A fantastical journey across the heavens, beginning with the Witcher.

"This is getting a bit troublesome."

Li De casually tossed away the pebbles in his hand, brushed the dust off his palm, and frowned slightly.

He simply couldn't understand why a sorcerer would risk everything to rob a lord.

Lacking money? Absolutely not.

A sorcerer who can shatter city walls and fortresses with magic and set up teleportation arrays to escape is already considered a master.

Even if you can't compete with those famous sorcerers in the court and become the king's personal magical advisor, there are plenty of noble lords vying to recruit you, and wealth and glory are within your grasp.

Robbery is not only extremely risky, but it also easily attracts pursuit and killing, making it a thankless and exhausting endeavor.

It can't be just for seeking thrills, right?

Li De shook his head, finding the reason utterly absurd no matter how he thought about it.

Currently, no further clues can be found inside the manor. Judging from the guards' descriptions, the entire looting took only a few minutes, clearly indicating that it was premeditated. The only option is to continue the investigation in the outer areas.

Thinking of this, he immediately explained his intentions and left the manor under the guidance of the head guard.

As they passed the flowerbed, the lord's wife suddenly giggled and gave him two flirtatious glances. Her bright red tongue lightly swept across her full lips, and her fiery gaze was fixed on the witcher's handsome face.

Li De had no interest in getting involved in the lord's obscure hobby for the time being. He coughed lightly, pretending to know nothing, but his pace unconsciously quickened.

Before leaving the manor, the head guard solemnly instructed the guards on duty: "This is the master demon hunter invited by Lord Roland to eliminate the bandits. If he comes again in the future, bring him directly to see me. Do not obstruct or delay him."

Li De curled the corners of his lips and looked back at the head guard with a meaningful gaze.

……

The northern kingdoms were numerous, with countless noble lords under their command.

To protect their property and lives, lords were very particular about the location of their manors, mostly relying on natural defenses; if there were no natural defenses, they would create artificial barriers.

Just like the outer side of the manor of the packhorse territories, not only were large areas of tall trees and poisonous shrubs planted, but a moat was also dug to form layers of defense around the walls.

Li De reached the edge of the forest and stepped into the woods alone. He drew his steel sword from his waist and swiftly slashed away the thorny bushes blocking his path.

Witchers have a much higher resistance to toxins than ordinary people. Even if they roll around naked in these poisonous thickets, they will not die. However, not dying does not mean they will not suffer.

The investigation is still ongoing and it's unclear how long it will continue. It would be best to suffer as little as possible.

The sun, which had been high in the sky, gradually slanted down towards the western mountains.

Li De was carefully exploring the forest. If outsiders were present, they would only see him wandering around aimlessly like a headless fly, sometimes even turning back and circling under the trees, as if he were doing useless work.

Only he knew that he had already touched the other party's tail.

Li De squatted on a flat patch of grass, picked up a clump of charred soil with his fingertips, and gently rubbed it.

"The charcoal from the campfire... it seems they set up a makeshift camp here, though they weren't many people. Could they have laid an ambush here before the robbery?"

He looked to his side and saw two tall trees standing side by side, no more than two people apart, with clear scratch marks remaining on the sides of their trunks.

"Did someone climb this tree to secretly observe the manor?"

After wandering through the dense forest for most of the day, Li De was starting to lose his bearings about the exact location of the manor, but he was certain it wasn't far away.

To verify his guess, he walked between two trees and nimbly climbed up, soon reaching the top of the tree.

Li De strode between two tall trees growing side by side, clenched his fist, and precisely gripped a rough, raised line on the trunk with his fingertips. With a sudden burst of strength, he leaped upwards like a swift cheetah.

There was no clumsy climbing, no hesitant probing; the soles of the feet lightly touched the gaps in the tree trunks, using the momentum to leap again, the arms stretched out smooth and powerful lines, the muscles bulging slightly under the armor, carrying the explosive power and coordinated beauty of long-trained training.

In just a few seconds, he climbed to the base of the tree canopy without even glancing back. Relying solely on touch and strength, he steadily avoided the slippery and unpredictable trunk area.

By the time he came to a stop, he had already stepped onto the treetop.

In order to compete for sunlight, the lower half of these trees is bare, with no leaves visible, and all the branches and leaves are concentrated on the top crown.

The fine branches intertwined, like a soft hammock, easily supporting the weight of the witcher.

Looking up at the sky again, Li De took a deep breath.

The air under the night sky is crisp and fresh, and its scent is invigorating, dispelling most of the fatigue.

After looking around, his gaze quickly locked onto the distant flickering lights.

With the Witcher's keen eyesight and the bright moonlight, he could not only see the manor's walls, but also make out several guards patrolling back and forth with torches.

Li De looked down to examine the tree canopy beneath his feet. There were obvious footprints on it. After comparing them with his own footprints, he immediately drew a conclusion.

"The person observing the manor from the treetop was extremely light, only half my weight even without armor and weapons; quite agile, easily climbing tall, straight trees; light in weight, leaving no deep footprints; and with excellent eyesight, knowing that the manor was at least 500 meters away and it was raining that day."

Having pieced together all the clues, Li De stroked his chin, a hint of surprise in his voice: "No matter how you look at it, it doesn't seem human... Could it be an elf?"

As most biographies of the time record, elves were an extremely ancient race, possessing long lifespans, handsome appearances, and graceful figures.

This is the extent of what ordinary people know about elves.

But as a time traveler, Li De knew far more than others.

The Elf race is mainly divided into two branches.

One branch is the Ion Sid, also known as the Mountain People.

They fled here in white ships and once established a brilliant civilization on the continent. To this day, countless undiscovered relics of the elves still lie buried beneath the earth.

However, this group of elves, whose lifespan is three times that of humans, has a fatal flaw—an alarmingly low birth rate.

Female elves have great difficulty conceiving and are only capable of bearing children when they are young, which has become the biggest shackle that hinders the development of the entire race.

Then humankind came.

Unlike elves who love art and nature, humans, despite having similar facial features, limbs, and intelligence, are inherently combative.

They fought against beasts, monsters, and every race they encountered. Even the elves who had once helped them were not spared. Once they had no external enemies, they began to kill each other.

Today, the glory of the Elf Kingdom is long gone, and the remaining people have been forced to retreat into the Blue Mountains to eke out a living.

A small number of elves, seeking revenge for the destruction of their kingdom, formed an extreme armed group called the Squirrel Party, and have been causing trouble for human kingdoms everywhere.

The other elf is Ain El.

Compared to his fellow countrymen in dire straits, Ian El is also in a bad situation, suffering from the natural disaster "White Frost".

But they are warlike by nature and have no enemies in the world they live in.

They even cultivated "Ancient Blood" that can freely travel between worlds, conquering various universes.

The infamous Wild Hunt is the army of Ion El, though bards prefer to call them Phantom Knights or Skeleton Knights.

Li De never felt a strong sense of belonging to this world, and always treated his current life as an incredibly real game.

Therefore, he had no prejudice against the elves of Ian Sid, and even helped an elf who was being chased by human traffickers, and thus got to know several high-ranking members of the Squirrel Party.

The two sides had a pleasant conversation until the Squirrel Gang attacked the Temerian Kingdom's granary, when an elven warrior insisted on killing the little beggar who had witnessed everything.

Li De arrived just in time and tried to persuade him several times, but to no avail. Those elven friends who had been chatting happily just a few days ago pointed their weapons at him without hesitation.

It was at that moment that he truly understood that the hatred and rift between humans and elves had long since deepened to the point of no return.

The Scoia'tael party is friendly towards him only because he is a potential member; once he shows any bias toward the human camp, he will be an enemy.

In the end, he wiped out the Squirrel Party squad, and then killed all the Temerian reinforcements who wanted to pin the blame on him.

As for the little beggar, he had already taken advantage of the chaos and fled.

Saving an innocent stranger earns +1 merit; killing the entire Squirrel Gang and human reinforcements results in -999 merit.

Even now, when Li De thinks about it, he still can't help but want to slap himself a few times.

The only saving grace was that he was not subsequently wanted by the police.

It seems that the little beggar had a conscience and didn't report him; of course, it's also possible that he was simply cowardly and didn't dare to provoke the Witcher.