"Chloe?"
Upon realizing who had arrived, Xavier's face showed a look of surprise, which was quickly overtaken by anger.
When Chloe rushed over from the back ranks of the army, what she heard was Xavier's restrained roar:
"Who told you to come here?"
Chloe blinked twice: "You'll have to ask Instructor Ren about that."
Xavier's expression looked very agitated.
He closed his eyes, allowing himself to calm down a bit before saying, "Go back. Don't get involved in this."
"But didn't you mobilize the army for my sake? Isn't it a bit off for me, the person concerned, not to be here?" Chloe deftly changed the subject, avoiding the main issue. "Besides, look at how tense it is here, the atmosphere is terrible. Why don't we go back?"
Hearing this, Xavier looked at her with a complex gaze.
He pressed his lips slightly, then said, "You shouldn't have come here. This is my own business."
"The Viper Group has been causing trouble for years. They should have been caught long ago."
Chloe immediately seized the opportunity to put on a hurt expression: "So everything you've done, not a single thing was for me?"
Xavier: "..."
Seeing no reaction from him, Chloe continued, "So I rushed here overnight just to be presumptuous? I knew it, how could the great Ancestor of the Vampire clan mobilize so many troops just for an insignificant little daughter?"
"Indeed, after all, you probably have many like me out there, boys and girls, adults and cubs, countless in number. How could you care about just one little daughter who's been raised for so long and you're already tired of?"
As she spoke, Chloe began to wipe away tears, putting on a pitiful act.
She cried openly and righteously, leaving the surrounding soldiers unable to act rashly.
Faced with their young mistress's various shocking statements, they didn't dare to express any opinions, only maintaining silence.
After all, they knew their duties and positions clearly. This expedition was essentially to seek justice for the young mistress, just with some obstacles along the way.
Moreover, in front of the young mistress, their king had always been...
Sure enough, not long after, their great Ancestor sighed deeply and said helplessly:
"There are no illegitimate children. My private life is very clean. Don't let your imagination run wild."
As he spoke, he dismounted and took Chloe's hand.
They were no longer the cubs with vastly different ages and sizes as before. Chloe had grown very tall, standing out even among the girls.
She had even entertained the idea of using a potion to grow to 1.8 meters tall, but Xavier had strictly forbidden it before she could implement the plan.
Although this method had immediate effects, it also caused great damage to the body.
Now, due to the difference in height and increasing age, Xavier could no longer carry Chloe around like a child whenever he wanted.
Xavier tightened his grip on Chloe's hand: "What do you want to do?"
Chloe: "I just want you to not be so impulsive."
Xavier looked at her, and then seemed about to argue something, but Chloe immediately interrupted him: "I know you're definitely going to refute me, so please let me finish first."
After she spoke, Xavier lowered his eyes and calmly looked at her.
After a long while, he finally condescended to nod, saying graciously, "Then speak."
So Chloe laid out everything Ren Yunying had told her before about the drawbacks of going to war, then looked sincerely at the beautiful and sacred-looking Elf Race in the distance, saying:
"You don't want to see such a beautiful race disappear completely, do you?"
Xavier: "..."
He felt that his daughter might have developed some rather subtle misunderstandings about him.
After a moment of silence, Xavier finally said:
"What you say makes sense, but I'm sorry, I can't agree."
Chloe's expression immediately crumbled. She abruptly let go of Xavier's hand, looking very angry: "I said so much, and it was all nonsense to you?"
Xavier neither confirmed nor denied. From his expression, he probably wanted to nod and admit it directly, but considering that the person in front of him was his daughter no matter what, he had to give some preferential treatment.
So he pondered for a moment: "No, I was listening carefully."
If he listened carefully, then it wasn't nonsense.
Chloe was almost laughing at his response.
As the two of them argued incessantly, others didn't dare to interject.
Especially Daniel and Qin Huaibei, who stood at the back, looking at each other in bewilderment.
Later, they simply gave up and started cracking sunflower seeds, saying nonchalantly:
"How long are they going to keep arguing?"
Qin Huaibei shook his head: "No idea."
But it seemed unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.
They very politely put all the sunflower seed shells into a plastic bag, then took out another handful of peeled seeds and offered them to Chloe.
Daniel said, "Cool down, don't be so agitated. Want some sunflower seeds?"
The carbon-roasted sunflower seeds had a very special flavor, utterly irresistible.
Chloe couldn't help but grab them and eat them all, then continued arguing with Xavier.
In the end, they didn't reach any conclusion from their debate, but the marching troops were held up, unable to advance a single step all afternoon.
The Elf Race soldiers guarding the Forest of Life, sensing that there might still be a chance to turn things around, immediately relaxed and sent someone to deliver a message to the Elder Council.
It wasn't until the sun was setting in the west that Xavier realized continuing to argue was futile, and that the little brat in front of him was likely just trying to buy time. He abruptly fell silent.
He turned away, no longer paying attention to Chloe's chatter, and immediately ordered: "We'll set up camp here for the night and rest."
"Yes, sir!"
Chloe was startled by the uniform response, then dissatisfied, she stepped forward and grasped Xavier's clothes: "Hey, have you been listening to me at all?"
Xavier stopped in his tracks, his eyes somewhat deep.
Chloe couldn't quite describe the feeling, she always felt that he should have something to say to her, but for some reason, he didn't say it out loud.
Just as she was about to open her mouth to ask, her arm was grabbed.
Chloe instinctively threw the person to the ground, but the other person was clearly no pushover either, quickly stabilizing their posture and landing steadily on their feet a second before hitting the ground.
After recognizing the face, Chloe raised her eyebrows: "Kewen?"
"It's me." Kewen rubbed his nose, then clutched his wrist in pain and said with a laugh, "Little Miss, your strength has increased in recent years. You nearly pulled my hand off."
Chloe retorted, "Serves you right. You're blocking me from finding my father."
She attempted to push past Kewen to find Xavier.
Kewen quickly grabbed her again:
"Calm down, Little Miss. The Ancestor is doing this for your own good!"
Chloe hated hearing that phrase.
She frowned impatiently, realizing this approach wasn't working. She decided to raise her voice and shout:
"So you know about my situation too, don't you?"
"You know that the damage to my body isn't as superficial as it appears!"
Xavier's footsteps halted.
