Chapter 535: What Year Is Today?(2)

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

In that frozen wilderness, there was no concept of day or night. The sun never stopped shining, bathing the glaciers and snow in its eternal light. This created an expansive and dazzling white world that could momentarily overwhelm and mesmerize anyone who beheld it.

“Lord, do you think they’ll come back?” Anina asked with boredom, using her large sword to scrape the snow on the ground.

Ji Chen smiled and, to be honest, he didn’t know either. However, in order to make them let down their guard, he had no choice but to do this.

After about half a day, when he was beginning to doubt if the elves would return, more than ten figures appeared in the distance, striding briskly toward them.

It was the same group of elves as before, with Arlin taking the lead. She glanced at Ji Chen with a cautious expression.

“Elder said 1 should take you to the village, but you can only bring ten guards with you.”

Ji Chen nodded with a smile. “Of course.”

Seeing him agree so readily, Arlin also breathed a sigh of relief and lowered her guard even more.

She nodded and said, “Then please follow us.”

Following those words, Arlin proceeded to take the lead. She moved with purpose, and a strand of hair peeked out from beneath her hood, gently swaying in the cold breeze, adding a touch of heroism to her demeanor.

They followed Arlin and her group of elves across the frozen wilderness. They seemed to move east and west at random intervals, and Ji Chen had no idea how these elves were navigating on the uniform ice field. If it were up to him, he would have gotten lost by now.

After traveling for about thirty to forty miles, they arrived at a bare, brown rocky beach.

Arlin led the way to a seemingly ordinary rock, and with a slight golden glow from her hands, she pushed the rock aside effortlessly, revealing an irregular hole below, from which a faint flicker of firelight emanated.

Ji Chen was quite surprised. If the elves hadn’t pushed it open, he wouldn’t have known that there was a hole hidden there.

After Arlin pushed the rock aside, she turned to Ji Chen and said, “Please leave your army outside, and you can bring in a maximum of ten guards.”

Ji Chen nodded. There was no need to hesitate about this.

“Benbo, you’ll stay outside with the army.”

“Herald and Anina, the two of you will come with me.”

After that, he looked at Arlin and said, “We’re ready.”

Seeing that he only brought two guards, Arlin was somewhat surprised, but she didn’t say anything. She simply nodded and then jumped into the hole. When the other elves followed suit, Ji Chen also led his two heroes and jumped down.

As they all entered, the rock above slowly returned to its place, blocking out the sunlight. After a brief moment of darkness, the surroundings gradually brightened up again. Inside the cave, there was a man-made passage about two people wide, with torches hanging on both sides of the stone walls at regular intervals.

Arlin and the other elves didn’t say much. They just led the way with their heads down. After walking a few hundred meters in the slightly dim passage, they passed through an exit bathed in white light and arrived in a tranquil and beautiful valley.

It was as if they had stumbled upon a hidden paradise, warm as spring, with flowers and grasses blooming across the ground. Tall trees stood in the valley, and on their trunks were various treehouses, not as grand as those in the main world of the elves but still exquisitely beautiful.

Waterfalls, like white ribbons, hung from the cliffs surrounding the valley, converging into streams on the ground, nourishing the land on both sides of the river.

Ji Chen was amazed by the beautiful scene before him.

He hadn’t expected to find such a vibrant valley here, so different from the lifeless ice field outside.

“Please follow me. Elder Marianne is waiting for you.”

Arlin’s voice woke him from his reverie. Ji Chen nodded and followed behind her, arriving at a massive and sturdy tree. The trunk of this tree seemed to have been hollowed out, and inside was a chamber set up like a meeting room.

About a dozen elderly elves sat on either side of a wooden table, with the foremost one standing up. Presumably, this was Elder Marianne. She smiled kindly and said, “Welcome to the Vale, Lord Ji Chen.”

“Good day, Lady Marianne,” Ji Chen replied with a slight bow, performing the elven courtesy.

This gesture immediately earned him the goodwill of the elders present, and their expressions softened considerably.

Regardless of the purpose of his visit, his polite manners already indicated a friendly attitude, far superior to the savage orcs who were known for their brutality.

Marianne looked at the extraordinary-looking human before her and asked curiously, “Lord Ji Chen, I heard from Arlin that you come from the main world. How is the situation outside now?”

Ji Chen was about to respond to the first part of her question when he heard the second part and froze.

“…Lady Marianne, do you mean…?”

“Of course, I’m referring to the war between our Orderly God faction and the Barbaric God faction’s barbarian races. Which side has won? Or is the battle still ongoing?

Although it’s been a long time since those battles, our power has waned considerably, but we’re still here, fighting against the remnants of the barbaric believers.

However, since this realm is disconnected from the main world, we have no way of knowing what’s happening outside. You’re the first human I’ve encountered from the outside world in all these years,” Elder Marianne explained.

Ji Chen seemed a bit dazed at the moment, and it took him a while to come to his senses. He seemed to have realized something, and his expression turned somewhat peculiar..