CH 114.3

In the giant forest, Qiao Zhiya woke up from a nightmare, his eyes wide open, his tail tense. His body’s reaction told him that he had just dreamt of something very scary, but his mind was very chaotic, and the only image he could recall was a dense blackness.

‘Chu Rong…’ He wrapped his tail around himself, looking around in confusion and helplessness, but he couldn’t find any familiar scent.

“Qiao Yi, your current condition is not enough to support you to draw another bloodline teleportation array. This barrier is too strong, and there is no magical supply outside. I…”

His mother’s voice, along with the magic released by the yellow-leaf ree, came to him. Qiao Zhiya gradually regained his senses from the nightmare, realizing that there was a magic array rotating slowly to protect his safety under his sleeping nest. However, his parents, who had been guarding him before going to bed, were no longer by his side.

He released his tail and sat up, sensing the fluctuating scent in the air. Soon, he saw his parents sitting together on the lower branch, talking softly.

“Don’t worry, the magic concentration in this forest is very rich. Qiaoqiao has returned to us. There is no need to draw another bloodline teleportation array. It’s just that for the high-level teleportation array, my magic power is still enough to support us out.” Qiao Yi placed his hand on his wife’s shoulder, gently comforting her.

But Mi Lai frowned, feeling upset, and said with a lowered voice, “It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t rushed in and injured my magic pool, you wouldn’t have to work so hard… Qiao Yi, I’m sorry. I’m not a good wife or mother…”

Qiao Yi hugged her, gently stroking her head, and whispered, “No, you’ve done very well.”

“No, I haven’t.” Mi Lai shook her head vigorously, interrupting his comfort, and enumerated the places where she felt she had failed, “I’m greedy, I love to play, I’m clumsy when taking care of our baby, I always need your help… and I’m very poor. I can’t surround our baby with many good things like that white-haired… like that Chu Rong. I must be the worst dwarf mother. Other dwarf babies are so lively, but our baby is so obedient. Isn’t it said that children from poor families grow up early? We’re too poor… sob…”

As she spoke, she couldn’t help but cry, feeling that her precious son had lived a life of hardship before. She felt so sorry for him that she couldn’t breathe.

Qiao Yi was amused and helpless, patting her back to comfort her. He wanted to say something to console her, but watching her mutter and cry, he couldn’t help but chuckle softly.

“You’re laughing?”

Mi Lai looked at him with tears in her eyes. Seeing him laugh so beautifully and tenderly, her face turned red. Unable to continue crying, she wiped her tears away and said angrily, “Just wait, I’ll become the richest dwarf mother. I’ll bury our baby in gems! I’ll build a house for him with gems! Definitely!” Then that white-haired ugly thing will be jealous! I won’t let that white-haired ugly thing look down on our baby because of money!

Thinking of this, she felt uncomfortable again, and threw herself back into her husband’s arms, mumbling something incoherent.

Qiao Yi understood his wife’s dilemma but didn’t know how to comfort her. Dwarves and elves were destined not to accumulate wealth and power like humans. Born and raised in nature, their understanding of wealth was mostly at the spiritual level.

Moreover, both he and his wife were easily satisfied people. They had always lived a smooth and comfortable life, so they had never intentionally accumulated wealth.

But if Qiaoqiao really wants to find a human companion and live in human society in the future, then money is an indispensable thing in order to make Qiao Qiao live more comfortably and freely.

…Maybe after this side of things is over, he should return to the elf territory for a visit.

Qiao Zhiya peeked at the quiet and embracing parents below, his wings and tail drooping sadly, but soon perking up again. He obediently retreated into his nest, curled his tail, and closed his eyes.

“Bang!”

A test subject preparing to self-destruct was blasted out by a cannonball, and then flames erupted, burning its flesh into ashes and smoke.

The gray mecha rushed out, and behind it, the dense clusters of small black holes twisted and dissipated under the influence of the gunfire. The Zergs, influenced by spiritual power, froze in place, becoming easy prey.

The mecha was covered in mucus and blood, but it didn’t affect its forward speed at all.

Chu Rong gazed firmly ahead, ignoring the increasingly loud screams in his mind. He raised his twin cannons, and his spiritual power merged into the fire magic array at the core of the twin cannons, accumulating energy, then fiercely bombarded the wall.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!”

The cannonballs, carrying flames that seemed to burn through everything, slammed into the wall, incinerating the Zergs gathered inside the room, and forcefully rushed toward the next wall!

The building couldn’t withstand such an attack, emitting the sound of cracking walls under unbearable pressure. After a brief disappearance, the slimy sound returned, this time coming from a distant place, with a frantic tone, “Chu Rong! I’ll kill you!”

Chu Rong’s response to his shouting was another round of gunfire.

Realizing that he couldn’t confuse him anymore, the monster’s voice didn’t appear again, but the blockade of Zergs became even more intense.

Another wall was pierced through, and Chu Rong finally reached the target location — a spacious room without a gathering of Zergs, but similarly, there was no trace of the monster here.

He turned back to look, only to see that the Zergs chasing behind seemed to be afraid of something and didn’t dare to advance anymore. He checked the internal communication device of the mech and found that the communication, which had been restored under his spiritual influence, had once again been cut off.

—The monster was nearby, manipulating the communication here with spiritual power, and even attempting to create a false impression that he had found the wrong location.

He stood in the center of the room, spreading out his spiritual power, looked up for a moment, then down at his feet. Suddenly, he sneered, turned around, and aimed at the side wall, attacking again.

Unexpected but reasonable, the side wall was quite sturdy, and his firepower couldn’t break through.

‘Sure enough.’

He put away his weapons and directly condensed his spiritual power.

Just now, when he used his spiritual power to search the entire building, he couldn’t sense the monster’s location. It wasn’t because the monster’s spiritual power level was higher than his, allowing it to hide itself under his search, but because the monster used something that could deceive spiritual power to hide itself.

And the only thing that could deceive spiritual power and make it unable to detect anything was the enhanced spiritual stone used by the monster to cover the real ground of the planet.

His spiritual power turned into a thin blade and violently swept toward the seemingly normal wall. A piercing and cracking sound that made one’s teeth ache rang out, and the wall collapsed, revealing a small room behind it, covered with mucus and blood, with a bulky “shadow” in the middle about the size of a small mech.

As his spiritual power was involved, the room, covered in blood, suddenly shone brightly, and the space began to distort. The “shadow” in the middle suddenly opened its eyes, cracked its already Zergified mouth, and said grimly, “The game is over, little friend.”

Chu Rong’s eyes narrowed, he raised his weapon and charged forward.

“Swish! Swish! Swish!” Suddenly, more than a dozen test subjects rushed out from behind the “shadow,” and the slimy sound resumed, full of malice, “One of these pets has your beloved one’s special ability in their bellies. Guess which pet your poor little lover is in?”

Chu Rong’s attacking motion paused, and the test subjects took the opportunity to surround him and self-destruct rapidly, creating a black hole, providing time for the complete activation of the transmission device under the “shadow.”

“Bang!”

A gap was blasted in the black hole, and the gray mecha rushed out, but there was no longer the disgusting body of the “shadow” in place.

—It took too long, and the monster’s transmission device finally succeeded in activating.

Chu Rong stood in the pool of blood, looking at this dirty and smelly room with a face as calm as water, clenched his fists, and the aura of killing intent permeated — damn stinky bug, how dare he use Qiao as bait!

He turned around, dispersed the lonely floating black hole belt in the air, and headed back the way he came.

—Sure enough, this wasn’t the monster’s true lair. Where would the real lair be, the place where the monster truly hid, the place of sin it relied on?