Chapter 429: Prologue

Chapter 429: Prologue

The scare was a bit overdone, but the effect was achieved. The remaining Abyssal Creatures immediately hid themselves, keeping far away, and even split up to avoid ending up like their previous fellows. Logically speaking, the black mist around them wasn’t some special effect; it was a real and effective shield. While this black mist existed, ordinary magic attacks would simply be ignored by them.

Yet Zheng Yichen’s frost attack not only pierced right through the black mist, but the subsequent ice-fire explosion was far more damaging than a simple clash of ice and fire elements.

Normally, when ice and fire elements conflicted and exploded, there was also a canceling effect. So, the power was indeed much greater than a single element’s, but a lot of the force was consumed in the cancellation. This explosion was different; it almost completely unleashed the power of both elements, with very little cancellation!

It could achieve an effect where 1+1 equaled 11… instead of just being greater than one!

They were worried that Zheng Yichen might launch another indiscriminate attack that would wipe them all out!

“Is this human Magic Pharmacist defying the heavens? To have actually mastered such elemental skill!!” The separated Abyssal Creatures could still communicate remotely. They weren’t surprised by summoning ice and fire Magic Arms using the Magic Weapon Summoning Book. That was possible with enough mana and time spent.

What concerned them was that use of ice and fire elemental power. It ignored the canceling factor of conflicting elemental forces, resulting in a super-strong combined explosion. Even if it wasn’t magic, among spells of the same mana consumption level, few could compare.

“Maybe we just had bad luck and met a special… genius among humans. This is also an opportunity. This person cannot stay!” After dispersing, the many Abyssal Creatures with their now-erratic positions didn’t realize their thinking was gradually changing. Their attention was inexplicably fixed on Zheng Yichen and the others, and they didn’t notice their numbers were decreasing!

By the time their numbers had dropped to less than three, the remaining Abyssal Creatures only then realized with horror that something was wrong. It was too late by then. The remaining three suddenly froze in place. On their bodies was a faint ice-blue layer of thin ice, almost like paper, yet it completely froze the three Abyssal Creatures, even temporarily halting their thoughts.

It was magic skill originating from Irene.

“Hmm… as we agreed earlier, half of these are mine.” In the Mist, Annie said to Irene. Abyssal Creatures were also quite good research material, and they could serve as useful material for Irene as well.

Qin remained silent nearby. This was a Mist environment created by the Undying Witch. To avoid detection, it wasn’t just Irene’s cover; there were also the influences of Dan Marina’s ability and Qin’s ability. Irene was responsible for concealment, Dan Marina for lowering the chance of discovery, and Qin’s task was to maximally affect the Undying Witch’s emotional state, making her overly focused on doing what she most wanted to do, thus ignoring anomalies here.

As for the method of influence, it was simple—using the Mist Containment as a medium. Others couldn’t do it, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t. The coordination among the several Witches reduced the chance of the Undying Witch discovering the situation here to the limit! Those Abyssal Creatures… were just an extra bonus.

As for Loris, she didn’t need to do anything at this moment. It was only after finding the Undying Witch that she would act.

“We can’t hide so tightly either; being too peaceful will cause problems.” Dan Marina said while walking. “Right now, we need a little exposure…”

The inside of the Mist Containment wasn’t completely safe. The Undying Witch didn’t expect a containment to block everyone, so it was dangerous inside as well. However, hindered by Dan Marina’s influence, Oss and the others had smooth sailing inside, not encountering much danger. But after losing her…

Oss and the others stepped on a mine, directly separating from Zheng Yichen and the others in a Magic Trap, and also alerting the Undying Witch!

Looking through a black screen at Oss and the others moving within the Mist, she slightly frowned. Oss and the others weren’t strong. She could eliminate them with a slight move of her finger. However, she was currently rushing to do her own thing. She already knew about the situation outside.

The vast horde of Corrupted Creatures was enough to buy her the time she needed. Even if the fighting force was the top combat power of the Sanctuary Church, so what?

Even with a Saintess here mowing them down like cabbage, it would take a long time to deal with those Corrupted Creatures. Besides the Abyssal Creatures being responsible, there was also her preparation. Many destroyed Corrupted Creatures were ‘revived’ under her power. These weren’t simple undead; they lacked the soul-fire of undead, being mere revived puppets, similar to Corpse Puppets.

Moreover, the bodies of those revived puppets showed an abnormal undying proliferative state. Even if most of the body was destroyed, it could quickly recover. This put more pressure on the Church people. They had to completely wipe out those large Corrupted Creatures to truly eliminate them. Otherwise, with these revived Corrupted Creatures plus the influence of the Corrupting Aura…

It was really almost like being undying. And to truly destroy those things, they had to expend massive power… They were already delayed here.

This combination of Corrupted Creatures and the Undying Witch was troublesome. But those Abyssal Creatures that had been silently eliminated used the wrong method. It was true that all the Corrupted Creatures within the Containment Barrier were mobilized, but they didn’t understand the situation outside. The Border Great Wall side had long made many preparations. As soon as the Undying Witch’s location was discovered, they could act immediately.

With less interference from those Corrupted Creatures, their speed and efficiency would only be higher. So, although Achille’s team here was in trouble, as long as they held on for enough time, strong reinforcements would arrive soon!

“…” The Undying Witch pondered how Oss’s group got in. Their strength was weak, not worth her investing too much attention. They would soon be killed by various traps within the Mist… She checked the Mist containment, confirmed there were no anomalies, and then resumed what she needed to do. In front of her was the corpse of an Abyssal Creature. Under the influence of the Undying Witch’s mana, this corpse was ‘disassembled’ and reduced to a mass of dark flesh material.

The physique of Abyssal Creatures was special. Seemingly dark beings, they weren’t countered by light-based attacks. They had magic resistance second only to the Dragon Clan, lifespans far exceeding humans, and tough physiques. In Life Domain research, they were extremely perfect research material.

For the Undying Witch’s current needs, they were also something that could let her do better. She couldn’t possibly use the corpses of very high-level Abyssal Creatures as essential material. Who knew what abnormal marks high-level Abyssal Creatures might have? Even if reduced to material, there might be some abnormality.

These basic Abyssal Creatures were fine. Their potential wasn’t bad anyway. High-level Abyssal Creatures also grew from basic ones. With this thing, the time needed for what she wanted to do could also be greatly shortened. This was also why she started immediately after seeing the Sanctuary Church people were tied down.

After the last failure, although the Sanctuary Church didn’t fully understand what she was doing, they could analyze a general timeframe. She was aiming for this time difference, making the Sanctuary Church unaware that the time needed for her second attempt would only be half of the original!

“There were actually traps!” Oss looked around. They were directly scattered by a mana explosion trap. The only reassurance was that after being scattered, he saw Gale and the others being frozen by Zheng Yichen swinging that ice sword, avoiding the mana explosion damage.

As for him, he relied on a Blood Essence shield to block this attack, but was also blown away to another place, in an isolated and helpless state. He breathed heavily. To resist the burst of mana explosion, he consumed a lot of Blood Essence. He quickly drank a Magic Potion he rarely used normally to recover his physical state.

Then, several dark shadows appeared from the Mist. Looking at these special undead, Oss’s head felt several sizes bigger. When he fought various creatures, he wasn’t scared at all. As long as they had blood, couldn’t kill him instantly, and he could break their defense, then with the bullet time from his eyes, he would only grow stronger the more he fought…

But encountering these bloodless dead things was a counter for him. To put it this way, the Bloodline Power Oss used now was like the open beta version of that game XXX and Warriors on Earth. Once he used Bloodline Power, the blood consumption was like running water, unlike later versions which became more impressive where you could just stand around after activating it.

To replenish consumption, besides relying on his own human recovery, there was only fighting!

Fighting undead, even Jiangshi which still retained some blood, was no use. What if you suck back a mouthful of dead blood and choke on it?

Therefore, against such enemies, Oss always kept his distance. But this was the Undying Witch’s ‘territory’. How could there be few of those things?

These shadows were Skeleton Soldiers with skin over bones… Their weapons were also cracked bone equipment. But when Oss charged forward and his Light Attribute Magic Arms sword clashed against one, that seemingly fragile bone knife actually held up in a hard clash.

“I might know a fake one…” Seeing that bone knife had no issues, Oss felt the Light Attribute Magic Arms in his hand were fake. Wasn’t light-based power supposed to be a big threat to undead? Why wasn’t it useful?

“This kid… Hmm, very traditional, huh.” Unknown to Oss, several Witches were also observing his situation. After all, as a vanguard exposed, they had to pay some attention. But seeing him use Light Attribute Magic Arms against this undead created by the Undying Witch, Annie couldn’t help but say.

Using light-based power against undead possessing Dark Power was very effective. But the Undying Witch’s power wasn’t dark-based. Even if many of her methods were dark-based, the Power of Immortality… really had little to do with the dark element. Therefore, using a Light Attribute weapon was less effective than using an Ice Attribute or Wind Attribute one. The former at least could produce a slight freezing effect, while the latter had more outstanding cutting power.

The light element, unless used for specific attacks or against some dark-based creatures, was really weak in other situations. Could he rely on such a weapon to blind the enemy’s eyes?

“For a young man without any systematic Academy learning, don’t have so many requirements.”

“Oh? You’re interested in him?” Annie asked meaningfully.

“He’ll play a significant role later.”

“A human exposed in the Undying Witch’s sight?”

“He’s exposed, but the Undying Witch didn’t casually crush him. You all know what’s going on, right?”

“Hurry up and resolve this matter.” Loris said. Under the effect of the mana explosion trap, Zheng Yichen was also blown to another place. He wasn’t with the Witches but hidden elsewhere. Oss and the others being exposed was fine, but if Zheng Yichen was exposed, that would be truly bad. The Undying Witch would definitely guess Dan Marina was also here…

Although she probably wouldn’t guess there were ultimately five Witches, if she became wary, it would be very difficult to deal with her.

“Irene?”

“Give me two more minutes.” Irene said softly. She was holding that Dark Element Heart. This thing would play an important role later and could also maximally conceal the possibility of their exposure.

Five Witches working together against the Undying Witch, even if the starting point was good, the Sanctuary Church would later give them great attention. So, if they could secretly and without exposure resolve the Undying Witch issue, they should try to do so as much as possible.

No one liked troublesome matters.

On the Undying Witch’s side, she looked at the mass of black material that was the disassembled Abyssal Creature corpse. After being reduced to this, it had no relation to the original corpse. It was now a special material component. Later, under many of the Undying Witch’s preparations, this black mass, mixed with other things, began to tremble violently, showing signs of collapse.

Unhurried, the Undying Witch took out the mana bottle storing Zheng Yichen’s mana. Looking at it, she hesitated for a moment. For other materials, she could erase any special traces, completely reducing them to something controllable. Only this mana, she had tried too many methods but still couldn’t completely erase the traces belonging to Zheng Yichen…

Since she couldn’t erase it, then he would disappear later.

A large amount of mana was drawn from the mana bottle. Under her guidance, it influenced the black mass. The parts of the black mass that were difficult to fuse and on the verge of collapse were quickly suppressed under Zheng Yichen’s mana influence, obediently merging. Then, the color of this black mass gradually changed from turbid to clear, taking on the color of flesh and blood.

Although formless, excitement flickered in the Undying Witch’s eyes, which she quickly suppressed. The current step was only a preliminary success. The most crucial step hadn’t succeeded yet. A speck of spiritual light emerged from the Undying Witch’s forehead…

This speck of light had just appeared when she quickly retracted it. She slightly frowned and looked at the black screen beside her. It still showed Oss’s trace. He had actually, with considerable difficulty, dealt with those undead. The time taken for victory exceeded her expectations. Although those undead had no special powers, they were on par with High-Rank Professionals.

Although Oss won miserably, he still won. And he was searching for something, gradually approaching this area. A tenacious ant.

“Huff…” Oss looked at the dozen or so Skeleton Soldiers suddenly appearing around him, his mood clouded with gloom. Dealing with just a few had left him in a sorry state. That was only after discovering Light Attribute weapons were useless and switching to an Ice Attribute weapon to surprise and limit the Skeleton Soldiers’ speed, grinding them down.

Now with over a dozen, he really was… a bit desperate. Wait! There should still be a way!

Oss forced himself to calm down, thinking of various methods. Finally, he remembered some things Lena had said before. The elemental power his eyes could see was probably a special Magical Beast eye talent. These Magical Beasts weren’t physically strong, but many Professionals were unwilling to face them.

Their strength wasn’t great, but relying on their eye talent, they could precisely capture the weaknesses of various attacks. Even some special Necromantic Creature summons were hard-countered. They could easily see the flaws in those summoned creatures, like the weak points in the flow of the Soulfire driving the body.

That was equivalent to a human’s vital point!

Oss now had such a sight, plus super strong Dynamic Vision and Insight. Used well, he could only become stronger than those Magical Beasts… Spellbreaker, that’s what Lena called it back then, although somewhat jokingly. But if he developed this as a trait, it wasn’t impossible to earn this title placed upon someone in human society.

Just like how so-called High-Rank was a widely recognized term, he could try it too!

Undead, these things weren’t Necromantic Creatures; they had no Soulfire. But for them to move, there must be some power sustaining them. If he could see through the flow of that power… He had never fought this way before, but wasn’t any fighting style started from scratch?

Since fighting was unavoidable and he had no way out, why not try?

In his Elemental Sight, he tried hard to observe the bodies of those undead. His super Dynamic Vision gave him more observation time. His bursting Insight let him see the subtle anomalies appearing in the almost flawless flow of power on the undead’s bodies. It could work!

“It’s ready!”

A nearly undetectable black ring spread out from the Dark Element Heart Irene was holding.