AEKMEM chapter 20

Elves are naturally close to nature and yearn for freedom. Entering the Star Beast Forest, An Qiao felt like a fish in water.

He had originally planned to go to the S-rank assessment area first to hunt S-rank star beasts and obtain star cores. The higher the star beast’s rank, the more abundant its star core energy.

However, after walking a short distance towards the S-rank assessment area according to the map on his terminal, An Qiao heard a scream.

The voice sounded somewhat familiar.

It sounded like Song Leran’s voice.

An Qiao quickly took a few steps in that direction. Even from a distance, he saw a devil vine whip out a tendril and frantically attack Song Leran.

Sensing danger, An Qiao pointed his finger, and a wisp of spiritual energy transformed into an invisible sword that crushed the devil vine’s core.

The devil vine instantly froze, suspended in midair, unable to move, upon being crushed by this spiritual energy.

This occurred despite An Qiao restraining the intensity of his spiritual energy.

With the devil vine no longer attacking, Song Leran, who hadn’t seen An Qiao, seized the opportunity and quickly fled.

An Qiao didn’t care. He hadn’t intended to meet Song Leran in the first place. First, it wouldn’t be wise to reveal his identity now. Secondly, and most importantly, he had his own things to do.

Having expended some mental energy, his face was paler than before, and his tired expression was unmistakable.

His injuries had already begun to heal, but the Demon King’s curse had triggered a relapse, worsening his condition.

He slowly approached the Devil Vine.

An Qiao looked up, slightly annoyed at the Devil Vine.

This was an S-rank Devil Vine.

He wondered how those preparing for the assessment had managed to scout the area beforehand. After all, an S-rank Devil Vine was hidden in this C-rank assessment area!

However, upon further thought, this seemed normal.

There didn’t seem to be any record of devil vines in this world. The Devil’s Vine is adept at concealment and disguise. When it isn’t actively revealing its power, it resembles an ordinary vine, making it difficult to discern its true nature.

Devil’s vines are named for their highly poisonous sap, which is as toxic as a devil’s. However, it is not actually “devilish”; on the contrary, it is remarkably harmless and can remain dormant for eight to ten years without moving, completely devoid of worldly desires.

Of course, this assumes no one touches its leaves.

The Devil’s Vine has a dark, tree trunk-like main trunk and dark, willow-like vines. Because its sap contains a potent toxin, it rarely grows leaves. The leaves on the vine are sparse, dull, and fall off easily. Therefore, the Devil’s Vine cherishes every leaf.

Losing a leaf would be like a bald person losing a clump of hair.

An Qiao looked down and saw a greenish-yellow leaf on the ground.

Perhaps Song Leran had accidentally knocked the leaf off the vine as he passed by, or maybe the leaf had just fallen when he was walking by, incurring the vine’s wrath.

Sensing An Qiao’s displeasure, the vine, frozen in midair, trembled uncontrollably.

The ground suddenly shook, and then…

Stunned, An Qiao watched as the Devil Vine’s underground roots unearthed a small mountain of dazzling energy crystals.

An Qiao: “… ”

An Qiao: “!!!”

He came to the Star Beast Forest to hunt Star Beasts and obtain their cores. He planned to purify the cores and use them to restore his magic power.

But the energy crystal before him contained purer energy than a Star Beast’s core. No purification step was needed. He could absorb it directly, making it perfect for restoring magic power!

**

An Yuchun also participated in the freshman final assessment in the C-level assessment area.

Shortly after landing in the C-level assessment area, the camera on An Yuchun’s personal terminal was accidentally damaged.

After circling around several times without seeing any trace of An Qiao, An Yuchun stopped a passing examinee. “Hello, have you seen An Qiao in this assessment area?”

The answer was, of course, no.

He asked several more passersby, and they all said they hadn’t seen An Qiao either.

“Haven’t seen him? How can you say no one has seen him?!”

A hint of impatience flashed across An Yuchun’s face, and his tone became sharper.

The freshman being questioned wasn’t someone to be trifled with. He sneered. “I see you’re not really concerned about your older brother, An Qiao. You’re just trying to find him to hurt him. You’re probably plotting to harm him, aren’t you?”

An Yuchun’s face stiffened for a moment. Then, he forced a smile and said, “Ha, you’re joking. He’s my older brother; why would I want to harm him? Besides, the An family wants to use him to cultivate a good relationship with His Highness the Crown Prince.”

“Anyway, you know perfectly well what dirty thoughts you have.” The freshman sneered and walked away.

After the freshman left, An Yuchun’s smile vanished abruptly and his face turned ugly.

Damn it, where did that good-for-nothing go?!

This freshman final assessment was a hard-won opportunity. If he missed it, dealing with the heavily protected An Qiao later would be much more difficult.

An Yuchun recalled a text message he had received on his personal terminal the previous night.

It instructed him to go to a certain place and retrieve a bottle that appeared to contain water. The liquid inside was a newly developed substance that could counteract energy shields. Contact with the substance would disable energy shields for a period of time—even a 2S-level shield would be rendered ineffective.

Similar to the previous text message that asked him to reveal An Qiao’s whereabouts, this message appeared suddenly.

Upon seeing it, An Yuchun was overjoyed.

Last time, after he provided An Qiao’s whereabouts, he met his demise. He was assassinated and severely injured at the crucial moment of his awakening. This caused the awakening to fail, leaving him crippled.

And this time—

An Yuchun was certain that the liquid mentioned in the message, which could disable energy shields, would kill An Qiao in the Star Beast Forest.

Without the protection of an energy shield, even if An Qiao pressed the SOS button on his personal terminal to call for backup rescue personnel, he wouldn’t survive until they arrived.

An Yuchun imagined the painful ways An Qiao would die, but he never expected to not find him anywhere in this C-level assessment area.

Suppressing his impatience, he searched for An Qiao, shamelessly asking everyone he encountered if they had seen him.

Finally, his efforts paid off. A passing freshman told him An Qiao’s approximate location.

An Yuchun was ecstatic.

That good-for-nothing An Qiao is doomed this time!

**

After obtaining the mountain of energy crystals from the Devil Vine, An Qiao absorbed their energy without hesitation.

Like a whale swallowing its prey, he absorbed vast amounts of energy from the crystals. His magical aura rose steadily as he grew stronger and stronger.

Soon after, the mountain of energy crystals shattered once the energy was absorbed. An Qiao’s magical power recovered to 25%, which was significantly stronger than the previous 5%.

There were quite a few crystals, but they were low- and mid-grade and lacked the abundant energy of high-grade crystals.

An Qiao waved his hand and a flash of light appeared. The pile of energy crystals on the ground shattered from exhaustion and instantly turned to ashes, leaving no trace.

Holy Light can heal, and it can also annihilate everything.

However, its power was barely passable at this point.

An Qiao frowned slightly, looking dissatisfied.

Suddenly, as if he had thought of something, his icy blue eyes lit up.

Since the Devil Vine had amassed a large collection of energy crystals, might other exotic plants and star beasts in the forest also possess such collections?

Although exotic plants and star beasts cannot absorb energy crystals directly—they are essentially useless to them—some might collect them as a hobby, like the Devil Vine.

After all, energy crystals are shiny and attractive!

The once aloof and disdainful Elf King, who considered anything flashy vulgar, has somehow changed and now finds shiny energy crystals beautiful.

If the elders of the elf race knew, they would be heartbroken. How could their former refined, discerning, and proud Elf King have become like this? As for how to get those exotic plants and star beasts to hand over their energy crystals—

They could violently rob them and force them to hand them over.

Or, as with the Devil Vine, they could be made to “pay tribute” in a “friendly” manner.

After thinking for a moment, An Qiao released the aura of his elven nature that he had been hiding and suppressing.

A powerful, compelling, yet gentle aura descended upon the Star Beast Forest assessment area, encompassing the S-rank and C-rank assessment zones.

At the same time, An Qiao’s hair, which was originally waist-length, slowly grew to knee-length and finally to ankle-length.

A pair of pointed ears, a hallmark of elven beauty, were half-hidden beneath his silver hair. His icy blue eyes grew clearer and deeper. With a casual glance upward, he held a cold, disdainful gaze.

Suddenly, the two “elf detectors” in the Imperial Palace and the Imperial Military, silent for who knows how long, emitted a series of piercing sounds.

These sounds meant that elves had appeared in the Empire!

Pure, genuine elves!

Pure elves were of great significance to the Empire. Therefore, the news was immediately communicated to Emperor Chu Heng and the other military marshals.

Elves had appeared.

Moreover, the elves were detected in the Star Beast Forest.

This was right in or near the area where the freshmen at the Imperial First Military Academy were taking their final assessments.

The Emperor ordered all seven assessment judges, including Chu Heng, to immediately enter the Star Beast Forest and find the newly appearing elf.

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