Mythical Creatures Strategy Guide

Chapter 55 Neem

The vines beside Amber suddenly grew rapidly, with dozens of thick branches rising from the ground and heading straight for Esther!

Esta didn't dodge; the white-skirted fairies pounced on them simultaneously, using their bodies to block the branches. They were pierced and torn apart by the vines, grayish-white mud splattering everywhere, but new white-skirted figures quickly appeared to fill the gaps.

"Your Majesty, please don't look at me like that. They were originally children of the Sacred Tree, so what's wrong with them returning to the roots of the Sacred Tree?" Esta said calmly.

"You killed them." Amber's voice trembled.

"I returned their names to the sacred tree," Esta corrected. "The bodies of the elven royalty will decay, but their names will remain in the sacred tree. As long as these names remain, the sacred tree will continue to nurture the royal family when it awakens."

Her eyes lit up: "So I spent hundreds of years removing tens of thousands of names one by one."

"With each name plucked, the Sacred Tree will sense something. When the last name is cast into the roots of the Gray Domain Life Tree, the Sacred Tree will awaken."

Chu Sheng's expression also changed: "The sacred tree has awakened, and then what?"

"Then it will discover that it no longer has the name of the elven royal family to call upon." Estelle pointed towards the direction of the Gray Domain, "But the Gray Domain still exists."

"The Grey Elves' Tree of Life is rooted in the Sacred Tree Forest. Without royalty, without those golden-haired, white-skinned, and aloof people, the Grey Elves are the race closest to the Sacred Tree."

"Once the old royal family disappears, the gray elves will naturally become the new elven royal family."

Her eyes burned with intensity: "Do you understand?"

"I don't understand, you figure it out yourself." Chu Sheng sneered. "All I know is that those gray elves in the Gray Domain are way more normal than you."

These words struck a nerve with Estelle, and the smile on her face vanished: "They're the ones who's abnormal."

"When I returned with the spell, they should have been overjoyed, they should have knelt down to thank me for my grace!"

"I told them that I had found a way for grey elves to have the bodies of elven royalty, white skin, golden hair, long lifespans, and even greater magical talent."

"I even performed the spell on myself first." She raised her hand to brush her cheek, her tone tinged with grievance, "I became someone they could never have dreamed of."

"But they looked at me like I was a monster!"

"My grandmother asked me why I dug up my life tree."

"My people asked me why I insisted on becoming an elven royalty."

"They even asked me what was wrong with grey elves."

She gritted her teeth: "What's wrong with it?"

"Of course nothing is good!!!"

"The treehouses in the Gray Zone are damp and cold, and they smell of poverty. They could have had better things, they could have stood in the royal court, and they could have been looked up to by everyone."

"But they refused!"

"How dare they refuse me, refuse the sacred tree, refuse nobility!"

Chu Sheng recalled the smug look on Yin Ye's face when she talked about the meat jerky recipe, and suddenly felt an urge to pin this crazy woman to the ground and give her a good beating.

"So you're planning to decide for them?"

"They just haven't seen the light of day in a long time," Esta whispered. "And I will help them see it."

Amber said coldly, "You just want everyone to admit that your choice back then wasn't wrong."

"I did nothing wrong," Estelle said, emphasizing each word. "You're the ones who are wrong!"

"The ones in the wrong are those royal elves who occupy the sacred tree but do nothing!"

"The ones who are wrong are those gray elves who would rather stay in the dirt than climb out!"

"The problem lies with this sacred forest that forces gray to remain gray forever, and white to remain white forever!"

"The problem isn't me, it's the world!!!"

She was trembling by the end.

At that moment, another loud noise came from deep within the sacred tree.

"Buzz—!!!"

This time, the roots of everything in the royal court lit up. Countless tiny green lights rose from the ground, drifting like fireflies into the depths of the forest. As these lights passed by the white-skirted elves, they all lowered their heads, and cracks appeared on their bodies.

Amber's face turned pale: "The Sacred Tree is collecting names."

Estella smiled.

"Yes, it's counting its children." She opened her arms, her voice filled with sweet satisfaction. "Then it will find that there aren't any left."

Chu Sheng gritted his teeth: "You've included yourself in this? Don't forget, you used forbidden magic to turn yourself into a royal elf!"

Estella slowly looked at Chu Sheng.

Chu Sheng roared, "You went through all that trouble, changing your face, killing people, and stealing names, only to have the Holy Tree awaken to find the Elven royal family gone. And what about you? What are you anyway?"

Estella looked down at her hands.

On that hand, a small crack appeared in the fair skin, revealing gray underneath, but she casually smoothed it out.

Chu Sheng's heart skipped a beat; this crazy woman's mind wasn't working properly. She had calculated everything, but forgotten about herself.

But why does she seem so nonchalant?

The Sacred Tree had already begun taking stock of the names that had disappeared due to death, and Estella, whom she had replaced, was among those names!

Amber saw it too, and her gaze turned complicated as she looked at Esther.

"What's your name?"

Estella looked up: "My name is Estella."

That's not your name.

Estella fell silent.

The sacred tree's voice continued, and one after another, the white-skirted elves cracked open, grime flowing from the fissures. She stood amidst the collapsing false elves, the hem of her platinum-white dress stained with mud.

She suddenly smiled, but it looked rather awkward.

"Chinaberry." She paused for a moment. "My life tree is a Chinaberry."

Amber's pupils trembled slightly: "The bitter chinaberry... was the year the spiny lizards invaded the village in the north of the Gray Domain."

The chinaberry tree slowly raised its head, its eyes taking on a strange look, like a child whose name had been called by the teacher: "You remember?"

Amber did not answer.

Many years ago, it was raining in the north of the Gray Zone.

A wounded and enraged sixth-tier magical beast, the Spinyback Lizard, stormed into the gray elf village, crashing into a treehouse. The gray elves scattered and fled, and a small, thin girl was trapped under broken wood, clutching a chinaberry branch in her arms.

Amber severed the monster's neck gracefully and pulled the child from under the broken wood.

The child, covered in mud, grabbed Amber's sleeve and asked, "Can I become like you?"

Amber remembers touching her head at the time, but what did she say?

She remembered.

She said, "The chinaberry flowers can also bloom beautifully."

It was just a comforting remark to a child, but it ended up growing into a morbidly large tree that no one could cut down.

Ku Lian looked at Amber, her eyes gradually reddening: "I've remembered this for many years."

She whispered, "I wrote that sentence on the first page of every magic book. I thought that when I become a true elven royalty, when I stand beside you, you will know that the child from the Gray Zone has not let you down."

Amber's lips trembled slightly: "When I saved you back then, I only hoped you would live."

The expression on Kuli's face gradually turned cold: "But I don't want to just live on."

Deep within the Sacred Tree Forest, the final loud bang finally resounded. The Sacred Tree had completed its inventory and discovered that it had only one child left.

Amber Wen.

"Buzz—!!!"

All the white-dressed fairies beside the bitter chinaberry were reduced to mud, but she alone remained standing there for some unknown reason.

She stood amidst the gray mud and white dress, raised her head, and revealed that perfect smile once more.

"Your Majesty, look."

"I've finally come to you."

After she finished speaking, her body shattered, turned into mud, and she died.