The Heartbeat of the Cruel Elves

Li Yinhe and Du Feiya were dumbfounded and looked at each other.

"However, since I already have a name, there is no need to rush to learn this." It rubbed its front paws and then took a step forward.

Li Yin and Du Feiya subconsciously took a step back, then realized that the dragon's step was much longer than theirs, so they took three more steps back.

"What are you doing?" the dragon asked unhappily.

Li Yin was trembling with fear, then smiled, "Master Shaga, what do you want to do?"

"Work." The sapphire dragon called Shaka said as a matter of course, "Strike while the iron is hot, start working now."

After saying that, she didn't give Li Yin and Du Feiya a chance to explain. She stretched out her two front paws, grabbed one each, and picked them up like chickens, holding them in her claws, then flapped her wings and took off into the air.

His body was suspended in the air, the wind blew past his ears, eyes, mouth and nose, and the nervousness stimulated Li Yin to breathe deeply. He was afraid that the dragon would play with him and throw him down from the air. Although he had learned the feather fall technique from the priest of the Kuige barbarian tribe, he was still uneasy about being controlled by the dragon.

After a while, they landed in a familiar place - on the chessboard lined with sculptures.

"Master Shaga?" Li Yin was a little confused.

"Come on, come on," the Sapphire Dragon rubbed his hands, looking impatient, his two huge vertical pupils looking straight at the chessboard, looking past Li Yin and Du Feiya, "Let's play another game."

"We'll fight fair this time," she said solemnly, with a hint of unwillingness to admit defeat, "We'll start from the beginning, without any stalemate."

………………

A few days later, Dufiya Dinitya opened her eyes. She heard the heavy and harsh sound of metal equipment rubbing against the ground, and it was that sound that woke her up from her deep meditation. She turned her head to the side and saw Li Yin supporting his hands on the back of a chess piece, pushing it forward with all his strength.

On the other side, a giant dragon was sitting on the ground in an extremely peaceful posture, with its two bright vertical pupils open, staring at Li Yin intently, paying attention to the place where the chess piece was about to stop.

Du Feiya rubbed her eyes and yawned.

There was no time column mark, so she didn't know how long the man and the dragon had been sitting here. She only knew that this was the third time she closed her eyes and opened them again. The elves meditated and rested for about four hours each time, which meant that she had already spent twelve hours resting, not to mention the time she was awake. If calculated according to a normal schedule, it should be three days. But Du Feiya was not sure, because she might fall into sleepiness early if she kept staring at the boring chess game.

"Water, I want to drink water." The dragon's ears were sharp. Although his eyes were fixed on the chess board, he had noticed that she was awake and immediately gave the order.

Du Feiya did not dare to delay. She wiped her face, got up immediately, walked to the side, picked up a bucket and a shoulder pole for fetching water - these were what the dragon had ordered her to search for in the city before - and walked towards the underground lake in the distance.

Li Yin, who was standing behind her, slightly moved and cast a sympathetic look at her from a distance. Du Feiya turned around and happened to meet his gaze. She smiled at him and told him not to care.

The man and the dragon stayed here for nearly three days. During this time, the dragon seemed to have filled its stomach before - Du Feiya once again thought of his compatriots who only had half of their bodies left - and had no need to eat for a short time. But it always needed water, so it didn't take long for Du Feiya, who was in charge of doing odd jobs, to receive his first physical job - carrying water for the dragon.

It could have easily made a return trip in a few minutes by flapping its wings. But it had no intention of moving. Looking at its infatuated look, Du Feiya could understand why. In this situation, unless it couldn't reach the chess piece, it would be extremely difficult to move its buttocks even a little bit.

It was because Li Yin's physique was different from that of an ordinary person, and he could endure long periods of sleeplessness, which allowed him to persist in this almost endless sparring. If it were me, I would have died of a sudden death a long time ago, right? Du Feiya thought.

About half an hour later, she came back from the lake with a bucket of water and came to the dragon. As soon as she put down the bucket, the dragon didn't even glance at her, but stretched out a claw, grabbed a bucket, put it to his mouth, raised his head, and poured out the bucket of water that Du Feiya had taken a lot of effort to carry back.

Then it reached back with its claws, dropped the bucket, grabbed the second bucket, and did the same thing.

In the blink of an eye, the two full buckets of water were gone.

"Come again, come again." The giant dragon stretched out its claws, licked the back of its claws with its tongue, and said with a lingering feeling.

Du Feiya smiled bitterly, said nothing, bent down, picked up two more barrels, and set out on the journey again. She was already very familiar with this process. Generally speaking, it would take three round trips like the one just now to satisfy the dragon's drinking water requirement...

After carrying the water, she caught fish and made a fire by the river, and cooked a meal for herself. Although the dragon didn't need to eat, that didn't mean she didn't need to eat either. In fact, Du Feiya only did three things every day: eating, sleeping, and carrying water for the dragon. It is worth mentioning that perhaps because he was worried that she would be too tired from carrying water frequently, Li Yin once told her that his special physique not only didn't require him to sleep and rest, but also didn't require him to eat, so she didn't need to prepare his share when preparing food.

But she still prepared double the food, just like before. Because when Li Yin said he didn't need it, he still ate it with great pleasure. So she guessed that even if eating was not necessary for this special human, it could still be considered a kind of enjoyment - if the food was to his taste.

When she thought of this, she couldn't help but feel regretful again. Her dimensional bag contained various household and travel essentials, such as various condiments, but now they were all confiscated by the dragon along with the dimensional bag, and she didn't know where they were put to collect dust...

Du Feiya returned to the chessboard and handed a grilled fish to Li Yin.

As expected, Li Yin's attention immediately shifted from the chess game in front of him to the steaming hot grilled fish in his hand. He opened his lips slightly, exhaled to dissipate the temperature on the surface of the fish, and gobbled it up.

Seeing him eating with relish, Du Feiya couldn't help but smile. She carefully told him to eat slowly while placing a wooden cup filled with water on the ground beside him.

"Hey, hey," the dragon grabbed the chess piece with one claw and knocked it against the ground, making a deafening sound, "You lousy chess player, stop being distracted and play chess!"

The title of "Bad Chess Player" was successfully "given back" to the human Lein by the Sapphire Dragon Saga when the score between the two sides reached nine to one.

Li Yin had no power to refute this, the facts spoke for themselves. His only response was to wipe the sweat off his forehead, stare at the chessboard with a red face, and rack his brains to try to win back a point in the eleventh game - although this effort to maintain his dignity ultimately ended in failure.

"Why aren't people allowed to eat?" Li Yin picked out a few fish bones with his tongue, spitting them aside, and said dissatisfiedly.

He only told Du Feiya the secret that he didn't need to eat through the Dark Elf language. The dragon didn't know about it - if it kept its promise and didn't use telepathy to make trouble at that time - so he gave his reasons openly and confidently.

"Are you afraid that if I'm full, you won't be able to beat me?"

"Humph, nonsense," the dragon snorted coldly, "How dare a poor chess player with a score of 18 to 3 speak so brazenly here?"

"This dragon just doesn't want to waste his precious time on a lowly and stupid bug like you."

However, she did not urge him again, as if she did not want Li Yin to have an excuse after losing the game. She stared at Li Yin impatiently, her tail flicking behind her body like a ribbon of light. As the image of Li Yin eating became more and more vivid in her eyes, she unconsciously stuck out her tongue and licked the corner of her mouth.

187. Disagreement

"Hey," she stared at Li Yin for a while, then suddenly turned her head and glared at Du Feiya with her huge vertical pupils, "Dark elf bug, why do you only prepare food for it and not for your master——"

It paused, emphasizing, "I—prepare food?"

Du Feiya was suddenly stunned.

She had indeed thought about this issue, and the result was that if the dragon didn't tell her, she wouldn't ask.

Because, considering the size of the dragon, its food intake must be a good indicator of its water intake. And preparing food is much more troublesome than carrying water.

But this reason cannot be stated directly.

She paused for a moment, then gave the answer she had prepared long ago for this moment.

"Because," she answered very respectfully, even with a hint of trepidation, "Respected Lady Shaga, this is just the despicable eating habits of human and dark elf bugs. I don't know if the food processed in this way is in line with the appetite of the great dragon race."

"Okay," the giant dragon Saga pursed her lips and answered somewhat uninterested.

After saying this, it stopped looking at Du Feiya and shifted its attention back to the chess game in front of it.

But the sound of Li Yinji eating became clearer in the quiet void.

So after a while, the dragon raised its head again and looked at Li Yin.

"Hey," it shouted to Li Yin again, "Human bug, your chess skills aren't that good either."

Li Yin was slightly stunned. He didn't understand why the dragon would bring up this topic at this time.

However, as the old saying goes, facts speak louder than words, and there is no need to bluff now. So he swallowed the fish in his mouth whole and said everything:

"Of course, especially..." He paused, "compared to the respected Lord Shaga."

"In fact, the reason I defeated you the first time was because I had the advantage in the endgame. Our chess skills were completely different."

"At least you have some self-awareness." Although the dragon's words were not polite at all, there was a hint of tenderness in his huge pupils that were shining with light, and he was no longer so harsh.

"In that case," it stretched its neck, leaned back slightly, and yawned loudly, and the sky seemed to be swept by a gust of wind, "Let's stop here today. I am also tired."

"I'm going to go eat something. You two should rest well and wait for the next summons from this dragon."

"Yes, yes!" Li Yin was overjoyed and nodded repeatedly.

In fact, he had been looking forward to this moment for a long time.

Unlike Julong, he was not so obsessed with military chess, and after a long time, he felt that this kind of brain activity without any creativity was inevitably monotonous and boring. In the world above, generally speaking, he could not stand it after three games with others. The game with Julong, because he was crushed from the beginning, actually aroused his interest in facing challenges. He persisted with high morale until the eighth game and won his first victory, and then he stopped a little.

But that was the end of it. After that, he returned to the same lazy mood as in the earthly world. Of course, unlike in the earthly world, he could not just give up, nor could he completely give up. If the dragon noticed that he was not good at chess and had a bad attitude towards the game, it would probably become disrespectful to the dragon itself, and then he would get furious, which would not be good. Therefore, he could only suppress his impatience and force himself to continue to concentrate on thinking and calculating. As time passed, the boredom became stronger, and resisting the boredom and forcing himself to concentrate became more and more painful...

On the other side, Du Feiya, who was standing aside, was slightly surprised. She didn't know chess, but based on the win-loss relationship between the two sides, and even the first game that ended at the speed of light, shouldn't Julong have noticed that Li Yin's chess skills were not very good? To be honest, Du Feiya was quite surprised at the time. Because Li Yin had easily defeated Julong in the endgame before, she thought that Li Yin's chess skills were far better than Julong's.

In short, why did the dragon only realize it after three days and three nights? Du Feiya could only explain that the two sides had different concepts of time. Because the length of their lives was completely different, she sighed softly, maybe one round and twenty-one rounds were no different for the dragon, just a short moment in their long lives.

Or maybe... another idea suddenly popped up in her mind: Is this dragon too bored here? So even if the opponent is not very good, can he keep playing with him?

"What should we eat?" The sound of the giant dragon smacking its lips interrupted Du Feiya's thoughts. She came to her senses and found that the giant dragon was muttering while turning back to look at the two of them meaningfully.

"What a pity," it said with some regret, "I have to meditate in seclusion, so I can't go to the snack room."

Li Yin was suddenly stunned.

Serves you right, he thought to himself, you trapped us here. Thinking of this, he suddenly wanted to follow the dragon to see if it would sneak into the snack room. If it really sneaked into the snack room and opened the hole, wouldn't he be able to follow it out with a clear conscience? Secondly, even if his hiding skills were not very good and he was discovered by the dragon halfway, he could still use the threat of catching it to frighten it and destroy its hope of stealing snacks...

Li Yin was daydreaming happily, then he came to his senses, glanced at the huge shadow covering the ground, then raised his head in the direction of the shadow and saw the huge body of the dragon standing like a mountain under the rock dome. Faced with the huge disparity in strength between the enemy and us, he dejectedly gave up his idea.

For a moment, he even felt a little sympathy for those blood-sucking and flesh-eating scarlet spiders. Looking at the giant dragon's gleaming teeth and its huge body, Li Yin couldn't help but wonder with lingering fear, how many scarlet spiders would it have to eat to be satisfied with its size. It was a miracle that the tribe of those small spiders could survive until now without dying out.

"The elf bugs taste pretty good," the dragon suddenly raised his eyebrows, stretched out his shiny tongue, licked the edge of his mouth, as if savoring the taste.

Its words frightened Du Feiya so much that his whole body was covered with chills.

"I wonder what human bugs taste like?" Its eyes rolled and fell on Li Yin again.

Now even Li Yin's hair stood on end.

He stared at the dragon with wide eyes, shock and fear, and his body involuntarily took a few steps back.

"Haha," a sly smile suddenly appeared on the dragon's crystal clear, huge head with prominent horns.

It turned its head, exerted a little force on its four legs, flapped its two huge crystal wings, and soared into the air amid the howling wind.

"Don't worry," it said in a lazy, triumphant voice from high in the sky, "I will not bite my own servants."

………………

Li Yin and Du Feiya stood there in a daze, staring blankly at its figure gradually disappearing into the distance.

"Are you okay?" After a while, Du Feiya came to her senses, ran towards Li Yin and asked with concern.

"What?" Li Yin asked blankly, confused.

"You've been raining for three days straight."

"Oh, I'm fine," Li Yin touched the back of his head and blinked, "I'm just a little sleepy."

He shook his head and looked around.

The ghoul's instinct prompted him to look for any big pits around, but unfortunately the pits that were previously blasted by the dragon had disappeared long before the game between them started again. Li Yin guessed that the dragon had repaired it in advance. The "chessboard" was now very flat and boundless. Next time before fighting with that guy, he must let it dig a big pit for him, he thought.

So he lay down on the spot, resting his head on the cold rock, and said to Du Feiya, "I'll take a nap."

After saying this, he closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

When he woke up again, he didn't know how much time had passed. He supported himself with his hands and straightened his upper body. He felt refreshed. The three consecutive days of sleepless games seemed like a dream.

Du Feiya, who was meditating beside a statue, sensed that he had woken up, and opened her eyes, telling him that he had probably slept for a whole day. During this time, although the dragon had asked them to "wait for its call at any time", it did not show up again.

The two of them collected some mushrooms on the ground nearby, then came to the lake to wash them, make a fire, and cook. After a simple meal, they lay on their backs on the ground, glancing from time to time at the nearby lake, the surrounding ground, the rock dome above their heads, or each other, and were in a daze for a while.

"Li Yin," Du Feiya said after a while, "Did you lose to... Shaka on purpose?"

"What?" Li Yin was stunned. He didn't expect Du Feiya to ask him this question.

"I say, are you afraid of angering the dragon after defeating it in a row?"

Li Yin was stunned again.

"No," he answered simply. He didn't expect Du Feiya to think so.

Although admitting that he was not as good as Long Da in front of the pretty girl would spoil the mood, he still chose to confess without hesitation: "I just simply can't beat him."

"Didn't I say before that when I was with the dragon, the reason I was able to beat it in the gambling fight was because it was a dead end game and I had a huge advantage."

"That's good," Du Feiya breathed a sigh of relief, her eyes flickering. "I was just worried that you were losing to it on purpose. If we keep losing to it too many times, it won't be a good choice. It might lose interest in us completely."

Li Yin nodded, suddenly realizing.

Then he looked at Du Feiya's eyes which were still flickering, as if thinking about something.

"But the fact that I lost too many times doesn't change, does it?" He smiled, knowing that her worries were not over yet, "whether I did it intentionally or unintentionally."

Du Feiya nodded, a bitter smile appeared on her face, but then a look of comfort appeared in her bright eyes: "But you have tried your best. This is not something we can decide."

"Don't worry," Li Yin stretched out a hand, as if to soothe her worries.

"In fact, I have considered the consequences of losing too much before."

"But," he paused.

Du Feiya waited for a while, and seeing that he didn't say anything else, she gave him a puzzled look. At the same time, she opened her lips and said softly, "Hmm?"

Li Yin kept it a secret, with a hint of joyful smile on his face: "Didn't you notice?"

The doubt in Du Feiya's violet eyes became more and more intense.

He cleared his throat twice:

“Although my actual chess skills are certainly not as good as its, I have been steadily improving.”

"Haven't you noticed that I'm lasting longer and longer in each round?"