Chapter 00022: The Forest of Warm Spring Light
# The Forest of Warm Spring Light
Chapter 22
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 22: The Springlight Woodland
Lia skipped and hopped over a foul-smelling puddle on her way to the treehouse on the other side of the pond.
There was no longer any trace of green grass in this place.
All the herbaceous plants had turned yellow, and some had even started to rot.
Most of the trees had died as well, leaving only the lonely treehouses exposed, no longer shaded by leaves.
Due to the significant change in the environment, Lia had to look closely to recognize the path to her good friend Shanafi’s home.
As she got closer, Lia began to hear singing.
Following the direction of the song, she approached quietly and hid behind the trunk of a dead tree.
Not far off, a group of elves had formed a circle, and in the center, a shallow pit had been dug.
A single elf lay inside, clutching a bow, as if she were merely asleep.
“Emerald Court, your eternal home.”
“White trees and green grass, your trusted companions.”
“Even elves must face their end.”
“You shall be split in two.”
“Your soul will return to Avando, your body shall remain behind.”
“The forest that nurtured you shall also accept your end.”
The song was purely vocal, with no accompaniment, but the elves’ unique voices gave it a haunting, ethereal quality.
Lia didn’t like the song—it was too sorrowful.
So, after glancing once, she turned away and continued on her way to visit her friend Shanafi.
It wasn’t long before she saw a small treehouse hanging on the side of a massive beech tree.
That was Shanafi’s home.
Looking up also allowed her to spot a pigeon flapping its wings, circling above a dead treetop.
Lia joyfully waved at the pigeon.
“Xiaobai!”
Though she called it Xiaobai—a name meaning "Little White"—it was actually a gray pigeon.
Still, the feathers on its belly were arguably whiter than those of a typical gray pigeon.
The pigeon obediently landed on Lia’s shoulder and affectionately nuzzled her cheek.
“Where have you been, Xiaobai? I had pine nuts prepared for you yesterday!”
The pigeon lowered its head as if to apologize, then lifted one of its legs to show Lia.
“What’s that? A necklace?”
A silver necklace, with a pendant resembling a slightly opened hand, was wrapped around Xiaobai’s leg.
Seeing this, Lia puffed up her cheeks and pretended to be angry.
“You snuck off with something from the city folk again, didn’t you?”
Xiaobai turned its head away as if to say, “My bad,” but from the look of it, chances were it would do it again.
“Xiaobai! Look at me. You have to return this later, or I’ll get mad!”
The pigeon cooed twice in acknowledgment.
Seeing this, Lia gently stroked its feathers.
“Be good. Big Sister said we mustn’t take things from city people. Come with me to see Shanafi first. I’ll give you pine nuts later.”
Lia climbed up the tree trunk via a hollow, passing by a squirrel family's nest.
She reached in and left them a handful of raspberries in passing.
However, for some reason, the once merry squirrel family that would usually come bounding out for the fruit was eerily quiet today.
Xiaobai stayed perched on Lia’s shoulder, and before long, Lia reached the treehouse and knocked.
“Shanafi! Are you feeling any better?”
She knocked several more times, but got no response from inside.
Lia felt puzzled.
She gently pushed the door and crept inside.
“Shanafi?”
A gloomy chill permeated the room.
Even though sunlight poured in from the treehouse’s side window, it seemed as if a pale blue filter hung in the air.
“So you are at home. Shanafi, wake up.”
Not far from the door, Shanafi lay on the floor with only a grass mat covering her back, turned towards Lia.
Lia set down the basket she carried and reached out to gently nudge Shanafi.
But the touch at her fingertips was as icy as a block of ice.
“Shanafi? Aren’t you cold?”
At that moment, Lia finally sensed something was wrong.
She reached out and turned Shanafi over.
The lifeless head sagged helplessly against the floorboards, dark and foul-smelling blood seeping from her mouth and nose.
Her skin had completely lost its glow and elasticity, shriveled like that of a dried corpse.
When Shanafi's head turned, her eye dropped from its socket, nearly rolling up against Lia’s knee.
Thick, putrid blood and bodily fluids left a gruesome trail across the wooden floor.
Memories of laughing and playing happily with Shanafi intertwined violently with the sight of her decaying corpse, stabbing through Lia’s mind like an awl.
“No! Shanafi!”
Lia screamed involuntarily, stumbling backward in fear.
The sudden scream startled Xiaobai, who flapped its wings and flew off her shoulder, shedding a few feathers that fluttered down slowly.
Just then, Lia’s foot slipped off the edge, and she toppled out of the treehouse.
The sensation of falling lasted only a moment.
When Lia opened her eyes, she saw her elder sister Zhuoya’s face—she had been caught in her sister’s arms.
Tears instantly welled up in Lia’s eyes.
She clung tightly to her sister, crying out,
“Big Sister! Shanafi—Shanafi is…”
“I know.”
Zhuoya gently patted Lia on the back, soothing her in a soft voice.
“I know everything…”
———
After seeing off a bunch of kids who had come into the store to buy snacks, Li Chengxi sat back behind the cash register.
On the screen, Viola and the others were still escorting the bandits down the mountain.
Considering they now had prisoners to manage, the descent would likely take longer than the climb up.
There wasn’t much point in staring at that, so Li Chengxi moved his mouse and opened the map mode, intending to check if any new areas scouted by the scouts had anything interesting.
And the moment the map loaded, Li Chengxi noticed something that hadn’t been there before—a new settlement marker.
Zooming in a little, he saw that the settlement marker had appeared deep within the Distant Forest.
That made Li Chengxi scratch his head.
“This wasn’t here before, was it?”
Not long ago, he’d used the zoom function to watch a big wolf baring its fangs near this very forest.
Back then, the forest had nothing in it.
Now, there was a settlement marker?
Didn’t seem like a normal village.
Being that his scouts had been tirelessly gathering information to track down the bandits, if this were a known village, they’d have contacted them already.
His curiousity piqued.
Li Chengxi zoomed in further.
The name of the settlement read “Springlight Woodland.” Affiliation: Neutral.
Under the population tab, it listed “Tree Elf,” “Water Sprite,” “Tree Spirit,” “Pixie,” “Lantern Sprite,” and “Little Fairy.”
Although Viola’s character clearly had “High-ranking Demon Race” tagged in her profile, and many townspeople also had visible horns on their heads, Li Chengxi had always subconsciously viewed them as human.
But elves…
This was the first time he’d seen them in game.
He zoomed in again, and saw light green grass amidst the deep green forest.
A series of humble treehouses were strung along the canopy.
“Oh oh! They really are elves.”
While the chibi-style pixel figures weren’t that detailed, opening their character artwork revealed much more.
The local elves were beautiful, wheat-skinned beings, most of whom had dark green or dark blue hair, with a few sporting deep blue.
Otherwise, they matched the textbook image of elves: pointed ears, with nearly every one of them being handsome or beautiful.
However, their way of life looked very primitive.
Their clothes were made of bark or leaves, their feet in straw sandals, and there was no sign of them using fire.
Maybe that was the difference between “tree elves” and regular elves.
With the elves now in play, the world instantly felt more magical.
Until now, it had seemed more like a medieval simulator.
But come to think of it, why had this settlement only now become visible?
Scouting new areas required NPCs with Devotion to be sent there.
No matter how small, the skill wouldn’t work without it.
Everything previously uncovered on the map had been explored by devoted scouts.
In this kind of dense forest, cavalry scouts wouldn’t just charge into the underbrush blindly.
Li Chengxi kept clicking on the tree elves’ ability panels within the settlement interface.
Then his gaze fell on one thing in particular:
A pigeon perched atop the head of an elven child…
(End of Chapter)