# Chapter 30: The Distant Horizon of the Watcher
When Nostradamus found Joshua, the warrior was drinking in the underground dome of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground with the incarnation of the Nature Mentor.
"The elven race has a bloodline foundation that is very easily mutable. In the distant past, our ancestors were influenced by the Father of Nature into becoming elves, and then adapted to the forest environment. Perhaps it is precisely because of this that when elves leave the forest and go to other regions, they always easily evolve into physiques suited to the local environment."
Galannod was currently wearing a deep blue petal-patterned formal dress. Although she held a wine glass in her hand, the glass contained honey water. She seemed to be discussing issues related to bloodline modification with Joshua, and now sighed with emotion: "Forest elves, plains elves, northern elves, far sea elves... and the dark elves who only recently returned, each is the result of elven bloodline undergoing rapid changes due to the local environment."
"If the cause of this mutation could be found, it would be a blessing for all races," Joshua had been listening silently all along, and only after the Nature Mentor finished speaking did he nod in agreement. "The adaptability of elves truly surpasses all in the Mycroft World. No wonder they were the first race to prepare for multiverse colonization."
"That is all in the past. Now, we can only huddle in a corner of the Far South." Shaking her head with a smile, Galannod turned around and looked at Nostradamus standing nearby, then chuckled lightly: "Ah, the Master has also come."
"Of course I had to come."
Forcing a smile at the Nature Mentor, Nostradamus turned around, forcibly adjusted his expression, then put on a stern face and said to Joshua: "Lord Count Radcliffe, do you know that you just now..."
"I solved the crash problem of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground."
Putting down his wine glass, Joshua replied plainly: "The world coordinates where the Elite Squad is now are also in my hands."
"Cough... fine then." Instantly, Nostradamus's accusatory momentum deflated. "I knew that although you seem brainless, you still do things methodically... Where are they now?"
Trying as much as possible to ignore the Nature Mentor covering her mouth with a light laugh and Joshua's questioning expression, the old mage walked to the table where the two were sitting, used magic to construct a chair, and sat down. Whether to change the subject or because he was truly anxious, Nostradamus asked somewhat hurriedly: "This is not the time to hesitate. Who can be sure they are still alive? Where are the world coordinates? If we need to rescue them, we must hurry!"
"They're still alive... no great danger for now. Although my Steel Force cannot connect, I can at least confirm that the Restorative Pillar has not been destroyed."
Joshua nodded, then shook his head: "The problem is, the coordinates I know are from twelve hundred years ago. Now that the World Star River is in turmoil, who knows if that world is still in its original position. Going to look for it rashly would be like searching for a needle in a vast ocean."
Moreover, due to the time dilation effect, twelve hundred years in the Mycroft World might equal several thousand years at the edge of the World Star River—enough time for primitive people using stone tools and eating raw meat to become cultured people who can fly out of the atmosphere and behave politely.
"Then searching is still better than not searching."
Hearing this, Nostradamus knew the crux of the problem, so he just sighed: "After all, it was the return beacon I made that malfunctioned. If these little ones encounter something bad... I would truly feel uneasy."
Joshua understood this feeling.
The vast majority of legends in the Mycroft World could not be considered 'good people' in the conventional sense, but without exception, they all had a strong sense of responsibility. Although this sense of responsibility was mostly limited to their own race and their own faction, it was enough.
"I came here mainly to ask the Nature Mentor if I could borrow the star map stored in the 'World Tree Seed'... Now, it's probably the World Tree Sapling."
Joshua calmly explained to Nostradamus: "Most of the star maps stored in the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground have errors, with a thousand-year time gap. Although teleportation is possible, it doesn't help with finding people. On the other hand, the star map sent by the Father of Nature recently, although also with errors, is generally a recent star map that has been corrected."
"By comparing the two star maps, we can find the trajectory of the star river's movement, and then find the world coordinates we need—as long as the Nature Mentor is willing..."
"Is there any reason to refuse? The World Tree Seed was originally brought back by you." At this, Galannod helplessly took a sip of honey water and shook her head with a smile. "Such a small matter, it's effortless. Moreover, given Lord Count Radcliffe's connections, if you were willing, I would agree to even more excessive requests."
Having said this, the Nature Mentor smiled ambiguously and raised her wine glass toward Joshua.
"Is that so?" However, to Nostradamus's shocked expression, Joshua suddenly raised an eyebrow. He raised his glass to clink with the Nature Mentor and said with a smile: "In that case, with three legends going to find those lost little ones, they will surely be flattered."
Galannod: "...Eh?"
---
At the moment when the three legendary powerhouses at the other end of spacetime were preparing to depart.
In the border world, within the Watcher Elf Tribe, in a bright underground cave.
"This is my home!"
Accompanied by a hearty voice that didn't sound at all like a girl's, Priest followed Su Er's footsteps and entered her home.
Although it was called a home, it was actually just a relatively large ventilation cave around the roots of the Mother Tree of Life.
After walking through a not-too-long tunnel, Priest discovered that the cave around the mother tree's roots indeed contained a large amount of gentle arcane power, which could well promote the development and growth of various organisms, and even grant them extraordinary affinity with natural forces—just like most elves.
Perhaps this was the truth behind elves' affinity with natural forces—not bloodline inheritance, but the influence of the living environment.
But thinking so much was meaningless, because research on the customs of foreign elves could be postponed slightly. Today, he had come because Su Er invited him to her home as a guest.
Speaking of this, it had to be mentioned what happened shortly after Priest's conversation with the Deer-Antlered Elf.
After learning that the foreign elves' method of resisting chaos corruption was actually to concentrate most of the chaos corruption on a few individuals and then kill them to completely eliminate it—a primitive sacrificial method—Priest understood why, after so long, these elves had made no progress in technology.
Think about it.
A tribe, with ample food and clothing, excellent environment, comfortable living quarters, no natural enemies around, no internal conflicts due to the spiritual network, and because knowledge and experiences were shared, no curiosity about unknown places and unseen things—all technology was sufficient.
It sounded too good, but was this really the perfect start for civilization development?
The answer was, of course, no.
An overly perfect environment would instead cause civilization to stagnate, especially when this perfect environment was also an isolated island.
On small islands in the Far South's distant seas, there lived many island natives. These tropical natives were also remnants who had walked out of the sanctuary a thousand years ago. Without much effort, they could comfortably pass the year by fishing and picking fruits.
But similarly, among the remnants who walked out of the sanctuary, the civilization on the Mycroft Continent had developed to the point of heading into the void multiverse, while the island natives remained island natives, still living comfortably like monkeys, without even inventing the wheel.
And the elves in this foreign world not only had no motivation for development, but they didn't even have internal conflicts, because their spirits were connected, allowing them to perceive each other's sadness and indignation. Everyone was united, so much so that in a thousand years, the tribe hadn't split—up to here, it was still okay, not unable to develop, just developing slowly. But the most terrifying thing was that the elves' method of escaping foreign world sickness was at the cost of the voluntary sacrifice of the tribe's strong members.
Yes, everyone's spirit was connected, so the strong were willing to sacrifice, and the weak sincerely felt sadness and reverence. But when the word 'powerful' itself became equivalent to 'sacrifice', would anyone really want to become strong? Although no one minded sacrifice, they naturally wouldn't go against their natural instincts to voluntarily become strong and then go to die, would they?
The last path of elven development was also sealed by their own hands. In such a world, even after thousands or tens of thousands of years, elven society would never change.
Unless, an outsider broke this already fixed cycle.
"Priest, what are you thinking?"
Priest, who was silently sighing in his heart, suddenly felt a warmth at his ear. He quickly stepped back and turned around, only to see Su Er looking at him with confusion: "You said you wanted to come to my home to see. Now that we're here, why are you spacing out?"
"Cough cough... thinking about some things."
Priest couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed, then pretended to be natural as he looked around.
This time, it was indeed Priest who proactively proposed to visit Su Er's home. His main purpose was to confirm the daily living habits and technological level of the foreign elves. Overall, it was still about observing the situation and collecting information. Ordinary elves wouldn't easily let an outsider like Priest into their home. Instead, Su Er was the kind of outgoing person who, even if Priest didn't mention it, would invite him over to sit.
After several days of communication and contact, Su Er had become very familiar with Priest, so when faced with his request to 'see the elven underground cave', the elf girl agreed without hesitation.
Taking advantage of the girl's goodwill, Priest couldn't help but feel a bit ashamed, but precisely because of this, he observed even more carefully.
The entire underground cave hall was about one hundred and fifty square meters, with an average height of three hundred and forty centimeters. It was very spacious, with no feeling of crampedness at all.
On both sides of the hall were several rooms. According to Su Er's enthusiastic explanation, Priest learned that they were respectively the warehouse, clothing and equipment storage room, and various tool storage rooms, such as for fishing nets and farming tools. Everyone's room was also separate, with magic arrays inside for regulating temperature and air, operating on the arcane power of the Mother Tree of Life.
The elves' life was more comfortable than imagined. In the spacious hall, some primitive workbenches and vessels could be seen, presumably where Su Er's father, the Deer-Antlered Elf, usually concocted potions and made staffs and arrows. Even on the right side of the hall, a large fish tank could be seen, containing many colorful, very beautiful fish and shells.
The fish tank was made of relatively rough glass, probably a non-reproducible craft item forcibly shaped by some strong person using their power.
But strangely, the fish in the tank were all listless. Not only did they rarely move, some even had their eyes rolled back, bellies up.
"Hmm? Do you like fish?"
Noticing Priest's expression, Su Er, who was putting her fishing net into the storage room, showed a proud smile: "Haha, all the fish in this tank were caught by me! Beautiful, right? Unfortunately, Dad and the others don't like them. Even though Dad made me a fish tank, he still doesn't think these fish are beautiful."
Saying this, Su Er walked forward. The elf girl bent down, pressed one hand against the fish tank, and said somewhat regretfully: "Their colors are so brilliant, they look so good... but why don't Dad and the others understand?"
"Flowers are so beautiful, deer are so lively, trees are tall and majestic, grass is delicate and fragile... Just this forest alone is so colorful, endlessly fascinating... And when you cross a mountain, there's a whole new, equally beautiful scenery. But why does Father always say this is meaningless behavior?"
When she said this, Su Er's eyes dimmed slightly, and a mist formed in her beautiful big eyes.
Priest looked into Su Er's eyes. They were the golden-green eyes that most pure-blood elves had, like a grassland under sunlight, very beautiful... For a moment, Priest, whose cultural level was limited to the field of transcendent power, couldn't find any adjectives and just stared blankly for several seconds.
"No."
But soon, Priest came to his senses. Now was not the time to think about these things... Steadying himself, he secretly took out a black, inconspicuous metal bead from his bosom, then pretended to be careless and let it fall to the ground. As soon as this small bead touched the ground, it immediately extended many mechanical tentacles, like an insect, quickly digging a hole and burrowing into the soil.
Meanwhile, in a distant cave, the four members of the Elite Exploration Squad, who were patiently waiting for their captain to start acting, cheered: "Success! The captain succeeded!"
"The energy stored in the micro reconnaissance puppet can dig over five hundred meters. We're too far from the Mother Tree of Life here; five hundred meters is not enough."
"But the elves' dwellings are different. The roots of the Mother Tree of Life are the pillars of their caves. We'll soon collect data on the foreign world's mother tree, and then determine how severe the chaos infection is on this land! We can also collect special information about the foreign world's Mother Tree of Life, and sell it to the elves for a large number of exchange points!"
"It seems the captain hasn't forgotten his real mission." Wiping his sweat, the mage touched his staff and joked: "I thought he would be addicted to chatting with the elf beauty and forget his task."
"Calling her a beauty, her age might be older than our grandmothers," the clergy member said objectively.
But the knight was displeased: "Talking about elf age, can that be called age?"
Just as the clergy member and the knight started arguing about the topic of 'how old an elf can be considered a girl', Su Er, who had been somewhat sad, had completely recovered her spirits.
"Alas, these fish are beautiful, but they always die quickly."
Patting the fish tank, Su Er sighed deeply, then shook her head discontentedly: "I spent half a day's effort to catch them all, but none of them give me face. At most seven or eight days, they die... Can't help it. Although they're so beautiful, they can only be made into braised fish, grilled fish..."
As she spoke, the elf girl swallowed her saliva and showed a 'sad' expression.
After confirming that his task was completed, Priest breathed a sigh of relief and also shifted his attention to the fish tank, looking at the listless fish.
Just by sniffing the smell of the water, the experienced Priest immediately understood the reason why the fish would die.
Nonsense! Using freshwater to raise saltwater fish—being able to survive seven or eight days already showed the tenacious vitality of fish in a high-magic world!
Looking at the various saltwater fish in the tank, struggling to survive and desperately blowing bubbles, Priest's eyes were filled with sympathy... At the same time, he also thought of his younger sister.
Equally uncooperative—one treated a sapling as grass, the other treated saltwater fish as freshwater fish—this was... somewhat cute.
Speaking of which, before he left, did he tell little Braney that what she was holding was actually a sapling, not grass?
However, this also revealed the Watcher Tribe's complete disregard for this kind of knowledge. They seemed never to have raised saltwater fish, never cared about similar matters. Even though Su Er, due to her special nature, had discovered the problem, because there was no one else to discuss it with, the question of 'why can't saltwater fish live in freshwater' slowly became the simple, causeless 'not giving face'.
This kind of sorrowful thinking pattern was the foundation of ignorance.
"Su Er, haven't you noticed? Seawater is salty, but the water you're keeping these fish in isn't saltwater..."
"Ah, I see!"
Priest tried to explain the reason to Su Er in the simplest terms, but he underestimated the elf girl's intelligence. As soon as he said seawater was salty, Su Er showed a look of sudden realization, making it unnecessary for Priest to continue explaining the difference between freshwater and saltwater.
Watching Su Er, who had a look of epiphany and then turned back to touch the fish tank with heartache, apologizing to the various fish inside, Priest couldn't help but want to laugh, but couldn't.
In fact, this kind of thinking was just a hurdle. Even if one more person pondered it, they could quickly figure out why. But in this elf tribe, there was simply no one else to discuss 'why' with Su Er. Everyone just followed the routine, working like ants, never thinking about the reasons and truths behind everything.
"Um, I'm sorry."
Suddenly, Priest saw the elf girl turn around. Su Er stroked the fish tank with one hand and said with a hint of apology: "Originally, I said I wanted to bring you home to see, to show you the wonder of the Mother Tree... But now, I want to go to the seaside as soon as possible to change the water for these fish."
"Ah, no problem."
Priest was slightly stunned, then shook his head with a smile. The wonder of the Mother Tree could be seen through the micro reconnaissance puppet. The purpose of his visit here had been achieved. Whatever he did next was free time. "If you want to go, I'll accompany you."
Both Su Er and Priest were the type of people who acted decisively. Soon, taking advantage of the remaining sunlight in the evening, the two carried the fish tank and walked out of the elf tribe.
Coming and going, many elves who had finished hunting and gathering were returning to the tribe from all directions. Su Er and Priest, walking against the flow, were very conspicuous. But except for one leading elf who looked up and glanced at them, the others remained expressionless, seemingly indifferent as they passed by. Priest even saw Su Er's father, the Gold-rank Druid Deer-Antlered Elf, walk past expressionlessly. Even though his daughter was leaving the tribe with a strange man, he showed no curiosity.
Beneath the calm and natural exterior was stagnant water as dead as a deep well of green moss.
The orange sun of the foreign world slowly set, and the rust-colored nine giant beast moons rose. Under the eerie or sinister red light, Priest and Su Er silently walked the path leading to the seaside.
Priest carried the fish tank, while Su Er carried the water-changing tools. This was his own initiative, because for a Gold-rank warrior, a mere fish tank was no different from a piece of paper. Priest carried it on his shoulder, trying as much as possible not to cause any ripples in the water inside the tank.
Soon, the two arrived at the seaside.
The tide was rising fiercely.
This was a completely different scenery from daytime. Under the nine deep red blood-rust moons, the surging sea tide rolled like blood waves. Eerie fluorescence churned in the seawater, bringing waves of arcane power. Although the elves' fishing dock was already built very high, it was now also half-submerged. The rock-built base was beaten by the waves, emitting light like sparks.
Eerie, but not terrifying. It even had a unique beauty.
"Let's put it here."
Su Er was the first to walk to a beach that wasn't completely submerged, and Priest followed closely behind. He placed the fish tank at the edge of the tide, waiting for Su Er's next move.
But at this moment, the elf girl stood staring blankly at the horizon, looking at the faint clouds and starlight in the distance.
"Hey, Priest." Su Er suddenly spoke: "What is on the other side of the sea?"
"...Probably another continent."
The young warrior squinted his eyes and replied somewhat uncertainly: "Hard to judge whether it's a planetary world or a continental world."
But Su Er didn't seem to care about the answer. She seemed to just like having someone answer her questions. The elf girl sat on the sand, hugging her knees, and said somewhat absently: "I really like gazing into the distance... the sea, the mountains, the forest... I like them all. Every time I think about it, my heart gets excited beyond control, and I even want to take a small boat and drift to the other side of the sea to see."
"I think the ancestors must have also liked gazing into the distance—otherwise, why would the tribe's name be 'Watcher'? What did they want to see, that they made 'watching' their tribe's name?"
Perhaps it was the starry sky. Priest didn't answer aloud. He just instinctively looked up at the foreign world's indestructible world barrier, which even void behemoths couldn't break. Can't get out, can't get in—a barrier separating the inside from the outside.
Even the elves who went out to colonize... probably missed their homeland.
"But Father, and uncles, aunts... everyone doesn't like gazing into the distance. Even though the name is 'Watcher', they always look down at the ground, never wanting to go out."
Saying this, Su Er fell into deep silence. Just as Priest felt something was wrong and wanted to comfort her, Su Er snorted, then suddenly stood up, almost hitting Priest's nose. The elf girl pointed one hand to the sky and one to the ground, and shouted loudly: "Anyway, I'm going to die soon—I've decided! I might not be able to cross the sea, but before I die, I must go to the other side of the Sacred Mountain to see what's there!"
After speaking, Su Er decisively picked up the fish tank placed on the ground, opened it, and forcefully poured the fish and water together into the sea.
"Hey, Su Er—didn't you say you wanted to change the water?"
Seeing this, Priest, still immersed in the fact that 'Su Er is going to die soon' and spacing out, couldn't react in time to stop her. He just walked to Su Er's side, took the now-empty fish tank, and said somewhat regretfully: "You said you spent a lot of effort to catch these beautiful fish. Why did you let them all go?"
"Forget it. I can't keep them alive anyway."
After releasing all the fish, Su Er seemed much happier. She tidied her hair, which was a bit messy from the sea breeze, squinted her eyes, and smiled naturally: "After all, fish are not creatures that live in a tank. They belong to the sea. Catching them to eat is one thing, but locking them in a tank is another."
"After all... I don't like being locked up either. I also want to go out. Just thinking about it, I don't want to keep fish anymore."
Hearing this, for some reason, Priest's voice suddenly became low: "...You can go out."
He looked up at the somewhat surprised elf girl. Priest said in a deep voice: "You should go out—this is a right that everyone should have."
"Haha, are you saying you're willing to take me to see the other side of the mountain? I might die on the way, you know? I'd be a burden."
Su Er laughed heartily, exactly like a middle-aged man who had been drinking. Both her tone and attitude were completely different from her delicate and refined appearance. But soon, this seemingly hearty, yet actually self-deprecating laughter of the elf girl was interrupted by Priest's serious tone.
"Yes, and not just the other side of the mountain."
Priest looked up at the pitch-black void above, except for the nine moons, and said in a low voice: "There are many more things for you to see in the future—definitely more than just this, just this small world."
"I promise. I guarantee this."