Why can't humans do it too?

Suer suddenly became excited—not really excited, he just wanted to know what choice Xin Ke, this enigmatic forest elf, would make.

It's easy to figure out that the small airship that just flew overhead likely came from a goblin farm or slaughterhouse.

Even though he had been verbally attacked by Xin Ke many times, and his race and his individuality had been despised to the lowest level, Su Er discovered that there seemed to be things in this world that he could do.

“Shall we go take a look, Miss Nielbaren?” said with a smile, following Hinco’s orders and no longer using the prefix “great.” “Even leaving the mole’s burrow requires someone who can attract attention, doesn’t it?”

In the general sense, we call such people cannon fodder, or heroes who sacrifice themselves for the greater good.

“Otherwise, a submarine that refuses to communicate and leaves without authorization would never be able to reach the surface safely in wartime,” Su Er said, looking quietly into Xin Ke’s eyes as he analyzed the situation with great sincerity.

Instead of rushing to state her decision, Xin Ke simply gazed into Su Er's eyes, as if trying to see into his heart through those windows to his soul.

"Does Mr. Monkey really think that way?"

"Ah, of course, after all, only this kind of plan can maximize the possibility of safely escaping back to the ground."

Sul frankly admitted that his intentions were very clear—he simply wanted to use the surviving forest elves as cannon fodder to attract attention.

If those racist savages from the Great Forest tribe heard this, they would probably be furious, right? But unfortunately, the only one who heard this was Xin Ke, a rule-breaker with an unusual personality.

"Okay~", Xin Ke nodded and smiled in agreement, "Then let's go take a look. Mr. Monkey is becoming more and more sensible~"

While praising her, Suer offered a timely way out and also gave her a direction. Xin Ke wouldn't specifically look for any captured or domesticated forest elves in this area, but what if it was on the way?

Suer was curious about what choice she would make.

----------------

Bored, I crept along.

The way those goblin children played was no different from the human children playing in the village of Sur, the only difference being the toys they held.

"Does Mr. Monkey like children?" Xin Ke asked curiously as she watched Dao Suer standing in the shadows gazing at the goblin children running and leaping on the rooftops in the distance.

“No, I hate children,” Suer said firmly, walking past Xinke into the building.

The goblin guarding the gate was knocked unconscious by Xin Ke in a single exchange. The woman's strength was overwhelmingly terrifying. The poor guard never expected to be attacked by an outsider in his own lair. He didn't even realize that Xin Ke's magic was about to hit him until he belatedly rushed towards the spirit armor he had carelessly tossed aside.

He didn't kill them, seemingly to prevent the automatic alarm from going off if someone died. Sul had already wisely retreated behind Xinke, and he watched as this forest elf dealt with all the goblins they encountered.

Only through such comparisons can one clearly perceive the power possessed by the forest elf in front of him, and Suer gradually gained a clear understanding of the title of Eightfold Spellcaster.

"Can goblins not cast spells without spirit armor?" Sur asked curiously, fiddling with the heavy metal block on the ground.

This is the spirit armor of a goblin who was just mercilessly defeated by Xinke. After losing its master's control, the weapon, which had already been transformed and unfolded, folded back at an even faster speed. Suer was a little curious about how such a small volume could unfold such a large mass.

He gradually discovered a fact—rather than the goblins being engaged in technology, they were still indulging in fantasy. They were a mechanical civilization, but they were absolutely incompatible with reason.

As expected, no matter how Suer fiddled with it, the spirit garment did not react at all.

"Sure~", Xin Ke glanced at it casually, then turned her attention back to the door in front of her that was covered with densely packed engravings.

"Huh? Then why didn't they come out? They just stood there and got beaten down by you?" Su Er asked, somewhat puzzled, as he carefully recalled the scenes he had just witnessed.

Xin Ke always strikes first, accurately and precisely knocking away the goblin guards' spirit armor. After that, the goblins are powerless and somewhat laughable. Some even rush up with their hairy fists, wanting to fight physically, only to be knocked away and lie dead the next second.

"You can use magic even without spirit armor, but you'll be much more likely to self-destruct."

"Huh?! Self-destruction?"

Suer stared in disbelief at the furry ball that had collapsed next to him, and instinctively moved further away from them.

“Remember what I said? The thing about the gophers’ body hair being made of Spirit Silver—once they use their spirits inside their bodies, the Spirit Silver starts to amplify the spirits’ power until it over-enhances in a very short time, hmm, that is, it goes out of control and surges forward. That’s why the gophers need to use Sensing Steel with a catalyst outside their bodies to use magic,” Xin Ke answered without turning her head. “Heh, in the end they’re just a bunch of flawed trash. Without the help of their spirit armor, they can’t control their spirits. Is there a more useless race than that?”

Suer chose to ignore this sentence.

As they spoke, the steel gate blocking their path seemed to finally awaken, trembling rapidly before rising slowly with a yellow inscription spell flashing in its wake.

"...Stop playing with that spirit armor. Without the caster's spirit drive, the soul can't synchronize with the catalyst. If Mr. Monkey wants to activate that spirit armor, he'd have to multiply the number of spirits in his body by at least several dozen times to barely manage it," Xin Ke said coldly, seeing through the gap between Su Er's fantasy and reality with just one glance.

"Sigh, here it comes," Suer sighed deeply, abandoning his idea of ​​taking the spirit weapon with him. He then tidied up the goblin next to him and walked over to Xin Ke's side. "Speaking of which, I didn't expect Miss Nirbalian to have such a deep understanding of goblin imprinting techniques."

Just by looking at the densely packed inscribed symbols on the gate of this prison, one can guess how difficult it would be to forcibly break through.

Chapter Sixty-Six: The Perfect Person

Without answering, Xin Ke walked into the room as if she hadn't heard Su Er's question.

However, for Suer, no answer was also an answer. To be honest, he had noticed something when he got a close look at Xinke's soul stone with her permission. There were two horizontal marks on the sides of Xinke's soul stone. Compared to a soul stone that grows from flesh and blood, these two marks seemed to be drawn on later. No matter how you looked at them, they were very similar to the engraving spells of the goblin race that Suer had seen before.

Connecting the information he had gleaned from the accidental conversation between the two furry balls, Suer roughly understood something.

The cages were filled with mountains of forest elves—please forgive Sull for using such an adjective, but that was indeed the scene he saw. The prison, which was not small to begin with, seemed extremely crowded in comparison to the sheer number of them.

The prisoners were clearly divided into two factions: some were forest elves who were only covered by a tattered gray cloth, while others wore dirty white robes, somewhat similar to Xin Ke's clothes. It was obvious who the lambs kept here were and who the newly captured prisoners were.

Similarly, their reactions were completely different when they saw Xinke walk in.

"Lord Hua Guanqing?! Lord Hua Guanqing!! You, what are you doing here!!"

A commotion erupted as the forest elves, dressed in tattered white robes, pressed their faces against the steel fence, their eyes practically bulging out.

"Have you come to rescue us?!"

"That's wonderful, that's wonderful! I knew it was Lord Hua Guanqing..."

"..."

Without saying a word, Suer stood quietly at the gate watching the excited forest elf prisoners. Their spirits seemed to have been greatly tormented, to the point that they were about to break when they suddenly saw this illusory hope. Many of them burst into tears. In stark contrast, the forest elves wrapped in rags on the other side were much more numb, and most of them didn't even stand up.

“Please calm down, everyone,” Xin Ke said with a smile, spreading her arms as she lowered her hood. “How could I possibly abandon my loyal compatriots and flee in such a sorry state? Don’t worry, we’ll release you all soon.”

Xin Ke's words carried a convincing magic. Following her words, the forest elves in the prison quieted down considerably, their eyes glistening with excited tears as they watched Xin Ke open the cell door.

A gentle smile brimming with compassion; a slight frown of sorrow as she witnessed the suffering of her compatriots; noble and courteous; nodding in acknowledgment to every compatriot who expressed gratitude to her; never treating anyone with arrogance because of her status; and if someone she knew excitedly grasped her hand upon her arrival, she would not feel disgusted or push them away, but instead offer words of comfort—Suer almost began to doubt whether there was something wrong with her eyes and memory.

Is this still the same Xin Ke?

Hey, who is this person who openly says it's their honor to pave their own way with the lives of others?!

"How are you? Still have energy?"

The gentle words of comfort continued on the other side.

"Ah, Lord Flower Crown Lord! I can still fight!" The young forest elf, when asked, was so excited that he subconsciously stood on tiptoe. Suer had no doubt that even if there were no more elves in his body, this guy would still forcefully squeeze out his own life force.

The number of people who reacted in this way was very large. Undoubtedly, the fact that the noble Hua Guanqing would risk his life in such a dangerous gopher nest to save them had ignited the passion in their hearts. This was the power of being moved.

But Suer, who had seen through everything from beginning to end, just wanted to laugh... What right did he have to look down on him and mock him? Suddenly realizing this, Suer quickly calmed down. In the end, he, who had persuaded Xinke to come to this place with ulterior motives that he couldn't say, was not a kind person either.

There's no need to laugh at someone who's only taken fifty steps when they've taken a hundred.

"Okay, that's it."

With a soft click, the ring-shaped object locked around the neck of a forest elf shrunk into a small cube and fell to the ground.

"How is it? Has the elf started to move?" Xin Ke asked the forest elf in front of her, stepping back slightly.

"Yes, it's already starting to move, and it should flow back throughout the body in a while," the young forest spirit replied, closing his eyes and sensing the sensation.

"The lock made by the mole will attract and gather all the Pokémon in the wearer's body. If it receives a command or is forcibly dismantled, it will detonate these Pokémon directly. The stronger the person locked, the stronger the explosion will be. However, you only need to disconnect one connection point inside, and there will be a short period of inactivation," Xin Ke explained to the people next to her with a smile. "It's not too difficult. If your Pokémon hadn't been sealed, you should have been able to unlock it just as easily, so don't blame yourselves."

He's being incredibly modest, far too modest.

Although the woman was being modest, Suer could tell from the expressions of the people around her that the seemingly simple task she was talking about was anything but simple.

If Xin Ke had always been like this, then Su Er would understand why she had become the Flower Crown Lord who led the entire race.

“I see…then I’ll trouble you, Lord Huaguanqing. By the way, Lord Huaguanqing, I haven’t asked who this gentleman is yet…?” The question was finally posed. He had been wondering about this man since he first saw Suer come in with Xinke, and only now did he have the chance to ask him. The man, who seemed to be of considerable status among all the captured forest elves, asked.

The movement of the elf was almost imperceptible. It did not resemble a body containing powerful physical strength, nor did it have animal ears or a tail. How could such a frail creature be following behind Hua Guanqing? Even its face was covered.

"Ah~, he's just my servant, don't worry about it," Xin Ke explained lightly, then changed the subject. "Instead of this, Lord Baltiru should rest more. We'll need you to lead everyone in casting magic when we escape later."

"Yes! I will obey your orders, Lord Huaguanqing!" The troop commander instantly forgot about Suer's existence. Although he didn't know why Lord Huaguanqing would take such a useless fellow as a servant, he shouldn't ask anymore.

The prison warehouse still contained some food that the goblins used to feed the forest elves they had captured, with no intention of keeping any. Xin Ke ordered the food to be distributed to build up their strength for the upcoming operation.

Chapter Sixty-Seven Dissent

Forest elves can link and use the same spell, amplifying the power of an ordinary spell several times over. This is an experience they have gained from their long war with the goblin races—well, actually, this epoch-making tactic was developed by Xinke.

With her own strength, she raised the limits of her entire race, giving the united forest elves some of the power to fight back against the goblins. When she first appeared, she even dealt a heavy blow to the gophers who came to capture the forest elves, achieving a glorious victory.

In addition to the power of this connection, Xin Ke also brought another power to the forest spirits, providing strong support for her to easily seize the position of Flower Crown Minister amidst praise and worship.

Silently recording this information in his mind, Suer stood in the corner like an invisible man, watching these forest elves healing each other's wounds and temporarily imprinting spells on their bodies with their own blood. A do-or-die spirit gathered on their bodies.

No forest elves came to ask him anything. Before receiving Xin Ke's permission, the others pretended they had never seen Su Er. However, compared to the quiet he was happy to see, the forest elves who had been imprisoned for a long time were in a much worse state.

Even after the cages were opened and the locks around their necks were removed, these people remained numbly squatting there, showing no excitement, nor actively joining the prisoners' discussions about escaping, and not even making any preparations.

If everyone present were to be ranked, Xin Ke would undoubtedly be at the top, followed by the prisoners of the just-concluded battle. Incidentally, even these prisoners automatically assigned themselves to their positions the moment they stepped out of the cell, without needing any reminders. At the very bottom were the lambs captured by the goblins long ago.

As for Suer? He's more like an appendage of Xinke. No forest elf would bypass Xinke to talk to him; everything about him is arranged by Xinke.

“…When the escape begins, have them stay close to the main force as much as possible,” Xin Ke instructed the commander named Baltiru, glancing over the forest elves who had completely lost their will to escape.

"Yes," Baltiru glared at the grey-robed forest elves with undisguised disgust in his eyes, but couldn't help but whisper, "Actually, Lord Flower Crown, these people are completely useless. They're just the lowest commoners. Rather than leading them around, which they can't fight, it's better to let them scatter throughout the mole's city and cause some destruction, as cannon fodder."

Although he spoke softly, his words were still clearly audible to the people surrounding Xin Ke. Instead of drawing criticism and resistance from others, his harsh remarks elicited a chorus of approval and cheers.

Ah, right, the Forest Elves are a race where slavery is prevalent...