Chapter 260: Stopping War with War

As the group drew closer, Sinuoli felt his Rune energy become active. This experience, identical to when he had just transmigrated, made him realize in an instant what had happened—Krag Master had arrived.

The awe for this master, carved into his subconscious, made Sinuoli straighten his sleeves and adjust the emblem on his chest. Soon, that familiar, perpetually stern face appeared.

Krag Master strode at the very front of the group; he did not carry his Doom Anvil, but the Anvil Guard followed behind him. Sinuoli, as his disciple, went forward to meet him.

"There are pointy-ears in this vicinity; why did you never mention it?" Krag Master greeted his disciple with a cold, icy sentence.

"This, this, they are not worth worrying about!"

Sinuoli's expression stiffened. Yes, he had only mentioned the distribution of forces around Gaoyuanbao in his secret letters to Thorgrim. For the sake of future development, widely publicizing that there were two Elf factions nearby would undoubtedly be counterproductive.

"Is that so? These two bean sprouts seem to have a different opinion than you! Those treacherous fools have a stronghold near here, led by some what-cha-ma-call-it!"

Krag Master waved a hand, and four burly guards pushed two High Elves, who looked like they had suffered quite a bit, to the front of the group.

"By the Ancestor Gods!" Sinuoli inwardly cried out that things were bad. Sinuoli had always known that the High Elves were monitoring his territory via their air force, but after his Helicopters were able to take to the skies again, he had not asked his pilots to contest air superiority with the Elves.

Although there was the objective factor that there were only two of them and they likely wouldn't be opponents in an aerial battle, Sinuoli's desire not to go to war with the Elves was the decisive factor. Currently, the Dwarf Realms held varying attitudes toward the High Elves.

The most open citadels like Weifengbao and Haimenguan could accept cooperating with Elves when necessary; the kin in the Black and Grey Mountains citadels would not actively attack Elves and generally ignored their existence; while in the conservative World's Edge Mountains, many Longbeard elders would still hold the Book of Grudges and recite the blood debts recorded thousands of years ago.

Of course, these were general attitudes, and there would always be some fluctuations due to individual differences. The Krag Master before him was undoubtedly the most conservative among the conservative kin of the World's Edge Mountains; that he hadn't killed these two Elves outright was likely out of respect for Sinuoli.

"Master, the kin have had a very hard journey; why not let everyone go inside first before we talk?"

Just as Sinuoli was struggling for words, a figure with an Ironhand prosthetic flashed out from behind. Guildmaster Buluoke of Jiliuguan bit the bullet and gave Sinuoli a way out.

"Please, please! Master, let us first go see the lost statues in the Xianzu Dating!" Sinuoli felt a sense of relief and hurriedly led his master inside. Krag Master frowned tightly, but in the end, he did not press the issue at the fortress gate.

"What is going on with them?" Sinuoli took the initiative to fall to the back of the group to whisper with Guildmaster Buluoke. He had to grasp the situation to solve the problem.

"When we were walking on that plateau, those two pointy-ears were monitoring us from the air riding giant eagles. Krag Master triggered some unknown Rune and pulled them, along with the eagles, straight down from the sky."

"The bean sprouts were caught, but what about their eagles?" Sinuoli asked again.

"They can understand speech and can be controlled, but the eagles couldn't; they kept flapping around even when pinned to the ground, so we just stewed it for dinner." Guildmaster Buluoke tugged at his beard with his Ironhand, revealing an awkward smile.

"Those two High Elves and the giant eagles had a bond beyond their kind. Originally, I and a few other old fellows with some standing tried to argue with your master, persuading him to give them a chance for a dignified end. But they struggled violently after the eagle was stewed by us, so those Anvil Guard could only help them be dignified."

Guildmaster Buluoke said with some regret. He knew it hadn't been easy for Sinuoli to establish this territory, and he also knew Sinuoli was a lord who enjoyed utilizing technology; calling him over from Jiliuguan specifically must mean there were important cooperative projects to discuss.

"The pointy bean sprouts think they are the offspring of their false gods, and the King of Giant Eagles, Talin, is in their ghost stories a subordinate god of Asuryan, that is to say, a lackey. Those giant eagles are therefore as close as brothers to certain pointy-ears!"

A Dwarf wearing strange, ornate clothing sighed and muttered nearby. He had a salty scent from the ocean on him, so Sinuoli guessed this was a wealthy merchant from Haimenguan.

"Cough, the divine Grimnir taught us: kill to pacify, and killing is permissible; stop war with war, and even if it requires war, it is permissible!" Things having reached this point, it was impossible for Sinuoli to blame his master, nor could he bow his head to the High Elves in front of all his kin.

Furthermore, he also knew that letting the Elves wantonly intrude into the airspace of the Nan Shijie Bianyuan Shanmai was not a long-term solution. When the vigorous development of his territory was seen, the Elves of Liming Yaosai would inevitably feel threatened, and conflict would be unavoidable then.

"That's more like it!"

Sinuoli vaguely heard Krag say this. After the group toured the Xianzu Dating, the master and disciple headed straight for the lord's office on the upper level.

Seemingly to check if anyone was eavesdropping or spying, Krag Master circled the room once after entering. Sinuoli didn't mind this; he knew his master had this habit, as Krag had always suspected that people wanted to steal his knowledge.

"I have to say, you've done well!" After taking off the wine flask at his waist and taking a sip, Krag nodded at his disciple, offering a rare word of praise.

"It is all thanks to your teaching!" the young man replied politely.

"No, open your safe!" Krag suddenly reached out and made a grasping motion in the air; he seemed to have sensed something. Sinuoli did not delay; he knew his master wouldn't plot against him for anything.

"By Thurni!" For the first time in Sinuoli's memory, an expression other than anger appeared on Krag's face. He used his withered, aged hand to pull a slightly bent iron bar from his bosom.

Sinuoli was stunned the moment he saw the iron bar. His system popped up a notification: "Found right half of the Rune Tongs." This thing was the other part of Thurni's Rune Tongs; the system hadn't been able to detect it before, likely because it was interfered with by Krag Master's power.

"It really is it. Since my grandmaster's time, we have tried to pursue it; I never expected it to be realized in your and my hands!" Krag Master tremblingly combined the two iron bars; they reformed into the shape of the tongs, though the Runes on them could not, of course, be restored just like that.

"Hoo! I swear I will exhaust the rest of my life to repair this holy relic!"