Ambush

These trees exuded a sacred aura of light, yet faintly carried something sinister, like... like a grotesque fusion of light and darkness.

"Gather them carefully," Argyle ordered the three soldiers.

The soldiers cautiously approached the fruit trees. Just as the first soldier's hand was about to touch a fruit, Jialan suddenly sensed an intense magical fluctuation.

"Wait! Don't touch—"

His warning came a moment too late. The instant the soldier's fingers touched the Sun Fruit, the entire tree began to shake violently. The golden patterns on its trunk instantly turned dark red, and its roots tore free from the ground, wrapping around the soldier's legs like tentacles.

"Ah..." The soldier let out a shrill scream. His skin blackened and withered at a visible rate, as though every trace of vitality in his body was being drained away by those roots.

Argyle immediately drew his sword and charged forward, his Light Battle Qi erupting at full force. But something even more terrifying happened. As the Light Battle Qi approached, the fissure vortex suddenly spun faster, and both barriers lit up with blinding radiance.

"Stop!" Jialan shouted. "Battle Qi will provoke the barriers!"

Argyle forcibly halted his attack.

Just then, Albert's urgent voice suddenly came through the Communication Crystal. "Argyle! Watch out for the Aus Emp—"

The voice abruptly cut off, replaced by a piercing burst of static, followed by a bloodcurdling scream. Albert's screams still echoed within the Communication Crystal when Jialan's side was suddenly attacked as well. Two pitch-black arrows tore through the air with shrill whistles, aimed straight at Jialan's throat.

"Watch out!" Argyle's warning sounded almost at the same moment as the arrows' shriek.

The Arrow Protection spell on Jialan immediately took effect. The elemental force field around him twisted slightly, altering the arrows' trajectories. The two deadly shadows barely slid past his sides, their gusts scraping painfully against his skin before burying themselves in the tree trunks behind him, their shafts still trembling.

"Enemy attack!" Argyle roared as his longsword left its sheath, dazzling Light Battle Qi erupting like a blazing sun. The remaining two soldiers swiftly formed a defensive formation, protecting Jialan in the center.

There were five enemies in total, emerging from the surrounding shadows. An archer stood atop a distant rock with a second arrow already nocked; a mage held a dark red staff, its tip flickering with strange black-red flames; three warriors advanced in a fan formation, their weapons gleaming coldly. At their head was a burly High Warrior, the Aus Empire emblem on his chest glinting coldly beneath the moonlight.

Yet Jialan's gaze was fixed tightly on the mage. Although the man wore a standard Aus Empire mage robe, the fire elements flowing around him were mixed with ominous dark elemental particles. He was an exceedingly rare Dark Flame Element caster, and aside from necromancy, the Dark Council was also renowned for its dark flame spells.

"So the Aus Empire really has colluded with the Dark Council..." Jialan murmured, a chill crawling up his spine to the back of his neck.

Argyle had clearly recognized their origins as well. His voice was as cold as ice. "Betraying the Border Agreement and colluding with the Dark Council—do you know what that means?"

The High Warrior sneered. "Agreement? It seems you truly know nothing at all!"

"What do you mean by that?" Argyle's heart sank. "You can die confused, then!" The High Warrior suddenly lunged, his longsword wrapped in dark red Battle Qi as it slashed down.

The battle erupted instantly. Argyle clashed with the High Warrior, Light Battle Qi and dark red Battle Qi colliding violently, every exchange sending blinding sparks flying. The two soldiers faced the other two enemy warriors. Though at a disadvantage, they were still barely holding on through their seamless coordination and the advantage of their silver weapons.

Jialan faced the Dark Flame Mage while also having to deal with the archer's sneak attacks from afar. Every swing of the Dark Flame Mage's staff unleashed black-red flames. These flames were not only incredibly hot, but corrosive enough to burn through stone. Jialan could only keep dodging, leaving him in an extremely unfavorable position.

A black-red fire serpent came whistling toward him. Jialan hastily formed an ice spike to meet it, and the collision of ice and fire produced a great amount of steam, obscuring his vision. In that split second, a dark arrow pierced through the steam and shot straight at Jialan's back.

Jialan had no time to turn around. He directly pulled a Frost Shield scroll from his Spatial Bag and tore it open. A thick ice-blue shield appeared in time, blocking the lethal blow.

"A scroll?" The Dark Flame Mage narrowed his eyes. "Let's see how many you have to waste!"

The following battle became a war of attrition. Whenever Jialan fell into danger, he tore open another precious Magic Scroll. More than seventy percent of them were Frost Shield scrolls, the spell he was most proficient with. These life-saving measures that he normally could not bear to use were now being thrown out as though they cost nothing.

"The seventh one!" The Dark Flame Mage was so furious that he jumped in rage. "You little bastard, just how many scrolls did you bring?!"

Jialan did not answer. He merely took out another stack of scrolls from his Spatial Bag. This was all the wealth he had accumulated over the years, along with the preparations he had made before heading to the fortress. There were unexpectedly dozens of them in total, each worth a fortune, yet he tore through them without the slightest hesitation. Even the distant archer was hopping mad at this outrageously lavish fighting style, as his arrows were blocked time and again by expensive protective spells.

The battle reached a stalemate, and fine beads of sweat formed on Jialan's forehead. He knew full well that this could not continue. Though his supply of scrolls was plentiful, it would eventually run out. Worse still, more than half of his Mana Pool had already been depleted, while the enemies still seemed to be handling things with ease.

After dodging another fireball from the Dark Flame Mage, Jialan keenly noticed something strange—no matter how intense the battle became, both sides instinctively kept away from the bizarre trees bearing Sun Fruit. The Aus Empire warriors even deliberately detoured around the fruit trees whenever they moved.

"Could it be..." A flash of insight struck Jialan. "They came for the Sun Fruit too?" The thought made his heart race. If his guess was right, then these fruit trees might be the key to breaking the deadlock.

His hands rapidly formed seals, and dense ice-blue mist instantly spread outward from him. This was his improved Ice Mist Technique, infused with trace amounts of magic-disrupting elements that could greatly obstruct others' sight. In the blink of an eye, the mist blanketed the entire battlefield, forming a hazy barrier.

"Trivial tricks!" the Dark Flame Mage sneered, waving his staff as black-red flames formed a spinning wall of fire. Yet to his surprise, the ice mist was exceptionally stubborn. The flames could only push it aside temporarily before the mist gathered again and swallowed the fire.