Chapter 224: Ten Minutes

“Do you have a plan?” Ram leaned in close to Wu Qingsong and asked quietly.

Wu Qingsong glanced at where Red Moon was sleeping. He couldn’t see her clearly, but he knew her ears were probably perked up, listening.

“Not exactly, but I believe that telling the truth is always the best solution.”

Ram looked a bit unconvinced.

“If you had been honest with them during the day, telling them that the beastmen have been conquered by the elves and that we’re just a group of rebels hiding in the shadows, maybe it would’ve been easier to convince them,” Wu Qingsong said. “In fact, the fact that they haven’t given us a response all day already proves that at least part of my suspicion is correct. The real question now is whether they’ll go to the extreme of killing us to keep their secret.”

“They’re no match for you.”

“Of course not, but they don’t know that,” Wu Qingsong said helplessly. “To avoid them making a bad decision that would be hard to reverse, I’ll go prove it to them first thing in the morning.”

“But I won’t ask them to make any decisions,” he added, glancing at Red Moon’s silhouette in the dark. “I just need them to lend us a place and provide some wood.”

At dawn, Mia once again joined them, but she still didn’t give them the answer they were hoping for. Meanwhile, more harpy warriors were circling above them.

“I’d like to speak with Her Majesty the Queen again,” Wu Qingsong said to Mia. “Alone.”

“This…” Mia hesitated for a moment before nodding. “I’ll go and inform her.”

“Protect everyone else,” Wu Qingsong quietly activated Ram and Ling’s abilities as a precaution before leaving. “Ling, follow Ram’s instructions and don’t hesitate if you need to take action.”

He didn’t want to clash with the bird people, but sometimes things don’t go as planned. If there were extremists among the bird people who misunderstood his intentions, there would be no other option.

He soon made his way back up the path formed by the vine to the royal court.

Queen Gale’s expression remained unchanged, but the looks from the harpy sirens and harpy warriors around her were noticeably different.

“Lord Tagraedi, is everything alright?” the Queen asked in a gentle voice.

“Thanks to you, apart from being bored, nothing is wrong,” Wu Qingsong replied.

His response could be considered a bit rude, but the Queen didn’t comment or have Mia translate it for the others.

“So, what do you want to talk to me about today?” she asked kindly.

“During our first meeting, you referred to me as the ‘warrior from the prophecy.’ I’m curious, what’s that about?”

The Queen’s expression shifted slightly, but she quickly smiled again. “That was just an old woman’s slip of the tongue.”

“Really? That’s unfortunate,” Wu Qingsong said. “Your Majesty, if you have any prophecies, I might actually be the person in them.”

Queen Gale couldn’t help but shake her head at this.

“If you don’t believe me, we can test it out,” Wu Qingsong suggested. “Who is the strongest warrior among you?”

“You want to duel with him?” Queen Gale raised an eyebrow.

“Duel?” Wu Qingsong shook his head. “In a duel, I would definitely win. I just want to show you that I’m different from everyone else.”

Mia looked at the Queen, unsure if she should translate these words or how to translate them. Maybe she misheard some sentences?

Wu Qingsong smiled at her. “It’s okay, just tell them exactly what I said.”

A tall harpy warrior immediately became enraged. He flapped his wings, rose into the air, and then landed in front of Wu Qingsong.

Queen Gale lifted a wing to stop him. “So, Tagraedi, how do you want to prove yourself?”

“Give him ten minutes to use any attack methods he wants on me,” Wu Qingsong said. “If I fight back, I lose. If I get hurt, I lose.”

Both the Queen and Mia were astonished. “What did you say?”

“No attack can harm me,” Wu Qingsong said. 

These people couldn’t harm him, nor could they connect with the elves, so he had no qualms about revealing this in front of everyone.

‘I have to admit, showing off like this in front of everyone feels pretty great.’

“Come on!” he shouted at the harpy.

The harpy glanced at the queen, who hesitated for a moment before saying something to him.

He then flapped his wings and took off. A few seconds later, Wu Qingsong felt a claw grip his shoulder, though it wasn’t very forceful.

“It’s okay, you can tell him to use whatever he has,” Wu Qingsong said.

Mia looked at the queen, then shouted a few words.

The grip on his shoulder tightened, and sharp pain followed. Wu Qingsong instinctively wanted to react and fight back, but since he had decided to show off, he had to endure it. He laughed loudly to mask his pain.

The other claw grabbed him hard around the stomach. It hurt, but compared to the spiritual assaults he’d endured from the Red Demon Lord, this was nothing.

“Is that all you’ve got?” he shouted.

The sharp beak of the harpy pecked his back hard. He sweated from the pain. However, as expected, apart from tearing his clothes, it didn’t do any real damage. The harpy warrior pecked him four or five more times, making Wu Qingsong a bit angry. Suddenly, the harpy grabbed him and took off.

‘Is he planning to drop me from a height?’

Wu Qingsong felt a bit uneasy. Not dying was one thing, but he didn’t want to experience the sensation of free-falling, nor did he want to end up as a splattered mess.

“Are you single-minded or just brainless? I said you could attack me, but did you really have to try everything?”

Fortunately, the Gale Queen finally let out a loud call, and the harpy put him down.

“Very surprising,” she said openly. “Truly astonishing.”

“If you still have doubts, you can try using magic,” Wu Qingsong said. “I think you can see that this isn’t magic, but an innate trait.”

“Apologies,” the queen said. “Sir, it was rude of us. But this matter is very important, and I had to verify your claim.”

The birds around the queen were already chattering noisily. Mia couldn’t help but fly over to him, staring in amazement at the spots where he had been attacked.

“Your Majesty, to be honest, I have no interest in your prophecy,” Wu Qingsong said. “I just wanted to make one thing clear. If I were hostile to you, you couldn’t hurt me, but I could easily kill you all. So there’s no need to suspect us of any conspiracy. We just want to repair our ship and leave this place.”