Chapter 957 – Ashen Claw

When Lila began the interrogation again, the results were completely different!

The mage answered nearly every question, showing none of his previous resistance or evasiveness.

Lila simply assumed the second vial of truth serum had finally broken through his mental defenses. She silently noted that sufficient dosage was indeed necessary for the serum to take effect on high-ranking spellcasters, and harbored no suspicions.

As the mage’s confession unfolded, the full picture of the Ashen Claw gradually surfaced.

The Ashen Claw was a sizable, large-scale mercenary company in the Kingdom of Loren. On the surface, they took contracts for caravan escorts and town defense, but in secret, their primary sources of profit were slave-catching and smuggling contraband.

Their leader, Blood-Axe Balon, was a Seventeenth Rank dragonblood warrior—cruel and bloodthirsty, with connections to bandits and criminal gangs across multiple regions.

The company boasted over thirty high-ranking professionals at Fifteenth Rank and above. The mage before them, codenamed “Shadow Raven,” was one of them.

Mid-ranking professionals between Seventh Rank and Fourteenth Rank numbered over a hundred, and their low-ranking members of various levels exceeded a thousand!

The Underground Waterway outpost beneath Stardrop Falls had been discovered and converted three years ago. Its primary function was receiving and processing “merchandise” captured from the eastern regions of the Emerald Forest.

Three similar outposts existed around the Emerald Forest, each positioned in a different direction, forming an invisible encirclement.

Beyond the forest perimeter, they also operated two even more important outposts within human-controlled territories.

The first was a massive underground space deep within the “Weeping Mines,” located southeast of Black Iron City. Heavily guarded and well-equipped, it served as the primary transit hub, stockpile, and training base for “merchandise.”

The second was an inn called “The Wayfarer’s Rest” in the town of Three Forks, situated at the border between the Kingdom of Loren and its neighboring country. The inn ostensibly served traveling merchants, but secretly handled clandestine handoffs of “merchandise” to buyers.

What sent the coldest chill down the elves’ spines was Shadow Raven’s revelation that within the Ashen Claw, there circulated a remarkably detailed “Guide to Rare Merchandise: Habits, Weaknesses, and Capture Methods.”

The section on nature Elves included common activity patterns of nature Elves, the types of Magic they excelled at along with identification and basic countermeasures, elven tracking and counter-tracking techniques and their characteristics, formulas for paralysis and weakening agents effective against elven physiology, and methods for setting up temporary holding points to maximally suppress elven abilities… This “guide” had dramatically improved their slave-catching efficiency and success rate. These were not blind poachers relying on luck—they were thoroughly prepared, professional hunters.

On the Ashen Claw’s “rare merchandise” ranking, nature Elves—few in number, striking in appearance, long-lived, and typically possessing considerable magical talent—had always held a place in the top three. Market demand was strong and prices were steep.

The intelligence gathered on Elves was by far the most comprehensive.

“Thank goodness Moira insisted on the interrogation, thank goodness we actually got all this information… Otherwise the tribe might have really suffered in the future!” Lila felt deeply relieved.

Rhindor’s expression turned grave as well. Though he had taken the matter seriously before, he had never anticipated the enemy’s scale and professionalism reaching such heights.

“Dispose of them. Immediately! Then return to the tribe at top speed and report everything to the Clan Leader!”

He had no intention of bringing prisoners back to the tribe and tainting their homeland.

“Yes!” The elves sprang into action at once.

They were gentle friends of nature, but toward enemies who coveted their kin, they showed not a shred of mercy.

In the span of a few breaths, all the slavers—Shadow Raven included—silently lost their life force. Under the druids’ spells, their remains rapidly decomposed, returning to the cycle of the earth.

Mo Lan watched it all in silence. This time, she did not speak up to stop them. From Shadow Raven’s memories, she had obtained information far more detailed than what the elves had extracted through interrogation.

The Ashen Claw was merely the slave-catching party operating near the Emerald Forest. Across the entire Seran world, there were several more groups just like them, and the merchandise from all these slave-catching parties flowed to the same supplier—the Shadow Merchants.

This massive shadow organization spanned multiple nations across the Mainland, with its tendrils reaching into slave trading, forbidden goods, intelligence, mercenary brokerage, and more. Its structure was tight-knit and its hierarchy rigid.

The innkeeper of “The Wayfarer’s Rest” in Three Forks was, in truth, the permanent liaison between the Ashen Claw and the Shadow Merchants, codenamed “Night Owl.”

This individual was responsible for receiving orders, appraising “merchandise,” arranging handoffs, and disbursing payments—a critical node connecting the hunters to the fencing network.

In the renowned neutral commercial city-state of Talencia, the Shadow Merchants regularly held secretive, high-end auctions open only to select top-tier clients, where this “merchandise” was sold.

This time, it was specifically the Shadow Merchants who had requested “fresh, young nature Elves,” prompting the Ashen Claw to come to the Emerald Forest in search of nature Elf tracks. Reportedly, it was to satisfy the demands of a prestigious nobleman from a powerful duchy in the north—someone of distinguished status with a particular “collecting obsession.”

Besides the Ashen Claw, other slave-catching gangs partnered with the Shadow Merchants were also devising ways to capture nature Elves.

None of this did Mo Lan share with the other elves.

The elves of the tribe were accustomed to the rhythms of the forest. Their foremost priority was to protect the forest and keep their people safe.

Expecting them to take on the Ashen Claw—let alone the Shadow Merchants behind them—was neither realistic nor worth the potentially unbearable cost.

Eradicating the Ashen Claw and investigating the Shadow Merchants would become a major quest line for her once she left the Emerald Forest to journey across the Seran world.

When their party returned bearing the news, the peaceful, tranquil atmosphere of the Verdant Elf Tribe was shattered completely.

Beneath the Tree of Life, Chieftain Matil summoned every adult Elf in the tribe.

In the gravest of tones, Rhindor laid bare everything—the Ashen Claw’s scale, strength, degree of professionalization, the multiple outposts encircling the forest, and that meticulously detailed “capture guide” targeting Elves.

“Over thirty high-ranking professionals… over a hundred mid-ranking professionals… over a thousand low-ranking members…” An Elf druid’s voice trembled. “Our entire tribe doesn’t even have that many people combined!”

“At least only four forward outposts are stationed near the Emerald Forest. It’s unlikely they’d commit their full force to entering the woods,” another Elf ranger analyzed.

Chieftain Matil sat upon the gnarled root-throne of the Tree of Life, listening quietly until every report was finished:

“Fear and fury will accomplish nothing. The enemy has bared its claws, but in doing so, has also exposed its layout. Now is the time for us to respond.”

She rose to her feet, her gaze sweeping across every Elf present:

“The Emerald Forest is our homeland, our fortress, and the wellspring of our strength.

The enemy may be powerful, but should they dare set foot in this forest, they will be walking to their own deaths!

I hereby declare that the Emerald Green Tribe enters the highest state of battle readiness, effective immediately!”

Matil’s voice echoed beneath the Tree of Life.