Chapter 671 669: Making Big News Right Under Their Noses?

"Hilia seems... really familiar with this place, huh?"

Following the guidance of the Death Tendril, once they entered what used to be the core stronghold of the Withered Wood Organization, Hilia moved as if she'd been here before, leading Phil smoothly around all sorts of hidden traps inside.

Now, although this place hadn't been abandoned, it was already lacking maintenance. This had been the area dedicated to researching the withered faction's power, but after Rose used Divine Power to make the Holy Tree reclaim all withered power—causing all high-tier withered faction Mages to die—the Elf King gave up on studying withered power.

Until they figured out how "Hilia" had caused all withered power to be reclaimed, the Elf Royal Court likely wouldn't continue training Mages of this special faction.

Even though this faction's power was terrifying, the price to wield it was also enormous. Before they had a "natural enemy," that price was bearable; now that a suspected "natural enemy" in the form of Hilia had appeared, they naturally wouldn't keep researching it.

After all, all high-tier wiped out and all low-tier crippled—this price could hardly be called small.

Thus, this secret area under the Holy Tree gradually fell into disuse.

Perhaps in the future, once the Elf Royal Court recovered from the calamity, they would put this place to use again.

But for now, there was almost no one here.

Following the Death Tendril's guidance, Hilia gradually realized that its direction was clearly pointing straight toward the central area beneath the Holy Tree.

There, Hilia had once witnessed Solais communicating with the Holy Tree and watched the Withered Wood wither completely away.

Back then, she'd only witnessed it like watching a movie; now, she was here in person.

To be honest, looking at the passageway before her, Hilia felt a bit nervous.

"This is my first time here too; I'm just good at seeing through Arrays, that's all."

Hilia answered casually, then continued sensing the Arrays around them to see if there were any other traps.

Phil looked ahead and muttered, "I don't know how much farther we have to go. I heard the pollution on the surface is coming up from at least five thousand meters belowground. Are we really going to just walk down like this step by step?"

"There shouldn't be any passage here that goes that deep. We're almost at the end. Be careful—there might still be Elves active around here."

Phil tilted her head, confused. "We didn't start far from the Holy Tree. Judging from the direction, we should be near the area right under the Holy Tree now. There are still a lot of side tunnels here; it all looks like man-made secret bases, like Magic Laboratories and such. So why, after walking so long, haven't we run into anything?"

Hilia chuckled, "Obviously because of me."

"I see, Hilia's been avoiding all the Elves. I thought this place had been abandoned."

No, this place was indeed temporarily abandoned; the Elf Royal Court just had no time to rebuild it yet.

Hilia thought to herself.

Carefully making their way forward, a short while later the two of them successfully reached the central area.

The place was filled with a Magic Power fluctuation that made people extremely uncomfortable.

Hilia frowned slightly. She felt a faint sense of familiarity from this Magic Power fluctuation, and soon she knew what it was.

It was the withered element.

Phil also sensed this strange element.

An odd expression appeared on her face.

Hilia asked, "Well? How does this special element feel to you?"

"Mm... not much of anything. It feels like the Death Tendril can absorb it."

As she spoke, Phil took out the Death Tendril.

The Death Tendril emitted a faint gray glow, and the surrounding Magic Power slowly grew restless, then surged into the Death Tendril.

As large amounts of Magic Power infused with withered elements poured in, the Death Tendril seemed to start taking root and sprouting.

Phil tossed it into the air; as if it had shaken off restraints, the Death Tendril began frantically absorbing and then spreading outward in all directions.

Vaguely, the Death Tendril was forming the shape of a "door."

The immense surge of Magic Power made everything around them tremble faintly.

The roots of the Holy Tree seemed to undergo some sort of strange change.

Seeing this, Hilia's expression changed.

"We're screwed. With a commotion like this, there's no way the Elf Royal Court up on the Holy Tree won't notice. It won't be long before they send people down. Phil, hurry up and disguise yourself."

Phil nodded. "Okay."

She paused, then touched her cheek. "Wait, aren't we already in disguise?"

"Disguise yourself as an Elf. Now!"

"Huh? Fine..."

Though she had no idea what Hilia was planning, Phil thought it over and decided to listen to her.

A moment later, a beautiful silver-haired Elf appeared in front of Hilia.

Hilia facepalmed.

Apparently Phil really did like white hair.

Muttering to herself, she changed into the appearance of "Miss Xi" as well.

Lately, Elina had often mentioned how much importance "Miss Xi" held within the Elf Royal Court; the Elf King would even specifically check up on her from time to time.

Elina could tell that the Elf King wanted to recruit "Miss Xi," using her to counterbalance Elina so Elina's influence wouldn't grow too great and interfere with the Elf King's plans for her.

Elina's response to this was simply to laugh at him.

The reason Hilia now changed into the Elf form "Xi" was naturally to avoid an immediate all-out fight in case people from the Elf Royal Court barged in.

She didn't know how long the Death Tendril would take to fully condense, but stalling for time was better than nothing.

"Don't talk later. Just follow my lead," Hilia warned Phil.

Phil nodded.

Before long, the fluctuation of Magic could be felt from outside—someone was rushing over in a hurry, not even bothering to conceal their Magic Power.

Hilia didn't need to think to know that these were people from the Elf Royal Court.

After all, this was directly beneath the Holy Tree.

"Hurry, hurry! It's right up ahead!"

"Isn't this the old territory of the Withered Wood? What on earth happened?"

"The Holy Tree isn't about to wither, is it?"

"Shut up!"

"..."

Amidst the voices, a squad of people rushed in from outside.

Hilia looked over.

Hmm, she didn't recognize any of them.

But there was one she knew from documents.

An Elf Elder.

With disturbances happening beneath the Holy Tree, there was no way the Elf Royal Court would only send low-rank Mages; they'd definitely send powerful ones.

No matter what was happening among the Elf Race, there would always be at least one Tier Six Mage stationed at the Holy Tree, and at this moment there certainly wasn't only one—this one had just arrived faster than the others.

The others were also monitoring the situation here; if anything seemed off, they'd rush over immediately.

When the Elf Elder rushed in, he saw Hilia and Phil standing in the underground space.

Around them, some of the Holy Tree's roots were swaying—caused by the wild surge of Magic Power, which had kicked up a wind.

Between the two of them, a "door" was slowly taking shape, a "door" constructed from something like dead tree branches.

The Elf Elder first glanced at the door, then looked at Hilia. His expression first showed shock, then turned to ecstasy.

"Miss Xi, so it was you!"

Hilia wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but she felt that there was a hint of relief in the Elder's tone?