I reign supreme in the Western fantasy world for eternity.

Earlier, in the depths of a dense forest thirty miles south of the village where Ji Tian had temporarily spent the night.

A shadow demon stared in disbelief at the forest in front of him, where the trees were intact and the demons were charred.

This area was supposed to be a monster riot zone pushed to the brink, where these monsters completely lost control last night and stormed into the nearest elven village, causing panic.

But now all that remains are severed limbs and remains, with fragments of gray-black scales scattered on the ground, and a burnt, fishy stench permeating the air.

It's obvious this was caused by being struck by lightning, but strangely, the surrounding vegetation is completely undamaged. From this, we can draw two conclusions:

Either the spellcaster has extremely precise control over magic, or the other party is extremely cruel, killing the monsters and throwing them back to where they originally were.

This is no ordinary lightning mage; we must report this to the captain!

With that thought in mind, the Shadow Demon concealed itself in the shadows illuminated by the morning light and sped toward the captain who was leading a monster uprising in the heart of the elven territory.

……

After eating and drinking her fill, Lilith skipped down the stairs with her bag on her back. She immediately saw Ji Tian bending down to examine the black banner spread on his lap. She leaned closer, her long silver hair almost touching the banner.

"Master, Master, why does this flag have so many gold threads? Wasn't it all black yesterday?"

Ji Tian rolled up the Emperor's Banner and tucked it back into his waistband, explaining, "Last night, the privately-run Underworld took in nearly a thousand homeless demon souls. This is a meritorious act, hence the golden patterns on the banner."

Last night, for some unknown reason, more than a thousand demons within a radius of a hundred miles broke through at the same time, but due to their unstable foundations, they were all struck dead by lightning.

However, Ji Tian had a benevolent heart and could not bear to see those demons annihilated, so he took them all into his banner to educate them, dispel their remaining murderous intent and resentment, and save them from their suffering.

Given time, they may well acquire intelligence and become ghost talents in a privately run underworld, continuing to shine and contribute.

Lilith was stunned, and in a daze, she felt that her master truly deserved the name of a hero, and said with some admiration, "Master really has the world in his heart!"

"Stop worrying about the world, it's time to go!" Elena's voice came from ahead, with Ophelia, wearing a hooded robe, beside her.

The group of four left the village as the village chief waved goodbye, continuing north along the forest path.

Meanwhile, the Shadow Demon sneaked back to the temporary camp and knelt on one knee to report: "Sir, a few days ago, a large-scale suspected man-made lightning strike occurred in the fourth riot zone in the south. The caster was extremely powerful, and all the monsters died on the spot."

The demon captain, who was wiping the bloodstains off his scimitar with a coarse cloth, stopped and looked up when he heard this.

"Never mind that area for now, let's continue the mission. You take two people and report the situation back to the main camp so they know something has gone wrong here. The rest of you come with me. The core of the riot zone is still north of the royal court. As long as the plan proceeds as scheduled, the loss of one or two areas is nothing."

"yes!"

The Shadow Demon accepted the order and withdrew, quickly disappearing into the shadows with two demon scouts.

The captain stood up, sheathed his scimitar, and looked through the gaps in the dense forest at the distant outline of the capital city, which was faintly visible in the twilight.

His job was simply to muddy the waters; nothing else mattered.

……

Over the next few days, the number of elven settlements along the way gradually increased, and the distance between villages also shortened.

Ji Tian's path to mortal life has indeed been quite effective in "observing the mortal world":

He witnessed the customs and habits of different elven villages and felt the almost instinctive respect that the elves had for heroes, a respect that was also accompanied by an inexplicable sense of estrangement.

But who is Ji Tian? One glance tells you that the other party is a Western fantasy version of "the barrier between immortals and mortals," the sorrow of an old-blooded immortal being after experiencing the separation of life and death from a close short-lived being.

Whenever Ji Tian and his companions entered a village, the silver-haired, golden-haired, and brown-haired elves would stop what they were doing, bow slightly, and greet them in a gentle and standard Common Tongue: "Welcome, Brave One."

Then an elder would step forward and lead them through the cleanest road in the village, settle them in the best house, and offer them long-preserved tea and dried fruit as if they were honored guests from afar.

They would also take out old parchment and point to the place names on it to reminisce about the past:

"The last time a hero passed through our village was ninety years ago. Back then, the leader was a very cheerful, short girl. One of her teammates was an elven archer, the daughter of a hunter from our village. Later, she left with the hero and never returned..."

Or, to put it another way: "Hero, do you know that three hundred years ago, a hero slew a wreaking havoc near our village? The dragon's teeth are still hanging on the old tree at the village entrance."

Lilith listened attentively at first, but gradually felt that these words were like templates; by changing the names and the time, they would become a different version of the story.

"Master, it seems like they're... treating heroes as mere symbols?"

Ji Tian nodded. "Race that live too long are more likely to have blurred memories of individuals. For them, heroes are more like a phenomenon that appears every few decades or hundreds of years."

Ophelia's half-elf status, however, caused a subtle change in the elves' attitudes.

When they learned that the silent, hooded, silver-haired woman was a half-elf, their eyes immediately softened, and their attitude changed from "polite and distant" to a warm one tinged with guilt and probing.

An elderly female elf took Ophelia's hand and said softly, "Judging from your hair color, you came from the royal court? Child, how have you been doing out there?"

Ophelia simply nodded. "That's good."

The female elf hesitated for a moment, then sighed and patted the back of her hand. "That's good. If you ever want to come back, there will always be a door open for you in the Elven Kingdom."

Ophelia silently withdrew her hand without answering.

Similar conversations occurred several times along the way.

The elves' attitude towards half-elves always carried an almost pitying tenderness, as if no matter how many companions she had, she was destined to be alone.

Ji Tian silently kept these feelings of compassion in his heart.

Perhaps this is one of the meanings of becoming an ordinary person: to see the small, real suffering hidden on the edge of grand narratives.

Several days later, at dusk, they finally arrived at their destination: the true Elven Royal Court.

The vast plains stretched out in the twilight, and in the center of the plains stood an extremely magnificent city.

The entire city is woven from towering ancient trees, with trunks as thick as pagodas and branches forming domes. Countless treehouses and covered bridges are scattered among the canopies, gleaming with a warm golden-green light under the setting sun.

Ophelia walked at the back, her gaze sweeping over the sun-drenched moss and wildflowers along the roadside, and suddenly murmured, "If you go north after entering the royal court, you'll see the forest where I was born."

Elena glanced at her sideways. "Homesick?"

Ophelia sighed and shook her head. "After my mother died, there was no home there anymore."