Imperial Crown.

Chapter 520 A Worthless Yet Terrifying Piece of Rice

"Let me see what you're capable of!"

After going upstairs, Raven exchanged a few brief pleasantries with Lux. To avoid worrying her, he condensed the events, summarizing only what he could, and then began soaking in the wooden tub. After all, he really did smell terrible. Not just him, everyone smelled bad, but his was particularly pungent. Fortunately, with the disguise of "aging," no one noticed anything amiss, since Raven's "odor" was usually quite strong. After his bath, Raven went to his private meditation room, sat cross-legged on the bed, his eyes brimming with anticipation and curiosity, and murmured something.

Given the current situation, what Raven most wants to know is Ernada's whereabouts!

It's been exactly one year since Raven sent Ernada away to begin "Operation Mycelium." Yet, Ernada hasn't returned, not even a single message. When she left, Raven provided her with a full elite squad of 30 men, plus a large sum of gold and resources. He even gave her 10 bottles of healing potions made from Life Essence, and two Golden-feathered Gulls—the Birds of Paradise Thomas sent! Now, he's been waiting and waiting, but no news from Ernada has come. No wonder Raven is extremely anxious.

"Ultimate Void Eye, activate!"

Raven let out a low shout, and wisps of battle qi slowly rose from his body, winding upwards.

……

Unlike the human world, and unlike the orcish empire which has been constantly at war with and influencing humans, the elves retain a significant portion of their ancient heritage. For example, the elven empire's territory, despite being roughly the same size as the neighboring orcish empire, is simply divided into five regions: the Northern Region, the Southern Region, the Eastern Region, the Western Region, and the Sacred Region. This is a source of great pride for the elves. However, through Lux, Raven learns that the elven empire actually possesses a mysterious region: the Forbidden Region!
Raven's goal was the forbidden zone that outsiders had been unable to survive or even enter for thousands of years!
Since time immemorial, including during the War of the Gods, the only sacred land that has never been invaded is the Forbidden Zone of the Elven Empire! Legend has it that a World Tree grows there, connecting to another world! It is this World Tree that supports the continent of Miders, and all those who desecrate the Forbidden Zone, whether mortals or gods, will be cursed and unable to rise again for generations.

This has led many to believe that Griffith's ancestor, Don Quixote, trespassed into the forbidden territory of the Elven Empire, thus inflicting an inescapable curse on his descendants! This is also the origin of the blood curse on Raven!

"Bullshit!"

However, Raven was somewhat dismissive of these rumors; he didn't believe them at all! He was more inclined to believe that the elves were deliberately spreading these rumors because they feared the secrets of the forbidden area would be discovered! Just like how encountering a nun in his previous life was considered an ominous sign, it was simply a way to protect a lone nun!
At this moment, in the northern region of the Elven Empire, Ernada, her face filled with terror, frantically ran and leaped among the towering ancient trees! In her heart, she had already cursed Raven's ancestors to the eighteenth generation! If she could do it all over again, if she had another chance to choose, she would rather let Raven torture her to death on the spot than accept this mission! Following the principle of north at the top and south at the bottom, the region adjacent to the Orc Empire was naturally the eastern region of the Elven Empire. The middle part was the Sacred Domain. Ernada didn't need to go to the Sacred Domain; she only needed to cross the eastern region and then the narrow northern region to approach the legendary Forbidden Domain. However, both she and Raven had greatly underestimated the dangers within the Elven Empire! Just entering the eastern region of the Elven Empire, their group lost half its soldiers! The remaining 15 people were wiped out before even completing half of the northern region, until finally, only Ernada remained!
In other words, for a whole year, Ernada hadn't even found a relatively safe route into the Forbidden Zone, let alone reached its very edge! But it wasn't a complete waste; at least she obtained the sapling of the Dawn Tree that Raven desired most! This was the antidote to the poison in Lux's body! And that's why she was being relentlessly pursued by a fourth-tier elf! She had been on the run for days, and both her physical strength and fighting spirit were completely exhausted! Ernada knew perfectly well that unless a god truly descended today, she had absolutely no chance of survival!
The one chasing her was a tall, slender elf with perfectly proportioned features and pointed ears! She had grass-green hair that accentuated her flawless, snow-white collarbones. Only her private parts were hastily covered by beautiful, glowing plants; the rest of her body was almost entirely exposed. She also had beautiful, butterfly-like wings, and followed Ernada at a leisurely pace. She didn't seem to be in a hurry to kill Ernada, but rather played with her like a cat toying with a mouse. Otherwise, Ernada, a mere second-tier elf, would have been killed by her with a single blow days ago!

"Ruvita, I curse you and Raven to die a horrible death! May you rot in hell for all eternity!" Ernada uttered a shrill and desperate curse!
"court death!"

The elf named Luvita was clearly enraged. She swung her right hand violently, and a magical element shot out, slapping Ernada hard across the face with a loud "smack".

The blow sent Ernada screaming as she tumbled and flew through the air. Upon landing, she coughed up a mouthful of warm, thick blood, mixed with several teeth, and half her face swelled up like a pig's head!
"Who is Raven?" Luvita flew to the void in front of Ernada and asked in a clear, ethereal voice.

Ernada burst into loud laughter, blood flowing from her mouth like saliva, but she quickly stopped laughing because the laughter aggravated her facial injuries and swollen eyes, causing her unbearable pain. "He's a bastard a thousand times more disgusting and despicable than you! Kill him! Dawn Sprout was taken for him! Kill me, and see if he comes to the Elven Empire to kill you!"

"You think I'd be afraid of a human? Let's see if he can even make it to the Northern Region alive." Luvita shook her head slightly, clearly not taking Ernada's threat to heart. "On the contrary, you, being a dark race is already filthy enough, yet you're willing to risk your life for humans! You've utterly disgraced the drow race!"

"Rest in peace! I will purify your soul!"

Luvita suddenly spoke those words in the Elven language. This meant she was about to end Ernada's life forever!

Ernada's face wore a contradictory expression of resentment mixed with relief. Ever since entering the Elven Empire, her nerves had been on edge for a full year, leaving her utterly exhausted. For many, death, sometimes, is a release. But the mental torment that leaves no room for peace is what truly terrifies!
Buzz

Just as Luvita conjured her longbow, a sudden fluctuation in the void emanated from it! Luvita and Ernada both looked up in surprise. The fluctuation in the void grew increasingly violent, and in an instant, a muffled boom and a strange sound effect followed, then a scarlet blood-red eye appeared!
What kind of eyes were those?
It was the size of a millstone, its entire eye blood-red, shrouded in a faint blood mist, emitting an eerie glow, resembling a gaping maw ready to devour its prey! Surrounding it were 1-2 meter long scarlet tentacles, flailing wildly in the air, seemingly poised to ensnare and suffocate any living thing! This eye, its shape like that of the devil Satan, radiated an intensely malevolent aura! It could devour both souls and flesh! Utterly terrifying! A sight to behold!
Who wouldn't be terrified and horrified upon seeing this?

After the eye appeared, it coldly stared at Luvita and Ernada on the ground, and then uttered a chaotic and heavy voice!

Luvita immediately paled, her previous composure vanished, and her wings flapped faster and more nimbly than ever before. She transformed into a streak of light and flew away without looking back!

Killing intent! Luvita, a fourth-tier cultivator, felt a killing intent so intense it was almost tangible! It seemed that if she hesitated for even a second, she would be completely annihilated by the owner of that blood-red eye! Luvita was so terrified that she dared not even guess the identity of the blood-red eye's owner! She was terrified of being detected in the slightest and incurring the owner's wrath! Her mind was filled with the frantic thought of escaping for her life!
Ernada, lying on the ground, looked even more desperate than before!

The good news is: a deity really did descend! And saved her life!

The bad news is: she's an incredibly evil god! Her fate will likely be a thousand times more painful than when she was just killed by Luvita!
"Enada, hurry back, I'll pick you up in the Eastern Region."

Just as Ernada was about to use her beauty to seek a glimmer of hope, that evil blood-red eye spoke again. Its voice was still chaotic and heavy, but it uttered words that Ernada would never forget for the rest of her life.

“Lei…Master! Is that you, Master?!” Ernada cried out in great joy, tears streaming down her face like pearls falling onto a jade plate! “Waaah, Master,” Ernada cried out like a child who had been away from home for many days and had been starving for a long time and had finally found her parents. She sobbed uncontrollably, her face streaked with tears.

However, the blood-red eyes in the void had already faded away, as if they had never appeared at all.

"Great! It's Master!" Ernada scrambled to her feet and roared in the direction Luvita had fled, "Luvita! You bitch! Come on! You wanted to kill me, didn't you? I'm standing right here, come and kill me! Bah! Elves are all born of bitches!" Ernada cursed wildly, feeling incredibly satisfied, before limping towards the Eastern Region.

……

"call"

Inside Bloodstone Castle, Raven let out a long breath. His battle qi was almost completely depleted. Ernada was too far away from him, causing him to lose a lot of battle qi! Moreover, he had been observing from the air for quite some time, and only revealed himself when Luvita decided to kill Ernada.

"So my martial soul is a talking third eye?!" Raven muttered, rubbing his chin.

Looking at it this way, the Void God Eye doesn't seem so useless after all; in fact, it's quite terrifying! However, the Void God Eye looks extremely bloodthirsty and intimidating, but in reality, Raven can't launch an attack at all. That's why he didn't show himself at first but hid in the dark and secretly spied on him!
"Avatar really lived up to its name!" Raven smiled. The environment throughout the Elf Empire was just like in the Avatar movie, filled with towering ancient trees and glowing vegetation, as well as various extremely dangerous yet docile magical plants and beasts. Just by observing along the way, Raven discovered thirty or forty kinds of incredibly rare third- and fourth-tier magical plants that had long since disappeared from the outside world!
"So the 'beast-eared girls' in the novels I read in my past life were actually elves!" Raven's favorite pastime when he was working was reading novels; it was the only thing he could slack off on during work hours. He'd been wondering what "beast-eared girls" were! Turns out, they were elves!
The elf's pointed ears bore a resemblance to those of a goblin, but they weren't as large, nor as ugly! Raven was quite tempted, wanting to tug and ruffle them. "Next, who should I spy on... oh no, who should I visit?"

Raven stroked his stubble, torn between two choices… His aunt? Viston? Or… Habsburg?

Habsburg was the name of King Keynes XVI.

"Forget it, there are likely various magical arrays in the capital. It would be a loss if I were exposed." Raven shook his head slowly in his heart. As for his aunt and Vesdon, they were not suitable either, because he didn't have much battle qi left in his body and it would be difficult for him to observe carefully for a long time.

Since distant water cannot meet immediate thirst, we can only eat the grass near our nest for now.

"Heh, let me see what you're doing!"

Raven suddenly had a thought and remembered someone. He sneered and instantly activated his Void Extreme Divine Eye again.

……

A pond made of bloodstone is filled with bright and fragrant roses.

The pool water was heated to a warm temperature, emitting billowing steam. Influenced by the color of the bloodstone, the clear pool water appeared to have a faint reddish hue.

A naked, fair-skinned body slowly entered, an expression of enjoyment on her face.

Her chestnut-brown, wavy hair framed her snow-white, flawless skin, and her luxuriously clad figure, with its prominent curves and exquisite curves, was vividly displayed in Raven's eyes.

"puff"

Raven couldn't hold back any longer, and a spurt of blood shot from his nose. "You pervert! Taking a bath in broad daylight?!" he cursed inwardly, quickly shutting down his Void Divine Eye. However, despite the turmoil in his mind, a barely perceptible fluctuation still appeared in his Void Divine Eye.

Savannah's pretty face immediately changed, and a murderous intent gathered in her beautiful eyes.

She abruptly stood up, wrapped her flawless body in a bath towel, and stormed out the door.

……

"Oh no!" Raven immediately realized something and hurriedly found Lux, asking her to start disguising him.

"Raven! Get out here right now!"

Sure enough, not long after, Savannah's furious voice came from the lobby on the first floor.

"cough"

Raven coughed lightly and, leaning on his cane, shakily walked down with Lux's support. "What's all the fuss about? What do you want?" Raven asked in a weak, aged voice.

Savannah glanced at Lux, then glared angrily at Raven, the vicious words stuck in her throat, feeling incredibly stifled.

"Raven! Where were you just now?!" Savannah asked angrily.

“I’ve been with Lux the whole time,” Raven said breathlessly.

Savannah looked at Lux, who nodded. She did know that Raven hadn't come out of his room.

"Raven! I warned you long ago not to collude with the Hand of Death! I sense that the Hand of Death hasn't left! Just now, while I was washing... I sensed someone spying on me! It's very likely a fifth-tier necromancer from the Order of the Hand of Death!"

Slightly damp, chestnut-brown waves clung casually to her bare shoulders. Savannah, with her bright eyes and white teeth, was at a loss for words and could only blame Rudolf. "Let me tell you," she said, "you've conspired with the Hand of Death. Sooner or later you'll reap what you sow and get burned!"

"I've already tasted the bitter fruit," Raven thought to himself, but his face remained calm as he coughed lightly and said, "Anyway, I don't have many days left to live, so it's not my turn to suffer the bitter fruit."

"You! You're absolutely unreasonable!"

Savannah was on the verge of a breakdown, and could only utter a single sentence before turning and leaving. That damned Raven, why isn't he dead yet?! She could only roar inwardly in frustration!

……

(End of this chapter)