Magic High School.

At this moment, Xiaoye did not return to her dormitory, but instead went to the forging department.

"Sir Dwarf, this is the final payment for those two interlocking rings. I'm sorry, but the final payment can only be made after the quest reward arrives," Xiao Ye said politely to the old dwarf, Magical Egg.

"It's alright, it's alright. By the way, little girl, although these two rings can be transferred between worlds, they can only be used a limited number of times. They can only store energy three times, and can only be recharged once every ten hours."

The amazing Aiger also told Xiaoye about the various shortcomings and problems of this magical device. After all, he cared a lot about the things he made, which is why he has his current reputation.

"Yes, no problem." Xiaoye nodded, then transferred the points she had just earned from the mission to the old dwarf.

After all, she had only paid a deposit before. Unlike Li Ge and the others, Xiao Ye basically had no extra income. She could only save a little money by relying on scholarships and the occasional few missions from the executive department.

The first magical artifact she chose to create was this pair of rings, made entirely of mithril, and inscribed with a spell that could instantly teleport even across worlds.

"Then I wish you a long and happy marriage," the old dwarf said casually, making Xiaoye feel a little embarrassed.

After the girl wearing a mask left, the old dwarf glanced at the ring on her ring finger, chuckled, and said, "Young people these days always like to be subtle. They don't like to express themselves directly; instead, they like to say things like 'The moonlight is beautiful.'"

"Judging from her expression, the rings have probably been swapped. Tsk tsk tsk, maybe this ring can be passed down to the next generation. Who knows, I might end up with another heirloom from one of the children." The old dwarf crossed his legs. What he really wanted to see was his own magical weapon being upgraded to become another child's heirloom.

That way, he would feel a pleasure ten thousand times greater than the best wine in the world.

The old dwarf rarely spoke of it, but he would add his own understanding and insights to each magical weapon he crafted. For example, the speed rune on Li Ge's Masked Armor and the treasure inscription rune on Yi Lian's Hand of God were all added based on his own understanding.

The moment he received these two rings, he felt a complex yet budding emotion within them. So, after engraving the ability to teleport across worlds, he also inscribed a tiny rune, less than ten micrometers in size, named "Harmony."

Being able to connect with each other's psychic energy, and even send each other psychic energy, could perhaps be considered a kind of blessing sent out.

This is actually a clever trick to give magical artifacts a chance to be upgraded to Noble Phantasms. The old dwarf thought that after hundreds of years, he only had less than three magical artifacts in his possession, which were eventually upgraded to Noble Phantasms.

He remembers every single one of them and cherishes them. Many of the equipment he made eventually became family heirlooms passed down to the next generation. Perhaps this generation cannot upgrade them, but the next generation can.

"I hope that in my lifetime I can see some of my magical artifacts upgraded to Noble Phantasms. If I could, I would die without regrets." He laughed heartily and gulped down a whole bottle of dwarven Moonlight Private Brew.

In his dream, he saw that the two rings were upgraded to Noble Phantasms and then passed on to the next generation of children a hundred years later. He was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling and woke up from the dream laughing.

……

Meanwhile, in my dreams.

Valerie looked at the chibi-style creatures around her, each resembling a My Little Pony, and scratched her head.

One of the teddy bear-like creatures stood out. Valerie realized that it had appeared when she blew up the Holy Light Pegasus. She went up to it, grabbed it by the scruff of its neck, and asked, "By the way, how were you able to appear outside before? Can you perform again?"

"I don't know, boss! When Big Brother was about to blow it up, I grabbed him and ended up in front of that big tomb. I don't know anything about it!" the teddy bear said innocently.

Valerie kept scratching her head, looking at the adorable chibi-style pets scattered all over the ground. She sighed again. She had thought that her domain might finally be taking shape and could provide her with power, but now it seemed to be useless.

"Sigh, never mind, I'll go first..." Valerie felt that this couldn't be accomplished in a day or two, so she would just wait patiently. By the time she could form the initial shape of her domain, perhaps these little brats would have grown up a bit.

"Wait, boss, what are we going to eat now that you're gone?"

"Yes, what do you want to eat?"

A group of little quacks stayed where they were, seemingly reluctant to see Valerie leave.

Some of the bears even clung to her legs, unwilling to let her go.

"Grow up quickly, help me fight! Don't stay so tiny! I don't even want you to go out and fight. Didn't you say you could evolve into a growth stage and a mature stage? Evolve quickly..." Valerie looked at the group of little animals and sighed.

……

Meanwhile, Yilian, far away in her hometown, slowly walked into this small fishing village, carrying her small bag.

The village is not very big. It is built along a shallow bay, not against the mountains, but right next to the sea. Behind it is a soft white sand beach, and in front is a crystal clear near-shore sea. There is no oil pollution or red tide. The seawater is always sparkling with pale blue light, and even the sound of the waves is softer than elsewhere.

The village houses seem to extend from a natural coral reef, cultivated by the mutated elves, as do the colorful seashells scattered everywhere, used as tiles—also cultivated by them.

The village is always filled with the smells of sea salt, fresh fish, and the cool, damp sea breeze—smells that seem to be etched deep into one's soul.

Until he saw the first Morphling...

No, I don't know if she can be considered a Morphling anymore, because she was leaning back in a recliner like a lazy, mature woman, teasing the Morphling that looked like an elementary school student next to her.

She was once the eldest sister who wanted to be the strongest man in the world, but now she's just a wife taking care of her child.

Furthermore, due to the dueling ritual, she is no longer a Morphling, but has become a standard carbon-based life form. She has even lost all of the Morphling's original body transformations, water flow forms, wave forms, and control over water elements.

This is the fundamental difference between Morphlings and Water Elementals: after the duel ritual, their bodies will be completely solidified, and from then on, they will be completely different from their previous forms.

As for her child, it didn't even have a human form yet; it was just a small ball of water, changing shape and playing on its own.

“Big brother…” Yi Lian said slowly.

Chapter 207 The Most Vicious Curse

When Morphling was young, it was simply a transparent mass of water.

Without eyes or any other senses, they perceive the outside world through vibrations and touch. At this stage, they need to understand everything around them and gradually develop a sense of curiosity about everything around them.

They will gradually transform into all sorts of different shapes and become what they imagine themselves to be.

This was the first transformation of the Morphling.

As their life experiences gradually enriched, they found the role they truly wanted to be, and began to gradually transform into the form they desired, and began to have an initial understanding of their basic gender and posture.

Upon seeing Yilian, the blue-green-haired woman seemed quite curious. After all, it had been hundreds of years since they had seen a stranger in this desolate place. So she asked, "This is a village of mutated elves. Outsiders need to report to the village chief if they want to enter."

Yi Lian paused for a moment, then quietly said, "Big Brother..."

In that instant, the mature woman with light blue hair froze on the spot. She immediately recognized Yi Lian, and then…

Shame, an indescribable shame, and the urge to escape this place.

She dared not look into Yi Lian's eyes, much less meet his gaze, as if she had forgotten to breathe at that moment.

Childhood and present, dreams and reality, are shattered in this contrast. I once dreamed of challenging all the heroes of the world and becoming the strongest person in the world. But now, the little devil who used to follow me has not changed, while I have become a wife. Everything from the past seems to have vanished in this moment.

She lowered her head, as if she were running away, as if she wanted to pretend she didn't know her.

The air was deathly still, with only the salty sea breeze and the scent of coconut trees carried by it.

Yi Lian didn't speak again, but walked past her without stopping or looking back, slowly stepping into the village with its soft sand and coconut-scented sea breeze.

Then, more and more people discovered this uninvited guest.

The village of the Morphlings wasn't large; the so-called Morphling race only numbered a few thousand. At this moment, a group of men and women, along with children who hadn't yet successfully transformed into human form and resembled various water spheres, all saw Yilian, a figure completely out of place here.

Watches, gloves, backpacks, and all sorts of novel little objects that they had never seen before in their lives—for the mutant elves who had probably never left this small fishing village in their entire lives, this was like a foreigner visiting a small mountain village from the last century.

Even small, still-formed water clumps have begun to try to resemble Yilian, only to be discovered by their parents and immediately subjected to water whipping, leaving them crying and screaming.

The crowd immediately became chaotic and noisy, but Yi Lian had no intention of stopping. Feeling that it was too noisy, he went straight to the very center of the village, to a giant seashell building that was over fifty meters high and covered several square kilometers.

There dwells the prophet of the mutant elves, an elder who has guided the entire mutant elf race since Yilian's earliest memories, and also...

When Yilian was a child, tell him about the old man at the magic high school.

"Boom boom boom!"

A knock sounded at the door, and from inside the house, which resembled a large pearl, an old man said, "Please come in."

The door opened, and Yilian slowly walked in. The old man paused in his writing, then sighed as if he had thought of something.

When he stood up, his face was fully revealed. He was an old man with a completely bald head, a hunched back, and white nose hairs that had grown into a patch with his beard.

In Yilian's memory, converted to school time, the prophet had lived for over seven hundred years. For a long-lived species, this age was already close to the end of their lifespan.

However, just seeing this appearance made Yilian feel an extreme sense of repulsion from the bottom of her heart...

disgust!

It wasn't that I disliked the old man, but rather his appearance—his form after being transformed into a carbon-based life form following the duel ritual.

Why is it that we are clearly the darlings of the sea? We are born with the ability to transform into any shape, to become waves, to exist in any form of liquid, to control the flow of water, and even to become whoever we want as long as our lifespan hasn't ended?

To put it bluntly, Yi Lian could completely transform into Li Ge and travel all over the world.

However, why is it that after the duel ritual, even those of us who were originally able to play freely in the sea as waves eventually become like carbon-based life forms, unable to swim and drown...?

What meaning do we have in our original form as water?

Even so, so old and... ugly!

Looking at the ugly old man, Yi Lian didn't look down on the prophet. However, seeing his appearance, he only felt disgust and pain from the bottom of his heart.

He didn't want to become like this himself hundreds of years later.

And all those ugly people...

He would even rather turn into water completely, and eventually dissolve into the sea.

“I’m back,” Yilian said.

Others might not remember him, but he was confident that the old man would still remember him.

“It’s too early, you shouldn’t have come back…” The prophet’s cloudy pupils, with only the whites showing, looked at Yilian.

"But I still came back."

Then came a deathly silence.

"So, have you made your decision?" the old man said, finally taking a deep breath.

“But I have one condition. I want to see the evolutionary path of the Morphlings from ancient times to the present. I want to break this curse, not compromise with it,” Yilian said slowly.

The old man stopped abruptly, his cloudy eyes seeming to want to see more, but he was too old, so old that he no longer knew how much longer he could live.

"A curse...?" he murmured softly.

"Perhaps, this really is the most vicious curse in history..."

The old prophet spoke, and then, slowly and gently, he opened another door.

But the next moment, he said, "Come with me. You're not the first child to want to know about this."

The old man left slowly and carefully. However, when Yilian passed by, she saw a faded photograph on the table. The photograph was from many years ago and looked well-preserved, but it was completely faded and worn, and the background was no longer visible.

All I could tell was that it seemed to be set in a school, with a girl happily hugging a boy's arm. However, Yilian couldn't even make out their faces. All she could see were the mottled images, as if time had gradually taken away all the memories and traces, leaving only this photo that, no matter how well it was sealed and preserved, could not withstand the erosion of time.

……

Meanwhile, at the magic high school, Li Ge slowly got up. To be honest, he hadn't slept since he started learning about domains.

Okay, the body seems to be asleep, but for the consciousness, closing the eyes means returning to the surface world of the domain, where he will live an ordinary life with Ranpo Yoru, or just watch the school across the street from home.

Or perhaps you could order a milk tea at the milk tea shop next to the internet cafe and watch the boys and girls after school.