Chapter 93: Chapter 93: Adriana's Frustration - 1
"If I'm not being rude, could you state the reason for your appearance in my territory?" Adriana went straight to the point.
The dryads didn't show any reactions, not even a blink of their eyebrows. It was as if they were made of stone or wood.
After a few seconds passed following Adriana's question about their reason for the visit, Elma spoke up, "A few weeks ago, our Gracious Queen made a prediction about the possible awakening of him."
Elma, the dryad, paused for a few seconds, not sure why she suddenly stopped talking.
Adriana and the others didn't disturb her, letting her take her time.
"I don't know if you are aware of it, but I will say it regardless. Compared to the male spirits, the female spirits have high spiritual awareness... The following days after our Illustrious Queen's deduction, we female spirits began to sense a spiritual familiarity... something similar to what we sense from our Queen...
like it was waiting for the right moment to rise through the sky, though we couldn't discern its origin," Elma said, frequently pausing between sentences before falling silent completely.
'What the hell is she talking about? Who is this person she keeps mentioning?' Helena and the other women wondered about the same thing, especially curious about the Queen and the other person Elma keeps mentioning.
But for some reason, Lorraine had a strange thought that the person Elma keeps mentioning was Sam. 'They couldn't possibly be here for him, right? He never even had any interaction with the spirit race... Why am I even considering this a possibility? I must be overthinking it.'
Elma continued, "A couple of days ago, our Majesty made a deduction that he is... in fact, residing on the Azure Dragon Continent, in the Hailstorm Clan, to be precise."
"...I'm sorry, but I can't quite understand what you are trying to say?" Adriana asked, confused.
only found at mvl _e-mp|y,r
She didn't understand who she was talking about. Who is this person she is referring to? And who the hell is this queen? Since when did the Spirit Race elect a queen?
As far as she was aware, there were no queens in the Spirit Races.
Unlike other races, such as Dragons or Qilins, the Spirit Races hadn't established any constitutional systems like a monarchy or rule by a congregation of clans.
They followed anarchy.
Unlike supernatural beings, Spirits found no need, or perhaps it was not in their nature, to form functioning societies, relationships, or the need to create communities in their lives.
Make no mistake; dryads aren't the only kind of spirits that exist.
There are also other races that are part of the spirits, like sirens, fairies, banshees.
There is also a race called Nine-Colored Heavenly Butterflies, which could be considered half spirits, but they are still spirits.
With many diverse races on a continent, one might expect there to be a system of ruling or some form of community for society to function, but it just wasn't the case.
Except for the Nine-Colored Butterflies, who seemed to have an isolated community within the continent, others were literally like tribes, just living alongside nature.
...If there were no queen, which queen is Elma referring to?
Adriana wanted to ask this question, but as she thought about it more, the spirits were quiet and reserved.
Here they were, speaking to them on their own accord, revealing something sensitive as they searched for someone under the direction of their so-called queen.
Logically, if there was a queen in the spirit race, she, as the leader of one of the strongest forces on the entire continent, should have known about it.
Since she didn't have this piece of information, Adriana thought that the spirits must have a reason for not wanting to involve their queen with the other continents.
Yet, here were the dryads easily revealing their queen's presence.
This meant one thing: the person they were searching for was so important that it made their queen's identity less significant.
Moreover, this queen made a prediction about the appearance of someone whom Elma kept referring to as he and him, not giving any name, as if he was a prestigious person not to be named.
At this point, Adriana was more interested in knowing the identity of this mysterious person whom the dryads were searching for in their territory.
Seeing that Elma didn't seem to talk anymore, Adriana spoke in a casual tone befitting a clan leader, "First, can you tell me more about this... your queen?"
Elma's indifferent expression seemed to shift slightly, acquiring a little coldness, as if she heard something she did not like.
Suddenly, the atmosphere grew eerie, and Adriana could feel multiple eyes looking at her—cold and threatening eyes, hundreds of them.
If someone weaker were in her place, they would have been terrified even though the intensity wasn't overwhelming.
"T-There are dryads hiding in the dark... a lot of them," Ava, feeling the eyes, exclaimed in shock.
She looked around.
The pavilion they were in was at the border of the Iceheart city, with no other structures except the forest.
It was too dark, only the serene light of the three moons. She could only conclude that the dryads were blending in with the darkness.
"Clan leader, I suggest you alter your tone when speaking of the queen, for we spirits do not care who you are... We will wage war on you if we sense even a little disrespect towards the queen," Elma said coldly.
Adriana's eyes turned cold; no one could enter her territory and threaten her.
If it were anyone else, their lungs and heart would have been ripped out of their body by now, but she couldn't do that to them, not unless she wanted to incur hell upon her and her family.
Taking a deep breath, Adriana spoke in a stern tone, "Forgive me for my earlier tone."
Elma looked at Adriana intimidatingly.
Seeing that Adriana couldn't be intimidated or didn't seem like she would fight back if pushed to her reverse scale, Elma nodded her head.
With that, the atmosphere returned to normal.
The women no longer sensed the gaze of the hundreds of dryads hiding in the dark, vanishing as if it was never there.
Elma sighed and shook her head side to side, "Clan leader, if you were aware of who our queen is, then you would not have spoken that way... I guess the fault lies with me as I failed to realize that you are not familiar with our gracious queen."
"I guess," Adriana said.
After a few seconds, Elma continued, "Our queen is not just our queen; she is the queen of our Zenith Chi Dominion... Her majesty is also the mother of our world... Without her, we will cease to exist; our planet will cease to exist.... You might refer to her by another name."
"The queen you have been referring to is actually the Heavenly Dao?" Adriana had a shocked expression.
"I would really prefer you refrain from addressing her as the Heavenly Dao or World Tree... You must address her as Her Majesty or Our Queen," Elma said with a stern expression.
The Heavenly Dao takes the form of the World Tree.
That's why cultivators are used to calling it the Heavenly Dao or World Tree.
However, it seems the spirits didn't like that.
'Well, it's no surprise considering that the spirits are said to be born from the roots of the World Tree herself,' she remembered that long ago, the spirits used to address the World Tree as their mother, not queen, but it seems the spirits have changed the way they address their Great Mother.
"...Now, can you tell us about this mysterious person you came in search of? The person that the Great World Mother sent spirits to find?" Adriana asked.
Now she understood who the queen was, but who was this mysterious person that the Heavenly Dao herself went through the trouble to send spirits to search for?
"Mysterious is not the word I would use to describe this person, for he is above all living beings—an existence out of anyone's imagination... I don't deserve to utter his name," Elma's eyes revealed fanaticism, only intensifying others' curiosity about the identity of that person.
"We want to know where his eminence is... It would be more helpful if you would just bring us to his special presence," Elma said, this time her stone-cold face revealing a serious expression.
'For God's sake, what the heck is wrong with this Dryad? She's expecting us to bring her to someone, but she won't tell us who this person is?' Adriana's mind almost exploded with frustration.
As the leader of a clan, she had never had a more annoying conversation with anyone before in her life.
"How do you expect me to find a person without any knowledge about this person's identity? At least give us a name," Adriana asked with a helpless expression.
Elma and the ever-so-quiet Twig just maintained stern, motionless expressions, not uttering a word.
Even Duncan Hailstorm, who was usually aloof, couldn't handle the way the Dryads led the conversation. 'Would it kill them to just answer a single question?'
...
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