The Heartbeat of the Cruel Elves

He remembered Cassia's gentle smile and the trusting words she said when she fed him:

"...When unpredictable danger comes, I need you to be my strongest support."

"...I need you to be my strongest support."

And what was he doing now? At the moment when she needed him the most?

"Your Highness," he said in a rush of excitement, "I'm willing to go!"

Cassia turned around suddenly and looked at him in surprise. Her shocked eyes seemed to indicate that he had said something he shouldn't have said.

However, in just a moment, she put away that expression and her eyes returned to their clear and cold look.

"You disappoint me." She pursed her lips and looked at the dark elves around her. "Your loyalty to me and your devotion to the goddess are not even as good as a slave."

"I can't predict," she said with a gloomy face, "what unpredictable consequences your disloyalty will bring to our actions, and what kind of haze it will cast over your own future fate."

The dark elves lowered their heads and were speechless.

"That's it." Cassia sighed heavily.

Then, she turned her head and looked at Li Yin, and a smile appeared on her cold and gloomy face again.

"Your courage is admirable. Your loyalty and devotion eclipse those of countless of my compatriots."

"My dear," she reached out and stroked Li Yin's cheek, then took his hand, "May the Spider Goddess take care of you and all of us with her hands that weave fate."

Li Yin smiled shyly, seeming flattered.

At the same time, he was suddenly startled in his heart and had a strong sense of foreboding.

What was going on? Why were these dark elves hesitating to move forward when the hope of rescue was clearly before their eyes, and why were they not as enthusiastic as his slaves?

Even Cassia seemed deeply moved by his action - this only proved that there seemed to be something about this matter that he had not figured out.

His calves immediately trembled, and he wanted to pull back the hand that Cassia was holding, and tell her loudly that he had just acted rashly and now wanted to reconsider it.

However, thinking about Cassia's bad attitude towards the dark elves who refused to move forward, and realizing that he had already spoken, he swallowed the words back.

Just thinking about the seriousness of the matter, my hands still trembled slightly.

Cassia felt the slight trembling of her beloved slave in the palm of her hand, and thought that he was moved by her praise and care, so the look in her eyes when she looked at him softened a little.

"Then," she gazed at Li Yin for a while with tenderness and gentleness, which made Li Yin feel like she was saying goodbye, "The third advance team will be led by you."

"However," she tilted her eyes slightly, her eyes becoming deep again, "considering that your identity and status are not enough to convince others, I decided to assign you a deputy to help you manage your team."

"Myrcella," she turned and called to another female dark elf.

Myrcella looked at Cassia in surprise. After a while, she was shocked and aggrieved. She looked at Li Yin with hidden anger in the corners of her eyes, as if she had been hit by some unexpected disaster.

"Li Yin has always been your student. This time," Cassia's lips curled slightly, "you will also be the one to guide him. How about that?"

"This time you will teach him how to manage his men and team."

Myrcella closed her lips tightly and was stunned for a moment. Under Cassia's bright eyes with a slight smile, although she was obviously reluctant, she said firmly - "Yes!"

…………

Cassia's arrangement made sense. If it weren't for Myrcella, it would be hard for Lein to imagine how he could have assembled this army of slaves and dark elves. The slaves were fine, but if he had gone there alone, these dark elves probably wouldn't even have been able to select soldiers.

After gathering the troops, Li Yin saw Cassia walking up to him with a smile. After inspecting the small group of troops, she faced the troops and asked casually, "Which way do you want to go?"

Li Yin was stunned for a moment.

Is Cassia giving herself... the right of first choice?

"Either one is fine," he said casually.

Of course, he also wanted to carefully select one, but in the current situation, is it useless to be serious? What useful information can he get from facing three dark holes?

Unexpectedly, Cassia immediately said in a slightly stern tone: "Look carefully and tell me the answer."

Li Yin's heart skipped a beat. He turned around and looked at the three dark holes. Just as he expected, he couldn't tell anything from just looking at these things. The so-called exploration means that you should know what you will encounter after you actually go in. If you can know it in advance, then what's the point of exploration.

However, Cassia's order came first, and it didn't sound like she was just saying it casually. Li Yin stared at it seriously for a long time... With his straightforward and gentle personality, he should always take the middle path in everything he does, but this time, he suddenly felt that the more he looked at the cave entrance on the right, the more he felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

"The right," he answered resolutely.

"Okay," he heard Cassia respond softly, "then go to the right."

The three advance teams gathered in front of the team, facing the other end of the cave. Cassia held the holy emblem of the Spider Goddess, blessed the three teams one by one, and ordered the troops to set out.

Rein and Myrcella led the third advance team and walked into the tunnel on the far right.

Not long after entering the tunnel, Myrcella turned her head sharply. She turned her head so fast and so wide that the long silver braid behind her head even flew up and hit Li Yin's cheek hard.

"You idiot!" she said viciously, "If you want to die, that's fine, but why are you involving me?"

Li Yin covered his cheek with his hands, feeling both pain and shock.

"What are you talking about?" He looked at Myrcella in confusion. "What do you mean by 'send me to die'?"

"Think carefully with your human brain," Myrcella grabbed Li Yin's collar and shoved him hard twice, "There is only one correct path. Why did Princess Cassia send out three advance teams?"

Chapter 132 Sacrifice

"Because..." Li Yin's heart skipped a beat. Mircella's angry attitude confirmed his premonition, but he was still a little confused about the true situation.

"Because... the revelation that the Spider Queen gave to Princess Cassia was revealed in this way?"

Mircella glared at Li Yin fiercely, her lips bitten so tightly that they turned white with anger. After a while, she let him go and glanced at him unhappily, with a look that said he was a hopeless case.

"Forget it," she murmured, "Foolish human, you don't understand the culture of us dark elves at all."

"Let me ask you..." After a brief pause and calming down, Myrcella looked back at Lein and asked indifferently, "Why did the Spider Queen give the princess that kind of revelation?"

"If she just wanted to show the princess a way out, couldn't she just point out the correct way out? Why did she have to show three paths in the princess' mind at the same time?"

When she said this, Li Yin was slightly stunned. He was indeed surprised. According to the logic of the facts, what Misella said made sense.

So, why is that?

He lowered his head and pondered for a long time, but still could not come up with a very confident answer.

Finally, he slowly raised his head, looked at Myrcella, and randomly picked the most likely guess:

"Could it be that... Princess Cassia did not receive any revelation from the Spider Queen, and sending out the advance team was just her own idea?"

"Be careful, slave!" As expected, Myrcella immediately frowned and warned in a deep voice, "Your words are very dangerous. In our society, usurping the will of God is the most serious crime. Moreover, in many cases, the punishment for this crime does not come from the family or the ruling council, but directly from the gods."

"Therefore, any rational dark elf would not dare to claim that her idea is a revelation from God, unless she has really received a revelation from the goddess!"

"So, that revelation really exists?" Li Yin was stunned.

However, this also confirmed his inner confusion when he made that guess earlier - sending an advance team had previously been proven to be completely ineffective and would only accelerate the decline of the troops. Unless there was a direct revelation from the gods, someone as rational as Cassia would not repeat such a stupid action.

But, this way, he could no longer think of any other possibilities.

So, he rolled his eyes and looked up at Myrcella, refusing to think.

Mircella saw his look and although she was angry, she could do nothing about it. In the end, she could only sneer with disdain.

"Let me ask you," she said, "what kind of goddess is the Spider Queen?"

Your goddess is an out-and-out evil god—that’s what he wanted to answer her right away.

However, after thinking about the consequences of answering like this, he held back.

Li Yin thought about it. Although he was a non-believer, he knew that one had to bow down under someone's roof. In order to increase his chances of survival, he used every possible opportunity to seriously learn about the culture of the dark elves, their beliefs, and their goddess. Just as he racked his brains to prepare some relatively euphemistic remarks -

"She is the goddess of fate who weaves the destiny of us dark elves," Myrcella said coldly without waiting for Lein to answer, as if she had never thought about listening to the superficial views of their goddess from the mouth of a human slave. "However, she is not only the goddess of fate, she is also the goddess of conspiracy, chaos, blood, poison, and betrayal..."

"A cruel goddess who not only bestows blessings and enlightenment upon her people, but also demands painful sacrifices and dedication from them."

"Among these three roads, one is the correct road that leads to the exit of the maze."

"The other two are sacrificial roads paved with blood and corpses!"

"From the moment you set foot on this path, you only have a one-third chance of surviving, and the other two-thirds chance of becoming a 'sacrifice' trapped in the Spider Goddess's ruthless web."

"Are you satisfied with this ending?"

"A more loyal and pious slave than countless of my compatriots!" she said coldly.

Li Yin was shocked after listening to her sensational remarks and was speechless.

"You..." He came back to his senses after a long while, swallowed his saliva, and said in a trembling voice, "Are you serious?"

"Do you think I would have the leisure to joke with a dying man?" Myrcella glanced at him coldly, "And you dared to joke with our goddess."

Li Yin saw that her serious expression did not seem fake. His own knowledge of the dark elves also told him that these words were highly credible.

Instantly, his mood plummeted. He instantly understood why Cassia had such a strong reaction when she heard that he had signed up enthusiastically - she didn't want him to die!

As a priestess of the Spider Queen, she certainly understood the true meaning of this revelation better than Myrcella. Most of the dark elf officers also understood the deeper meaning of this. Even the two who actively signed up at the beginning, Li Yin recalled their fleeting excitement and the weird expressions that followed, and realized that after they were initially overwhelmed by the passion aroused by the sudden emergence of vitality, they soon realized the truth based on the abnormal reactions of their companions!

However, they were just like me. Now that they had spoken, there was no room for regret...

Li Yin's pace slowed down instantly.

"Then what should we do?" He looked up at Myrcella and asked the tall and upright dark elf woman hesitantly, as if he could find a real sense of reliability from her tall figure.

"What else can we do?" Mircella frowned and looked at Li Yin with a cold expression.

"You chose this path!"

"Damn it, why don't you just die by yourself? Why did you have to take me with you?" She complained angrily, her cheeks flushed with anger.

"Sorry." Li Yin apologized embarrassedly. He didn't expect Cassia to send him a dark elf as his deputy, and this dark elf happened to be Myrcella.

But thinking about it carefully, this seemed to be a destined choice - he alone could not command this army composed of dark elves and slaves, and if there were other dark elves as deputies - then he would not be able to command even this deputie!

Only Myrcella, who is fully aware of the close relationship between Princess Cassia and herself, and who is very close to Princess Cassia and "willing to risk her life to reveal her plan to herself", can be qualified for this position...

Chapter 133 Mysterious Fluctuation

Therefore, this whole incident can be regarded as a huge mistake. Although he did not do it on purpose, the dark elf did suffer an unprovoked disaster because of him.

"Now...it doesn't seem to be of any use," he said softly, looking towards Myrcella carefully to avoid angering her further.

"How about we think about what to do next?"

Mircella glared at him angrily for a while, then lowered her head and thought for a while. When she raised her head, her anger was still there.

“Keep going,” she said. “There’s no other way.”

Li Yin was slightly surprised.

Keep going...what kind of solution is this?

"We only have three choices now," Myrcella explained unhappily:

"First, return the same way you came and tell your mistress that we have decided not to go. You can kill or chop us as you please."

She looked at Li Yin as if he were an idiot.

Li Yin also understood that this was the closest way to death, so he kept silent and waited for her to continue.

"Second, just stay where you are like a melon. We are safe now," she smiled coldly, "If you stay here, maybe you will be safe forever."

“And third, just keep moving forward.”

"If it were you, which path would you choose?" She looked at Li Yin.

Li Yin instinctively wanted to choose the second option - if he hadn't considered that he would not be able to report to Cassia. But if he chose the third option, he would probably not be able to report to Cassia.

"The second one, huh?" Myrcella seemed to see through his thoughts. "You think the second one has the highest chance of survival."

Li Yin nodded slightly, as if he was ashamed to admit his fear.

"Hmph," Myrcella sneered, "let me tell you—"

"The third option has a one-third chance of survival, while the second option has a zero percent chance of survival!"

"Why?" Li Yin was surprised when he heard her decisive judgment.

"Didn't I tell you?" Myrcella looked at him, her ruby ​​eyes gleaming coldly.

"Of the three paths we have chosen, two lead to 'sacrifice', and only one is the true and correct path, and the only path that can lead to salvation."

"The survival of one team means the sacrifice of the other two teams."

“Opportunities do not favor those who wait, but disasters often come unexpectedly.”