Little Pink Starfish

This was a temple.

A temple full of mystery and exotic flavor, and also full of loneliness and desolation.

On that hazy divine platform, there always seemed to be such a lonely shadow, year after year, casting their gaze forever into the distance.

Just like snow and ice that would never melt.

↑
At least, that was still the case one minute ago.

And at this second, that figure walked down from the hazy divine platform, their steps were almost chaotic.

They were practically unable to wait as they cast magic, condensing a huge water orb in front of them, and only when the water orb stretched into a gorgeous mirror reflecting their entire body, did they exhale with a blank expression.

Ha, ha, ha!
Some organs were still there, some organs hadn’t disappeared — this was really too good, wasn’t it!

Looking at the luxurious water mirror, Gu Bai stared at the humanoid creature with pointed ears, stunning appearance, and a little green mark in the center of their brows, and his mood immediately reversed at least 180 degrees.

Then why had he used “ta” to refer to himself earlier, and why had he so quickly checked his body?

This was entirely because of the identity of this body.

You couldn’t blame Gu Bai for being this calm yet collapsed, because ever since he shattered the void, every world his heart had entered was more collapsed than the last. From effeminate man to neutral person to walking corpse to outright male-turned-female, he had truly been conflicted, depressed, and speechless, okay?

Honestly, that damn pervert’s way of shattering the void was just too violent! (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻

And when Gu Bai arrived in this world, the first moment he realized his identity, he also remembered the plot of this world, and at that instant, he nearly spat out blood — if not for the fact that his bodily sense was still pretty sharp, he probably really would have given himself a blow right then.

Luckily, he held back just in time.

Enough nonsense, let’s talk background first.

Mm, this time it finally wasn’t a danmei — oh no, I mean a pure romance novel.

In other words, no gong, no shou, only a male lead and a female lead. No need to play the heartthrob, no endless action scenes, no scum drama, no white lotus — but, one downside was, the male lead was most likely a harem-type, the female leads were plural, and the bosses had to be taken down one by one from small to large. The plot, besides being exhilarating, would always bring some complicated feelings…

Then let’s get into the main topic.

Everyone knows, in Western-style — currently pretty much a big hodgepodge — so-called fantasy novels, whether the protagonist was transmigrated or not, they could always use their cheat abilities to pick up girls along the way, and the types of girls were many and colorful and always more the merrier. Among them, one type that was practically indispensable was the elf girls, known for their beauty, purity, and sometimes coldness!

And!

These elf girls’ identities were either elf princesses or elf queens, and the harem-type protagonists often collected both — princess and queen together, mother and daughter combo, it was super common, wasn’t it?

Simply made so many otakus envious, jealous, and resentful, didn’t it?

In his past life — no, probably still the previous body — the dead-otaku Gu Bai had once also been one of those envious, jealous, and resentful ones.

That’s right, as a dead-otaku, although he didn’t like the 3D world, when it came to 2D girls, he still had that bit of appreciation in his heart.

Beauty — which guy didn’t love it?

The problem was!

Gu Bai never imagined! The body he transmigrated into this time! Damn it, in the original story it was that legendary elf queen who got picked up by the harem protagonist due to being empty, lonely, and cold!

Elf! Queen!

Queen!

How utterly tragic…

But when Gu Bai discovered that this elf queen’s body was actually male underneath, he finally picked up his shattered calmness from the ground.

(A body that) turned female to male was still better than turning male to female like in the previous world!

Just that being the person picked up by the protagonist — that identity — still made his balls hurt… no, should say it hurt so damn bad.

After blankly pondering for a second, Gu Bai prepared to review the current plot progression.

Based on many past experiences, he usually transmigrated to the protagonist’s early stage. This time, the world’s will seemed to treat him a little better, not throwing him into a cannon-fodder villain, and instead giving him a role from the protagonist’s camp.

The problem was, did he really want this identity?

In the original story, joining the protagonist’s camp was entirely thanks to the real·elf queen’s sacrifice, okay!

Now don’t even talk about how Gu Bai absolutely couldn’t possibly sacrifice himself — even if he could, damn it, the protagonist was straight. What’s worse, if the elf queen couldn’t do it, he could at least hope for an elf princess, but this time it was just a queen, no princess, totally screwing him over.

Elf king (queen)…

But this wasn’t the first world he entered during his honeymoon, could he still hope for this elf king to bend the protagonist?

That kind of situation was an unrepeatable success, even if he actively tried, the protagonist might not take the bait.

Thinking this far—

—Right, why did he have to join the protagonist’s camp?

What did the plot have to do with him?

After figuring it out, Gu Bai decided not to struggle with his identity anymore.

What he should be thinking about now was… where did that pervert go?

·

Recently, the elf queen started leaving the temple.

This was something the elves had recently discovered — although the queen had never come out before, in the elves’ hearts, that was because the queen was wholeheartedly praying to the god of nature. Now that she came out, it must mean the god of nature was already satisfied with her offerings — this was easy to understand.

And to the elves, the queen had always been their spiritual pillar, and also their idol. To be able to see the queen appear in their daily life — that was the best thing ever!

In their long lives, they now had a new activity: #Watch the queen every day#, and it was super great.

Just like now, from the temple walked out a tall figure clad in a verdant green luxurious robe. She wore a splendid crown, possessed world-class beauty, dazzling like a star in the sky, and carried the gentle aura of the elf mother tree. Even though her demeanor was a bit cold, that only emphasized her nobility.

She seemed like the incarnation of the elf mother tree, the mother of all the elves—

Gu Bai: Damn it, how did a grown-ass man like me become the mother of this whole crowd, what the hell!

And he couldn’t even refute it.

So damn miserable.

But still, as the saying goes, love the job you’re in. Since Gu Bai had become their queen, he once again brushed up on his skill of acting [BEEP], held a luxurious green scepter, and slowly walked out, slowly nodded to the elves in greeting.

Then, once again, he received countless looks of reverence and admiration.

…It’s just that those gazes were all like they were looking at their mom, which made his stomach ache.

In the end, Gu Bai maintained his dignified, composed, and noble bearing, and began strolling around the elf territory.

There was no helping it — he had no reverence or feelings towards that so-called god of nature. If he went back to pray for power, wasn’t that nonsense? But now that he was out, other than walking around and wandering, there didn’t seem to be anything else he could do.

At this moment, he finally understood a little why the elf queen had been so empty, lonely, and cold.

You know, elves had lifespans of several thousand years, at least had to be 500 years old to be adults, and elves under 500 were basically oversized bratty kids. They could freely wander the elf forest, hunt, sing, dance, and find a partner to bang or whatever. But the elf queen? She had to keep up appearances, maintain demeanor, control her expression — after such a long time, wasn’t it already amazing that she hadn’t gone and sought revenge on society?

Fortunately, Gu Bai was used to holding things together. Since he had just arrived, he hadn’t really endured the same thousands of years like the real elf queen. He still had some interest in this elf forest.

Besides, in the elf race, there were also some… things that caught his attention.

Just like now.

Several little elf lolis skipped over lightly and grabbed Gu Bai’s sleeves, starting to chirp:

“Queen, queen!”

“A new little elf was born!”

“The mother tree is glowing!”

“Wanna go see? Wanna go see?”

Gu Bai: “…Go see.”

A tree growing little elves like fruits — wasn’t this just like the human ginseng fruit tree in Wuzhuang Temple? This real·elf queen’s memories didn’t have it, but Gu Bai had never seen it before!

This time, he really wanted to go see! Right?

Then, being tugged by the elf lolis, Gu Bai went over — totally not resisting, and even gracefully moved along.

He arrived beneath the elf mother tree, which was at least ten meters tall.

It was an enormous tree, no doubt.

Gu Bai silently sighed in his heart…

Actually, this tree wasn’t even as impressive as the ones he’d seen in cultivation worlds.

Alright, now we can talk about the appearance of the elf mother tree — which had a super high appearance rate not only in harem fantasy novels, but also in magical-element pure love stories, practically hitting 100% show-up rate.

As soon as he walked closer, sensing with his elven bloodline, he immediately felt an immense sense of security from the tree. Gu Bai could even feel that the aura of this body and the tree were from the same origin — it felt incredibly familiar, didn’t it?

This was also… the feeling of a mom.

…Maybe.

The elf mother tree was now producing a fruit.

Beneath the mother tree was the elven spring, and once the fruit matured, it would fall directly into it.

Gu Bai raised his head, and saw among the lush branches, a green light orb was continuously growing bigger, forming a beautiful fruit with fine veins, like a piece of jade, and the outer layer of the fruit was visibly thinning at a speed the naked eye could see, becoming nearly transparent.

Suddenly, the fruit fell, didn’t splash even a drop, and soaked into the elven spring!

Then a brilliant green light burst forth, and the fruit suddenly cracked open — inside, there was an exquisitely beautiful little person~

Gu Bai: “……”

What the ffffffff!!!

That familiar aura…
That familiar smile…
That familiar…

Why the hell was that damn pervert coming out of the elf fruit ahhhhhhh!