It was 4 a.m., the most exhausted and least alert time of the day, even the street rats looking for entertainment would either be asleep in a woman's arms or passed out in an alleyway.
Li Fan was waiting for this very moment.
The night before, he had already learned about the slave merchant's lodging and carefully planned his action.
Li Fan quietly left the stable, cautious as a cat, navigating the shadows of the streets. He seemed to have a talent for such clandestine operations, managing to avoid detection all the way to the inn where the slave merchant was staying.
In front of him was an inn two stories high, surrounded by a wall.
Li Fan crouched in a corner, his breath quick and shallow. In thesinful town, there was no law, and killing someone didn't even warrant a sentence to pay with one's life. If his plan was discovered, the best outcome he could hope for would be to be shot dead on the spot.
Therefore, he was extremely tense.
But Li Fan also knew that in times of crisis, one needed to stay calm more than ever.
He adjusted his breathing to try to calm down and began to analyze the situation.
The slave merchant was not alone; no merchant would dare come to a place like the sinful town alone, or they would be found dead in the wild the next day. Therefore, the slave merchant must have brought some henchmen with him. During the day, Li Fan had seen a few burly tough guys guarding the slave merchant's carriage, and they were likely the merchant's men.
Li Fan, though not weak, was no match for these brutes whose arms were thicker than his legs. Therefore, the first thing to do was not to be detected by them, and that was the reason he had chosen this time to come.
The second was to find out where the elf was, only then could he devise a way to save her.
With this in mind, Li Fan quietly climbed over the wall and peered into the inn.
Li Fan's luck was good.
He didn't find the slave merchant; he should be asleep in his room at the inn.
The carriage carrying the elf was easy to spot, parked next to the inn's stables, and sure enough, there were three big guys guarding it. However, it was 4 a.m., and the three guards were already dozing off, swaying from side to side. They wouldn't wake up unless someone approached.
"Phew…"
Li Fan sighed in relief, the situation was exactly as he had anticipated.
According to his plan, as long as he didn't wake up the guards, delivering the emergency pill to the elf would be enough.
Thinking this, Li Fan climbed onto the wall, steadied himself, and from his chest pulled out a… slingshot.
The slingshot was a makeshift one, made from a branch and a piece of rubber tubing from the first-aid kit used for binding blood vessels.
Li Fan had played with slingshots when he was a kid, and he had shot down more than one bird with it.
It had been years since he had used one, and even though he had practiced, whether he would succeed was still an unknown.
Li Fan tried to calm his breathing and placed the emergency pill on the slingshot.
After a deep breath, he aimed.
The distance from the wall to where the elf was was less than ten meters.
Li Fan could even see through the loose clothing on the elf, the deep cleft between her breasts.
"Shh…"
With a soft sound, Li Fan released the slingshot, and the pill flew through the air in a small arc, finally landing on the elf's chest, even slipping deeply into the cleft.
Li Fan was surprised; it was like winning a prize.
Fortunately, the plan didn't go wrong because of this. The entire operation had been silent, and the pill's 'deep' insertion was enough to wake up the elf.
Sure enough.
In the next instant, the elf opened her eyes abruptly, her gaze sparkling with an incredibly sharp light, as if she were an experienced warrior.
But that sharpness only lasted for a few seconds before her eyes gradually lost their shine.
The elf returned to the way Li Fan had first seen her powerless, like a flower uprooted from the soil.
She hadbeen injured severely during the fight with the bandits and was on the brink of death, which was why she was caught by these slavers posing as bandits.
Now, all the elf wanted was for it all to end so she could return to the embrace of her mother nature and the goddess of elves.
Thinking this, the elf clasped her hands together in prayer, but as she moved, she also felt the anomaly on her chest.
The elf's face changed, and she reached into her chest to feel around, finally pulling out the pill.
The elf looked at the emergency pill in her hand, confusion written on her face. She didn't recognize the pill, but she could smell a purity of herbal scent from it.Out of her natural affinity with nature, the elf was able to deduce that the pill in her hand seemed to be for healing purposes.
The elf looked around in confusion and quickly noticed Li Fan, crouching on the top of the wall, waving at her.
Li Fan, seeing this, smiled and pointed at the emergency pill in the elf's hand, then motioned to his own mouth with a swallowing gesture.
After completing these actions, Li Fan didn't turn back, but left decisively and quietly, disappearing cleanly.
In Li Fan's view, there was no need for him to do anything more.
During the day, he had overheard an important piece of intelligence from the conversation between a slave merchant and a passerby.
To prevent slaves from escaping, slave merchants usually put collars on them, especially for powerful slaves.
The collar suppressed most of the slave's abilities and powers.
It was precisely because of this collar that the elf, despite her formidable strength, was not wearing one.
The reason was simple: the slave merchant feared that the heavily injured elf might die under the collar's suppression.
Besides, the elf was so severely wounded that she could barely walk steadily, and the collar was not necessary.
This gave Li Fan an opportunity.
One could imagine that as long as he healed the elf's wounds, this powerful elf,evaluated by the system, would have no problem escaping.
So, Li Fan's plan was to deliver his emergency pill into the elf's hands.
The plan was simple, but the success rate was quite high.
...
The elf, dazedly watching Li Fan disappear, regained her senses after a long while.
She hesitatedly looked at the pill in her hand, and after a while, her emerald-like eyes suddenly lit up, and she swallowed the pill.
Instantly, a wave of warmth began to surge through the elf's body, and her injuries were healing at a visible speed.
"How is this possible? Such an injury, perhaps only the sacred herbs of our tribe could have such a remarkable effect."
The elf couldn't believe her eyes as her body was rapidly healing before her very eyes, and even some old injuries seemed to be cured at this moment.
At this moment, the elf felt like she was at the peak of her life.
"Who exactly is he?"
This question occurred to the elf for just a moment before she abandoned it, as the priority was to escape.
The elf turned her gaze to the three burly men outside the cage, her eyes gradually turning cold.
At the same time, a swirl of lush green energy began to gather around the elf.
"Second-level magic, Vine... strangulation."
With a low hum, the lush green energy silently flowed into the ground, and three vines quickly burst out of the soil, wrapping around the necks of the three burly men.
"Ugh..."
The three burly men, who had been asleep, were instantly awakened, but the vines had already tightly wrapped around their necks and mouths, preventing them from making a sound.
A minute later, the three men fell to the ground, their bodies going limp.
The elf took a breath and the lush green energy appeared again, wrapping around the iron lock of the cage.
After a few moments, with a "click" sound, the lock opened.
The elf carefully opened the iron door of the cage, checked that there was no one around, and with agile jumps, she climbed onto the wall of the inn.
The elf didn't stop and hurriedly ran towards the mouth of the valley.
Not until she reached the valley entrance did the elf stop running.
She looked back towards the direction of Sinful Town with her glowing emerald eyes and scanned the surroundings a few more times, as if looking for someone's figure.
Naturally, the elf was looking for Li Fan's figure.
The human had saved her and even given her such a precious medicine, which must have been for some purpose.
Since there was a purpose, then the other person would definitely be waiting for her at this only exit.
However, after a while, the elf didn't see Li Fan's figure.
At this moment, confusion appeared in the elf's eyes.
"He didn't come; why? Could it be that there really are humans who wouldhelp an elf without asking for anything in return?"
The elf's eyes were filled with confusion. After all, humans and elves had been at war for countless years, and countless elves had been enslaved. The hatred between them was impossible to resolve.
Even though she had seen it with her own eyes, she still found it hard to believe that a human would help an elf without any ulterior motives.
Finally, the elf didn't stay for too long. Seeing that she couldn't wait for Li Fan to appear, she took one last long look at the direction of Sinful Town, then turned around and ran towards the west side of Sinful Forest, which was the direction towards the Elf Empire.