Sulen and Yuta strolled along a forest path, as if stepping into a fairy tale.

Everywhere they looked was a vibrant green, layered in shades of new green, light green, and deep green.

Looking through the Eye of All-Knowing, he could see that many of the flowers and plants in the forest were rare outside, some even extinct, only recorded in alchemical texts.

Sulen found it all fascinating, and Yuta enthusiastically pointed things out along the way.

They walked along the bluestone path deeper into the forest, about a few kilometers, when suddenly the view opened up.

Sulen realized they had left the forest and were standing on a small grassy slope.

The sight was a field of emerald green, dotted with colorful little flowers. A gentle breeze brushed their faces, carrying a refreshing fragrance that soothed their pores. Below the slope, a winding river flowed, shimmering with iridescent colors as the sunlight reflected off its surface.

Beside the river were giant trees, with small wooden houses with triangular roofs nestled in their branches, like the homes of dwarves in a fairy tale.

Daru children were playing and laughing on the grassy riverbank.

It was a peaceful and serene scene.

As if all the beauty of the world was contained within it.

Sulen gazed, momentarily captivated.

Yuta, looking at this familiar scene, had a happy smile in her eyes: "Mr. Sulen, we've arrived."

Sulen nodded. The beauty of the scene seemed to wash away the impurities of his heart. Even the restless emotions in the depths of his soul calmed down.

He carefully felt the ethereal sensation and murmured in his heart, "This is the 'Law of Nature'..."

Thinking this, Sulen took off his clown mask.

A gentle breeze brushed his face.

.......

News of Sulen and Yuta's arrival in the holy land had already been relayed to the central tribe by the patrolling sentries.

As soon as they emerged from the forest, a group of Daru children came running towards them, from the wolf tribe, bear tribe, tiger tribe, leopard tribe, and others. They shouted, "Sister Yuta!"

Yuta seemed to be well-liked in the tribe; many people knew her.

She waved happily at the group of children.

Lowering her hand, a smile played on her lips as she explained to Sulen, "To become a qualified druid, one must receive instruction from the elders in the central tribe for a long time. I lived here since I was very young, only leaving a couple of years ago."

She paused, then pointed to the children and said, "They are all apprentice druids sent to the holy land to study from various tribes."

Hearing this, Sulen understood why the soul fires of these children were so strong. Most were at the Second Rank, or even the Third Rank. This was much higher than the average of the Beastmen he had encountered in the White Deer Tribe.

In the blink of an eye, the group of children had rushed up to them.

While warmly welcoming Yuta, they also sized up Sulen, the human, with caution and wariness.

Sulen noticed this but didn't mind, wearing a friendly smile on his face.

Yuta naturally knew that the tribe was not very welcoming to humans. She introduced him earnestly: "This is Mr. Sulen. He saved my life, and he also saved the White Deer Tribe."

Hearing this, the glares in the eyes of the Daru children lessened.

But before she could finish, the wolf tribe boy leading the group saw the wolf tribe amulet hanging around Sulen's neck. His gaze suddenly sharpened, and he asked in disbelief, "Sister, did you give your natal wolf claw to this human?"

Yuta blushed slightly, seeming to think of something. She smiled gently and replied with something: "%&……%&*.”

They were communicating in the Daru language, which Sulen didn't understand.

But at that moment, he clearly felt that the gazes that had softened were suddenly burning with anger.

Sulen was a bit baffled. What did Yuta say? Why did these kids suddenly become so hostile?

Yuta didn't translate their conversation. She simply smiled and introduced the wolf tribe boy who seemed the most hostile, saying, "Mr. Sulen, this is my younger brother, Aku."

Sulen asked curiously, "Your real brother?"

"Yes."

Yuta had a doting expression on her face. "He's just a mischievous kid. Don't mind him."

Hearing his sister say this, Aku, like a rebellious youth, said with a face full of dissatisfaction, "Human, do you dare to fight me?!"

As soon as he said this, the energetic tiger and leopard Beastmen behind him roared in eagerness.

The Daru druids all learned the common human language. These apprentice druids might not speak it fluently, but they made their emotions clear.

Sulen understood that these guys wanted to beat him up.

But, why?

He was a bit baffled, not knowing how he had offended these little druids.

Before Sulen could ask, Yuta interjected, staring at the group of brats and scolding them good-naturedly, "Aku, Gail... stop it. Mr. Sulen is very strong. Even if you all ganged up, you wouldn't be able to beat him."

Sulen glanced at her. This way of mediating seemed like adding fuel to the fire?

Sure enough, the fire in the eyes of the group of teenagers intensified, and they clamored to duel on the spot.

Aku also said unyieldingly, "Hmph, how is that possible! I am the future first warrior of the White Wolf tribe! I must let this human know how strong I am!"

Yuta rolled her eyes at him, mocking him with the superior tone only a big sister could use. "You can't even beat me. How do you expect to beat Mr. Sulen?"

These words were spoken in the common language, which Sulen understood.

He glanced at Yuta out of the corner of his eye, feeling that something was strange about her way of mediating.

Yuta, however, didn't seem to care, as if this was a custom in the Daru tribe. She smiled and said, "Don't mind them. They're just a bunch of kids. Sometimes, a beating is all they need to behave."

"..."

Sulen was speechless and didn't really want to beat up this group of brats.

She paused, then blinked her eyes and added meaningfully, "In our Daru tribe, Aku is the king of the kids. Beating him up will save Mr. Sulen a lot of trouble."

"..."

Hearing this, Sulen didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

How could a sister want her brother to be beaten up so much?

.......

With Yuta, his sister, stopping them, the duel ultimately didn't happen.

However, more and more Daru people gathered to watch Sulen, the human.

Even more teenagers wanted to challenge him to a duel.

Sulen also realized that it seemed to be because of the wolf claw amulet that Yuta had given him?

Yuta didn't say anything, so he didn't mind.

At this moment, an acquaintance of Sulen's came to greet him from the riverside village, calling out from afar, "Mr. Sulen, long time no see."

Sulen recognized him immediately: "Elder Pasu!"

This was the bear tribe elder who had bought that batch of slaves at the auction in Jadurant Port.

He had been worried about what might have happened to that group of Daru people who had returned across the sea, so seeing him now, he felt a sense of relief.

Pasu greeted him warmly, "I didn't expect we would meet again."

Saying this, he said to the Daru people gathered around him, "This is the human warrior who saved me and my people, Mr. Sulen."

Hearing this, Sulen felt that the gazes in the crowd softened again.

Many older Daru people smiled kindly at him, and Sulen responded politely.

After introducing him, Pasu added, "Mr. Sulen, we can catch up later. The chieftain and elders know you're coming and are waiting for you."

Sulen nodded, "Okay."

He had come all this way, and he really needed to take care of the main business first: to deliver Mirror's message and ask the chieftain about the problem of mental distortion.

The group walked towards the village.

Stepping across the iridescent stream on the shallow stone beach, they arrived at a grove of trees, mostly elms and ashes. They weren't dense, but they were all very large. On those giant trees, which took dozens of people to encircle, were small tree houses like colorful mushrooms.

Sulen saw little heads popping out of the houses, curiously sizing up the human.

Almost all of the Daru people in the Emerald Holy Land had never seen a human in their lives.

Oh, no, that was true before yesterday.

Now, here was the second one.

Sulen had been wondering who the warrior in the Daru prophecy would be.

As he walked, he actually bumped into one.

There weren't many artificial structures in the tree house village, only stone-paved paths and seats.

But in the center of the village were several large stone tablets.

Each stone tablet was as large as a dozen blackboards.

Because they were so ancient, the stone tablets were covered in moss and vines.

At this moment, a person wearing a red cloak was standing in front of the stone tablets, carefully studying the inscriptions.

Even just from the back, Sulen recognized that this was a human.

Because the Daru people wore animal skin clothing, while a red cloak was a high-end textile from the human world.

Even more coincidentally, Sulen knew this person in the cloak!

.......

The crowd walked over, and the noise caused the cloaked person, who was carefully studying the inscriptions, to turn around.

It was a young girl with flaxen braids and freckles on her face.

"Katyusha?"

Sulen had been wondering who the "prophesied one" of the Daru tribe would be, but he never expected it to be the noble lady who had returned his ring and given him a [Star Amulet].

Katyusha also saw Sulen and seemed surprised to see another human.

But then, she seemed to recognize something.

Although Sulen wasn't wearing a mask, the aura around him and the amulet on his waist made her feel familiar. She asked tentatively, "Mr. Nicholas?"

Seeing that she had recognized him, Sulen didn't pretend not to know her and replied, "Miss Katyusha, what are you doing here?"

Hearing him respond, Katyusha's eyes lit up immediately, like she had met an old friend in a foreign land. "Oh, it really is you!"

She ran over happily and said, "My family and I came to the forest to look for meteorites, and then we happened to encounter the Daru tribe being captured by slave hunting teams. By chance, I was able to help a little bit. Then, they invited me to come here as a guest..."

Sulen understood, so that's what happened.

He naturally knew that this girl had come to the Icefield to look for meteorites. There were many slave hunting teams in the forest, so it wasn't strange to run into them.

Meeting an acquaintance, Katyusha seemed very excited, but her expression suddenly froze.

She seemed to remember something embarrassing, and a blush instantly spread across her fair neck. She asked timidly, "Last time I got drunk, I troubled Mr. Nicholas to send me back. Um... I didn't do anything too rude, did I?"

Sulen smiled and shook his head, taking it as a response.

Seeing that the two knew each other, Yuta, Pasu, and the rest of the Daru tribe were also very surprised.

So, the two "warriors" knew each other?

Yuta was very familiar with Sulen, so she asked directly, "Mr. Sulen, do you know each other?"

Sulen nodded, "Yes, we met twice in Snowstorm City before."

Yuta said, "Oh."

Hearing this name, Katyusha blinked, seemingly curious about the name "Sulen."

Sulen didn't explain much, just laughed dryly.

He had too many enemies, so he had gotten used to using aliases.

He said again, "The chieftain's waiting for me. I'll talk to you later."

Katyusha nodded politely, "Okay."

.......

After taking only a few steps, Katyusha returned to the stone tablet, seemingly planning to continue studying the text.

Sulen glanced at it. The strange symbols were Daru script.

Katyusha could understand Daru script?

And she was reading it with great interest?

Perhaps sensing his gaze, Katyusha explained with an excited expression, "This is the [Lay of Eoghsam]! Eoghsam was one of the greatest wandering poets of the Daru tribe, even of the entire continent. He traveled in the human world and left behind many beautiful poems. My family is fortunate enough to have some fragments... I never thought there would be complete poems here!"

As she spoke, she acted like a fanatical little fangirl, not holding back her praise, "Oh, these poems are simply wonderful. Mr. Nicholas, when you're done with your business, I'll read them to you... that will definitely be the most delightful experience in the world."

"Okay!"

Sulen nodded.

So the stone tablets recorded poems.

On the way here, Sulen had learned a lot about the customs of the Daru tribe through Yuta.

One of the most distinctive things about the Daru tribe was that, although they had writing, their inheritance, especially their magic, was not recorded in any books.

In their words, the textual analysis of the predecessors can indeed allow us to quickly understand an abstract concept, but it also limits our vision and solidifies certain ideas. People's knowledge is different, and the worlds they perceive are different. Even when looking at the same passage of text, their understanding is different.

The Daru people believed that everything they had was given by the gods, and that anything recorded in writing must have been distorted. "Not establishing writing" was the only way to approach the will of God.

This was also the most important reason why, after the "Battle of Cursed Valley," no high-level druid warriors could communicate with the gods, and the inheritance was directly cut off.

It sounded incredible, even "superstitious," but the Daru tribe had many top experts in the past, which meant that this method of inheritance must have been "reasonable" to some extent.

Sulen guessed that "divine revelation" might be like an enlightenment, which could only be understood and not expressed in words.

But there was one exception: poetry.

Poetry was not a niche literary skill, but one of the rules that could truly condense divinity.

The Daru tribe worshiped the God of Nature, who was said to be a high-level deity who had condensed the divine characteristics of nature, poetry, and peace.

Sulen didn't understand the difference between these deities, but listening to Yuta's description, the God of Nature seemed to be of a much higher rank than the fallen angel in Dawn City.

Also because of this belief, the Daru tribe was a wise race that historically produced wandering poets.

Almost all of the top experts of the Daru tribe were poets!

.......

Although Sulen didn't understand poetry, he also knew from books that the poems created by those top wandering poets were no different in essence from "arcane secrets," containing certain special rules.

He had also heard Mirror mention the [Lay of Eoghsam], which was even more valuable than [Isaac's Alchemical Notes].

The stone tablets of the Daru tribe in front of him were truly priceless treasures.

But Sulen was also curious, Katyusha actually understood the Daru language?

Although he had met her more than once, she had also explained her origins clearly.

Everything was as perfect as a story.

Sulen always felt that this noble lady was becoming more and more mysterious.