Alice looked at the conflicted expression on Luo Xun’s face and suddenly let out a sigh.
“What, scared?” There was a hard-to-describe emotion underlying her voice, like self-deprecation.
“Don’t worry about it.
Most people react just like you when they hear about my family.” “A little bit,” Luo Xun admitted honestly, his tone as casual as if they were chatting about the weather.
“The Sunwell’s guardian family.
It sounds pretty intimidating.” Intimidating.
Hearing that word, Alice blanked for a moment.
Then her eyes narrowed, the corners wrinkling slightly.
Beneath her white veil, the corners of her mouth curved upward, bringing a touch of life even to her brow.
This guy was truly honest.
Ever since she could remember, people had constantly put on performances in front of her.
Some chose to act completely indifferent, while others chose warm obsequiousness.
Raised in those circles since childhood, Alice had a sharp intuition for what lay beneath the surface.
Yet this human before her—she stole another glance at him—seemed entirely devoid of that subtly uncomfortable aura of opportunism.
Where on earth did this guy come from?
“But then again,” Luo Xun’s tone shifted, becoming a mix of serious and casual teasing, “guarding the Sunwell…
sounds like your family shoulders quite a heavy burden.” Alice was slightly taken aback, unsure if he meant it or had just said it in passing.
But he had said “shouldering burdens,” not “extremely powerful.” “Powerful” was for outsiders.
Others thought guarding the Sunwell made them prestigious, influential, and glorious.
But “shouldering burdens” meant responsibility; when crisis struck, others could run, but they could not.
She could hear the difference between the two.
Alice lowered her eyelashes, her voice very quiet.
“…Yes.” “And your father is…?” Luo Xun couldn’t help but ask, trying his best to keep his voice level.
“Rommath Sunfire,” Alice replied, slightly embarrassed.
“The Chief Guardian of the Sunwell, and the…
real guiding force in Silvermoon City’s Magisters’ Convocation.” Rommath.
Luo Xun knew that name.
In the game, this man was Prince Kael’thas’s advisor, the Grand Magister of Silvermoon City, and he made frequent appearances.
But he had never heard of the surname “Sunfire.” Was it a pseudonym?
Or…
was the “game lore” he knew completely different from the “true history” here?
Or perhaps he had been too busy farming dungeons back then and skipped important lore?
Luo Xun didn’t press further.
Staring at the pitch-black forest trail ahead, the muffled thud of hawkstrider hooves echoed in his ears.
For the differences to be this vast was…
a bit off.
“What are you thinking about?” Alice asked.
Luo Xun pulled back his stray thoughts.
“Nothing.
Just didn’t expect that a casual helping hand would lead to such an extraordinary figure.” Alice turned her head.
Under the moonlight, her golden eyes were remarkably clear.
“Status doesn’t matter.
Back there, I was just a dying ordinary person.
You helped me, and that’s enough.” She sounded sincere.
But Luo Xun knew things weren’t that simple.
How could an elven noble of such high standing wander into a ruined tower in the Ghostlands all by herself?
What was the “answer” she said she was looking for?
The questions swirled in his mind, but he didn’t voice them.
Some things were too early to ask.
Some answers would probably only be revealed once they entered Silvermoon City.
The group continued to press forward.
Around midnight, Halduron raised his hand.
The entire column froze instantly.
The hawkstriders went still, their breathing hushed.
There was movement in the woods ahead.
It wasn’t the clacking of undead bones, but a lighter, stealthier sound—like something brushing past leaves.
Luo Xun narrowed his eyes.
Within his energy vision, about a hundred meters ahead, a dozen faint gray-green dots were slowly shifting.
They had fanned out and were closing in on their position.
They weren’t undead.
The decayed gray portion of the light dots was minimal; instead, they were mostly a slimy, dark green, somewhat similar to the treant from earlier that day, but more scattered.
“Troll scouts,” Halduron’s voice was extremely low.
“Amani Headhunters.
Six—no, seven of them.
They’re searching in a sweeping formation.
They haven’t spotted us yet.” Luo Xun looked at Halduron.
This elven general hadn’t used a shred of magical detection; he had deduced the enemy’s numbers and actions purely through his hearing and sense of smell.
This was a skill forged directly on the edge of a blade.
“What’s the plan?” a ranger whispered.
“We bypass them,” Halduron said.
“Our mission is an escort, not an engagement.
Talia, lead the way.
The rest of you, keep quiet and ready your short blades.
If we bump into them, act fast.
Don’t let a single one escape.” “Yes, sir.” The female ranger with short, reddish-brown hair nimbly slipped off her hawkstrider, crouching low as she glided into the dark underbrush.
A few seconds later, an extremely faint bird call echoed from the distance—two short, one long.
“This way,” Halduron turned his hawkstrider’s head.
The detour took about twenty minutes.
The column followed Talia, traversing a ravine choked with vines and jagged rocks, without making a single sound.
When crossing a gravel slope, the rangers ahead dismounted and wrapped their mounts’ hooves, performing the action as smoothly as if they had rehearsed it a thousand times.
Finally back on the main path, Halduron raised a hand, signaling that they could breathe a sigh of relief.
“Those trolls just now,” Luo Xun asked a young ranger beside him.
“Do they roam this area often?” The young ranger glanced at him, looking rather reluctant to talk.
“They’ve been getting more active over the past few months.
The ones from Zul’Aman are testing our defenses, trying to see how much strength we have left after the destruction of the Sunwell.” “Have they allied with the undead?” The ranger’s eyes flickered, as if asking, *How would a human like you know that?* But his expression quickly turned cold again.
“There are signs.
Hard to say.
Neither trolls nor undead are good news.
It wouldn’t be surprising if they teamed up.” That made sense.
Having finished, he nudged his hawkstrider forward, wearing a posture that screamed, *Talking to you was already a massive favor.* Luo Xun didn’t mind.
High elves looked down on all other races as barbarians anyway.
To him, acquiring the information he wanted was more important than anything else.
Ahead, Alice was speaking in hushed tones with Halduron, the moonlight casting their shadows onto the ground.
The Sunfire family, Rommath Sunfire.
These two names rotated in his mind.
A family and a person that shouldn’t exist—or at least, shouldn’t exist *like this*.
The hawkstriders’ hooves rhythmically beat against the ground as the group pressed forward at a rapid pace.
Dawn was breaking.
At some point, Alice had drifted back to his side.
She whispered, “Ahead lies the Dead Scar.
Only after crossing it have we truly entered Eversong Woods.” The Dead Scar.
Luo Xun narrowed his eyes and looked ahead.
Within his energy vision, a grayish-black rift cut across the distant sky like a rotting scar on the earth, splitting the forest down the middle.
He recalled the canyon in the game, blighted by death energy.
He thought of the wandering undead, the mutated creatures, and the foul, rot-like stench that allegedly never dissipated.
*Alright, the starting zone is over.* He took a deep breath, resting his hand on his bow.
Ahead, the sky was gradually lightening.
The outline of the Dead Scar slowly materialized in the morning light.