Theodore protested vehemently, "If you want to go, go ahead. I’m not going, no matter what."

  Sea serpents were deadly, and just look at that head full of hair—how many mouths were there?

  "You don't have to go," Hol Felix said as he poked at the fire and stood up. "I'll ask them."

  "You're going alone?" Luo Wei asked, her concern evident. "Isn't that dangerous?"

  "Liches and the Sea Serpent Cn have no deep-seated grudges. They shouldn't attack me."

  Hol gnced at Theodore, then took his magic wand and slowly walked into the sea.

  Theodore's face was filled with resistance. Don't look at him—he wasn’t going into the water. He hated sea serpents!

  "What if Hol gets captured and doesn’t come back?" Luo Wei muttered to herself, staring at the water's surface.

  If only she had a magic wand, she could cast a high-level Bubble Spell on herself and go down with Hol.

  Theodore squatted nearby and said, "Rex, liches are cunning. The sea serpents won’t be able to outsmart him."

  The two of them tended the fire, occasionally adding some dry wood, their eyes gncing toward the sea.

  After more than an hour, there was finally some movement on the water.

  A pale golden head emerged from the waves and turned toward them, swimming closer.

  "Back so soon? Hol, did you find out anything?" Theodore shouted with a grin.

  Hol gestured at them from afar. Before Luo Wei could understand what he meant, Theodore's eyes widened. "What? What did you bring back with you?!"

  Hol swam a bit to the side, and from beneath the rippling water, another head emerged—a human face of indistinguishable gender, stunningly beautiful, framed by bck serpentine hair.

  Theodore's expression turned as sour as if he'd swallowed a fly. He scrambled up from the sand and scurried behind Luo Wei, kicking up sand as he went.

  "What are you doing, Hol? Are you crazy? Why did you bring it here? If you don’t care about me, fine, but what if it bites Luo Wei to death?!"

  Luo Wei sighed. "…Please don’t use me as an excuse. Thank you."

  Hol waded ashore, followed closely by the sea serpent youth, who swam gracefully with his snake-like tail, not sparing Theodore a single gnce.

  "This is Haisya Gorgon, a siren of the Sea Serpent Cn," Hol introduced the youth to Luo Wei first, then turned to the youth. "This is my friend, Luo Wei. The one hiding back there is Theodore—you two met earlier this morning."

  Haisya's silver irises gleamed darkly as he looked at Luo Wei. "Luo Wei, are you a human from the Misty Pins?"

  Luo Wei gnced at Hol, her eyes questioning.

  "I didn’t tell her," Hol quickly crified.

  "He didn’t need to. I could tell," Haisya said, fixing his gaze on Luo Wei. "You carry the scent of the withered Tree of Life."

  The Tree of Life was a sacred tree granted to the elves by the God of Life. Though Luo Wei had no idea what a withered Tree of Life smelled like, it didn’t stop her from pying along.

  "The withered Tree of Life," she said with a knowing expression. "Have you encountered people from our nds before?"

  "No. Humans have never appeared in this sea region, and we have never gone ashore."

  The delicate serpentine hair danced behind Haisya's head. His voice was deep and resonant, like the sound of waves echoing within a conch shell.

  "But I have seen the Tree of Life. A thousand years ago, an elf gifted a branch of the Tree of Life to our chieftain. That branch has been enshrined in our cavern ever since."

  "Later, the Tree of Life withered, and the elves fell into slumber. I thought there were no intelligent beings left on the Misty Pins."

  "And yet, here I am?" Luo Wei finished with a light ugh. "Thankfully, the God of Life has blessed us, and we have not perished."

  Haisya gave her a strange look. "The God of Life? Hasn’t the God of Life fallen?"

  "What? The God of Life has fallen? When?" Theodore, who had been pying the role of background noise, jumped out in disbelief. "There’s still a statue of the God of Life in the Western Continent's temple. How could He have fallen?"

  Haisya ignored him and turned to Luo Wei and Hol. "You didn’t know?"

  Hol shook his head. "I’ve never heard of such a thing."

  Luo Wei frowned. "Neither have I. We’re followers of the God of Life. If He had fallen, we would have known."

  "Then I don’t know either," Haisya said, tilting his head to gaze at the sky. His silver irises shimmered with a dazzling light. "As far as I know, the God of Life was gravely wounded during the Divine War two thousand years ago. His authority was stolen by other deities, and His godhood scattered across the world."

  "Why don’t I know any of this?" Luo Wei's brows furrowed tightly. "Haisya, can you tell me where you heard all this?"

  "It was told to us by that elf."

  Haisya did not hesitate. "A thousand years ago, we fled here and encountered that elf."

  "Elves are beloved by the God of Life. They are born from the Tree of Life, with long lifespans and beauty like blooming flowers. Even in death, they remain beautiful. But that elf was nothing like the legends."

  "Our chieftain said she was startled at first sight of him because his face was wrinkled like an aging human."

  "That elf told our chieftain that the God of Life's godhood was nearly dissipated, and the Tree of Life was withering from its roots."

  "In search of a way to save the Tree of Life, they broke off parts of its branches and distributed them to various non-believing races, hoping we would become followers of the God of Life."

  "Did you agree?" Luo Wei asked.

  "We did. My ancestors prayed day and night to the branch of the Tree of Life, but it still withered."

  "The branch withering doesn’t necessarily mean the God of Life has fallen," Luo Wei analyzed. "Perhaps the God of Life was simply too weak to sustain the Tree of Life and chose to withdraw His blessing."

  Haisya spoke again, "Then have you ever seen the God of Life’s divine oracle?"

  "What?"

  "After the Tree of Life withered, the God of Life never spoke to His followers again. No oracles, no blessings, even His Blessed Ones lost their divine marks. If He hasn’t fallen, then where is He?"

  Luo Wei was left speechless. In a fsh of inspiration, she suddenly recalled something.

  On the Day of Descent, her sole follower, Nick, had tearfully confessed that his wife, Suzan, hadn’t sacrificed to the Dark God. She had only been praying to the God of Life, hoping He would restore their child’s health.

  If she remembered correctly, Nick and Suzan’s child did recover ter. Was that a coincidence, or had the God of Life truly answered their prayers?

  If the God of Life had truly fallen, did the church know?

  When the Padin Commander mistook her for a descendant of the Stork Angel, he hadn’t shown any signs of surprise—wait, no, there was something unusual. He had given her the urel leaf and ruby neckce.

  Back then, she thought the urel leaf symbolized honor, while Headmaster Morrison believed it represented love. Perhaps they had both misunderstood.