“No!”
Mo Baiwei shouted instinctively, then reached for the tail behind her.
Fortunately, the tail was still there.
Mo Baiwei breathed a subconscious sigh of relief.
At this moment, she was lying on the ground with a pained expression.
The intense physical pain and mental torment continued to squeeze her, making her feel an unbearable agony.
Francis, however, suppressed his smile and looked at Mo Baiwei in silence, seemingly lost in thought.
Seeing that Francis had stopped moving and was no longer attacking her, Mo Baiwei felt a slight relief and forced herself to stop reminiscing about the past.
Gradually, the Queen and the Doctor faded away from her, and the real world reappeared before her eyes.
Having regained a bit of her sanity, Mo Baiwei shakily propped up her upper body with her arms, staring warily at Francis.
‘This is a good chance; I must seize it!’
‘Victory or defeat depends on this one move!’
Mo Baiwei’s right hand had already touched the Radiant Throne.
Looking at the dazed Francis, her expression steeled as she lunged her longsword toward him.
Francis, who was deep in thought, felt a cold sword intent sweeping toward him.
He instinctively ducked, avoiding the Radiant Throne’s attack.
Immediately after, he stopped contemplating and looked at Mo Baiwei with a serious expression, as if he were facing a formidable enemy.
“Princess,” Francis said, a trace of solemnity appearing on his youthful face.
He felt the mana and stamina within his body constantly leaking from his wounds.
Mo Baiwei noticed the change in his tone and title, and she couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow slightly.
“What? Do you have something else you want to say?”
Mo Baiwei asked with some confusion.
“No, it was probably just a guess of mine.”
Francis thought for a moment and added, “I hope you will go all out, Princess, and show your full strength.”
“And how do you know I haven’t been using my full strength?”
Hearing this, Mo Baiwei felt curious, but more than that, she felt humiliated.
She had clearly used every trick in the book, yet this guy still thought she wasn’t going all out!
‘Does he not know what a monster I am?’
‘I can use magic, and my close combat skills aren’t weak. I’m a complete all-rounder.’
Mo Baiwei thought indignantly, with only one thought in her mind.
‘I’m not convinced! This is so frustrating!’
‘He’s looking down on me too much. How confident is he that he can humiliate me like this?’
As Mo Baiwei adjusted her breathing, Francis also became serious and took a stance.
Mo Baiwei looked at Francis, and then the blade of her sword trembled, releasing a majestic aura in all directions.
“[Sweeping Qi].”
Mo Baiwei held the Radiant Throne, looking at Francis with a grave expression.
Facing such a troublesome enemy, she planned to stop holding back her trump cards.
Mo Baiwei had found this set of sword techniques in some ruins.
It was said to be a sword technique of the Ancient Empire.
After learning it for a while, she hadn’t found any connection to the Ancient Empire.
‘I might as well just call it the Nameless Sword Technique!’
Mo Baiwei held the Radiant Throne and thrust her sword at Francis.
Francis seemed to be avoiding something, quickly retreating to dodge the move.
“[Moon Sweep]!”
Without hesitation, Mo Baiwei used the next move of the continuous sword technique.
Her sword suddenly shifted from a straight thrust to a horizontal slash, a crescent-shaped strike chasing after Francis.
At this moment, Francis still didn’t dare to touch the Radiant Throne and dodged again.
Seeing Francis refuse to attack and only dodge, Mo Baiwei was about to explode with anger.
“What are you doing? Why aren’t you fighting? Where is your sword?”
Mo Baiwei questioned Francis, feeling irritated.
She was enduring the pain that felt like it was tearing her apart, fighting with everything she had, only for her opponent to stop fighting her.
She was truly angry!
Hearing this, Francis looked at her with an odd expression, then pointed at a pile of rust on the ground.
“My sword is right here.”
“That turned into rust? Why was your sword so flimsy?”
Mo Baiwei clearly didn’t believe him.
“Do you really not know?!”
Francis said irritably.
“You’re holding the Radiant Throne and you’ve activated an [Anti-Magic Field]. Without magic, I can only engage in close combat. How am I supposed to fight you?”
Seeing how pale Francis was — clearly something was wrong — Mo Baiwei couldn’t help but feel curious.
“You actually recognize the Radiant Throne?”
“Tsk, why wouldn’t I? Giving the Radiant Throne to you is simply a waste of a heavenly treasure!”
Francis’s voice carried a hint of anger.
He felt that the elf in front of him was wielding such a precious weapon as if it were a wooden stick.
She had no technique at all; only the sword techniques she had just displayed were somewhat decent.
He had personally seen the owner of the Radiant Throne go on a killing spree in the Lich’s territory.
The murderous aura had been high enough to pierce the sky.
And now, seeing this gold-and-silver interwoven longsword again, the holder of this sword must be that elf’s…
However, none of that was important.
What mattered was that the Radiant Throne possessed the [Wither] attribute.
Anyone harmed by it would fall into a [Wither] state, just like Francis’s sword, rapidly aging and decaying.
But because the [Wither] attribute had not been fully triggered in Mo Baiwei’s hands, the strike on Francis only made him feel a wave of weakness and did not strip away his life force.
He hadn’t recognized the Radiant Throne at first, until he felt his stamina behaving abnormally while he was striking Mo Baiwei.
“How do you know about the Radiant Throne?”
Mo Baiwei cared deeply about this question because, in her memory, only her mother and she had ever owned this sword.
It was impossible for anyone else to have used it.
And she clearly had no memory of Francis.
“I’ve seen it,” Francis replied.
“In your mother’s hands.”
“My mother?”
“Your mother was much better at using it than you. In her hands, this sword could take on 100 enemies. As for you, you seem to have absolutely no idea how to use it.”
Mo Baiwei was slightly stunned, then she reacted.
“You know my mother?!”
“I don’t know her, but I’ve seen her. You look a lot like your mother,” Francis said.
He wasn’t lying; he had no connection with Mo Baiwei’s mother, having only seen the scene of that elf slaughtering everyone.
“Back when the Holy Church and the Liches went to war, the two armies were in a standoff. Then, an elf who looks just like you charged into the battlefield and slaughtered the Lich army.”
Francis spoke calmly, as if these matters were of no concern to him.
His voice only hesitated slightly when he mentioned that elf.
Listening to him, Mo Baiwei hesitated.
Should she continue to chase and slash Francis?
Francis likely couldn’t do anything to her for the time being, but she was also heavily injured, and it would be difficult to engage in a battle of attrition.
The [Anti-Magic Field] was still active.
She could settle this quickly within this timeframe.
But…
As she listened to Francis’s words, a blurry figure appeared in Mo Baiwei’s mind.
That was her mother.
She didn’t have much of an impression of her mother, only that her mother’s embrace was very warm.
‘Have I ever truly known her…’
Mo Baiwei really wanted to continue swinging her sword.
Her intuition told her that Francis was stalling for time, but another voice in her mind told her that since Francis knew part of her mother’s past, she shouldn’t attack.
She was curious.
In such an environment, the hesitation caused by curiosity was enough to change the situation.
Francis then changed the subject, no longer talking about Mo Baiwei’s mother.
“Princess, you must be curious why I know so much about you.”
Francis looked at Mo Baiwei, a smile forming on the corners of his mouth as he took a step forward.
“Why?”
Mo Baiwei asked.
She really did care about this problem.
She had tried so many times, and even an Advanced Detection Scroll couldn’t detect anything.
How had she been discovered?
“Because, you are very suspicious.”
Francis pressed forward step by step.
“I investigated all the guards in the east of the city. They all stated that they frequently saw a black-haired youth coming to the forest where the accident occurred.”
“After that, I checked the residency records of everyone in Caven City. It turned out that you live in the south of the city, not the east.”
“Later, I went to the forest to investigate. After recording the lingering aura and mana, I planned to go to the library to check some information. There is only one library in Caven City.”
Francis stopped three or four paces away from Mo Baiwei.
“And? What does that prove?”
Mo Baiwei was feeling a bit less confident now, but she had to force herself to stay calm.
At the same time, she held her longsword horizontally, guarding against Francis.
“I found a hair in the Encyclopedia of Magic.”
Francis spoke slowly, pulling a sealed black hair from his pocket.
He stared at Mo Baiwei, observing the changes in her expression.
“Are you blind? That’s black hair. Mine is pale gold.”
Mo Baiwei retorted, grabbing a tuft of her own hair with her other hand to show Francis.
“True, but I conducted an investigation of your residence.”
Francis was very confident, his face lit with a relaxed smile.
“Remember the previous lockdown? All the residents investigated at that time were recorded.”
“And I checked. The residence that originally belonged to a black-haired youth was occupied by a pale-blonde girl during the investigation. As for who that girl is, I don’t think I need to say more, do I?”
“The ring on your hand can conceal your aura very well, but that’s only for ordinary people. For those of us who have worked in the core of the Holy Church for many years, we are hundreds or thousands of times more sensitive to other races than normal people.”
“And on the day at the library, there was an Alchemist checking out books with you. This ring should be her alchemical creation.”
Hearing this, Mo Baiwei’s mind felt like it exploded.
‘Is this guy Sherlock Holmes? How did he link everything together?’
‘I remember concealing it very well.’
“Tsk.”
Mo Baiwei clicked her tongue, feeling a bit impatient.
Her attention had been drawn away by this guy, and the duration of the [Anti-Magic Field] was almost up.
“[Sweeping Qi]!”
An aura spread out as Mo Baiwei focused her mind again and used the sword technique.
“It seems I was right.”
Seeing Mo Baiwei raise her sword again, Francis retreated slightly.
“Princess, you are truly not proficient at all in concealing your identity and aura. Although others might not see it, someone like me can recognize the aura of elven royalty with just a sniff.”
Francis spoke with an intoxicated look, as if he were obsessed.
“The mere thought of your scent makes me uncontrollably excited. That fresh and sweet fragrance truly makes one reluctant to leave.”
“You’re disgusting.”
Mo Baiwei frowned, raising the Radiant Throne and lunging it toward Francis.
Updates will be stable between 6:00 PM and 7:00 PM in the future.
Since everyone has things to do in the morning, I will update in the evening from now on.
It is perfect for a quick read before or after a meal—except for double updates.
I hope everyone will give me lots of feedback!