The Heartbeat of the Cruel Elves

The crystal storm slowed down their pace, making it easier for the dragon to catch up with them, but even without the thorns, it would only be a matter of time before the dragon caught up with them.

Li Yin also knew this, but he had no plan at the moment and could only run wildly. Moreover, not to mention the giant dragon that was still some distance away, just dealing with the sudden increase in crystal spikes had already consumed almost all of his energy, leaving him with no time to think.

They ran along the shoreline of the lake, and in the blink of an eye, they had already passed half of the shoreline, but at the same time, the distance between the dragon and them had been shortened by more than half.

Li Yin was extremely anxious. At this moment, another crystal storm roared in. Li Yin dodged hastily, but one of the thorns rubbed his left leg, leaving a bloody mark. He felt a sharp pain and couldn't help but slow down a little.

This won't work... He gritted his teeth and endured the pain, continuing to run wildly. Running around in the wilderness without any cover like this was basically a moving target. If they continued like this, they might have been pierced into hedgehogs by these crystal thorns before the dragon caught up.

He tilted his head and shook it from side to side, hoping to find a place that could provide some shelter.

But the possibility of finding such a place is very small. Li Yin clearly remembered that this was an endless plain...

However, at this moment, his eyes suddenly lit up because he suddenly saw that on the other side of the underground lake in front of him on the right, there appeared cylindrical protrusions, standing like trees.

Is it the remains of an ancient building? Looking at the clusters of unknown shadows, he thought to himself, no matter what it is, it doesn't matter. What's important is that he finally found something that can help him block those crystal thorns a little.

A thought flashed through his mind, and he immediately turned and headed to the right front, running towards the other side of the underground lake.

The dragon behind him continued to chase for a while, watching the distance between the two sides quickly shorten, and the huge vertical pupils bloomed with joy. However, at this moment, it keenly noticed that its prey suddenly changed direction, and moved forward very confidently in the new direction it had chosen, without any twists and turns, which made it instinctively feel that something was wrong. Its nictitating membrane twitched twice quickly, and it turned its eyes to look in the direction of the prey.

"You are not allowed to go there!" The next moment, its upper and lower jaws opened and closed, and it roared suddenly.

Li Yin was stunned, but his running pace did not stop at all. Not only that, he even showed signs of accelerating.

He was surprised that the dragon, who had always been so high and mighty and looked down upon them, would show such concern about their new escape route. He was completely confused by its inexplicable behavior. But it was not important. What was important was that it would not allow them to go there!

Li Yin has always believed in a principle: the more the enemy hates something, the more resolutely he should implement it!

So he kept going, striding towards that direction with great enthusiasm.

"You lowly bug!" the dragon cursed.

Sure enough... this angry roar sounded like a sweet rain to Li Yin's ears. This guy really cares about them going there. Thinking of this, Li Yin waved his arms wildly even more vigorously!

It wasn't long before he reached the other side of the underground lake.

He looked forward, but was suddenly stunned.

It turned out that those things standing upright like trees a dozen steps away were not columns or building ruins, but statues that were half a meter tall.

These tall statues have different appearances and different clothes. Among them are warriors wearing armor and weapons, riding horses, archers drawing bows and arrows, and wizards wearing long robes, pointed hats, and holding crystal balls in their hands... Each statue has a different posture and expression, and looks lifelike, just like a living person who was suddenly petrified and frozen in place.

Li Yin suddenly felt a little uneasy for no reason and had the idea of ​​retreating.

"Asshole, stop going forward!" However, at this moment, a thunderous sound suddenly came from the sky above his head. Li Yin turned her head and looked back, and was immediately terrified. It turned out that the giant dragon had already chased them to the extreme position behind them, and was retracting its wings and stretching out its claws in the sky above their heads, and it was about to pounce on them.

At the critical moment, Li Yin didn't have time to think too much. He jumped suddenly and rushed straight into the group of statues with Du Feiya on his back.

As soon as his front foot left the ground, he heard a dense cluster of crystal thorns piercing into the ground from behind, which made his spine chill.

As soon as he entered the sculpture forest, the dragon immediately stopped its descent and spread its wings again. The numerous sculptures left it no room to land, and it seemed to be afraid and did not dare to destroy them directly. So with a puffing sound, it manipulated the crystal thorns, resuspended in the air, and attacked Li Yin again.

This time it was much easier to dodge. Li Yin went directly behind a mage statue, and the crystal thorns hit the statue, making extremely sharp clanging sounds, like the collision of metal.

Then, there was a loud bang - the statue collapsed and hit the ground, smashing the hard rock surface into pieces. In the spreading smoke and dust, Li Yin was surprised to find that the statue was not damaged at all. This was true for the side that collided with the ground, and also for the side on the back that was directly hit by the dragon's crystal thorn.

He didn't bother to find out why the material of these statues was so hard, but continued to stride forward, looking for the next shelter. At the same time, the hidden worry in his heart became stronger and stronger.

Because, while witnessing the mage statue crashing down and smashing the ground into pieces, he also noticed another fact - the ground beneath their feet was covered with strange patterns. Not only were there irregular cracks caused by the statue, but there were also criss-crossing straight grooves that ran through the entire ground, right under Li Yin's constantly moving feet!

This... is like some kind of magic pattern.

Such a thought suddenly flashed through Li Yin's mind.

Thinking of the dragon's previous warning, his heart tightened even more.

Could it be that... they had intruded into some dangerous ritual site?

A dangerous place that even dragons are afraid of?

Unfortunately, he thought to himself, he couldn't easily probe its mind as the dragon could probe his, otherwise the mystery would be revealed immediately.

But it didn't matter, no matter whether it was a blessing or a curse, it didn't matter. If it was a blessing, then he and Du Feiya would be lucky, if it was a curse...the two of them were already in great trouble, and now being able to drag this culprit down with them was a blessing.

Just as Li Yin was thinking this, there was a sudden burst of puffing sounds behind him.

He didn't need to look back to know that the crystal thorns had risen from the ground again like leeches, aiming at him.

He quickly moved around and came behind an armored statue.

The sharp sound of ping-pong came again, and the armored statue collapsed with a loud bang, and cracks appeared on the gully-filled ground again. As for Li Yin and Du Feiya, they were unharmed and had already started looking for the next shelter.

In mid-air, the giant dragon flapped its wings, roared angrily, and once again controlled dozens of crystal thorns to attack them.

Li Yin did the same thing, once again using a statue as a cover to completely avoid them.

The dragon seemed at a loss, and could only roar angrily once again. Hearing its unwilling roar, Li Yin's heart leaped with joy. However, just as he was feeling happy, his expression suddenly changed.

Because, at this moment, he suddenly felt an extremely strong wind pressure coming towards him!

That roar - that was not an unwilling roar, but a precursor to an attack!

He was startled and immediately used his feet to cross. But it was too late to react. Li Yin was in mid-air, but he still felt that half of his body was still covered by the fierce wind pressure, which was about to hit him. He had no other choice but to make up his mind and use his right hand to throw Du Feiya, who was originally on his back, out first.

The next moment, severe wind pressure suddenly hit, and the invisible force field fell from the sky like a high-speed carriage, smashing him to the ground.

With a sound of puffing, blood rained down. The magic force field smashed a big pit in the ground, and spider-web-like cracks spread densely from the bottom of the pit to the surroundings. At the edge of the pit, Li Yin was lying on his back. The left half of his body was originally damaged by the crushing of the boulder. Now, under the heavy blow of the invisible force field, the remaining part was also broken and bloody. Not only the upper body, but also the left leg was strangely twisted and shrunken, like a ball of dough that was flattened, stretched, and twisted into a dough stick...

The painful groans penetrated the blood, rain, smoke and dust, spreading all around.

"Li Yin!" Du Feiya's frightened and worried cry suddenly came from outside the smoke.

"Run..." Li Yin only managed to utter this one word from his throat which was clogged with blood foam. He wanted to say "leave me alone", but the rest of his words were swallowed up by the blood overflowing his throat and mouth, and turned into a series of choking coughs.

Amid the coughing, he turned his head and looked anxiously towards the source of the sound, but found in despair that Du Feiya's figure slowly emerged in the smoke and dust, but she was not moving away, but approaching quickly.

His face, twisted in pain, became more wrinkled.

Du Feiya came to his side in a flash, looking at his miserable condition, with shock and tears in her eyes.

"Li Yin." She called out helplessly.

"Escape..." He spat out a mouthful of blood foam and forced out this word from his throat. Then he stared at Du Feiya with wide eyes and his brows twisted into a knot.

But Du Feiya still ignored his opinion. Not only that, she squatted down, stretched out her hands, at a loss, as if she wanted to hug him but was afraid to touch his wounds. She looked at his body with great pain and murmured, "How do you feel now?"

Very bad, Li Yin answered in his heart. Especially seeing that you still want to be a sucker and waste another time here.

This was of course just his own mumbling - under the severe pain, his spirit was almost collapsed, and he could no longer maintain a normal mental connection.

His eyes rolled back and he looked at Du Feiya helplessly in severe pain. After a while, he suddenly felt relieved.

A huge whistling sound of wings flapping in the air sounded behind him, and a strong wind pressure suddenly hit him - everything was over, and at this time, there was no point in blaming Du Feiya.

He turned his head and saw that the dragon had landed on the ground not far from them. It folded its wings on both sides of its body, stood on all fours, with its long neck raised and stretched out, and its huge body walked towards them leisurely with elegance and composure.

"The little bug that dragons hate," a rumbling sound was heard in the air. On its huge head made of blue crystal, two vertical pupils stared at them majestically, "It's quite good at jumping around."

"Now you only have one leg left, can you still jump?"

Chapter 170 Crisis of Trust

Li Yin did not answer. He stared with wide eyes, watching the dragon move forward leisurely step by step, its huge body slowly stepping into the forest of giant statues.

He made a huge mistake.

The dragon's initial warning and its sudden stop to pursuit made him think that the dragon had some kind of fear of the area and did not dare to carry out large-scale destruction.

Therefore, when it used that large-scale force field attack, Li Yin was completely unprepared.

...Of course, that kind of large-scale attack is also connected with the violent storm of crystal thorns, which cover each other. To be fair, even if you are alert in advance, it is indeed difficult to completely avoid it...

In short, Li Yin turned his head and looked at the strange statues in various postures around him, as well as the criss-crossing straight grooves on the ground. The dragon was not as afraid of this strange place that looked a bit like some kind of cult sacrificial ritual as he imagined.

So why did it warn itself so angrily before?

And... this weird place, Li Yin looked at the lifelike faces of the statues again, what are you for? Can you do something? How did this big guy come in so brazenly? Can you punish it?

Even though Li Yin prayed with the thought of destroying both sides, this strange environment still did not react. The field was very quiet, and the only movement was the sound of the giant dragon's footsteps.

"I told you," the giant dragon slowly opened its mouth in silence, and a voice as booming as thunder came from the sky, "You are not allowed to go this way."

"But you just wouldn't listen."

"You lowly bugs," its two huge blue vertical pupils rolled down, its two big nostrils suddenly flared, and it let out a whistling sound, looking at them with contempt and indignation, "you can die if you want."

"Why do you have to use your dirty blood to dirty my beloved chessboard?"

Chessboard? Li Yin was stunned.

After hesitating for a while, he looked around again with a confused look. The lifelike statues with different postures and shapes, the crisscrossing straight lines... It really looked like chess pieces and a chessboard. Then, he recalled the overall appearance of this area that he had accidentally glimpsed from the sky when he was running and jumping in and out of this sculpture forest. It was indeed square and neatly planned...

After realizing this, Li Yin's eyes widened instantly. His breath got stuck in his throat and he almost vomited blood.

So the strange place that he was trying to rely on with the idea of ​​dying together was actually just a toy of this giant dragon. And the reason why it yelled at him not to move forward was not because it was afraid of some terrifying power, but simply because it was afraid of the consequences?

"That's right, 'better to kill than to hurt'," the dragon's rumbling voice repeated, but this time it contained a hint of unusual praise.

It tilted its head and looked at Li Yin seriously, with the corner of its mouth curled up to reveal a smile that looked very much like a human.

"This metaphor is wonderful, elf, oh no, human bug, or human mouse, you have a very clear understanding of yourself. I can't help but look up to you a little bit."

"I thought you two-legged bugs were all arrogant fools..."

As it spoke, it looked at Li Yin carefully.

Human bugs are indeed different from elf bugs - but not too different, except that their ears are not as long and pointed. In short, they are far different from mind flayers. From its point of view, in front of the latter, these two creatures can basically be regarded as two subspecies of the same creature.

It was precisely because the differences between humans, elves, and mind flayers were so great that when it heard his inner voice, it, as smart as it was, did not regard "mind flayer" as the other party's self-description. Instead, it subconsciously thought that he was scolding itself at the first moment...

Its thoughts flow silently.

Li Yin, on the other hand, was somewhat amused. He just used an idiom out of habit, and God is my mirror. He never had the slightest intention of treating himself as a mouse.

"I just praised you for being modest," the dragon smacked his lips and sighed, "and you're jumping up and down again."

Li Yin was stunned for a moment, and it took him a while to realize that his mental activity had been eavesdropped on by it again...

"It's not eavesdropping!" The dragon opened its mouth and stretched its wings. "You lowly little bug."

"You are too weak."

"I just took a casual glance, and all your trivial mental activities were revealed."

Upon hearing this, Li Yin was slightly stunned, then hung his head dejectedly without refutation.

Indeed, when it comes to psychic powers, he is just a newbie who knows nothing and is far inferior to the dragon in front of him.

"It's talking nonsense." Unexpectedly, at this moment, Du Feiya suddenly spoke resolutely and interrupted the conversation between the two parties.

"You said earlier that you had already applied mental protection to yourself."

"Passive telepathy is ineffective in this case."

"It's like a person who voluntarily closes his mouth," she said firmly. "No matter how sharp the other person's hearing is, it's impossible for them to hear what you are saying - unless they actively pry open your mouth and let you speak again."

"So, this is clearly a wiretap!"

She looked up at the dragon, her eyes sparkling and her expression calm, as if she had understood her final outcome and no longer had any fear, determined to argue with the other party to the end.

The dragon opened its mouth slightly, and its huge head made of blue crystal remained motionless, as if it was surprised for a moment. Then its pupils turned and focused on Du Feiya, and its huge mouth opened and closed:

"Question me?"

"How dare you, a lowly little dark elf, question me, a great dragon!"

"If you really deserve the word 'great', you should present the facts and reason and explain it to us clearly." Seeing that there was no hope of survival, Li Yin was completely desperate and seized this last chance to say whatever he wanted, "instead of relying on your own strength to overwhelm others."

"Use your power to coerce others? Explain clearly?" The giant dragon turned its head and looked at Li Yin again. It closed its mouth and was silent for a while, then suddenly opened its mouth and roared angrily: "This is a conversation between us psychics. She is an outsider. What right does she have to say irresponsibly and ask me to explain it to her?"

A gust of wind gushed out of its open mouth along with its roar, suffocating the two. Du Feiya and Li Yin raised a hand to block in front of themselves. Their hair and clothes were flying in the wild airflow.

However, even so, Du Feiya curled the corners of his mouth and laughed coldly: "Now they are starting to create identity separation again. In short, it is unreasonable and evasive. They dare not face the problem that a 'great dragon clan' would eavesdrop on a humble little bug."

"I wasn't eavesdropping!" The dragon spread its wings, raised its neck, and roared.

The heartbroken look seemed like he had suffered a great injustice. However, to Li Yin, it sounded a bit angry and humiliated.

"I'm not angry out of shame!" The dragon roared even louder, and another more violent gust of wind came towards them, almost blowing the two of them away.

"How could a little wizard like her possibly understand psychic powers!" It paused and said confidently, "This is simply nonsense!"

How can I believe you instead of her, Li Yin thought to himself. Besides, it is a bit far-fetched to say that Du Feiya knows nothing about psychic powers. Psychic powers are essentially a power that comes from the mind. Although mages cannot use this power directly, many spells are directly related to the mind, especially the spells of mind control. Li Yin even heard of an argument that some mages believe that psychic powers should not be listed as a special ability alone, but should also be part of the arcane, a ninth school outside the eight major schools that has not been fully explored and systematically organized.

In addition, for the dark elves, there is more than that. There are many psychic creatures in the Underdark. Even if they do not have psychic powers, in order to deal with the enemy, the dark elves have accumulated a lot of psychic knowledge in thousands of years of fighting. As a dark elf princess, it is not realistic to say that Du Feiya knows nothing about this knowledge.