Chapter 1 "Are You Really Lolisa? That Elf Queen Lolisa?"

Hao Ren stared into the eyes of the elven "girl" and asked with extreme seriousness.

As soon as he asked this question, Lily, who was squatting beside him, craning her neck to look out the window and searching for delicious food on the street, immediately turned her head: "Huh? Landlord, haven't we already confirmed her identity before?"

"All our confirmations are based on what she claims," Hao Ren leaned back in his seat. "I've been thinking about it for a long time, and finally decided to ask—are you really Lolisa?"

The elf slightly frowned her beautiful eyebrows, but her expression didn't change at all. It seemed that Hao Ren's sudden question wasn't enough to shake her resolve. In fact, since leaving the Dark Mountain Range, this "ancient magic emperor" had been rapidly calming down and becoming more composed. It seemed that the impact of ten thousand years of fleeting time had only shaken her for a short while at the beginning, and she quickly returned to her state as "Elf Queen."

"Why are you suddenly asking this?" After a few seconds of silence, she asked indifferently.

Seeing the other party's reaction, Hao Ren revealed an "as expected" expression. He relaxed his body: "Do you know about the Lifetree Project?"

"Lifetree Project?" Lolisa's expression finally showed a hint of doubt. Clearly, this was the first time she had heard this term. "There is a Lifetree in elven legends, the first tree in the world. All elves were born from the leaves of that tree. But the Lifetree Project… I've never heard of it."

Vivian seemed to understand Hao Ren's idea. She first revealed a look of realization, then looked at Lolisa with doubt.

"The Lifetree Project, in short, is to use the power of the Source Blood and the secret magic of the elves to create an artificial plant that is infinitely close to the legendary 'Lifetree', and then use the 'Branches of Origin' simulated by the Lifetree to fuse with the tentacles of the First Born, thereby sealing the First Born. This plan ultimately failed because the 'Origin Life' artificially simulated was too different from the First Born nurtured by the true First Seed, and the Lifetree was reduced to ashes by the counter-attacking energy," Hao Ren explained, his eyes falling on Lolisa's face. "The initiator of this plan was Lolisa."

The elf blinked, her face showing neither the panic of being exposed nor the anxiety of trying to find an excuse. She just looked at Hao Ren with a smile that wasn't quite a smile for a while, then nodded noncommittally: "Oh, so that's how it is…"

"So who exactly are you?" Vivian stroked her chin, and faint blood-colored runes were already floating around her. "Why do you call yourself 'Elf Queen Lolisa'?"

"I only call myself Lolisa. You guys are the ones who have always added the title 'Elf Queen' to me," Lolisa said indifferently. "I have never called myself an Elf Queen. And the title Elf Queen is not accurate—back then, our name for the emperor was Magic Emperor."

"Your name is indeed Lolisa?" Lily also reacted at this time. She stared at the elf in front of her with wide eyes. "Then what's your relationship with the legendary elf… oh, magic emperor?"

"Since that's the case, then I'll just be frank. I am her, but I am not her," Lolisa straightened the lace on her long dress and sat up straight, as if she had finally decided to tell the truth. "From my self-awareness, I often confuse my connection with that queen, but logically and rationally, I know that I am not the real magic emperor. I don't know if you can understand this concept, I am a clone of Lolisa…"

"Oh, oh, I know, it's cloning, right?" Hao Ren nodded. "Even the memories are cloned?"

"The emotions are also cloned?" Lily was seeing a real clone for the first time, and her eyes lit up as if she had discovered a treasure. "Oh, why are you guys so sloppy? The most feared thing about clones is the inheritance of emotions and memories!"

Vivian also sized up Lolisa: "Well, with your technology back then, it's not surprising that you could create clones."

Lolisa was still preparing to explain to these people what a clone was, but at this time, she was finally a little dazed: "Uh, you all know?"

The three of them nodded together: "Know, know."

Only Becky next to her didn't express any opinions. The female mercenary's days on Earth were basically spent indulging in shopping and various low-intelligence variety shows. Her advanced cultural knowledge was limited to how to use a computer to search for online stores and find movies. She didn't bring any glory to time travelers. Although she initially had the ambition to become a cross-world reseller, this ambition was personally extinguished by Hao Ren…

"Ah, then… then it's easier to explain," Lolisa finally regained her composure. "I am a clone of the elven magic emperor Lolisa. I have a part of her memories and way of thinking, but ultimately… a clone is just a clone. I only know what happened before the laboratory accident. After that… like the Lifetree Project you just mentioned, I know nothing about it."

"A clone with only a part of the memories and emotions…" Hao Ren looked at the ancient clone in front of him with some surprise. "And it's still a clone of a magic emperor. You guys really played big back then—did the magic emperors all create their own clones and then use them in biochemical experiments? Did you create a lot of such clones?"

"How could that be? It's extremely difficult to clone a magic emperor," Lolisa shook her head. "I am the only successful clone, ah, basically considered successful. My memories and emotions should be something unexpected for them, but no matter what, being successful with one is better than all failures."

"Why did they have to clone a magic emperor? Wouldn't it be safer and more controllable to directly clone ordinary people?" Hao Ren frowned, somewhat puzzled. "And it sounds like they didn't initially think that you would inherit a part of the original's memories and personality—in this case, how dare they let an uncontrollable factor like you participate in the experiment?"

"Cloning a magic emperor is because no one other than someone of this level can withstand the 'Grace of God'. They had tried ordinary people before, but without exception, they all failed," Lolisa pointed to herself. "In fact, I ultimately failed as well: after I came into contact with the deep information of the oracle, my mind collapsed. You know what happened after that. As for why they allowed me to participate in the experiment… hehe, it's very simple, because they had no choice. It was a critical moment in the experiment, and they didn't have time to create a new clone, and I had always been very cooperative in my performance."

"What exactly is that oracle? Did the Creator Goddess really issue an order for you to create divine life? What is the so-called 'withstanding the Grace of God'? Is your current state the result of withstanding the Grace of God? What exactly did you do in that laboratory?" Hao Ren blurted out a series of questions.

Lolisa smiled: "You have so many questions… well, it seems we still have a little time, I can tell you from the beginning. You said that you have been investigating the god-slaying incident from ten thousand years ago, so do you know what we thought at the beginning?"

"You?"

"The magic emperors, and people like me who 'participated' in the experiment," Lolisa revealed a self-deprecating smile. "From beginning to end, we didn't know that someone was conspiring to usurp the divine power. The magic emperors on this planet knew nothing about what happened in the 'God Kingdom' located in the distant depths of the universe. All our information came only from the oracles heard during sacrificial prayers. This thin connection made it difficult for us to grasp the truth… I'm not even sure when the problem first started, because my memory of this is inherited from Lolisa, and this inheritance is incomplete. All I can clearly remember is a fragment, that is, on a certain day, during the most grand sacrifice, with four magic emperors present, the goddess's will personally descended upon the mortal world. She said that the new era of the mortal world was about to arrive, and according to a plan set from the beginning, when the will of mortals grew to a certain extent, we would be qualified to share the secrets of life creation with the gods…"

"That is, to let you research the demon hunters… I mean, the kind of super life you created?" Hao Ren raised his eyebrows, feeling that he was approaching a certain truth. "You believed it? Was it really the Creator Goddess's will that descended at that time?"

"Of course we believed it, because the Creator Goddess's decree is supreme, and her great power cannot be faked at all—we are all children of the goddess. When she descends, everyone standing in front of her can feel the agitation coming from the depths of their souls. This is a natural phenomenon that arises spontaneously. You don't belong to this world, so you can't understand this point."

"So the one who descended at that time was really the Creator Goddess?" Lily widened her eyes. "Then what did you mean by saying 'the oracle is fake' before?"

"I… don't know," Lolisa showed a blank expression for the first time. "From the memories inherited from the original, I can be sure that the power that descended at that time was indeed the power of the goddess, but when the power of the oracle was injected into my body, I found that a crazy, dark shadow was hidden in the deepest part of that power, it was something evil disguised—however, I didn't have time to remind the others, because after that power was injected into my body, my perception of the outside world was cut off. I tried to break free from its control over my soul, but this resistance led to the loss of control of energy… you know what it ultimately led to."