The Heartbeat of the Cruel Elves

If something really happened in the future, Anakta might be able to ask for help out of interest. As for the other sisters, asking for help would mean exposing one's weaknesses in front of them, opening one's chest, and asking them to stab one's heart.

Cassia walked alone along the long dark corridor, leaving her sisters who were worried about her far behind.

Many years ago, when their eldest sister, Marsaid, was being bitten by snakes and spiders in the hall, what she could not forget was not only her eldest sister's shrill screams and her mother's happy laughter, but also her sisters' trembling bodies with excitement and the uncontrollable sneers on their lips when she inadvertently glanced sideways.

That was the last time a panicked, helpless little girl looked to her sisters for help.

………………

"Lucien."

Inside the hall, as the little daughter's figure disappeared outside the door, the two heavy golden doors slowly closed, and the mistress Sylvia, sitting on the throne, once again read out the familiar name.

Lucien, it was Lucien, only Lucien. If this man still existed, all the schemes against the Dinitja family would be meaningless.

From the ambitious hunter to the frightened prey, a terrifying turn in an instant. After so many years, this familiar scene seems to be resurfacing again.

Forty-five years ago, the fear of being destroyed had always lingered in the heart of the Borgia mistress.

She is not the only one in the family who is deeply afraid of this.

"Is there still justice? Is the Spider Goddess going to sit back and watch a lowly man swagger around in our city, calling the shots and dominating many noble women?"

As someone who had personally experienced that terrifying night like her, and a witness to the rapid rise of the Dinitya family afterwards, her eldest daughter Anakta once expressed this to her during a conversation.

"Watch your words," Sylvia replied at the time, "The Spider Queen has her own plans. You shouldn't question your own gods."

"Perhaps this is the greatest test she has arranged for us. Those who can overcome this obstacle will receive incomparable appreciation and gifts."

Having said that, over the years, she had never considered that she had the courage and power to overcome this obstacle.

Now, the opportunity presented itself, and her little daughter, that clever, vicious, sinister creature, came up with a plan of genius.

Will this be a chance for success, or will it be another failure that plays out a thousand times every day in Nevile?

"Lucien..."

Sylvia's breathing became heavy.

She tried to imagine the scene of destroying the Dinitya family with her own hands, imagining how glorious it would be, how great it would be, and what wealth and power would come with it. And...

Lucien - the only outlier in this city-state ruled by women. She might not kill him directly, but tie him up with chains and make him her personal slave. This is one of the ultimate goals coveted by countless female masters of Nevre. Although they hate the audacity and usurpation of this man, they all want to take this most powerful man in Nevre under their skirts to show their supreme authority and power.

"Lucien..."

The mistress of Boginia read out the name again. Her eyes became hazy, and a dampness and heat suddenly rose in the hidden corner of her body.

At the end of the dark and empty hall, on the high steps, a faint moan suddenly came from the sky.

------

Hundreds of kilometers away, deep underground, outside the ruins of the dark elves' city.

Li Yin and Du Feiya rode on the back of a dragon-like creature, cheering and screaming as the dragon flew up and down in the air. The deep underground lake was filled with the sound of their frolicking.

"Hold on tight," Li Yin shouted softly, holding the milky white reins firmly in his hand, and exerting a little force, the dragon's neck tilted upward, and it immediately climbed nearly 90 degrees. Du Feiya screamed and tightened his waist, leaning her body tightly against his back.

"How is it," Li Yin asked proudly, "my dragon."

"Wow!" The strong wind blew in Du Feiya's face, her hair was messy and her breathing was blocked, but a smile appeared on her face, and she admired sincerely.

"Gee!" Li Yin's face was filled with excitement after hearing this praise. He slightly stepped down with his legs, just like a knight squeezing the horse's belly to urge the mount to exert force. At the same time, he also made a shout as if he was driving the horse.

Of course, the one being driven by him like an ordinary horse was not the giant dragon Shaka - he would not dare to do that even if he had a hundred thousand guts, not to mention that Shaka would never allow him to do that.

Besides, the "dragon" under them was not really "giant". It was just slightly bigger than an ordinary horse and could just carry the two of them.

This "little dragon" is like a miniature version of the giant dragon Saga. Its body is milky white and translucent. If you look closely, you can see twinkling stars deep inside its body. It slowly rotates with the movement of its muscles, like a nebula - yes, this is a stellar construct created by Rein using the psychic power taught by Saga.

It has been more than a month since Li Yin learned how to make astral constructs. In the past month, Li Yin has already completed the repair work of those constructs, and his own ability level has also been greatly improved. Now the dragon-shaped astral construct under his crotch is the culmination of all his current technologies!

Astral constructs do not have to be humanoid. As long as the caster is willing, he can use the semi-solid astral matter to shape any shape he wants. Shaka originally asked Rein to shape it according to her own shape, but it was because Rein, as a human, was most familiar with the human shape and it was easiest for him to use it. As for Shaka herself, Rein guessed that she made so many humanoid constructs probably to adapt to the fine armor left by the dark elves and to satisfy her own hobby of war games.

In short, in fact, Shaka has the ability to freely shape the form of the construct, and she has mastered this ability very well. On the day when Rein completed all the repair work on the constructs, as a reward, Shaka generously showed Rein how to make the constructs have more diverse shapes, and the significance of doing so: she personally made a pair of wings grow on the back of one of Rein's humanoid constructs, so that this dwarf who could only run and jump on the ground, soared into the sky before their eyes, and turned into a "little angel" in an instant.

Her performance opened Li Yin's eyes and amazed him. It was then that he understood why this psychic power was so powerful.

If you simply want to create a humanoid construct for combat, you can use magic to achieve this goal, such as summoning monsters in the first ring of the School of Conjuration. If you can shape the construct as you wish, then the constructed construct can perform a variety of tasks due to the differentiated abilities brought by its different shapes.

Take the astral construct dragon they are riding now for example. They are riding it to fly in the sky, but in the arcane system, the ability to fly can only be acquired by learning the third-ring flying spell of the School of Transmutation.

At the same time, to obtain a mount, one needs a first-level spell called "Mount Spell".

In other words, this first-level psychic power simultaneously played the role of the third-level "Flying" and first-level "Mount" spells. In addition, this astral dragon itself also had good combat power - at least much stronger than the rats, badgers, monkeys, and dogs summoned by the first-level summoning monster spell.

Riding his newly acquired "pet" freely in the sky and breathing the fresh air blowing on his face, for a moment, Li Yin couldn't help but feel sincerely grateful to the cunning dragon that taught him this supernatural power.

Admittedly, its original motivation was questionable, but the benefits it gave to itself by giving this ability to itself were real...

At the same time, deep in the ruins of the dark elf city, in the magnificent hall, the giant dragon Saga, who was lying on a mountain of treasures, seemed to have heard the sincere voice of gratitude from the human bugs from a distant place, and slowly opened her sleepy eyes.

It stretched out its paws and rubbed its eyes. Then its two huge blue vertical pupils turned around for a while before it came to its senses.

After waking up, it first recalled what happened before going to bed - oh, before falling asleep, it played more than a dozen games of chess with the little human bug named Li Yin. Strangely enough, that little human bug was really a bit weird, and its chess skills improved very rapidly. These dozen games took a long time, which took Shaka a lot of energy and made her tired, so after the game, she went straight back and had a good sleep.

"I wonder what those two little human bugs and the little elf bug are doing now?" It thought so, and then it dragged its still a little dizzy body out of the hall, flapped its wings, and staggered into the air.

Then, in an instant, its entire dragon body was completely frozen in mid-air.

Its deep blue pupils suddenly dilated, and at the same time, its mouth, which was originally slightly open and yawning, suddenly opened completely wide, enough to fit a castle.

Because, with its sharp dragon eyes, it could clearly see from a long distance that the human bugs and dark elf bugs far away on the lake shore were almost on the same level as it, and under them was riding a giant dragon!

"Ang!" The sapphire dragon let out an earth-shaking roar, flapped its wings, and flew in that direction at top speed.

By the lake, Li Yin and Du Feiya were riding their astral dragons and playing, when they suddenly heard an extremely passionate roar coming from afar.

The roar made his heart tremble, and he seemed to have returned to the first time he encountered the dragon, when he was hiding in the cave and was destroyed by its roar.

He looked in the direction of the sound and found a rapidly enlarging dot in the distance. A giant dragon was heading towards this direction at an astonishing speed.

Although he didn't know what had happened to make the dragon so angry, Li Yin knew that something was wrong, so he temporarily stopped playing, controlled his astral dragon to land on the lakeshore, and slowly got off the dragon's back with Du Feiya.

In a flash, the huge figure of the dragon appeared above them, casting a huge shadow around them under the reflection of the dome crystal.

"Human bugs, and dark elf bugs." The dragon flapped its wings, and its powerful voice penetrated the violent storm stirred up by its wings, and came out very unkindly, "What were you doing just now?"

"We?" Li Yin was slightly stunned, looking around, "No, we didn't do anything? We were just playing around."

"Just for fun?" The dragon said gruffly, his two vertical blue pupils rolled down, "Then what is this?"

Li Yin looked to the side in the direction of its gaze, and immediately reacted, his face suddenly turning pale.

"This is my newly made astral construct," he said to the dragon in a flash of thought, "Look, I made it in your image to show my respect for you. Maybe due to my poor skills, the finished product is far from what I expected, which undermines your magnificence and dignity, but I assure you that I absolutely, absolutely have no other intentions!"

"Anyway, I assure you that everything I did was out of respect. If you feel that anything is inappropriate, I...I apologize in advance. I hope you have a huge dragon and don't mind."

The giant dragon ignored Li Yin's apology, and instead shifted its unfriendly gaze from the dragon-shaped astral construct to Li Yin's face, and then asked in a long, low voice:

"What do you mean by something else? This dragon doesn't quite understand. Could you please explain it to me?"

Li Yin's snow-white face turned pale, like a dead person.

"No, I didn't mean anything else." He froze in place, hesitated for a while, and spoke reluctantly, smiling, "It was a slip of the tongue, a slip of the tongue, please forgive me."

"Oh, it's meaningless?" The dragon raised his eyebrows slightly. "You created this astral construct based on my image, and you said it's meaningless?"

"You mean..." Its voice was deep and rumbling, like the dull thunder behind the dark clouds, "The image of this dragon has no meaning?"

Chapter 199: Constructs, Chefs, War, and Food

"No, no, no," Li Yin was shocked, "I absolutely did not mean that. Dear Master Shaga, I absolutely did not mean to question your great image."

"Then what do you mean?" A cold look suddenly appeared in the giant dragon's azure eyes, and he pressed on without giving in.

As it spoke, it relaxed its wings and slowly descended to the ground. Its huge body landed steadily, stirring up a cloud of dust on the ground. The huge shock was transmitted to Li Yin and Du Feiya through the rocky surface, stirring up a storm in their hearts, making its intimidating words even more oppressive.

"I, I..." Li Yin stammered, unable to defend himself. His brain was almost burnt into paste by Shaka's roundabout interrogation.

"Humph," Shaka shouted suddenly, shaking the earth, "Human insect, you still want to cover it up."

"The great dragons have seen your act of usurpation."

"You are so brave," it lowered its head, flashing a cold light, and its huge mouth full of countless sharp teeth was almost sticking to Li Yin's head. Storm-like airflow and sound continued to come from its wide-open mouth, shaking Li Yin to the point of falling, "Do you think this giant dragon doesn't know?"

"You fashioned this astral construct in the image of this dragon, and then rode it as a mount. Doesn't this mean that you want to turn the tables and climb over my head?"

A black shadow roared past with a hurricane, and Li Yin was shocked, thinking that something was wrong, but before he could react, a loud "pop" sounded from behind him, followed by a crisp "crack". The crushing pain spread along his tailbone, and then he felt that his buttocks had completely lost consciousness.

"I—" He fell to the ground, coughing up a mouthful of blood from his throat, still struggling to defend himself, "I didn't mean that at all, I assure you, Lord Dragon."

"This whole incident... is just a coincidental misunderstanding."

"Even if it is a misunderstanding, it must never be allowed to happen again." The dragon retracted its claws, snorted coldly, and said without any doubt.

"What I just did was just a slight punishment."

"Every time you act recklessly in the future, you should think about your own butt first."

Li Yin did not answer, nor did he have time to answer. He coughed a few more times, and a string of blood foam spurted out of his mouth, spraying onto the rocks in front of him.

"You," the dragon turned and looked at Du Feiya.

The dark elf looked at his companion who had fallen to the ground, his flesh and blood all over his body, and his buttocks obviously flattened. He was shocked and frightened.

But the terrifying giant claws that she had imagined did not fall. The dragon just glared at her and said in a rough voice:

"Dark elf bug, considering that you are just an accomplice, I will ignore you for now."

"However, from now on, you are responsible for supervision. If I find it doing something offensive like this again next time, you will be guilty as well as it!"

"Yes!" Du Feiya trembled all over and nodded quickly in response.

"Now," the Sapphire Dragon waved its four legs and leisurely stepped over the human bug lying on the ground, strolling slowly and nonchalantly, "First find a pit to bury it."

"Then, when it is almost fully recovered, quickly prepare a meal for this dragon."

"This dragon is hungry," it said.

"Yes," Du Feiya did not dare to have any objection and hurried forward.

As she got closer, Li Yin's bloody buttocks became clearer, and therefore more shocking. She hesitated for a long time, not knowing how to help her companion so that he would suffer as little pain as possible.

"Li Yin, Li Yin." She called softly. She wanted to turn Li Yin's front to see his face, but she was worried that it would touch his wound, so she could only call softly helplessly.

Li Yin, who was lying on the ground, groaned and hissed from the cold air he was breathing.

"Can you stand up?" she asked cautiously. Although she asked this question, she didn't expect much from the answer.

"Stand...stand up?" Li Yin's voice trembled, "Are...my legs still there?"

"Yes." Du Feiya responded reluctantly.

It seemed that she really couldn't expect him to act on his own, so she put a hand under Li Yin's chest and said, "Bear with it," then propped up his entire upper body, placed it on her shoulders, and dragged his body, step by step, towards the big pit not far away.

During this process, Li Yin was unusually quiet, without any of the painful screams and fierce struggles that a seriously injured person should show. As for the reason, Du Feiya could easily guess - his butt had completely lost consciousness.

But it doesn’t matter - she glanced at the big pit in front of her and thought to herself, as long as she put Li Yin into the pit, his butt would come back after a while.

This was probably why the dragon could punish him without any scruples? Relatively speaking, I, who was more vulnerable, escaped the disaster.

With such sighs, she dragged Li Yin's body forward step by step. Behind them, Li Yin's toes scraped the ground, leaving two long bloodstains on the dark rocks...

About half an hour later, Li Yin slowly climbed out of the pit. He kneaded his still aching buttocks and looked out. Sapphire Dragon Saga was squatting on a huge rock on the lake shore not far away. She had a large piece of white cloth tied around her neck as a napkin and was muttering hurriedly:

"hurry up!!"

Just like a diner sitting in a restaurant waiting for the chef to serve the food.

Its sensitive ears caught Li Yin's movements, and its two ferocious pupils rolled around. Its ferocious eyes suddenly swept towards Li Yin, and a thunderous urging sound came from its nostrils: "Hurry up!"

Li Yin was startled and jumped out of the pit in an instant.

The pain in his buttocks that had not yet completely subsided reminded him that he must not go against this dragon at this time. A dragon that was grumpy, hungry, and perhaps still angry was quite terrifying!

So he raised his hands above his head and clapped his palms.

Immediately, the sound of footsteps was heard from behind a huge rock not far from the lake shore.

A team of humanoid astral constructs holding adamantine spears but not wearing any armor walked out from behind the huge rock in unison.

They walked in a row of two, maintaining a neat formation, came to the shore of the lake, stood on a protruding rock, and then jumped into the lake like dumplings.

After a while, there was no longer any stellar construct on the shore, and only circles of ripples were left on the lake.

But beneath the calm lake surface, if you listen carefully, you can hear a constant rumbling sound like that of a large fish swimming, accompanied from time to time by a sharp splash, as if some sharp object pierced the water at a very high speed.