ch1

“Arise. My first children.”

A memory from an unconscious state, difficult to express in words.

The opening of my second life was heralded by a single voice.

A memory as warm and comforting as a mother’s embrace.

When perception awakened with light and the coolness of the world was felt,

the first emotion I felt was bewilderment.

What was before my eyes was not a midwife receiving a child.

As my retinas grew accustomed to the light, the first thing that caught my eye was a tree.

It was enormous.

So vast and sacred that my momentary vision and perception could not encompass it all.

No, not just momentary vision; even when I tried to clearly recognize and see the tree’s existence, it didn’t fit into my field of vision.

Its size was such that even looking left and right, I couldn’t see the end.

The only reason I recognized it as a tree was because its bark was undeniably that of a tree.

Would the trees planted in the yard in my previous life have to form a million-strong army to compare to this tree?

As I blankly gazed up at its immense and overwhelming presence, I sensed the presence of others around me.

‘…Huh.’

In my previous life, I hadn’t seen a diverse and large spectrum of humanity due to my congenital disease, but I could guarantee it.

‘Ordinary humans wouldn’t even measure up to dried fish next to them.’

Hair like molten gold, each strand drawn out like golden thread, a flowing cascade of blonde.

Eyes like jade.

Limbs beautifully long and slender, a graceful body, as if a craftsman had carved it from white jade.

Skin so pure that it seemed to glow with the subtle light around it.

The men looked like reincarnations of Song Yu or Pan An, and the women evoked the tale of Xi Shi, the beauty who made fish forget how to swim.

The only unique feature was their remarkably long ears.

They, like me, seemed to have just awakened their senses, standing and staring blankly at the giant tree.

After briefly observing the naked, exquisite men and women, I felt the need to first grasp the situation.

‘I died. My heart couldn’t endure any longer and stopped beating with all its might.’

Naturally, I have no memory after that.

Because the dead cannot think.

So, is this the afterlife?

But the positive life force emanating from that unidentified, giant, sacred tree before my eyes asserted that this inference was wrong.

Although my previous life was short, death was always a companion by my side.

There was no doubt about my sensitivity and understanding of the energies of life and death.

Even though it was just a giant tree, the warm energy that seemed to affirm all life could not exist in the world of the dead.

If I had to guess, it wouldn’t be something like the afterlife, but rather a celestial realm?

The space where this giant, sacred tree existed, seemingly extending its energy throughout the entire world, was filled with auspicious energy.

Moreover, there was a strange connection to this giant tree and a warmth that filled my heart.

Considering artifacts like the peaches of immortality grown by the Queen Mother of the West, it wouldn’t be strange for such a tree to exist in a celestial realm.

‘And also…’

I stood up and looked at the placenta from which I was ‘born.’

More precisely, the flower bud that served as the placenta.

‘It’s not like I’m Ne Zha or anything.’

The story of Ne Zha, the deity born from a lotus flower.

Or the tales often seen in ancient founding histories, where extraordinary births from eggs or flowers were used to strengthen royal authority.

I never thought I would become an example of that.

A giant tree that seemed to cover the world before my eyes, with massive branches extending from its trunk, bearing seven enormous flowers.

And I, and the beautiful beings I see beside me now, seem to have been born from those flowers.

The men and women beside me are probably my siblings.

It’s certainly an extraordinary birth.

To think that in the vast universe that holds the stars of the night sky, there exists a race born from flowers.

Being born from a flower is surprising, but what’s even more astonishing is that we were born as adults without going through infancy.

Even without infancy, we’ve entered adulthood as fully-fledged adults… as…?

‘…My perspective is a bit low.’

Those children who might become my siblings were undeniably adults to anyone who looked at them.

The children who seemed to be born as males had large heights and large muscles, as well as beautifully developed fine muscles. (I was almost embarrassed to see that their private parts were quite impressive.)

The children who seemed to be born as females also had heights that were clearly taller than the women of the Central Plains, with full and beautiful breasts, and hips that made them seem like marriageable women ready to be married off immediately.

In comparison, my body was as beautiful as white jade like theirs, and my well-proportioned limbs were beautiful, but what was clearly felt was that this body was clearly lacking to be called an adult.

Furthermore, instead of the quite impressive thing that exists on my male siblings, there is nothing in the place where even a small one should be.

Am I disabled?

‘Could it be… am I born wrong in this life too?’

Physical defects or weakly born children due to disabilities are rare in the overall range, but they are never absent.

I had searched for numerous medical cases to fix my body.

Children without arms or legs, children born with one eye, children born with closed anuses, children born without genitals.

In any case, there were hardly any cases where they lived out their natural lifespan like normal humans, and their lives themselves ended tragically, far removed from a normal life.

Just like me, who died young before reaching adulthood.

This life, in which I was reincarnated, was born differently from ordinary humans, but considering my siblings, it seemed normal for this being to be born in a form close to an adult in human terms.

But me…?

Just as the joy of gaining a new life and body was about to rise, the anxiety caused by the memory of my severed meridians in my previous life shook my mind as if it would explode.

Because there was nothing more frightening than being ‘born differently.’

‘In this… life too, am I born with a congenital defect…?’

A new life is joyful, but just as the despair that I might suffer from deformities like in my previous life was about to stain my mind,

“My children, my first creations, bloomed from my body.”

A full, auspicious voice echoing in my head instantly shattered the despair that was sinking my mind like a swamp.

An undeniable warmth was felt in the voice.

‘No… is it not a voice?’

At first glance, it seemed like the highest level of telepathy, the Six Harmonies Telepathy, but it was the language of will, not the language of sound.

It seemed to be a supreme realm like telepathy belonging to the same lineage as Wisdom Light Heart Language.

‘A realm that only exists in theory…’

A realm that only exists as stories of great beings who only existed as myths even in the Murim world, saying that they ‘used to be’ like that.

‘I’ve witnessed such a supreme realm for the first time, and to think that the subject is a tree, not even a human.’

The curiosity as a martial artist soared without knowing the situation.

As clear intelligence filled the jade-like eyes of the other siblings (?) and they looked at the tree, a thought followed.

“My body is large, and there is no place my branches cannot reach, but the number of my branches is not infinite, so my branches cannot exist in every place in the world.”

“I create my siblings and this world, and my role is to enrich it widely, but I cannot be omnipotent with one body.”

“Therefore, with my authority, I have lovingly raised and given birth to seven clones of myself for ten years, and those are you.”

A warm thought filled with affection.

Not only me, but even the siblings who didn’t seem to have complete intelligence yet, began to show excited expressions at the will of this giant tree, which seemed to embrace not ‘words’ but their very souls.

“Taking my name, El-Prigion, you will be called ‘Elf,’ and you will be the first seven Elves.”

“Value harmony and balance with the world, and if the balance of any place in the world is broken, volunteer as Regulators.”

“Benefit widely. This may be the first and last command I give you.”

With that thought as the end, there were no additional thoughts, and everyone who was blankly on the giant flower began to look around at each other.

Then, the man standing on the first flower raised his head and asked El-Prigion.

“Our mother, who is great and benefits all places in the world. We understand your will. But our bodies are small, and there are only seven of us. What good will seven small branches do when even a giant branch cannot?”

“I have shared my authority with you, so there will be no shortage.”

“Mother. Your branches can reach the ends of the world, but our arms only point to one thing in front of us.”

“Child, what do you desire?”

“We need those who will be with us. We need those who will prosper with us.”

“Your power, my children, is strong, and the lives of the world’s creatures are only for a moment, but to them, you are like living forever. If there are too many like you, the balance of the world will be disrupted.”

“We don’t need to have the same power as us. However, if we want to spread even a small amount of power everywhere, quantity will be as important as quality.”

El-Prigion was silent and thought that was also right.

To be exact, that kind of thought was felt.

“The other siblings besides me have each taken on a major role in the world, so I alone cannot disrupt the balance.”

El-Prigion’s giant body shook for a moment, and green covered the world.

Even if they were small leaves, they were of enormous size.

As soon as the leaves touched the ground, they began to transform into human forms, no, Elf forms.

“These children are the same as you but different. They have not inherited my authority, so they will be weaker than you. You wanted a promise of prosperity, but if the species called Elf prospers, the balance will be disrupted. Therefore, you will live long lives, love only one person, and continue the species only through them.”

“Thank you for your love, Mother.”

“Hmm- I am pleased.”

‘…This is absurd.’

I shuddered as I watched the leaves around me transform and begin to be born as new Elves.

Creating new life and species?

I thought it was an extraordinary situation to be born from a flower, but isn’t this being in the middle of a creation myth?

The scale of the narrative was so grand that the story of Pangu from my previous life came to mind.

Conversely, thanks to that, I felt relieved.

The divine being El-Prigion, who is my mother in this life, would not have accidentally created me, and if she had the power to create a species on a species level, she could fix it even if there was a problem.

As I was reassuring myself in my heart, the woman on the second flower opened her mouth.