Oil, liquor, wood, all these flammable things together, plus a little spark, there is only one result: unstoppable fire!
The flames quickly spread along the tree man's legs, to its body and hands. Its bright eyes were also enveloped by smoke and fire.
The tree man waved his arms, trying to put out the fire on his body, but it was in vain. It was now a huge torch, emitting thick smoke. Its skin turned black as it burned, and it kept making crackling sounds. The vines that had turned from hair also withered quickly, and then broke one after another. The burning made the wood lose moisture, and its movements became stiff and slow. It stumbled and knocked down two walls, and finally fell to its knees, crushing a house, and the flames on its body set the house on fire.
Xiao Chen heard a scream in his heart, and then the spiritual connection suddenly stopped. He saw the tree man struggling in the flames, and his heart suddenly became heavy. Perhaps it was because of what happened in the morning. In his eyes, this tree man was no different from a human. He seemed to be watching a person who had just spoken to him being burned to death. He shouted: "Roger, take down the arsonist and make a way out. I want to put out the fire for the tree man!"
Roger nodded and rushed forward with the people behind him. These people were good fighters selected from the four or five thousand people, and they were much more elite than Ralph's men. The slaves who were besieging the tree people saw a large number of people with knives and guns rushing towards them, and they gathered around Ralph. They raised their weapons and confronted Xiao Chen's people.
"Roger? You didn't leave? What do you want to do with these people?" Ralph was a little surprised. The current scene was a little beyond his imagination.
"Ralph, the entire camp is controlled by Lord Xiao. Surrender." Roger's voice was stern and his expression was solemn.
"Surrender? Roger, are you crazy? It's not enough that you serve the wizard as a dog, but you are trying to threaten me? I'm telling you, I'm free now, and no one can control me!" Ralph's face was full of anger. He waved the sword in his hand, as if he had been greatly insulted. "I'm going to ask you to return my elf! I saw with my own eyes that big tree stump carrying the elf to your side. Did you take it all away?"
When Roger saw that the burning tree man had fallen into the ruins of the house and was not moving, he became anxious and said in a harsh tone: "This is your last chance. If you stand in our way again, we will not be polite to you."
Ralph saw Xiao Chen also walked in, accompanied by the most beautiful female elf, and his heart was boiling with anger. Even if the other party was a magician, Ralph could not tolerate such behavior of snatching food from the tiger's mouth. He had paid a great price and many people died to kill the tree man, how could he let others pick the fruit like this
What's more, this strange-looking magician has never shown any magical abilities. Maybe he is just a magic apprentice pretending.
He made up his mind, pointed his sword at Xiao Chen and said, "Magician! I don't care what you are up to, the elf is mine. If you don't want to fight me to the death, you'd better hand the elf to me and let me go! Otherwise..."
"You can't leave!" Xiao Chen had already understood from Elena what happened here, and he was not going to give Ralph any chance.
At this time, he held a scroll from the old magician's house. Morey had identified it as a scroll of high-level magic "Ice Storm". According to him, if this scroll was released correctly, it would have the power to destroy a small town. Unfortunately, Xiao Chen and Morey did not have enough ability to release such a high-level scroll.
But Xiao Chen had his own rough methods to deal with the scrolls, so he carried a few scrolls with him.
Xiao Chen had already activated the scroll before he came over. He felt the power of ice and snow and the power of the strong wind sealed in it, and then injected his mental power into it without any consideration. The wild power began to tear open the restrictions in the scroll and destroy the path of the magic runes, simply releasing this energy. At the same time, his mental power also attracted the surrounding elemental power, and the magic power stronger than the scroll itself was attached to the scroll from the outside.
This consumes a lot more mental energy than using a scroll normally, and the magic cannot be guaranteed at all, and the power will be much weaker. But there is also a big advantage, that is, no spells or gestures are required. Along the way, naturally, Ralph's attention was not attracted.
Xiao Chen didn't care about that at this time. He was like a child trying desperately to stuff candy into his mouth, not caring about the endurance of his mouth, until one moment he couldn't stuff anything in anymore and spit out all the candy...
When he walked to Roger's side and faced Ralph and his men, the scroll in his hand had turned into a light blue spot. Then, he raised his palm, and countless frosts were mixed in the cold wind and sprayed out along his fingers, forming a cone of ice mist.
Why didn't he use any spells? Or any hand gestures? Ralph was just planning to take Xiao Chen hostage by using his speed when he was caught off guard, but suddenly Xiao Chen's magic came towards him.
Ralph was instantly enveloped by the icy mist. He was about to speak, and his mouth was still open when the icy mist rushed into his throat. He quickly covered his face with both hands and rolled sideways to avoid the front of the icy mist. However, at this time, he found that his arms, cheeks, mouth and throat had lost feeling. What was worse was that the long sword in his hand and his palm were stuck together and could not be separated.
What kind of ice and snow is this? How can it have such terrifying power
Before he could figure out the problem, the ruthless ice fog enveloped the people behind him and then rushed straight towards the burning tree man lying in the house.
Strong winds drove away the smoke and icy fog engulfed the flames.
In a blink of an eye, as the scroll in Xiao Chen's hand was exhausted, the ice mist slowly dissipated. The fire on the tree man was completely extinguished, and half an inch of frost was left on the charred bark. Between the tree man and Xiao Chen, dozens of slaves were covered with ice crystals, standing motionless in the open space like ice sculptures.
Ralph cried "ho ho", staggered to his feet, and staggered around in circles. If you look closely, you will find that his eyes are covered with a layer of white, and he has been frozen and blinded by Xiao Chen's magic.
He accidentally bumped into a frozen slave, who fell straight down and knocked down the people next to him. Then, the group of ice statues fell to the ground like dominoes, the ice crystals broke, making a harsh snapping sound, and the bodies fell to the ground with a low collision sound. Ralph was groping around with his hands, and after touching a few ice figures, he seemed to understand something, and his hands moved faster and faster, and his movements became more and more urgent. Finally, he stood up, staring with lifeless eyes and turning around, as if looking for something.
"Are you looking for me?" Xiao Chen said coldly.
When Ralph heard Xiao Chen's voice, he let out an unwilling cry and rushed towards him with his sword in hand.
The green light of fighting spirit burst out from Ralph's body again, but the frozen muscles in his hands could no longer withstand such power. He charged forward, but his hands kept breaking while he was running. When he was about to rush in front of Xiao Chen, his sword fell to the ground due to the loss of his palm and forearm, but he was completely unaware of it and looked like a madman.
Roger silently drew his sword and stabbed him in the chest. Ralph spat out blood and stretched out his broken arm to reach forward. However, he could not cross the distance of several meters.
A flash of lightning flashed on Roger's sword, and a huge hole blew in Ralph's chest. He looked up at the sky, then fell down helplessly.
This warrior who could fight Roger died just like that.
"Gather the slaves who are still alive." Xiao Chen stared at Ralph on the ground for a while and gave the order. The slaves around him, no matter which side they belonged to, were quiet and didn't make a sound. For many people, this was the first time in their lives that they saw the horror of magic power.
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"The fire is out. Is she still there?" Xiao Chen walked up to the tree man. Elena and the other four elves stood quietly beside the tree man's head.
Elena shook her head and shed a string of tears.
"She's gone. Even without this fire, she would have left us eventually..." Elena looked at the tree man's face, which had been almost burned flat.
"Is it because of the guardian seed you mentioned earlier?"
"Yes. The price of the Seed of Guardian is the soul of the elf. If she survives, she will never be able to change back to her original appearance. She will only become a real tree. And her soul will slowly become silent, just like every tree. The moment she uses it, she is ready to sacrifice herself completely." Elena used her hands to peel off the frost on the bark, and then pressed her palms on the bark.
The other elves understood what she was going to do, and they all put their hands on the tree man.
Elaina sang a elegy with a strange and light tune. The other elves followed suit. A tiny light began to emanate from Elaina's hands, and the light dots slowly flew to the tree man like fireflies. The light dots were neither hot nor dazzling, but the ice and snow on the tree man began to melt. And the charred bark began to fall off.
As they sang, a small bud broke through the bark next to her hand and poked its head out. It swayed like a happy child, then grew taller and taller, and in a short while it grew into a small tree about half a meter tall.
This is the power of life.
Elaina gently kissed the branches of the small tree, then picked two leaves from it and put them into two small straw bags.
She handed a small bag to another elf and said, "Arwen, this is the proof of Sariel's 'rebirth'. Please take it back to the kingdom and place it under the world tree."
"Lady Elaina. Shouldn't you take this back yourself?"
Elena shook her head and said, “I can’t go back for now, so please bring it back for me.”
The other elves were confused, but the Rain and Dew Priest was of noble status, so they did not dare to ask more questions and just nodded in agreement.
"Thank you for your help in avenging Sariel." Elaina handed another bag to Xiao Chen. "With this leaf, you can enter the Elven Kingdom. I think the elders of the kingdom will also express their gratitude."
Xiao Chen took the leaf and put it away carefully. "In fact, she did the most important things. She was the one who finally kept you all alive."
"Yeah. You know what? We actually don't know her." Elena lowered her head, her eyes seemed to be wandering outside the world, "Just now, she killed a human who was... somewhat related to me. I could see that she didn't like me, and even despised me. But then she saved me with her own life without hesitation... This made me, made me..." She couldn't continue, but two lines of tears expressed the rest of her meaning for her.
"Maybe she just realized that there is no way out." Xiao Chen remembered what he said to Luo Ling at this time, "There will always be people who choose to take a step forward when there is nowhere to retreat. In the eyes of others, this may be the leap from mortal to hero."