Taking out a torch, Lu Ming entered the area without a second thought.

Seeing this, Miral, Kate, Caslan, and Torres all followed, intending to see what lay beneath the temple ruins.

Inside, they discovered a vast space filled with rows of human-shaped statues crafted from stone, bronze, and special gemstones.

These statues are identical in height and appearance; the only difference is the material they are made of.

Lu Ming, Caslan, and Toures weren't particularly interested in these things. But it was a different story for Miral and Kate. The moment they saw the humanoid statues, they went crazy, immediately hugging two of them, not caring about the dust on them!

Helpless, Lu Ming stepped forward, grabbed Miral and Kate, pulled them off the human-shaped statue, and then forcibly dragged them out.

Watching Miral and Kate being dragged away by Lu Ming, yet still shouting "Those are mine! Those golems are all mine!" while still fixated on the humanoid statues, Toures shook his head helplessly.

Yes, those humanoid statues beneath the temple are the golems the elven army is searching for. Judging from the golems in this enormous room, there are at least five thousand golems slumbering within these ruins. And within the Duchy of Tartarus, there are over thirty such ruins. This means that even considering any unforeseen damage to the golems, the elves could still obtain at least a hundred thousand golems from these ruins. That's an unimaginably terrifying army, a truly devastating blow to the Duchy of Tartarus!

So before the elven army searching for golems finds so many, Lu Ming and his group must eliminate them first! Otherwise, they'll be crushed!

Overwhelmed with excitement, Miral and Kate, who had been thrown out of the room beneath the temple by Lu Ming, were allowed to re-enter after making a series of assurances to Lu Ming, and to conduct further research on the golem.

It's not surprising that Miral, who enjoys creating and improving puppet soldiers, would also be interested in golems, which are far more powerful than puppet soldiers. What puzzled Lu Ming, however, was why Kate, the elven princess, would also be interested in golems.

As it turned out, Kate told Lu Ming that she was the youngest daughter of the Elf Queen. Because it was impossible for her to compete with her sisters for the throne, few royal tutors were willing to teach her anything. She could only study on her own in the royal library after she learned to read. At that time, she became fascinated with golems because of a book about them and wanted to find an opportunity to study them in the future. That's why she lost her composure when she saw the golem earlier.

For some reason, Lu Ming approved Miral and Kate's request to study the golems. However, to prevent Kate from playing any tricks, he only gave Miral and Kate three golems each for research. He then had him work with the mages of the Yugsotus Cavalry under Ramanas to create a space magic carriage to store all the remaining golems, lest Kate act recklessly.

However, because he approved Miral and Kate's request to study the golem, Hernes and other mages in the group also began to make requests of him.

Left with no other choice, Lu Ming finally agreed. Fortunately, there were only six of them in total, and they could be dealt with using a few golems.

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

Before nightfall, the armies of Erebus and Tartarus turned the ruins into their own camp, building simple wooden walls and inscribing them with fireproof and sturdy magic circles to defend against the elven attack.

However, as the sun set and the moon rose, they did not see any trace of the elves.

Many people speculated that the elves might not be familiar with the terrain of Tartarus and therefore got lost, which is why they didn't come here.

However, their army of over 60,000 to nearly 70,000 was conveniently stationed at the largest ancient ruins in the area, meaning the elven army would eventually arrive. Therefore, they only needed to wait and prepare for their arrival.

Sitting by the campfire next to his carriage, Lu Ming roasted meat while watching Miral and Kate study the golems. He would occasionally offer small suggestions to help them study the golems correctly without destroying these precious ancient treasures.

"I didn't expect that you, Lu Ming, already a viscount, would still be grilling meat yourself!" At this moment, Tures walked over and sat down about a meter away from Lu Ming's right, saying with some surprise.

"It's just a little habit." Lu Ming didn't say much, and just continued grilling the meat.

However, Torres had no intention of letting him off the hook. After only a moment, he asked him, "What exactly is the plan between you, my brother, and Lothric? Judging from what you said a few days ago, it seems that the Grand Dukes are also involved in your plan! Why is that?"

"Finally couldn't hold back anymore?" Lu Ming glanced at Tures and smiled slightly.

"What, you don't want to tell me?" Tures asked, his brow furrowed and a hint of anger in his voice.

"No, that's not it. I just hope you can keep it a secret." After removing the meat from the campfire and cutting off a piece with his dagger, Lu Ming handed the roasted meat to Tures and smiled.

As for the roast meat, Torres took a small bite and then said to Lu Ming, "Don't worry, I'll keep it a secret."

Upon hearing this, Lu Ming began to slowly explain while grilling another piece of meat: "Our plan was devised by us and the royal family when the Grand Dukes were in the capital. The main leaders were myself, Lothric, and Caslan's sister, Winslant. Because we knew that the Aifa Empire harbored ill intentions towards our Miracaiser Kingdom, the three of us often researched ways to completely resolve this issue."

"Ultimately, while studying the map of the Aifa Empire, we discovered that the region bordering our Miracaissa Kingdom was actually separated by the Dragonspine Mountains! The only few connections to other areas were mostly valleys, with only the Azertus Plains offering unimpeded access to both the Aifa Empire's interior and the region bordering Miracaissa. If we conquered this area, built high walls to blockade the Azertus Plains, and constructed fortresses in those valleys, we could contain the Aifa Empire's army within, preventing another full-scale war between our Miracaissa Kingdom and the Aifa Empire. This would also allow us to gain the land of approximately two duchies!"

Upon hearing this, Toures was startled and couldn't help but exclaim, "The lands of two duchies?!"

Instantly, everyone turned to look at them. Among them, Ramanlas walked straight over and asked the two of them, "What are you talking about? Why is Miss Tures so agitated?"

Taking Ramanlas's hand and helping her sit beside him, Lu Ming smiled and said, "It's nothing, we were just talking about the two island groups that the Duchy of R'lyeh discovered at sea. Those two places together are just enough to form two small duchies. The royal family is currently considering who to bestow those islands upon."

Upon hearing this, Ramanlas couldn't help but say, "I've heard about this too. I heard that the royal family is still considering whether or not to incorporate that area into the kingdom's territory as two new duchies."

Seeing that Lu Ming had changed the subject, Torres knew that Lu Ming didn't want Ramanlas to know about the plan, so Torres continued on this new topic, saying, "However, if it can really be incorporated into Miracaisa's territory as a new duchy, perhaps you can get one of the duchies, Ramanlas!"

"Eh!" Ramanlas was taken aback at first, then shook her head and said, "How could that be? Her Majesty the Queen needs these two new duchies to win over her own people, how could she possibly give them to me? Besides, if I were sent to a place like that, I, who can't swim, would probably drown in a few days. Also, I don't want to leave my husband!"

Seeing Ramanlas hug his arm as they talked, her eyes sparkling with longing, Lu Ming smiled helplessly.

Initially, Ramanlas was very wary of territory, fearing the Empress might harm her. However, like other royalty, ambition resided deep within Ramanlas's heart. As she spent more and more time away from the capital and leading Yggdrasil, her desire grew stronger for a territory of her own, where she could truly realize her potential.

However, her fear of imperial power prevented her from expressing it, and she could only think about it in her heart.

Perhaps drawn in by the topic of the islands, Henes, who was studying the golem not far away and competing with Miral to see who could find a way to activate it faster, suddenly stopped her research, walked over, sat down next to Ramanlas, and asked Lu Ming, "Um, is what you said about the new duchy true?"

“It’s true!” Ramanlas nodded slightly and said, “The Grand Duke mentioned this to us a few days ago. It’s said that if those two island groups are incorporated into the kingdom as new duchies, one of the two new Grand Dukes will be chosen from among the royal family!”

Upon hearing this, Henes immediately became interested, grabbed Ramanlas's hand, and asked, "Is that really what the royal family intends to do!?"

"That seems to be the case!"

Watching the two royal members, Ramanlas and Henes, chatting enthusiastically about this matter, Lu Ming smiled helplessly and continued grilling the meat, ignoring what they were talking about.

Meanwhile, Torres was engrossed in conversation with Ramanlas and Henes because the new duchy would have many vacant titles with fiefs.

After grilling meat for himself and the others, Lu Ming took his, Miral's, and Kate's portions and went to have dinner with them.

While tearing large bites of roasted meat, Miral stared with a troubled expression at the golems that neither she nor anyone else could activate, racking her brains. Kate, standing nearby, was in a similar predicament, tearing at her own meat while pondering how she could activate the golems.

Because they were both angry, neither of them intended to ask Lu Ming for his opinion, and Lu Ming didn't want to say anything either, so after they finished dinner, they couldn't come up with any solutions.

But at that moment, out of curiosity, Kaslan stood behind a magician who was still studying the golem day and night, trying to find a way to activate it, and watched the magician jumping around and fiddling with the golem.

Suddenly, Kaslan noticed a line of text on the golem's forehead, with several letters blocked by something. He stepped forward, used his dagger to clear the obscuring text, and the golem activated!

Seeing the mage's greatly shocked expression after Kaslan's effortless activation of the golem, Lu Ming couldn't help but burst into laughter.

At this moment, Miral and the others realized that Lu Ming had known about the writing on the golem's forehead from the beginning and had been laughing at them all along. They glared at Lu Ming and, following Kaslan's method, removed the writing covering the golem's forehead to activate it.

Chapter Twenty-Five - Ambush

At dawn, General Fold Karen of the Elven race led a large army through Tartarus, the duchy of Miracaiser, searching for ruins containing ancient golems. He hoped to obtain a large number of undamaged golems from these places to replenish his troops and use them as siege weapons when attacking cities.

But in these days, they have only found about a thousand golems.

Unfortunately, they didn't know how to activate these golems. After all, knowledge about golems was something only the elven royal family and priests knew, and these military elves couldn't possibly know such knowledge.

Therefore, these golems became a hindrance, slowing down the army's march and putting the entire army in a state of high tension, constantly worried that Tartarus's army might suddenly jump out and surprise them.

In this highly tense state, constantly on the verge of a mutiny, they finally found another ancient ruin unharmed. According to the scouts, this was a large ruin, containing at least several thousand golems.

Upon hearing this news, Ferd's first thought was to rush over, move the golem away, return directly to the main force, hand it over to the priests and shamans, and then delegate this damned task to the other elves. In any case, he didn't want to do this damned mission anymore.

"You bastards, we've found a huge ruin! Now all we need to do is empty the golems out of there and we can head straight back to the main force!" Knowing his soldiers were too nervous, Fred shouted to them without hesitation after learning that the scouts had found a large ruin.

Instantly, upon hearing this good news, the previously tense elven soldiers breathed a sigh of relief. They had found the ruins and would soon be able to return to their main force, no longer needing to worry about an attack from Tartarus's army, and thus relaxed and lowered their guard.

Little did they know that a huge surprise awaited them right in front of them!

As the elven army began its march towards the ruins, the scout who had previously delivered the message to Fodor secretly hid in the woods. Watching the elves from afar, he grinned broadly, saying, "The elven general isn't all that great! He's completely fooled by such a simple lie. But since you're looking for the golem, then go and have some fun with it!"

After saying this, the scout turned into a shadow and disappeared into the other shadows.

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According to the scouts, Fodor and his 40,000-strong elven army walked for about half an hour in the forest before finally seeing the ruins in the distance, a tower-like structure that was taller than the surrounding trees.

Upon seeing what appeared to be a tall tower, but was actually a solid structure, Fred knew he had come to the right place.

That tower-like structure was a lightning-attracting device built by the ancient elves to power the golems. It could absorb the energy of lightning and guide it to a space directly below, where a special device would inject the energy of the lightning into each golem, filling them with power.

Although it was a method from thousands of years ago, similar things can still be seen in some temples or golem-making workshops in the Aifa Empire, they are just no longer in use.

Having seen similar things many times in his hometown temple, Fold knew that his 40,000 men had already found several thousand golems and no longer needed to worry about Tartarus's army suddenly attacking because of this unfortunate mission.

"Everyone, speed up! We need to get to the mission objective as quickly as possible!" Looking at the ruins that were still a long way off in the distance, Fred turned around and roared at his soldiers.

Immediately, his soldiers quickened their pace and began to jog towards the ruins.

But just when Fred and his soldiers thought the mission would be completed safely, a hail of arrows suddenly shot out from both sides, catching Fred off guard!

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

As the rain of arrows fell, rows of elven soldiers fell, and the rest of the soldiers were instantly thrown into chaos, with less than half of them remaining to fight back with their bows and arrows.

At this moment, Ford, who had already realized what was happening, immediately roared, "All counterattack! Counterattack!"

Upon hearing the commander's command, the bewildered soldiers gradually began to fight back.

But for some reason, the army that attacked them suddenly retreated, as if they were outnumbered and unable to face their army of 40,000 elves.

At this moment, Fred was blinded by rage and no longer cared whether the enemy was luring him into a trap. He led his equally furious soldiers in hot pursuit of the retreating enemy, and they were about to catch up with them.

However, suddenly another volley of arrows fell from the sky, landing on the heads of the soldiers under Fred's command, instantly killing a large number of them.

Seeing this, Ferd became even angrier and ordered the remaining soldiers to speed up and continue pursuing the small but tiresome Tartarus soldiers.

During the relentless pursuit, Fred and his soldiers unknowingly found themselves surrounded by a wooden wall.

In that instant, Fodor's adjutant sensed something was amiss and caught up with Fodor, saying, "General, let's retreat! This might be a trap set by the people of the Duchy of Tartarus. We can't be fools and fall for it!"

Upon hearing this, Fred realized what was happening and ordered the troops to stop.

He looked around and found that some of the trees had been deliberately cut down to create paths for them or others, which looked like traps or ambushes.

So he immediately ordered a retreat to avoid going deeper and falling into a trap, where he would be severely damaged by Tartarus's army.

But just as he gave the order to retreat, Tartarus' soldiers, hiding in the woods, once again unleashed a barrage of arrows at them!

Left with no other option, Fred had to forcefully order his soldiers to retreat, shields in hand, through a hail of arrows. This would likely cause resentment among the soldiers, but it was better than dying there.

Holding up their shields, braving the constant barrage of arrows, and listening to the screams of soldiers being struck by arrows, Fiddle and his men finally managed to push the wooden wall aside, where they could rely on it to defend against the Tartarus army's arrows.

"Damn Miracaesars, you better not give me another chance, or I'll wipe you all out!!" Hiding behind the wooden wall, Fodor looked through a gap in the wall at the army in standard armor of the Duchy of Tartarus in the distance and said viciously.

"General, our soldiers are being suppressed by their arrow rain and have no way to fight back!" Seeing that Tartarus's army was growing in number, Fiddle's adjutant hurriedly said to him, "We must retreat now! Their numbers are about the same as ours, and we are now at a disadvantage! If we don't retreat soon, we will be wiped out!"

Upon hearing this, Fred flew into a rage and said fiercely to his adjutant, "No! We absolutely cannot retreat! Once we retreat, they will be right behind us, shooting arrows at us! So retreating will result in even greater losses for us!"

"But......"

Seeing his adjutant still hesitating, Fred mistakenly thought he was being cowardly, so he suddenly roared, "No buts! The soldiers of the Aifa Empire are not cowards! We can fight a battle with an advantage, and we can fight a battle with an disadvantage!!"

Upon hearing this, the adjutant fell silent. The soldiers, however, began to bravely retaliate against the Tartarus Duchy soldiers with their bows and arrows, and the mages in the ranks also began to attack the enemy with magic.

Seeing the soldiers fighting back desperately, the adjutant gritted his teeth and said, "I understand, General! I will not let you retreat again!"

Ferd nodded, drew his longbow, and fired at Tartarus's army, saying, "These are the soldiers of our Aifa Empire! Remember, we are not cowards!"

Before the adjutant could answer, a sudden roar delivered a resounding slap to Fred's face!

That was the sound of the cavalry's horseshoes slamming heavily onto the ground as they galloped. Judging from the volume of the roar, this cavalry regiment numbered at least ten thousand! And they were all heavy cavalry!

"Damn Miracathians!!" Upon hearing the incredibly loud roar, Fiddle couldn't help but curse, because he had already discerned that the cavalry regiment was attacking from their right flank!

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