the little elf beside the unicorn... Xia De and Luvia were prepared for her to discover the truth, so they both used their peripheral vision to observe her performance. Unexpectedly, Emilia didn't look at the other party, but looked at the other party's face and figure with envy, looking like she had a new object of admiration.

In other words, she didn't realize who this was.

So, after a long period of doubt, Xia De finally knew who Emilia's disguise, which couldn't fool anyone, was meant to fool—

Emilia was meant to fool Emilia.

And when Xia De discovered this, he immediately had to hold back from showing a smile, and obviously Luvia and Miss Danister also realized this.

Looking at the slightly mature forest girl again, she also looked at Emilia at this time, but her expression seemed a little unhappy, and her speech was a little fierce:

"Hello, elf of the Moon Creek clan, is it you who took on that great responsibility?"

"Hello, hello, it's me... may I ask what clan you are from, sister?"

Emilia was still asking cautiously there, not even noticing the little unicorn on the side, who was looking at the two masters standing in front of her with confusion. It obviously recognized them too. So in order not to let little Liana do something that would be noticed by Emilia, Xia De reached out and touched its head to let it relax a little.

This made the expression of the cat on Angelina's head even more unkind.

"My origin... still needs to be kept secret for the time being, but it's no problem for you to call me sister."

The forest elf said absent-mindedly, and didn't continue to pay attention to Emilia:

"Let's not stand under the tree and talk. Let's go, let's go up and talk."

Saying that, she grabbed the vine hanging from the tree trunk behind her, and jumped to the second floor like flying.

So the red-haired girl grabbed Luvia's hand and took her to fly up. Emilia and Angelina climbed onto little Liana's back, letting the little unicorn carry them to the second floor of the tree house. Xia De naturally turned into a red butterfly.

The elf girl had already prepared round tables, chairs, and teacups on the platform outside the tree house, and Xia De noticed that the number of chairs and teacups was just right.

However, the elf girl didn't prepare black tea but green tea. After everyone sat down, she said:

"I also know the purpose of your visit this time, to transfer the qualification to this immature elf girl, right?"

Emilia didn't get angry, but pursed her mouth and didn't speak in embarrassment.

Xia De nodded:

"The qualification represented by the umbilical cord, as well as Luvia's qualification, need to be transferred. Is this troublesome? Does it take a long time?"

The elf girl shook her head:

"It's not troublesome. You told me about this a long time ago, and I have preparations here. But you are right, the transfer of qualification is not as simple as making tea. Those two umbilical cords can be solved easily, but transferring the qualification on Miss Luvia Anate takes some time, probably... today is Monday, it can be done on Wednesday night."

Waiting for two days is not long, Xia De can fully accept it, and Luvia has no opinion, but the elf girl added:

"Although the qualification symbolized by the umbilical cord can be transferred immediately, this will also make the power contained in the umbilical cord completely absorbed by the young elf over there. The umbilical cord will have no effect from now on. Can you accept this?"

"This..."

Xia De looked at Miss Danister again. Currently, the umbilical cord is the only way for her and Flora to briefly restore their strength. If there is no umbilical cord, unless the curse is completely solved, they have no way to get rid of their current state.

"I have no problem, don't consider my affairs."

The red-haired girl shook her head indifferently. Xia De then nodded: