Once upon a time there was a greedy snake.

Chapter 374: An Unexpected Path

Like most interstellar races, the elves also have a tradition of ancestor worship, but unlike the ignorant kind of ancestor worship, the elves' ancestor worship is clearly something else entirely.

They do not worship any specific ancestor, but rather collectively refer to all wise ancestors throughout history as "ancestral spirits" for worship. They believe that even though those wise ancestors have died, they are still protecting civilization itself with their wisdom—this is what is meant by the saying that some spirits have died, but they are still alive.

The great sages among the elves, while alive, would master magic and guide the civilization of the elves. After their deaths, the thoughts they left behind would become part of the ancestral spirits, healing the bodies, minds, and souls of the elves.

Of course, when necessary, the ancestral spirits will also provide some necessary guidance to their descendants, but this guidance is very mysterious and only a small number of priests can comprehend the profound meaning of the ancestral spirits.

Just like the elven priest right now, who is trying to understand the call of the ancestral spirit.

"Give me some time, I need to think carefully... wait, why is the ancestral spirit's meaning so obvious this time?"

Surprisingly, unlike in the past, this time the elven priest didn't even need to burn incense or meditate; he had already grasped the meaning the ancestral spirit wanted to convey from the obscure characters in the holy text.

Unlike the previous incomprehensible proverbs, this time the ancestral spirit gave a clear expression—the immortal demon king teleported them here, and if they wanted to leave this region, return to their homeland, and kill the demon king, they had to kill the demon king's ally, the evil giant serpent that controls this land.

The ancestral spirits seemed to know a lot, even who controlled this land.

"Is this really an ancestral spirit?"

The elven priest couldn't help but feel doubt.

But just as doubt arose, the elven priest suddenly lost his focus, and then seemed to have lost his memory, completely forgetting what he had just suspected—this was definitely the ancestral spirit, after all, he had contacted it through the holy book, so who else could it be but the ancestral spirit?
"It must be the ancestral spirit. This is the ancestral spirit's guidance. We must kill that demon king's ally in order to return to our homeland!"

The elven priest spoke the words of wisdom he had received to his two companions.

Although the other two elves also sensed something was amiss, their trust in the elven priest, coupled with their shared momentary lapse in concentration, led them to quickly reach an agreement upon regaining their senses.

The ancestral spirit is right; we must kill the giant serpent, return to our homeland, and slay the demon king.

They spared no effort to slay the demon king and save their people.

With this in mind, the three elves embarked on their journey once again.

Because of the wooden plaques representing their identities, there were no wooden figures to stop them this time. They could even walk openly on the road. As for those bald-eared men with demonic energy, although they would sometimes glance at them, they didn't say much after seeing the wooden plaques on their bodies.

However, the gaze still made the three elves feel that something was wrong. They even suspected that the mage in the group had not done a good job with the disguise spell.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible. I clearly disguised ourselves to be exactly the same as those locals."

The elven mage spoke with absolute certainty, confident that his spell hadn't gone wrong; it was merely a distraction, and he couldn't possibly make a mistake with such a minor spell.

But the gazes of the locals still puzzled the elven mage.

Until the three of them saw with their own eyes how the locals traveled.

They were farmers who had just finished their busy work and were discussing with their friends whether to go to the tavern in town for a drink. The three elves were thinking that the farmer was probably talking about tomorrow, since it was already getting dark. Even if the nearby town wasn't far away, and the farmer was fast enough, it was impossible for him to reach the nearby town today.

Then they saw the farmer and his friends approach the wooden figure on the street and draw a few numbers on it.

Immediately afterwards, the wooden figure, which had been standing still, slapped the ground and created a wooden cart. Despite having no horses pulling it, the cart moved incredibly fast, and in just a moment, it had carried the farmer and his party away from the three elves' sight.

The three elves were left looking at each other, bewildered.

"A golem can be used like this?"

The elven mage was the first to speak, after all, he had the deepest understanding of magic, and wooden golems were naturally within his comprehension—but what he saw before him was something he couldn't have imagined no matter how hard he tried; he had never thought that golems could be so practical.

But upon closer inspection, it seems surprisingly without any problem. Since the wooden figures can move, they can naturally move as well if their shape is changed. In addition, these wooden figures naturally have the ability to manipulate trees.

So all of this seems to be fine?
"Let me rest for a bit..."

Although everything seemed to be fine, the elven mage's worldview had been severely shaken.

He suddenly realized that his understanding of magic, or rather, the development of magic by the elven sages throughout history, seemed to be only one percent... no, not even one-thousandth.

Those so-called spells, in their use of magical power, should have been extremely sophisticated.

But now it seems that it was inefficient to an outrageous degree.

"Then you should rest for a while."

Seeing that the mage in the group had already drifted off into his own world, the elven warrior and elven priest had no choice but to explore on their own.

As for the object of exploration, it is naturally that wooden figure.

Following the example of the farmer, they also rubbed the wooden plaques in their hands, slid them lightly across the thin wooden board, and then waited for the wooden cart to appear.

To their surprise, even though all their operations were flawless, the wooden figure showed absolutely no reaction.

"Wait a minute, could it be that I did something wrong?"

The elven warrior repeated the movements, and with his skill as a top-tier martial artist, he replicated every single one perfectly.

However, the wooden figure still did not react at all.

"What...is going on?"

"This costs money."

The elven mage, regaining his senses, stopped the elven warrior who was about to repeat himself for the third time.

“I saw the wooden planks those people were using. They transferred money to the wooden figures, and the wooden figures made wooden carts for them.”

“If we want to use wooden carts like them, we also need to have local money.”

(End of this chapter)