“I have nowhere to go…. The Southern Continent has no elves, then I’ll go to the Southern Continent, anywhere will do.” Leti answered softly after some thought.
This was exactly what Lu Qiuchen wanted to hear. She gestured for Leti to rest her arm on her shoulder. Feeling cheerful, Lu Qiuchen gave a light laugh and said, “Hold tight, let’s go!”
A flash of white light, and the two figures vanished from the spot.
After some time.
High up at ten thousand meters, a purple-skinned figure sat atop a silver dragon’s back, staring blankly at the rapidly retreating scenery.
After nearly two hours of flying, Leti’s mood had calmed; she no longer shouted excitedly at the unfamiliar sights.
Considering she might not be accustomed to the surface environment, the silver dragon thoughtfully built a thick ice house for her, shielding her from the scorching sunlight.
“After my mother died, my sister failed to become queen, and our clan was swallowed up by other clans in the city. I have no home now. Other cities and clans won’t accept me either. They would surely hand me over to appease Red Moon City…”
This was Leti’s earlier explanation when Lu Qiuchen asked why the girl wanted to go to the surface.
Lu Qiuchen understood—it was all because of that so-called secret, wasn’t it? At first, she had no particular thoughts about this secret, but seeing the Drow fighting over it had sparked some curiosity.
Still, she had more important matters on her mind, so this curiosity wasn’t enough to sway her.
Although Lu Qiuchen had asked for a somewhat high price, she still honored the principle of paying for service and was now thinking about where to place this Drow.
After some consideration, Lu Qiuchen finally decided to temporarily place her in the Knight Kingdom.
The Knight Kingdom was hot with strong sunlight, not suitable for Drow to live in long-term. Moreover, the Drow’s reputation among humans was not good. But since Lu Qiuchen’s target was in the Knight Kingdom, it was best to leave Leti there for the time being. After confirming the situation at the mine, she would find a better place for Leti to stay.
Or she could just bring her back to Dragon Island? The island was covered with towering trees and huge, deep caves that should suit the Drow. But Dragon Island only had two months of warmth a year; temperature could be a problem…
Lu Qiuchen put the matter aside for now. She could already see the coastline in the distance. The mine was nearby. After finding an uninhabited good spot, she signaled Leti and began descending.
Transforming into human form, Lu Qiuchen explained her plan to Leti and led her to a fishing village to hide temporarily.
After renting a room in the village inn, two flashes of white light appeared inside the room, and Leti’s figure appeared.
‘So naive, trusting a stranger so easily… Definitely the type who’d get tricked into bed by a pervert seven times in one night.’
Lu Qiuchen thought to herself, watching Leti showing no fear but instead curiously inspecting the somewhat worn furniture in the room.
This was the only inn in the small village. The room was not clean, and what passed for furniture was just a few patched-up wooden boards used as tables and chairs. The only decent thing was the bed made of hay covered with animal pelts.
In towns of human kingdoms, wooden beds were already common in inns and civilian homes; only the very poor still slept on mats. But in small villages, wooden beds were rare, and most farmers slept on simple pelts. Hay-filled rough cloth or fur beds were also considered precious.
This was because dampness and pests meant hay had to be changed frequently. So having a hay bed in an inn was already a rarity in the countryside.
Lu Qiuchen didn’t bring Leti to such a simple village inn to save a few coins; it was simply because the fishing village near the mine was the only settlement nearby. She was only investigating the mine and would return soon. Leti would have to bear with this place for one night.
But as Lu Qiuchen prepared to leave, Leti called out to her.
Her expression was anxious, eyes brimming with tears as she pleaded pitifully, “Sister Dragon, can you please give me back my little pouch first… There are important things inside…”
Lu Qiuchen was momentarily puzzled, then remembered the secret item the Drow queen had entrusted to Leti.
She took out the small pouch filled with gold coins from her innate space. After pouring out the coins and gems on the surface, Lu Qiuchen saw at the bottom a silver box adorned with intricate patterns.
Seeing Leti’s panicked expression, Lu Qiuchen grew mischievous and shook the small box in front of Leti’s eyes. “Is it this?”
Leti’s eyes brightened, and she quickly nodded. Lu Qiuchen handed over the box.
Leti reached out excitedly, but just as she was about to grab it, Lu Qiuchen suddenly pulled the box back. The Drow girl’s excited expression instantly froze.
“Sister, can you open it and take a look?” Lu Qiuchen teased, blinking at Leti.
“No!” The Drow girl shook her head desperately. Seeing her trembling and on the verge of tears, Lu Qiuchen found her amusing.
Pretending to open the box, Lu Qiuchen made Leti lunge forward, grabbing her hands tightly as she cried, “Mother said it can’t be opened!”
Her curiosity about the box’s contents deepened, but thinking of it as a relic her mother had entrusted to her, a flicker of guilt passed through Lu Qiuchen’s mind. She let go of the box and pulled her hands back.
Leti snatched the box back and hugged it tightly to her chest, eyes wary as she looked at Lu Qiuchen. But then Lu Qiuchen revealed a cone-shaped gem floating in her hand.
Leti stared at the gem in surprise, instinctively opening the box, only to find it empty.
Lu Qiuchen had slightly opened the box earlier and used space magic to transfer the contents to her innate space. Hearing the girl’s cries, she realized this joke had gone too far and hastily produced the gem to give back to Leti.
But the moment she touched the gem, Lu Qiuchen felt something was wrong. A vast energy surged from the gem into her body, causing her mental power to stir turbulently, almost on the verge of rebellion. She quickly threw the strange gem back into the box Leti was holding.
After Leti secured the gem, Lu Qiuchen still felt uneasy about the recent mental disturbance. That gem was too strange. Had she held it any longer, she might have lost her sanity in a short time.
From Leti’s confused expression just now, Lu Qiuchen could tell the Drow girl herself didn’t know the origin of the gem.
Why did the previous Drow queen entrust such a dangerous item to her daughter? The new queen didn’t seem to know its secret either but was searching for it.
There must be a huge secret hidden within. But recalling the strange mental upheaval, Lu Qiuchen’s instincts warned her this matter was extremely dangerous, and she didn’t want to get involved any further.
After what had just happened, Leti’s impression of the great dragon had plummeted. She hid on the hay bed in the room, quietly distressed.
It was all her fault for running off without thinking, forgetting that the box was still in the little pouch, and for trusting the dragon too naively, failing to protect her mother’s secret.
Lu Qiuchen didn’t feel anything was wrong. Any trace of guilt she might have felt was swept away by the earlier shock.
She knew the prank had put Leti on alert, but with more urgent matters to attend to, she didn’t bother arguing. Besides, the transaction had been completed once she brought Leti to the Southern Continent.
Though she didn’t know if the Drow could eat human food, Lu Qiuchen went downstairs and bought two loaves of black bread, a salted fish, and a bowl of bran and meat soup. This was already the best the countryside inn could offer.
Glancing at the sky outside the window, Lu Qiuchen prepared to leave.
When she returned from the mine, if the Drow hadn’t run away and was willing to come with her, she would take her somewhere else.
…
After settling Leti, Lu Qiuchen flew toward the mine’s location.
Flying closer, she found the site similarly concealed by magic arrays, and the positions of the sentries matched perfectly with those in the game, which only reinforced her previous suspicions.
Lu Qiuchen did not know invisibility magic. Unlike the thief profession in the game, who could casually obtain invisibility skills, invisibility in the Eternal World was a high-level, difficult-to-master art.
The dungeon toolkit could only be used within the game, so Lu Qiuchen could only stop at a distance, use disguise magic and the gift “Loael’s Blessing” from Oduryn to transform into a knight, and wait for nightfall and shift change to blend into the changing guards.
Near midnight, Lu Qiuchen saw the relief knights and convoy slowly approaching, but they were extremely vigilant. Not only were they alert to the slightest sound outside, but several knights atop the wagon constantly scanned the entire group, leaving no chance for her to act.
Lu Qiuchen was a bona fide dragon mage, not an assassin. Faced with this, she felt helpless and had to think of another plan.
Watching the group enter the mine camp and hand off with the knights climbing up from inside, with the camp blocking sight, an idea flashed through Lu Qiuchen’s mind as she looked up at the hazy glowing red moon.
‘If I can block the moon and plunge this place into darkness temporarily, I can descend directly from the sky into the mine. With my speed, even the lurking spies with darkvision won’t detect me. Once inside the mining team, I can blend in easily.’
Without hesitation, Lu Qiuchen flew to higher altitude a little distance away and cast a large-scale ice magic spell.
Dark clouds gathered, casting a huge shadow over the land below, obscuring the red moon in the sky.
Taking advantage of the magic’s duration, Lu Qiuchen swiftly flew back above the mine and dove down in human form toward the entrance.
The surrounding scouts, puzzled by the sudden weather change, activated their darkvision and cautiously scanned the area but failed to notice the silhouette streaking rapidly down through the darkened sky.
Lu Qiuchen entered the mine, moving skillfully through the correct tunnel, soon catching up with the knights ahead.
She had intended to blend in, but even underground, the knights remained vigilant, walking with overlapping fields of vision, watching each other and the surroundings.
Lu Qiuchen’s mouth twitched—this was too cautious, leaving no opportunity for her to strike. She had no choice but to follow far behind the group.
Seeing the knights entering the scouts’ surveillance range, Lu Qiuchen still hadn’t found a chance. Resigned, she recalled the mine’s internal layout and prepared to take a risk by teleporting.
Suddenly, a bright idea struck her: ‘Right! I can enter the game, note the coordinates, and teleport directly into the mine’s core!’
Excited by this plan, Lu Qiuchen eagerly returned to the game.
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