Lin Gui’s gaze shifted away from the elves and landed on the lock of the cage.
The lock was structurally complex, pitch-black all over, with a dark red magic crystal embedded in the keyhole.
Fine runes covered the surface of the magic crystal, glowing faintly in a rhythm that mimicked breathing.
Lin Gui peered closer using his Demon Eyes.
The internal structure of the lock was dense, and there was a delicate alarm array at its core.
If the lock body were subjected to brute force destruction or if an incorrect magic key was used to open it, the array would trigger instantly.
More troublesome was that this alarm seemed to be linked to the mana perception of that mage currently in the drinking contest nearby...
The moment anything went wrong with the lock, the mage would immediately notice.
It couldn’t be destroyed.
Then... how about just taking the entire cage into the [Storage] space?
Lin Gui’s mind stirred as he scanned his storage capacity.
The flying vessel took up the vast majority of it, and then there were the supplies and wooden boxes accumulated along the way...
The remaining space couldn’t even fit half of an iron cage.
It seemed there was only one way left.
He had to get the magic key.
The key would usually be on the mage who provided mana for the lock.
Lin Gui sat astride his staff and floated noiselessly toward the campfire.
The mage was sitting cross-legged by the fire, a wine skin in one hand, gesturing with the other while bragging about something to a hunter beside him.
He wore deep blue mage robes, and a string of various magic crystals hung across his chest.
Attached to the leather belt at his waist was a dark silver, diamond-shaped key.
The key swayed gently with his movements, glinting coldly in the firelight.
Lin Gui stopped a step away behind the mage’s back.
The Shroud of the Gloomy Night perfectly concealed his aura and form.
He reached out, his fingertip aimed at the key.
With a thought—
[Storage].
At the very moment his mana was about to touch the key, the mage suddenly burst into laughter and tilted his head back to take a large swig of wine.
After drinking, he let out a satisfied “Ha!” and swung his arm back casually, as if stretching a stiff shoulder.
That swinging elbow was headed straight for Lin Gui’s face!
Eve reacted extremely quickly, ducking her head.
Lin Gui also immediately leaned back.
But the staff was suspended in mid-air, and this movement was too abrupt.
He lost his balance and instinctively reached out to steady himself.
“Slap.”
His palm landed squarely on the mage’s...
Butt.
The mage’s movements instantly froze.
He jerked his head around, his sharp gaze scanning the area behind him.
There was nothing.
His perception spread out at full strength.
There were no energy fluctuations, no breathing, not even a change in temperature.
But just now... he had definitely been slapped by someone.
“What’s wrong, Old Mo?” a hunter with a face full of scars asked vaguely.
“Seeing ghosts?”
The mage frowned and checked his surroundings several more times with his perception.
He still found nothing.
His suspicious gaze swept over the area, finally landing on the round-faced, bearded priest sitting next to him.
The priest was focused on gnawing on a piece of jerky.
A look of realization flashed in the mage’s eyes, and he coughed once.
“Cough, it’s nothing.”
He waved it off, his tone light.
“Just got slapped by a... sexy mosquito.”
“No big deal.”
The other hunters roared with laughter and didn't ask further.
The mage chuckled, then suddenly reached out his left hand.
He gave the priest next to him a solid slap on the butt.
“Slap!”
The priest was stunned, and the jerky in his hand fell to the ground.
He turned his head to look at the mage.
On that coarse face, a bizarre expression of... bashfulness actually appeared?
“Stop it, you tease~”
The priest spoke in a high-pitched voice, giving the mage a playful, reproachful look. Then he reached out and gently stroked the mage’s thigh a couple of times.
The interaction was so intimate it made one’s skin crawl.
The campfire erupted in even louder laughter and whistling.
Meanwhile, in mid-air.
Eve pointed blankly at the pair of male priests and mages still “interacting” below. Her purple eyes were filled with bewilderment and shock.
“Are they...???”
Lin Gui silently raised his hand and covered his eyes.
“You don’t want to know.”
The campfire crackled, sparks scattering with the wind.
The hunters sitting around were in high spirits from the alcohol, and their conversation became increasingly vulgar.
A balding hunter gulped down some wine and grinned.
“If you ask me, elves only have those faces going for them.”
“They’ve got such stubborn personalities; touching them is like taking their lives.”
“Not as sensible as human broads.”
A tall, thin man beside him rubbed his hands together, a greedy light shining in his eyes.
“But the nobles love that vibe.”
“The more stubborn they are, the more they resist, the higher they’re willing to bid.”
“That brown-haired elven chick from the last auction...”
He lowered his voice and chuckled sinisterly.
“I heard a Duke bought her and she didn’t leave the bed for three days.”
“He sold her again later, and the price had doubled!”
The group laughed, clinking their cups with a clatter.
The scar-faced assassin didn't speak; he just slowly and methodically wiped his dagger.
A young hunter leaned in and asked curiously:
“Boss, the goods you got this time... the quality is just too good.”
“Night Elves, and all of them are ‘unprocessed,’ and most are even Transcendent guards.”
“How exactly did you get them?”
Another hunter nodded along.
“Yeah, the defenses in the Elven Forest are currently as tight as a drum.”
“The patrol teams have doubled or tripled, and the merchant caravans entering and leaving are checked strictly.”
“And those long-ears all carry poison on them now.”
“The moment they’re caught, they bite into a poison sac immediately. They’d rather die than be caught alive.”
He spat on the ground.
“Bloody bad luck.”
The campfire went quiet for a moment.
A scout who had been silent all along suddenly spoke up, his voice raspy.
“So.”
He stared at the scar-faced man.
“The person who could provide us with so many ‘clean goods’...”
“Who is it, exactly?”
All eyes turned to the scar-faced man.
He stopped wiping his blade and looked up.
The corners of his mouth curled into a meaningful smile.
“Haven't you all guessed it?”
His voice wasn't loud, but it caused an immediate silence.
“To be able to bypass the defenses of the Elven Forest, to get Night Elves who haven't been tampered with...”
“And to know the routes, the timing, and even the patrol intervals so clearly.”
The scar-faced man paused and sheathed his dagger.
“Except for ‘one of our own,’ who else could do it?”
A chorus of sharp intakes of breath rang out around the campfire.
The hunters looked at each other, their faces filled with shock.
The young hunter stammered, “You, you mean... there’s a traitor... within the elves?”
The scar-faced man didn't answer.
He only picked up the wine skin and took a long swig.
The firelight flickered across the scar on his face.
The answer was already more than obvious.
The atmosphere around the campfire turned eerie because of the scar-faced man’s words.
To the outside world, elves always maintained that arrogant, exclusionary, and inviolable image.
They considered themselves the children of nature, the protectors of civilization, and viewed other races as inferior.
They always stood on the moral high ground, preaching justice to other races.
But now...
“Is this... even possible?” one hunter murmured.
“Those long-ears, don't they brag all day about how their race is the most noble and refined?”
“How could they...”
Another hunter sneered and cut him off.
“Noble? Refined?”
“They’re just a bunch of hypocritical idiots gilding their own faces.”
“If they’re so noble, where did the elven bloodlines come from?”
“The way they treat half-elves and mixed-bloods is much crueler than anything we do to them!”
The surrounding hunters broke into a chorus of agreement, mocking and contemptuous, without any attempt to hide it.
In mid-air.
Lin Gui and Eve exchanged a look, both seeing the shock in each other’s eyes.
An elven traitor? Providing their own kin as slave cargo?
It was almost a joke.
Everyone on the Akara Continent knew that what the elves hated most was slave hunting.
High Elves had proven through their actions that to avenge hunted slaves, they wouldn't hesitate to deploy the Guardians of the World Tree across tens of thousands of miles to exterminate any clan that desecrated or insulted their people.
Lin Gui instinctively activated his Eyes of the Netherworld to look at Clotina beside him.
He expected to see anger, a breakdown, or disbelief.
But there was none.
Clotina just floated there quietly.
There was no shock on her face, only a heavy... sorrow.
“The Tree Guards did it,” she said softly, as if talking to herself.
“They never... considered the Night Elves as kin.”
Lin Gui remained silent.
Just then, the mage below burst into another roar of laughter.
He leaned back while drinking.
The key at his waist swayed with the motion.
Lin Gui’s eyes narrowed.
Now.
He reached out his hand, his mind moving slightly.
[Storage].
The dark silver key vanished without a sound, falling into his space.
It was done.
Taking the key out of the storage space, he prepared to unlock the cage and save the elves.
The lively chatter of the hunters by the campfire... suddenly stopped.
Lin Gui’s heart jumped.
Had he been discovered?
He looked up abruptly, only to see that the gazes of all the hunters were not directed at him.
Instead, they were all turned in unison toward the entrance of the temple.
Standing there was a person who had appeared without anyone noticing.
A tall, thin woman covered entirely in clothing.
She was draped in a tattered gray robe, her figure like a bamboo pole.
In her right hand, she held a bleeding burlap sack.
The mouth of the sack was open, faintly revealing several elven heads inside.
She “smiled” and said to the hunters:
“Mmm-hmm, well said.”
“Though you humans are ignorant and foolish, like rats in a gutter. Every look I take at you fouls my eyes.”
“But you are right.”
“Those damn elves are just a bunch of hypocritical, incompetent fools who only know how to fight amongst themselves.”
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