Chapter 365: Mysterious matriarch
When Han Shuo reached the lizardmen’s living area, the first thing he heard was actually the cacophony of fighting. Looking around, Han Shuo saw the whole place filled with dark elves, charging toward the lizardmen’s caves within the large reddish-brown mountain.
The lizardmen hid within the caves of the reddish brown mountain, using their crude weapons to defend against the dark elves’ attacks. These dark elves were all dressed in different colors, including violet, black, light green and several other colors. They were clearly an alliance of different clans.
There were almost ten thousand dark elves, but only a small portion were actually attacking the large mountain. Nearly seven thousand of them were still spectating outside, yet to participate in the attack.
There were a few handsome looking youths among the dark elves. Each of them had a particularly ancient scent coming off them, giving Han Shuo a headache. By virtue of that scent, Han Shuo could tell that their true age did not match with their youthful appearance.
There was also a tent of purple veils in the middle of the handsome youths. Han Shuo could sense a monstrous presence within the tent, evil yet somehow charming. When he tried to probe the tent with his consciousness, the person within instantly reacted, sending a wave of aura back along the route of Han Shuo’s mental energy.
Han Shuo was shocked, concealing his own aura in a hurry. He gave up on the idea of directly barging through, deciding to use the earth elite zombie to open a secret passageway into the center. Han Shuo decided to meet up with the lizardmen’s leader before planning his next move.
Based on the aura, Han Shuo sensed the vast strength of the person inside the purple veil tent. Although this person’s strength was not as monstrous as Ancient Lizard King Dagassi, it was much stronger than the typical great swordmaster or grand magus. Han Shuo carefully pondered for a moment. This person’s aura felt roughly as strong as Lawrence’s master, sacred swordsman Karel Ascot. When he reached this conclusion, he was aghast.
Han Shuo had never thought that he would meet such a strong expert in the underground world. With Han Shuo’s current strength in the separate demon realm, the Demonslayer Edge and the little skeleton, he could still manage a fight with such an expert. However, this expert was also accompanied by a few talented youths with particularly strong auras. Although they couldn’t hold a candle to the expert in the purple tent, they would pose a major problem to Han Shuo.
Furthermore, there were still more than seven thousand dark elves surrounding them. Han Shuo wasn’t presumptuous to think he could fight against this group of formidable dark elves by himself.
Using the earth elite zombie to create a passageway, Han Shuo travelled toward the center of the reddish-brown large mountain. Along the way, he constantly heard waves of clinks and clangs from battles. It seemed like just above him should be where the dark elves and lizardmen were fighting.
When he’d left the underground world the previous time, Han Shuo had discovered the location of the core zone of the lizardmen area, as well as the method to directly contact the lizardmen. After Han Shuo hurriedly made his way to the central area, he used the Demonslayer Edge to cut open the hard rocks, directly breaking through to a crucial gathering point in the mountain.
The crucial junction was a large ring-shaped cave. It was about as big as a basketball court, and its ceiling was covered with bright red sharp stones that looked like they might drop at any moment. There were stone plinths spread over the whole cave. These stone plinths had been ground down by the lizardmen until they were flat and suitable for sitting.
At present, a large group of lizardmen had gathered. It looked like they were discussing ways to deal with the dark elves. When Han Shuo appeared, the lizardmen head was pleasantly surprised. In the lizardmen’s tongue, he lept to his feet and jabbered a few sentences, leading the bunch of lizardmen in a bow towards Han Shuo.
“True God’s envoy, you must be here to save us. We have been waiting so long for you.” The lizardmen’s head used the common tongue in as respectful a manner as he could.
Wrinkling his eyebrows, Han Shuo replied, “The True God must have already left this place. What’s the matter with all those dark elves outside, why would they dare to come here?”
“Lord envoy, not long after the True God left, all the dark elves in the underground world unexpectedly stopped their internal conflicts, having all been subdued by a dark elf named Adele. It is said that this dark elf could communicate with their beloved evil goddess, Rose. She possessed an evil strength, unifying all the underground worlds’ dark elves in one short month.”
The leader hastily explained more, “She has led the dark elves in constantly attacking us lizardmen the past few days. However, these bastards currently still do not dare confirm if our true god has left. Hence, they have unceasingly probed us, but don’t dare to truly force their way in.”
The dark elf named Adele had suddenly appeared after Dagassi left. She had managed to unify the scattered dark elves in a short month, forming the single most terrifying power in this layer of the underground world. When Han Shuo heard the lizardman leader’s explanation, he was a little confused. He did not know how Adele had suddenly appeared and even seemed to know a little bit about Ancient Lizard King Dagassi.
Without a doubt, the expert that had felt Han Shuo’s mental probing was the dark elf Adele. If not for fear of Ancient Lizard King Dagassi’s presence, based on the strong aura Han Shuo felt from her body and the strength of the ancient dark elves beside her, they would have long since broken through this place and enslaved all the lizardmen.
As for how this dark elf Adele appeared, this wasn’t something Han Shuo had the time to think about at this moment. Coming to the underground world this time around was precisely to fulfill Han Shuo’s promise to Dagassi to protect the lizardmen. Hence, once the lizardmen’s leader had explained the situation to him, Han Shuo immediately took out all the weapons he had brought in the spatial ring this time round, saying, “I have brought these weapons for all of you. Don’t worry, i’ll help you in repelling the dark elves together.”
“Many thanks, Lord Envoy!” The leader of the lizardmen gratefully kowtowed in thanks.
Nodding his head, Han Shuo didn’t have much to say. Looking on as the lizardmen leader arranging manpower to rapidly distribute the weapons, he then released all twelve of the newly refined mystical zombies. Ten of the mystical zombies flooded the whole complex cave, while the other two flew out of the reddish brown colored mountain, hanging over the sky and spying on the dark elves’ movements from a distance. At the dark elves’ campsite, a handsome youth asked, “Matriarch, it’s been five days. The lizardmen are completely unable to resist; should we start our main attack?”
“Let’s wait a while more, I felt a weird aura just now. It actually tried to spy on me. When I wanted to search for the source, the aura vanished. This is quite strange.” A lazy yet bone-chilling female voice wafted from the tent. When the few hundreds of “young” dark elves beside the tent heard this voice, they all went a little dry in the mouth. A wave of trepidation arose from their hearts.
“Matriarch, what kind of existence is that large lizard? Hasn’t he already left? If not, he would have already come out and attacked us.” A handsome dark elf gulped before respectfully speaking up.
“You ask me, but who should I ask? Same as you, I just escaped from that dreaded place. Do you think I’m omniscient? However, I already heard legends about him when I was alive. All of you are still a little young. I guess your ancestors hadn’t mentioned it to any of you. In any case, you all just need to remember, he is a extremely strong lizard!” The female voice within the purple veil tent seemed to hold a hint of blame, but it still sounded comfortable and tantalizing to the ears.
“Matriarch, I really can’t figure it out; why did he not assist the lizardmen to clear the underground world when he broke out from under the gourd mountain? With such a strong figure around, the lizardmen could have eradicated us dark elves without much effort!”
“The few of us were even imprisoned by those undying black dragons in the layer below at that time. He shouldn’t have any difficulty in conquering this entire layer, so why would he delay till now?” Another handsome youth was puzzled as he spoke up too.
“Idiot, have you been imprisoned for too long?! Didn’t you listen to the children’s descriptions? I’m afraid even the dark dragon race from the layer below wouldn’t be able to deal with this giant lizard. Do you think we can obstruct him with just the few of us?” The voice from inside the tent came out laced with anger. Then, as if the anger was never present, a seductive laugh accompanied her next words, “As for why that large lizard hasn’t retaliated against us, it definitely isn’t because it’s afraid of us. With just the few of us, we are definitely not a match for a strong existence like him.”
“Then, who is he afraid of?” The dark elf that had previously asked the question followed up.
“All of you are idiots! It is because your faith in the goddess is not sincere enough, that even after living for so long, you still can’t feel her presence deep within your soul!” The goddess within the tent scolded. The antiquated elves standing around were all extremely submissive, every one of them agreeing profusely. However, after being reprimanded by Adele, these old farts faintly understood the meaning of her answer. It seemed like the powerful lizard’s hesitation should be due to their goddess, and not because of them.
“Alright, let’s wait a while more. Previously, the captured lizardmen said that their true god had already left and would not return to this place. That is why we are here. Otherwise, I definitely wouldn’t dare bring the few of you idiots here to throw away your lives. I suspect that large lizard has truly left. If not, it would have long since charged out to kill us.” Adele patiently explained to the few old fellows.
At this moment, a dark elf holding a bow suddenly rushed out from within a cave. He reached the front of the purple tent, looking surprised as he reported, “Matriarch, those lizardmen have suddenly gotten hold of some sharp weapons. These weapons looked like they were tailor made for the lizardmen. They hold the weapons with ease and can easily slash through our bodies. Furthermore, for an unknown reason, there is suddenly an influx of undead creatures within the caves. These undead creatures have blocked the passageways, helping the lizardmen resist our attack.
Adele’s cry in surprise traveled from the tent, making the elves around her shudder in silent pleasure. After, there was a period of silence before Adele replied, “It should be that necromancer named Bryan, it can’t be wrong then. Looks like he was the one who had just tried to spy on my existence. Sikong, make a trip. See if you can find that necromancer and bring him to me.”
The dark elf who had continuously asked questions listened respectfully and nodded. Without any further ado, he leapt forward like a feather and entered the cave. Sikong took out a blue crystal ball the size of a human head and held it with both hands. As he travelled within the caves, the crystal ball gradually absorbed the black silk like thread that escaped from his palm. These threads slowly floated within the blue crystal ball, forming a line after another that depicted the passageways of the cave.
A plume of faint blue gentle light twirled out of the crystal ball like a fish, looking like it was sensing the complex passageways within the cave. A map for a large portion of the cave was gradually depicted within the blue crystal ball.
Han Shuo was still at the central lizardmen cave. Through the twelve illusory mystical demons, Han Shuo overhead the dark elf matriarch Adele rebuking the other dark elves and roughly understood that they had escaped from the prison of the dark dragon clan on the layer beneath him. As for how they escaped, Han Shuo wasn’t too sure, but from listening to Adele’s conversation, these few dark elves that had suddenly appeared should’ve lived for a very long time.
Once the dark elf Sikong entered the cave, a mystical demon had already detected him and clearly saw the activity within the crystal ball that he held. Han Shuo, who was in the midst of arranging the lizardmen’s formation for resisting the dark elves, suddenly shouted to the lizardmen leader, “Help me look after these guys for a while, I’m making a trip!”
Finishing his sentence, Han Shuo flew out of the area. The mystical demons had been floating around in the complex passageways for quite a long time. Thus, Han Shuo had long since familiarized himself with the terrain, finding the dark elf that had entered the cave system in a very short period of time.
“Are you looking for me?” Han Shuo suddenly appeared from within a far-off cave, facing the dark elf Sikong who still held the crystal ball in his hand.
“Eh. I never would have thought you would appear on your own accord. Necromancer, when previously you had foiled our plans, I did not expect that you still dared to appear this time around!” Seeing Han Shuo voluntarily appear, Sikong gladly laughed, shining the blue crystal ball in his hand towards the sky.
Out of a sudden, all the absorbed lines within the crystal ball bursted out from the crystal ball. The blue lines started crisscrossing, quickly forming a giant net which rapidly enclosed the entire cave, with ten of lines entangled around Han Shuo.
“Haha, a mere necromancer actually dares to foil our noble dark elves’ plans. You must be looking to die!” Sikong confidently proclaimed toward Han Shuo who was caught in the blue spiderweb. Completing the chant for a spell, the crystal ball that had released countless blue lines slowly floated and followed him in flying out of the cave.
Being trapped in the blue spiderweb, apart from feeling the binding force, Han Shuo also felt a weak force leaking out which continuously weakened his mental strength. Although this dark elf Sikong appeared handsome and young, he must have already lived for countless years.
The dark elves’ lifespan was much longer than humans. As long as they weren’t killed by others, it wasn’t difficult for them to live for hundreds of years. Although a dark elf’s strength wasn’t completely measured based on their age, a majority of the older dark elves were much harder to deal with compared to younger dark elves.
The dark elves also had the advantage of practicing a few sinister spells. Dark elves that had lived for hundreds of years were often all dark mages that were exceedingly hard to deal with. Furthermore, as the dark elves worshipped the Evil Goddess Rose, they could also possess a special kind of strength, and hence were usually hard to fight against.
Looking at this confident old dark elf, Han Shuo wasn’t worried in the slightest, even entangled in the blue spiderweb. After Sikong had said his piece and planned to drag Han Shuo out of the cave, Han Shuo grinned toward Sikong, revealing a weird smile. He then whistled, and a blood mist shot out of him. The Demonslayer Edge was like a soaring dragon with a blood red light trail, completely slashing apart the blue spiderweb that was entangling Han Shuo.
When the old dark elf Sikong saw Han Shuo’s sudden outburst of violent aura that sliced through his blue spiderweb in an instant, he started panicking. When Han Shuo stared at him while chuckling weirdly, Sikong rapidly calculated, suddenly realising that he had no certainty of beating Han Shuo. The aura from Han Shuo’s body made him tremble, and he ran away without saying another word.