'The giant tree... or perhaps a human face, might be a product born from the remnants of the Ancient Tree of Life.'
Almost immediately, Colin had this suspicion.
The branch-shaped emerald glow hidden under the dark red burl should be the real Ancient Tree of Life, a fragment of her.
'And the giant tree, no, the consciousness born from the branch itself, seems particularly fearful of the polluted wind!'
Next, Colin concluded a second piece of information.
He slowly stood up, staring at the majestic cave wall behind him, then walked through the illusion again into the cave.
Inside the cave, like the outside world, calm had been restored.
The grandiose tree was silent, and the human face was nowhere to be seen... but a pervasive aura let Colin know that the human face was still alive, seemingly unharmed, probably just sunk into the trunk to rest.
The brown branch bearing Nasi had also risen again, presumably, Nasi, with her extraordinary resistance to the Dark Red Wind, was also unscathed.
"Tree—" just then, the enormous human face suddenly appeared and stared at Colin, asking slowly,
"Has there been any movement in the kingdom over these past seven days?"
"No, esteemed Anilasa," Colin replied, his expression unchanged, bowing slightly.
After seven days of reading, with the combined enhancements of the Spiritual Light crown and Superbrain, he could now articulate one or two sentences.
"Has the Tree Elf returned?" the enormous face asked slowly.
Colin shook his head.
"Sixty years have passed in the blink of an eye... I still vividly remember those traitors!" the enormous face muttered under its breath, every word seemed to be squeezed through the gaps in its teeth, "If it weren't for them constantly acting like wizards exploring so-called knowledge and truth! This vast Elf Kingdom would not have been destroyed overnight!"
"Alright, you may leave now, wait a few days until I replace the body for the Flower Elf, then you can come back and guard by my side," the enormous face shifted its gaze back to him, saying slowly,
"High Level Elves are essentially extinct, and the three kings are already dead... Tree, as long as you guard me diligently for a hundred years, once I recover, the king of the new Elf Clan might well be you!"
Colin remained silent, not saying more, bowed, and retired.
Only when he had passed through the illusion did his expression suddenly darken.
'In a few days, it will be time to replace Nasi's body... and this Elf Kingdom, was it really because the Tree Elves pursued knowledge too extensively that it ended up like this? And the High-Level Elves from legend are almost extinct?'
Colin's thoughts churned endlessly as he sat cross-legged next to the Emerald Throne, flipping through the remaining books in his mind.
Now was not the time to dwell on these matters; what he needed more was to find a way to deal with the Ancient Tree.
This time, Colin chose to read the books in reverse order, starting from the highest layer and moving downward.
The past seven days of reading had revealed that the books storing memories in the stone tree were arranged in chronological order.
The bottom layer contained the oldest memories.
He had originally planned to read all the books in chronological order thoroughly, partly for ease of understanding and partly to avoid missing anything.
But now, perhaps reading in reverse order was a better choice.
Thus, a day quietly passed.
Colin stood up next to the Emerald Throne, his face showing some disappointment.
The top few layers of the stone tree, due to the overly strong protective measures on the bookshelves, were unbreakable, not only when he and Lillian had tried together but now even impossible alone.
Thus, the memories recorded therein remained unknown to him.
The most recent memory from the books now seemed to be almost eighty years ago...
Colin sighed, sat down again, and continued to look through the remaining recorded memories.
The Elf Kingdom was already abandoned; besides Colin and the giant tree and small elves in the cave, there were no other living beings.
The sky was a constantly deep purple layer, the ground eternally dark red... time seemed to have stopped here.
Thus, another five days quickly passed.
On this day, Colin finished reading all the books recorded in his mind.
Amidst the jumble of information, he finally found a spark of Spiritual Light!
It was a record of the three Elf kings hosting a banquet for a team of Wizards from the Nolan Continent in the Treasure Vault.
"During the golden autumn, the three kings held a banquet in the Treasure Vault for the Wizard Team from the Nolan Continent, before the banquet, the Wizard Team presented a Queen a peculiar Crystal Ball, the Queen selected three wizards to choose treasures from the Treasure Vault, the wizards were delighted with the treasures, then the Queen and the Wizard Team together met Anilasa, the Wizard Team was awestruck by the grandeur of Anilasa, rendered speechless..."
Colin silently repeated this passage in his mind, firmly resolved... just waiting for the next round of the Dark Red Wind, which was the perfect time to attempt!
With this in mind, he again stepped into the illusion, ready to check the situation in the cave.
These days, he had been entering the cave quietly almost every half-day, observing the giant tree and Nasi's condition.
However, this time, as he crossed the illusion, his expression suddenly changed.
The human face on the giant tree had already awoken and was now holding Nasi up to its eyes, seemingly about to start replacing her body!
Compared to more than ten days before, Colin had a much clearer understanding of what the enormous face meant by replacing a body.
This so-called replacement of the body was clearly to kill Nasi!