An officer who was at least a Level 3 Extraordinary, and one of the base's six highest-ranking members.
A Sword Bearer tactical squad armed to the teeth and born specifically to deal with Extraordinaries.
Dozens of Commissioners brought by the officer, along with a Sword Bearer Captain whose depths were impossible to discern.
--Accompanied by a carpet search, their Heavenly Net had already been spread.
Their lineup was luxurious enough to make one gasp.
Bai Zhou had to admit that he didn't have the strength to deal with them.
He was even vaguely trapped in the bushes, afraid to act rashly.
Under their encirclement, unless he hid until they left on their own...
Otherwise, Bai Zhou wasn't even confident he could escape from this place.
--But he had no intention of running.
These people had come for him. There was no reason to implicate innocent people because of him.
At this moment, Bai Zhou was actually willing for Old Qiao to tell them everything about him.
They were merely strangers who had met by chance. It wasn't a big deal.
But the problem happened not to lie there--
Because Bai Zhou had seen the officer's undisguised arrogance, as well as the Sword Bearer Captain's attitude, first worried and then indifferent.
That familiar feeling surged into his heart--
Bai Zhou immediately understood that if these people failed to find him today, everyone would probably be taken away along with him.
So although this completely contradicted his usual cautious way of doing things...
He knew he had to stand up.
Who had told him to be an adventurer?
--There had only ever been stories of adventurers accepting villagers' commissions to exterminate monsters.
There were no records of adventurers sitting by and watching monsters slaughter villagers.
Even if the adventurer's weapon was the rusty best sword in the village, or a battered lance with no edge... even if his opponent was a roaring dragon.
...Fortunately, he wasn't entirely without a chance of winning.
--Wasn't leveling up right before a battle also quite common for adventurers?
"Clatter..."
While Old Qiao and the officer were talking,
the bushes swayed ever so slightly, almost imperceptibly.
Bai Zhou lowered his head and glanced at the time on his watch.
"23:59:57."
Midnight was approaching.
Through the bushes, Bai Zhou took one last deep look at the people in front of the unfinished building.
He took out the Dead Sea Scrolls with one hand and the Jurassic Pass with the other...
"See you later."
After silently tossing those words into his heart, he infused the pass with spirituality.
The next instant,
Bai Zhou disappeared from the bushes at exactly midnight.
--He would return at 00:00:01.
"Buzz!!!"
In the distance, the Mysterious Compass suddenly shone brightly and vibrated repeatedly.
The Sword Bearer Captain abruptly raised his head and looked around, his eyes filled with horror.
"Someone nearby used spirituality!"
"Could it be..."
He muttered in surprise and uncertainty, astonished and confused,
"Someone went to the Reflection Ruins Realm?"
A scarlet crescent moon hung high in the sky.
An inverted Giant City flew beneath the moon.
"Rumble--"
Above the boundless Battlefield Ruins,
the Skeleton Great General once again thundered past with his vast army, creating a tremendous spectacle.
The Skeleton General, who rode his flying horse every day and led his army back and forth between heaven and earth, had already made this a fixed job.
--It was as if even he himself had almost forgotten the point of doing it.
"Click, click."
The finger bones scratched twice at the smooth, polished skull.
The Skeleton Great General reined in his horse and raised his sword.
His jawbone opened and closed, producing a crisp "click-clack" sound.
In a solemn tone steeped in some glorious fantasy he couldn't tear himself away from...
This mad skeleton, whose mind was probably ninety percent broken, skillfully shouted his one hundred and eighth thousand slogan:
"Oh, my Undying Legion--"
"Follow behind me, follow in my footsteps! The army marches out!"
Behind him, bones and dried corpses packed together densely, clad in armor and carrying swords and spears.
This was his "army."
But the army was crooked and disorderly. Upon closer inspection, it was actually strung together by an infinitely long whip, with crooked postures and missing arms and legs.
Several heads were even lolling against their "comrades'" collarbones, making their military discipline extremely poor.
When the wind blew, the bones of their entire bodies rattled as though they were about to fall apart.
"..."
Everyone fell silent, clearly finding no resonance whatsoever with their general's lofty ambition.
The Skeleton General, however, was extremely satisfied.
With a sharp snap--
he suddenly yanked the whip.
He hadn't controlled his strength properly.
"Crack!"
The crisp sound came from his right.
A minor skeleton officer strung near the front of the formation, whose neck had already been rather loose, had his head fall off.
The skull rolled down the dirt slope like a ball, its empty eye sockets staring blankly at the shattered sky illuminated by the Blood Moon.
"...?"
The Skeleton General's speech came to an abrupt halt.
Then, he used an even louder voice to conceal his embarrassment:
"Ha ha ha! Oh, Fearless Vanguard! Were you truly so eager to charge into the fray?"
"What valor! All the generals should take him as an example!"
As he spoke, he rode closer and tried to casually hook the head back with the long saber in his hand--
But he couldn't reach it.
Just as he was considering whether to deign to dismount...
"Huh?"
A wisp of black qi drilled out from between his finger bones without warning.
Then more followed.
The black qi drifted like mist, yet it was deathly cold and filled with ill omens.
It seeped out from every crack in the bones and rose upward in strands.
"What is this...?"
Something was flowing away from his body.
--Undead Death Qi!
The Skeleton General turned his head and discovered that it wasn't only him.
More and denser black qi was emerging from every skeleton and dried corpse.
Each corpse looked like a chimney, great clouds of black smoke billowing from its body.
Endless black qi surged into the sky.
"Who is collecting Undead Death Qi?"
What could this stuff be used for...?
The Skeleton General looked up in shock.
The black qi spiraled into the sky and gathered together.
"Whoosh--"
The wind began to blow.
Beneath the Blood Moon, across the wasteland,
a gigantic black vortex that blotted out the sky and sun was taking shape!
The gale formed from gathered Undead Death Qi dimmed the scarlet Sky Light.
Flying sand and rolling stones filled the air, while the howling wind made the Skeleton General's frame creak and rattle.
In the distance,
at the end of the hazy horizon--
a figure appeared, walking at the center of the black gale's eye.
The person seemed to be holding a book and, at first glance, looked like a scholar.
But massive clouds of black smoke blanketed the sky, and in the trance, one could even hear a sinister, cackling laugh.
--No matter how one looked at him, he didn't seem like a good person.
"Is that...?!"
The Skeleton General raised a hand to shield himself from the black wind and gazed at the approaching figure.
Filled with confusion, he couldn't help shouting:
"--Where did this Undead Archmage come from?!"
As the wind grew stronger, so did the terrifying suction force.
The man surrounded by rolling black Death Qi drew ever closer.
--Death Qi was spilling everywhere. This visitor clearly meant no good!
When he finally saw the handsome face hidden beneath the black smoke...
The ghostly green flames in the Skeleton General's eye sockets suddenly began to flicker violently.
Like candles swaying in a hurricane.
"It is..."
"That kid from last time?"
That kid called Bai Zhou was the center of the black-qi hurricane?
Was he absorbing and refining the Undead Death Qi from his own body?
--How was that possible?!
He thought he must have seen wrong.
But soon, he had no more doubts about the visitor's identity.
Because the man was actually standing in the center of the howling black smoke and waving at him from afar!
...As if they were old friends reuniting.
In the distance,
the moment Bai Zhou saw that familiar green skull, he broke into an exceptionally delighted, brilliant smile.
It was as if he had spotted a treasure waiting to be opened.
His gaze clearly said--
[Finally found you!]
With the Undead Death Qi hurricane setting the perfect mood,
his clear eyes shone brightly as they flickered.
Bai Zhou even enthusiastically greeted this familiar general.
"Good evening, General!"
he said,
"--Long time no see!"