“Are you serious?”
The Huang Elf’s smile vanished, and his expression turned serious.
“Yes!” Zi Jiu nodded.
“Overthrowing an entire kingdom… Heh, if you weren’t brought here by Guan Kelai, I would have thrown anyone else out for saying such things.” The Huang Elf shook his head.
“But even with Guan Kelai here, I don’t quite believe you. Not unless you tell me who exactly is standing behind you?”
“You don’t need to know that,” Zi Jiu said. “You only need to consider whether to cooperate or not. Or how about this: what do you need in order to work with us?”
“I need you to prove your strength. Moreover, I cannot agree to this on my own; I need to contact my superior.”
Hearing Zi Jiu speak so frankly, the Huang Elf believed her a bit more.
“How should we prove it then? And who is this superior of yours?” Zi Jiu continued to ask.
“Proving it is easy!” The Huang Elf laughed. “Three people. I’ll give you three days. Take them all out, and I will recognize that you have the strength to cooperate with us.”
“As for our superior, you should have heard his name: the Commander of the Earth Dragon Army, Damian!”
“Damian?” Yun Ruoxi looked at Guan Kelai, a hint of inquiry in her eyes.
“In the kingdom of the Huang Elfs, there is a powerful creature called the Earth Dragon. It is one of the means they use to counter the Tree God Guards,” Guan Kelai explained to them in a low voice.
“So the Commander of the Earth Dragon Army is a top-tier figure in the Military Headquarters. But as far as I know, Damian isn’t quite the Commander yet; he only manages one of the auxiliary units and has two Earth Dragons under his command.”
“But he’s still a formidable person,” Yun Che replied softly.
「It’s all connected, holy crap」
「So the person we met at the Goblins’ place has such a big background」
「If he’s not the Commander, why is Lao Lin calling him that?」
「If he doesn’t call him Commander, should he call him Vice-Commander? No political awareness at all!」
***
Night fell.
The streets of Tree God City were still bustling, with blue lanterns gathered together like clusters of stars. An ordinary carriage slowly drove through the streets.
Guan Kelai wore a hood that concealed most of his body, holding the reins as he sat at the front of the carriage. From inside the carriage, a language he couldn’t understand at all drifted out.
The Language of Devils!
“What do you say? Should we do as the Huang Elf said and kill these three people for them?”
Zi Jiu slapped a piece of paper with names, identities, and locations onto the table in the middle of the group, asking seriously.
“None of these three people are in the King City. Not only are they far apart, but they are all people of high status and power.” Yun Che shook his head.
“The Huang Elf giving such harsh requirements is clearly just because they don’t want us to succeed.”
“That’s not necessarily true,” Yun Ruoxi interjected.
“After all, we are talking about the major matter of overthrowing the entire kingdom. To them, if we can’t even accomplish this small task, then there’s no necessity for cooperation.”
“Sister is right!” Aili nodded.
“Even if your sister farted, you’d say it makes sense!” Anvil whispered from the side. He was likely just complaining, but he hadn’t expected Aili to hear him.”
The blonde girl immediately delivered a headbutt, slamming into Anvil’s chest with a thud. He didn’t feel a thing, but Aili clutched her head, whimpering as she shrank back into Yun Ruoxi’s embrace.
A Combatant’s Physical Fitness is much stronger than that of an ordinary Star Energy User.
“You two!” Zi Jiu looked at them helplessly, then analyzed seriously: “However, Xiao Xi is right. What we are planning is, after all, a rebellion. Even the Huang Elfs probably have to weigh the consequences of failure and a fight to the death with the Green Elfs.”
“Then this must be done!” Kaos rubbed his smooth chin, saying with some displeasure, “But I really hate this feeling of killing people for others.”
Aside from Yun Ruoxi, who was busy comforting Aili, the others all nodded in unison upon hearing this. Killing for others reminded them of the fact that they were actually killing machines raised by the Saints’ Hand Society.
“But if there’s no other way…” Yun Ruoxi looked up, her right hand still gently massaging Aili’s reddened forehead, but a trace of bloodlust and longing flashed deep within her eyes.
“Then we’ll just have to kill them. You saw it that day—without the help of the Huang Elfs, unless we can gather the Trainees from all three Battle Camps together, we probably won’t be able to fight our way into the Traveling Palace.”
Just three days ago, with the help of Guan Kelai, they had successfully entered the King City. They went to investigate the King’s Palace, where the Star Core was suspected to be kept.
However, the security there was terrifyingly tight. The entire Traveling Palace was built atop three adjacent giant trees, and the area for thousands of meters around had been cleared.
Hundreds of Tree God Guards patrolled the perimeter. Even Yun Ruoxi lacked the confidence to sneak inside, let alone fight her way in by force.
There were hundreds of Tree God Guards on the surface, and even Guan Kelai didn’t know how many more guards and ordinary soldiers were hidden in the shadows.
At most, the three giant trees could accommodate tens of thousands of people. At the very least, there were several times more enemies than those visible.
“Did your King do something guilty? To have such tight security!” Zi Jiu had said in surprise at the time.
“If not for such complete defenses, the King would have been killed by Huang Elf assassins long ago,” Guan Kelai explained.
Regardless, the King’s precautions against the Huang Elfs also effectively guarded against any ulterior motives from Trainees like Yun Ruoxi and the others.
“Maybe there’s another way.” The group had been silent for a long time on the way, and as they neared Guan Kelai’s home, Yun Che suddenly spoke up to break the silence.
“What way?” Kaos asked.
Meeting everyone’s curious gazes, Yun Che looked around. “Since the Huang Elfs want us to prove our strength, why must we prove it according to their requirements?”
As he spoke, he slammed a fist heavily onto the table. “Furthermore, we are rebels with the strength to revolt, so we shouldn’t just obediently follow their orders.”
“Well said,” Zi Jiu nodded in agreement.
“If we don’t kill people…” Anvil scratched his head in confusion, “Then how are we supposed to prove our strength?”
“Who said it can’t be proven!” Yun Che smiled slightly.
“We can let the Huang Elfs see our strength for themselves. For example, by infiltrating the Underground World and meeting their high-ranking officials! What do you think of my idea?”
“A bit bold!” Yun Ruoxi pursed her lips, a strange look flashing in her eyes.
She hadn’t expected that Yun Che would actually propose a method that could bring two plot lines together and still be somewhat feasible.
However, the current plot had long since diverged from the original, and she could no longer use her foresight to accurately grasp the psychological state of everyone in the Main Cast.
“But what we’re planning to do is bold by nature!” Yun Che said softly.