The hole at the base of the sacred tree was glowing with a warm golden light, and the veins of the tree roots crisscrossed like a solidified river of stars.Silverleaf's hand holding the bone knife hung in mid-air, the blade reflecting the struggle in his amber pupils, "The ritual requires cutting your fingertips to allow the blood to merge on the roots.But the touching of human and elf blood could trigger-"
"Like Yue Li and her sister did back then?"Lin Xing interrupted him, his fingertips brushing over the necklace pendant, where the warmth of the sacred tree's remnant page from the illusion still remained, "The remnant page says that 'the blood of a double birth pours over the roots', and mother and Aunt Yue Li were originally twins.Perhaps this is the true key to unlocking the contract."
She took the initiative to hold Silverleaf's hand, pressing his fingertips against the star leaf seal on her palm.The moment the bone knife lightly slashed through and two drops of blood simultaneously fell into the fissure of the tree's root, the entire sacred tree suddenly shook with a bell-like tremor.Golden dots of light scurried from the roots to the crown of the tree, condensing into a giant light and shadow painting in the branches -
In the picture, Leon, the first human indentured servant, was kneeling in front of the elf maiden Aisha, his armor was stained with blood, but he tenderly cupped Aisha's injured hand, "The human royal family is going to exterminate your village, come with me, I can protect you."The star leaf mark at the end of Aisha's eyes glistened with tears, but the green leaves condensed at her fingertips gently wrapped around Leon's wound, "The star leaf contract is supposed to be symbiotic, why can't they allow humans and demons to coexist?"
The light suddenly distorted as the king wearing a bronze mask led his army in, the black mist from his arrows corroding Aisha's vines.As Leon turned to block, the face under the mask caused Lin Xing to hold his breath violently - it was seven times similar to the king who manipulated the giant wolf in the illusion!Aisha branded the Star Leaf Seal onto Leon's palm at the last moment, but she herself fell into the cracks of the sacred tree's roots, turning into dots of fluorescent light between the roots.
"It turns out that the failure of the first generation of contractors was due to the betrayal of the human royal family ...," Silverleaf's voice was hoarse, and his fingertips were mingling with Lin Xing's blood on the roots of the tree to form a new star-leaf pattern, "They were afraid that the elf-humanties would shake the rule of 'pure blood supremacy'."
Before the words fell, the ground suddenly shook.Countless bronze spikes broke out from all directions, and the black mist wrapped around the spikes quickly devoured the surrounding plant life.Twenty soldiers wearing griffin gauntlets rushed out from the shadows of the trees, the leader was the same teenager who had attacked Lin Xing in the illusion, at this moment, his pupils were completely taken over by scarlet, the corners of his mouth pulling out a twisted smile, "Bastard of the Star Leaf, His Majesty the King is going to open the Sacred Tree Boundary with the help of your blood!"
Silverleaf's staff instantly coalesced into a cage of vines, but it emitted a charred stench as it touched the black mist.Lin Xing felt the Star Leaf Seal burning, and as she looked at the roots of the Sacred Tree, she realized that the two men's blood was outlining the unfinished contract formation between Aisha and Leon back then on the roots of the tree."Their blood has not truly fused!"She suddenly realized, "The primordial contract failed because trust was severed, and we-"
"The light of the stars and leaves need to be allowed to truly intersect."Silverleaf suddenly grabbed her wrist and pressed her palm to his heart, where a long-dried maple leaf of starlight was affixed, the very one that Yue Li had left behind back then.Lin Xing's golden light flowed into the staff along his fingertips, and the Moonlight Vine suddenly blossomed into a sun-like radiance, and star-shaped leaves actually grew on the vines - that was a symbiotic form that only appeared when the Star-Leaf Pact was fully resonant.
"In the name of the Sacred Tree, dispel the turbid darkness!"The silver leaf staff was swung out, the star leaf vines like golden chains strangling the bronze spikes, and each leaf bloomed with blue scale grass-like luminescence where it cut through the black mist.Lin Xing took the opportunity to rush towards the soldier leader, pressing his fingertips on the scarlet spell mark on his brow, "You're being manipulated by dark magic!Look at yourself-"
Fragments of memories under the spellmark flooded into her mind: the teenager had saved an injured elf fawn in a human town, only to have the spellmark forcibly implanted by the royal mage.As her golden light purified the spellmark, the scarlet in the teenager's eyes faded, and he looked at his plant-scorch-stained hands in horror, "They say elves are monsters ... but you were clearly glowing ..."
"Enough!"The bronze-masked king suddenly stepped out of the void, the very remnants of the Primordial Pact Array at his feet, "Three hundred years ago Yue Li's sister escaped, and three hundred years later her daughter actually brought herself to the door - bringing the elven bastards along with her."He raised his hand, and an image of Lin Xing's father surrounded by soldiers in a human town appeared in the crystal ball, "See?As soon as I give the order, your stupid human father will be executed on the charge of 'collaborating with the enemy'."
Lin Xing's fingertips were shaking.Silverleaf suddenly stepped in front of her, the star-leaf mark on her staff echoing her golden light, "Back then, you used an enchanted arrow to shoot Yue Li to death, and now you want to do the same thing again?"The corners of the King's mouth grinned beneath his mask, "Wrong, this time I'm going to make you repeat the end of Leon and Aisha-"
The arrow in his hand suddenly turned into black mist and shot precisely at Silverleaf's heart.Lin Xing pounced over in the nick of time, and the Star Leaf Seal erupted with a sun-like radiance, the arrow shattering into points of light the instant it touched her.Her back, however, was being gently held by the Star Leaf vines sticking out from the roots of the Sacred Tree, and those vines were blooming with starlight and green leaves at the same time, as if the unfinished vow of the first-generation contractors had finally been answered.
"Impossible ... "The king looked at the gradually healing sacred tree boundary, and realized with horror that his black mist was being purified, "There is not only elven royal blood in your blood, but also human....""Because the Star Leaf Contract never distinguishes between pure blood and mixed blood."Lin Xing stood up and took Silverleaf's hand, their fingertips simultaneously lit up with marks of intertwined light and shadow, "Just as the stars need to be held up by the leaves, the leaves also need to be nourished by the starlight."
As the last of the black mist dissipated, the contract formation at the root of the sacred tree lit up completely.Lin Xing saw the blurred figures of Yue Li and her mother emerge from the depths of the tree's roots; their hands were folded together, and they were pushing the Star Leaf Seal into the palms of her intertwined hands with the Silver Leaf.In the distance, the human teenager helped his injured companion back up, no more hatred in his eyes, only shock at the glory of the Sacred Tree.
"We will go back."Silverleaf looked to the king, no anger in his voice, only relief, "But not as enemies.The gates of the Sacred Tree will always be open for those willing to listen to the voice of nature - including your subjects."The king suddenly let out a shrill laugh and turned to step into the black mist, "Foolish elves, the 'Eclipse Plan' was initiated long ago - your blood will only cause the key to the Sacred Tree's boundary to take complete shape!"
Before he disappeared, the image in the crystal ball was fixed at the bottom of the human royal city: on the huge star-leaf shaped altar, the blood of countless elves was being extracted, and in the center of the altar hovered a translucent fragment of the boundary - that was precisely the fragment of the contract that was shattered when Elsa crashed into the sacred tree back then.And above the altar, the chain-bound figure of Lin Xing's father was struggling, and in his palm, there was actually a light golden star leaf seal as well.
"Father he ..." Lin Xing staggered and held onto the sacred tree, realizing that Silverleaf's face was equally pale.Silverleaf suddenly pointed at the new mark on the tree's roots, "When the blood mingled just now, I saw Yue Li's last memory - your father had helped her escape from the royal city back then, that's why the royal family hunted down your mother and daughter."
The night wind brought with it the sound of the waves of the Moon Tear Lake, but this time it was a rush that had never been heard before.The fluorescent lights of the Blue Scale Grass joined together, spelling out the word "Home" on the surface of the lake.Silverleaf held Lin Xing's hand tightly, and the light of the star leaf at the top of his staff was brighter than ever: "Now we finally understand that the true power of the Star Leaf Pact is not to fight against the darkness, but to allow different lights to accept each other."
He looked down at their overlapping fingertips, the tips of his ears redder than maple leaves, "Just like right now - your temperature made my staff grow leaves with starlight for the first time."Lin Xing couldn't help but smile, the starlit maple leaves in her hair trembling gently with her movements, reflecting the entire sacred tree as if it were smiling.
As they turned towards the village, the light of the twin stars at the top of the sacred tree became equally bright for the first time.And in the shadows of the human royal city, the king looked at the boundary key that was gradually taking shape on the altar, and suddenly realized that the star and leaf pattern in the center of the key was the exact shape of Lin Xing's and Silver Leaf's clasped hands.
"So that's how it is ...," he took off his bronze mask, revealing a face similar to that of the first king, "The key to the Star Leaf Contract is never a unilateral plunder, but a willing delivery."He stared at Lin Xing's father's Star Leaf Seal on the altar and suddenly sneered, "But it doesn't matter - as long as that girl dares to come to the King's City, I'll use her favorite elfin bastard to teach her what it means to pay the price of pure blood."
Moonlight pierced through the clouds, illuminating the newly grown twin star leaves at the base of the sacred tree.The blood pact between the star and the leaf was complete, and what awaited them was a fear more real than illusion, and a courage more radiant than starlight.After all, when two kinds of light learn to guard each other, the deepest darkness is just another shape of light.