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nOver the next few days, news of demons attacking their patrols in the mountains spread continuously among the elves.

nAt first, the elves did not pay much attention to it. After all, their entire territory was now being invaded by demons. Although they had successfully eliminated Xeron and his troops, there were two more high-rank demons like him. One was Ignatius, and the other was Rashka. Now, the elves were placing their attention on these two demons, especially Ignatius’s troops. He had already received news of Xeron’s defeat, so he was intensifying his attacks on the elves. Ignatius’s troops had too many high-level demons. The elves and Ignatius had fought over the past few days, but neither of them had gotten an advantage. The elves were too busy dealing with Ignatius, so they had not taken the attacks on the patrols seriously.

nHowever, they still strengthened their patrols by increasing their size from the original twenty to forty. Any more was impossible. The elves did not have that many troops. These patrols not only investigated intelligence everywhere, but they also attacked the invaders as their mission objective.

nBut something strange happened. Even after increasing their guard, the patrol teams still failed to return.

nOut of more than a dozen units, there would always be at least one or two units that would not return. There was not even any news. After a while, the elves finally became vigilant. They thought that there might be another demon army attempting to break the encirclement and support Ignatius’s and Rashka’s demon armies.

nTherefore, the elves had to send a hero to lead a team in an attempt to find this demon army and think of ways to defeat it.

nThe leader was a druid hero. However, after he led the troops out, he discovered that this demon army had suddenly disappeared without a trace.

nIn fact, when they found the locations of where the patrols went missing, they discovered that the positions were all over the place. There was no pattern to it, and it was impossible to deduce the enemy’s movements through these places.

nMoreover, judging from the battle traces at these places, they seemed to have encountered a sudden attack in an instant. The corpses of the soldiers left at the scenes were also very strange. Their expressions looked terrified, and their bones had been broken inch by inch, almost to the extent of being smashed. Many corpses were deformed beyond recognition.

nEven their weapons were the same. Much less the wooden bows and arrows, even the hammers the dwarves used were distorted into appalling states.

nHe could not imagine what had happened to these patrol soldiers, but he was certain that the enemy was terrifying!

nThe druid hero asked the forest in hopes of receiving guidance. However, even these trees did not understand the enemy’s situation and could not tell where the enemy was going.

nFinally, without any other choice, the elves could only shrink their forces and reduce the frequency of the patrols’ scouting. Even when they needed intelligence, they combined the patrols, increased the number of troops, and added high-level soldiers to them. Some silver pegasus knights and unicorns joined the patrol team as well.

n…

nIn the sky, Roy looked down and saw an elven patrol on the ground. When he found that there were a lot of high-level soldiers in it, he could not help but sigh, knowing that the way he had attacked these patrols to obtain souls was likely coming to an end.

nWith Roy’s current strength, Roy was not afraid of silver pegasus knights and unicorns one-on-one. However, Roy would be unable to deal with them if dozens of silver pegasus knights and unicorns surrounded him. Although it was impossible for them to catch Roy with his Flash skill, if he could not completely eliminate these patrol troops, the elves would know about his situation. They would think of the demon that appeared on the battlefield where Xeron was killed and might send dragons to deal with him.

nTherefore, Roy could only give up hunting for the time being. However, he had attacked many patrols during this time and obtained quite a number of souls, and it should be enough to make a beacon.

nMost importantly, he had developed one of the Dark-Dark Fruit abilities—Black Hole!

nAfter he spread out the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit and released darkness on the ground around him, the darkness would drag in anything within this range. After pulling things in, the powerful gravity in the darkness would compress and crush them. If he did not have the strength to resist this force, he would have become like the elven patrol soldiers, crushed until every inch was broken.

nRoy had carried out his ambushes on the patrols by diving down directly into their formation and immediately opening Black Hole to suck them in. This raiding method prevented the patrol teams from even releasing their carrier pigeons. After the soldiers died, Roy released their corpses from Black Hole and harvested their souls.

nIn this way, even the forest could not find his trail…

nHowever, Roy was not with a demon army after all. Facing so many enemies, he could only stop his actions temporarily.

nRoy waved at Fat Tiger, who also had his wings spread beside him, and carried Fat Tiger away with him.

nRoy flew quite a distance while carrying Fat Tiger before finding a place to land. It was still within the forest, but there was no other choice. Fortunately, it was far from the battlefield, so Roy felt it would be fine.

nAfter stopping, Roy brought Fat Tiger to a big, thick tree to rest. This tree looked very old, but it was still lush. It had to be said that the elves protected the plants in their territory well.

nFat Tiger ran out to hunt wild boars. His favorite food recently was wild boars. There were many wild boars in this forest, so Fat Tiger seldom returned empty-handed.

nRoy leaned against the trunk of the big tree and opened the system interface to prepare to make the beacon.

nIn total, he had hunted tens of patrol teams and obtained almost four hundred souls. According to Roy’s calculations, if the beacon did not possess the ability to open a teleportation gate but simply sent a signal of its position to Roy, he should have enough.

nOnly, what should a beacon be like?

nBefore Roy could decide, he suddenly found the ground trembling!

nAt first, Roy thought that it was an earthquake, but he soon realized that the trembling came from the big tree he was leaning against.

nRoy immediately jumped up and turned around to defend himself because he knew that the elves had dendroid guards, and any tree could become an enemy.

nHowever, what Roy did not expect was for the big tree to slowly form a human face on its thick trunk. With the wrinkly bark, this face looked especially old.

n“Someone came again…” The ancient tree slowly looked at Roy. “Oh, I didn’t expect it to be a demon…”

nRoy did not say anything and merely looked at the tree with caution.

nAfter finishing speaking, the old tree remained silent for a while before saying, “Okay, it doesn’t matter if it’s a demon. The inheritance of knowledge is great and should have no racial distinctions… So, demon, what do you want to ask me?”

nSeeing the anticipation on the ancient tree’s face, without any intention of attacking, Roy could not help but relax and ask curiously, “Who are you? Or what are you?”

n“Me?” the ancient tree replied, “I don’t know who I am… I have no name, but I’m a Sylanna’s Ancient! Don’t you know?”

n“S-Sylanna’s Ancient?!” Roy was shocked as well. He did not expect to meet a Sylanna’s Ancient!

nIn the game, a Sylanna’s Ancient could allow visiting heroes to level up, but here was the real world, so he did not know what function this Sylanna’s Ancient had. He asked, “You said I could ask you a question?”

n“Yes, I am a Sylanna’s Ancient, the tree that lives the longest. Over the years, I have come to know many things!” the ancient tree said in an old voice. “Any traveler who passes by likes to seek help from me. They hope to use my knowledge to help them solve the doubts in their hearts. In return, they will chat with me about some of their journeys so that I can absorb fresh knowledge… Ah, in my long life, I have also encountered other demons like you, and they have spoken of the world they live in—the Abyss! I am also curious about your world…”

n“Any question?” Roy asked.

n“Yes. As long as it’s something I know, I will tell you!” said the Sylanna’s Ancient. “I just hope you aren’t like the demons I encountered before. After asking me, they always wanted to kill me…”

n“But since you still exist, it means those demons didn’t succeed,” Roy said.

n“Of course, knowledge is power!” the Sylanna’s Ancient said proudly. “Those stupid demons don’t seem to know this.”

nAlthough he was mocked by the Sylanna’s Ancient, Roy did not care. He only needed to know that this ancient tree seemed to be very powerful.

n“Come, ask me a question!” the Sylanna’s Ancient said in anticipation. “Similarly, I’m looking forward to the experiences you’ve had on your journey.”

nWhat should I ask? Roy pondered when a thought came to mind. Perhaps I can use this Sylanna’s Ancient…

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