Chapter 1703 - The Legend of the Black Forest (1/2)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When you are standing on any street in Greenway, be it the deepest most oppressive of places, the moment you look up to the borderlands towards the Black Forest, you could see the verdant green glow.
That was the ‘Verdant Barrier’, an enchanted wall built out of a gray crystal rock unique to the south of the Empire and thirty thousand slabs of elven rune bricks were encrusted in it as it protected the city from being consumed by the forest. It had a very unique, repelling effect against the cycle of life and that ensured that the land was completed separated from the Black Forest, and this scene was one of Greenway’s trademark views.
Of course, Hao Ren and the rest too were drawn in by that great wall that was visible no matter where you are, and now upon listening to Awenna’s description of the city and the Black Forest, his interest was piqued even more.
“The Black Forest is one of the biggest mysteries of the Dragon Empire, even the imperial scholars were unable to explain the nature of this forest. No one knew then this dense forest was formed but ever since the imperials pushed their borders down south, it was already there.” Awenna looked at the scene outside the carriage, explaining as she enjoyed the scene, “The forest’ vitality confused the elves that called themselves the children of the forest. No matter if it was chopped or burnt, the Black Forest would simply recover after a few days, and at times the moment you fell a tree, you could even see it sprout right before your eyes, and the deeper into the forest, this unusual vitality was getting more obvious than ever…”
As she got there, Awenna stopped as she pointed towards the buildings afar, “You see that city? That’s Greenway, it was originally part of the Black Forest, but as it is on the borderlands, the cycle of life is weaker there, and the imperials paid a huge price and finally managed to separate and stabilized it, but any further in, even those elven rune bricks are helpless against the forest’ infestation.”
Charlemagne then added, “That’s why the imperials had given up developing the forest. It is like a stubborn dragon holding fast to its territory and the humans, after spending a fortune had managed to pry a few scraps from its claws. It was pretty much a loss-making venture.”
Vivian then laughed, “Seems like that emperor with the dragon soul had to bow to the Forest Dragon eh?”
On the other side, when he heard that, the first thing Hao Ren thought of was of course.. The First Borns.
Those legendary creatures would send their tentacles out to the planet’s surface from time to time, and when they did so, they would send the tentacles out as a forest, or a giant tree as camouflage. The plants that evolved from the tentacles usually had a very powerful life force, just like the Twisted Grove back in Holletta.
But this is L’Haronne, a place far away from the Plane of Dreams. There was no possibility of a First Born here, and Nolan’s scans had already proven that.
Then there was something interesting about the unusual life in the Black Forest.
“So if this Black Forest is that brimming with life, why didn’t they totally consume the empire?” Lily asked, “And I saw that Verdant Barrier just now and it was only blocking the path towards Greenway but the regions without barrier did not see the forest encroaching.”
“This is the second unusual part of the Black Forest,” Awenna said with a faint smile. She seemed to be very enthusiastic about introducing these to them, if not for her position as a princess, she would have been a five-star tour guide. “The Black Forest’s life force is very strong and if destroyed it will quickly recover, but other than that, it will not expand. Its area is fixed and it has not changed for the past thousands of years regardless of the weather or any change to the land, it never expanded nor did it shrunk. Of course, the few developments along the edges of the forest were pretty much the only ‘marks’ against it, but compared to the forest, this tiny damage was nothing as it was barely even one percent of its entire landmass.”
“The so-called encroachment was actually what the people of Greenway said themselves, they were taking land originally belonging to the forest,” Charlemagne shook his head, seemingly disapproving of the locals.
“Neither expanding nor shrinking huh…” Hao Ren rubbed his chin as he went into deep thought.”
“I don’t know how you all live in that Basilica of the World Tree, but you people sure are cut off quite severely from the world that you don’t even know about the famous Black Forest.” Awenna shook her head. “When I heard your titles I thought all of you were hiding in the Black Forest itself, as that temple’s name actually sounded similar to the legend of the Black Forest.”
Lily’s interest was piqued, “The Legend of the Black Forest? Tell me, tell me…”
“It’s pretty much a mishmash of nonsense adventurers and third rate scholars had cobbled together,” Charlemagne shrugged, and while as a properly educated royalty he too had some understanding of the legend, but he never believed them, “The forest’s vitality cannot be explained by normal means, so many people started having wild guesses. Some said a ‘Wellspring of the World’ lay in the center of the forest, and that wellspring is the source of all life on the planet, and its powers formed the Black Forest. The legends say that if you take a sip of the spring water, you will gain immortal life, so there was another addendum to that legend. Emperor Berentine was supposedly not the Dragon Soul, rather he had taken a sip from the spring and gained immortality.”
“Some say that there is a sacred temple inside the Black Forest, called the Sacred Temple of Life, and the contents are pretty much the same as the Wellspring of the World, but the saying is that you need to spend a night meditating to gain immortality.” Awenna smiled. “But everyone thought that meditating is much more troublesome than just drinking water, so the story of the wellspring stuck.”
Hao Ren massaged his temple as he went, “Listening to the last part makes neither sound convincing at all…”
“They are mere legends, you cannot be serious to believe them.” Charlemagne thumbed his nose, “While the Black Forest is dangerous, it is not unassailable, and in fact due to the efforts of so many generations, the imperials have managed to find a few more stable routes across the Black Forest, while there will be brave adventurers exploring unknown paths in the Black Forest, most of them made it back, but no one actually discovered any wellsprings or temples. Plus there are also many scheduled skyships flying over the Black Forest, and you can see the entire woods from above, there’s nothing of the sorts.”
Hao Ren was wondering how does his crew would make their way through the Black Forest when he heard the legends of the place, and after hearing Charlemagne mentioning about paths within the forest that he realized something, but his curiosity soon followed, “There are paths within the forest? Didn’t you say the deeper into the forest the stronger its life force is? And any traces left behind by men will be wiped out almost in an instant?”
“Those paths are not man-made, they were there all along,” Awenna explained. “This is also another unsolved mystery of the forest, the pathways have clear signs of being created by hand, with the roads paved and lit, some of the paths even have stone houses and the likes, but these were all there before the imperials discovered this forest. Some people are guessing it is a relic of a bygone civilization, but this guess is even vaguer than the wellspring of life… and does not explain why the paths are not consumed by the forest…”
Hao Ren and Vivian reflexively exchanged glances.
This explanation… was probably the most plausible of the lot.
“The stories about the Black Forest is almost endless,” Charlemagne noticed that the caravan was already approaching the Verdant Barrier, and decided to cut the topic short, “There are many forks in the Black Forest, I have already planned out the best route northwards. If you are really curious about the forest, you can have a look yourself once we get in.”
While Greenway was a wondrous city that was worth visiting, but the group clearly did not linger as the caravan passed through the city’s central road and after clearing the necessary procedures they headed to the city’s northern exit.
In that direction, the great Verdant Barrier held the forest at bay, while underneath the wall were twelve great gates. The gates had a clear elven influence as the glorious story of the humans and the elven smith working together to create this miracle city was engraved on the tall and elegant gate. The first group of human pioneers was long dead, but the elves in that ‘Pledge Of the Gate’ were still working for the city, and their main duty was to monitor the changes of the Black Forest beyond the wall and to guard the gates alongside their human compatriots.
And these long-lived elves were loyal to their duty.
These pointy-eared, elegant race were scattered all across the land and were said to once have a powerful empire, but now the ancient elven empire was now a legend, and aside from a few tiny kingdoms hidden within the forest isolated from the world, most of the elves had already assimilated into the human realms, and the elves of the Dragon Empire were the most assimilated of the lot. Probably due to the fact that this country had an immortal emperor, and could better understand the thoughts and habits of the long-lived elves. The elves within Dragon were actually doing very well.