Ye Xingyao’s mind went blank for an instant. Then, a nearly tangible fury shot up from the soles of her feet to the top of her head, burning her ears hot and making her fingertips tremble.
“Ilike—!”
She subconsciously lunged forward half a step, her palm already gripping the last remaining Space Stone in the hidden pocket of her skirt. Starlight Mana surged through her body like ignited gunpowder.
‘Kill him, save Xiaoyue.’
That thought exploded in her mind, bringing with it a nearly sadistic pleasure.
The Spatial Stone’s Severing Cut could even bisect a Demonic Giant Bear; she didn’t believe that old bastard Ilike’s neck was harder than a bear’s!
But her steps came to an abrupt halt because Ilike turned his head, his violet eyes burning with a chilling madness.
One hand was firmly gripping Yi Shiyue, while the other pressed against the back of her neck. Moon-white Mana light coiled around the white-haired girl’s neck like a poisonous snake—with just a little force—
“Lady Star Elf, I suggest you don’t do anything rash.”
Ilike’s voice was hoarse, like sandpaper grating, and a twisted grin curled at the corner of his mouth.
“If you don’t care whether she lives or dies, feel free to gamble.”
“Of course, before I return to the Elven Forest and get what I want, I’ll ensure she comes to no harm.”
Ilike’s reasoning was simple: since things had already been exposed, and he couldn’t take his loyalists to stand outside the Elven Forest independently, even if he returned to the Elven Forest, he no longer had any foothold there.
So might as well go all the way as the villain, take a “hostage,” and that way he’d still have leverage to bargain with.
As for the choice of “hostage,” he had agonized during the battle. He couldn’t defeat Shalun or Yilaila at all, Kelisiti was unsuitable—she could only threaten Shalun at best. After that Blood Elf displayed her terrifying magic, even though he knew the spell must have its limitations, he didn’t dare to act rashly against her for the time being. And his daughter, Yina… though he was reluctant to admit it, there was some part of him that dared not face her.
In the end, the choice was naturally the closest one to the Star Elf, and also a Moon Elf girl—Yi Shiyue.
Ye Xingyao bit her silver teeth and forcefully halted the magic she had been charging.
‘Is this old bastard crazy?! Does he even know what he’s doing?!’
Though anger was about to drown her, she still retained a sliver of reason—the most important quality as a hunter.
That expression on Ilike’s face… that was the look of a true desperado, preferring to shatter jade rather than preserve a tile.
Could the Space Stone scrap in her hand deliver a one-hit kill? She didn’t know.
What if she missed? What if that old bastard dragged Xiaoyue to the grave with him before dying?
She dared not gamble. Her star-blue eyes locked onto Yi Shiyue’s face.
The white-haired girl was held in front of Ilike, her pale purple eyes unusually calm in the night.
She seemed to feel Ye Xingyao’s gaze, slightly raised her eyes, her eyelashes fluttered gently, and then—she blinked.
There was no panic in that gaze, no fear, only a calmness that Ye Xingyao knew to the bone, as if saying, ‘Xiaoyao, I’m fine. No problem for now.’
Ye Xingyao’s chest heaved violently, her knuckles turning white from gripping too tightly.
“…Fine.”
She forced that word out from between her teeth.
At the same time, a Demon Wolf from the side lunged at a young Elf who had fallen to the ground. The Elf was so terrified she forgot how to use magic and screamed while hugging her head.
Without even turning her head, Ye Xingyao brushed her left hand against her skirt, shattering an Ice Attribute Magic Stone in her palm. Starlight Mana guided the cold current as it shot out—
whoosh!
A streak of azure cold light cut through the night sky, precisely as if it had eyes, entering through the Demon Wolf’s wide-open maw and exiting through the back of its head.
The Demon Wolf howled in agony. Though it wasn’t killed by that magic, it bought the Elf time to escape.
“Everyone, fall back!”
Yilaila’s voice enveloped everyone. She hovered in midair, her silver-white hair turned deathly pale by the arcs of lightning.
But Ye Xingyao could clearly see that the High Priestess’s fingertips were trembling slightly—a sign of MP depletion.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Ye Xingyao quickly sidled up to Yilaila and lowered her voice. “Don’t provoke him first. That old bastard Ilike has gone mad. If you push him too hard, he’ll do anything.” She paused, her star-blue eyes sweeping over the Elf warriors who were retreating while fighting, speaking rapidly.
“Stabilize him first. Get everyone to a safe place. As for Xiaoyue… I’ll figure something out.”
Yilaila turned her head, a flicker of weary gratitude in her pale purple eyes.
“…Alright.”
She took a deep breath, turned toward Ilike’s direction, and her voice regained the dignity of a Priestess.
“Ilike, since you claim you want to protect Yi Shiyue, then leave here first. After we deal with the Beast Tide, we’ll settle this back in the Elven Forest!”
Ilike let out a cold laugh, didn’t answer, but tightened his grip on Yi Shiyue a little more.
‘Protect?’
‘Does this bullshit look like protection?’
Ye Xingyao cursed Ilike’s ancestors down eighteen generations in her heart, but forced herself to look away and redirect her attention to the battlefield in front.
The dark mass of monsters was closing in. Though Fumi’er’s Blood Blade Storm had cleared a vacuum zone, more monsters were surging forward.
Suddenly, Yilaila grabbed Ye Xingyao’s wrist. Her palm was ice cold, but her grip was astonishingly strong.
“Lady Star Elf.”
Yilaila’s voice was extremely low, almost drowned out by the surrounding noise, but her pale purple eyes burned with a resolute light. Facing Ye Xingyao, she showed a pleading expression.
“Do you have any way… to destroy the Guardian Formation?”
“Huh?!”
Ye Xingyao thought she had misheard. She stared wide-eyed at the usually composed High Priestess, her mind buzzing.
‘Destroy the Guardian Formation? Is this woman crazy?! That thing is the Elven Forest’s thousand-year barrier. If it blows up, won’t we all be exposed to the Wasteland to feed the monsters and beasts?’
“You… what did you say?”
Yilaila bit her lip, her gaze fixed on the pitch-black tide of monsters, her voice carrying a nearly cruel calm. She paused, her chest heaving violently.
“Luring these things into the village will only increase casualties. The Elven Forest… I’m afraid it can’t withstand a Beast Tide of this scale.”
“Rather than waiting for death, we could use the Guardian Formation as a weapon to kill the majority of the monsters. Maybe then… we’ll have a chance of survival.”
“Humans can build their cities on the Wasteland. There’s no reason we Elves can’t.”
Ye Xingyao opened her mouth, momentarily unable to find a rebuttal.
She turned to look at Shalun. The library keeper was standing on a slightly higher ground not far away, her dark green cloak billowing without wind.
She heard Yilaila’s words, slowly turned her head, a complex flash in her emerald eyes, and then silently nodded.
The meaning was clear: she supported this decision.
Ye Xingyao’s mind raced. The essence of the Guardian Formation was a spatial maze, composed of countless Space Stones, containing a terrifyingly vast amount of Mana within.
If she could trigger that Mana to explode instantly… the power would probably only be limited by her imagination.
“I… I should be able to try.”
She licked her dry lips, a sharp glint flashing in her star-blue eyes.
“My Starlight Mana can infiltrate the formation’s Magicka Circuit. Combined with the Space Stones, theoretically I can detonate the energy at those nodes.”
“But there are two prerequisites.”
She held up two fingers.
“First, we must retreat to a place near the inner part of the Elven Forest within the Guardian Formation, so the explosion won’t affect our allies.”
“Second, I need some Mana from the Space Stones as a ‘detonator’ to trigger a chain reaction throughout the entire formation.”
But as she said this, her face fell. She reached into her small satchel.
“But all I have left are scraps. The Mana reserves aren’t enough to complete an explosion of this scale.”
Yilaila’s face also darkened. Shalun adjusted her non-existent glasses, her emerald eyes scanning the battlefield. Suddenly, a meaningful smile curled at the corner of her mouth.
“Then maybe things aren’t over yet.”
She said softly, suddenly clasping her hands together. In an instant, countless emerald vines and specks of light exploded outward like a tsunami, building a massive barrier dozens of meters high in front of the monsters.
Those vines grew wildly, intertwining, emitting a dazzling emerald light, temporarily halting the monsters’ advance.
“Shalun?!”
Yilaila exclaimed. But Shalun didn’t look at her. Instead, she turned her head, her gaze landing precisely on a girl at the edge of the crowd—the one with beige hair who was shrinking at the very back, trying hard to reduce her presence and not cause trouble.
“Kelisiti.”
Her voice pierced the chaos of battle, gentle but commanding.
“I think this decision should be yours.”
Kelisiti jolted. She had been crouching behind a tree with her head in her hands, her mind full of ‘What do I do, what do I do, am I going to die?’ When Shalun called her, it was as if she suddenly remembered something. She hurriedly pulled an object from her bosom.
It was… a palm-sized transparent crystal, glowing with a soft, pure white light in the night. Clearly, it was a Space Stone!
Kelisiti scrambled out from behind the tree, her beige hair a mess in the wind. As she ran, she shouted:
“M-Miss Ye Xingyao! This! Can this work?!”
She ran up to Ye Xingyao and opened her palm. Under the light of the flying magic, the Space Stone shimmered with a mesmerizing luster.
Yilaila’s pupils contracted sharply.
She looked at Kelisiti, then at Shalun, and finally understood the meaning behind the latter’s smile—
So that’s how it was.
Shalun had entrusted that precious Space Stone to this seemingly most inconspicuous, most clumsy girl for safekeeping.
Of course, they couldn’t have foreseen this. Subconsciously, they had even forgotten about it. But now, this idle move had finally come in handy.
Was it coincidence, or… simply too fortunate?
Ye Xingyao’s eyes lit up instantly.
She snatched the Space Stone, and the moment her fingertips touched the crystal’s surface, she felt the vast and pure Mana fluctuation within—at least ten times stronger than her scraps!
“It works! It definitely works!”
“This quality… it’s more than enough!”
Kelisiti flinched at her somewhat excited reaction, shrinking her neck, but then gathered her courage and looked hesitantly at Yilaila.
“Um, High Priestess…”
Her voice was as light as if trembling.
“The Guardian Formation… really… is there really no other way?”
Yilaila was silent.
She had certainly considered the question in Kelisiti’s heart. But now, should they really hold onto the Guardian Formation and let her people fight these vicious monsters with their lives?
She turned to look at the Elf warriors retreating while fighting, at the young faces stained with blood and exhaustion, yet still gritting their teeth and persevering.
She raised her hand and released a bolt of lightning, turning several Demon Wolves that tried to break through the line into charcoal, easing some pressure.
Then, she nodded firmly.
“Exchanging a shackle that binds the Elves for the safety of our people—isn’t that a good thing?”