Chapter 479 - Royal Tragedy

The huge white doors slowly crept open without much resistance from Princess Faelyn's push before another flight of vine stairs were revealed, leading deeper below the surface level.

Princess Faelyn's eyes quickly narrowed with creased brows in repulsion from the subtle foul stench that escaped from the Heart of Spring Chamber's entrance.,

'Something is wrong with the Heart of Spring Chamber! How could the place containing the densest and purest wood elements in the entire Great Forest possess a foul stench? Was the spring contaminated?'

Princess Faelyn quickly discovered.

Her heart quickened with unease, and the dreadful feeling inside her intensified. Princess Faelyn was forced to take in another deep breath and calm herself.

'Whatever lies beyond here, I must find out what it is!'

Faelyn gritted her teeth before taking her first step beyond the entrance, proceeding to enter the Heart of Spring Chamber.

The space beyond the entrance was brightly lit with an overflowing warm green light while numerous small softer glowing green particles of light floated in the air.

However, the source of the brilliant green light came from the glowing green spring at the bottom of the Heart of Spring Chamber.

As Princess Faelyn made her way down, droplets of green liquid could be seen dripping down from the chamber's ceiling and falling into the spring, filling it up.

The green liquid was the concentration of the Wood Energy that exists within the green light particles mixed with the Elder Tree's Wood Essence Extract.

Undoubtedly, the Heart of Spring Chamber was the ideal location, whether it is to push for a breakthrough to the Transcendent Realm or cultivating in general.

Wood-type Awakeners would experience a significant boost to their cultivation speed by submerging themselves inside the pure wood essence spring.

Princess Faelyn suddenly halted her steps upon arriving at the bottom of the Heart of Spring Chamber, stunned from the sight before her.

Shortly after, tears welled up in her eyes before overflowing, dripping down her soft cheeks ceaselessly.

The Heart of Spring Chamber's walls and ground have been ravaged by numerous claw marks, indicating a big battle had occurred here.

However, the claw marks did not belong to any beast nor insect that might have unwittingly stumbled inside the Heart of Spring Chamber through some secret passage.

Instead, the claw marks belonged to unclipped elven nails like they had been grown for years.

In other words, it was the work of elves—and those elves were none other than her eldest brother and second eldest sister.

They have died inside the arms of her mother, the Elf Queen, with both their hearts crushed. At the same time, their teeth sunk into her mother's shoulders.

Various parts of her mother's body were also missing, like they had been gnawed off by her eldest brother and second eldest sister.

Evidently, something had possessed the minds of her eldest brother and second eldest sister to try eating their mother.

Despite that, her mother passed away with a peaceful expression while she was holding her dear children.

This broke Faelyn's heart further like someone was trying trying to wrench out her heart. She collapsed to the ground in tears and cried her lungs out.

"Uwahhhh! Mother! Brother! Sister!"

Numerous vines wrapped around the three bodies and bound them firmly together. Evidently, this was the Elf Queen's doing.

The Elf Queen was a Transcendent while the Crown Prince and Second Princess were only 9-Star Awakeners.

If they fought all out, the Crown Prince and Second Princess would still not be the Elf Queen's match even if they joined forces.

Evidently, the Elf Queen had held back against her children, which landed the three in their present state.

However, the one who dealt the final blow, crushing the hearts of the Crown Prince and Second Princess, was not the Elf Queen but someone else.

Princess Faelyn sobbed on the ground for a long time until tears dried up. She understood that her father was likely forced to kill her eldest brother and second eldest sister.

The frenzied expression on her eldest brother and second eldest sister could still be seen—it was the same expression as people who have gone berserk under the influence of Demonic Energy.

She had seen the same expressions of the faces of the berserk humans back at the Great Wall.

After some time, Faelyn got on her feet and wiped her swollen eyes.

She wanted to close her eldest brother and second eldest sister's eyes to give them rest peacefully. However, even such a simple wish could not be achieved.

The body of the three people had all been transmogrified into plants. Leaves with branches and curds sprouting from their heads while their flesh has wood-like textures.

'Father also became like this after he passed away...'

Faelyn wrinkled her brows.

She had never heard of elves becoming like this after they die. Thus, something had changed in recent days that caused this change.

After offering some prayers to her mother and elder siblings while performing a few kowtows as a sign of filial piety, Faelyn got back to her feet and gazed around the Heart of Spring Chamber.

Shortly after, she locked her gaze on what she guessed she was looking for.

Behind the big spring hid a small passageway.

Without carefully looking, the small passageway would be easily missed due to the fountain of wood essence springwater flowing down like a small waterfall from the higher spring pool.

The foul stench became noticeably more pungent as she drew closer to the small passageway behind the spring.

On the other end of the small passageway lies the hidden chamber her father had mentioned to her before passing away in a gruesome manner.

Inside the hidden chamber, she found it to be a private cultivation chamber. A few books and a desk could be seen on the side.

The Heart of Spring Chamber was formed naturally.

However, Faelyn could immediately tell the hidden chamber was constructed by someone, just like the vine staircases.

Faelyn did not immediately enter the hidden chamber.

Strands of red mist could be seen floating in the air before here. It was not long before Faelyn located the source of where it came from.

It was seeping out from gaps in the vine wall on the other end of the hidden chamber, exposing traces of a deeper passageway.

However, it had been evidently sealed up by the vine wall.