"Hao, you're right," Elinna nodded. "Coincidentally, the Mold Spirit Energy I encountered has the ability to self-dissociate. So, it voluntarily separated into two smaller strands of Mold Spirit Energy. One infiltrated Liu Erwa's body and secretly took Liu Erwa's soul back to the mortal realm. Its ostensible purpose was to help Liu Erwa find his parents from his previous life. But in reality, it wanted Liu Erwa to act as bait when necessary, ensuring that while it escaped this timeline, it could divert the attention of the Mold Spirit Energy hunter patrolling nearby timelines, thus gaining more time to flee."
"So, I guess the other strand of Mold Spirit Energy should be in you, right?" Hao Yun asked.
"Correct," Elinna admitted. "Because assisting Mold Spirit Energy was extremely risky, it suggested that after the task was completed, I should try to find the origin of black magic as soon as possible and comprehend its essence. That way, I could possess the ability to conceal my identity like Mold Spirit Energy. At the same time, I could break free from the control of the spirit realm and live the life I desired, incognito."
"However, finding the origin of black magic is no easy task. So, for safety's sake, Mold Spirit Energy also gave me a small portion of itself, so that after I exposed my involvement with Mold Spirit Energy before I comprehended the essence of black magic, I would have the ability to escape from the Nether Spirit Realm."
Elinna sighed helplessly and shrugged. "Alas! After that incident, I frequently returned to Elf Planet through various job opportunities, attempting to search for the origin of black magic. But after all this time, I still haven't found any clues about the origin of black magic. Later, I heard that Liu Erwa's situation had been exposed. So, I felt it was best to hide using the power of Mold Spirit Energy."
Speaking of which, Elinna chuckled self-deprecatingly and said, "Unfortunately, due to the overwhelming temptation of mastering the ultimate secret of black magic and my concern for my mother, after much deliberation, I finally decided to return to Elf Planet."
"But I don't understand. Since you could secretly return to Elf Planet using Mold Spirit Energy, why did you have to make such a high-profile appearance? Aren't you afraid that the Nether Spirit Realm wouldn't notice you?" Hao Yun asked, voicing another question from his mind.
"Oh, you mean that appearance," Elinna hesitated. "It's simple. Without that appearance, how would so many people worship me as a deity and willingly serve me? We understand the management mechanism of the Upper Spirit Realm on the Lower Realm. So, Lord Hao, you just need to know that my purpose in doing this was actually to ensure that I could delay here for more time."
"Anyway, I know that even if I didn't do this, you would soon discover my whereabouts here. Since that's the case, I might as well take a more proactive approach to position myself advantageously. At least this way, you would hesitate to arrest me. After all, it's not a good idea for Upper Realm priests to have direct conflicts with Lower Realm creatures, which could disrupt the stability of the timelines."
As expected, Elinna's ostentatious appearance on Elf Planet was motivated by the same reasons speculated by Hao Yun and Dao Lao before. However, this also made Hao Yun and Dao Lao more worried about this capture mission. Since Elinna came prepared, should they not waste any more time with her and instead act more decisively to apprehend her?
Elinna looked at the wary expressions of Hao Yun and Dao Lao and said, "Besides rallying as many supporters as possible to resist the priests who might come to arrest me at any time, I've also been active here for other reasons. Because I can't stand the constant fighting between the Dark Elf and Light Elf tribes. Just look at our planet, it's been ruined by them! Of course, besides trying to resolve the conflicts on Elf Planet, another top priority for me is to find a way to free my mother from the torment of black magic."
"Oh? I thought lifting the curse of black magic from your mother would be an easy task," Dao Lao raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.
Elinna shook her head in response. "I thought so at first too. However, although I am a priest, my power and abilities are limited, plus my mother's situation is quite unique. So, lifting the curse of black magic from her is actually quite difficult."
"Why do you say that? According to your previous description, I thought with your current abilities, you should be able to easily find a way to break the curse with the potion enhanced by divine power," Hao Yun asked, puzzled.
"With my current abilities, it's indeed easy to dispel the curse that Anselin used to curse our tribe. But to lift the black magic Anselin placed on my mother afterward, or should I say, to replace the black magic she cast on my mother, that's not an easy task," Elinna replied.
At this point, Hao Yun noticed that whenever Elinna mentioned her mother, she spoke of her mother enduring torment from black magic, not from a curse.
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Curious, Hao Yun cautiously asked again, "May I ask, what kind of black magic has afflicted your mother? How could it be that even with the black magic enhanced by divine power, you couldn't remove it?"
"Alas! Speaking of this matter, we have to go back to when our clan's territory was invaded by the Dark Elf tribe," Elinna said with a bitter smile. Hao Yun could tell that Elinna seemed reluctant to recall the following memories.
According to Elinna's description, her mother in her previous life was named Agnes Lorge Adagwa, an outstanding white mage who was somewhat famous locally. Agnes Lorge cherished her only and youngest daughter, and Elinna, in turn, was deeply dependent on her mother from an early age, accompanying her mother closely as she practiced white magic. It was this close bond that sparked Elinna's interest in practicing white magic. Under her mother's careful guidance, Elinna quickly displayed remarkable talent in white magic.
Once again, the time came when the territory of the Agua family was invaded by the Dark Elf army. In order to save her people, Elinna was forced to join the Dark Elves.
In the eyes of the Agua family members, pledging allegiance to the Light Elf tribe was the highest honor their family members had to uphold. Despite facing ostracism and betrayal from other families, the stubborn Agua family still believed that their primary goal was to preserve more lives. Letting the Agua family act as a rearguard for other families was an honor they couldn't shirk, and they had to do so wholeheartedly. Bowing down or compromising would compromise their loyalty to the Light Elf tribe and the White Magic Association, which was the only honor belonging to the Agua family.
It's easy to imagine how bewildered and angry Elinna's family members were when she agreed to Anselin's request to join the Dark Elves and begin practicing black magic. They didn't care about Elinna's supposed good intentions; they only saw her as a weak coward, damaging the reputation of the Agua family and earning herself the label of a traitor.
Under the influence of this almost pathological loyalty, the Agua family even blamed Elinna for the deaths of those forced to return and attack their own people. If Elinna had firmly refused from the beginning or even resisted in a more extreme way instead of hesitating and allowing the Dark Elves to dictate terms, the Agua family members wouldn't have fallen victim to the curse of black magic, nor would they have perished at the hands of the enemy in such a humiliating way.
In short, Elinna's father and the other family members attributed all the hardships endured by the Agua family to Elinna. It was as if the reason the Agua family's territory was breached by the Dark Elf army wasn't due to their own weaknesses or the desertion and betrayal of other families, but solely because of Elinna's weakness and betrayal.
Especially after Elinna joined the Dark Elf army and began attacking the Light Elf tribe, the Agua family's anger towards her turned into shame, hatred, and hostility. Led by her father, the family members refused to meet with Elinna.
Even though Elinna knew that the other elf families had been slandering the Agua family long before the Dark Elf army invaded their territory, hoping to see the Agua family destroyed by the Dark Elves, and even trying to brand them as traitors, she was indifferent to it all.
What made Elinna even more painful was that upon hearing this news, her father only coldly remarked that if it weren't for Elinna's exceptional talent and her existence, none of the situations she described would have existed.
Her father's icy response and the family's increasingly deep-seated hatred made Elinna feel very distressed. In her view, everything she did was to save her family and punish those Light Elf tribesmen who not only didn't assist her family in critical moments but also kept throwing stones at them. Elinna firmly believed she had done nothing wrong and that those Light Elf tribesmen didn't deserve her respect.
With such severe ideological differences between Elinna and her family members, their relationship reached an all-time low. However, to Elinna's slight comfort, her mother, Agnes Lor, although she thought Elinna's allegiance to the Dark Elves was inappropriate, she could understand Elinna's thoughts and difficulties. Of course, her peace-loving mother also hoped many times that Elinna could combine what she had learned from the Dark Elves with what she had learned from the Light Elves. Moreover, her mother also hoped that one day Elinna would find a way to end the war, reconcile the two elf tribes, and return to a peaceful life.
Although Anselin had promised to provide regular doses of curse-removal potions to the remaining members of the Agua territory, her mother's body was already weak, and the long-term torment of black magic curses had visibly aged her. Watching her mother struggling to stroke her long hair, Elinna forced back the tears welling up in her eyes.
Elinna clenched her fists tightly, once again firm in her resolve. Even if she became a scapegoat for the Agua family because of her actions, even if she was expelled from the family, she was determined to fulfill her agreement with Anselin as soon as possible, obtain a potion to completely remove the curse, and rescue her people from the torment of black magic curses.
From then on, Elinna devoted herself more attentively to following the Dark Elves in their campaigns. In each battle, as she gradually grew into a rare fierce general in the Dark Elf army with both black and white magic, the Dark Elf army forcibly pushed the border between the two tribes a hundred miles further into the interior of the Light Elf territory and seized control of many planting bases for Amande flowers and Agnes herbs.
With the war going well, the Light Elves retreated even further, rebuilding the borderlines there, effectively acknowledging the Dark Elves' occupation of the lost land. Elinna also practiced black magic while fighting in the frontlines, bringing her black magic strength close to the edge of the second advancement in a short time.
However, as the price of growth, Elinna's once proud snow-white skin had turned purple-blue due to her practice of black magic. Her originally innocent and pure face became more cold and wicked, filled with murderous intent. But compared to her appearance, the greater transformation was in Elinna's heart. As her strength continued to grow, Elinna began to crave power and gradually developed dangerous thoughts of resorting to any means to obtain greater power.