Chapter 669 - 667: The Dangers of Night

"You heard what the clerk said earlier, right, Phil?"

"Mm, what’s the matter?"

The silver-haired girl tilted her head, her red eyes blinking with some confusion.

When there were no outsiders, Phil reverted to his original form. Although Hilia thought this increased the risk of exposure, considering Phil’s disguise was mostly superficial and would be easily exposed upon closer contact, she said nothing.

"She said that the Elf Royal City is dangerous at night and told us not to go out. This is a great opportunity to investigate and see where the Divine Relic is located."

"Okay."

Phil nodded.

"Let’s arrange a time, take a rest for now... By the way, want to take a walk later?"

"We’ll talk about it later; I’ll try to find the location of the relic first."

"Okay."

After bidding Phil farewell, Hilia returned to her room, preparing to meditate when a notification from her bracelet interrupted her. She opened it to find a message from Elina.

The other party responded to Hilia’s message and inquired about what had happened to Hilia.

Hilia contemplated without telling her that she had arrived at the Elf Royal City. She was still hesitating, pondering whether to directly ask Elina about the "Flower of Life."

While thinking, Elina directly called.

Upon connecting, Elina’s projection appeared and immediately asked, "Hilia, did something happen?"

"Ahem, it’s nothing much." Hilia hesitated for a moment and decided to ask directly, "I just wanted to confirm something—Elina, do you know the ’Flower of Life’?"

"Flower of Life?" Elina showed a puzzled expression. "What is that? If it’s the Flower of Life, I know it, but that’s not what you mean, is it?"

"No."

The Flower of Life is a high-grade Spiritual Object similar to the Star of Ice, and it’s considered a super-rare material.

"Though I don’t know what the ’Flower of Life’ is, I can help you look for it." Elina offered.

"No, don’t mention the ’Flower of Life’ casually to others. It might not be a good thing and could lead to others having different ideas about you."

"Hm? Okay then."

"How have things been lately?" Hilia chose to change the subject.

"Things have been somewhat terrible..."

Elina updated Hilia on the latest developments, withholding some secrets involving the Elf Royal Court, but she didn’t shy away from discussing the situation.

Besides leading demons, other major events occurring within the Elf Race include relocating citizens and Phoenix’s covert involvement.

Phoenix Kingdom’s people entered not secretly but also not openly, choosing instead to negotiate with the Elf Royal Court and reach an agreement.

The content of the agreement was unknown to Elina; she only knew that people from Phoenix Kingdom had joined the demon extermination effort.

At the same time, the Elf Royal Court’s troops exhibited some strange movements, but Elina also didn’t know what they were doing precisely.

She now found it harder to gain the Elf King’s trust than before and rarely received core information.

After learning this information, Hilia chatted with Elina about some other topics before disconnecting the communication.

As Elina’s projection vanished, Hilia slowly sank into contemplation.

"Elina doesn’t seem to be the one they mentioned, the chosen one?"

"Or rather, the one to give birth to the ’Flower of Life’, perhaps she doesn’t know she’s been chosen?"

After pondering for a long time, Hilia sighed.

"Still can’t make a judgment, well, I’ll wait until evening."

As time slowly passed, before nightfall, Hilia and Phil went out to stroll around the current Elf Royal City, experiencing the atmosphere of this now extraordinarily desolate city.

At dusk, the duo returned to the inn and were reminded once more not to go out casually at night, mentioning that they would close the doors after nightfall.

Hilia and Phil shared a knowing smile.

Afterward, they pretended to obediently return to their room, waiting for the night and the so-called looming danger.

Before long, the sky turned dim, and the Elf Royal City lit up with brilliant colors.

All the plants began to glow, enveloping the entire city in a dreamlike scenery.

At this time, the streets outside were usually bustling with people, but now it was eerily quiet, occasionally spotting only passing patrol units.

And those passing patrol units held large loudspeakers, announcing for everyone to hurry back indoors.

"They’re telling everyone to go back without explaining why. Don’t they fear someone with a strong sense of curiosity will come out secretly?" Phil looked out, feeling a bit puzzled.

Hilia said, "Surely there would be someone curious enough, like us."

"Mm, true."

After waiting a while without seeing anything happening outside, Hilia glanced at Phil, who happened to look at her, and the two shared a tacit understanding. They employed a small trick to unlock the Array node of the entire treehouse and slipped out quietly from the window.

"Seems like nothing’s happening," Phil said.

Hilia gazed into the distance, "Perhaps because we are too strong. Let’s go, I see someone else curious enough to come out; let’s go and see if something happened to them."

"Alright." Phil didn’t refuse.

But unlike Hilia’s intent to enjoy the situation, she considered helping if anything went wrong.

The two quickly reached above the area where the curious person had sneaked out, perched atop a large tree, observing the figure below behaving stealthily.

It was a human; it’s unclear which kingdom he hailed from, and his ability was that of a Tier One Mage.

After cautiously avoiding the patrol units, he chuckled to himself, "Nighttime in the Elf Royal City is dangerous? Don’t think I don’t know what you’re planning; such a great opportunity shouldn’t be wasted."

Phil furrowed her brow, "What’s he talking about? What’s he planning?"

Hilia chuckled, "Who knows, but it can’t be anything good."

The two quietly followed him from the skies, remaining unnoticed by the man.

Soon, the man carried out new actions.

He stood outside a shop, first alertly surveying the surroundings, and once confirming there was no one around, he knocked on the door.

Obviously, the closed shop wasn’t going to open up.

Feeling relieved, he took out a... key?

Hilia and Phil exchanged glances, already roughly guessing what he intended to do.

Incidentally, this shop sold low-grade materials and ordinary valuable items.

"So, he’s a thief."

"But how does he have the shop’s key?"

"That key isn’t an ordinary key. It’s a breaker that can temporarily disable Array nodes." Hilia explained, "Every tree of the Elf Royal City is a node; opening and closing doors need to operate within the nodes."

"I see..."

Phil was halfway through her sentence when she suddenly stopped and looked into the distance.

In the distance, a pollution wave rushed forth like a massive tidal surge.