Unbeknownst to Lu Qiuchen, this whole incident was quietly resolved by Zhang Cheng without any fuss.
Lu Qiuchen spent three days in a state of worry.
During these three days, as the situation continued to simmer, Panda and the others never once came forward to refute the rumors.
In the end, they were labeled as opportunists who forgot their original intentions by the justice-seeking netizens watching from the sidelines.
With no major twists, the hype around the matter quickly died down.
Seeing this, Lu Qiuchen finally relaxed.
‘What should I do with the remaining time?’ Lu Qiuchen pondered this question.
Realizing she had yet to master the forbidden water magic and advanced spatial magic, she decided to seek guidance from Galefu.
As for why she didn’t approach Yin Pate, it was because she had already lost respect for him.
Yin Pate’s so-called pinnacle of legend-level power was something she believed she could surpass with just a few hundred or thousand years of effort.
He was on a completely different tier compared to Galefu, the ancient progenitor.
The fourth-tier spatial teleportation spell took a long time to cast and no longer matched her current combat strength.
Having struggled multiple times against the demon clan’s spatial blockade, Lu Qiuchen wanted to learn from Galefu an advanced teleportation that could bypass such blockades.
Lu Qiuchen went to Galefu’s residence and explained her purpose.
Galefu was happy to teach this junior and agreed to her request.
…
While learning from Galefu, Lu Qiuchen indirectly inquired about the demon clan’s movements and eventually learned that in the Eternal World, only the Drow Elf still might have ties to the demon clan.
As descendants of the High Elves, the Drow Elf were once tempted by the demon clan in ancient times, attempting to corrupt the elves’ sacred tree and holy spring.
The sacred tree and holy spring were the birthplace of the High Elves.
Every generation’s elven queen was born from the sacred tree.
Other elves would never allow the Drow to pollute it.
The Drow’s actions crossed the elves’ bottom line, causing lasting enmity between the two sides.
Eventually, the Drow lost in battles against the allied forces of Forest Elves, Light Elves, and others, and were driven out of the sacred tree’s territory.
Without the protection of the sacred tree and tainted by their past deception by the demon clan, other powers on the Northern Continent did not want a neighbor with a criminal record suddenly popping up.
As a result, the Drow were unwelcome among other races.
Finally, they had no choice but to migrate underground and no longer appeared on the Northern Continent’s surface.
Due to the corruption of demonic energy, the Drow’s originally pale skin turned deep purple, and their golden hair became silver-white.
Having lived underground for so long, their bodies grew shorter, and their appearance became drastically different from other elf races.
Despite the significant difference in appearance, the Drow still retained the agility and intelligence of elves.
They mastered the use of darkness and poison magic and possessed night vision.
In fact, they thrived in the underground world.
Because they had been shunned by other races before and although the gnomes were ugly in appearance, their simple-mindedness made them easy to command for menial tasks.
Most Drow clans maintained friendly relations with the gnomes and often went to the gnome cities to purchase goods.
Lu Qiuchen decided to use this rare idle time to search for the demon world’s entrance or other information.
This required finding the location of the Drow Elf.
Currently, her three investigative leads to return home—system inquiries, the Lu family, and the dragon race—were all dead ends.
The dragon clan required a very long period of observation before one could enter their leadership.
As for Odu, who had promised to explain why he had targeted the Knight Kingdom, he had yet to do so, clearly showing he did not trust her.
But apart from feeling anger in her heart, Lu Qiuchen was powerless.
So, she could only pin her hopes of returning home on the demon clan.
However, both the gnomes and Drow were not easy to locate.
Lu Qiuchen decided to ask around among the relatively familiar Forest Elves, hoping to gain some information.
*****
Fifteen days later, Lu Qiuchen left Galefu’s residence.
She reported her departure to the Elder Council and went to visit a Forest Elf tribe on the Northern Continent.
This Forest Elf girl, whom Lu Qiuchen had met before in the Knight Capital, had already let go of her prejudice and hatred toward dragons after playing with Fia.
She welcomed Lu Qiuchen’s arrival warmly.
However, when Weiluonika heard Lu Qiuchen mention the Drow, her face flushed with anger.
“Why are you going to seek out those shameless traitors?
Even though you are a Silver Dragon, it’s best not to get involved with the Drow.
And don’t ask any Forest Elf about them—they won’t tell you!”
No matter how earnestly Lu Qiuchen pleaded, Weiluonika refused to reveal the location of the Drow Elf tribes.
Left with no choice, Lu Qiuchen gave up and sought information from other members of the Forest Elf tribe.
True to Weiluonika’s words, whenever Lu Qiuchen inquired about the Drow from elves in the treehouses, their expressions changed rapidly and their refusals were resolute.
She was repeatedly turned away.
Lu Qiuchen had to settle for asking about the gnome cities instead.
Ordinary gnomes were indeed quite foolish, but the higher-ups among them were quite smart.
Some gnome cities could even maintain good relations with both the Drow and Forest Elves, skillfully navigating between the two, which was impressive.
After obtaining the location of a gnome city friendly to the Forest Elves, Lu Qiuchen set off immediately, speeding toward the underground city entrance.
Her destination was a trade city called Zhuangersi.
This underground city’s entrance was adjacent to the Orc Kingdom, had convenient underground transport, and connected to many other gnome cities.
It was also the largest gnome city on the Northern Continent.
Using the system map, Lu Qiuchen found Zhuangersi’s entrance.
From the sky, she noticed this entrance was completely different from the Londor Ruins entrance.
The Londor Ruins and most other gnome ruins on the Southern Continent were located on plains because the gnome clans had once been powerful and were native to the Southern Continent, naturally occupying the best geographical positions.
But when the gnomes fled to the Northern Continent ten thousand years ago, the orcs, elves, and various beasts had already divided the territory.
The gnomes, with their weak power, could not compete for land and had to choose desolate wilderness to start building.
After ten thousand years, this area had been remodeled by the gnomes into a comfortable and spacious city.
Surrounding mountains had been tunneled through, creating roads that led in all directions, all connecting to the city entrance.
In front of the entrance was a wide stone-paved road flanked by many orc merchant caravans and hawkers shouting their goods.
If not for the huge difference in appearance between the creatures walking around and humans, Lu Qiuchen might have thought she was in a human kingdom.
Using magic and tools to alter her body and appearance, Lu Qiuchen once again disguised herself as a half-dragon and followed behind a merchant caravan into Zhuangersi.
The tunnels here were several times wider than those in the Londor Ruins.
Lu Qiuchen estimated that three medium-sized wagons could travel side by side.
Though this was far from a highway on Earth, in the Eternal World, this was practically a miracle!
Moreover, the roads were straight and smooth, leading deep underground.
It was clear the gnomes had considered the city’s trading function early on and built the roads to accommodate caravan vehicles.
As the caravan moved deeper underground, the road became smoother.
Curious, Lu Qiuchen observed the passing carts and found the Northern Continent’s transportation methods quite unique, seeing many strange sights absent on the Southern Continent.
Instead of horses, the carts were pulled by centaurs with well-toned muscles and nimble bodies.
Some caravans hired Minotaurs who walked on foot, bulky and broad-shouldered, carrying loads larger than their own bodies at a slow but steady pace.
What made Lu Qiuchen shudder, however, was the lascivious and lustful looks many Minotaurs cast toward female half-beasts.
Had she not been so thoroughly covered to hide her appearance, she might have been subjected to even more blatant gazes.
Still, these Minotaurs dared no more than to ogle.
As one of the lowest-ranked races in the Orc Kingdom, Minotaurs had no way to dominate females of other races by brute force alone.
Besides, in the open-minded Orc Kingdom, such leering usually did not cause much trouble.
But this was not the Orc Kingdom, so it was natural that such looks would stir up some issues.
Not long after, near the tunnel’s exit, Lu Qiuchen saw a Minotaur lying on the ground with its head severed.
The pungent stench of blood filled the air.
A trembling gnome guard was cleaning up the bloodstains.
Passing caravans and other orcs appeared calm and unfazed by the scene, as if such incidents were commonplace.
To the caravans, Minotaurs were merely somewhat useful beasts of burden.
Minotaurs were known as simple-minded, strong-brained orcs.
They were energetic and quick to anger.
If trouble arose, the caravan employing them generally did not intervene.
Caravan owners often hired several Minotaurs as backups, so when one was killed, they would simply transfer the cargo to another.
At worst, the goods might be damaged, in which case they would seek compensation from the culprit.
No one cared about the troublesome Minotaur, as it was seen as disposable.
Minotaurs reproduced rapidly and were abundant throughout the Orc Kingdom.
Lu Qiuchen stopped to examine the Minotaur’s neck wound, noticing the neat cut and immediately identifying it as a poisoned blade wound.
The presence of both blade and poison almost confirmed the wound was inflicted by the Drow Elf.
In gnome language, Lu Qiuchen asked the gnome guard beside her, “Was this Minotaur killed by the Drow? Where did they go? How long ago?”
Hearing her powerful aura, the gnome nodded hurriedly.
“Yes, yes, my lady. They just went into the city.”
Seeing the direction the gnome pointed was toward the city behind her, Lu Qiuchen immediately gave chase.
She hadn’t expected to encounter the Drow so soon.
She hoped this would be one of the larger Drow clans.