After confirming that aside from a few minor soul body damages, his body had not suffered any further injuries and learning that his physical constitution and strength had slightly improved due to the battle with Elina, Haoyun once again asked about the situation on Elf Planet with concern.
"How are things over there now? Have you caught Elina?" Since Haoyun had fainted immediately after his sneak attack on Elina, he was unaware that Elina had escaped using a teleportation array.
"Uh—Elina has disappeared," Master Gu said awkwardly.
"Disappeared? How did she disappear? Didn't you set up a tight blockade around Elf Planet to ensure she couldn't escape?" Haoyun asked in surprise. From the feeling he had before fainting, Elina should have been seriously injured by his dagger.
"That's right. From the situation at the time, Elina was indeed seriously injured by you, Brother Hao. So much so that after getting injured, she didn't even bother with the remaining dark energy but chose to flee immediately," Master Gu scratched his head and roughly described the situation after Haoyun wounded Elina.
"We thought that Elina's teleportation array, activated under those conditions, would be greatly weakened, making it impossible for her to escape our blockade. But to our surprise, not only did our blockade fail to stop her teleportation array, but we also have no idea where she went using it," Master Gu continued, glancing at Dao Lao with an embarrassed expression, seemingly hoping for some support to get out of this awkward situation.
But Dao Lao completely ignored Master Gu's plea, instead watching his embarrassed state with a look of amusement.
Haoyun sighed in frustration, "So, if you had come down to assist us in time, Elina might not have escaped! I just can't understand, the situation had already escalated so much, how could you still choose to stand by and watch!?"
Master Gu sighed helplessly, "Oh! I wanted to come down to help you. But no matter how we applied, the higher-ups just wouldn't agree."
"Why?" Haoyun asked in confusion.
"Because the dark energy was causing trouble in the lower realm, not actively seeking us out in the upper realm like during the last divine war," Master Gu explained initially.
He then elaborated, "When upper realm officials frequently use divine power in the lower realm, especially very strong divine power, it can disrupt the stability of the lower realm's timeline. Moreover, the more divine soldiers descend to the lower realm, and the more lower realm beings witness our descent, the greater the potential impact on the timeline's stability.
"Our divine army happens to be most effective in coordinated group combat, which means that once we come down to assist you, there's a high likelihood of triggering the aforementioned situations. Therefore, unless there's a serious incident that affects the stability of both the lower realm's timeline and the upper realm, the higher-ups are extremely cautious about approving the divine army's descent."
"Another crucial point is that as long as the dark energy is controlled properly, the chaos it causes in the lower realm won't affect the timeline's stability. And Ansillin's actions after merging with that dark energy did not threaten the stability of Elf Planet's SU-052 timeline. Therefore, her rampage and slaughter on Elf Planet didn't meet the threshold for the divine army to intervene," Master Gu added.
Master Gu's explanation left Haoyun quite displeased. So, as long as it didn't affect the lower realm's timeline stability or pose a direct threat to the upper realm, the upper realm would only dispatch dark energy hunters to deal with the dark energy causing trouble and let other officials stand by and watch?
Haoyun found Master Gu's reasoning unconvincing. So, he asked, "What about Elina? After she regained control of her body from Ansillin and became the final fusion of dark energy, her rampage on Elf Planet should be your responsibility, right? After all, she still has a part of her official status!"
Hearing this, Master Gu scratched his head awkwardly again, "Uh—well—actually, the ordinance to revoke her official status took effect before her conflict with you. So, strictly speaking, when she merged with the dark energy, she was just an ordinary upper realm spirit."
"Moreover, Elina essentially became dark energy after the fusion. Even though she fought with you, she used dark energy's power during the fight. Therefore, from a logical standpoint, your battle was with the dark energy, not malicious slaughter among officials. Naturally, we couldn't use that as a pretext to go after her."
"Who the hell came up with these idiotic rules!? These regulations are so bizarre and flawed! No wonder Elina dared to attack us so brazenly! It turns out her official status had long been revoked! Oh, if I had known this, you shouldn't have revoked her official status so quickly!" Haoyun wanted to harshly criticize these, in his view, illogical rule-makers, but considering that such behavior might bring divine retribution, he switched to blaming Master Gu.
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Master Gu shrugged and explained that Judge Yan had actually wanted to suppress this matter to see if any turnaround could be found. However, to his surprise, the high-level arbitration department of the Spirit Realm personally intervened and demanded that Judge Yan revoke Elina's official status. After several fruitless negotiations, Judge Yan had no choice but to go ahead and completely erase Elina's official status.
Additionally, Master Gu remarked, “Actually, many officials believe that some regulations set by the Spirit Realm are both complicated and somewhat contrived. Many officials have raised objections, but they were all ultimately dismissed. But, if we calm down and think carefully, the senior leaders of the Spirit Realm must have their reasons for these rules. After all, they possess countless higher wisdom and foresight that we cannot comprehend. It’s under their advanced guidance that the Spirit Realm has developed into such a powerful and unbreakable force today. So, we should just trust our leaders!”
At this point, Master Gu clasped his hands together and gave a respectful bow upwards, smoothly praising the senior leaders of the Spirit Realm. Haoyun couldn’t help but marvel at how Master Gu had managed to rise to the second highest position in the Nether Spirit Realm. It seemed that besides his superior strength, his political savvy and flattery skills were also indispensable factors.
Feeling that his sudden flattery might be a bit awkward, Master Gu quickly pretended to brush off dust from his sleeve while saying, “Although Elina unexpectedly escaped our blockade, all the dark energy she hadn’t absorbed was completely captured by us. Now that we know Elina's dark energy split into countless fragments and hid in Doomstone, we must maintain the blockade on Elf Planet’s SU-052 timeline for a long time to come until we completely eradicate the remaining dark energy hiding on that planet.”
“That’s right. There will be a lot of things to handle on Elf Planet. Moreover, many of them require our personal attention. Since you’re all right now, let’s get ready to return to Elf Planet!” Dao Lao continued Master Gu’s statement.
Actually, Haoyun didn’t need Dao Lao to explain, as he already wanted to suggest returning to Elf Planet. Haoyun was eager to know the current battle situation there and was still worried about the safety of Serwinf and his group. Since the communicators Dao Lao had given them had a limited transmission range, Haoyun couldn’t contact them to find out if they had left Coldmoon City for a safer place. Far away in another timeline, Haoyun had no idea how they were doing.
Additionally, Haoyun knew that the heroine was still holding the battlefield on Elf Planet, which made him feel a bit guilty. Fully recovered and recharged, Haoyun naturally wanted to return to Elf Planet to support her. Of course, thinking about the heroine inevitably brought back memories of her heroic demeanor in battle, her beautiful face full of Western charm, and her tall, curvaceous figure.
Realizing his thoughts were drifting, Haoyun scratched his reddened earlobe and asked, “By the way, how is the heroine doing?”
“I’ve reconnected with her earlier. She said that after we left, a few more dark energy hunter officials finished their tasks and arrived on Elf Planet. They’ve now taken over the work there, and the heroine has returned to her base for a brief rest before heading to the space around Elf Planet to track Elina,” Dao Lao replied.
“Ah, Elina is very cunning, and now she’s merged with the equally deceitful Ansillin, making her even more crafty. I’m worried that the heroine might be at risk if she’s tracking Elina alone,” Haoyun said with concern. He also felt a bit disappointed knowing the heroine had left Elf Planet.
“Don’t worry! Once the heroine’s spiritual energy is fully restored, she can unleash her Hunter Bullets at full power. I doubt the injured Elina would be foolish enough to want another taste of those bullets right now,” Dao Lao reassured him. He also ordered the base’s system to prepare to teleport them back to the coordinates they had used to leave Elf Planet.
“When we get back, we should first interrogate Siewen to see if we can get more information from him,” Dao Lao said.
“You’ve captured Siewen?” Haoyun asked in surprise.
“Yes. It seems Elina didn’t plan to take Siewen with her. But that’s understandable. Who would care about someone who pretends to be loyal but is actually setting traps for them with Ansillin behind their back?” Dao Lao mocked, ordering the system to activate the teleportation array. With a familiar sense of dizziness washing over him, Haoyun and the others reappeared on the top floor terrace of Blackstone Castle.
As soon as Haoyun appeared, he felt a fresh, cool breeze blowing towards him. He closed his eyes, taking deep breaths of the incredibly fresh air, and exclaimed, “Ah—! Such refreshing air!”
Opening his eyes, Haoyun saw that the dark clouds over Blackstone Castle and the entire Dark Elf territory had dispersed. On the horizon, which had begun to change from deep blue to sky blue, a bright line of fire quickly spread across the barren landscape. This unique sunrise of Elf Planet, with long-missed sunlight once again pouring over the land long shrouded in darkness, instantly brought signs of revival to the desert-like earth.
Due to the complex relationship between the timelines of the Spirit Realm, Haoyun couldn’t figure out why they could return here at the first dawn after leaving, even though only a day had passed on Earth. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was that Haoyun couldn’t sense any tense battle atmosphere here anymore. At this moment, the Dark Elves around Blackstone Castle had already put down their weapons, supporting each other as they watched the beautiful sunrise, enjoying the warmth of the sunlight.
Under the radiant morning light, the demonic aura around Blackstone Castle dissipated, revealing the dark green hue of its surface. The dark green stone walls of the castle gleamed brightly in the morning sunlight, emitting golden halos of light. These golden rays gave the towering Blackstone Castle an appearance of grandeur and solemnity.