parentshiftbook Chapter 67 Died
Chapter 67 Died
The air suddenly became quiet.
Amber walked at the front of the group, her pointed ears twitching as if she had heard something, and she paused slightly.
She turned around and glanced at Chu Sheng.
There seemed to be sorrow in those emerald golden eyes, which were covered with a layer of water.
Chu Sheng opened his mouth, but Amber had already turned around and continued walking towards the sacred tree.
Audrey stood to the side and glanced at Chu Sheng with a complicated look in her eyes, as if to say, "You really are hiding something from us."
Arthur silently moved closer to Chu Sheng's back, pinched the soft flesh of his waist with his fingers, and gave it a light twist.
"hiss--"
Ella looked down at him: "Chu Sheng, were you bitten by bugs?"
Chu Sheng's face turned pale: "Yeah, this bug is way too damn petty."
Arthur twisted it again.
Chu Sheng's eye twitched: "Holy crap, this bug can even launch a second attack."
Ella nodded seriously: "The Sacred Tree Forest is very dangerous."
A name is something people call you by.
Grandmother's words had somehow spread throughout the group. So the grey elves walked and called out as they went, creating a somewhat comical scene, yet also a strange sense of solemnity.
We finally arrived at the sacred tree.
Chu Sheng had subconsciously glimpsed it when the contract with Amber was established.
He knew the sacred tree was large, but he didn't expect it to be this big.
Standing at the foot of the sacred tree, ordinary people are so terrified that they cannot even look up, because its exposed roots alone occupy the entire field of vision.
One tree root was wide enough for more than a dozen carriages to pass side by side. There were deep grooves on the bark of the root, through which green fluorescent light flowed, flashing on and off, as if it were breathing slowly.
The tree trunk stretches upwards, through the mist, through layers of branches and leaves, and finally disappears into the endless heights.
The people from the Gray Area stopped at the end of the tree bridge summoned by Amber, and no one dared to take another step forward.
Amber walked alone toward the sacred tree.
She was originally very tall, and anyone standing in front of her would instinctively look up. But now, standing before the roots of the sacred tree, she appeared extremely small.
Amber removed the crown from her head and placed it under the sacred tree with both hands.
"I brought them back."
The next moment, green light from the sacred tree surged in from all directions, converging in front of Amber. A crack slowly opened in the tree's roots, revealing endless light within.
Amber turned to look at the people of the Gray Domain and said in a low voice, "Please return them to the Sacred Tree."
The first one to walk out was Yinye. She stood next to Amber and lifted up the wet moss in her hands.
"Esta," Silverleaf called out, her name flashing with light, "Esta, come home."
The name slowly rose from the damp moss and hovered in mid-air. Golden light illuminated Silverleaf's face and Amber's eyes.
Amber reached out her hand, probably wanting to touch it, but in the end she withdrew it.
The name flew toward the crack at the base of the sacred tree, and a ray of golden light flowed into the ground along the crack and then rose up along the trunk.
Above the sacred tree, a leaf flashed.
The second grey elf stepped forward, looking down at the name in the bowl: "Celine."
The name lit up, left the wooden bowl, and gently fell into the roots of the sacred tree.
One after another, the gray elves stepped forward.
Ella sat on the ground, the two wooden basins in her arms now empty. She looked down at her hands, seemingly still not used to it.
She looked up and asked Chu Sheng, "Are they asleep?"
Chu Sheng nodded: "Yes, I slept very soundly."
Ella thought for a moment, then asked, "Do you dream?"
Chu Sheng didn't know how to answer, but Amber turned to look at Ella and said, "Yes."
Ella was relieved: "That's good."
The ceremony lasted a long time. The gray-area queue grew shorter and shorter, and with each name taken away, a leaf deep within the canopy lit up. In the end, the upper branches and leaves lit up as one, and the entire sacred tree seemed to be draped in a layer of golden morning dew.
The last to step forward was the grandmother. She held a tiny name tag in her hands, so dimly lit that it was almost invisible.
Yinye recognized it; it was the last name dug out from under the roots of her grandmother's life-giving tree.
Grandmother walked to the roots of the sacred tree, looked up at Amber, and said, "Your Majesty."
Amber bowed in return.
Grandmother held the name tag up high: "I don't recognize this name. Nobody knew it along the way, and it never really shone. I guess she probably went further than the others."
Amber called the name in standard Guring: "Bai Li Da Ma".
The name was not lit up.
Amber called out again, "Bai Li Da Ma!"
It still didn't light up.
"She's too tired, Your Majesty," Grandmother said softly. "Don't wake her, let her sleep."
Amber crouched down and gently placed the name at the base of the sacred tree, but the sacred tree did not take the name.
Bai Lida Ma is dead.
Everyone watched in silence as the name grew dimmer and dimmer until it disappeared completely.
Except for her, all the other names went back.
The Gray Domain people stood before the roots of the Sacred Tree, their hands empty, and for a moment they didn't know what to do.
Amber stood under the sacred tree, pressing her forehead against its roots, her shoulders trembling slightly.
A slender branch from the sacred tree drooped down and landed on her shoulder, gently touching it as if to comfort her.
After a long while, Amber stood up. She put the silver crown back on, turned around, and the wind had dried the tear stains on her face.
"Go home."
The gray zone team slowly turned around.
On the way back, Amber was still walking in front. Her figure was lonely and somewhat dejected.
Chu Sheng watched her retreating figure and followed her.
The phrase "the dust has settled" sounds like an auspicious saying, but the Sacred Tree Royal Court was indeed covered in dust.
The broken vine bridge hung among the branches, fragments of the white dress swayed in the wind, and wisps of white smoke rose from several wooden beams. The cat-people assassins filled puddles of grayish-white residue into sealed ceramic jars and affixed them with seals.
Yinye squatted next to a pottery jar, her face pale.
She has vomited twice since she was told that the fake Esta was a grey elf.
Although they were not the same thing, she still felt physically nauseous looking at the ash and mud on the ground.
"Are you alright?" Chu Sheng stood next to her and handed her a glass of water.
Yinye took the water and drank a sip, her lips still white: "I never want to eat sesame paste again in my life."
Chu Sheng paused for a moment: "You might have another eight hundred years in this life, so don't be too certain."
Yinye looked up and glared at him, her pointed ears drooping listlessly, too exhausted to even curse.
The grey elves of the Grey Realm volunteered to stay and help with the cleaning, so Ambermind settled them in a cluster of undamaged treehouses on the east side of the Royal Court.
Ella has been sent to help move things.
Actually, she had run off with a group of gray elf children. She picked up a large bundle of planks, her tail wagging rapidly, like a civil engineer who had finally infiltrated a construction site.
"Ella is amazing!" she shouted as she carried the load. "Ella can carry ten bundles!"