The elves obviously weren’t going to stay.
They kept treating the wounded until dusk, grabbed a quick meal, and set out again.
The second time saying goodbye, Tu Weierxi wasn’t as sad.
She just waved at Qu Weichen and got into the elves’ caravan with her mother.
[Sigh, that’s how friendships are when you’re young—always these strange meetings, then forced separations.
Who knows what kind of fate it’ll be when you meet again, or what kind of people you’ll have become.]
Qu Weichen: Don’t use that radio host voice to say stuff like that!
Whatever sadness Qu Weichen had was completely ruined by Number Nine.
She sighed and said to Number Nine, “I don’t even know how long I’ll live.”
Anyway, just take it one step at a time.
If the Prison Sanctuary really falls… she’ll have to run, no matter what.
As long as she’s alive, she’ll have a chance to get revenge for the Sanctuary Master in the future.
The explosion was huge, and what happened in Uweinuo spread across the continent at lightning speed.
But strangely, the Empire didn’t send any powerful reinforcements.
The Prison Army stayed behind in Uweinuo, and those dragons still guarded the Beastcall Mountain pass.
After hearing about it, Dragon Island sent a dragon envoy straight to the orc tribes and the giants to negotiate, making them pay for what they’d done.
As for the Empire—rumor had it they were about to send out their eighth-rank martial masters, but before they even left the capital, the undead immediately launched a counterattack.
Since they’d been guarding the pass for years without any big battles, even though the other defenders reacted quickly, a giant skeletal dragon still broke through and destroyed the fortress built inside the pass! If they hadn’t responded fast enough, that skeletal dragon probably would’ve charged out with hundreds of evil spirits.
—“Angry? You should be! If any of you old geezers dare leave the pass, I’ll break through right away! Hahaha, guarding? You’ll never leave this place for the rest of your lives!”
That rough roar echoed from deep within the pass, reaching the ears of every defender.
There were already disagreements within the royal family, and the ones willing to act this time were all supporters of the Third Prince.
As soon as he made a move, chaos would break out at the pass, so he had to come back.
The Empire still hadn’t chosen an heir, and every prince and princess had their own agenda.
Some were already unhappy with the Third Prince for constantly provoking the Prison Sanctuary.
When Chen Qingjue first took over, the Empire sent a lot of troops to try to take over, but they were all wiped out.
Now, with the Third Prince losing both the Demon Suppressor and Pingyuan generals, the rest of the royal family was even less willing to get involved.
The Third Prince sat alone in his palace, a box of jerky at his side, each piece as big as two adult palms. He tore at the jerky, chewing and swallowing, his eyes unreadable.
Chen Qingjue, Chen Qingjue, he really hadn’t expected her to be this capable.
Magic crystal bombs? How did she get so many? Those useless Pingyuan generals—he sent them to Uweinuo just to stir up some trouble, maybe assassinate one of Chen Qingjue’s students, and they still failed? They couldn’t even find out about something as important as the magic crystal bombs.
What’s the point of keeping those losers?
Of course, he knew Chen Qingjue was strong.
Pingyuan General was no match for her, but it wasn’t just him—there was also a Red Cardinal planted in the Holy Church, and even a count! Were they all useless? They knew nothing, and Chen Qingjue even got involved with Dragon Island, while he didn’t even know when she’d left Uweinuo! Damn it, damn it.
He angrily swallowed all the jerky in his hand, then grabbed three more pieces, folded them together, and took a big bite.
He chewed hard, as if venting all his anger on the food.
She used to be so weak, and now she’s grown into this… No rush, no rush, no matter how much she develops, this is as far as she’ll go.
He’d been too impatient—no need to go up against Chen Qingjue right now.
Bite after bite, he finished the three pieces of jerky, then downed a glass of water.
Most of the people in Uweinuo had probably been cleaned out by that woman.
Even though he was a prince, he was still restricted everywhere in the Empire.
If only the king would die, then once he became king, there wouldn’t be so many voices! But that old man had powerful protectors, and the people he’d recruited… they were still fighting for the Empire at heart.
He couldn’t reveal his true identity… If he went all out and exposed Chen Qingjue, he’d be disqualified from the competition and have to face the Demon God’s wrath.
He wiped his hands, patted his stomach, and called out, “Someone, bring me three baskets of elf fruit.”
He’d figure things out slowly.
As for Chen Qingjue… he still had to watch out for her revenge.
The other demon kings hadn’t arrived on the floating continent yet, so he needed to find some reliable subordinates in the meantime.
Damn it, he wasn’t as good as Chen Qingjue.
That woman could win people over with just a look, but him—
Thinking about it made the Third Prince even angrier.
He gulped down half a jug of water.
“Where’s the elf fruit?! Hurry up!”
…
Qu Weichen waited two or three days, but the Empire never sent a million troops to surround Uweinuo and blow them all to hell.
She didn’t go to the academy during this time.
After training every day, she’d go outside to help grind the bones into powder and bury them underground.
A lot of the land outside Uweinuo was scorched, so earth mages helped turn the soil, then planted wild grass and flowers, and wood mages sped up their growth, slowly restoring the greenery outside the city gates.
The damaged walls needed to be repaired and reinforced, the families of fallen warriors got compensation, and the brave soldiers got bonuses.
With all these things to handle, Chen Qingjue was busy, the priests of the Light Temple in Uweinuo were busy, and the city lord was busy too.
Plus, Chen Qingjue took the chance to clear out all the Third Prince’s people, making Uweinuo’s power structure clean and simple again.
The priest and city lord both showed goodwill to Chen Qingjue, and she didn’t make things hard for them either.
On the fifth day, a haggard and exhausted Constance finally dragged herself back to the Prison Sanctuary.
She didn’t look for anyone—just collapsed onto her bed and slept like the dead.
She’d been too busy: planting bombs, leading troops, finally getting back to the city, and even helping clean out spies.
Chen Qingjue gave half the control of the Beastcall Mountain pass to the dragons, but since they had to guard Dragon Island, only a few stayed here.
The Prison Sanctuary already had a bunch of old-timers, and though they’d helped in the standoff, they hadn’t gone all out.
Now, Chen Qingjue sent them to guard the pass.
She reorganized Uweinuo, took over all the assets of Pingyuan General and Count Hissenor without hesitation, and planned to keep making money.
Yeah, once this year’s over, she could recruit another batch of Prison Army next year.
She’d send them to other branches for training first, then promote the best to Uweinuo’s Prison Army.
She could even open a few more branches.
Giants like Constance were simple, strong, and super useful—time to open one in the giant tribe! The only problem was transportation was still a pain—tsk, she needed to catch more magic beasts.
Once she finished her work, she remembered that particularly unusual necromancer.
No contract with a demon king, no contract with any other high demon… how did she become a necromancer? She could even summon undead? No, those weren’t really undead—there wasn’t even a trace of a soul.
Those skeletons probably weren’t even living creatures before.
Chen Qingjue couldn’t figure it out, just like every time she tried to charm Qu Weichen, but Qu Weichen always snapped out of it as soon as she got a little confused—
Maybe others would be wary, suspicious, want to dissect Qu Weichen for research, or even kill her to keep her quiet.
But Chen Qingjue just found it interesting.
She stretched, finished the warm tea on her desk, stood up, straightened her white cloak, brushed her hair, and left the study.
Passing through the courtyard, she casually picked a big, bright red flower the size of an apple.
This flower was a specialty of the elf forest—bold and flamboyant, bright red, and when it withered, the petals would dye the soil red.
This flower… was called “Big Red Flower.”
Chen Qingjue found the elves’ naming sense for flowers ridiculous.
Probably because the flower wasn’t rare enough to deserve a proper name.
She took the flower and went to find Qu Weichen.
At this time… she should be training in the gym, right?
…
Qu Weichen was indeed training, still practicing her stances today.
She always felt like she was just one real fight away from reaching the third rank, just like before.
But after killing so many undead, even exhausting herself and getting chased by some random guard—she still didn’t break through!
Could it be her foundation wasn’t solid enough? Qu Weichen couldn’t figure it out, but she kept training and working hard anyway.
Constance was back, so she went to check on her.
Constance wasn’t badly hurt—any injuries had already been healed.
She was just exhausted, completely wiped out, and fell asleep as soon as she hit the bed.
Qu Weichen didn’t want to bother her, so she trained alone.
“I saw that evil spirit was just a red mist.
Physical attacks probably don’t work on it.
Someone else used light magic to disperse it this time, but what do I do if I run into one again?” Training was just about channeling “qi,” and Qu Weichen was used to it.
She could even chat with Number Nine in her mind while practicing.
[If you learn Wraith, you can use it to deal with them.] Number Nine said, [And once you learn Wraith, you’ll unlock more support skills for fighting these kinds of ghosts—like an enchantment, so your attacks can hurt special undead.]
[Don’t worry, our necromancer growth system is reliable.]
“Why are the skill point rewards for achievements so stingy? How long will it take me to save up enough?” Qu Weichen complained.
“It’s so hard to get even one skill point at a time.
Also, skeletons don’t have souls, but if I summon a Wraith later, it’ll have a soul.
Won’t someone like Chen Qingjue be able to sense it and catch it?”
[It’s just that your achievements haven’t been difficult enough.
Isn’t this a series of quests? The rewards will get better later.
As for Wraiths and the like, of course they have souls, but the system keeps them safe.
Chen Qingjue can sense them, but she can’t catch or extract them.
Don’t worry.]
“Sigh.” Qu Weichen sighed.
Her identity as a necromancer had definitely been exposed to the Sanctuary Master.
She’d already prepared for the worst, thinking the Sanctuary Master might lock her up and interrogate her, or take her blood for research—but nothing happened.
Qu Weichen had thought about running away, but then she realized: if a woman who could blow a hole in Beastcall Mountain wanted her dead, could she really escape Uweinuo, let alone the whole continent? Tu Weierxi had just asked if she wanted to leave, and she’d refused.
The Sanctuary Master even warned her specially…
