Alice stood a few steps from the well, advancing no further.
Her golden eyes stared unblinkingly at the pitch-black water.
Her body was trembling again.
This time, even her shoulders shook.
“The Sunwell…
was it also like…” The words caught in her throat, the rest breaking apart.
Halduron remained silent for a long time.
“It was different,” he finally said, his voice dry.
“The Sunwell is a tributary of the Well of Eternity.
Its energy level is far higher than this place.
Arthas corrupted it, but…
perhaps there is still hope.
Perhaps.” There was not a shred of confidence in that “perhaps.” Alice closed her eyes.
Luo Xun stood a few paces behind her, staring at her back.
She looked so fragile.
He remembered when he used to play the game and run through the Dead Scar map.
Back then, he would just hop on a mount and fly over with a *whoosh*, his mind entirely focused on quest rewards—how many badges he’d get, how much reputation he’d gain.
But standing here now, the scorched earth beneath his feet was real, and the elves standing in silent grief beside him were real.
The game had never warned him that the wind here could blow so hard it made your chest feel tight.
“Let’s go,” Halduron broke the silence.
“We must cross this place before dark.
At night in the Dead Scar…
other things come out.” The group set off again.
This time, Alice walked very slowly.
Her steps faltered; her physical strength and mental endurance had reached their absolute limits.
Luo Xun silently walked up beside her.
He didn’t support her, but simply maintained a distance of half a step.
Passing through an area where the smoke was particularly thick, Alice swayed.
Luo Xun reached out to steady her arm.
Even through her sleeve, he could feel her shivering, her body temperature unnaturally low.
“I’m…
fine,” she said, steadying herself, her voice barely a whisper.
“You’re depleting your own energy.” Through his special vision, Luo Xun could see the pale golden glow around her flickering wildly, like a dying wick.
“What are you trying to do?” Alice fell silent for a moment before replying, “I am…
feeling.
Feeling how much pain this land is in.
Feeling how the energy of death operates.
If I want to find a way to fight it, I must first understand it.” “By testing it on yourself?” “It is the most direct way.” Her voice was soft but resolute.
Luo Xun said nothing more.
He recalled researchers back on Earth who would test diseases on themselves just to understand them.
But at least they had scientific protocols.
What Alice was doing now was laying her energy wide open, directly probing the lethal death energy.
Was this woman insane?
Or was the burden on her shoulders already so heavy that she couldn’t afford to care about her own safety?
The group continued threading their way through the ruins.
Darkness fell quickly.
The thick soot completely choked out the sky, leaving neither light nor warmth.
The surroundings grew darker and colder.
The elves conjured magical lanterns—small, silver-white globes of light hovering in their palms.
But in this heavy smoke, the light barely illuminated a few paces ahead.
“There’s something up ahead,” Talia suddenly stopped, whispering.
Everyone halted.
Luo Xun narrowed his eyes, pushing his vision to its limits.
He saw them.
About two hundred paces ahead, beneath the shadows of the ruins, a few grayish-white spheres of light floated slowly.
They were dimmer and more dispersed than the trolls they had encountered during the day.
Their energy composition was strange; the core was mostly gray death energy, but clinging to the center were fragmented, chaotic remnants of arcane power.
“Wraiths,” Halduron said coldly.
“The souls of the elves who died on this land, bound by death energy, unable to find peace.
They have no reason left; they only attack the living.” “How many did you spot?” a ranger asked.
“Hard to see clearly.
Maybe eight or nine.
They’re scattered.
We can bypass them.” “Let’s bypass them,” Alice spoke up, her voice weary.
“Do not…
hurt them anymore.
They have already suffered too much.” Halduron glanced at her and nodded.
“As the Lady wishes.
We bypass.” The group changed direction, slipping through several half-collapsed, broken buildings.
The wraiths seemed to sense something, emitting faint, intermittent wails, but they did not pursue.
Luo Xun heard a young ranger behind him ask a companion in a hushed voice, “Are those really…
our people?” No one answered.
After a long silence, an older voice said, “Yes.
They were soldiers of Silvermoon City when they lived, and they died on this road.
Now…
they are just souls who cannot find their way home.” Silence fell over the group again, but Luo Xun could feel the elves’ footsteps growing even heavier.
If this were a game, an achievement would probably pop up now: [Wraiths of the Dead Scar: Avoided Combat].
He withdrew his gaze and kept walking.
As they passed a half-collapsed archway, Halduron suddenly slowed his pace to walk alongside him.
“Human,” Halduron murmured, his voice kept very low as if a thought had occurred to him.
“Back in the Ghostlands, how did you realize Kaelen was off?” Luo Xun’s heart tightened, but he kept his expression neutral.
“I saw it.” “Saw it?” “The energy on him wasn’t right.
There was gray mist beneath the gold,” Luo Xun said, choosing his words carefully.
“It was somewhat similar to what’s on these wraiths.” Halduron fell silent, his ice-blue eyes boring into him for a few seconds.
Then, he nodded, asked no further questions, and moved back to the front.
Luo Xun watched his retreating figure, pondering.
Was the general testing him, or did he genuinely want to know?
Either way, it meant Halduron wasn’t going to let the matter of Kaelen drop easily.
Which made sense.
When a traitor appeared within one’s race, anyone would want to investigate thoroughly.
Luo Xun glanced back at the ruins bathed in the dim light.
The wraiths were still drifting, repeating the final actions of their lives over and over: drawing bows, casting spells, or…
simply fleeing.
They looked like NPCs glitched in a game.
A sudden thought popped into his mind.
Among these souls, were there people who should have been famous in history?
Were there heroes whose names he had clicked on, used, or shouted while playing the game?
He didn’t know.
The history of this world was unfolding before his eyes in its roughest, most brutal form.
And he himself had become a grain of sand within this vast landscape—an anomaly that shouldn’t have existed.
If he hadn’t come, would Alice really have died in that tower?
What would have happened to House Sunfire?
Would the future of Silvermoon City have taken a massive detour?
Luo Xun felt a chill run down his spine.
He thought of those bronze dragons in Warcraft who governed time—Nozdormu and his brood.
Their job was to watch the timeline to ensure it wasn’t messed with, making sure what was meant to happen did happen.
If…
if his transmigration really changed something…
If those dragons who could manipulate time discovered a thing that “should not be here”…
Would they invite him to tea, or just delete his character outright?
“What’s wrong?” Alice noticed something amiss and turned her head.
Luo Xun inhaled deeply, pushing down the chill.
“Nothing.
I just feel like this place…
carries too much.” Alice remained silent for a long time.
“Yes,” she finally whispered, her words scattered by the night wind.
“Just like our people.” The group finally made it out of the core of the Dead Scar before the sky turned pitch black.
Up ahead, the smoke began to thin, and a few stars could be seen in the sky.
The elves pulled down their face masks and breathed deeply.
Their faces were pale, their eyes heavy.
Halduron found a relatively intact set of ruins to use as a campsite.
“We rest here tonight.
Tomorrow…
we will see Silvermoon City.” Silvermoon City.
Luo Xun looked toward the northeast.
It was pitch black in that direction; he couldn’t see a thing.
Finding a clean spot at the base of a wall, he sat down, pulled a piece of hard tack from his pack, and chewed on it silently.
Alice sat not far away, leaning against another ruined wall.
She didn’t eat anything, only looking up at the sky, her white veil fluttering in the night wind.
The moonlight cast a silver trim around her.
She looked beautiful, fragile, and incredibly hollow.
Luo Xun suddenly felt that he really might have changed something.
And that “something” was likely far heavier than he had imagined.
He glanced northeast again.
It was still pitch black.
But when dawn broke, Silvermoon City would appear right there.
What did that dazzlingly beautiful elven capital from the game actually look like now?
How would the members of House Sunfire—whose names he didn’t even know yet—look at him, the “human who saved their lady”?
And those eyes…
if they existed, those eyes watching the timeline.
He took another bite of the hard tack.
It tasted like ash.
Unfortunately, the game had never taught him how to handle a situation like this.
The night wind whistled through the ruins.
Luo Xun leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.
He couldn’t sleep.
Halduron’s question kept looping in his mind: “How did you realize Kaelen was off?” Well, he would find out at dawn.
He only hoped that what awaited him wasn’t just a deceptive welcome.