Chapter 971: I’m Charming
Chapter 971 – I’m Charming
Gula raised one finger. "Understandable."
Sira crossed her arms. "Rude."
Yue tilted her head slightly. "Ancient sanctuaries rarely enjoy infernal visitors."
Lux smiled faintly. "I’m charming."
"The grove disagrees."
"Plants have no taste."
Gula whispered, "The fruits do."
"No."
Lux closed his eyes.
Enough.
His lashes lowered. The air around him shifted. A faint gold-black light gathered beneath his lids. When he opened his eyes again, the irises had changed, deeper, sharper, threaded with a ring of old authority.
[Eye of Truth]
The grove changed.
Not physically.
But to Lux, the layers peeled back.
Beauty remained, but beneath it he saw lines. Promises. Old pathways. False turns woven through root-memory. The trees were not lying exactly. That was the problem. They were not showing falsehood. They were showing incomplete truth.
Every path they had taken was real.
Every path also returned to the entrance.
A truthful loop.
Lux scanned the clearing.
The entrance.
The white flowers.
The golden fruit.
The moss.
The hidden ash beneath roots.
The faint shimmer of old burned earth.
He saw denial in the trees.
A rule.
Not yet. Not them. Not through force. Not through command. Not through greed.
Lux’s expression tightened.
[Eye of Truth Analysis]
[Result: No Direct Deception Detected]
[Observation: Sanctuary Enforces Conditional Access]
[Detected Refusal Pattern: Non-Elven Guidance Rejected]
[Potential Key: Bloodline Memory / Willing Invocation / Root Recognition]
Lux blinked, and the Eye of Truth dimmed slightly. "Great."
Sira lifted one brow. "That sounds like bad great."
"It is."
Yue looked at him. "The skill cannot guide us?"
"It can show that the grove is refusing us. It can’t drag us to the spring."
Gula sighed dramatically. "So no map, no fruit, no arson."
Lux looked at her.
She hugged herself tighter. "I will suffer quietly."
Yue’s gaze moved to Ely. "The one who needs to guide us is Ely."
Ely went still. "Me?"
Yue nodded.
"The grove responded to your blood. The book responded to your blood. The first elf spoke because of your blood. The path cannot be forced by Lux’s system or his sight. It must be remembered."
Ely swallowed.
"But I don’t know this place."
"No," Yue said softly. "But something in your blood might."
Lux turned toward Ely, his expression calm. "You don’t have to do anything dramatic."
Sira muttered, "That means something dramatic is about to happen."
Lux ignored her.
"Just stop thinking like you need to solve it. Don’t look for the spring. Let the place show you what it wants you to notice."
Ely looked at him. "That sounds very unlike you."
"It’s painful."
Lullaby nodded and smiled sleepily. "Growth."
Ely breathed in.
Then out.
She turned away from the entrance and looked around the clearing again.
Not with panic this time.
Not with effort.
Slowly.
Like she was trying to listen to a song too old for ears.
The grove was quiet.
Ely closed her eyes.
Her hand lifted.
Not toward the path.
Toward nothing.
Her fingers trembled slightly, then relaxed.
The air changed.
A faint silver light rose from her skin.
The leaves above them rustled.
Not from wind.
Recognition again.
But deeper this time.
Ely whispered, "I smell smoke."
Lux’s gaze sharpened.
Sira’s posture changed instantly.
Ely’s eyes remained closed. "Not here. Underneath."
The moss beneath their feet dimmed.
For the first time, the paradise flickered.
Just a little.
A soft shimmer passed through the clearing, and beneath the green moss, the ground showed black ash.
Only for a second.
Then the beauty returned.
Ely opened her eyes.
She looked at the golden fruit branch near the entrance.
Then past it.
At a section of trees they had ignored because it looked too dense to enter.
"There."
Lux followed her gaze.
To him, it still looked like a wall of vines and flowers.
No path.
No opening.
Nothing.
But Ely walked toward it.
The others followed.
Sira looked ready to burn something if the grove insulted them again. Yue watched Ely carefully. Lullaby dragged her pillow slightly, leaving a little line in the moss. Gula looked mournfully at the fruit one last time.
Ely stopped before the vine wall.
She reached out.
Lux almost told her to wait.
He didn’t.
Her fingers touched the vines.
The whole wall shuddered.
Then the flowers began to close.
One by one.
Petals folding inward.
The sweet smell faded.
The vines withdrew like curtains being pulled away.
Behind them was darkness.
Not frightening darkness.
Cool darkness.
A narrow path sloped downward between roots blackened by ancient fire. The air that drifted up from it smelled of wet stone, ash, and spring water.
[Hidden Path Revealed]
[Destination Probability: Sealed Spring 87.9%]
Lux smiled faintly."There it is."
Ely let out a breath she had been holding.
Sira stepped beside her and grinned. "Good job."
Ely smiled, small but real. "Thank you."
Yue nodded in approval. "Your blood remembers more than your mind."
Lux stepped to the front, but the path pulsed once beneath his foot.
Warning.
He stopped.
Ely looked at him.
Lux looked back.
Then stepped aside.
"Right. Your territory."
Ely nodded, though she looked nervous again.
This time, she walked first.
The path accepted her.
Silver-green light bloomed beneath her feet, one step at a time, illuminating roots burned black around the edges. Water whispered somewhere below. The deeper they went, the more paradise disappeared behind them.
The grove above smelled like fruit and flowers.
The path below smelled like truth.
Ash.
Water.
And at the bottom, waiting in the dark beneath the roots, a soft glow appeared.
Blue-white.
Still.
Sealed.
The spring.
It waited below the burned roots like a secret the forest had been holding in its mouth for centuries.
They descended the narrow path one by one, Ely first, Lux just behind her but careful not to step ahead. The roots around them were blackened, twisted, and glossy with old ash, yet thin silver leaves still grew from the cracks.
Water whispered louder with each step.
Gula, for once, didn’t joke.
Sira’s pride aura stayed sharp. Lullaby’s sleepy power softened the air. Yue watched the walls like memories might crawl out.
Then the path opened.
A still pool glowed beneath stone arches.