Three grotesque Cursed Bone Spears vibrated and nailed themselves onto the shield, as inky black mist billowed and surged like a living entity, reacting violently with the mithril trim on the surface of the Holy Tree Knight Shield, emitting a grating “hissing” sound and wisps of acrid green smoke.
The immense impact caused Shen Mu’s magnificent Holy Tree Heavy Steed to involuntarily retreat half a step, its front hooves heavily crushing a flagstone covered in slick moss.
Almost simultaneously with the spear tips’ impact, Shen Mu’s gaze, like a cold bolt of lightning, shot towards the direction from which the bone spears had flown—the shattered window on the second floor of the abandoned supermarket diagonally ahead.
“Screech—!”
A piercing, inhuman shriek, like bones grinding on rusted iron, answered his gaze.
Several pitch-black figures were slowly “flowing” out from that window and the shadows of adjacent buildings!
They were no longer passively defensive low-tier Skeletons or slow-moving zombies, but a type he had never seen before.
Their bodies were hunched, resembling forcibly elongated apes, with slender Skeletons that nevertheless exuded a bizarre, explosive coordination.
Their limb joints were abnormally twisted, especially their pair of withered arm bones, which were disproportionately long, almost reaching their ankles!
The ends of their arms and leg bones were no longer claws or hooves, but were grotesquely fused with or grasping heavy, obsidian-like bone spears, shimmering with death qi.
On their pale, twisted skulls, two points of dark red soul fire, congealed like magma, were locked onto Shen Mu and his party at the crossroads below.
Skeleton Javelin Throwers!
They didn’t even pause for a moment!
“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”
No sooner had he clearly seen their forms than a new round of attacks arrived!
The sound of them cutting through the air was sharp enough to pierce eardrums!
Several sharp bone spears, similarly wreathed in cursed black mist, descended from above like a summons from the God of Death, precisely covering the core of the Holy Tree Knight’s defensive circle—Shen Mu!
“Protect Lord Shen Mu!” the Holy Tree Knight Captain, who was leading, roared, his voice trembling with a metallic resonance.
Ten Knights instantly transformed into a moving iron wall!
The dense, silvery figures contracted inward like lightning once more, their heavy mithril chainmail clashing together, emitting a dull, clanging harmony, forming a second and third protective barrier in mere inches.
Countless Holy Tree Knight Shields were instantly raised high, overlapping above Shen Mu’s head and in front of him, forming an impenetrable silver arch!
Even more Knights drew their Knight Swords with a backhand motion, attempting to cleave the incoming bone spears mid-air.
“Thud! Thud! Thud!”
More bone spears savagely struck the Holy Tree Knight Shields and the heavy barding, emitting dull and dangerous impact sounds.
Although the cursed energy they carried was firmly blocked by the sacred mithril, the immense impact force still transmitted through the shields and armor, causing the arms of the shield-bearing Knights to go numb!
Some long spears, with terrifying precision, shrewdly aimed at the horse’s unarmored joint connections or the lower edge of its neck!
At the same time, Shen Mu clearly felt his and the surrounding Knights’ armor rapidly heating up from within!
This was the stress-induced “incandescence” phenomenon of mithril when facing an extremely powerful and dense undead energy field!
These newly appeared Javelin Throwers were not only astonishing in strength and speed, but the cursed energy carried by the bone spears they threw was far superior in concentration and aggressiveness to the sporadic Black Iron Skeletons encountered at the city wall a few days prior!
What was worse, this was merely the prelude!
As if thoroughly ignited by the commotion and the aura of living beings at the crossroads, the interiors of the countless towering buildings surrounding them, standing like giant tombstones and exuding an aura of despair, suddenly “came alive”!
From the deep darkness of shattered windows, cold figures emerged one after another!
The friction of decaying bones and the low growls of the undead merged into a buzzing, deathly background hum.
In the shadows on both sides of the street, in the cracks of shattered manhole covers, and even behind the rubble piles of collapsed walls… countless eyes burning with pale green, dark red, or ghastly white soul fire lit up within the thick, impenetrable grey-black mist.
There were Skeleton Soldiers wielding blades, rotting walking corpses dragging their broken bodies, Black Iron Skeleton Sword and Shield Soldiers with more complete armor, and even shadowy, intermittently appearing Skeleton Archers holding war bows in the mist!
The entire area instantly seemed to transform into a boiling nest of undead!
And their small, isolated team, which had ventured deep, was like a small piece of fresh meat thrown into a piranha pond!
The heat inside the mithril armor continued to climb, even emitting faint smoke from the armor seams!
This was an unprecedented concentration!
The death core of this Long City, the purity and total amount of its death spirit rules, as well as the strength and quantity of the undead monsters it spawned, far exceeded the outer areas!
“Buzz—whoosh whoosh whoosh—”
Deadly bone arrows, like venomous snakes inexplicably forming from the dense fog, began to rain down from all directions!
Their targets were not only people but also the relatively weaker leg joints and abdomens of the warhorses! Although they could not penetrate the heavy chainmail and barding of the Holy Tree Knights and their mounts, the dense “clatter-clatter” impact sounds, like hailstones, carried a bone-chilling malice and curse, constantly testing the limits of the armor’s protection, and furthermore, signaling that more powerful attacks could break through at any moment!
Shen Mu’s face was as calm as still water; he thoroughly understood what the rangers of Elf Forest had meant by the drastic changes in the core area, and he also understood the immense pressure Bandak was enduring in New Uxhall.
This place was not only a terrifying stronghold for the undead, but also a “reactor” and “testing ground” where they were nourished by deep evil forces and underwent terrifying enhancements!
The vast shadowed areas formed by sunlight being cut and distorted by the towering buildings, and the thick black mist pervading them, were actually enough to temporarily weaken the purifying effect of sacred sunlight during the day, providing these undead, who should fear sunlight, with a nearly perfect battlefield environment!
“Retreat!”
Shen Mu did not hesitate; his cold voice, like a knife cutting through the chaotic battlefield, clearly reached every Holy Tree Knight’s ear.
This command was not a sign of weakness, but based on a clear understanding of the environment and the avoidance of pointless expenditure of strength.
Continuing deep reconnaissance in such an undead home ground, where the enemy was hidden and they were exposed, and the energy concentration was so high that even mithril armor was giving warnings, was not only inefficient but also extremely dangerous!
“Understood!” the Holy Tree Knights responded in unison, their movements incredibly swift.
The formation, which had already contracted into an iron fortress, instantly changed again!
Five Knights suddenly spurred their warhorses, and the Holy Tree Heavy Steeds burst forth with astonishing instantaneous acceleration, like five silver bolts of lightning poised to strike, fiercely carving out a path towards a relatively open flank diagonally ahead of their original route, which was not yet directly blocked by a large number of undead!
Their level mithril lances shone with dazzling holy light, like five burning plows, forcefully tearing open a passage through the densely surging sea of undead!
Any low-tier undead blocking the way instantly turned into useless Skeleton rubble the moment they were touched by the lances!
At the same time, the remaining Knights formed two moving shield walls in front of Shen Mu!
They stood at the forefront, their heavy and sturdy Holy Tree Knight Shields flipping up and down like an iron fortress, precisely blocking bone arrows and sporadic thrown weapons flying from various tricky angles.
Between the barding’s seams, the mithril’s glow flowed like a fine electric net, firmly resisting the corrosive black mist emitted by the low-tier zombies attempting to climb up!
Knight Swords slashed like lightning, cutting down swathes of undead daring to approach their horses!
“Charge!”
Shen Mu followed closely behind the Knights clearing the way, his Holy Tree Knight Shield slightly tilted, vigilantly guarding against possible sneak attacks.
Utilizing the temporary passage forcibly torn open by the five Knights ahead, the entire team burst forth with astonishing momentum, like a silver wedge-shaped arrowhead, plowing a path of burning holy flames and bone ash through the Black Tide of undead, rapidly retreating towards their original direction—the Elf Forest!
From the crossroads behind them and the tall buildings on either side, came even more furious and frenzied inhuman roars!
The “ape-like” Skeleton Javelin Throwers let out unwilling shrieks, attempting to throw spears again, but the retreating team’s explosive speed and their tactical use of street corners and debris as cover created distance.
Although the dense rain of bone arrows pursued relentlessly, striking the heavy metal armor with a constant din, it merely sounded like a farewell war drum for this elite Knight order that had ventured into hell and successfully retreated!
The thick death qi, as if substantial, closely pursued their retreating figures, but the Holy Tree Knights’ unparalleled defense and impact force, as well as Shen Mu’s decisive, almost ruthless retreat order, ultimately caused this core death zone of Long City to once again swallow unwilling roars, leaving only afterimages briefly illuminated by holy flames and quickly filled by black mist, along with burning undead remains scattered across the ground.
They needed to return to the Elf Forest as quickly as possible to bring back the terrifying scene here and the latest forms of undead mutation.
Then they had to figure out how to prevent and defend against it!
Shen Mu’s heart was truly heavy.
“The changes in this Long City are indeed a bit too great.” After all, his previous self had once roamed Long City.
Although his previous self had not ventured deep into Long City when the death spirit rules appeared, fearing some danger.
However, to search for food, armor, and the core of the spirit world, he had still entered Long City and risked searching for things.
It was just that the Long City of that time and the Long City of now were simply incomparable in terms of danger, and even before that loud bang occurred, the grey mist of Long City and the black mist of now were completely incomparable.
“This must mean a big problem has occurred.” Shen Mu’s face was solemn.
But he didn’t hesitate.
He still shook the reins, lightly nudged the horse’s belly with his legs, making the Holy Tree Heavy Steed, clad in heavy chainmail barding, run faster.
He quickly returned to the Elf Forest.
Upon reaching the Elf Forest’s Lord’s Hall.
“My Lord!” The Wood Elf Captain of the Elf Forest also quickly came before Shen Mu, respectfully bowing with a hand over his chest, then asked in a deep voice, “May I ask, what intelligence did my Lord obtain from this trip?”
At the heart of the Elf Forest, beneath the colossal ancient tree that seemed to hold up the sky, the atmosphere in the Lord’s temporary council hall was like frozen ice.
Shen Mu sat on a seat naturally formed by gnarled tree roots, his unequipped Holy Tree Knight Shield casually leaning by his feet, with three pitch-black, twisted bone spears still faintly steaming with ominous black mist, deeply embedded in the mithril trim of the shield face, a shocking sight.
He had just finished his brief, thrilling yet frustrating reconnaissance report.
The Wood Elf Ranger Captain, an excellent Wood Elf archer, Legolas, stood quietly before Shen Mu. This usually elegant and serene elf, at this moment, had an undeniable tremor and increasingly profound solemnity in the depths of his keen, hawk-like emerald eyes.
He listened to Shen Mu’s description, word by word, as if cold iron nails were being hammered into his heart.
“...That black mist, its concentration far exceeds the outer areas; ‘thick as ink’ is no exaggeration. It invades sight, suppresses the five senses, and more fatally, it has become a protective layer for those mutated monsters, greatly weakening the purifying effect of sunlight.” Shen Mu’s voice was calm, without a ripple, but the information conveyed between the lines was suffocating, “‘Skeleton Javelin Throwers,’ a type of undead never seen before, shaped like elongated giant apes, with grotesquely long arm bones, capable of throwing bone spears infused with potent death curses. The remains on my shield are clear proof.”
His finger pointed at the three grotesque spearheads. Where the shield body touched the residual curse, the mithril emitted a barely audible yet grating “hissing” sound, stubbornly resisting the contamination.
“What’s even trickier is their tactics.” Shen Mu looked up, his gaze piercing Legolas sharply: “They don’t charge mindlessly. They know how to utilize terrain and thick fog for cover, and even coordinate with suicidal explosive zombies to launch precise surprise attacks. The encounter at the crossroads, where dozens of controlled zombies leaped from a hundred-meter-tall building, were sacrifices to draw fire, just so the Javelin Throwers hidden in the supermarket’s shadows could deliver a fatal blow to me. If not for the Holy Tree armor’s sturdiness…” Shen Mu did not continue, but the unspoken meaning was obvious—for an ordinary army, they would have long been annihilated.
“Furthermore,” Shen Mu’s tone grew heavier, “‘Black Iron’ Skeletons are no longer appearing sporadically. Large numbers of Skeleton warriors, sword and shield soldiers, and even archers with metallic black bones fill the area. Their bone strength has greatly increased; ordinary arrows can barely penetrate, and even powerful crossbows can only just pierce their armor. There are also faster, more corrosive walking corpses, Captain Legolas. The loud bang you sensed earlier and that evil aura that seemed to freeze the soul, their influence is materializing and spreading at an unprecedented rate! The entire death core of Long City is undergoing a metamorphosis, or rather, an ‘evolution.’ It is no longer ‘the chaotic remnants left by the collapse of the Black Arrow Tower Seventh Dynasty,’ but a new type of undead breeding ground, more organized, stronger, and more lethal, spawned by a deeper, terrifying existence!”
Shen Mu’s words were like a cold judgment, making the temperature of the entire tree hall seem to drop by several degrees.
A faint tremor seemed to emanate from the depths of the ancient tree, as if confirming this ominous sign from the heart of the city.
The Rodok officers and Wood Elf sentinels around them all turned pale, even their breathing becoming cautious. (End of Chapter)
