The Heartbeat of the Cruel Elves

From this strange caution, Du Feiya immediately keenly realized the reason behind it - the other party was questioning her, while using a tone that was as mild as possible to avoid making her angry.

"What do you mean?" Du Feiya pursed her lips.

"Um... look..." Li Yin's voice was intermittent.

"Pathfinding is a divine technique, right..."

"The essence of using divine arts is to pray to the gods for favor and gain power or enlightenment, right?"

"And you... don't seem to respect the Spider Goddess that much?"

"The gods...are not fools, you—"

“Is the revelation you received truly correct?”

Especially - Li Yin added silently at a deeper level in his mind, his sophisticated skills in the mind allow him to clearly divide his mental activities into multiple levels, communication and thinking do not interfere with each other, and there will not be a situation where "you say whatever you think" during the mental dialogue - the other party is the goddess of conspiracy and cunning, are you sure she won't deliberately set you up?

And looking at the cold and hard rock wall in front of him, Li Yin felt that the probability of his scenario happening was 99.9999%.

"Let me correct a misunderstanding of yours, rookie." Du Feiya's voice sounded cheerful yet a little bit comically contemptuous.

"Divine magic is indeed about connecting with the gods and gaining their power."

"But divine magic has a strong commonality among divine magics, or in other words, they have a common paradigm within them - even between different gods."

"This versatility can be explained by a real-life example: a magic scroll made by a priest of a certain god can be used by an elf who is not a believer of this god."

"However, with this common paradigm, the object of the scroll user's prayer is not the object of the scroll maker's faith, but the object of her own faith."

"To put it simply, a divine scroll is like a communication stone. It doesn't matter who made it. What matters is that as long as you master how to use it, you can communicate with the elves, oh no, gods, that you want to contact."

"Wait," Li Yin suddenly understood and interrupted her in surprise, "You mean, although the scroll came from the priest of the Spider Goddess, it can actually be used by anyone to contact the gods they believe in."

"And you, although you are not a believer of the Spider Goddess, you are not a non-believer either. You just happen to believe in another god?"

"That's the correct answer." Du Feiya confirmed decisively.

"Who is the god you believe in?" Li Yin asked curiously. He had previously subconsciously thought that she had become a nonbeliever like him because she was uncomfortable with the Spider Goddess's belief, but he didn't expect that she also believed in other gods.

"Hmm..." Du Feiya paused, a little shy. Mentioning the gods she believed in should not be a shameful thing, but no one had ever asked her this question in her life. In addition, in Nevre, a city-state where the belief in the Spider Goddess covered everything, she had to carefully hide her true feelings. So over time, this question naturally became a secret that was difficult to talk about.

"Yes..." She paused again. Then, Li Yin suddenly saw her eyes light up and she took a step forward.

"Wait a moment." She said hurriedly to Li Yin in her heart.

"This rock wall," she spoke again - this time it was no longer her inner voice, but her real voice, and it was not directed to Li Yin, but to the soldiers of the reconnaissance unit closest to the rock wall, "Have you checked it carefully before?"

The scouts looked at her in confusion.

"Could it be hollow?" she asked in a clear voice.

The scouts were stunned at first, looking at each other in bewilderment. Then one of the dark elves walked closer to the stone wall, raised two fingers, and knocked against the stone wall with his knuckles.

All the dark elves and even the slaves fell silent in an instant. The entire army fell into absolute silence, and only the faint sound of each other's breathing could be heard.

Clang clang - two distinct knocking sounds came from the stone wall. The sound was extremely solid, but it made everyone's heart hang in the air again. Judging from the solid sound, there was no hole behind the stone wall. It was a solid wall, an undoubted dead end.

The dense and noisy discussions were like raindrops hitting a pond, spreading among the elves again.

"how come?"

"The pathfinding technique was not wrong."

“But this is indeed a dead end…”

"what on earth is it?"

"..."

"Let Princess Cassia come," a male dark elf suddenly spoke up amid the mixed discussions, "Let Princess Cassia come."

"Don't we still have a pathfinding scroll?"

"Let Princess Cassia come. She is a true priestess of the Spider Goddess. Let her use the path-finding technique. She will definitely be able to reveal the right direction for us!"

"In the final analysis," a female warrior of the Denitya family pressed her sword angrily, "you still don't believe in our princess."

"We can't believe it!" The male dark elf was very emotional and pointed at the stone wall indignantly. "Didn't you see it too? In this situation, how can we believe it?"

"Princess Cassia!" More dark elves silently cast their expectant eyes towards Cassia. Although they did not speak, they showed their intentions with practical actions.

Cassia coughed lightly, and her clear and bright eyes slowly passed across the faces of many dark elves.

"Princess Dufia has no problem using the path-finding technique," she said in a calm voice that contained an unquestionable power. "I've said it before."

"As a priest of the Spider Goddess, I can tell you responsibly that even if I use the path-finding spell again at this moment, the result will be the same."

As a priestess of the Spider Goddess and an expert in divine arts, she knew very well that since Du Feiya was able to use the pathfinding scroll, no matter what her true beliefs were, the results she obtained would be no different from those of a priest and would not be wrong.

She might be a pagan, Cassia licked her lips, that would be very interesting. But that is a matter for the future, after they can successfully walk out of this maze. Of course, it is also possible that her casual nonsense just now really hit the truth, and she is indeed a reserved and forbearing believer of the true God - Cassia does not have much confidence in this possibility. Most of the nobles of Nevre are well aware of Dufia's situation - if it were not for her father, Lucien, the chief magic warrior of Nevre, who has almost all-powerful power in the Deniteya family, a guy like her, in any other normal family led by the matriarch, would have been sentenced to death as a heretic or sent to participate in the transformation ceremony of the spider elves.

However, all this is not important at the moment. What is important is that she can really use the pathfinding scroll. And if she can't use it - assuming that everything just now is a play, a performance by Du Feiya, a non-believer, to fool everyone - the possibility of this assumption is close to zero, because she is not only fooling other dark elves, but also herself, playing with her own life.

Cassia looked around. The last glimmer of hope was dashed, and many dark elves showed panic and fear on their faces. Some dark elves also had regrets and unwillingness on their faces, as if they were not satisfied with her just saying it, and hoped that she would use the path-finding spell again to verify their guesses with solid reality.

Cassia saw the expectations of the elves, so she paused and explained further:

"I know exactly what some of you elves are thinking right now, and I understand how you feel."

"However, I must draw your attention to this," she took out the pathfinding scroll, held it in her hand, and raised it into the air. Immediately, many dark elves showed eager looks in their eyes, and they all raised their heads, like drowning people seeing the last straw.

"We only have this last pathfinding scroll left." Cassia's clear voice sounded again.

"If we don't figure out what's going on and what factors caused the pathfinding spell to point to a 'dead end', I don't recommend that we blindly use this last scroll."

“Otherwise, once we use up this last scroll, we will still get the same result.” She raised her free hand and pointed her index finger at the towering rock wall.

"By then, we will be in real despair!"

Cassia's cold voice chilled the dark elves' hearts. They all lowered their heads, no longer daring to hope to use up the last scroll immediately.

"But, if Princess Dufiya's...path-finding technique is fine, then what went wrong?" After a moment of silence, a personal guard of the Borginia family beside Cassia asked in a low voice.

"This is exactly what we have to figure out now." Cassia curled the corners of her mouth slightly, smiled easily, and strolled closer to the stone wall.

Looking at her leisurely and relaxed demeanor, Li Yin was truly impressed.

When she was lost in the maze, she still had her last trump card in her hand - the wayfinding technique. Li Yin could understand her calmness at that time. Now that even this last trump card has been declared invalid, she can still be so calm and indifferent, which really makes people respect her calmness.

Du Feiya also followed, but compared to Cassia, her pace was a little impatient.

The two princesses stood on either side of the stone wall, carefully examining the surface of the stone wall, touching it with their hands, and even occasionally leaning against the stone wall to listen, and each of them used magic to detect magic...

But after a long time, there was still no result. The two looked at each other, Du Feiya's face was filled with worry, and Cassia's face did not show any excitement.

Faced with this scene, the many dark elves watching couldn't help but feel more depressed.

Li Yin's mood was similar to that of the dark elves around him. However, just when it seemed like he had reached the end of his rope, staring at the pair of people standing in front of the stone wall, his previous survival plan suddenly flashed through his mind.

Well, here comes another one who wants to eat and drink for free.

He first looked at Cassia, then at Du Feiya. Such a strange thought ran through his mind, and he couldn't help but smile bitterly.

At the same time, he couldn't help but feel a slight pain all over his body, as if he had already foreseen the scene of the two of them sitting around him and feasting on his flesh and blood...

Cassia and Dufiya each held one of his legs and one of his arms. They raised their heads in between bites, their snow-white cheeks covered in blood. Their pretty faces gave him a sinister grin while chewing... This scene made Li Yin feel cold all over. His heart suddenly twitched, and he forcibly ended his horrific fantasy.

He shook his head, pulled himself out of his inner world, and looked back at the two princesses standing gracefully in front of the stone wall.

"I have an idea." At this moment, Du Feiya, who was staring at the stone wall, suddenly had a bright light in her violet eyes and said so.

"Please speak." Cassia turned her head and looked at Du Feiya, with a slight surprise on her face.

"Is there a possibility that the path was originally correct? It's just that..."

"The maze is changing?" A female dark elf warrior widened her eyes and muttered, pulling everyone back into the fear they had fallen into before: "Is it alive?"

"I still think this statement is too sensational." Cassia hesitated for a moment, then shook her head and said so. Then a sneer suddenly appeared at the corner of her mouth. "Also, after Princess Dufiya's reminder, I suddenly had an idea."

"Do you remember what Li Yin said before?" She turned around, first glanced at the dark elves, and then looked at Li Yin, "It's not the maze that's 'alive', but the 'elves'."

"But Your Highness," another female dark elf immediately responded, "wasn't that statement refuted by you yourself?"

"You would have thought that if the dark elves were behind this, they would not act in this way."

“Besides, it’s no longer as simple as just marking it being modified.”

"If what Princess Dufiya said is true, then this maze is not just a mark, but its essence is constantly changing." The female dark elf shuddered.

"If it were a dark elf, could it really do this?"

Cassia shook her head and smiled coldly, "Regarding our compatriots, I still maintain my previous views."

"I don't think they are the real culprits behind this."

"However," she pursed her lips and maintained her previous smile under the confused gazes of many dark elves, "Although Li Yin's statement did not directly reveal the truth, it provided me with a completely new idea."

"What if," she asked in a deep voice, "it wasn't the dark elves who made this maze 'alive'—"

"But is there indeed something else?"

Chapter 144 Huh?

The cold wind whistled through the tunnel, like the roar of a wild beast.

All the elves shuddered at the same time.

Not a dark elf?

What else could it be?

This was not a simple attack by wild beasts, nor was it some accidental mutation of undead creatures. The creatures that were dealing with them and fooling them, if they really existed - they must be another intelligent race!

And in this huge and deep underground maze, a dead area where no civilization seems to be active anymore, what kind of intelligent creatures can exist?

Almost instantly, all the dark elves felt a chill down their spines.

A sentence echoed in their ears again at the same time.

"What if they're not just 'normal' monsters?"

"If... such creatures really exist, they are not only incredibly large in size and form large groups, but also highly intelligent."

"They probably formed their own country, had their own civilization, could make tools, and could--"

"Well versed in plots and schemes!"

“Those guys—” A dark elf opened his eyes wide, his voice trembling, and his pale face was filled with shock, fear, and disbelief, “They, they are still alive?”

All of a sudden, many dark elves turned their heads and looked around. It seemed that in the endless and directionless darkness around them, countless huge black shadows like mountains were towering one after another.

Even Li Yin, who had been in a rather relaxed mood, couldn't help but shiver.

If this is true, then he must reconsider his situation.

He once relied on his special body and thought that even if this maze could trap him, it couldn't really do anything to him. But now...

Starvation cannot kill a ghoul, but enemies can.

Especially those huge enemies hiding in the unknown darkness, they could easily crush him into a pool of irreplaceable meat paste with just a flick of their hands!

"Impossible!" At this moment, a female dark elf suddenly shouted.

"Those marks, those previous marks," she said with a gleam in her eyes, "are marks left by the magic potion specially made by us dark elves. There is no corresponding potion to dissolve them, so they cannot be erased. If you give up erasing them and directly change them based on the original marks, it will leave obvious traces."

"But as we walked along, those marks that didn't match the route map didn't seem to be out of place. They seemed as natural as when they were drawn in the first place!"

Many dark elves looked at each other, the fear on their faces lessened slightly, and a look of slight doubt appeared on their faces.

What the female dark elf said was true. According to Turner's memory, Li Yin knew that what they used for marking was indeed a special magic potion.

He also cast a confused look at Cassia.

"Of course it's difficult to change it directly." A clear voice suddenly sounded, but it was not Cassia, but another princess, Du Feiya. She opened her red lips and suddenly said in a loud voice: "But don't forget, our enemy, if it exists - that is a guy who can directly change the direction of the maze."

She turned her gaze, and many dark elves followed her, looking at the towering stone wall that blocked the entire tunnel.

"Why would such a guy want to directly alter our mark?"

The female dark elf who had spoken just now lowered her head slightly, as if she was lost in confusion and thought, and murmured: "'Why'... Could it be that they did not alter our marks? But, if that's the case, then why..."

She didn't continue, but the meaning was clear. If the marking had not been altered, why would it be inconsistent with what was previously marked on the route map?

This is also the confusion hanging over the hearts of all other dark elves.

But there was one dark elf who was an exception—Cassia suddenly curled the corners of her mouth and smiled slightly.