Di Tian: I, Di Tian, am no longer the same Di Tian I was a few months ago!
"When will the human army arrive?"
An elven artilleryman sat on an empty shell crate in a natural depression where the ground had yet to be disturbed. As he heated a tin of baked beans in tomato sauce, he asked the comrade beside him.
"How would I know? I heard from the Jungle Warriors up ahead that the humans who charged into Star Dou Forest are just a bunch of youngsters out for revenge, with no organization whatsoever."
Rus Wang had wiped out nearly every soul master family in Shrek City—literally, he had exterminated them.
The few family members who had been lucky enough to be outside Shrek City, along with the soul masters from those families who had survived the disaster there, were all consumed by hatred for Star Dou Forest.
Despite the earnest pleas of the Shrek Academy headmaster and Qiangu, the Spirit Pagoda's council chair, some survivors, desperate for revenge, ignored their orders and charged into the Mixed Circle of Star Dou Forest.
There, elves dressed in heavy camouflage and hidden among the natural grass and bushes used Soul Power to accelerate their firearms.
Before the humans' Soul Guidance Shields could activate automatically, the elves crippled their limbs and took them alive.
"They're all human kids in their teens, with the strength of Soul Elders or Soul Ancestors,"
the elven comrade said.
"It seems the humans are negotiating with our Star Dou Forest allies over these hostages. They intend to exchange them for the Soul Beasts held at the Spirit Pagoda."
The elven artilleryman stopped midway through pouring the baked beans from the tin onto his sausage.
"But wouldn't that expose our elven forces?"
They had already