"Greetings, esteemed Majesty…" the people walked over from afar.
Seeing those people approach, the guards by Chen Heng's side became wary.
Even though they looked somewhat similar to humans, they were also quite different.
Perhaps those things would not have been clear to ordinary people, but to the Sorcerers present, they knew clearly.
They were all Elves.
"This has been a long time coming."
Chen Heng nodded to the group of Elves as he spoke, "I'm sure you know why I'm here."
"Your Majesty's people have come before," a middle-aged Elf said softly, "In order to receive Your Majesty, we have prepared a banquet for you."
"Very well," Chen Heng nodded and followed behind the middle-aged Elf.
As they walked, Chen Heng looked at the scenery around them.
Faint silver light appeared in the surroundings, looking quite beautiful and unique.
It had to be said that the Elves were one of the first Sorcerers.
Even though the Hemu region's Elves were forced to hide here, this place where they lived was still filled with traces of magic skills and Sorcerer Formations.
There were dense elemental particles all around them, and they were far denser than any other place that Chen Heng had visited.
This place was most likely an energy node.
Large amounts of elemental particles appeared in this place and were absorbed into the silver trees. The Elf race then used special magic skills to guide them to other places.
Chen Heng continued onwards.
The Elf race was quite calm towards his arrival. They were not overly passionate, but they were not antagonistic towards him either.
Of course, this was partially because of Chen Heng's identity.
He was now the Emperor of the Dawn Empire and the ruler of the Hemu region.
Even the entire Merfolk race was not a match for him, let alone the Elf race that had gone into decline.
If they did not want to make life difficult for themselves, they had to put away their previous attitude.
After walking into the inner regions, a beautiful scene greeted them.
Just like humans, the Elves also built houses as residences.
However, their houses were all very unique and were all built according to personal tastes.
Some were built into trees but still looked very tough.
This made Chen Heng feel quite interested, and he looked about.
As they headed forwards, he met the Elf race's current leader.
It was an elderly Elf Sorcerer.
He was the only remaining true Sorcerer in the Elf Race. However, he was very powerful and had reached the peak among true Sorcerers.
Within the Hemu region, apart from Chen Heng, this old Elf Sorcerer could rank among the top five.
In the past, it was because of this old Elf Sorcerer's existence, as well as the surrounding barrier, that the Elf Race was able to survive here and not go extinct.
"I came here to extend an invitation, as well as to fulfil a promise," Chen Heng said softly as he looked at the old Elf Sorcerer.
Before, he had come into contact with the Half-Elf Sorcerer Yana and had obtained some benefits from her.
The Legacy Stone that he had was from her.
Back then, Chen Heng had promised that when he could, he would look after the Hemu region's Elf race.
He had come to fulfil that promise.
He told them about his interaction with Yana back then and gave them the choice.
"If you are willing to come out, I can have all of you join Dawn Academy and promise that in the future Dawn Academy will always have a representative from the Elf Race.
"If you are not willing, I will give you the title of the Duke of Mogow and officially give the surrounding regions to the Elf race as their territory."
Hearing Chen Heng's words, the guards by Chen Heng's side and even the governor could not help but feel surprised.
From how they saw it, Chen Heng was incredibly generous.
For the Elf race to have a representative in Dawn Academy, this meant that they would join Dawn Academy's management. There were only ten such people in total, and not only could they participate in decision-making for the Dawn Academy, but they also had access to all of Dawn Academy's research and knowledge.
After the human world had been unified and all Sorcerers gathered at Dawn Academy, the development of Sorcerers was incredibly fast.
Before, different sects and academies had all investigated by themselves.
Some ancient sects hid away, focusing on their own research.
This was not very ideal—after all, research was best done in conjunction with discussions and critique.
Moreover, researching in isolation could often result in awkward situations—sometimes, after one painstakingly researched something, they would find out that someone had already researched this.
This caused great waste.
In the Hemu region, sometimes all kinds of different magic skills were devised from the same magic skill framework.
After all Sorcerers had been gathered to Dawn Academy, all of the sects and academies' knowledge had been gathered and then taught to other Sorcerers.
Moreover, with so many Sorcerers gathered, all kinds of theories and ideologies clashed, resulting in even greater growth.
Adding on the discovery and exploration of historical remnants, there would be new breakthroughs every two years or so.
If one wanted to access these results, becoming one of the management of Dawn Academy was the best choice.
As such, if the Elf race wanted to become part of society, this choice would be the best option.
On the other hand, becoming a Duke and receiving the surrounding territory was a different option.
If the Elves did not want to become part of society and wanted to remain isolated, this was also a good option.
With a Duke's title, the Elf race would be protected and no longer be viewed by Sorcerers as good experiment materials.
Both options brought with them very favorable treatment.
To ordinary people, even if they worked hard their entire lives, they would not be able to obtain such things.
And yet, the Elf race could receive them so easily.
Thinking to there, many of the Sorcerers present could not help but feel jealousy and admiration.
Hearing the two choices that Chen Heng gave, the old Elf Sorcerer fell into his thoughts.
Only after a long time did he make a decision.
The old Elf Sorcerer decided to lead the Elf race to join Dawn Academy—they had chosen to join society.
As an elder, the old Elf Sorcerer knew what had to be done.
If they chose the second option, even if they could live quite well in the Dawn Empire, once anything unexpected happened, things could become quite bad.
As the Elf race continued to live in an environment with no threats or competition, they would continue to go into decline and waste their talent.
However, once the Dawn Empire disappeared or no longer protected them, they would be defenceless against other threats.
When that time came, their situation would be even more pitiful than before.
Rather than waiting for that to happen, it was better to join Dawn Academy and become stronger.
That was the decision that the old Elf Sorcerer made after thinking about it.
In response, Chen Heng nodded and did not say anything.
Honestly speaking, the Elf race joining Dawn Academy was a good thing.
No matter how weak the Elf race became, they had once been the rulers of this world and had some legacies left behind by their ancestors.
Those were all good resources for Dawn Academy.
Perhaps with those things, they would have more of an idea of how true Sorcerers could become Level 2 Sorcerers.
Back then, the Hemu region had developed from a foggy region, and the Sorcerer civilization had perished. Everything they had now had been obtained from historical remnants.
Back then, there were just some ordinary Meditation techniques, but as Sorcerer Apprentices appeared and reproduced, more and more Sorcerers had been produced.
The Hemu region's development had been quite limited.
By now, they had only reached the true Sorcerer level and did not have any clear path beyond that.
This problem had troubled the Hemu region's Sorcerers for hundreds of years, and only in the recent decades after Dawn Academy had been established had they made some progress.
However, if they really wanted to break through, there were many problems that they needed to solve.
The Elf race joining them might speed this up.
Following this, Chen Heng stayed among the Elf race as a guest and looked at the surrounding scenery.
It had to be said that the scenery here was very good.
The Elves were naturally pursuers of beauty, and this showed itself in the way they lived.
All of the surroundings were very beautiful, looking like pieces of artwork.
After looking around, Chen Heng felt that his eyes had been opened.
Only after staying here for a few days did he leave here and head elsewhere.
However, before leaving, Chen Heng had secretly collected a few Elves' blood and had brought it back to use as materials.
Chen Heng had wanted to take a few Elf corpses, but thinking about the purpose of this trip, he did not go for it.
After all, if he killed some Elves or digged up some corpses, this would not be very good for their future relationship.
As such, Chen Heng did not go too far.
After all, he did not lack materials right now.
Even though most Elves were gathered in the Mogow Plains, there were some wandering outside by themselves.
There had been Elf slaves sold in Helo City before, and as time passed, some Elves would naturally die.
He could just secretly obtain their corpses then.
"Then again, with my personality in the past, I would not have cared about any of this and would have directly killed a few Elves."
Thinking of his changes, Chen Heng inwardly shook his head.
By now, after 60 or 70 years, Chen Heng could gradually sense the effects of the Faith Mark on him.
Precisely speaking, the Faith Mark did not directly influence him; rather, it was the positive faith energy he had absorbed during the hero's trial.
The amount of faith energy that the Faith World had gathered over countless years was something that ordinary people could not fathom.
In order to obtain great power and return to the Sorcerer World, Chen Heng had taken in that faith energy.
That energy had been very great, and to Chen Heng, it felt invincible.
Even the Heart-Devouring Devil that had rampaged in the Hemu region for many years could not withstand a few blows from him.
However, because of how great the power was, it began to influence him.
Over time, Chen Heng found that his personality had begun to change, just like what had happened just then.
He wanted to obtain some Elf corpses to absorb their essence blood and do research on cultivating Moon God Worship.
If it was the him of the past, he would not have been so kind and would have secretly acted. Even if he did not capture a few live Elves, he would have gone to their graves.
No matter what he did, the Elves would not dare to say much and would have to endure it.
However, he had become much kinder.
Chen Heng inwardly shook his head, but he did not mind these changes too much.
It was not that faith energy twisted his mind; rather, it just amplified his kinder emotions.
If one's heart did not contain kindness, faith energy would not be able to affect one.
As long as it did not affect his rational thought, Chen Heng did not mind this too much.
After all, when he had to be ruthless, he would still be able to do so.
However, if this went on, it would not necessarily be a good thing.
As time went on, the effects would become more and more intense; Chen Heng had no plans to become a saint.
He did not mind pretending now and then, but if he were to really become one, that was not what he wanted.
Thinking there, Chen Heng wondered to himself, "Is it time to leave…"
Time gradually passed.
A few months later, within a luxurious laboratory, Chen Heng walked away from a few corpses and looked at the bottle of blood in his hands.
This was the essence blood that he had refined from those corpses, but compared to the essence blood that Chen Heng had extracted in the past, it was much less active and did not seem to contain much lifeforce.
This was to be expected—after all, this blood came from corpses.
In order to obtain these Elves' corpses, Chen Heng had sent people all over the place during the past few months.
"Elf blood…"
Looking at the essence blood, Chen Heng placed it under a microscope and observed it intently.
In the Sorcerer World, in order to look at things on the micro-level, things like microscopes had been invented. However, they could not compare to the ones in real life.
Within the red blood, Chen Heng could see some silver traces, which ordinarily could not be seen by the naked eye.
"A higher level essence blood?" Chen Heng wondered to himself.
Above ordinary Elves, there were the Elf royalty with the Moon Elf and Sun Elf bloodline.
Could it be that some of these Elf corpses contained the royal bloodline?
Chen Heng wondered to himself and did not hesitate to absorb the essence blood using the Heaven Devouring Scripture.
Compared to previous times, this time Chen Heng's body went through great changes.
A strange energy appeared in his body.
The magic power in his body began to circulate by itself and became somewhat active.
This was especially so for the Moon God Energy in his body.
The Moon God Energy started to circulate and gradually fused into Chen Heng's body, causing it to stabilize.
This persisted for a long time and only stopped after a few days.
After the bloodline fusion was complete, Chen Heng walked out and had a big meal before going through his changes.
Chen Heng walked before a mirror and looked at his appearance.
