Chapter 486

The elves held the high ground, and despite several human assaults, none succeeded in scaling up.

Almost every elf carried her own magic bag, and food was never in short supply.

Yet the besieging army grew larger by the day, and more powerful mages appeared—even a spellcaster of Forbidden Spell rank was discovered among them.

Among these thousands of elves, the strongest, Lydia, was merely a Sixth-Rank Wind Elf.

Lydia's formidable wind magic and superior archery could threaten Grand Mages, but she had no effective counter against a Forbidden Spell caster.

It was clear these thousands of elves were trapped with no escape—they had no choice but to seek aid!

"Hahaha, finally cornered them here."

On another mountain peak, the Fifth Imperial Prince and the First Imperial Prince stood at the cliff's edge, watching the human warriors relentlessly attack the wind elves, their faces filled with delight!

"Deploy the regional troops you've gathered. Launch a night assault. And don't use bows—every elf lost is a waste. Though powerful, their arrows and stamina aren't endless. Use human lives to wear them down. Let the regional troops die—they're expendable."

Beside the Fifth Imperial Prince, the First Imperial Prince spoke calmly, but the cold ruthlessness in his tone made the Fifth Prince shiver.

"Big brother really is big brother."

The Fifth Imperial Prince thought to himself.

These thousands of elves were powerful; to exhaust their arrows and stamina with regional troops would require at least tens of thousands of lives.

But both princes could afford it.

To them, tens of thousands of lives were nothing—especially since they were all regional troops. A few hundred to a thousand gold coins per soldier could soothe the families, but each elf could be sold for over two million gold coins!

The Divine Lands were vast; they had no fear of oversupply making elves worthless.

They might even fetch a higher price.

Calculating it out: even at the highest estimate, one human life was worth a thousand gold coins—tens of thousands totaled only tens of millions. Sell a dozen or so elves, and you recoup it all. Which was more profitable?

To these two princes, human lives weren't lives—they were merely money!

Selling these elves would grant these two princes unimaginable wealth!

In the sky, the Forbidden Spell caster did not act.

In fact, if this Forbidden Spell caster had intervened, these thousands of wind elves would have been wiped out in minutes—but such a being's power caused massive casualties.

With the outcome already certain, each elf's death pained the two princes deeply.

Their pain had a simple cause: not sorrow for the elves' deaths, but grief over two million gold coins going to waste!

So the Forbidden Spell caster merely hovered in the sky, watching passively.

This was the game of the two princes.

This was their business.

The Forbidden Spell caster had already received payment from the two princes; whatever they ordered, he did without question.

"Charge! Whoever reaches the top first gets ten thousand gold coins and a beautiful elf!"

Along the only path up Gaoshan, countless warriors surged upward, shields raised.

Driven by the reward of ten thousand gold coins and an elf, these warriors charged without regard for their lives.

"They're only thousands! You're tens of thousands! What's there to fear? Just wear them down until they collapse!"

From behind, commanders continuously urged the warriors on.

Another wave of warriors had covered half the distance—they could now see the elves' beautiful faces.

So beautiful!

Even in the midst of the charge, some warriors were already salivating.

"Hurry! Climb up—you can take an elf home!"

These warriors, blinded by lust, charged forward like men possessed.

"Whoosh!"

Suddenly, a fierce wind swept across the path.

"Aaaah!"

Countless warriors lost their footing and tumbled over the cliff.

But immediately, more warriors surged forward from behind.

They were like locusts—utterly inexhaustible!

After Lydia unleashed her attacks several more times, the charging warriors still came without end.

"Chief, rest for a while—I'll take over!"

A Fifth-Rank elf said.

Lydia nodded.

In truth, they had been fleeing through the Zi Jin Empire for several days.

These past days, the Fifth and First Imperial Princes had deployed massive armies to hunt them down.

The Zi Jin Empire had recently been unusual—likely because the Emperor was dying, so each Imperial Prince began stockpiling troops, preparing to unite and attack neighboring human kingdoms. Whoever amassed the greatest battlefield achievements would become the next Emperor.

Thus, both princes maintained their own private armies, sizable in number, well-equipped, and highly formidable.

For days, they had fled back and forth across the First Imperial Prince's territory, yet could not escape.

Too many enemies surrounded them.

Worse, a Forbidden Spell caster had joined the hunt.

Finally, under the pressure of the Forbidden Spell caster and vast elite forces, they were trapped here.

These thousands of elves were exhausted.

Yet the enemy's assaults never ceased.

The Forbidden Spell caster hovered above, watching like a predator.

Lydia had already guessed the enemy's intent.

They wanted to exhaust the elves' strength, then capture them all alive.

For the elves, that would be worse than death.

"Sisters!"

Lydia suddenly spoke.

The surrounding elves turned to look at her.

Lydia said: "I've appealed to Princess Chenxi, the Night Elf Queen who leads the clearing of the Dark Forest, for aid—but the distance is too great; she can send at most one or two strong warriors, and they may not arrive in time. If our strength runs out before they come, we all kill ourselves. Don't fear death. Believe me—under human hands, we'd be better off dead!"

"Yes!"

The surrounding Wind Elves nodded firmly.

"Chief, appeal to the gods again!"

One Wind Elf said.

Lydia sighed.

"We're only a few thousand. Too few. Our god descended power once, saw it couldn't save us, and has abandoned us."

Lydia said.

"Ah!"

The surrounding Wind Elves all showed looks of despair.

On the Continent of Gods, gods cannot solve every problem.

Otherwise, with so many factions destroyed daily in conflicts, why don't the gods descend power?

Gods weigh costs and benefits.

A Wind Elf tribe of a few thousand—after descending power, their god found he couldn't save them. And this is the Purple Gold Empire, where the local god is surely at least a Peak Second-Tier deity. That Wind Elf tribe's god probably found the situation too difficult, so he simply gave up!

Lydia's words left the surrounding Wind Elves with a sense of hopelessness.

But they were strong, and still fought on.

One night passed quickly; even though the enemy attacked nonstop, they never broke through.

Soon, another day passed—and during this day, the human warriors still charged forward relentlessly!

But they still hadn't taken it!

"These elves are stubborn—but they must be nearing their limit?"

On another mountain, the Imperial Prince wore a confident smile.

Yes, after so long a battle, the elves were indeed nearing their limit.

Many elves could no longer cast spells.

Many elves had no arrows left.

On the mountain, many elves were even carving arrows from wood to resist the human warriors' assault.