绝代双骄 林志颖

After a long time, Ge Xiu finally managed to take back his attention from the ball of fur. He recalled the conversation from before, and then said:

“By the way, I actually want to say… If you need it, I have a way to improve your efficiency.”

The little wolf raised his head, his round blood-coloured pupils looked at the human in front of him, quietly waiting for the other party’s next words.

“I’ve been working on a very interesting thing during this time.” Ge Xiu curled his lips: “Do you remember the magic puppet that chased us on the back of the mainland?”

The magic puppet was composed of an external steel armour and an internally controlling incantation stone. Although it was fuelled by magic elements it wasn’t essentially different from from a remotely controlled machine – in addition to the previous research on the dark side of the continent, after indulging in reading magic books for several days, he has quickly figured out the trick.

Ge Xiu hugged the little wolf, jumped off the bed lightly, and walked to a tall corridor on the side.

The illuminating magic stone on the walls that can sense the existence of living creatures slowly lit up as he approached, he passed through the corridor, the huge space hidden deep in the cave was fully illuminated by the light magic stones, faint fluorescent light quickly converged into a brightness comparable to the sun, showing the appearance of the entire cave before their eyes.

It was filled with countless magic puppets as tall as a person.

They were arranged neatly and evenly, and the light from above their heads fell on their steel shells, reflecting an them like billowing waves in the ocean, rushing toward the depths of the cave, with almost no end in sight.

Every part of their bodies was very sophisticated, and it was obvious that they have been greatly upgraded and modified from the prototype made by the demons.

Except for being a bit ugly, they were almost impeccable.

Gazing at the magic puppets in front of him, Ge Xiu narrowed his eyes slightly:

“In fact, after mastering the method, mass production was not a difficult task – I was just playing for fun, but I didn’t expect it would come in handy so quickly.”

He pointed to the densely packed group of magic puppets and explained kindly:

” The two hundred on the left are all strawberry flavours, responsible for long-range magic attacks, and the next four hundred are all orange flavours, which are good at physical combat at close range…”

Elinor endured and endured, and finally couldn’t hold back:

“…Strawberry flavour?”

Ge Xiu smiled and hugged the little wolf tighter: “It’s all my favourite candy taste.”

Elinor: “…”

Ge Xiu raised his eyes and looked forward at the silent and quiet legion in front of him, he could hardly see where the countless magic puppets ended. Smile on his lips slowly deepened, dark eyes flashed, childlike innocence and excitement were replaced by something more dangerous, he grinned and said:

“Now, we have an army of our own.”

·

No one knows why such drastic changes appeared on the mainland in the last few days.

Almost at the same time, several large Temples of Light on the mainland were attacked by a mysterious army simultaneously. That army was composed entirely of puppets. Those puppets were extremely strange and difficult to defeat – generally speaking, low-level puppets had low intensity, but not difficult to control, and it was easy to find their weaknesses and to defeat them. On the other hand, high-level puppets were were powerful, but extremely difficult to control and operate in large quantities.

However, the number of magic puppets in that team was not only extremely large, but each one was a sophisticated and terrifying killing machine, all of them secretly controlled by unknown people behind the scenes, and they strike extremely quickly and accurately, leaving behind destruction, only to retreat in a very short time and disappear, dispersing like smoke, without the slightest trace.

Fortunately, they only attacked buildings and did not harm lives.

But the Holy Pope had even more troubles because of this.

Because of the disparity in combat power, the hope of victory was extremely small, and because they only came to destroy the temples every time, many guarding knights and the surrounding people choose to ignore them and resist passively. After all, the building could be re-built after damage. As long as their life was safe everything would be fine.

They have assigned knights to the temples in each branch area to guard and prevent the attacks, but it was of no use. The speed of the destruction of the temples was not hindered at all – they would even attack and destroy the temple building dedicated to being a library, that was purified by the light element to prevent reconstruction.

Within a few days, two out of ten Temples of Light on the whole mainland were destroyed.

The chief priest got an oracle that night.

For the first time, the God of Light, who hadn’t appeared in thousand of years, directly issued instructions to his followers, but it was not about then recent massive destructions of the temples, but to search for someone.

Regardless of all costs, he must be caught – alive or dead.

At the same time, the only remaining necromancers on the mainland also ran wildly looking for the same person.

——A human named Ge Xiu.

·

Ge Xiu was not idle during this time.

The magic puppets were really very workable. In addition to the primitive melee and spell types, Ge Xiu also created an patrolling device that detected content of elements in the air, a mimicking device for collecting intelligence, which was originally just a low-intelligence magic product for combat assistance. In his hands it became a tricky weapon.

Ge Xiu sat in a chair wrapped in soft fur, half curled up like a cat, his thin body almost engulfed and covered by the white long fur.

On his knees, there was a palm-sized frog.

The green skin looked smooth and sticky. The dull eyes were put on both sides of the skull. They were slightly asymmetrical. The flat mouth was crooked. On the whole, it was indescribably ugly.

But once you looked closely, you would find something wrong.

The eyes of this ugly frog were filled with cold metallic lustre, and the webs between its toes seemed to have been accurately calculated, and the distance between each of them was accurate to the millimetres.

It was actually a mimicry puppet.

Ge Xiu yawned lazily, tapping the magic puppet’s back lightly with one after another finger, and the manicured fingernails knocked lightly on the uneven back of the frog.

Regardless of its small size, the manufacturing process was not much easier than of those large combat magic puppets, and even more complicated to some extent.

Although there was magic in this world, he wasn’t aware until now of how much this world was behind in equipment and tools than the last world.

Ge Xiu truly missed his previous workshop on the starship very much now.

However, there were always more solutions than difficulties.

From rocks and trees to flowers, birds, insects, and fish, the mimicry puppets created by Ge Xiu encompass almost all races. They were taken out from the army lent to Elinor and placed in key places on the continent, making every region, every inch of land covered with his eyes and ears.

In that way, even though Ge Xiu did not leave the house, the disturbances outside during this period of time were mostly transmitted to his ears.

Almost the whole world was looking for him.

…And they were already getting closer.

The source of informations to the temple seemed to be a team of apprentices from an academy. They gave a key piece of information to the temple—the human being sought by the entire continent had an intersection with a black wolf with wings on its back. Although they did not recognize what species it was, the temple immediately understood the connection:

After all, there was only one Fenrir left in the whole world.

They mobilized the Holy Knights to make an expedition in the direction of the cave.

On the necromancers’ side, Ge Xiu was not very clear. They don’t seem to have any particularly accurate sources of information, nor have they interacted with the Templars and mages, but they seem to have mastered their own ways. Most of them moved separately, but the direction of their travel was exactly the same, and they rushed straight towards Ge Xiu’s location.

For this situation, Ge Xiu could only guess, that they have received some help from the demons—perhaps some kind of props used to determine his position, a scroll with spells, or something like magic spar. They couldn’t use it on the reverse side of the mainland, but it could be used on the light side of the mainland.

Either way, it didn’t matter much now.

It would be full moon soon, and Elinor should have returned three days ago, but at this moment there still were no news. Even Ge Xiu’s mimicry puppets all over the continent have not found his slightest traces.

This was abnormal.

Those people obviously learned of Elinor’s current plan in some way, and even created obstacles to prevent him from returning.

At least three teams were moving in this direction, and they would arrive one after another in at most three days.

Ge Xiu narrowed his eyes feeling drowsy, and his long eyelashes drooped, casting a deep shadow on his pale face, almost completely concealing his dark eyes.

He tapped the frog’s back twice with his slender fingertips.

The sluggish magic puppet, as if receiving some instructions, jumped off his knees and jumped out of the cave, hopping outside.

Gazing at the back of the little frog, Ge Xiu hooked his lips slightly.

——Since you want to pick on soft persimmons*, come on.

·

In fact, this was not a cave, but more like a floating island.

Fenrirs were arrogant and powerful creatures. They held terrible power and amazing talent. Their wings and sharp followers behind them make them the rulers of the land and the sky, and the wall of inheritance that symbolized their glory located exactly between the sky and the ground.

Even if the Fenrir clan was declining and their descendants were almost extinct, few humans dared to set foot here.

A team of nearly a thousand elite Templar knights stepped on the ladder condensed by the mages from elements, cautiously moving forward, they soon reached the entrance of the cave.

The mages chanted spells in a low voice, and some fluorescent light floated into the depths of the cave.

A few minutes later, he stopped and shook his head slowly at the knight commander behind him:

“No ambush.” ​​

The whole team began to advance cautiously, and the light spell released by the mages illuminated their way. Under the high dome, this team of knights moved forward slowly, seemingly like tiny ants.

There is a strange and secluded atmosphere in the cave, like ancient whispers from the origin of the world, giving people an invisible sense of oppression.

This unspeakable and heavy sense of fear became more and more solid as they went further.

Suddenly, the knight walking in the front stopped abruptly.

He frowned in confusion:

“This…is this… a frog?”

In the spacious and dark cave in front of them, a small frog was lying on the ground. Its turquoise smooth and wet body looked quite ugly. With a pair of asymmetrical eyes reflecting the glimmer of light spells, it squatted quietly in the middle of the road, staring at the team in front of it with its small, dull eyes.

How come there are frogs here?

He turned his head to look at the mage on the side, it was obvious that the other was equally puzzled.

The mage’s staff tentatively moved slightly, and in the next second, his face suddenly changed: “This! It’s not a frog at all! The spell I used on it had no effect at all! It’s not a living thing!”

“Of course.”

The youthful voice came from the depths of the cave.

In the darkness, light footsteps came closer, slowly approaching the team of the Templars, the thin figure gradually became clear, and only stopped when the light released by the light spell could illuminate his face.

The young man’s face was half hidden in the dark and half exposed under the soft white light. The intertwined light and shadow flickered on his face as beautiful and pure face as gifted by gods, but those deep and dark eyes shimmered with almost inhuman magical light.

His expression was calm and undisturbed, as if he wasn’t facing a heavily armed enemy.

He stretched out his hand, the frog on the ground seemed respond to his call, it jumped up and leaped onto his palm—the ugly frog was lying in his arms, his fingers white as first snow were gently resting on its back, forming a strange picture with strong visual impact.

The knight commander’s eyes widened slightly—he recognized the opponent’s face.

This was the person they were looking for all their journey!

There was a smile at the corner of Ge Xiu’s mouth, he took a moment to appreciate the change in their expressions.

Soon, the knight calmed down. He clenched the hilt of his sword tightly, his voice was low and strong. He couldn’t disobey the orders and said: “Please go to the temple with us. I very much wish to avoid unnecessary conflicts, so please– “

Ge Xiu frowned impatiently, as if tired of his rhetoric.

He raised his eyebrows, and interrupted the other party: “There is no need to say these words-after all, ‘alive or dead’, is that right?”

What…!

The knight commander was startled, and the hand gripping the hilt instantly tightened, a layer of cold sweat broke out on his back.

How could the other party know about this?

But…In this way, the possibility of peacefully taking the other party away was almost zero.

His expression instantly cooled down.

Ge Xiu seemed to have not noticed, and sighed softly: “It seems that you still don’t why your god has sent you here, right?”

He caressed the frog lying on his palm carelessly:

“They sent you here to die.”

Since the orders given by the God of Light included regardless of life or death, his survival or not was likely to have no effect on opening the gates to Darkness – no matter the result, the seal would be broken, and it wasn’t difficult to guess where the dark creatures that have been suppressed for tens of thousands of years would vent their anger after getting released.

No matter who won or lose, the people closest to the gate were all God’s abandoned children.

Even if he didn’t die in his hands, he would die in the dark elements that suddenly poured out.

Ge Xiu stared at knights in front of him, standing at guard as if seeing an enemy, his expression seemed compassionate but also filled with pure indifference and coldness, as he said: “It’s not too late to leave now,”

“Whoosh-“

The long swords blessed with light elements suddenly were unsheathed at the same time, reflecting cold glint of light. The staff held in the hand of the mage of light was shining brightly, almost completely illuminating the dark dome. Face of each knight was like steel, with cold killing intent in their pupils, a thousand of warriors could tear apart the unarmed young man in front of him in milliseconds. –They were weapons without emotion and thought in the hands of the Temple of Light, let alone sympathy and compassion.

Since they can’t take him away peacefully, then follow the orders – regardless of life and death.

They attacked Ge Xiu without hesitation. The bright swords in their hands flashed and the killing intent billowed like ocean waves and surged violently, as if all their moves were aiming to kill. The light elements in the air condensed into a huge fiery ball of fire that slammed on Ge Xiu’s body.

Ge Xiu’s face was illuminated by burning hot and bright spells, and the dazzling flames of the sun reflected in his dark pupils.

He did not move.

The frog in his hand suddenly deformed and opened like a huge soft net, enclosing his whole person in it. The mage’s spells exploded on it, and the sharp blade slid off the surface, as if touching something smooth and silky but impenetrable.

After a wave of attacks, the big green net suddenly retracted, shrunk back to the shape of a frog, and fell to the ground.

Ge Xiu looked down at the tattered demon puppet and sighed, “…well.”

He snapped his fingers.

A dense cluster of red dots instantly lit up behind him, like eyes of monsters lurking in the dark, gleaming with cruel light, and the ground vibrated suddenly, as if thousands of horses and horses were walking toward here in a unified steps.

For the first time, the faces of the knights assured of their victory flashed with flustered expressions.

A row of magic puppets appeared behind Ge Xiu.

Everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief at the same time – fortunately, not many.

But… what were the strange-looking black metal pipes held by those magic puppets?

Ge Xiu sighed: “I gave you a choice.”

He tilted his head, curling up the corners of his lips like a devil, exposing pointed tiger teeth, and spit out the words of a spell from his mouth: “Fire.”

Earth-shaking sound as if tearing the air rang in their ears, the compressed and solidified elements shot out at high speed like bullets, almost instantly penetrating the barriers made by the mage. The emotionless magic puppets resembled a whole row of soldiers holding machine guns, ruthlessly sending deadly ammunition at the enemy in front of them.

—————————————————————————————–

The author has something to say:

Ge Xiu smiled and pulled out AK47: My lords, the times have changed!

*soft persimmons, meaning weak and vulnerable to attack enemies

Little Theater:

Ge Xiu: I was creating overwhelming weapons of destruction as my pastime, didn’t expect them to come into handy

Ge Xiu: Ah, world domination? That’s just a hobby of mine

Ge Xiu: Falling into dangerous situations? Best way to whip my appetite before breakfast

Bamboo has something to say:

Let’s be real, if Ge Xiu was an antagonist in any novel those protags wouldn’t stand a chance. Even his entrances are so magnificent.