Chapter 609: Great Disparity
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Hence, Lin Li was even more cautious after seeing so many elven Legendary powerhouses. However, he wasn’t surprised to see them. After all, although the Haiga Mountain Range restrained the nature magic of the elves, it wasn’t difficult to have a few non-nature magic Legendary powerhouses here.
Back at the auction of the Time Consignment Store in Roland City, the branch-like piece of debris of the stars—Rebirth—was speculated to have belonged to the Legendary elven mage who specialized in fire magic. People saw this elven mage as an outlier among the elves. However, who would know if he was really an outlier in the Elven Kingdom?
Why did these elves appear here? Were they here for the ruins of the t.i.tans too? Lin Li couldn’t help but question it. He turned to Cheyenne, but saw Cheyenne look back at him with inconcealable bitterness.
Evidently, those elves were related to the Dark Blade judging from how Borg was behaving. If those elves were the Dark Blade’s ally, the Tower of Dusk and Malfa Family would be put in a disadvantageous position. The Dark Blade was already very strong themselves. They had three Legendary powerhouses and a greater number of elite fighters here than the Malfa Family. If these elves were to join in, with those legendary-level elves… Cheyenne’s heart sank to the lowest point.
It could be said that the Malfa Family wouldn’t escape being ma.s.sacred even if they collaborated with the Tower of Dusk if those several elven Legendary powerhouse were to attack. Moreover, the young president of the Tower of Dusk didn’t seem to be trustworthy judging from his actions these days. He would probably be the first to escape if they were to start a battle.
Borg conversed with those elves for a while before flying back to his team. He then came towards Cheyenne and Lin Li. He just told them that the elves had agreed to let the team into the forest.
Cheyenne knew that he could only continue given that they had come thus far. After all, it was impossible to back out now. If he revealed even the tiniest hint of his intention to retreat, the Dark Blade would definitely attack the Malfa Family. However, Cheyenne could see that those elves didn’t seem to be close to Borg. Judging from the elves’ personalities, most likely they had struck some deal with the Dark Blade, and were only using them for the sake of their interests.
“Master Felic, what do you think…” Cheyenne turned to ask Lin Li about his opinion and—more importantly—to confirm his att.i.tude. After all, Cheyenne didn’t want the alliance with the Tower of Dusk to be affected by the appearance of the elves. Within the three factions, only the Tower of Dusk didn’t have any past grudges with the Dark Blade. Thus, it was the only faction that could back out now without the Dark Blade having other thoughts.
“Master Cheyenne, you can decide,” said Lin Li in an unconcerned tone. The elves had inherited the High Elves’ arrogance while they had inherited part of their blood. They might have some connections with the Dark Blade, but they would never put the Dark Blade on equal level as themselves. Thus, it was too early to say they were the Dark Blade’s ally at the moment.
Under the lead of those elves, the adventurer team consisting of three factions entered the forest cautiously. Even those from the Dark Blade didn’t dare to relax after seeing their leader converse with the elves.
n.o.body spoke on the way. Even Borg, who had talked to the elves, didn’t look to be at ease now. As for the elves who led the way, they didn’t even look at the human team. They were totally uninterested in this adventurer team that could defeat any other in the entire Breezy Plains.
In the forest, the elves had already set up their campsite. Compared to the neat human campsites, the elves’ appeared to be more casual. However, anyone with sharp eyes would realize that the power contained in the elves’ campsite wasn’t decreased by its casualness at all. With just the power from the campsite, it was enough to deal with a sudden attack from Legendary magical beasts.
However, Lin Li knew that this campsite wasn’t the best the elves could set up. Due to special reasons, the elves couldn’t use Nature Magic which they were good at here. Hence, this campsite wasn’t a true elven campsite, though it possessed some elven characteristics.
If it was somewhere else, where Nature Magic wasn’t constrained, Tree-men would be hiding behind those tall trees when the team had entered the forest. Although Tree-men didn’t match the Trees of War, those Tree-men would certainly be at least level-17 or 18. With their camouflage merging into the environment, they would be the most suitable defenders of the campsite.
The elves could also use Nature Magic to grow all kinds of attacking magical plants and s.h.i.+eld the campsite with vines or build a little hut with wild plants. However, all these couldn’t be seen in the campsite in the Haiga Mountain Range. Although the fences of the campsite seemed to be made from vines too, they had been created using a magical tool judging from their energy waves. The tents used were also clearly brought by the elves, and not made on the spot with Nature Magic.
On the outskirts of the campsite, the number of elves gradually increased. There were even families of elves near the center of the campsite. It was definitely a rare sight for the human adventurers team. After all, elves were extremely uncommon in human nations. If it was just one or two elves, people would admire them. But now that there was such a big group of them, the team only felt nervous.
The large group of human intruders entering the campsite didn’t evoke any intense reaction from the elves at all. The elves would peer at the human adventurers at most, not even stopping what they were doing. Even those elves who seemed to be chit-chatting casually weren’t shocked with or curious about the human adventurers at all.
This wasn’t because the elves were well-trained and disciplined, but rather because they were scornful of the human team, and didn’t want to waste their time looking at them. As for those who were having casual conversations with their peers, they didn’t think it was worth stopping for these humans. When they occasionally scanned the human adventurers, it seemed as if the sky was looking at the ground or an elephant looked at an ant.
The team consisting of the Dark Blade and the Malfa Family was a few hundred men strong, and every one of them was at least level-15. However, such a strong team appeared to be like an army of pa.s.sing ants to the elves. Even the highest-level Invisibility wouldn’t achieve such effects.
Of course, the adventurers were no idiots. All of them had experienced enough in life to see through such things. Although the elves appeared to be very cold towards the team and treated them like they weren’t there, the tinge of animosity hidden in their eyes couldn’t escape the sharp-eyed ones in the team.
The hatred between the elves and humans still existed even though 1000-plus years had pa.s.sed. This was because the elves were very long-lived. Many generations had pa.s.sed for humans over the millennium, and any hatred would have been diluted down the generations. However, only two or three generations had pa.s.sed for the elves since then. It was even possible that there were still other first-generation elves after the catastrophe besides the elven queen. Hence, the catastrophe over 1000 years ago wasn’t so far away for the elves that they could forget about it.
As he examined the elves’ campsite, Lin Li sensitively felt someone looking at him and turned round. He saw six or seven elves standing high up on a tree and looking at him with arrogance. One couldn’t deny that the elves had the capital to be so arrogant since every elf that Lin Li had met in the campsite was at least level-17 or 18. Level-19 elves who were approaching Legendary-realm were also not uncommon. The elf who had attracted Lin Li’s attention was at least level-20 even though he looked very young.
That elf held onto a longbow and plucked at the bowstring occasionally. He might be thinking of how he could kill a human adventurer with every pluck of his bowstring. Lin Li touched his chin. He wasn’t thinking of how to deal with these elves, but about how the elves had appeared here, what they were plotting with such a strong team, and also how he could gain some benefits from this.
Shortly after entering the elves’ campsite, the team stopped, and the leading elves entered a tent to report. Not just the human adventurers had to wait outside, even Legendary masters like Borg didn’t receive any special treatment. It was easy to see the elves’ arrogance given that they couldn’t be bothered by the two biggest factions in the Breezy Plains and their Legendary-level chiefs.
Luckily, they didn’t wait for long. A few elves who seemed to be the leaders came out from the tent and walked towards the human adventurer team. The elves at the side all bowed towards them, appearing to be very humble.
Not waiting for the elves to come to them, Borg had walked in front and talked to the elves in elven language for a while. Although Borg was the chief of the Dark Blade and was a level-21 Legendary-mage, those elves didn’t change their expressions at all when they spoke to him, and still looked arrogant and cold.
Soon, Borg came back and instructed his subordinates to set up their campsite. He also sent somebody to inform the Malfa Family about this. After these arrangements, Borg followed those elves into their tent in the middle.
“I didn’t expect Borg to know those elves.” Looking at Borg walk into the tent with those elves, Cheyenne was rather worried, and turned towards Lin Li. “What do you think, Master Felic?”
Lin Li looked at the surroundings, and replied, “It seems like this campsite wasn’t built for a day or two. Perhaps they have been here for a while already.”
Cheyenne could naturally see that too. If it was anywhere else, the elves wouldn’t need much effort to build a campsite like this. However, in the Haiga Mountain Range where Nature Magic was useless, it was impossible to set up this sort of campsite in one or two days. This meant that the elves hadn’t appeared here coincidentally, but rather that they were waiting for the team to appear. More specifically, they were waiting for the Dark Blade to come.
Actually, Cheyenne could guess that the Dark Blade was likely to have sealed some deal with the Elven Kingdom. Otherwise, even if everyone had the same goal in mind, it was unlikely for them to meet on the way as the Haiga Mountain Range was so huge. However, Cheyenne didn’t feel relaxed after having some ideas of what was going on. Instead, he felt more tense. No wonder Borg dared to collaborate with the Tower of Dusk and Malfa Family. It was because they had this card up their sleeve.
“With the Dark Blade’s power and the help of the elves, they are not just getting the upper hand compared to us.” Cheyenne didn’t state it specifically, but he knew that the Dark Blade would overwhelmingly defeat them if they allied with the elves.
Back at the start of the collaboration, the Dark Blade had already had a significant advantage over the Malfa Family and the Tower of Dusk. They had three Legendary powerhouses against just Cheyenne and Lin Li. Moreover, the number of elite fighters above level-15 they had was also more than that of the Malfa Family. However, with the alliance between the Tower of Dusk and the Malfa Family, at least both parties would suffer the same loss if the Dark Blade and the Malfa Family were to confront each other directly.
However, the elves had joined in now. Just along the way, there were so many level-17 and 18 elves already, not to mention the six or seven Legendary powerhouses who they hadn’t seen or the powerhouse who had likely reached level-23. With such power, not mentioning the Malfa Family and the Tower of Dusk, they couldn’t match the power of the elves even with the addition of the Dark Blade.
Cheyenne couldn’t help but feel very worried. After all, the grudge between the Malfa Family and the Dark Blade was almost irreconcilable. The grudge didn’t just consist of the hatred from the past, but was also related to the future development of the factions. This grudge was even more irreconcilable than that between then elves and humans. The only solution to this was to wipe out one of the factions completely. From the situation now, it seemed that the one to be wiped out was the Malfa Family.
“If they were to make a move here, then probably even with our power…” Cheyenne didn’t want to say such discouraging words, but this was the truth—the truth that even a Legendary-mage couldn’t ignore.