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【God Has No Form: There are five in a bottle. Shall I give you two?】

【I Love Survival Game: Did the survival game tell you how many to take?】

【God Has No Form: No.】

【I Love Survival Game: Then I guess there’s no limit on how many you can take. Go ahead and take as many as you want.】

【I Love Survival Game: I’m heading out to hunt down the Ice and Snow Boss.】

【God Has No Form: Let’s talk later, then.】

When Qiyu stepped out of the territory again, he clearly sensed a difference. His avatar’s resistance to the cold had increased.

To be precise, his body’s physical attributes had improved across the board.

Unfortunately, after returning from the resource zone, his stats had turned into “*” symbols, so he couldn’t see the specific values.

However, based on Qiyu’s own feelings, if the numbers were displayed, every stat would undoubtedly show a change far greater than advancing one full class level.

He looked down at the thick layer of snow beneath his feet, then tilted his head back to watch the vast swaths of snowflakes drifting down from the sky.

A strange thought arose in his mind: if he so desired, even a single light, floating snowflake could support his weight.

The wind, the snow—all the elements of nature—made him feel a deep sense of intimacy and joy. An elf…?

When night falls, he’ll go find Aegnor and ask him about it.

For the rest of the morning, he roamed the Star Forest on his magic sled, and—not surprisingly—came across another player’s territory.

This time, the player spotted him and even waved enthusiastically at him, tilting her head back.

“I Love Survival Game, is that you?” From a distance, Qiyu heard her excited shout. 

Qiyu: “……”

Just as I thought—you Earth people are really something else. You’re this friendly even to complete strangers.

With an air of aloofness, he ordered the elemental spirit to pick up speed, and the magic sled streaked across the sky like a shadow.

By evening, the regional chat was abuzz with reports that another player had encountered the top-ranked player. Some even tagged him, asking if it was really him. Qiyu ignored them.

He tallied up his day’s haul.

He had collected a total of 215 frost gems today.

So far, he had collected a total of 983 frost gems. After deducting the cost of the magic sled and the cost of the activity-specific clothing set, he still had 833 left.

That was enough to redeem all the remaining items.

He didn’t redeem them right away—he didn’t even eat dinner—but instead pulled out *Advanced Magic Array Theory and Practice* and opened it.

Aegnor had mentioned before that he left a spiritual imprint on all his works, and that if anyone needed to contact him, they could simply open this book. However, Qiyu rarely disturbed him outside of class time.

This time, he really did have something important to discuss.

This time, Aegnor’s mental space was a garden.

The garden featured a swing and a massive trellis covered with fully ripened grapes; large clusters of purple fruit hung down from it. Beneath the trellis stood an elegant set of lounge chairs and a small table; sitting there, one could reach out and pluck a grape to eat.

It looked so comfortable!

The elf mage sat on the swing next to him, flipping through a book.

Aware that he had arrived, he didn’t even look up: “I knew you’d come. You’re quite patient.” He had originally thought that Qiyu would come as soon as he returned from the resource zone.

Upon hearing this, Qiyu quickly walked up to him and said earnestly, “Master Aegnor, you know what happened to me, don’t you?”

The elf closed the book in his hands and finally looked up: “Of course.”

Qiyu had never been one for beating around the bush, especially not with a Master he trusted so deeply.

So he cut straight to the point: “I ran into an elf in the resource zone. It seems he mistook me for one of his own kind.”

He stated plainly, “I was flooded with a whole bunch of memories, and I was even given a storage ring filled with a lot of extremely valuable items.”

He held out his right hand to show the elf: “I’ve tried to take it off, but I just can’t.”

No one knows how it happened, but the ring seemed to be bound to him. Not even he could take it off. After hearing what he said, the spirit on the swing remained silent for a very, very long time.

Finally, he uttered just five words: “They didn’t make a mistake.” 

Qiyu:?

He was completely taken aback!

He asked cautiously, “Master Aegnor, you’re not joking, are you?”

He was met with a cold, dismissive glance.

Qiyu was completely unfazed by such a cold stare, and he explained his thoughts: “But I’m clearly a human. I’ve been human my whole life, before… well, before I came here, there was never anything about me that was out of the ordinary.”

“Besides, I’m an adult now—I’m no longer a cub.”

There were many things he couldn’t wrap his head around.

If it was because of the survival game that he’d awakened some kind of bloodline—just like that “sea nymph player” he’d encountered in the arena earlier—

Then the attitude the Elven tribe displayed didn’t make sense.

The way they treated him didn’t seem like how they’d treat an outsider with an “evolved bloodline”—it was as if he were one of their own. In fact, they were practically doting on him.

After hearing his words, Aegnor didn’t fall silent this time, though his tone wasn’t quite as cold. He quickly repeated what he’d just said: “They didn’t make a mistake.”

“You were never human.”

Qiyu was taken aback: “But I…”

He felt a bit conflicted; he didn’t know whether this seemingly mysterious elf actually knew about the Survival Game. Even if Aegnor himself was someone he’d met through the Survival Game.

He hesitated for a moment: “But I’m not even from around here.”  

“I know.”

The elf seemed to understand his concerns, as well as the unspoken words he hadn’t voiced.

“That’s why you were brought back.”

Qiyu jerked his head up.

He stared in disbelief at the tall elf standing before him: “You… do you mean what I think you mean?” 

Did the elf know where he came from?

The elf did not answer directly: “Qiyu, think back carefully. Do you have parents? Do you have any relatives? When do your memories begin?”

Qiyu couldn’t answer.

He had indeed wondered about this before: he’d always had an exceptionally good memory since childhood—so good that he could remember things after seeing them just once. Yet his earliest memories only went back to when he was nearly ten years old.

Even his age was just a rough estimate based on his appearance, as determined by the Base. The people at the Base told him he’d been found and brought back by an exploration team.

All his memories and understanding of the world began at the base.

Later, the base was destroyed, and everyone he knew was gone, leaving him alone to wander in the post-apocalyptic world.

He wasn’t the only child in the post-apocalyptic world with no known background and no parents or relatives, so he didn’t question this explanation. He stared blankly at the elf in front of him.

Aegnor said solemnly, “It was our failure to let you grow up alone in a strange… place.” “I’m sorry.”

He hesitated for a moment, but finally raised his hand and gently placed it on the top of Qiyu’s head, stroking it very gently twice:

“We’ve been looking for you for a very, very long time.”

Qiyu stared at him without blinking.

After a moment, he said earnestly, “Although what you said is very touching, there doesn’t seem to be any benefit at all in lying to me.” 

“But how can I prove that what you’re saying is true?”

Aegnor:“……”

It was a good thing the child had grown up and become so wary.

When he thought about where the boy had grown up, he found it even harder to stay angry. He explained patiently, “That’s why I’ve prepared the items from the storage ring for you.”

The conversation had come full circle.

He told Qiyu, “Under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t be in this state right now. Your elven bloodline concealed itself to protect you, which is why you grew up looking like a human.”

“The things in your ring aren’t really treasures—they’re food that every elf must eat from the moment they’re born. Just as humans need to eat and drink to grow healthy.”

Elves are born powerful and have near-eternal lifespans. Their childhood is also very long, and in order to grow into their most perfect form, they need to absorb enormous amounts of energy throughout their entire growth period.

These matters were never meant for a young elf to worry about on their own; the clan has a responsibility to care for every newborn elf. For Qiyu, it was already far, far too late.

“Your essence is severely depleted,” Aegnor explained. “Or to put it another way, the energy required for the Awakening of the Bloodline has never been fully supplied.”

This young one before him, who had endured such a turbulent fate, had skipped the elves’ long childhood entirely, growing from a toddler to an adult in human form.

In other words, he needs to make up for the energy required for an elf to grow from infancy to adulthood.

That energy infusion in the resource zone was barely enough to reach the threshold for “awakening.”

Having roughly explained the reason, Aegnor could tell that the wary youngster before him still didn’t fully believe him.

He continued to present “evidence”:

“I know you came from somewhere else.”

“I also know that your little dragon rider friend comes from somewhere else, too.” 

“Your ‘homelands’ aren’t the same.”

He spoke these startling words in a calm tone: “Given certain rules that must be followed, there are some things I can’t state too explicitly. But you understand what I mean, don’t you?”

Qiyu was truly stunned this time.

Of course he understood. Aside from not specifically mentioning “the Apocalypse” and “Earth,” what was the difference between what Aegnor said and stating it outright? He stood quietly where he was; unusually, his mind was completely empty—a total blank.

Aegnor didn’t speak either; he simply sat there quietly with him.

It was unclear how much time had passed before Qiyu snapped out of his daze.

“Well… I…”

His thoughts were a bit jumbled; many words were on the tip of his tongue, so he blurted out the first thing that came to mind: “Then… am I an orphan? Do I have any family?” Aegnor’s gaze softened slightly.

He said softly, “Elves are different from humans; they aren’t born through the union of a man and a woman. Elves are the fruits that grow on the Mother Tree, and the Mother Tree is the mother of all elves. And all elves are your brothers and sisters.”

“Qiyu, you have many, many relatives.” 

“We have never abandoned you.”

“You’ve survived on your own in this treacherous world for nineteen years.”

“But in your true homeland, your family has been searching for you for a very, very long time—far longer than just a few dozen nineteen-year periods.” 

“……”

After returning to his domain from the spiritual realm, Qiyu sat beneath the Tree of Wisdom, lost in thought for a very, very long time. He couldn’t say he felt overwhelmed with emotion, nor could he describe his feelings as complicated.

To be precise, although his brain had received all the information and firmly committed it to memory, it hadn’t fully absorbed or processed it.

This left him feeling somewhat disconnected from that information—to the point where he even wondered if he was dreaming. After staring into space for quite a while, he snapped back to reality and made an important decision: I need to get some sleep first.

He wouldn’t check any news or respond to anyone.

Once I wake up, many things I can’t figure out now will make sense.