Discovery

"Did they really dare collude with the military of an enemy nation?" Kaisalin still found it hard to believe.

Katerina curled her lip. "For that position, what wouldn't they dare do?" As she spoke, she deliberately—or perhaps casually—glanced at Argyle Cape.

Argyle rubbed his temple helplessly and said with a bitter smile, "Those nobles are only a tiny minority. Most are still decent. Look, Kaisalin is a noble too."

"What do we do next?" Shadow, who had remained silent all this time, reached out to catch Qiuqiu, the little squirrel that had leapt down from a nearby branch, and gently stroked his soft fur.

Argyle said, "The military wants us to resolve this without causing too much of a stir if possible. And if we can, don't let any of those people from the Aus Empire get away!" As he spoke, Light Battle Qi faintly radiated from his body, his killing intent sharp.

"I found something interesting just now. Follow me..." After saying that, Katerina flashed away and shot into the dense woods nearby. The others hurried after her.

After following Katerina for a quarter of an hour, they arrived at a mountain hollow. Jialan was slower than the others and entered last. The moment he stepped into the hollow, he sensed that something was wrong.

It was too quiet. Not a single bird or beast could be heard in the forest. Between the snow-covered branches, there was not even the faintest trace of life. A chill rose along the back of his neck—not the cold brought by wind and snow, but a bone-deep iciness.

Jialan closed his eyes and sensed the surroundings for a moment. "There are unusually many Dark Elements in the air. That necromancer definitely stayed here for quite some time."

"Up ahead." Katerina's voice came from the shadows. She was always so elusive. "There's something there."

Jialan looked in the direction she indicated. A section of pale bones protruded from the snow. It was the corpse of a squirrel, but its fur had already rotted away, exposing stark white bones. Even more terrifyingly, the corpse was trembling faintly.

"Back!" Argyle raised his shield, holy light flowing across its surface. But it was already too late. The snow suddenly exploded, and dozens of animal corpses crawled out from beneath it, ghostly green flames flickering in their eye sockets.

Ice crystals formed at the tip of Jialan's staff, but before he could finish his incantation, an arrow tore through the air. Shadow's arrow pierced straight through the head of a corrupted squirrel. The corpse convulsed and fell, but more corpses were closing in.

"Blessing of Light!" Argyle's shield erupted with dazzling radiance, and the undead creatures let out piercing shrieks beneath the holy light.

Kaisalin's greatsword carved a sweeping arc, cutting a pouncing corrupted wolf in half at the waist. Katerina appeared behind the animal corpses like a ghost, her dagger flashing coldly. Every strike was fatal. The ghostly green flames in the animals' eye sockets went out one after another, and corpses littered the ground.

Jialan had not even cast a single spell from beginning to end before the battle was over.

"A trap?" Kaisalin asked.

"It doesn't look like one. It's more likely that the excessive Dark Elements caused the animal corpses here to turn undead on their own. If it were a necromancer's trap, it wouldn't be this feeble." As an advanced Light Knight, Argyle was fairly sensitive to Dark Elements as well; otherwise, the military would not have sent him to handle this matter. After speaking, he looked at Jialan, seeking his opinion.

Jialan pondered for a long while. "With Dark Elements this dense, that necromancer is at least an intermediate spellcaster."

"Intermediate Peak!" Katerina said with certainty. Seeing Jialan's puzzled gaze, she replied irritably, "If it hadn't been for him last time, leaving all of us badly weakened, could those fake mercenaries from the Aus Empire have driven us into such a miserable state? But he won't be much better off either. He should be hiding somewhere and secretly recovering from his injuries right now!"

She was referring to the scene when Jialan had first met Argyle and the others. Jialan suddenly understood. So they had already fought a major battle before. That explained it.

Argyle said, "Your Healing Spell helped us greatly. We'll definitely recover faster than he does. We have to find him as soon as possible. Otherwise, once he recovers and makes preparations, he may be even harder to deal with than last time."

"We've been searching for him this whole time, but he's hidden himself extremely well. After all this time, aside from finding a few places like this, we haven't found a single trace of him. We had no choice but to ask for your help. I heard that spellcasters have an extremely wide sensing range... We didn't want to drag you into this either, but if this goes on too long, things may develop in ways we can't predict." An apologetic look appeared on Kaisalin's beautiful face.

Jialan hesitated. "I'm only a beginner spellcaster. My spiritual sensing range doesn't extend beyond three hundred meters at most. If he deliberately conceals his spiritual power, I might not sense him even within thirty meters." That was already an extremely dangerous distance for a spellcaster. Most Tier 1 Spells only had a casting range of around twenty meters.

Argyle thought for a moment. "He's been hiding for so long, so he definitely knows we're looking for him. But he can't possibly guess that we've gained a spellcaster in our group. In future battles, try not to cast spells unless necessary, so he doesn't notice you. We'll catch him off guard."

"Your job is to focus on finding him. Leave the fighting to us." Katerina lightly tossed the dagger in her hand into the air and casually caught it.

Another five or six days passed without any progress. They did encounter several groups of fake mercenaries, though, and dealt with them easily.

More and more fake mercenaries from the Aus Empire's military had infiltrated the area. Had they really uncovered something? Had the Empire's secret in the Misty Forest already been exposed? Then why had the Church shown no reaction at all? The group was deeply worried.

"Stop." Jialan, standing in the middle of the group, suddenly raised a hand. His voice was soft, yet the entire team froze at once.

Jialan closed his eyes, his spiritual power spreading outward like a spiderweb. He could sense the tremor of every leaf and the fall of every speck of dust.

Suddenly, a piercing chill spread back along his spiritual power. It was a pure darkness, as though it wanted to swallow his consciousness whole.

"Seventy or eighty meters ahead, there are traces of a battle." Jialan opened his eyes, a glint of blue flashing through his pupils. "It wasn't an ordinary battle. There are remnants of Dark Magic."