Full health is the kill threshold, no matter if you're a god or a demon!

The kobold player stood up, reeking of alcohol, his eyes gleaming with drunkenness and undisguised contempt: "I'm telling you, you snake people are all traitors! Riftscale ran away, and you all followed that bastard Night Owl. What a bunch of scoundrels! Beware, everyone! The Graystone Fortress incident is a cautionary tale for Savage Fortress!"

As soon as she finished speaking, everyone's eyes fell on Lin Yan—some were watching the spectacle, some were gloating, and a few of her snake-man companions were nervously watching her, their palms sweating, afraid that she might not be able to hold back and make a move on the spot.

Lin Yan's fist clenched so tightly it cracked, her knuckles turning white. Emerald green poisonous blood seeped from between her fingers, dripping onto the floor, corroding the stone slabs with small, smoking pits that hissed and crackled.

She wanted to slap that kobold's head until it was smashed, to teach him a lesson that snake people were never to be trifled with!

But reason told her she couldn't take action.

This is the Savage Fortress, the system's main city. Whoever makes a move here first is courting death; the NPCs won't reason with you.

Moreover, she recognized the other party as a member of the Bloodhowl Guild, the fourth-ranked guild with over 80,000 members, whose guild leader, Gamor, was seventh in combat power. If it were before, when Riftscale was still around, she might not have been afraid of the Bloodhowl Guild, but now…

Times have changed.

Lin Yan knew perfectly well that these people were deliberately provoking her. If she made a move, they would definitely attack her en masse, then escalate the situation so that the snake people wouldn't even have the right to establish themselves in the Savage Fortress!

"Sister! Let's go! Let's go!" Her snake-woman companion grabbed her arm, her voice hushed. "Don't bother with them. They'll be begging us someday!"

Lin Yan took a deep breath, the scales on her chest heaving violently. Rage surged in her emerald vertical pupils, almost bursting from their sockets. She stared intently at the kobold for a few seconds, then released her fists and turned to leave.

Laughter erupted from the tavern behind him like a burst dam, rough and unrestrained, echoing throughout the tavern. The laughter passed through the half-open door, chasing into the street, like dull knives, carving into Scale Flame's back again and again.

Walking through the streets of the desolate fortress, Lin Yan could feel the gazes directed at her from all around—warning, disgust, and hostility. Those gazes were like countless poisoned needles, piercing from every corner, from every window, every alleyway, and every turn, making her feel extremely uncomfortable.

Passersby would deliberately take a detour when they brushed past her, as if she carried a plague. When vendors saw her approaching, they would hurriedly move their stalls to the other side, as if afraid she would steal their goods.

Several NPC guards even looked at her with strange eyes, their fingers unconsciously pressing on the hilt of their swords, their pupils filled with vigilance.

Lin Yan gritted her teeth, her eyes fixed straight ahead as she swam forward with her chest puffed out.

After Riftscale ascended to heaven, the Serpent People split into several factions. Some of the stronger ones went to the Battlefield of the Heavens, while others chose to form their own guilds, and still others joined other orc guilds in the Savage Fortress.

As Lie Lin's younger sister, Lin Yan naturally had many snake people following her, and she had several thousand people under her command, making her a small force.

The problem is that the snake people are treacherous and cunning by nature, and they are unreliable, so they are not popular in the barbaric fortress!

This isn't prejudice; it's a fact. The Serpent People have indeed betrayed their allies quite a few times. Even when Riftscale was around, the Serpent People had countless enemies, but back then they were full of powerful figures and one of the top ten guilds, so many dared not speak out against them. After Riftscale left, the Serpent People's power crumbled, and the backlash immediately came like a tidal wave.

Insulting them, isolating them, stealing monsters at the dungeon entrance, maliciously raising prices in the auction house, spreading rumors and slander in the trading channel... all sorts of methods came out one after another, wave after wave, like a tide, wishing they could completely wipe the snake people out of the Savage Fortress.

Lin Yan tried to fight back. She led her people to ambush the opposing team in dungeons, camped their quest locations, and even publicly insulted them in the chat. But the more she fought back, the more enemies she encountered, as if the entire Savage Fortress was against her.

On one occasion, she even received death threats. Someone painted a half-human-sized skull in dark red paint on the entrance of her rented tower, with the words "Snake People, Get Out!" scrawled next to it.

That night, she sat in the tower all night.

As dawn broke, she chose to join the Hand of Shadows with her snake-men followers.

She had her reasons for choosing Shadow Hand.

Before she joined, Shadow Hand wasn't one of the top ten guilds; its ranking was just average. But they had a solid foundation. Night Owl was ruthless and ambitious, and Shadow Hand would grow stronger sooner or later under his leadership.

She joined the group, and with the resources left behind by Lie Lin and her own strength, she quickly climbed to a high-level position and gained a certain degree of influence.

But who could have imagined that the Hand of Shadows would become the target of everyone's criticism so quickly?

After that mess at Graystone Castle, the Shadow Hand guild emblem became synonymous with "traitor." They were watched everywhere they went, treated like thieves. As a result, players in the guild had to hide their guild titles and remove their guild emblems, otherwise they would find it impossible to move an inch!

The snake people, with their distinct racial features, are so easily recognizable that even concealing their guild titles is useless. Those scales, those vertical pupils, that snake tail—they're recognizable from three blocks away. Those spreading rumors don't care if you're from the Shadow Hand; if you're a snake person, you're a traitor in the making!

This is blatant discrimination.

But Lin Yan was helpless.

She couldn't very well ask everyone to skin her, cut off her tail, and put on two fake legs, could she?

Actually, what angered Lin Yan the most was not being discriminated against.

Rather, she was indeed preparing to pledge allegiance to the Pharaoh, but before she could accomplish anything significant, she was targeted and kept under surveillance!

Yes. She has already secretly contacted representatives of the Pharaoh's forces, and the terms are almost finalized: the serpent people will assist the Pharaoh in breaching the Savage Fortress from within, and if successful, the Pharaoh promises to grant the serpent people a large area of ​​buildings in the southern part of the Savage Fortress as an autonomous territory after the war.

That's the South District, the most bustling commercial area, a place where every inch of land is incredibly valuable. If she occupies that place, the Snake People will rise again in her hands!

Every time Lin Yan thought of this, her snake tail would involuntarily curl up.

The terms have been mostly agreed upon, just one last step, the very last step!

Before she could even make a move, some idiot blatantly exposed himself!

The necromancer Azazel, the Shadow Hand, helped the Night Cemetery attack Graystone Castle in front of so many people, putting the Shadow Hand in the spotlight. Now everyone is watching the Shadow Hand; for her to cause trouble inside the Savage Fortress is harder than climbing to heaven.

Otherwise, if she could help the Pharaoh break through the barbaric fortress from within, how much benefit would she gain!

The fall of a main city of the system, the Pharaoh's reward, the establishment of an autonomous territory—these things are enough to make her the new leader of the snake people, a thousand times more glorious than Riftscale.

What now?

It's all ruined!

Lin Yan stood on the street corner, coldly observing everything in the city.

She was unwilling to accept it, absolutely unwilling to accept it!

An even more ruthless plan popped into her mind.