Perched atop the massive mountain in the soul space, Todd, now in dragon form, gazed at the tens of thousands of Crusader soldiers standing in neat rows at the foot of the mountain, a sense of the impermanence of life washing over him.

Just over ten days ago, when Todd was dealing with the resettlement of the mermaids, the tribal chief Rita inadvertently mentioned in a conversation that a mermaid had fallen in love with a human and was eventually executed.

When Todd heard about this, his initial reaction was shock. After some thought, although he could understand the approach, he still thought it was too barbaric.

However, fate seemed to play a cruel joke, and to Todd's utter surprise, he is now facing the same problem.

Minnie, the chief shaman of the shamanic assembly, stood at the foot of the mountain, leaning on her wooden staff, and shouted loudly: "In the name of the supreme dragon god, I hereby declare the military trial of the Holy Army officially open!"

Tens of thousands of Crusader soldiers, orcs, werewolves, elves, lizardmen, minotaurs... all turned their gaze to the end of the line, where two lonely figures, escorted by a group of soldiers, were brought to Todd's feet.

"Jacqueline the elf, a soldier of the 29th rank in the Crusader, met and fell in love with the bard Beatrice while on duty."

Minnie looked down at the pale-faced, desperate-eyed female elf below and said in a deep voice, "After several trysts with this human man, Jacqueline kidnapped him and planned to escape from Twilight City by boat to the south."

Minnie then turned her gaze to the handsome, pale-faced man beside Jacqueline and shook her head, saying, "The soldiers of the Holy Crusade are told long before the conversion ceremony that they should abandon all worldly things, including family, past, feelings, and personal desires... Loyalty to their faith and wholehearted service to the Dragon God is the honor and obsession of the Holy Crusade."

“Jacqueline, what pains me is that your actions not only betray your faith and your vows.” Minnie moved slowly to the elf woman, staring into her eyes, and said softly, “But you have also betrayed your god.”

Jacqueline bit her lip, turned her head and looked at the man beside her with deep affection: "I have fallen in love with this human man, and I am willing to bear any punishment... but he is not a member of the Holy Order. I am willing to give everything as a condition for atonement, and I only beg the supreme Dragon God to spare this man's ignorant soul."

An orc shaman, who had been sitting on a stone seat at the foot of the mountain, stood up and walked to Minnie's side. His face contorted with rage, he roared at Jacqueline, "You have no right to bargain! You have not only rejected the grace of the gods, but also defiled the purest and most sacred name of the Crusades! You! And this filthy human! You should be thrown into the fires of hell to suffer eternal torment!"

Upon hearing this, the bard named Beatrice's knees buckled, and he knelt on the ground. His handsome face was contorted with fear and panic, and his whole body trembled uncontrollably.

Standing in the ranks of the Holy Army, the werewolf Aldnan looked at the cowardly human and said with a sneer, "Superficial women are always bewitched by appearances."

Turning his head toward Carol beside him, Aldnan whispered, "Elves live much longer than humans and are overwhelmingly stronger. Combining the two is a mistake in itself."

Carol looked at the elf Barbara not far away, her expression solemn, and remained silent.

Minnie gestured for the orc shaman beside her to calm down, then turned to the other high-ranking members of the shamanic gathering and asked, "What do you think?"

As the commander of the Crusader, the dark elf Ackerman exchanged a glance with the snake-woman sisters beside him and said, "I always felt that man wasn't a man of courage. Perhaps there's more to this than meets the eye?"

Fried, formerly the leader of the Falcon Chapter and now a dwarf shaman after a transformation ritual, stroked his beard and said after deep thought, "No matter what, the sins committed by these two are unforgivable. But Jacqueline is right about one thing: the human man is not a member of the Crusade. We cannot convict him; we can only await the judgment of the Dragon God."

“Military law and holy law are above all secular laws. This man has disgraced the name of the Holy Crusade. I don’t believe the Dragon God will let him go!”

"The bodies of these two should be hung on the city walls of Muxi City, and their horrific suffering in hell should be displayed to all the citizens!"

Listening to the discussions among the many members of the shamanic gathering, Minnie walked to the foot of the mountain, looked up at the dragon's shadowy figure shrouded in mist, and respectfully asked, "Supreme Dragon God, what is your holy judgment regarding these two who have violated the law?"

Todd lowered his dragon head and stared at the interracial couple at the foot of the mountain, saying nothing.

Everyone present looked up at the dragon, awaiting the judgment of the gods.

However, to everyone's surprise, what Todd is now thinking about has absolutely nothing to do with the verdict.

Humans and elves?

If two people from different races were to mate, would they be able to produce normal offspring?

Will reproductive isolation occur?

Todd had learned in college that chromosomes or genes from different racial groups cannot interact with each other. If forced together, four types of isolation will occur: incompatibility, hybrid infertility, hybrid sterility, and hybrid extinction. The simplest example is the hybridization of a horse and a donkey, which produces a mule, and the mule is an infertile hybrid offspring.

Following this line of reasoning, if a human and an elf mate, they will produce a half-elf.

Therefore, theoretically speaking, half-elves should also be an infertile subspecies due to reproductive isolation.

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