On the city wall, at the city gate, all the soldiers who witnessed this valiant scene were instantly ignited!
Cheers like a surging tide swept through the entire Pangen Bastion!
The flame of courage burned fiercely in every soldier's chest, as if it wasn't just those few knights who had charged into the darkness and brought back the skull, but all of them!
The Swadian Knights, surrounding their heroes, also let out roars like wild beasts, their blood-stained weapons pointing skyward.
Outside the bastion, the light of the Holy Light Torch Tower forest seemed to become even more brilliant and dazzling amidst this soaring heroic spirit, illuminating the knights and their terrifying spoils of war with unparalleled clarity.
The remaining Abyssal Lesser Undead, as if intimidated by this sweeping storm of will, retreated faster and farther, completely disappearing into the gray mist and the depths of darkness.
For a moment, a strange tranquility appeared outside the bastion, with only the heavy breathing of the knights and the snorting of their warhorses, as well as the continuous, almost tangible, blood-boiling roars from above and below the city walls.
However—
On the observation deck, Shen Mu's cold body remained motionless.
His gaze, obscured by the mithril-faced helmet, did not, like everyone else's, focus on Kalanzo, who was waving the skull, but instead pierced through the brief victory frenzy, more deeply locking onto the darkness that the knights had dispersed and which had now returned to silence.
His keen mental power, like invisible tentacles, sensed the subtle changes in that area.
The remains of the Abyssal Lesser Undead that had been slain, purified, and trampled—their foul flesh and blood flowing on the ground, and their dissolving energy… did not dissipate into the world like ordinary deaths.
An invisible, cold gravitational pull, originating from the core Doom Wolf Shadow, was silently pulling these foul residues that had been barely purified by the Holy Light Torch Tower forest.
Extremely subtle, yet tenacious.
In the purifying tide of the Holy Light Torch Tower's light, they flowed like black and red streams against the current, defying physical laws as they slowly flowed back towards the turbulent Abyssal Black Domain in the deep core of the west!
Right under Shen Mu's eyelids, amidst the thunderous cheers of victory.
“Legolas.” The cold voice pierced through the cheers, directly reaching the ears of the Wood Elf captain who had just breathed a sigh of relief, “Concentrate all your senses.
Pay attention to the 'flow' of energy at the edge of the Holy Light Torch Tower forest, where those Lesser Undead died.
Has the forest told you anything?”
Legolas's smile instantly froze.
He suddenly looked up, his emerald eyes rapidly contracting, desperately trying to merge with the forest's lament.
After a few breaths, his face became extremely grim, his voice dry and trembling with disbelief:
“...My Lord... the forest is crying out in despair... It says... those abominations killed by the bravery of our warriors, those things that should have been purified and dispersed... their 'death essence' has not truly dissipated... The forest senses... they are 'flowing backward'!
Like being pulled by an invisible spider web... flowing towards... flowing towards that greedy maw at the core!
This is not victory... My Lord, this... this is more like... feeding!”
Shen Mu's thin lips under his face-covering helmet tightened into a cold, straight line.
In the distance, the Doom Wolf Shadow, suspended above the demonic pillar, had a calculating light in its two Abyssal Blood Diamond eyes that seemed even deeper and colder.
The knights' heroic feat of charging out of the darkness and bringing back the spoils of war seemed to have caused it no emotional fluctuation whatsoever.
It was just waiting.
Waiting for more... energy.
A true storm of darkness was brewing beneath the brief revelry of light.
The Wolf Shadow's patience indicated that the next consumption would far exceed everyone's imagination.
“Woo——————!”
Suddenly!
A sharp, desolate wolf howl, seemingly filled with endless sorrow and tyranny, tore through the air, which had just become somewhat “quiet” due to the knights' victory cheers!
This howl did not come from the cold Doom Wolf Shadow in the sky, but erupted from the deepest part of the Long City ruins, from the most turbulent core of the black domain!
Immediately following, there was a second!
A third!
One after another! Continuous!
These howls were by no means a simple display of power; they were more like soul-piercing screams of agony, carrying a chilling penetrative force that instantly overwhelmed the remaining cheers on the bastion, making every soldier's heart constrict and sending shivers down their spines.
Shen Mu's iron-gray pupils under his face-covering helmet contracted sharply!
“Alert!!!” A cold voice, with unprecedented urgency, instantly resounded throughout the bastion!
All knights and soldiers instinctively gripped their weapons, their eyes filled with fear and vigilance, turning towards the depths of that darkness.
The huge Abyssal Lesser Undead skull in Kalanzo's hand also seemed to become colder and heavier.
Then, at the boundary between the golden radiance of the Holy Light Torch Tower and the surging darkness of the abyss, where the thin gray mist swayed like tattered cloth, a sudden change occurred!
One, two, three... dozens of figures slowly emerged from the crevices of darkness, chillingly clear.
They maintained an upright posture similar to humanoid creatures, but were taller and more hunched, as if their spines were bent by heavy despair.
Their entire bodies were covered in dry, fractured, ashen-black bone armor, as if weathered for a thousand years, with ominous dark red spectral light flowing through the cracks, outlining twisted muscle textures.
What was most unsettling were their heads—not human skulls, but grotesque, elongated, bone-spiked skulls resembling the legendary Abyssal Gnoll!
In the depths of their hollow eye sockets, there was no soul fire; instead, there were two pulsating orbs of dark red Abyssal Fire, deeper and more condensed than the crystal cores of the Abyssal Lesser Undead!
What they clutched in their hands were not crude bone claws, but huge scimitars, gleaming with a cold, eerie light, forged from some kind of decayed black iron and demon bone.
The blades were wreathed in tendrils of viscous black sulfurous gas, emitting a purer corrupting aura than the previous Abyssal Lesser Undead crystal explosions.
“Click... click-clack...” The sound of bones rubbing was especially grating in the dead silence.
They lined up, standing eerily just beyond the edge of the Holy Light Torch Tower's illuminating reach, only a step away!
Immediately after, all the Skeleton Gnolls simultaneously raised their terrifying heads and let out even more shrill and ferocious howls towards the bastion!
“Awoooooo—!!!!”
This time, the howl was no longer the wail of a lone wolf, but a unified, military-command-like charge horn!
The sound waves emitted by dozens of monsters, mixed with the cold killing intent of the Abyssal Will, actually rippled out in visible dark red circles in the air!
The sound struck the Holy Light Torch Tower's light barrier, even causing the tower's defensive runes to flash rapidly and produce a slight “humming” resonance!
The soldiers on the bastion, impacted by this soul-piercing sound wave, all changed color; several soldiers with weaker mental strength even staggered, covering their ears, their faces contorted in pain.
The Rodok Sergeants slammed their tower shields onto the ground, trying to resist this invisible mental assault.
The Vigia Sharpshooters instinctively drew their bowstrings, their arrowheads trembling as they locked onto the monsters provoking them at the light-dark boundary.
Legolas's face was ashen; the will of the forest emitted a sharp, unprecedented warning in his ear: “My Lord! These... are not undead! They are monsters formed from pure Abyssal demonic energy, highly condensed death essence, and some extremely malevolent soul fragments!
Their 'core'... is very dense!”
Shen Mu's cold gaze swept over the Skeleton Gnolls.
His perception caught the anomaly more accurately than Legolas—they were not lingering outside the Holy Light Torch Tower's light because of fear, but because... they were absorbing!
The turbulent energy generated by the fierce collision and annihilation of the Holy Light Torch Tower's light with the residual death aura and abyssal aura at the periphery was being subtly absorbed by the pulsating Abyssal Fire on their bodies, like magnets!
Their position was precisely at the most active intersection of this destructive energy!
Each howl seemed to trigger energy fluctuations, which they further absorbed.
They were... “feeding” on the edge of destruction!
Just as everyone on the bastion, including the brave knights who had charged through the Abyssal Lesser Undead, thought that the next moment these terrifying monsters would launch a furious charge—
The howling suddenly ceased!
All the Skeleton Gnolls, like a well-drilled army, abruptly stopped their roars.
The eyes of the leading few, those pulsating with Abyssal Fire, seemed to pierce through space, precisely “locking onto” the cold mithril figure on the observation deck.
One second.
Two seconds.
Silent stillness.
The next instant!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Dozens of figures made no unnecessary movements, turning around with extreme crispness and efficiency!
They did not run, but with a seemingly sluggish yet incredibly swift pace, like rocks sinking to the bottom of the water, silently and quickly retreated into the surging, viscous Abyssal thick mist, whose edges glowed with dark red blood light!
As if they had never appeared!
Retreated?
Just like that... they left?
There was dead silence on the bastion.
Only the humming of the Holy Light Torch Tower's light flowing and the golden light spears projected from the Holy Light Torch Tower forest leaving scattered light spots in the thin gray mist remained, as if the terrifying scene just now was merely an illusion.
The soldiers looked at each other, their palms sweating profusely from gripping their weapons, their faces filled with shock, bewilderment, and a deeper unease.
Cheers? Long gone.
Instead, there was a sense of oppression and... strangeness, far heavier than facing the boundless tide of Abyssal Lesser Undead.
Who were they? Why did they howl? And why did they come, only to show their ferocious fangs and then decisively retreat?
Legolas swallowed hard, saying with difficulty: “My Lord... this is too abnormal.
They don't seem like defeated stragglers... more like... they specifically came to present themselves before us, issue a challenge, and then... wait?”
“No.
Not a challenge.” Shen Mu's cold voice interrupted Legolas's conjecture.
His gaze, like the most precise probe, remained fixed on the dark edge where the Skeleton Gnolls had disappeared.
Just as they retreated, Shen Mu's mental power captured a deeper level of “flow.”
When those Gnoll monsters retreated into the thick mist, they did not vanish into thin air.
The highly condensed Abyssal Fire and death essence they carried were, in a more concealed and orderly manner, like trickling streams flowing into a vast ocean, being pulled by that invisible net, accelerating with clear purpose towards—the depths of the core black domain!
Towards the Doom Wolf Shadow suspended above the demonic pillar!
The previous Lesser Undead remnants were passively absorbed.
But these newly appeared “Skeleton Gnolls” were more like being “recalled”!
They... were themselves the highly condensed life energy and death essence that the Doom Wolf Shadow had just “digested” after consuming Long City's last resisting undead forces, molded into “scout units” or even “energy conduits” after being fused with the core Abyssal Will!
They stood at the light-dark boundary, emitting soul-shaking howls, which were both a direct “test” of the bastion's strength and a brief, efficient “replenishment” amidst the chaotic energy annihilation!
Test completed, energy collected, they immediately withdrew, with no desire to prolong the fight!
“They are... evaluating and absorbing.” Shen Mu's voice was like cracking ice, clear and heavy, “Using the fastest methods, the most efficient means.
Not probing our weak points... but probing the 'upper limit' and 'nature' of our strength.”
His gaze slowly lifted, piercing through the surging darkness, and once again fell upon that core black domain, upon those two Abyssal Blood Diamond eyes suspended in the sky, coldly observing everything.
In the depths of those giant eyes, a hint of... satisfied calculating light seemed to flash?
Shen Mu's lips under his face-covering helmet tightened into an even colder, straighter line.
This brief appearance, fierce howling, and decisive retreat, all indicated only one thing:
The Doom Wolf Shadow, that abyssal predator lurking in the core depths, was not merely “feeding” on death; it was rapidly learning, evolving, and specifically preparing for the next attack.
And its next attack would definitely not be a war of attrition with cannon fodder Abyssal Lesser Undead.
In what form, with what power, would it break through this Holy Light barrier?
Unknown.
But this unknown brought a premonition of terror a hundred times more suffocating than the mountain of corpses and sea of blood just now.
The core of the storm was brewing with the power of ultimate destruction, enough to engulf everything.
The figures of the Skeleton Gnoll monsters completely disappeared into the surging Abyssal thick mist, leaving only the piercing echoes of their roars reverberating inside and outside the bastion, and a chilling, heart-stopping dead silence solidified in the air.
The shock and bewilderment on the soldiers' faces had not yet faded; the fervor of victory had been completely replaced by a deeper unease.
Kalanzo's hand, holding the grotesque skull, unconsciously tightened; the heavy trophy seemed to have turned into a cold warning sign.
On the observation deck, Shen Mu's cold voice broke the silence, without the slightest hesitation, clearly reaching every corner of the bastion, like cold iron falling to the ground, striking every taut nerve:
“Alarm lifted? No! The battle has just begun!”
His gaze did not leave the turbulent dark core to the west, his words like a tempered blade:
“Those monsters are the true probing claws of the abyss!
Their appearance was not a charge, but an evaluation! It was a dormant after showing their fangs!
They are peering into our light and fire, and testing our will!”
“Legolas! Increase the deployment of 'Sentinel's Eye' spells!
All perception-based spells are to cyclically scan the edge of the core black domain, extending the range to maximum!
Report any energy gathering points, any Abyssal fluctuations above baseline, immediately!”
“Relay orders to all Holy Light Torch Tower nodes!
Maintain maximum power purification!
Immediately activate fine-scan mode!
Focus on monitoring the boundary between the Holy Light Torch Tower's light barrier and the Abyssal mist!
Track any abnormal energy loss!
I want to know the direction and scale of every bit of defilement that is 'sucked away'!
Report energy residue traces as well!”
“All defenders!” Shen Mu's voice suddenly rose, carrying an undeniable iron will: “Continue highest level alert!
Fortify all outposts!
Keep a close watch on every inch of shadow at the edge of the Holy Light Torch Tower's light!
Any abnormal fluctuation—even just an untimely gust of wind, a subtle unnatural twist of mist, a faint spectral glow from residual Skeletons on the ground, or... another faint strange sound from the depths of darkness—any disturbance!
Any! Immediately alert!
No mistakes allowed!”
“Above and below the city walls, open your eyes wide, prick up your ears!
The Abyssal minions are by no means limited to that one form!
Any attempt to infiltrate, harass, or probe, no matter how small, means a deeper attack is brewing!
From now on, there is no 'safe zone'!
Inside and outside the bastion, all are the front line!”
Shen Mu's commands fell like hail, dispelling the last shred of complacency in the soldiers' hearts.
That brief, strange retreat, interpreted by the lord, became an invisible heavy hammer, shattering their illusory sense of security born from repelling the tide of Abyssal Lesser Undead.
