Elf City.
Southern District, Law Enforcement Department.
Through his conversation with Xie Yuanli, Feng Qi now had a much clearer understanding of the current state of the humans in the Central Region.
Under the protection of the Elf King, the development of humans in the Central Region was progressing steadily. The safety of the city's residents was well ensured, and relying on the power of the elves, they had opened a new path where plant energy powered the city's operations.
Setting aside the uncertainties of the future, the quality of life for the humans in the Central Region was very high.
And there was basically no risk of infiltration by external forces.
Under the Elf King's protection, the plants in Elf City served as the best surveillance system. They could easily detect and identify disguised foreign forces lurking within.
According to Xie Yuanli, Elf City had previously faced infiltration from foreign forces that had lost their domain fields.
But before the infiltration could spread, it was snuffed out in the cradle, without causing any harm to the civilization of the Central Region.
Xie Yuanli said that when they got off the train, it was because the plants equipped with detection functions had sensed something unusual, which triggered the alarm and brought the law enforcement team rushing over.
This showed that, in many aspects, the humans of the Central Region, empowered by the elves, were more advanced than the humans of the Eastern Region.
But the unknown future remained a problem that the humans of the Central Region couldn't avoid.
As the Elf King's power continued to grow, the potential of the elf seeds it produced also increased. Eventually, the human body would no longer be able to bear the power of the elf seeds.
What would happen then was a problem the higher-ups of the Central Region humans had to face sooner or later.
After an all-night talk, when Feng Qi expressed his wish to stay in Elf City for a while, Xie Yuanli didn't refuse and immediately agreed to make arrangements.
The next morning, after having breakfast at the Law Enforcement Department, Feng Qi followed Xie Yuanli to the law enforcement hall.
There, Feng Qi and Xiao You completed identity registration, and a green mark was branded on their right arms.
This mark functioned like a temporary ID.
The residents of Elf City all had similar IDs. With this green mark, they could enter and exit places in the city that were not restricted zones.
This way, they wouldn't be mistaken for potential threats by the elf plants while walking in the city and reported to the law enforcement zone.
With their identities confirmed, Feng Qi and Xiao You followed Xie Yuanli to a green plant-covered building in the Southern District and were arranged to stay on the 37th floor.
After completing registration at the front desk, Xie Yuanli said he still had work to do, but could be contacted at any time if needed, and then he quickly left.
Feng Qi took Xiao You and the others up to the 37th floor using a plant elevator.
At the door, he raised his arm with the identity mark toward a softly glowing red fruit on the door.
The fruit split open, and three thin tendrils extended from inside, touching the green mark on his arm.
When the tendrils retracted, the color inside the fruit changed, and the moss-covered door slowly opened.
He led Xiao You and the others into the room.
The room was spacious, at a glance roughly over 300 square meters.
What fascinated Feng Qi was how the layout and structure of the room were perfectly integrated with plants, full of a natural vibe.
Sitting on the soft plant sofa felt like being embraced by nature, clearly sensing the vibrant life within the plants.
The air quality inside was excellent, and the concentration and purity of spiritual energy were higher than outside.
Curious, he started wandering around the house.
He first came to the kitchen sink, turned the wooden handle, and saw water flowing through a transparent vine, spraying from the top.
When he pushed the handle to the second notch, the liquid inside the vine turned into a green plant drink, its rich aroma filling the room.
At the third notch, the liquid changed color again, with a different fragrance.
There was also a flame-spitting fruit for cooking, a lantern fruit for lighting, and a purification devouring flower for waste disposal, among others.
The humans of the Central Region had taken a technological path based on plants, different from that of the Eastern Region, but everything here still bore traces of human civilization, just in another form.
Then, a knock came at the door.
Feng Qi immediately went to open it.
Standing outside was a woman in law enforcement uniform. She handed a book to Feng Qi with a smile and said:
"Mr. Feng Qi, this is an instruction manual entrusted to me by Chief Xie."
"Thank you." Feng Qi politely nodded as he accepted the book.
After she left, Feng Qi closed the door and began flipping through the book.
The cover was woven from fine branches, with a solid texture to the touch.
Opening the first page, large characters appeared:
[Elf City Encyclopedia – Children's Edition.]
Clearly, this was an introductory book for children to better understand their city and the world, but for him, it was very useful, as he still knew too little about this place.
He sat down on the sofa, his body sinking into the soft plant fibers.
He began reading the contents.
Xiao You peeked over curiously, but she obviously couldn't understand the words. After a brief moment of confusion, her eyes turned blank, and she flopped onto the sofa.
In a "shut-down" mode, she buried herself in the sofa and fell asleep.
The encyclopedia's content was easy to grasp. Through the knowledge explained, Feng Qi gradually gained a deeper understanding of the plant-based technology of Elf City.
For example, the "faucet" that could dispense various drinks worked based on a design similar to a water treatment plant, but the water didn't come from rivers or lakes.
Each district in Elf City had its own water source factory.
These factories operated on plant energy, cultivating many special plants to serve all the city's residents.
Like the water banyan tree that provided the water supply.
This type of plant had a very high water content, and its roots could draw water from deep underground. Its leaves could also absorb moisture from the air. The water banyan tree was one of the main sources of the city's water supply.
Besides that, there was the ink tree, which produced green spiritual liquid, and the jam tree, which provided red spiritual liquid.
There was also the devouring flower, which could decompose waste.
This flower had way more functions than the toilets used by humans in the Eastern Region.
It combined cleaning, decomposition, and transformation, truly achieving green environmental protection.
All kinds of green technology products were special plants cultivated by the humans of the Central Region using the power of the elves. These had gradually matured in the course of civilization's development and had become an inseparable part of daily life.
What interested Feng Qi the most in the encyclopedia was something called the "Elf Network."
This was completely different from the web surfing he understood.
It was a kind of neural network world that required elven power to connect.
In the room Feng Qi was in, there was a plant called "network tendrils."
To access the internet, humans with elf seeds needed to extend elf neural tendrils from their bodies and connect to the network tendrils. This way, their consciousness could roam freely in the elf network.
The encyclopedia's explanation of the elf network reminded Feng Qi of the law enforcement officer he saw when he first arrived in Elf City, the one who extended tendrils from her body to connect with cloud cotton and control its flight.
This seemed to be the method used by humans in Elf City to actively control plant tools.
Through the spiritual tendrils provided by the elf seed, they could form mental connections with other plants, making the control of plant tools feel as natural as moving their own limbs.
The elf neural network also reminded Feng Qi of the miracle item of the Psionic Race—the "Sacred Spirit Consciousness Vault."
But based on the encyclopedia's description, Feng Qi was sure that the elf network was nothing compared to the Sacred Spirit Consciousness Vault.
The key feature of the Sacred Spirit Consciousness Vault was knowledge sharing. As long as any clan member uploaded a skill or ability, it could be downloaded and instantly mastered by others through the vault.
Take learning a foreign language, for example.
If just one person learned the language and uploaded it to the Sacred Spirit Consciousness Vault, the entire Psionic Race could instantly master it in less than a second.
But the elf network was more like a place for mental communication.
There was also a large amount of data in the elf network, all controlled by the Elf King. It was a spiritual world built by the Elf King using a plant with enormous mental capacity.
Through the elf network, humans in the Central Region could have long-distance calls, mental video chats, access learning materials, and so on.
But this kind of learning was still based on reading and required understanding and digestion, completely different from the instant mastery of the Psionic Race.
The children's encyclopedia used both text and images to explain many basic things in Elf City, giving Feng Qi a clear understanding of the basic structure of the human world in the Central Region.
The more he learned, the more he felt that humans in the Central Region had developed to the point where they couldn't live without the Elf King.
Plant technology filled every corner of human life.
He could imagine what kind of mindset the human leaders had towards the Elf King.
It was both the guarantor of their civilization's continuation and the source of their power and quality of life—yet they couldn't fully trust it.
Humans had no means to restrain the Elf King.
What happened in the future could only depend on the Elf King's choices.
That was undoubtedly a huge sorrow.
He didn't want to think of the Elf King with malicious intent, assuming it had to be the villain.
The Elf King might really follow the original agreement and protect humans forever. After all, he'd seen many domain creatures who valued emotions.
But this gamble was too big. It was wagering the future fate of all humans in the Central Region. He had to change the current situation and give humans in the Central Region a chance to fight back if things turned bad.
Just like him and the Mist Lord.
Even with their brotherly bond, he still had to keep something up his sleeve.
From the perspective of all humanity, keeping a backup plan was being responsible for his people. It was also insurance against any unexpected changes.
Deep in thought, Feng Qi continued flipping through the children's encyclopedia.
The book didn't describe the power structure of the Central Region's world. The content focused entirely on things inside Elf City.
It did talk about the Elf King, though.
The educational book didn't praise the Elf King, just described it as a loyal ally of humanity and that elf seeds were the most reliable companions of humans.
Just from that, it seemed the Elf King hadn't fully taken over human civilization.
On the surface, they were still allies. The Elf King didn't interfere with the operation of human civilization, and the human leaders were supposedly on equal footing with the Elf King.
Feng Qi just took that for what it was.
The real power dynamic was obvious even without thinking.
Living under someone else's roof and still wanting to stand equal to the true master? That was just a joke.
But from the descriptions in the children's encyclopedia, it seemed like the Elf King, besides expanding its territory and increasing its strength, didn't care much about anything else.
When humans went to the Elf King for help, it would agree to whatever was within its ability.
The children's encyclopedia had not only text but also lots of pictures matching the content. On the page introducing the Elf King, there was a picture of a golden, sky-reaching giant tree. Its trunk had a mouth and nose, looking really cute.
From this picture, Feng Qi could roughly imagine what the Elf King looked like.
After reading the section about the Elf King, many questions rose in his heart.
One thing was clear—the Elf King was an individual, but how could it produce so many different types of plants?
According to Xie Yuanli, the Elf King was once a spiritual plant from the domain world, and it had no kin from the moment it gained consciousness.
From that, it could be inferred that the Elf King could reproduce asexually.
But its offspring, the elf seeds, were very strange.
The abilities of the elf seeds were all kinds of strange. Some could control elements, some were focused on mental powers, others enhanced physical strength, and some even combined multiple abilities.
These elf seeds reminded Feng Qi of his own innate ability seed.
Besides that, the city was filled with countless strange plants, all derived from the Elf King.
The Elf King had used its own power to create an entire elf race with many plant-based traits.
That didn't make sense.
After exploring domain fields for so many years, he had seen all kinds of domain creatures, but a being like the Elf King—made up of countless traits and capable of producing completely different species—this was a first.
It felt like the Elf King was a creator of life.
Whatever kind of offspring it wanted, it could just create ones with that specific trait.
If the Elf King really had the power to create life, that was truly terrifying.
Especially when you looked at it from a war perspective.
If the Elf King lacked a certain kind of troop in battle, it could just make them. There would be no weakness in its army.
The more he understood, the more he felt the mysterious strength of the Elf King was terrifying in every way.
Thinking carefully, it made sense.
To carve out a grand main city in the danger-filled Central Region and stand strong for so many years, the Elf King, as the peak combat force, had probably grown to a level he couldn't even imagine.
What made Feng Qi regretful was that in his future dream timelines, he hadn't heard anything about the Elf King.
But he wasn't surprised.
After all, he didn't stay long in the future dream. Most of what he saw was in the Eastern Region, and he had no access to information about the Central Region.
Wait…
A sudden idea flashed through Feng Qi's mind.
He thought of a place where he could buy intel about the future across different regions.
That filthy rich guy with a whole void city to himself popped into his head.
It was none other than the Lord of Shadow City.
In one future dream line, he and the Mist Lord had gone to Shadow City and seen a trading market there.
That place didn't just sell all kinds of rare resources, it also had intel from various regions.
He clearly remembered a green-skinned little dwarf selling intel who mocked him for being broke.
Of course, he'd already gotten revenge for that.
If he could make it to Shadow City again in the future dream, maybe he could buy intel on the Central Region and learn whether the Elf King had kept its promise.
He might even get some future info on the Elf King and find out what kind of strength it would have later on.
But there was a problem right now.
Shadow City's appearance in the Eastern Region was totally random. With history constantly changing, sometimes Shadow City would show up, sometimes it wouldn't because of shifts in the timeline.
Trying to precisely control when Shadow City appeared was just unrealistic.
Thoughts swirling, Feng Qi decided he'd try his luck in all his future dream runs from now on.
If it worked, he could even have Old Mi help locate the entrance to Shadow City and send him over when the time came.
As for being detected by the Lord of Shadow City's "Eye of Truth" for having miracle energy and possibly being skinned alive—yeah, that wasn't really a problem.
No matter how strong the Lord of Shadow City was, he couldn't be stronger than future Old Mi.
With future Old Mi holding down the fort, Feng Qi didn't believe the Lord of Shadow City would dare lay a finger on him.
Thinking about it, besides Little Black, who was still a big unknown, he already had a lot of powerful allies in the future dream.
Once he dealt with Jian Ji, Mu Qing would join them too.
Lying on the sofa, his thoughts churned, and sleepiness crept in.
After more than thirty years of exploring domain fields, he'd rarely slept soundly. The domain world was full of dangers, and sleeping too deeply was very risky.
But here, he didn't have to worry about that anymore.
His body sank into the soft sofa, and Feng Qi slowly drifted into sleep, his face becoming calm.
Next to him, Little You had her face pressed against the sofa, lying flat with limbs sprawled, already fast asleep.
By the sink, Taihang was working the wooden lever, drinking different colored plant drinks.
Po Jia sat cross-legged in front of glowing moss, eyes closed, meditating and cycling his cultivation technique.
Lei Ting and his Negative Persona were having their usual bickering match.
As the view zoomed out from the window, Elf City under the night sky looked quiet and magical.
Sparkling green light dots floated in the air, decorating the city, while vibrant life was constantly infused into it by the plants created by the Elf King.
Everything here seemed so beautiful.
Only the future was unclear.
…
The next morning.
After finishing the breakfast brought by the staff on their floor, Feng Qi continued reading the encyclopedia.
Just then, the network tendrils in the corner of the room automatically extended, forming a screen-like frame in the air. As the tendrils lit up, an image appeared inside the frame.
It was Xie Yuanli, the head of the law enforcement department in the Southern District.
As his figure appeared, he spoke:
"Feng Qi, in another month, it'll be the Elf Festival. Are you interested in attending?"
"What's the Elf Festival?" Feng Qi looked puzzled.
He'd gone through most of the children's encyclopedia but hadn't yet come across anything about the Elf Festival.
Facing his question, Xie Yuanli smiled and explained:
"The Elf Festival is the day when children who turn ten get elf seeds implanted in their bodies. This festival is as important to us as the New Year, one of the biggest days of the year. Didn't you want to meet the Elf King? This is your chance. Would you like to come?"
"I'm going, definitely." Feng Qi nodded without hesitation.
He had too many questions about the Elf King.
Now that he had a chance to see it with his own eyes, he wouldn't miss it.
He was also really curious about the ceremony where humans had elf seeds implanted.