The big stick, the good cop, and the bad cop
Just as despairing silence engulfed the Mystic Realm, an unfamiliar, steady voice rang out.
"Pitiful Tree Shepherd!"
Those words were not in Magic Language, merely Mandarin, but the mockery in them was unmistakable.
The voice also carried vibrations of magic power, allowing the Tree Shepherd to grasp their meaning, if imperfectly.
Just as I thought!
The Tree Shepherd's heart jolted. The Mystic Realm Weavers really did know his identity. His notion of a "new world" had been nothing more than a misconception born of ignorance.
"Doiman?"
The Tree Shepherd voiced his question in a dispirited Language of Magic.
Qin Xiaoxia willingly revealed himself within the Mystic Realm, his form shifting from illusion to substance.
Although the Tree Shepherd's desperate burst of power outside had given him a scare, once inside this Mystic Realm-which practically counted as half his own domain-Qin Xiaoxia could see at a glance how terrible the Tree Shepherd's condition was.
Facing someone gravely wounded who had lost the will to fight, he could afford to act magnanimous.
Qin Xiaoxia wore a peculiar expression, tinged with teasing amusement.
"You think I'm an Elf?"
"Hehehe... hehehehe..."
His laughter was perfectly ordinary, with no special energy behind it.
Yet to the Tree Shepherd, it seemed to make the entire Mystic Realm tremble, almost like a hallucination. Even his branches tingled.
Faint purple magic power spread from the being before him. Unlike the continuous flow of magic power he normally saw, this purple power resembled countless glittering particles gathered together, existing both as a whole and as separate units.
Flames-flames formed from magic power-burned over Qin Xiaoxia's body.
Qin Xiaoxia was not deliberately controlling this. It was a spontaneous change in the nature of his magic power.
It burned just like