Chapter 1099, Night Elf

Translator: Silavin

 

With the motion of Little Ling’er’s outstretched hand, the moment that had left everyone dreading the worst finally arrived…

 

The Unicorn King lifted its head, both eyes fixing upon Little Ling’er with an intensity like a warning carved in stone. Those great wings stirred, opening and closing in slow, deliberate beats, and in that instant, everyone present felt a chill sweep across their skin, as though the flat of a razor-edged blade had just grazed them.

 

“This is bad.” The Elf Queen’s expression changed.

 

Unicorns were renowned above all else for their speed, and among their kind were even those who commanded the terrible power of lightning.

 

Even as the Elf Queen, she had always abided by the ancestral code: never show a Unicorn any discourtesy. Not once.

 

The Unicorn standing before them now was the King of the entire Unicorn herd. Should it go berserk, the members of her Race gathered here would be left in a sorry state. Those among them of lower cultivation might only need to be grazed by the edges of its rage to suffer grievous injury, or worse, to find their lives in peril.

 

*Thwap!*

 

While the Elf Queen still hesitated over whether to intervene, Little Ling’er’s figure flickered, and she was at the Unicorn King’s side. That small, impossibly soft hand came to rest upon the creature’s proud and lofty head.

 

In that instant, the Unicorn King, which had held itself in a posture of unmistakable warning, seemed almost unable to believe what was happening. Its entire frame went rigid.

 

For one suspended moment, the whole world seemed to hold its breath. Not a Soul dared to move. Every person present was motionless, hardly daring to breathe. Their bodies were drawn tight as a bowstring, terrified that the Unicorn King might erupt at any second.

 

High above, the circling Unicorns were also stilled. Pair after pair of eyes, all carrying some indescribable expression, turned downward to watch the lone figure of a girl and their King below.

 

“Little horsy, you are so pretty…” Meanwhile, Little Ling’er appeared completely unaware of the charged silence pressing in on all sides. Her hand moved slowly through the Unicorn King’s mane, and from her lips came an unbroken stream of softly murmured admiration.

 

“Wow, this coat, it is even prettier than Xue!” Little Ling’er’s eyes shone as she gazed at the Unicorn King before her, a sound of pure wonder escaping her.

 

Somewhere in a corner of the sky above, what appeared to be a magnificent and stately Unicorn gave a sudden full-body shudder.

 

“This girl…” A helpless, wry smile tugged at the corner of Qin Yichen’s mouth. Even he had felt a prickling, bone-deep sense of danger from that Unicorn.

 

Around him, more than a few Elf faces twitched. She was truly a newborn calf with no fear of tigers. How could this child be so reckless? Did she not understand that the breathtakingly beautiful creature before her was the King of the entire Unicorn Race?

 

Yet, what left every member of the Elf Race genuinely taken aback was this: by all rights, the Unicorn King ought to have erupted in fury at the very first moment. Instead, it stood rooted to the spot, completely still.

 

In the face of Little Ling’er’s rather irreverent stroking, it did not retreat. It simply watched her with those large, clear eyes, and in their depths was something almost uncannily Human, as though it were quietly taking stock of her.

 

“You are so beautiful, I shall call you Xiao Mei (Small Beauty) from now on…”

 

Little Ling’er held the Unicorn King’s gaze for a long moment, and then, quite suddenly and without any warning, those words came tumbling out of her mouth.

 

“…” At that name, the faces of those gathered seemed to collectively develop a row of dark lines. Even the Pavilion King’s mouth gave an involuntary, violent twitch.

 

This girl, was she truly testing the absolute limits of the Unicorn King’s patience?

 

Did she not know that the Unicorn King had, without exception throughout all of history, always been male?

 

Even among the Unicorns overhead, a ripple of agitation stirred through their ranks, as though they were all struggling to contain something very close to laughter.

 

As for the Unicorn King, its head gave a sharp toss, a gesture that made its opinion of that particular name abundantly clear.

 

“Xiao Mei, kneel down and let me ride you…” And just when the crowd had braced themselves for the Unicorn King to finally, irrevocably lose its composure, Little Ling’er’s clear and light voice rang out once more.

 

*Sss…*

 

At that name, Xiao Mei, the Unicorn King let out a long cry. And in that sound was something that could only be described as aggrieved sorrow.

 

Then, beneath a forest of wide and stunned eyes, the Unicorn King looked at Little Ling’er once more. A moment passed. Those proud hooves bent, slowly and unmistakably, and the great creature knelt.

 

“This…” At that sight, the faces of every Elf present filled with undisguised shock, mouths hanging open wide.

 

“Hehe, Xiao Mei is so good!” Little Ling’er let out a bright little laugh, scrambled up onto the Unicorn King’s back using both hands and feet, and called out with uninhibited delight. “Xiao Mei, let’s go!”

 

*Whoosh!* The words had barely left her lips when the Unicorn King’s wings snapped open with a crack, sending a gale whipping outward, and it shot forward like a bolt of lightning.

 

*Swish!* Above, the Unicorns in the sky parted at once, opening an enormous corridor of empty air in the span of a single blink.

 

“Haha…” For a moment, the entire stretch of sky seemed filled with nothing but Little Ling’er’s silver-bell laughter, bright and ringing and utterly at odds with the stupefied silence below.

 

The assembled crowd watched that arc of rainbow light, too swift for the naked eye to properly follow, their faces blank and hollow.

 

From first to last, not one of them had managed to make sense of any of it.

 

What had those ancient Runes the Pavilion King produced actually been?

 

Why had the Unicorns appeared at this moment, even the legendary Unicorn King among them?

 

And how was it that the Unicorn King, that symbol of purity and sovereign majesty, was now being ridden underfoot by a little girl?

 

In that moment, the convictions that many members of the Elf Race had long held about Unicorns seemed to crumble at the very foundations.

 

Even certain Elders who had never formed a Contract with a Unicorn were now casting peculiar, hungry glances upward at the great herd still wheeling overhead, each one of them bowing in the posture of subjects before their King.

 

Those covetous looks, however, were met with absolute indifference from the Unicorns above. Not one of them deigned to acknowledge the gazes directed at them.

 

That indifference was enough to extinguish those Elders’ wishful notions entirely, and they withdrew their eyes with quiet resignation.

 

“Pavilion King… what is the meaning of all this?”

 

After a long moment, the Elf Queen drew a slow breath, pressed down the awe surging through her, and turned to the Pavilion King, who had not spoken a word.

 

At those words, both Qin Yichen and the senior Elves present turned their gazes toward him as well. The same question burned in all of them, a confusion that had grown past bearing.

 

How could Little Ling’er comprehend the Life Scripture? And how, when no Elf had ever been permitted to touch the Unicorn King, was she now riding upon its back?

 

“Heh heh… it seems this old one’s guess was not wrong after all…” The Pavilion King’s eyes narrowed to a fine line as he gazed upward at the Heavens above, and a soft, low murmur rose from his lips.

 

“Blessed by nature itself, able to commune with all living things… Seventeen days to comprehend the Life Scripture in full, because the Life Scripture is the inheritance that Race has passed down…”

 

Those quiet words, reaching the ears of those around him, struck with the force of a thunderbolt.

 

One by one, the figures present seemed to reel as though struck by lightning, rooted to the spot, expressions of utter disbelief flooding their faces.

 

In the depths of each of their minds, a race that had long since vanished from the sight of the world began, unbidden, to take shape once more.

 

The Night Elves.