Saul agreed to Penny’s request.
Next, he needed to return to the elves’ settlent and bring over those wizard apprentices behaving strangely.
Saul walked along the red carpet toward the exit. The once black-and-white planet had already vanished.
As he began descending the stairs, he once again closed his eyes.
In his mind, he couldn’t help but recall the massive sinkhole on the backside of the planet.
Could a normal planet really exist in the universe in such a form?
And what did the pure white throne hovering in space an?
Were the elves observing sothing?
The journey back was quick. When Saul entered the fourth floor’s room, he opened his eyes again and sped up, soon returning to the circular hall on the first floor.
Agu was still standing there waiting for him, but the normal staircase from before had completely disappeared.
“What happened?” Saul withdrew his gaze and turned to ask Agu.
“When you entered that twisted staircase, the normal staircase vanished,” Agu replied imdiately.
“Does that an when I make a choice, the other path disappears?” Saul glanced around the ninth hall—there was no trace left to suggest another staircase had ever existed.
He had followed his intuition and the connection with Penny to choose the twisted staircase.
If he had chosen the normal one, what would he have seen?
Would he still have seen a planet with one side normal and the other side a giant abyssal sinkhole?
Would he still have seen that pure white throne?
Saul looked at Agu. “After the staircase disappeared, did you see anything?”
Agu raised his hand from within his large wizard robe. His palm was dripping with blood, and there were two puncture wounds in his hand that went all the way through—Saul could see the robes behind them.
“I found two pieces of Veiled Crystal Essence.”
“Why are you only telling now?” Saul imdiately absorbed the Veiled Crystal Essence into his skin—this kind of item could be lost easily and had to be hidden against the flesh for safekeeping.
“I forgot. I just rembered when you asked.” Agu said it calmly, without guilt.
Saul shook his head helplessly. Soul bodies had far weaker perception of their vessels compared to normal people. Even using such a bloody thod to remind himself of the essence’s presence, it was still easy to forget.
“Since the other staircase has vanished, let’s not waste any more ti here.”
The two of them passed through nine halls with the sa layout again and returned to the first hall of the palace.
“I’m going to bring Kongsha and the others here.” As Saul pushed open the palace gates, the world outside had returned to calm.
Agu followed him out. “Master, how do you plan to proceed?”
“Let’s go back. We’ll talk once we’re back in open space.” Saul looked outside. The terrifying enemies from earlier had all vanished.
The black earth no longer had those huge black tentacles. The distant mountains had returned to their peaceful state.
On the other side, the dense forest was lush and green, and the white humanoid figures standing with their heads bowed had disappeared as well.
“Heh, finished your task, and now all of you just went into hiding?”
Whether it was the eerie humanoids exuding cold air or the massive Soul-Devouring Mire, none were enemies Saul could handle.
But they too seed bound by so power, preventing them from moving freely within the valley.
Otherwise, the wizard apprentices hiding in the elves’ settlent would’ve long since been slaughtered.
“These guys likely share the sa goal as Penny. But Penny… is looking for the aning of existence?” Saul’s eyes flickered, and he beckoned for Agu to follow.
Soon after the two reentered the autumnal elven valley, they ran into Morden and Herman, who had co looking for them.
“Master!” Herman rushed over stiffly, nearly bumping into Saul. He looked Saul up and down and let out a sigh of relief. “Master, you’re alright? Just now, those trees suddenly blocked us from coming over, and then we saw giant tentacles in the distance… but Master, those tentacles looked just like Little Algae’s. Could it be that Little Algae lost control?”
Morden, however, noticed An was missing from Saul’s side and looked toward Agu.
Agu raised a hand and pointed to his head.
Morden understood instantly, his expression growing heavier.
Saul pushed the charging Herman away. “A lot has happened. Let’s talk back ho. This is still elven territory—it’s not safe here.”
They hurried back to the white houses.
There were no trees for a hundred ters around, only ankle-high grass and rows of strange white houses.
And four wizard apprentices with varying expressions.
“You’re still alive? Impossible. I clearly heard the sound of life vanishing.”
Saul’s expression turned cold. “One of my guards did die.”
He looked at the other three approaching.
They moved with a subtle pattern, faintly forming a circle around him.
Saul sneered inwardly, then raised his voice. “Even though soone died, I also discovered a way to escape the Elven Valley!”
The four apprentices imdiately froze. They all turned to look at Saul—so joyful, others suspicious.
Saul’s gaze swept across their faces and finally landed on Kongsha.
Kongsha was smiling at him, seemingly genuinely happy he had returned alive.
“How do we leave the valley?” Monroe asked urgently, stepping forward.
“We need to enter the palace again.”
As soon as Saul said this, everyone’s expressions changed.
It was like opening a dye shop—colorful and varied.
Monroe didn’t expect that answer. He looked like he wanted to say Saul was crazy, but the words got stuck in his throat.
“You entered the palace?” Mark asked, frowning, upon seeing Saul nod. “If you’ve been inside the palace, we can’t be sure of your ntal state anymore.”
After they had been chased out by the palace’s furniture and decorations, so had indeed gone back inside, hoping to find a way out—or negotiate with whatever lived inside.
But every ti they ca back out, they were either dead or insane. Worse, they often attacked their companions.
There was no way to guard against it.
So they began to grow suspicious of everyone around them.
“I can prove it.” Saul suddenly let go of his restraint and released his ntal fluctuations.
As his ntal power swept over each of them, they could all sense Saul’s soul body was perfectly stable.
Of course, after such a wide release of ntal waves, Saul’s soul body inevitably experienced a slight tremor, but the fluctuation was minimal, far from abnormal.
At the sa ti, each person touched by Saul’s ntal wave heard a sentence.
But none of them knew that the others heard it too.
And those four people—whether it was the tense Monroe, the crazed Kasila, the cautious Mark, or the relaxed Kongsha—none showed a single change in expression.
“Just as I thought…” Saul smiled and asked everyone to check his ntal state, while thinking, “None of them are fools.”
To survive in the Elven Valley this long, you might be crazy, but you definitely weren’t stupid.
“Now do you believe I’m sane?”
So glanced around suspiciously, others hesitated, but in the end it was Kongsha who spoke up first.
“Of course. Your ntal state is better than most of us. I believe you haven’t gone mad. So, will you tell us how we can enter the palace without getting torn apart by those white figures?”
Saul replied nonchalantly, “If you can’t even make it into the palace, then die here.”
He spread his hands. “It’s not like I’m really here to save you.”
An eerie silence spread among them, and again, it was Kongsha who broke it.
“Fine, looks like we’ll each have to rely on ourselves. But then, how can you prove that entering the palace will actually get us out of the Elven Valley?”
“That’s easy,” Saul said. “The elves’ treasure was stolen from inside the palace. If we return together, we can bring the thief back—rather than waste ti here guessing who the thief is.”
Mark shook his head. “We’ve thought of that too. But just getting close to the palace triggers an attack. And… how can we be sure that if we bring the thief back, whatever’s in the palace will let us go?”
“Exactly,” Monroe added. “When the thief took the treasure, we were all inside the palace too. Yet he still escaped. The truly innocent ones died inside.”
“You all only wanted to run. Of course you died. But I went all the way to the deepest part of the palace and uncovered its secret.”
“What secret?” Monroe asked excitedly.
“At the top level of the palace, there is a pure white throne. Whoever sits on it gains so control over the Elven Valley!”
Saul looked around at the group, wearing a calm expression and began spewing utter nonsense.
(End of Chapter)
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