Under the brilliant morning light, the Blackstone Castle revealed its true color, a shade of dark cyan. The cyan-black stone walls gleamed brightly in the morning light, emitting golden hues that gave the towering castle a solemn and majestic appearance.
The Dark Elf tribe, having fallen victim to the tricks of the Miasma Energy, was dragged into the mire of practicing black magic. By consuming Elven Cookies over a long period, they had accumulated a considerable amount of Miasma Energy within their bodies. This energy, aided by the Doom Energy, hid deep within the Dark Elves and, like a parasite, continuously absorbed the negative energy generated by their black magic practices and the misfortunes brought about by war.
On the other hand, the Light Elf tribe was affected by the Miasma Energy hidden in the Doom Ores. As these ores were mined, they released negative energy, which subtly influenced the Light Elves. Over time, this amplified their darker traits, making them greedy, selfish, and indulgent, thus becoming another source of negative energy for the Miasma Energy.
Therefore, in the energy storm triggered by Elina and Anchilin, which shook the entire realm, the hidden Miasma Energy forcibly extracted various negative energies from the bodies of the Dark and Light Elves. Consequently, these elves suffered immensely under the ruthless scourge of the Miasma Energy, becoming extremely weak and even near death.
Seeing the elves so severely afflicted by the Miasma Energy, Hao Yun couldn't help but sigh in relief that they had managed to repel Elina in time. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable—mass destruction or even the extinction of entire races.
"Hey! You useless bunch are back?" Just as Hao Yun was worrying about the health of the Elves on Elven Planet, a familiar mocking voice sounded behind him.
Hao Yun turned around immediately, only to see the heroine descending from the sky. She wore a black cloak with a red lining and a black form-fitting battle suit made of some highly reflective metallic material. Her long hair fluttered in the wind, and her delicate features exuded a sense of menace. After landing, she shouldered her high-tech rifle with her right hand, placed her left hand on her hip, and sashayed towards the furious Hao Yun, Dao Lao, and Master Gu.
"Hey! Why are you hitting us!?" Amidst the cries of pain, Hao Yun, Dao Lao, and Master Gu scurried around the platform like frightened rats, trying to avoid the blows from the heroine's rifle butt.
"Ouch! Please, Heroine, have mercy! I've never met you before. Why are you hitting me so hard?" Master Gu, clutching the bump on his head, shouted in innocent bewilderment.
"Hmph! You have the nerve to ask? Look at you three useless fools! If it weren't for you, Elina wouldn't have escaped so easily!" Though the heroine had stopped hitting them, she continued to scold the trio, occasionally prodding their heads with her gun barrel.
"Excuse me, Heroine, but can we talk this out reasonably? Yes, Elina escaped, but it wasn't entirely our fault, was it? Weren't you there at the time? Don't you bear any responsibility for Elina's escape?" Hao Yun defended himself, feeling wronged and resentful over the unprovoked beating.
The heroine was momentarily taken aback, then blushed and said, "I, I, I had just fought another group of Miasma Energy before coming to support you, and I hadn't fully recovered. That's why Elina managed to fight me off. If I were in good condition, do you think she would have had the chance to escape? So, my part of the blame lies with the previous group of Miasma Energy I fought, and it has nothing to do with me!"
Seeing the heroine's unreasonable stance, Hao Yun couldn't help but get annoyed. "Hey, pretty lady, let's be fair here. You couldn't beat Elina, and you blame others. We were in a weakened state after breaking a formation and expending a lot of our spiritual energy, which affected our battle performance. Besides, it was my last-ditch effort that injured Elina and forced her to retreat, preventing the situation from worsening!"
Hao Yun's straightforward nature, sometimes impulsive and tactless, proved effective against the heroine's unreasonable behavior.
"By the way, didn't you go after Elina? How come you're back so soon? Looking at you empty-handed, you didn't find anything, did you?" Hao Yun asked, pressing further as the heroine seemed at a loss for words.
"Well, that's because Elina is too cunning. She left multiple traces to confuse me, which interfered with my judgment, causing me to lose her trail," the heroine stammered.
Hao Yun shrugged and made a face that said, "See? You were fooled by Elina right under your nose."
"Elina used an advanced teleportation spell I've never seen before, which made it impossible for me to track her accurately before she completely disappeared. Anyway, Elina's strength exceeded my expectations, so I refuse to take the blame for her escape!" The heroine stubbornly maintained her stance, trying to uphold her high-pitched defiance.
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"If you won't take the blame, neither will we!" Hao Yun responded in kind, indicating that Elina's escape wasn't solely due to his and Dao Lao's inadequacy but other factors as well.
"Since neither of us is at fault, we still need someone to take responsibility for Elina's escape, right? Otherwise, how am I supposed to write my report?" The heroine's voice softened slightly but remained persistent.
Dao Lao stroked his beard and calmly summarized, "Given that we were all in a less-than-ideal state and had to fight a six-star Elina, it's understandable that we couldn't stop her escape. These were special circumstances."
Then, he suddenly changed his tone and said, "However, as the backbone of the Spirit Realm, the blockade set up by Master Gu and the others on the periphery of the Elven Planet actually failed to prevent Elina from escaping. Isn't that a bit unacceptable?"
Hao Yun and the heroine nodded in agreement with Dao Lao's analysis. They immediately turned their heads, casting questioning glances at Master Gu, whose forehead was now lined with black lines.
"Hahaha! Well, you all should know that as the thirteenth jurisdiction of our Underworld, the SU-052 spacetime line of the Elven Planet is completely under our control. Yet, despite this, Elina was still able to escape our tightly set blockade, which shows that the teleportation spell she used far exceeded our grasp in the Underworld. Therefore, you cannot blame us for the failure of the Underworld's thirteenth jurisdiction this time. Elina's strength also caught us somewhat off guard," Master Gu explained when Hao Yun and the others directed their accusations at him.
Hao Yun and the others did not think that Master Gu was deliberately being unreasonable or stubborn because they also understood the power of the Underworld's blockade. If it weren't for Elina's immensely powerful teleportation spell, Master Gu and the others would not have ended up in such an embarrassing situation.
Therefore, after unanimous agreement, it was concluded that the main responsibility for Elina's successful escape lay with the Spirit Realm for underestimating the situation and failing to provide adequate support in this event. Consequently, the blame for the failure of this mission had to be borne by the Spirit Realm.
As a result, the four priests decided that when they returned to report their work, they would raise objections to the incompetent decisions of the higher-ups in the Spirit Realm and demand compensation for all their expenses incurred during this mission. The response they received, however, was to be left out in the cold. Furthermore, they were sternly warned not to cause trouble. Otherwise, the leaders would not hesitate to punish them by sending them to the orchards of the Spirit Realm to fertilize for a hundred years!
With just a few simple words, the conflict between Hao Yun and the others was successfully shifted elsewhere. For Master Gu, who had been in the political arena for a long time, it was as easy as pie. Watching Hao Yun and the others venting their frustration over the bizarre policies of the Spirit Realm, Master Gu nodded in satisfaction before interjecting, "Hahaha! Gentlemen, we'll have plenty of time to discuss the inadequate response from the higher-ups when we return. But for now, let's focus on the task at hand! Let's go, let's interrogate Siewen first and see what information we can extract from him."
"He's been detained by several priests who came to support us and is currently locked in the council hall. I heard he's been silent the whole time and insists on confessing his crimes only after seeing you," the heroine pointed in the direction of the council hall.
When Hao Yun and the others entered the council hall of the Black Magic Association, they saw Siewen bound in the center of the hall with a rope emitting a faint yellow light. Although Siewen had been transformed into a zombie under Anchilin's spell, unlike the other zombie soldiers Hao Yun and Dao Lao had seen here before, Siewen's skin was dry and yellow, and his terrifying face showed signs of life. Between his brows, there was even a vivid expression of pain.
Hao Yun was initially puzzled. Why was Siewen, like the other zombies transformed by Miasma Energy, not drained of all Miasma Energy and magical aura in his body, either becoming a corpse again or barely sustaining himself with the faint aura of death magic inside him? Instead, Siewen stood here completely unharmed, almost identical to when he was resurrected by Anchilin.
"Attention! Attention! Miasma Energy detected ahead! Miasma level: three stars." At this point, Hao Yun's Miasma Energy tracking system alerted him.
In fact, after Elina left the Elven Planet with the core part of the Miasma Energy, many residual branches of Miasma Energy were left in this world because they had nowhere else to go. Therefore, when they returned to the Elven Planet this time, Hao Yun's system had been constantly issuing alerts of detected Miasma Energy. However, what was different now was that the system detected Miasma Energy from Siewen. This meant that the Miasma Energy on Siewen's body had not left him under Anchilin and Elina's summoning.
Curious, Hao Yun wanted to ask Dao Lao why, but before he could speak, Siewen spoke with his dry and old voice, "You've finally come. Siewen has been waiting for you for a long time."
"Siewen, I heard you've been waiting for us? Now that we're here, you'd better confess your crimes!" Dao Lao ignored Siewen's words and went straight to the point as soon as he entered.
"Crimes? Cough, cough, cough! Throughout my life, I have been loyal to Archbishop Anchilin, faithfully assisting her in becoming a dominant force in the region, and using that power to help the Dark Elf Tribe emerge from the quagmire and restore its glory. Tell me, what crime have I committed?" Hearing Dao Lao's words, Siewen smiled calmly and replied firmly.
"Restore its glory? Hmph! Look at it now, where is your so-called loyalty? Have the Dark Elf Tribe truly emerged from the quagmire, or have they simply fallen from one pit into another?" Dao Lao sneered coldly.
Cough, cough, cough. "Isn't that just life? What difference does it make if we fall into another quagmire? As long as this new murky world is more comfortable than before, that's enough!" Siewen retorted.
"Using sophistry! Don't you realize how dangerous the power within Archbishop Anchilin's body is? You claim outwardly that everything you do is for your people, but in the end, the power you are loyal to only brings disaster to your homeland. Don't you feel guilty?" Dao Lao questioned sternly.