Time, like tightly clutched quicksand, slipped away for another four or five days in silent tension.
The news from New Rivadin brought a slight sense of relief.
Bestour ranged around the outskirts of this eastern fortress, like a fierce lead wolf, guiding his Khergit Mounted Archers and Steppe Bandits to turn the wilderness surrounding New Rivadin into his hunting ground.
The scouts' eyes and ears extended extremely far; any Undead Monster approaching the newly reinforced city walls, or Scarlet Claw minions attempting to cross the river, were turned to dust before the Kujit's precise and deadly arrows and swift, wind-like horsemanship.
The eastern skyline, where the Skeleton Castle loomed, remained gloomy, but at least, the imminent impact seemed to have been temporarily curbed.
Shen Mu's gaze could finally shift temporarily from the east.
However, a warning from the west, like a stone thrown into a calm lake, abruptly appeared on his desk.
The messenger was from the Green Leaf Group ruins—the temporary outpost Shen Mu had named the Elf Forest.
The message, relayed, finally reached the Lord's Hall in Deherim late on the fourth night.
The content was concise but heavy.
Patrolling sentries on the outskirts of the Elf Forest, and the forest ranger captain who remained there, had repeatedly observed unusually frequent activity of the Undead Legion.
Not only were the usual wandering Skeletons and zombies present, but small groups began to show signs of gathering, with an unknown objective, but their range and intensity of activity far exceeded previous days, and occasionally, an ominous, soul-shaking aura, direction indiscernible, could be felt emanating from deep within the forest.
“Undead anomaly… Elf Forest…” Shen Mu tapped his finger on the wooden model representing the spiritualized forest on the sand table, a cold sternness in his brows.
That forest in the city park wetland, the Elf Forest, was adjacent to New Uxhall and, more importantly, a crucial stepping stone for future deep penetration into the core area of Long City to gain Long City, it absolutely could not be lost!
The sudden appearance of large-scale Undead anomalies there, if not handled properly, could very likely become a sharp blade thrust into the western heartland.
Without much hesitation, Shen Mu immediately made a decision.
“Lezalit, Aleron!” He looked at the two main generals remaining in New Rivadin: “The eastern front is temporarily stable; the defense of New Rivadin and the training of the City Guard are entrusted to both of you with full authority… Bestour!” He spoke again.
“Here, my Lord!” Bestour stepped forward, his armor clanking.
“Your Khergit Mounted Archers and Steppe Bandits are to serve as a mobile reserve force immediately,” Shen Mu pointed to the sand table: “Stationed on the northern flank of New Rivadin, closely monitor the movements in the Xiao Long River basin. To the east, there is the Ghost Light Skeleton Fortress; to the north, Scarlet Claw infiltration; to the west, an unknown Undead anomaly… Your mission is to reinforce New Rivadin or Deherim with the fastest speed whenever a crisis arises in any direction! I want you to be like a sharp knife inserted into the battlefield, hitting with one strike!”
“Yes, my Lord! My blades and arrows are ready at any moment!” Bestour pounded his chest, battle intent burning in his eyes.
He liked this mobile and flexible mission.
Orders were given, like precise gears beginning to turn.
The next morning, Shen Mu, leading only his ten most elite Holy Tree Knights, left New Rivadin like a bright silver bolt of lightning, galloping towards Deherim.
Their hooves pounded on the newly paved stone road, and after a brief stop in Deherim, they did not rest much but continued tirelessly through this increasingly growing city of refuge, heading west, their target directly New Uxhall—that was the forward base leading to the Green Leaf Group ruins, the Elf Forest.
However, the return journey was not as smooth as expected.
As the team passed through the buffer zone between Deherim and New Uxhall, the sky began to irreversibly shift to a murky yellow.
The distant setting sun struggled to dip below the horizon, bringing not a splendid sunset glow, but rather a huge, viscous ink blot spilled across the junction of heaven and earth.
A thick fog, unprecedentedly thick, like a shroud of decay rising from the netherworld, engulfed the entire field of vision in an extremely short time.
This fog was no longer the thin, hazy gray from before, but a deep, almost black, and heavy as lead.
Visibility plummeted to a terrifying few meters.
The air was heavy and sticky, with a bone-chilling dampness.
Breathing felt as if one inhaled the cold moisture, carrying a faint stench of sulfur mixed with decaying corpses.
Hooves on the slippery road had their sounds swallowed by the dense fog, making them muffled and oppressive.
Even the gentle mithril glow of the Holy Tree Knight's warhorses appeared much dimmer in the mist.
“My Lord, this fog is not right!” A Holy Tree Knight leader guarding Shen Mu spoke in a deep voice, his voice from beneath his faceplate carrying a metallic echo and clear solemnity.
He even instinctively tightened his grip on the mithril spear hanging by his saddle.
Almost simultaneously with his words, strange sounds abruptly arose from the depths of the silent mist!
Crack!
Roar—
As if hell had opened its gates!
The thick, unyielding mist surged and tore, and countless Skeleton figures with ghastly green soul fires burning in their eye sockets, like maggots crawling out of rotten sludge, streamed out densely from the depths of the mist!
No longer loose small groups, but an assault front of at least several hundred Skeleton soldiers, with clear signs of formation!
They varied in form: low-ranking Skeleton soldiers wielding rusty swords or crude bone axes. Stiff-moving but powerful zombies were mixed among them, emitting murky roars. Even more chilling was the presence of many “Skeleton Soldiers” within the ranks, wearing old but intact bone armor and carrying more refined black bone spears or bone shields.
Their soul fires were more solidified, and their movements were noticeably swifter and more powerful, emitting energy fluctuations comparable to third-tier or even close to fourth-tier warriors!
Moreover, behind the charging horde of Skeletons, from deep within the mist, a heavier sound, like a giant treading the earth, faintly echoed—that was some kind of large Skeleton construct moving in the fog, its huge silhouette flickering in and out of view.
“Deal with them!” Shen Mu immediately activated a skill, applying it to these Holy Tree Knights, and ordered on the spot: “Everyone, charge!”
“Kill!”
The Holy Tree Knights instantly erupted with holy radiance, their long spears swirling, spear tips gleaming, like ten miniature suns tearing open fissures of light in the dense fog!
Sacred power was like a hot knife through butter; wherever it went, low-level Skeletons and zombies shattered upon contact, turning into bone residue burning with holy flames. Even when the armored Skeleton Soldiers charged close, they found it difficult to shake the mithril heavy armor, and the moment they were pierced and torn by the long spears, the Skeletons forming their bodies shattered and disintegrated, and the Necromantic energy within them was purified by the powerful holy light.
The battle was without suspense; the impenetrable barrier formed by the Holy Tree Knights was unyielding.
But the process of the battle itself made Shen Mu's brows furrow even tighter.
The scale, discipline, and especially the proportion of “elites” mixed within this Skeleton Legion far exceeded the usual!
It was as if this dense fog not only obscured vision but also became a breeding ground for nurturing and fostering Necromantic power!
He personally saw that injured Skeleton Soldiers who fell to the ground, surrounded by the swirling dense fog, had their broken bones seemingly glued together by an invisible adhesive, struggling to try and get up again, appearing extremely tenacious.
Finally, leaving behind a ground littered with bone fragments purified by holy light and the lingering echoes of dissipating roars, this encountered Undead Legion was completely annihilated.
But the dense fog remained, and the path ahead was unclear.
“My Lord, when the intelligence of Undead anomalies from Long City was reported, the abnormal dense fog was already mentioned. Such a scale of monster clusters and changes in the fog… I fear it is not accidental.” The Holy Tree Knight leader who had spoken earlier said with a heavy tone: “Forcing our way through now risks a larger-scale ambush. Your subordinate suggests we turn back to New Uxhall for temporary retreat, and wait until dawn to proceed.”
Shen Mu looked around, the darkness, so thick it seemed substantial, had completely enveloped them, shrinking visibility to its extreme. The Necromantic aura permeating the air was like a maggot in the bone, sticky and cold.
Although the Holy Tree Knights were strong, facing an endless, unknown number of Undead in an entirely unknown direction with extremely poor visibility was extremely risky.
“Turn back to New Uxhall!” Shen Mu's voice rang out clearly in the dense fog, carrying an undeniable resolve.
The group turned their horses around, relying on the knights' extraordinary sense of direction and familiarity with the route, making their way with difficulty through the almost pitch-black, dense night fog.
Hooves trod on the soft, wet ground; every step had to be taken carefully.
During this time, two smaller groups of Undead patrols unexpectedly encountered them in the fog and were quickly crushed by the Holy Tree Knights with lightning speed, but the lurking gazes in the darkness and the ubiquitous cold oppressive feeling remained like shadows.
When the huge, unusually hazy outline of New Uxhall finally appeared on the edge of their vision, even the iron-willed Holy Tree Knights quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
The few wind lanterns lit on the city walls were like lighthouses in a sea of despair, faint but warm.
The city gates had already been opened in advance for Shen Mu's arrival.
Shen Mu and his party passed through the thick mist into the city, as if entering a relatively peaceful haven from a suffocatingly cold water prison.
Although the fog within the city was present, it was noticeably thinner, allowing them to barely make out roads and building outlines.
Soon, in the command post of New Uxhall—the castle's Lord's Hall—Shen Mu met the hastily arrived commanding officer, Bandak.
This veteran, known for his steady and dependable nature, now wore an unconcealable look of worry and deep fatigue on his face.
“My Lord!” Bandak saluted respectfully, his voice somewhat hoarse, “It's truly good to see you arrive safely.”
“Bandak,” Shen Mu took off his damp cloak and got straight to the point, “The fog along the way was absurdly thick, and the number and strength of the Undead suddenly increased tremendously. What's going on here? Are you aware of the anomaly in the Elf Forest?”
“Reporting, My Lord.” Bandak nodded with a grave expression: “The situation in the Elf Forest direction is indeed peculiar; your subordinate has repeatedly confirmed the intelligence. However, what frightens me even more is this dense fog… it only intensified suddenly a few days before your arrival, and it is most dense and terrifying from the direction of Long City's depths, almost unbearable.”
He walked to the window, pointing to the dense darkness outside that seemed to drip with water: “My Lord, look, even the fog in this city is more than twice as thick as ten days ago! We are on the eastern edge of Long City, and it's already like this; the closer to the city center… I dare not imagine! Now, during night duty, five meters away is the line between life and death! What's more…”
Bandak took a deep breath, his eyes filled with alarm: “Undead Monsters! Previously, most of what appeared at night were scattered Skeletons and zombies, occasionally some Skeleton wild dogs. But these past two or three days, not only has the number increased several times, but the monsters encountered by the patrol teams have completely changed!”
His pace quickened, with lingering fear: “What appeared were not just Skeleton Soldiers and zombies! There also began to appear ‘Skeleton Stalkers’ wearing tattered leather armor, moving as fast as leopards! They would use flying claws to ambush isolated sentries! And there were those massive ‘Stitched Abominations,’ made of multiple corpses pieced together, with rotting flesh hanging from bones, immensely strong and difficult to wound with swords! Just last night, below the east city wall's watchtower, there even appeared several presumed Necromancers! They hid in the distance, casting spells through the dense fog, summoning bone fragments to attack the city tower!”
Bandak heavily slammed his fist on the edge of the rough wooden table, making the oil lamp's flame flicker violently: “If not for the Holy Tree Knights you left behind, My Lord, and the well-equipped defenders fighting to the death, plus the dense fog obscuring the scale of the Undead Legion's assembly, we would have suffered a loss last night! Your subordinate is certain that something in the depths of Long City… or rather, the power balance of the entire Long City Undead Kingdom has undergone a drastic change in a short period! The monsters pouring out have increased in overall strength by at least two or three tiers!”
Shen Mu listened quietly, his fingers unconsciously tracing patterns on the tabletop.
The Ghost Light Dynasty in the direction of New Rivadin was stirring.
The Scarlet Claw was infiltrating and lurking in the north.
And now, even the area behind the Elf Forest, which was supposed to be a buffer and a new direction for exploration, the central area of Long City, had seen such large-scale Undead power anomalies and the emergence of powerful beings!
“Dense fog… enhancement… emergence…” Shen Mu repeated these words softly.
These three seemed tightly connected.
Was the dense fog an environment that bred power?
Or was it an anomaly caused by the descent of a powerful entity?
The power vacuum left by the collapse of the Black Arrow Tower Dynasty's core seemed to have triggered a chain reaction far exceeding expectations, impacting the borders of his territory in an all-encompassing manner!
Aleron's earlier judgment about the power vacuum had proven true, but this vacuum was not stillness; instead, it was countless fierce beasts attracted by the scent of blood, swarming in, intending to share or even occupy the entire Long City in a “feast”!
“What exactly has been disturbed in the depths of Long City?”
Shen Mu looked up, his gaze seemingly piercing through the thick walls of the warehouse, directed towards the western core of that vast, dead, and terrifying city ruin, completely shrouded in dense fog.
The anomaly in the Elf Forest might just be one tendril of the chaotic expansion.
The situation had deteriorated in just a few days!
He needed to reach the Elf Forest as soon as possible to investigate the source, and this sudden deathly dense fog and the intensified monster tide were undoubtedly the first and most suffocating obstacle in his path. (End of Chapter)
