She could! She could afford it!
As soon as the calculation ended, Elara quickly pulled out a mirror from her spatial button and spun around in an instant. The man in the wheelchair and the man with mechanical arms who were chasing closely behind her hadn't even reacted when she suddenly aimed the mirror directly at the face of the man in the wheelchair inside the transparent golden tower.
In the next moment, the man's face clearly appeared in the mirror. His wheelchair movement came to a sudden halt as he was chasing Elara. A shocked and stunned expression flashed across his face, but it lasted only for a moment. His expression suddenly disappeared completely like a puppet that had lost its strings, and his whole body stopped moving with his head hanging down.
The mechanical arm man sensed something wrong and instinctively turned to look, but he didn't expect the wheelchair man to suddenly stop. Not only that, he retracted the golden tower in his hand and, as if he had gone mad, dropped his head and violently hurled the golden divine tower straight at Elara.
The man with the mechanical arms was stunned and shocked, but within less than a second, he realized that Elara must have done something.
Without the golden tower's protection, he immediately stopped his wild pursuit and turned around to flee without hesitation!
But it was too late.
Elara's mental power was faster than him!
He had only stepped back two paces when several thick, sharp tentacles pierced through his neck and chest. They cleanly and swiftly cut off his arms embedded with heavy machinery.
Elara had already turned back. Holding the golden small tower, she rushed to the mechanical arm man's side and neatly chopped off his head. After confirming there was absolutely no chance he could come back to life, she picked up his detached mechanical arm, tossed it into her spatial button, and quickly used her mental power to loot everything from his body.
Then Elara walked toward the man in the wheelchair, who was still sitting there with his head hanging down, not moving like a puppet.
When she decided to use the Divine Mirror, Elara hadn't been certain it would work. After all, the golden tower could block both mental power and physical attacks, and she didn't know whether the Divine Mirror counted as one of them.
Fortunately, it worked. The transparent golden tower could not block the direct reflection and control of the Divine Mirror.
The Divine Mirror she had obtained back in Salvia Kingdom turned out to be a powerful weapon that could strike at the most unexpected moment.
Spending twenty years of lifespan to use it once was a cost that only Elara could afford without hesitation.
The man in the wheelchair was now under her control. Elara could kill him in an instant if she wished, but she preferred to take him as a prisoner, pry open his mouth, and extract more secrets she wanted.
After ordering the man in the wheelchair to remove everything on him that could be tracked or detected by the Darknight Hall, Elara thoroughly stripped him of all valuables. Then she went to the corpse of the man with mechanical arms, burned it clean, and finally left the area with the man in the wheelchair, lying in wait.
Not long after, Uno returned.
He had some blood on him, but he wasn't seriously injured. Elara fed him a few of Oswyn's powerful healing pills, then continued lying low with him.
A few minutes later, the danger she had sensed earlier finally showed itself. Several assassins arrived, each also carrying godly meridian blessings of decent quality. They were not from Darknight Hall or Yellow Springs Hall. They belonged to the Lotus Phoenix Sect.
The Lotus Phoenix Sect had once been a second-tier power. Only by aligning with the splinter forces of the northern Gladiolus Kingdom could they edge closer to first-tier status.
Though not lacking in blessed items, the quality of those in the Lotus Phoenix Sect could not compare with those of Darknight Hall or Yellow Springs Hall.
The best of the godly blessings these assassins carried was merely upper-middle tier. So after Elara scoped them out, she didn't waste time. Using the man in the wheelchair for support, she and Uno found an opportunity and swiftly killed all the assassins from the Lotus Phoenix Sect.
After collecting all the loot again, Elara set the corpses ablaze and efficiently cleaned up the scene.
Once finished, she controlled the wheelchair man and headed south with Uno.
But after just a few hundred meters, a deep rumble came from the earth around them. It was as if hundreds of thousands of troops were approaching at once.
Elara frowned. Her spiritual energy spread silently. She soon realized that the mountain they were in was completely surrounded by three separate armies. Each force had more than one hundred thousand soldiers. Altogether, more than three hundred thousand troops swarmed over the mountain.
Three hundred thousand troops had not gone to the Central Continent battlefield to besiege Prince Leland and Sylvan. Instead, they came to the Northern Frontier to surround her small team of fewer than a thousand?
The elite squad Elara had told to stay hidden also sensed the massive armies nearby. The squad leader quickly gathered the members, formed a defensive circle around Elara, and worriedly asked what to do next.
When Elara came to the Northern Frontier, she only brought sixty thousand visible regular troops and one hundred thousand puppet soldiers hidden in the shadows.
To be safe, she had left half of both the regular army and puppet soldiers in Prince Leland's territory to assist Sylvan in case of another sudden bizarre enemy appearance.
Now only fifty thousand secret puppet soldiers were with her.
Even though puppet soldiers had no fear or sense of self, fifty thousand against over three hundred thousand was a stretch. Besides, these puppet soldiers were most valuable against strange enemies. Using them against normal troops would be a waste. Each one lost would be a personal loss.
The rumble on the ground continued. The large armies were closing in.
Just as Elara lowered her gaze and pondered what to do, a beautiful figure suddenly appeared behind a small bush about a hundred meters away. He wore a dark blue silk robe, and his pregnant belly stood out prominently.
The moment he appeared, Elara looked up instinctively. The blood puppet energy on this man was overwhelming.
His features were delicate, his build tall and graceful. He gently held his swollen belly, a stark contrast to the blood-soaked battlefield. This was the same pregnant man Elara had seen days ago in the Southwater Flower Tower, the one the Lotus Phoenix Sect's saintess had called Elijah.
Why was this person here?
Elara stared at the sudden appearance of the pregnant man. Everyone around her instantly turned alert and looked over.
Elijah's face showed little expression. He calmly studied Elara for a while before speaking.
"If I help you leave this place, will you take me away and give me freedom?"
Elara had already been puzzled by this man who had somehow formed a blood puppet contract with her and appeared thousands of miles away. Hearing this, she narrowed her eyes and looked him over.
Elijah lowered his gaze to his prominent belly and spoke in a calm tone.
"This is your child. She fed us your blood and used secret techniques to make us conceive your child. She wants to obtain a divine heir with your bloodline."
Even someone as composed as Elara was stunned. She froze for several moments before fully processing his words. Her dazed eyes instinctively shifted to his bulging stomach.
"What? My child?"
Elara was sure she hadn't misheard. But she wasn't even married, hadn't touched this man, and had never seen him before. Yet he said he was carrying her child?
Not just Elara, even the elite squad behind her, once on high alert, fell into a strange, heavy silence. Each face showed shock and disbelief as they looked from Elara to the pregnant man.
This situation was clearly complicated and incomprehensible. Ordinary logic couldn't explain it. Even Elara couldn't sort out her thoughts right away. For once, she felt genuinely confused.
This world might be about to shatter her understanding again.
While the three hundred thousand soldiers closed in, Elara activated the power of the Saint Spirit Blood Soul and asked Elijah to repeat himself. After confirming every word was true, she had no time to question further.
"Fine. Take us out of here. Afterward, I will take you away, get you out of this place, and give you freedom."
Hearing Elara's agreement, Elijah's icy expression finally softened a bit. He gently rubbed his slightly trembling belly and turned to lead the way.
He led them into a narrow nearby canyon. Deep within it was a tiny hole that only allowed one person through. Inside the cave was an ancient door buried for who knew how many centuries.
That old stone door was covered with intricate mechanical formations. Elijah extended his pale, slender fingers and gently triggered the mechanisms. The heavy, refined door creaked open, revealing a hidden tunnel inside.
Elijah led them in and told Elara,
"This secret path was originally left by my ancestors. It leads two hundred miles south. Once we exit, we'll be close to Bluestar City."
Inside the secret tunnel, everyone clearly relaxed. Elara walked up to Elijah, frowning as she looked at him.
"You..."
Seeming to know what she wanted to ask, Elijah lowered his eyes and touched his pregnant belly. He replied softly.
"I was originally the legitimate second son of the Snow clan in the matriarchal Gerbera Kingdom. A year ago, after my family suddenly perished, I was captured by the Lotus Phoenix Sect."