Hathaway walked through the lightless city, her wide white robe fluttering in the wind, beside her were ancient buildings built with massive stones.
There was no sun, nor the light of stars or the Silver Moon.
Only a few Luminous Ores were embedded atop the ancient stone pillars, becoming the sole light source of this world.
"Is that... Elder Hathaway?"
"Elder Hathaway... Is she the Ninth Elder of the Tower Council Hall who rarely appeared, unexpectedly out in the open?"
"I had only heard of her name in legends before, never thought I'd see the real person from the history books today."
"I heard from a Forest Elf lineage Elder that she's always been obsessed with exploring the forbidden outside world, and that she'd bring misfortune upon the Royal Court sooner or later..."
"I also heard similar rumors from my elders... Clearly, no one cares about those things, our current life is already abundant enough."
"Shh, speak with caution—don't you know about the elder's perception?"
With her presence, whispers from onlookers surrounded the area.
Hathaway raised her eyes, seeing that around the hall leading to the Elf Tower, there were elves everywhere watching.
Except for during childhood, elves cannot accurately judge age by appearance—the posture of the elf's ears is a more accurate method to determine age.
Compared to Hathaway's drooping ears, the onlookers' ears were all sharp and slender, which indicated they were mostly only fifty to sixty years old.
"Has the curse on the Elven bloodline deepened yet again..."
Hathaway uttered a silent whisper in her mind.
An age of fifty or sixty years would be considered quite advanced in most ordinary races, even stepping into old age.
However, for advanced elves before the Cataclysm, it could at most be considered childhood, far from adulthood.
Let alone entering the Elf Tower to participate in the precise governance and work of the Royal Court.
But after the Cataclysm, the pollution of the Fallen Sun not only destroyed the Royal Courts of the ancient dragons and giants, but directly affected the essence of advanced elf bloodlines themselves.
With each iteration, the pure blood of the elves continued to become sullied.
In this endless cycle of calamities and pollution, elves like Hathaway, born around the Cataclysm, still possessing a lifespan of a thousand years even without cultivation, have become exceedingly rare...
The vast majority of newborn elves now have a lifespan of only a few hundred years at best.
Perhaps in another several hundred or even a thousand years, the lifespan of the elves on the Lost Isle will be assimilated to a similar level as that ancient race known as humans from the records.
Hathaway stepped through the hall, treading upon the gray-white long steps, heading deeper into The Tower.
She did not mind the discussions of her clanspeople, even if, with her perception, she already caught every word without omission.
After all, this was a clan many generations past after the Cataclysm.
They'd forgotten to fear, lost their spirit of enterprise.
It wasn't particularly surprising—
Hathaway ascended the pale steps one by one, the cacophony inside The Tower's ground floor hall gradually fading, eventually disappearing.
Her steps halted on a certain level of The Tower.
It was an ancient giant door, standing over ten people high, vast and majestic.
On both sides of the door were two ghostly blue torches, which ignited suddenly with Hathaway's arrival, illuminating the dim surroundings. This update ıs available on noⅴelfire.net
The Golden Elf stood before the giant door, extending slender fingers from under the sleeves of her white robe, touching the ancient door.
"I, Hathaway Zerkin."
"In the capacity of Elder of the Golden Elf Clan, the Ninth Seat of the Tower Council Hall, request to open the Royal Court Great Library of the Elf Tower."
"Opening period: fifty years."
"Reason for request—"
"To utilize ancient knowledge, to explore the depths of the Astral Realm, and to find a new Sourceless Power beyond the already cursed Elven bloodline."
"And upon this foundation, to search for the way forward for the Lost Isle."
"And... the future of the Elf Clan."
Accompanied by the Golden Elf's words.
The ancient door thundered with a roar, its enigmatic mysteries, along with the ripples of Sub-space, spread out.
This place, The Tower, once the central hub of the Elven Royal Court, though having withstood the Cataclysm and the passage of time, still harbors the extraordinary and mysterious.
The Royal Court Great Library is one of the sinks in the Elf Tower.
Because of the deeds of the long-fallen Elf King, the advanced Elf Tribe, as opposed to ancient dragons and giants, is the most preserved race among the three Royal Courts, maintaining relatively complete inheritance.
The Royal Court Great Library is an independent Sub-space, storing numerous ancient knowledge and texts that were not lost or destroyed in the Cataclysm, and still remain preserved.
According to the laws of the Elf Clan, only the elder of the Tower Council Hall has the right to open it.
That ancient door remained unopened.
Instead, it was replaced by crimson blood-red light.
Hathaway's request to open the Great Library was denied.
"I apologize, Elder Hathaway."
"Due to your long-standing wanderings within the Sub-space and dimensional fissures affiliated with the Lost Isle, we've had no opportunity to inform you."
"After a joint vote by the remaining eight seats of the Tower Council Hall—"
"Your authority as a Council Elder has been partially temporarily revoked, including the permission to open the Royal Court Great Library."