Chapter 187: Taking Advantage of the Chaos

Swish! Swish!
Several dark figures swiftly scaled the not-too-tall walls, wielding sharp blades as they drained the blood of several dark elves.
“Kill them!”
“Show these dark-skinned bastards what happens!” Fierce shouts of battle came from the direction of the gates. With a large number of troops sent to support the Spider Academy and the First Family, the other three major families were unable to mount an effective defense when their properties in the city were attacked.
These attackers were sent by the Blood Battle Mercenary Group. Upon hearing signs of battle in the core area, they were tasked with attacking various properties across Scorpion Flower City, once again distracting the four major families and preventing them from making sound decisions.
If the entire city of Scorpion Flower fell into chaos, it would only make it easier for certain people to act in secret.
In the front hall of the Spider Academy, three beautiful dark elves dressed in elaborate priestly robes and wielding multi-headed snake whips looked anxious.
“First Lady, should we send troops to reinforce?”
“Yes! Our family reports that almost all our properties in the city are under attack. Only our main stronghold is still resisting, but the situation is critical—they won’t hold much longer! Please, Lady Dietlind, take action quickly!”
The leader, a graceful and elegant woman in her thirties holding a staff shaped like a spider, spoke calmly, “There’s no need to rush. This is a crucial time for forming alliances. We cannot embarrass ourselves in front of our dear allies and delay the Goddess’s plans. We cannot afford such consequences—you can imagine what will happen then!” With just these words, Dietlind, the leader of the First Family, made the leaders of the other three families think of something terrifying. The punishment from the Spider Queen was cruel beyond imagination, and even these dark elf leaders, who were skilled at torturing others, wouldn’t want to risk it.
Still, the leader of the weakest of the three major families couldn’t help but say, “Our three families have already suffered too much. Please, First Lady, send some troops to help us!” Dietlind raised her staff and said, “Our First Family has also been attacked. We’re afraid we can’t spare any troops to assist you!” “So we should focus our main forces on protecting the academy and the temple from those filthy slaves, ensuring that the Lady of Shadows’ messengers remain unharmed! If we complete this task successfully, won’t the Goddess’s reward be far greater than those properties?”

Seeing that the First Mistress remained unmoved, although the matriarchs of the three major families were inwardly cursing, they dared not show it. After all, Dietlind was not only the First Mistress but also the High Priestess of the Spider Temple in Scorpion Flower City. Her status and power far surpassed theirs; even if the matriarchs of the three major silver-ranked families combined their forces, they could not match her as a Golden Priestess.

Time passed by minute by minute. The sounds of fighting outside continued, but there were significantly fewer now. Clearly, most of the resistance from the three major families had been broken. This only made the three matriarchs feel even more distressed. If it weren’t for that wretched woman from the Banrei family deliberately stalling, using the pretext of protecting the Goddess’s Holy Land and the envoy group to concentrate their most elite forces here, causing their families to suffer heavy losses, the attackers alone wouldn’t have been able to achieve such things. The more they thought about it, the more resentful they became toward the First Mistress.

Just then, a Dark Elf warrior came in to report.

“My Lady, there has been a large-scale rebellion among the slaves outside. They are currently looting and destroying everything in the city. The military strength of each family has been greatly depleted. Now, aside from the main residences, they basically have no strength to resist!”

“What?”

“What exactly is going on? How dare those slaves rebel?”

Even Dietlind’s expression darkened this time.

“My Lady, it was those attackers who freed the slaves and incited them to attack. Aside from the mindless slaves provided by the Mind Merchant Guild and the timid cave-dwelling slaves, the rest of the more combat-capable slaves have joined the fight!” “These damned slaves really don’t know what death is!” Dietlind cursed before ordering a stunningly beautiful Dark Elf girl behind her, “Adelle, take some of the warriors to eliminate those disobedient slaves, kill the attackers, and rescue the three major families at the same time!” She gave the girl a subtle wink.

“Yes, Mother!”

The girl named Adelle immediately bowed in understanding, took command, and led her troops out to fight.

As Scorpion Flower City descended into chaos, no one noticed a few unremarkable owls lurking near the city’s key buildings. Even if someone had spotted them, with battles raging everywhere, they would have dismissed these ordinary small animals as insignificant, never realizing they were spies sent by someone.

Perched atop a tree-like subterranean plant not far from a magnificent manor building in the southeast, an owl lurked there. Suddenly, a glow emanated from the owl, but everyone at the manor was busy fighting and noticed this unremarkable change. In the flash of light, two figures appeared outside the manor. At that moment, the two gray dwarves besieging the manor spotted them and immediately charged at them with shrill cries. “Teacher, leave these two to me!” The young human waved his hand, and a cold light flashed—two lifelike ice sculptures of gray dwarves appeared on the spot. Then the young man took out a handful of magic cores, all seemingly from level two or three magical beasts, with most being level two. As the magic cores vanished in his hands, a large group of various creatures appeared around them, including birds and beasts. With another wave of his hand, three-quarters of them separated and headed in different directions toward the city. “Go! Stir up chaos so we can take advantage of it!” Needless to say, these two were Donald and his teacher, Miesel. The master and apprentice had agreed to meet the three members of the Agricultural Goddess Church at the exit of the passage, but instead of simply waiting there, they kept monitoring the situation in Scorpion Flower City through the owl and crystal ball. From the first attack onward, Donald and his companion had been observing the developments. Although they didn’t know how the three members of the Agricultural Goddess Church had mobilized so many people, when the large group of slaves rebelled, causing chaos throughout the city, Donald knew his chance had come. Though the dark elves were the rulers of Scorpion Flower City, their numbers were far too small compared to other races, just like surface elves. Apart from their elite troops, the four major families relied mostly on their slaves for military strength. Now that the large number of slaves were rebelling and the dark elves’ main forces were concentrated at the Spider Academy, it was the perfect time for them to take advantage of the chaos. Moreover, with their teleportation skills, they could instantly leave the battlefield even if faced with powerful opponents. So Donald convinced his teacher to target the four major dark elf families. His goal was to plunder the treasures of these families—this manor was just the first stop. With the remaining one-quarter of their summoned creatures, Donald and his teacher simply barged into the manor of one of these families.

Although they were all second- or third-tier summoned creatures, their sheer numbers were overwhelming. The dark elves remaining in this family were all elite warriors at least at the bronze level, and their slave armies were also highly skilled. A bronze-level professional was indeed a powerful figure in the eyes of ordinary people, but as Donald encountered increasingly powerful opponents, these bronze warriors seemed like mere elite soldiers to him, not true strongmen at all.

Moreover, these people were already struggling to fend off numerous attackers and a large number of slaves. When Donald’s summoned creatures joined the fight, it was like the final straw—the defending forces retreated continuously, and many slave armies lost control and collapsed. No matter how loudly the dark elves tried to call them back, they couldn’t be brought back.

In the end, the remaining dark elves were forced to retreat to their last stronghold: a family mansion built like a castle.

“Thinking you can stay safe by hiding in your shell?” Donald sneered at the dark elves retreating into the mansion.

The old mage beside him urged, “Donald, don’t delay! I have a sense of unease—something major seems about to happen. Finish this quickly!”

“Okay, Old Hua!” Donald nodded in agreement. Ignoring the other slaves causing havoc in the mansion, he took out a silver badge and pointed it at the direction of the “castle.” A blazing, dazzling chain lightning bolt shot at one of the dark elves, moving like a living thing before striking six others in succession.

After the lightning disappeared, the first three dark elves had turned into charcoal, and two of the remaining four were roasted to death. Only the last dark elf hit by the lightning survived, but he was paralyzed and too badly injured to fight.

Seeing the enemy’s fierce magic eliminate seven of their own in an instant, the remaining dark elves panicked and screamed.

“Where’s the mage?!” “The enemy is a spellcaster—activate magical defenses now!”

But Donald clearly wouldn’t give them that chance. Surrounded by his summoned creatures, he smashed open the castle gates. When a ring of colored light surrounded the castle, blocking out any attackers or rebellious slaves, the dark elves present weren’t happy at all—instead, their faces turned extremely grim.

Because their most feared enemy—Donald and his companion, along with their summoned creatures—had already entered the castle ahead of time. This was tantamount to inviting wolves into the house; all the remaining dark elves were trapped like fish in a net and captured by Donald. Many dark elves cursed the mage in charge of the family’s magical defenses even in their death, accusing him of activating the defenses only after the enemy had entered. Did he really master his spells by just waiting for death to come? In fact, it wasn’t the fault of the dark elf mage responsible for magical defenses that he was slow to act; he simply hadn’t expected the main castle to be invaded so quickly. Moreover, the number of dark elf mages was far too small compared to the priests who worshipped the Spider Queen and the elite warriors trained by the families. They were mostly male dark elves who had failed within their families. For them, becoming a mage was another path out—at least they wouldn’t be ordered around by women, and their fate wouldn’t be entirely in their hands. However, due to a curse, dark elves had lost their innate racial talent for connecting with nature, so those capable of becoming mages were as rare as one in ten thousand, even in the entire City of Scorpion Flower. There were only a dozen or so dark elf mages there, most of whom were of intermediate rank. There were only three true silver-level mages, all serving three different dark elf families—and the family that was attacked happened to be the one without a silver mage.