Chapter 012: Blocking the Attack

Perhaps because they were about to leave the Dusk Mountains, that night Du Fan and Nai Xiu seemed to completely forget about time. Fortunately, as top experts like them, they recovered quickly. All of this didn’t affect their plans for the next day.

Early that morning, Du Fan and Nai Xiu set out, gathering the elves. Du Fan explained his plan: since he had been away for too long, he decided to return to human society alone, while the entire elf group and the Dwarf Black Panther Knights, under their respective leaders, would head toward the Gavin Empire’s Siluo Province!

Du Fan’s reasoning made sense. As a wind-based domain mage, his speed was already extreme among humans. With such speed, the elves and Black Panther Knights surely couldn’t keep up. After announcing this, Du Fan left with Nai Xiu and Chenchen.

Of course, Du Fan’s arrangement also had selfish motives. “Hmph, if I had to follow you and that guy named Li Luo, wouldn’t it be troublesome to spend every night with Nai Xiu?” he thought.

This time, Du Fan even left Moses behind. Actually, his decision was justified—him, Nai Xiu, and Chenchen, though only three, were all domain experts. Among the 5,000 Black Panther Knights and 3,000 elves, only Li Luo was a domain master. If he brought Moses along, and something went wrong along the way, with too few experts, Du Fan feared they might suffer losses.

After bidding farewell to Bashaa and Leibao, Du Fan took Nai Xiu and Chenchen and soared into the sky, flying toward the Gavin Empire!

At full speed, it would take Du Fan about three days to reach the Gavin Empire. With Nai Xiu and Chenchen, it would likely take a bit longer—around four days. As for the Black Panther Knights and elves, it would probably take them twenty days to reach Siluo Province.

Siluo Province was already quite close to the Dusk Mountains, with even a section near its border connecting to them. However, the large dwarf market in the Dusk Mountains was closer to the Lanni Empire. If Du Fan wanted to bring his troops in from that area, it would involve many complications.

However, for the sake of secrecy, Du Fan decided to have those Black Panther Knights and elves take a detour, allowing those armies to enter through his own territory. Another reason Du Fan left first was to make proper arrangements in his fiefdom before the arrival of the dwarf and elf forces. For Du Fan, the dwarf Black Panther Knights and the elf archers were both his trump cards, and it was better not to reveal them just yet. Additionally, the massive migration of 200,000 people from the Bilu tribe also required prior planning on Du Fan’s part. Conducting such a migration without alerting any of the factions was a crucial task. Thinking of this, Du Fan remembered Gabriel—having already given him so many benefits, what would Gabriel think if he learned that Du Fan had gathered so many dwarves? But Du Fan didn’t care. There were plenty of mines in the Siluo Province, and after he reconquered the lost territories, there would also be many mines there. He could simply assign a few to Gabriel later. Hmph, he did this because Gabriel always seemed sensible; otherwise, even if he deceived him, what could Gabriel do? In the Twilight Mountains, three figures shot through the sky like meteors, racing toward the Gavin Empire. Along the way, some highly skilled magical beasts and hidden experts in the Twilight Mountains kept watching those three figures flying swiftly. After flying for about half a day, thanks to the continuous operation of the large Divine Essence within Du Fan, he kept using flight and lightness techniques to fly nonstop with Nai Xiu and Chen Chen! By this time, the three had already traveled over 2,000 li since leaving Grass! Their flight altitude was not high, only around 100 meters. With Du Fan’s current cultivation level, he couldn’t take the two with him to much higher altitudes. After all, the lower the altitude, the greater the air resistance, which meant a slower flight speed! Just then, a rapid red light suddenly shot toward the three from the ground! The intensity of that red light was enough to make Du Fan pale with fear!

Of course, Du Fan wasn’t frightened for himself but worried about Nai Xiu and Chen Chen! Nai Xiu didn’t always wear the Ring of the Elven King, and Du Fan really didn’t know Chen Chen’s defensive capabilities—how strong her defenses actually were!
His expression changed as he pushed Nai Xiu and Chen Chen aside and rushed headfirst toward that red light!
A flash of white light enveloped him, and he was instantly blown away by that fierce red glow. Seeing Du Fan get knocked aside, Chen Chen shouted, “Master!”
With a skillful turn in midair, Du Fan landed lightly on the ground. Once he stood there, Nai Xiu and Chen Chen quickly rushed to his side.
By then, Nai Xiu had already put on the Ring of the Elven King.
“Master, are you okay?” Chen Chen asked anxiously after seeing Du Fan steady himself.
“I’m fine,” Du Fan said. “Who attacked me?”
After answering Chen Chen, he shouted again. At his loud cry, three dwarves emerged from the bushes—Germu, Harochi, and Zhigu Luo!
All three were masters of their domains!
“Germu, so it’s you guys. Since you managed to escape, you should have run far away. How dare you show your faces again!” Du Fan shouted upon seeing them.
“Du Fan, we already know it was the elven woman by your side who killed Karu. We’re stopping you today not for any other reason but to kill that woman and avenge Karu!” Germu said in a deep voice.
“Haha, Germu, stop lying! If Nai Xiu could kill Karu, surely she can kill you too!” Du Fan laughed when he heard Germu say they wanted to kill Nai Xiu to avenge Karu.
“Hmph, Du Fan, we’ve already found out that the elf has the Eternal Bow, which is why she was able to kill Bashaa. I don’t believe Nai Xiu will have a chance to shoot an arrow when we attack up close! And if she can’t shoot such an arrow, I don’t believe our dwarf warriors can’t defeat an elf in close combat!” Harochi said.
“I advise you to leave now. Otherwise, when you die, you won’t even know how!” Du Fan said.
“Du Fan, stop talking nonsense! Today, there are three of you, and there are three of us. Why should we leave? I think it’s you who should run away right now!” Harochi shouted loudly.

The three from Golmud certainly wouldn’t choose to flee. In their eyes, although Du Fan had that strange defensive skill, he couldn’t unleash a domain. As for Nai Xiu, though she was excellent with a bow, such an elf archer would be completely useless if given no chance to shoot.

As for Chenchen, who was with Du Fan, though they had never met her, the three thought that even if she were a domain expert, she would only be on par with any of them. Realizing this, one of the Golmud men shouted loudly and charged at Du Fan. Of course, knowing about Du Fan’s strange defensive skill, the Golmud man gave up using domain skills against him.

Seeing the Golmud man charging at him, Du Fan smiled, drew the Thunder Sword, and met him head-on. Just as the Golmud man lunged at Du Fan, Harochi and Ulnar Luo attacked Nai Xiu and Chenchen respectively. Due to the very short distance between them, Nai Xiu had no chance to shoot. Harochi rushed over and immediately launched fierce attacks on her!

Faced with Harochi’s aggressive assault, Nai Xiu quickly moved away, escaping continuously. Although the speed and agility of the elf race couldn’t compare to that of a wind mage like Du Fan at the same level, elf archers still ranked among the top in speed and agility among professionals of the same class. With her swift movements, Harochi couldn’t keep up with her!

The speed and agility of elf archers were precisely what such a profession required. Elf archers were highly skilled in long-range physical attacks, so they were certainly inferior to warriors in close combat. Therefore, training in speed and agility was extremely important. As a result, elf archers were much faster than those close-combat warriors.

During this continuous escape, Nai Xiu could only manage to shoot one or two arrows in between, with no time to use any arrow techniques! Those casually shot arrows posed no threat to Harochi—he either dodged them or blocked them with his axe. None of the arrows Nai Xiu managed to shoot caused any harm to Harochi.

While Nai Xiu and Harochi were chasing and escaping each other, Ulnar Luo also attacked Chenchen.

Not knowing Chenchen’s background, Shigu Luo immediately swung a flying axe at her. The flying axe launched by a domain powerhouse was not only extremely powerful but also carried intense red combat energy! As a result, Shigu Luo’s flying axe resembled a bright little sun, emitting dazzling light and high temperatures as it rushed toward Chenchen!

Chenchen didn’t draw any weapon either; she simply stretched out her finger and tapped the axe just before it could hit her. Her snow-white, delicate finger touching the fiery red, sharp axe created a striking contrast that seemed to possess an indescribable beauty.

When the flying axe reached Chenchen’s face, it seemed to slow down, but in reality, its speed hadn’t changed. It was Chenchen’s finger that moved at what appeared to be a very slow pace to meet Shigu Luo’s axe. This seemingly slow speed, which was actually fast, caused ripples of distortion in the space where the axe and finger met!