Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
On the bed, Cai Jiajia clung onto Lu Zhiyu’s back, her hands roaming over his lean muscles as if she was not willing to let him go. Lu Zhiyu turned around and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. With their bodies touching, they stared into each other’s eyes.
Cai Jiajia grinned and said, “I kept having dreams about you after we were apart. Lu Zhiyu, you’re a perfect lover to me!”
“A lover? What do you mean?” Lu Zhiyu immediately questioned.
Cai Jiajia smiled at once. “It means that you’re not a suitable husband or boyfriend for me. Whether it’s me, your Li Wei, or your future girlfriends, we’ll all feel that you’re unreliable!”
“…”
Lu Zhiyu suddenly remembered something. “Wait. I thought you said that your ex-boyfriend came back. So why are you here now?”
Cai Jiajia held out her right hand to show Lu Zhiyu the ring on her slender finger. “That’s right. We’re back together. We just got engaged last week and are planning to choose a date to get married!”
“Then why did you sleep with me?” Lu Zhiyu asked, surprised.
Cai Jiajia kissed him on the lips. “Because you’re unforgettable,” she said. “Whenever I think about you, I’ll feel my body burning!”
When Lu Zhiyu left Cai Jiajia’s hourse, he felt like he had just received a heavy blow. After he returned home, he sat on his couch, staring at the empty apartment. Suddenly, he felt that he was somewhat lonely.
After sitting there for a while, he finally remembered that he still had unfinished businesses in the world of Maria. Right away, he stood up and went back there through the dimensional door in his utility room at the top of his apartment.
At the moment, dawn was breaking in Maria’s world. Lu Zhiyu went straight into the forest on Yala and saw that on the once empty clearing next to the lake in the valley, there was now a huge tree towering into the clouds.
The tree was hundreds of meters tall, with a crown large enough to block out the sky. Its thick branches radiated liveliness. The branches were broad enough to be used as roads and people can easily run on them. On the crown, many buds could be seen. They looked like blooming flowers that were enveloping something within their layers of skin.
Apart from the Tree of Life which now looked like a divine tree, a large number of trees had also grown out on the extensive, once grassland-like valley. The trees surrounded the lake, guarding the Tree of Life.
Lu Zhiyu returned in time to see a bud ripening and blooming. He teleported directly onto the tree and walked on the branch which was a few meters wide. Opening the bud, he finally saw a baby within layers of young leaves.
The baby had pointy ears and delicate facial features. It was still connected to the pistil of the bud through its umbilical cord. Lu Zhiyu carefully cut the cord and carried the baby with his arms. The little baby immediately began crying and stared at Lu Zhiyu with its gem-like eyes.
“You’re the first the long-lived races in Maria’s World. Your race shall be called the elves!”
He went back onto the ground with the baby in his arms and tapped the air gently with his staff. Right away, the space around him started to fold and many ant-people appeared.
With their powerful limbs, the ant-people could climb trees as easily as walking on flat ground. In a few days, many wooden houses were built under the Tree of Life.
After the first elf, more elves were born one after another. In the year, a few dozens of elves were born, and more would appear in the years to come. However, the Tree of Life that Lu Zhiyu had created also had a finite lifespan. One thousand years later, this Tree of Life would reach the end of its life. Therefore, it would still be up to the elves to reproduce and keep their race alive.
Nevertheless, such a long-lived race also had its own flaw in terms of reproduction. They must come of age before being able to reproduce. Moreover, reproduction would be much harder for them as compared to humans. Since they had such a long lifespan, they also had to bear this flaw which actually was not really a big problem.
Twenty odd ant-people were in charge of raising these elves up. Lu Zhiyu also stayed for over half a year to observe if this long-lived race had any flaws genetically, as well as whether their life template was self-consistent. After all, when he finished his Elixir of Life Plan, he would use the product on himself.
Lu Zhiyu walked out of the treehouse and made his way to the ground via a rope. Recently, he had been living in the largest wetland forest on Yala and breathing the freshest air every day. Feeling the wind which was filled with the aroma of grass and flowers, and listening to the chirps of birds and the sounds of insects, Lu Zhiyu felt as if he was living a perfect life at some countryside.
Lu Zhiyu turned around and left, while the ant-people stayed behind. They would stay here to raise the elves up until their death. This was the mission Lu Zhiyu had given them.
On the other hand, the faraway continent Alen was in turmoil and experiencing great changes. With the divine sword and powers bestowed by gods, Ahenaten had led his men and conquered all the tribes around. Then, he built the first human city on the Red River Plains, his hometown. He named it the City of Gold.
Ahenaten claimed that the gods had chosen him to be the king and created the first human dynasty, calling himself the Golden King. He created a system for the human language and taught humans how to farm and domesticate wild animals, bringing them into the agrarian age.
Ahenaten created a hierarchy system. Those with the powers of gods were referred to as the “descendants of gods.” He said that they were noble and would form the ruling class. These people were superior, while ordinary people were deemed as peasants. Below the peasants were those he had conquered and enslaved, whose statuses were the lowest.
Ahenaten created a commerce system and used gold and silver as standardized currencies. He brought the human race out of its primitive tribal age, creating civilization and order. Nevertheless, Ahenaten was not a kind king, or perhaps even a brutal ruler. He created the hierarchy and on the other hand, he enjoyed everyone’s worship as the king which had golden blood in his veins.
He commanded hundreds of slaves to build him a palace and wore lavish clothing. He even used gold to cover the floor of his palace. However, the human race was unified under him and rapid developments took place. In a few dozens of years, the human population quickly multiplied and there were already hundreds of thousands of them at the moment.
In the thirteenth year of the Golden Dynasty, the tension between the humans and the orcs escalated. The City of Gold and Sarga City saw their first real conflict. Both sides sent out tens of thousands of soldiers, starting the first large-scale war between the two races.
The humans were far inferior to the orcs in terms of military strength and weapons, and were therefore easily crushed. At the most critical moment, Ahenaten put together a small cavalry that he led personally. They assaulted the base of the orcs and slew the twelfth Orc King, the Wolf King Costa!
The human race won the war, but only barely. However, due to the death of the Wolf King Costa, a greater chaos erupted between the various orc tribes. The ensuing fight for control of the throne led to another round of civil war between them. On the other hand, humans retreated down south to recover from the war. Ahenaten was also severely injured during the war and lost his will to fight. He spent his days expanding his palace and enjoying a life of comfort!