Chapter 669: Standoff, Dragon Head

Savile Port.

Although the sun had not yet risen, when Xia Duo arrived at the port, it was already crowded with people—well, and Elves; the two sides seemed to be in a standoff.

Yet, the leaders on the human side appeared to wear fawning expressions, nodding and bowing to the Elves with a very obsequious attitude, only for the Elves to show them no courtesy at all.

Seeing this scene, Xia Duo could not help but sigh: when would the Netherese truly be able to stand tall and confidently face the Elves?

This was somewhat different from facing a dragon; although a dragon is powerful, its influence is extremely weak, existing in Netheril merely as a legendary creature, with almost no one having truly seen one with their own eyes.

Dragon Fear might be resolved through spells, and a dragon's powerful body could be harmed by excellent weapons like Xia Duo's Flying Sword, but the influence of the Elves had already taken root in people's hearts, making it difficult to eradicate.

Even if it were just a group of Elf refugees, these human Merchants treated them this way; if they were to see a real Elf Mage, they would likely have even less will to resist than when facing Dragon Fear!

These human Merchants with their subordinates could not possibly be in a real standoff with the Elves; in fact, most of the humans had come only to see them off, and the real standoff was actually occurring within the Elves themselves.

Xia Duo noticed that at the pier's gangway, near where the fleet was docked, the Elves there were clearly somewhat hostile toward the outer Elves; it was obvious that these were the Elves who possessed boarding qualifications.

"The human Lord is here!" a sharp-eyed Elf suddenly shouted.

The outer human Merchant subordinates, as well as those Elves who had not obtained boarding qualifications, turned their heads one after another to look at Xia Duo. Xia Duo's expression was calm as he arrived at the innermost area through the gap separated by the humans and Elves.

Aoruipusi and Aobolaien were both here, working hard to maintain order, though the other Elves of their family did not appear here.

Seeing Xia Duo appear, Aoruipusi let out a long sigh of relief in his heart; ever since Lord Xia Duo suddenly left last night, he had notified his father to keep an eye on the movements outside at all times to see if any accidents had occurred.

As it turned out, apart from a strange flash of light in the west, there were no other accidents, but because of this, the Elf families who already possessed boarding qualifications were unwilling to continue waiting and wanted to board the ship overnight.

Aoruipusi and his father had gone to soothe each family one by one, but the news leaked out in the end, so most of the Elves had come to the port, standing in a standoff from midnight until now.

As for the humans, they had appeared later, and Aoruipusi was not too worried because he knew the number of humans who could board was extremely, extremely small, and they did not occupy the Elves' space; they were going to squeeze into the space with the human crew members.

After dawn, the emotions of those Elves without boarding qualifications became increasingly unstable; it seemed that as long as they found any excuse, it would trigger a huge conflict.

Even with his father, an Elite Mage, holding the line, Aoruipusi's nerves were pulled tight, constantly monitoring the state of the two sides in the standoff, especially those Elves without boarding qualifications.

Fortunately, Lord Xia Duo had finally arrived. Aoruipusi used a Sending spell to briefly describe the current situation before asking: "What should we do now? Those Elves are still unwilling to give up. Should we release the news that we captured a Drow Assassin to put them slightly at ease?"

Xia Duo heard this and shook his head slightly; now was not the time to release the news. If he said it now, what would the Elves who had already bought tickets think?

If there were a Drow corpse to show, it wouldn't matter; no one could guarantee there was only one Drow Assassin anyway. But right now, Xia Duo happened not to have a Drow corpse on hand; the corpse had been taken to Seventon by Niya.

If there were no corpse, then whether there was a Drow Assassin or whether one had been captured would all be just talk. Saying it at this time would not only fail to prove the existence of a Drow Assassin, but might instead be counterproductive.

Once such a situation occurred, not only might those Elves who had already bought tickets take action on the spot, but even those who hadn't bought tickets would be enraged!

Aoruipusi did not know that the Drow corpse was no longer with Xia Duo, which was why he proposed such a solution. Xia Duo did not explain too much to Aoruipusi; in fact, he still thought in his heart that he could not be too accommodating to those Elves.

If Xia Duo had to satisfy their demands or soothe their emotions whenever they were dissatisfied, gathered, or caused trouble, then where would that leave the order of the Territory?

One could satisfy their demands or soothe their emotions to a certain extent, but it could not be predicated on behaviors like dissatisfaction, gathering, or causing trouble.

Regarding Aoruipusi's proposal, Xia Duo just said calmly, "It's almost dawn, arrange for boarding!"

He said this directly, not through a Sending spell, and many Elves nearby heard it. Afterward, this news spread rapidly from the inner layer to the outer perimeter.

And this caused even greater dissatisfaction among the outer Elves, which meant something like, "We are already in this state, and you humans are still not being sensible; even increasing the boarding quota a little would be better."

Regarding this, Xia Duo did not call the Tower of Time's External Affairs Mage here, nor did he call for human soldiers; he simply flew above a small open space between the standoff Elves and dropped a green dragon head directly from the sky, which smashed heavily onto the ground.

It rolled half a turn, with the front of the head facing the Elves on the periphery. The scene went quiet all at once, but immediately afterward, waves of gasps erupted from the Elf crowd.

This green dragon head, still carrying fresh blood, seemed to have triggered the ancient memories engraved deep in the bloodlines of the Elves. Almost the moment they saw the green dragon, these Elves made the most direct reaction—

They all retreated backward one by one, instantly expanding the originally small open space several times over. Fortunately, Elves are naturally agile, so even when retreating, they did so with considerable skill and did not trigger more serious chaos.

On the human side, however, perhaps many had heard legends of dragons, but those who had truly seen one with their own eyes were almost non-existent. Regarding this green dragon head still carrying a small piece of its neck, they only thought it was some kind of large wild beast.

Compared to this giant beast's head, they were more surprised by the Elves' performance, which somewhat did not match the image of Elves in their hearts.

After Xia Duo threw down the green dragon head, he flew down and once again instructed Aoruipusi: "Arrange for boarding!"

"Oh, okay!"

After the initial shock of seeing the green dragon, Aoruipusi couldn't even speak clearly and subconsciously agreed. While arranging for the Elves to board, he suddenly realized: could it be that Lord Xia Duo suddenly left last night to go dragon-slaying?

However, now was not the best time to ask about these things; while the other Elves were temporarily Stunned, he had to hurry and arrange for boarding and set sail!