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Chapter 196 Undead Creatures
Chapter 196 Undead Creatures
Rowling quickly searched his memory.
This is a notorious necromancer organization active on the fringes and in the shadows of the continent. They are secretive and cruel, known for their research into forbidden necromancy, the creation of undead slaves, and the plundering of life and soul energy.
They rarely clash directly with large forces, but like rats in the gutter, they are ubiquitous, frequently attacking remote villages, caravans, or lone adventurers to plunder the "materials" they need.
Both the Holy Tower and the Empire have listed it as a target for severe crackdown, but due to its elusive nature, it has never been eradicated.
"It seems that this energy anomaly is very likely related to them." Ella walked back, her face grim.
"These corpses—must be remnants from their hunt."
"But why choose this place? The environment of the Scorching Hell isn't actually friendly to most necromancy spells, unless—"
"Unless they find something more suitable for their work here," Rowling interjected, the light sweeping across the depression.
The detector readings were still fluctuating, and those faint pulses of decaying life energy were emanating from these corpses and the contaminated ground.
"For example, an ancient site containing special death energy or remnants of souls, or—a naturally formed energy node suitable for large-scale necromancy conversion."
"Howling Rift—" Liana whispered.
"Legend has it that deep within that rift valley, the undying wails of the dead from ancient wars echo."
"If there truly is a vast accumulation of deathly intent or fragments of souls there—"
"It's certainly a prime source of raw materials for the Pale Hand." Lehman stood up, the arc of electricity at his fingertips extinguished.
"The mission has changed. We not only need to investigate the energy anomaly, but also to find out the scale and purpose of the Pale Hand's activities in this area, and—strike it if possible."
Blake gripped the shield's handle tightly, his knuckles cracking slightly. "The Imperial borders will not tolerate such filth. I agree."
Ella looked at Rowling, seeking his opinion.
Rowling nodded: "The target areas overlap. Identifying the source of the anomaly is likely the key to finding the Pale Hand's stronghold."
"But we need to be more careful, as necromancers have very strange methods of reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance."
The group reached a consensus. After cleaning up the contamination around the corpses and making simple markings, the team continued towards their original target area, the Howling Rift.
The atmosphere grew even more somber. Everyone knew that what they were about to face was not only the harsh natural environment, but also a group of ruthless and cunning enemies lurking in the shadows.
The closer you get to Howling Rift, the more desolate and lifeless the surroundings become.
Even the fire-resistant, twisted shrubs and dark red beetles had disappeared.
The massive black rocks became denser and their shapes more grotesque, some resembling struggling human figures, others like giant tombstones.
The wind whistled through the cracks in the rocks, sounding like a mournful cry, vaguely like countless people weeping in the distance, giving one a chilling feeling.
The fluctuations on the screen of the detector in Luo Lin's hand became increasingly obvious.
In addition to the previously detected deathly stillness, some extremely faint, unnatural soul energy disturbance signals have also begun to be detected, like the whispers of ghosts, appearing and disappearing intermittently.
"The energy disturbance is increasing, the direction is directly forward, the distance—cannot be accurately determined, the interference is very strong." Luo Lin frowned as he looked at the constantly distorting waveform on the screen.
"The spatial readings are also unstable, indicating that there may be a large number of energy convergence points or — spatial folds ahead."
Blake looked up at the sky. Although the sky over the Scorching Hell was always dark red, the light was indeed dimmer than before, as if it had entered some kind of twilight period.
"Let's set up camp on the edge of that rocky forest ahead and establish a temporary observation post," Blake decided.
"We won't venture deep into the rift today. Nighttime is when undead creatures and necromancers are most active, and it would be too dangerous to go in rashly."
No one objected.
The team began setting up a temporary camp under a huge rock formation that was relatively sheltered from the wind and offered a fairly open view, near the entrance to the rift valley.
The Forge Guards quickly cleared an area, and Blake slammed the Tower Shield heavily into the ground. The runes on the shield glowed faintly, and a pale red energy shield carrying a warm aura spread out, enveloping the core area of the camp and isolating it from the death aura and energy interference from the outside world.
Ella and Rayman set up simple warning runes and trigger traps around the camp.
Liana lit a small cluster of pure flames in the center of the camp. The orange flames burned steadily, radiating warmth and purification, dispelling the invisible chill in the surroundings.
Lorin found a high rock, set up the detector, turned on the omnidirectional scanning mode, and synchronized the data with his insight ring and echo unit in an attempt to build a more three-dimensional energy environment model.
Night fell, or rather, the period of extreme dimness characteristic of the scorching hell, soon.
The dark red of the sky deepened, almost turning into a dark purple, with only a few unusually bright stars providing extremely faint light.
The wind howled even more fiercely, and the faint wailing seemed to become clearer, like background noise, constantly assaulting one's eardrums and mind.
The camp was quiet.
Everyone silently ate their dry rations, replenished their fluids, and checked their weapons and equipment.
No one spoke; the atmosphere was oppressive.
While keeping an eye on the detector's feedback, Rolin also diverted some of his attention to his mental sea, silently nurturing the spell model of [Disruption of Order].
In this environment, this highly targeted spell may become crucial.
Suddenly, the detector emitted a short buzzing sound, and on the screen, the signal curve representing the disturbance of soul energy jumped up sharply before quickly falling back down.
"Something's approaching." Roland immediately warned in a low voice, turning off the detector's active scanning and switching to passive receiving mode, while activating the [Rift Perception Patch] on his wrist.
Almost simultaneously, on the outskirts of the camp, a warning rune that Ella had set up shattered silently, turning into a few glimmers of light and dissipating.
Everyone tensed up instantly.
Blake gripped the tower shield, and Liana raised her staff. The light of the Purifying Flame contracted slightly, becoming more solid.
Rayman's fingertips flashed with electricity again, and Ella drew her longbow to its fullest extent, the arrowhead gleaming coldly in the dim light.
Rolin focused his mind, extending the perception of the Insight Ring toward the direction where the warning rune was broken.
In the dim light, the shadows of the rocks seemed to come alive and began to writhe.
Blurry, semi-transparent humanoid silhouettes slowly emerged from the ground and from the cracks in the rocks.
They have no physical bodies; their outlines are constantly twisting and undulating, radiating a cold, resentful, and desperate spiritual energy.
Two small, eerie green phosphorescent lights flickered in the empty eye sockets.
Undead!
And these aren't ordinary zombies or skeletons; they're more troublesome vengeful spirits or ghosts with extremely high resistance to physical attacks!
The number is over a dozen, and it's still increasing!