Volume 3: Artifacts Chapter 71: The Headhunters and the Emerald Court
The clear sky was ahead, the air currents swept across her ice crystal wings, and the water vapor condensed into ice flowers, drawing two white snow lines on the wing tips. To the south, beyond the busy sea route of Nutao City, was the empty and boundless deep sea.
This trip to the Emerald Forest was a spur of the moment decision, because I received a letter from Dale yesterday evening.
Ever since she knew about the existence of the Magic Spring, Dale has been looking for the trace of the Magic Spring. For this purpose, she has gone deep into the Emerald Forest to investigate many times.
During a recent investigation, Dale discovered a very strange creature. It looks like a snail, but it is very large, and the snail shell on its back is like a small house. It wanders in the forest, and its strength can easily push down a towering tree and swallow it up in a few minutes.
After Dai'er discovered the giant snail, she observed it from the side for a month.
The giant snail's range of activity is to move in a clockwise spiral from a circle, clearing away all the trees and shrubs it encounters, while lush green grass quickly grows wherever it passes. Once the giant snail has created a territory with a diameter of about 200 meters, it will circle back to the center of the circle.
Then a lot of little people will appear in the grass.
This is how Dai Er describes the villain:
They were less than knee-high, wearing clothes woven from grass leaves and holding "spears" made of sticks and sharp stones. They spent most of their time hiding in spiral grass, and the dense grass that was taller than them was the best hiding place.
Sometimes the little people go out hunting. They are all superb hunters and can easily kill small animals such as mice. But the little people are still too weak for the Emerald Forest, which is full of various large beasts and extraordinary creatures.
I saw them trying to kill a python, but it was too big for them.
After the python swallowed one of the little people, the other little people ran back to the spiral grass in panic. At that time, I was hiding in a big tree outside the grass, and I saw these little people surrounding the giant snail... I don’t know whether I should continue to call it a giant snail, because it has not moved since it returned to the center of the circle, and from a distance, the snail shell seems to be empty.
The little people sang and danced around the giant snail, as if they were performing some kind of sacrificial ritual.
Then the next day I saw a special guy among the villains. He was extremely agile, like a nimble squirrel, wearing simple bone armor and a very sharp bone knife as a weapon.
This special guy followed the group of villains and found the python they encountered yesterday. Soon, the python that the group of villains couldn't deal with was killed by that special guy.
Two days later, the little man who went out hunting encountered a forest wolf. The wolf had some wind-attributed skills and killed the little men, so that even the little man in bone armor could only escape.
The same thing happened again, the little people sang and danced around the giant snail, and the next day they had a wizard.
The lone wolf became their dinner.
In my observation, I found that whenever the villains encountered prey that they couldn't deal with, they would hold a sacrificial ceremony around the giant snail, and the next day, their group would have more powerful companions. There were bone armor villains, wizard villains, and later I also saw cavalry riding badgers and a leaf combination that looked like a giant mantis that could fly.
Finally, I had to end my observation of this strange group because they found me and started to hunt me down. I escaped, but I didn't dare go back to continue observing, fearing that something powerful would be waiting for me the next day.
In the letter, Dale recounted her discoveries in the Emerald Forest and told her natural sciences mentor, Makatina, about her discoveries.
"Professor Makatina was very nervous when she heard my discovery. She went to see the dean of the Emerald Magic Academy, and soon the academy issued a notice to close the school.
The Emerald King's Court blew the summons horn, and the entire forest was filled with elven warriors riding griffins and Pegasus. Many instructors of the Emerald Magic Academy accepted the Elf King's call and went to the Elf King's Court to assemble and wait.
Miss Qingkong, I am a little scared. What kind of horrible thing did I find? "
The giant snail and the mysterious little man discovered by Dai'er were the reasons why Qingkong made a sudden decision to go to the Emerald Forest.
During the ancient war, the Emerald Forest was a vassal civilization of the Dragon Kingdom. The elves learned powerful magic from the dragons and fought for them. During the war, many powerful and famous heroes were born among the elves, and many relics of the ancient war remain in the Emerald Forest.
After the war, the Dragon Nation was unable to take care of itself, and the Emerald Forest became independent from the control of the dragon. When human civilization was rising rapidly, it integrated the civilization brought from overseas to form a branch of human civilization with its own characteristics.
The modern academic system constructed by human civilization was almost completely learned by the Emerald Forest, including archaeology.
Because of the generally long lifespan of elves, forest elves have restored the Emerald Forest from ancient times to a much greater degree than humans.
While excavating the remains of an ancient war, forest elf archaeologists discovered a strange race that could be considered a flash in the pan.
This race was named the Headhunters.
The headhunters are a group similar to an ant colony. The headhunters at the bottom are similar to worker ants, who are responsible for hunting and searching for food; above them are the hunters, who are responsible for hunting prey that the headhunters cannot handle; and above them are the hunters, who are responsible for finding hunting grounds and setting up habitats for the headhunters and hunters.
At the top is the headhunter queen.
The little man that Dai'er saw was the lowest level headhunter of the headhunting tribe. The giant snail was a hunter. The bone armor man, the wizard man, the weasel cavalry, and the leaf mantis were all hunters.
The headhunter queen hides underground.
What Dale saw was just a headhunting camp, which represented that there were more headhunting camps in the entire Emerald Forest. They were connected to the mother nest in an unknown place through tunnels. The headhunters captured prey to feed the headhunting queen, and the queen gave birth to more headhunters, hunters and hunters to expand their territory and kill more prey.
This is expansion without any limits.
When the elves of the ancient times realized that if the headhunters continued to expand, they would kill all living things in the Emerald Forest. So the elves drew troops from the ancient battlefield and fought the headhunters with all their strength. The war was so fierce that the elves even had to ask the dragons for support.
In the end, the Headhunter Queen was hunted down by an elite team of heroes, the Headhunter tribe was destroyed, and the forest elves paid a heavy price for it.
No one knows how the headhunters appeared. They seemed to have suddenly appeared, just like other powerful species that appeared during ancient wars.
This is also the reason why Dai'er discovered the headhunters and made the Emerald Forest so nervous. This time, the Emerald Forest is not a vassal of the Dragon Kingdom, and there is a high probability that it will not receive support from the Dragon Kingdom.
I don’t know how big the headhunters have grown.
"Do you know how the headhunters appeared?"
In the spiritual starry sky, Luke asked Qingkong about the origins of the headhunters.
"Why are you asking me this question? It's as if I know the answer." Qingkong flew around the crescent moon and landed on it. He smiled and said to Luke, "The grassland elves and forest elves are very far away from each other..."
Luke looked at the clear sky and said, "Because your smile betrays you, you must know something."
"Oh, I can't fool you now." Qingkong said helplessly: "The origin of the world is the abyss and the starry sky. When the world system becomes seriously unstable, the influence of the abyss and the starry sky on the world becomes more and more obvious.
Some energy from the abyss and the starry sky will overflow in a tidal manner, inevitably producing some powerful supernatural creatures.
The World Tree is an overflow point, so it can produce tree people, petal elves, and release seeds of hope.
The headhunters were created because a divine power overflow point in the Emerald Forest was too active."
"Magic Fountain!"
"That's right!" Qingkong continued while swinging his legs, "Don't expect me to answer more. I only know the reason why the headhunters appeared. As for what they are, I know as much as you do."
Luke said, "Since the headhunters were created because of the overflow of the magic spring's divine power, does that mean that if we find the magic spring, we can find the headhunter queen?"
"Yes!" Qingkong said in surprise, "Why didn't I think of that? If the Magic Spring hadn't moved on its own initiative, the Headhunting Queen wouldn't have left the Magic Spring.
It looks like I'll have something to do soon! I wonder what kind of hunter the Headhunter Queen will breed for me."
Clear Sky's expectation reminded Luke of his ability to hunt the Queen.
In addition to her strong reproductive power, the Hunting Queen also has another ability, which is to breed hunters specifically to deal with powerful enemies according to the powerful enemies she encounters. Once the hunter completes the hunt, the Hunting Queen will breed more hunters of the same type.
This is the terrifying thing about the headhunters. As long as the hunting queen is there, the headhunters can become stronger as the strength of their enemies increases.
If the forest elves cannot quickly defeat the headhunters, they will most likely be exterminated.
This is also the reason why Luke separated his spiritual sense to control the clear sky and rushed to the Emerald Forest in a hurry.
Seeing that Qingkong was full of fighting spirit, Luke said, "Okay, let's stick to the old rules. I'll take care of the fighting and the rest."
"I just like to watch the clear sky when it belongs to you. It's so charming. I can never learn that cool look."
Luke said with a stern face: "I don't think so... Every time I control Qingkong, I have to remind myself to forget my own and Qingkong's gender. If I can be given another chance to create a character, I will definitely create a tall muscular man."
Qingkong flew close to Luke and said, "You are also facing a tall, muscular man now."
Luke imagined the scene in his mind and instantly realized that he had been tricked by Qingkong again.
"You continue to gain enlightenment here. I still have a long journey ahead of me. Goodbye..."
"goodbye!"
Luke left the spiritual starry sky, and Clear Sky flew back to the moon, merging with it.
The sun that lit up because of Luke's arrival dimmed, and the starry sky covered by the sunlight became even brighter and more dazzling.
After a whole day of flying, the coastline of the Emerald Forest appeared on the sea under the moonlight, and the Emerald Palace was soon in sight.
The Emerald Court is the capital of the Emerald Forest. Its status in the hearts of the forest tribes is equivalent to that of the Moonlight Court in the hearts of the barbarians in the west. The ruler of the Emerald Court is the current Elf King Threeleaf Garret, also known as Garret XVII, or the Threeleaf King.
The Emerald King's Court is divided into two parts. The old city maintains its traditional style. The elves live in tree houses, which are connected by ropeways and suspension bridges made of rattan ropes. However, there are very few elves living in the old city now, and most of them are old elves who can't keep up with the pace of the times.
Young elves like the new city area. There are tall buildings built with antique trees and tree houses, streets with leaf street lights, and corridors connecting tall buildings. It is rich in material resources, convenient in transportation, and has many new things from overseas.
There is also a special area in the new city, the Emerald Port Area. This is the only open entry and exit port in the Emerald Forest, and it is also the only heavy industrial area established by the elves who value environmental protection.
Cars and trams run everywhere in the port area, factory chimneys constantly emit black smoke with sparks. Various ships enter and leave the busy port, and coal-fired steam engines also continuously emit pollutants.
It's not just the forest elves who work in the port area. People from all over the world bring all kinds of bad habits with them, making the port area of the Emerald Court as full of filth and sin as ports in other places.
After arriving at the Emerald Forest, Qingkong didn't want to expose her identity too early, so she chose to take Jennifer and Shelley into the port area, disguising themselves as passengers who had just got off a cruise ship.
The black dragon Bale moved freely. It was too easy for him to find a hiding place in the Emerald Forest.
Jennifer, who is over a hundred years old, is visiting the Emerald Palace for the first time. She is wearing a maid's dress in the old style of the Golden Shield Empire, a puffy hat, and dragging a large suitcase in her hands, her eyes constantly looking around.
He asked Qingkong in confusion, "Ms. Qing..., although there are many elves here, the environment does not look much different from the port of Nutao City. It is even worse than the old port of Nutao City. It is completely different from the elf port ."
Clear sky walked in front.
Shelley followed behind, looking around cautiously, and occasionally showing his gun to those with bad intentions. However, the reputation of the Black Mamba was useless here, and instead attracted a few whistles because of his charming legs.
"Shelley, just follow me normally." Qingkong reminded Shelley, and then explained the difference of the port area to Jennifer, and finally said: "From a sociological perspective, the environment here is the inevitable product of the elves receiving the radiation of human civilization. It brought advanced things, but also inevitably brought bad things.
But the elves have always had clear boundaries for absorbing human civilization. Once you truly enter the Emerald King’s Court, you will see the elf world you want to see.”
