IRM Chapter 143

Four hours was actually very limited time, so they had no choice but to split into two groups—three people would go find the trapped unicorn, while the other three would accompany Ji Chi to where the Dark Spirits lived.

Dominic walked beside Ji Chi. Upon entering the black fog, he had already taken down the bow that was fastened to his braid. The emerald green curved bow hooked around his fingers, emitting waves of ghostly fluorescent light.

He focused intently on scanning everything around them, every inch of muscle from his arms to his shoulders tensed tightly.

As Dominic walked forward, he spoke to Ji Chi. “Before everything happened, the Light Spirits were just like now—they were kind, intelligent, and loyal. All the elves liked them very much. They were like the sunshine of spring, warmly illuminating the Elven Forest.”

“The Dark Spirits were completely opposite to them. They were greedy and evil, and to command them always required paying a great price…” Dominic shook his head and sighed. “The elves didn’t like them, but they didn’t reject them either. Because we all understood that just as a person has both a kind side and a dark side, whether you like it or not, you must ultimately accept your complete self.”

“But… the Dark Spirits’ departure was the last straw that broke the elves’ emotional composure. Elves could forgive selfishness, could forgive greed, but absolutely would not forgive betrayal.”

Dominic used his bow and arrow to sweep aside the branches blocking their path and said softly, “I know now that they didn’t intentionally betray us, but they’ve already started to resent the elves. I’m worried…”

Dominic anxiously bit his lower lip, his eyes full of worry.

Ji Chi glanced at him sideways. “Then try to get them to forgive you. Whoever did something wrong should pay the corresponding price—isn’t that perfectly normal?”

“If you ask me, you elves also have some rather high-and-mighty ideas… You’re all independent individuals, yet you revere and adore one group while harboring deep prejudices against another. Wouldn’t anyone feel uncomfortable being treated that way?” Saintess Coralie also chimed in from the side. She was thoroughly disgusted by the deep-rooted view that “darkness is original sin.”

To be unable to do without darkness on one hand, yet wantonly denigrate it on the other—wasn’t that also an absurd and selfish display?

Dominic fell silent, then nodded again. “You’re right. It’s been us who were wrong all along.”

The instant he spoke those words, the already very quiet black fog forest now became as silent as death. Footsteps, breathing, all the minute sounds disappeared. It was as if their ears had gone deaf, unable to catch any movement whatsoever.

Brandon closed his eyes briefly, then took down an enormous broadsword from his back. He held the sword vertically before him with both hands, his eyes calmly looking forward. “Since you’ve already come, let’s communicate with each other about our respective difficulties. Keeping it bottled up inside will also cause problems!”

He raised the broadsword high. A layer of bright red flames ignited on the smooth, mirror-like blade. He forcefully slashed downward toward the front. “Cleave through the darkness!”

The flames burned forward as if they were tangible. The thick black fog twisted and curled toward the sides like paper pages thrown into a fire—

Then exposed dark silhouettes standing among the trees.

The Dark Spirits walked out from the darkness, their eyes wrapped in a layer of surging dark emotions—very complex, like hatred, resentment, and rage all mixed together, making one’s heart grow cold just looking at them.

They looked mockingly at Dominic and sneered. “Look! What has our great Twin Elf King said? His subjects did something wrong? How is that possible? Isn’t it always us who were wrong?”

Dominic pressed his lips together, stepped back, and knelt on one knee before them, placing his right hand on his chest. He lowered his head and said, “I wish to offer my most sincere apology, only asking for thy forgiveness—”

The Dark Spirits didn’t appreciate it. As if watching a wonderful circus act, they clapped their hands mockingly and laughed. “Such a standard kneel! Can you teach us? That way when you despise us again next time, we can also try kneeling~”

Saintess Coralie silently watched them for a long while, then suddenly turned her head and cursed in a low voice. “Damn it, passive-aggressive behavior is really so annoying.”

Ji Chi & the young master: “…” Not easy—you can actually experience this feeling too.

Dominic knew well their sensitivity and irritability and didn’t dare speak in rebuttal, only quietly kneeling there, waiting for them to calm down.

But the Dark Spirits not only didn’t restrain themselves, they cursed even more fiercely.

Ji Chi sighed and walked forward, bent down to help Dominic up, and said, “The more humble you are now, the more arrogant they’ll become. If you want to properly negotiate terms—whether begging for forgiveness or paying a price—they have to be willing to listen first.”

Ji Chi smiled and said, “So the Light Spirit wasn’t wrong—at times like this, you don’t need to say too much. Just beat them within an inch of their lives. Dominic, you wait first. After I’ve pacified them and they’re all willing to listen, then continue talking about some useful solutions.”

The Dark Spirits on the opposite side took a long time to understand the meaning in his words. They exchanged glances, then burst into laughter with a whoosh. “Hahaha! Did you hear what he said? With that small frame of his, he wants to beat us? Beat us within an inch of our lives? Stop joking around!”

Ji Chi watched them laughing and rolling on the ground and didn’t get angry. He even watched with interest for a while longer before saying, “Stupidity, like excessive pride, is also a kind of negative emotion.”

The Dark Spirits immediately darkened their expressions, their faces changing dramatically. They stared coldly at Ji Chi. “Hmph, we’re just very curious where your confidence comes from.”

As they spoke, they flapped their wings and flew toward Ji Chi in a dark mass. When they were less than a hundred meters away from him, they caught a certain scent and suddenly understood. “So… He has become so useless that He’s actually willing to give His divine power to an arrogant and conceited human!”

Though the Dark Spirits used a gloating tone, the rage and madness in their eyes still betrayed them—no matter how dissatisfied they were with the Mother Tree, She was ultimately their faith and absolutely could not be defiled by some inexplicable human!

Ji Chi cracked his knuckles, a trace of excitement also flashing in his eyes. He could finally understand the excitement the Countess felt when she first arrived at the snow plains. The capital of Saint Trilley was prosperous enough, but without exhilarating battles, it was ultimately boring.

He turned his face to speak to the three little companions behind him. “Can you all step back a bit? I’m afraid I might accidentally hurt you if I’m not careful.”

Dominic frowned. “But they’re elemental elves. Can you really…”

Before he could finish, the young master and the little demon king each grabbed one of his arms and carried him away.

The young master glanced sideways. “Have you never seen him fight? Then you can observe carefully now, and then you’ll discover—existences you previously thought were powerful are all just small fry now.”

Ji Chi took a deep breath. With one hand, he took down the demon sword from his back. The demon sword could only be swung once, so Ji Chi didn’t remove the scabbard. The entire sword looked very heavy, and its attack power was worlds apart from the panel data.

However, this didn’t hinder Ji Chi’s performance. He held the sword horizontally, his gaze as sharp as a wolf’s.

Though the Dark Spirits sometimes weren’t very bright, they still possessed basic combat instincts. They keenly sensed the dangerous aura on Ji Chi and unanimously chose to hide in the darkness and watch for an opportunity to attack.

For warriors, rangers were absolutely the most troublesome enemies, bar none—they ran fast and had long attack ranges. Even if their damage wasn’t as explosive as warriors and mages, by pulling enemies along and slowly whittling them down, they could still wear opponents to death on the battlefield bit by bit.

So without forming a party, warriors usually avoided rangers.

The Dark Spirits were very clear about their advantages. They scattered throughout the dense forest shrouded in black fog, poking their heads out from various branches above, aiming their bows and arrows at Ji Chi’s completely unprotected body.

They casually grabbed a mass of rich dark element. With a backward stroke of their fingers, it formed a pitch-black, sharp arrow—

Whoosh whoosh whoosh! Sharp swords condensed from dark elements fell like a rainstorm, weaving into a seamless giant net in midair that came swooping down over Ji Chi’s head!

Ji Chi slowed his breathing. Gripping the demon sword in his right hand, he rapidly crossed and drew arc after arc in front of him at a speed difficult for the naked eye to detect. “Absolute Ice Domain!”

The cold metallic luster reflected from the demon sword’s scabbard lingered in those smooth arcs. Countless semicircular arcs overlapped and expanded outward, forming a complete light domain carrying a chill!

The elemental arrows crashed against the light domain and scattered one after another along with the force into the black fog, but the light domain’s momentum didn’t decrease. When it expanded to a certain size, it dispersed into sharp arc lights that spread out in all directions.

Looks of terror instantly appeared on the Dark Spirits’ faces!

In their understanding, warriors were almost all melee attackers. Very, very few skills could increase their attack range, but this increase also had limitations—it absolutely couldn’t be like now, which was simply an operation that defied common sense!

They had no time to think further and hurriedly hid behind tree trunks, hoping the thick branches would offset the sword light’s force.

However, the sword light’s momentum didn’t slow at all. Like scalding knife edges cutting through butter, they effortlessly sliced through tree trunks two to three meters in diameter, pressing against the skin of throats and chests.

The Dark Spirits finally became afraid and frantically fled backward. Only after retreating to an extremely far distance did they turn back with lingering fear to look at the slowly healing cracks in the black fog.

The Dark Spirits had scattered very far, distributed in twos and threes throughout the dense forest. They warily walked back toward the original direction, carefully watching for any movement around them to prevent the warrior from getting in their faces for close-range output, which would put them at an extreme disadvantage.

They were too focused on the movements in the black fog and thus overlooked that countless pairs of blood-red eyes on the ground had passed by, monitoring every move of each elf.

“Gotcha—the last students, numbers 48 and 49.” A voice with a low laugh came from behind their heads. The Dark Spirits’ scalps exploded. They instantly turned around, drew their bows, and shot!

“Oh, don’t make pointless resistance. If ranged attacks can’t hurt me, what chance do you have in melee—” This was the last sentence the Dark Spirits heard. After that, they felt a pain at the back of their necks and fell into a dizzy stupor.

When the Dark Spirits opened their eyes, they were all tied up without exception, layer upon layer, to a large tree.

Ji Chi sat with his legs crossed on a tree stump in front of them, carefully wiping the scabbard in his hand. He looked up. “Oh, you’re awake? Can you listen to reason now?”

Having been unconscious, the Dark Spirits had obviously forgotten the fear they’d experienced earlier. They angrily shouted and cursed, their profanity so abundant it could have drowned the forest.

Ji Chi clicked the scabbard back onto his back with a snap, looked at them with a half-smile, and turned his head to ask Brandon. “How does your mother usually make people obedient? She seems very skilled at this.”

Brandon let out an “ah” and, recalling the terror of being dominated by the Countess, cast a sympathetic gaze on the Dark Spirits’ faces. “It depends on whether she’s dealing with soldiers or enemies. If she wants to make enemies shut up… generally she slices the flesh from their bodies in thin pieces, roasts it, then stuffs it in their mouths.”

“Don’t look at me like that.” If it had been the young master from a few years ago, he might already be vomiting all over the place, but now he was much stronger and only smiled bitterly. “Beastmen aren’t all simple and honest. When you encounter one like my mother… you’d better run quickly.”

As the Dark Spirits listened, their cursing gradually stopped. Their faces turned pale as paper as they silently stared at Ji Chi.

Ji Chi gave a sinister smile and selected a gleaming dagger from his game inventory. A terrifying skull shape was even carved on it. He walked step by step toward them—

Under their terrified gaze, his hand rose and the blade fell, cutting down the vines that bound them.

He pressed his hand against the large tree behind them. Taking advantage of the Dark Spirits’ frightened and uneasy state, he lowered his eyes and looked at them gently, saying softly, “May divine power soothe thee to peace.”

The fear and hatred on the Dark Spirits’ faces gradually faded. An indescribable quiet warmth flowed throughout their entire bodies. They stared blankly at Ji Chi, their hands hanging powerlessly at their sides.

How many years had it been? They couldn’t remember how many years it had been since they’d last felt such peace. They had almost forgotten that they too could feel happiness and joy.

In the distance, Evan, who was rescuing the unicorn, sensed the rapid influx of light elements and raised his head toward Ji Chi’s direction, the corners of his mouth lifting high. “They succeeded.”

“We succeeded too.” Linton touched the somewhat dimmed horn of the unicorn before him and received a grateful nuzzle from the unicorn in return. He also broke into a smile.

The black fog covering the forest above was rapidly dissipating. In the end, only a hazy layer of dark mist veil remained, lightly draped over the vast Elven Forest above.

This layer of mist veil was composed of the Dark Spirits’ difficult-to-release regret. Apart from not looking good, it had no other effects. As long as they waited for tomorrow’s warm sun to rise, it would completely disappear in the wind and warm sunlight.

Not long after, the Dark Spirits, under Dominic’s persuasion, twisted and squirmed before agreeing to return beneath the Elven Mother Tree.

They looked sideways with an air of superiority. “This is because you begged us, okay? Remember this—it’s because the Twin Elf King knelt and begged us that we agreed!”

When they weren’t looking, Dominic rolled his eyes dramatically.

Ji Chi smiled as he appreciated this “friendly” scene, then naturally turned his head, his ink-black pupils fixing on a shadow beneath a tree.

His vision, enhanced by the Light Spirits, allowed him to clearly see a thin, tall man with a pale face hidden in the shadows, silently gazing at him.

Seeing Ji Chi look back at him, the man gently raised a smile, turned around, and left two lines of verse floating away on the wind—

“Thorns grew in profusion, and the underworld river flowed through the shadows.”

“A sea of bones coiled about it, and beyond the river the abyss revealed itself.”

“Come find me in the Land of Buried Bones—there, you would find what you sought.”