2044 A Half Elf

Meeting a Half Elf was certainly an interesting experience for Lin Mu and he was looking forward to learning more about them.

"I wouldn't be surprised that you haven't seen many elves." Ziran spoke hearing Lin Mu's earlier words. "Most of the elves are attached to their worlds and rarely leave. And if they do it's usually to find new worlds to live in or to trade. What you would mostly see though are half elves like me." He explained.

"I see… I've heard there are many sub-races of the Elves?" Lin Mu asked next.

"Yeah, for example I have two sub races' blood within me: the Wood Elves and Dark Elves. Other than these, there are also the High Elves. These three are the major sub-races of the elves but there are said to be more.

But even for me, I've only ever met other elves from the three major sub-races. The more rarer sub-races such as the Deep Elves, Sea Elves, Snow Elves and the elusive Moon Elves are far too rare now.

Moon Elves in particular are even said to be almost extinct." Ziran explained openly.

It was clear that the man was decently knowledgeable and was open to sharing about it too. This gave Lin Mu a hint as to what his job was here and Qiao De's next words confirmed it.

"Ziran here is an explorer and has seen many ruins and tombs of experts. He also happens to be an expert at the Shamanic script of the Demonic Tribes as well as demons in general." Qiao De informed. "He is also decently strong and has enough experience to handle himself." He added.

Hearing that, Crown Prince Feng Shun and Lin Mu couldn't help but be pleased.

"While I'd be fine taking your word, I do wish to know what is Ziran's cultivation base." Crown Prince Feng Shun questioned.

"Ah yes, it is hard to sense my cultivation base for the normal Qi cultivators." Ziran replied before making his aura more pronounced.

~shua~

Lin Mu could feel the Qi waves coming from the man, and it didn't take much for him to estimate that he was actually equivalent to the Fifth Tribulation Stage of the Immortal realm.

"Hmm… Fifth Tribulation Stage… That'll be fine." Crown Prince Feng Shun approved.

Lin Mu too paid extra attention to the man, and realized that he cultivated Qi too.

'Even the cultivation system is the same… The only difference is that the cultivation technique naturally hides his cultivation base, unless intentionally shown. Interesting…' Lin Mu thought to himself.

Crown Princess Shang was also a bit interested and spoke up.

"Are you using an Immortal tool to hide your cultivation base or is that a technique?" She inquired.

"Neither." Ziran replied, much to their surprise.

"Huh?" Lin Mu tilted his head.

"It is actually a natural ability that my race has… well the Dark Elf race has." Ziran answered. "The Dark elves have a natural affinity to the Darkness elements and are excellent hunters. As such they can naturally hide all their energy fluctuations and are extremely well versed in stealth." He explained.

"No wonder… That is a handy ability to have." Lin Mu replied.

"Though I am only a quarter Dark Elf, so I do not have all the abilities. I can only hide my cultivation base to some extent." Ziran clarified. "Since we are to explore an uncharted territory, it is best you all know about my capabilities so that we have the best chance at survival." He added.

"That is indeed an excellent thought." Qiao De chimed in. "Why don't we all get familiar with each other, while our third set of guests arrive?" he suggested.

"I guess that would be fine." Crown Prince Fen Shun agreed. "Though… Where is Lady Kang?" he couldn't help but ask.

Lin Mu wondered the same and so did Crown Princess Shang.

"Has there been any message from her yet?" The Crown Princess asked.

"I believe she should be here in a few hours." Qiao De responded. "She sent a message an hour ago that she was already on the way and was in the ocean." He stated.

"That's good. At least we won't have to wait long." Crown Princess Shang nodded. "Daoist Chu and Monk Hushu are also getting the others ready. Do I need to call them up?" she asked.

"No, let them stay for the time being. We'll inform them when we are a day from the islands." Crown Prince Feng Shun replied. "Just Daoist Chu and Monk Hushu being here would be enough since they need to be updated on everything." He added.

"Very well." Crown Princess Shang nodded and went to inform the others.

Since the actual mission of the expedition was to obtain the inheritance of the Celestial which was a secret it was best that others were unaware about it. Officially, all that had been told to others was that they were going on an expedition to explore a spatial plane left by ancient experts.

It was not something uncommon and there were often such expeditions happening all over the Rust Sky world every century or so.

In fact, the number of people going for Expeditions was many times the number that they had here. Usually there would be hundreds of thousands of people going on such expeditions and the competition was a lot stronger.

But right now, it was a mere fraction of that. As such, the people were quite excited and did not ask any further. Just being invited by the Crown Prince was a great honor for most of them and as such they were not ones to pry any deeper.

But once the Crown Princess was gone, Feng Shun seemed to have a new question lingering on his mind.

"Would you mind telling me how you two got here?" Crown Prince Feng Shun asked. "I didn't get information about you two arriving through any of the Teleportation Arrays in the Dao Wind Empire that is for sure." He added.