Chapter 242: Forbidden Necromancy and the Map

When Baruke's consciousness returned, the last image he could recall was the pack of wolves swarming him, nearly drowning him in their numbers.

In that instant, he felt as though he had heard Ryan's roar.

Afterward, he had completely lost consciousness.

Along with his returning consciousness came a pervasive, stinging pain throughout his entire body.

Yet for Baruke, he did not loathe this pain; he was even somewhat grateful for it.

Because the pain let him know that he was still alive.

It was just that the sheer reality of the pain made him unable to help but let out a few irrepressible groans.

Then, Baruke heard a voice that was equally weak but excited, "He's awake! He's awake!"

The next moment, Baruke struggled to open his eyes.

Inside the tent, two "acquaintances" were looking at him with concerned expressions.

Both of their faces showed a hint of excitement.

"Can you speak? How do you feel now?" After a moment, Gao De lowered his voice and asked.

"I... I'm okay." Baruke found that his whole body was powerless; even speaking a single word was incredibly strenuous.

"Did you save me?" He could feel a remnant of life force flowing through his body.

And this life force clearly came from an external source.

"I only temporarily maintained your vital signs. That you were able to recover in the end is due to your own strong vitality and the healing medicine provided by Jilie Snuofu." Gao De did not claim the credit.

Because that was the truth; the only thing he had done was cast 【Temporary Borrowing of Goodness】, injecting a temporary life force into Baruke, who was already critically injured and unconscious, to ensure that Baruke would not die before the temporary life force dissipated.

In the end, Baruke's survival mainly depended on his own strong constitution and the healing medicine applied externally by Chief Snuofu.

"Thank you," Baruke's strength gradually recovered a little, and his speech became much more fluent than just a moment ago: "How is the tribe?"

He asked.

Upon hearing this, Jilie Snuofu, as the chief of the Snuofu Clan, felt his eyes turn red instantly.

Jilie Snuofu was saddened by the heavy casualties the tribe had suffered this time, and secondly, he was moved by Baruke.

Despite having no family or ties, Baruke had been brought to the brink of death for the sake of the Snuofu Clan, yet the first thing he did upon waking was to care about his tribe.

How could such sincere emotion not be moving? "The Snuofu Clan has lost more than one-third of its people this time, and there are hardly any reindeer left," Jilie Snuofu answered with difficulty.

"If you hadn't finally killed the alpha, the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf, causing the beast tide to disperse, I fear the Snuofu Clan would have been wiped out in this wave."

Gao De stood to the side, also silent.

Originally, he had already prepared to run away, because he knew that with the scale of this snow wolf tide, the Snuofu Clan definitely could not survive.

Who would have thought that Baruke would descend like a divine soldier, actually killing the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf in the midst of "ten thousand troops."

With the pack leaderless, the rampaging beast tide soon scattered like birds and beasts, and only then did he choose to return.

At that time, after his life-and-death struggle with the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf, Baruke was already in a state of critical injury and near death.

If not for the Ice-Maned Tiger guarding him, Baruke might not have even lasted until Gao De cast 【Temporary Borrowing of Goodness】 to keep him alive.

"Be careful, don't push yourself."

This was what Gao De had said to Baruke a week ago when the two parted ways outside the Snuofu camp.

The words had become a prophecy.

A week later, Baruke had nearly lost his life because he "pushed himself."

"Thank you for your intervention." Jilie Snuofu's eyes were slightly red as he thanked Baruke with utmost sincerity.

"This was something I should have done anyway," Baruke said.

As he spoke, Baruke tried to use his hands to prop himself up.

But this movement immediately pulled at the muscles all over his body, triggering intense pain, making him groan and collapse back down.

Only then did he realize that his physical condition had deteriorated to such a degree; although he had regained consciousness, he was almost unable to move.

"You cannot move yet; you must rest well. With your injuries, you will need to lie down for at least half a year to recover basic mobility." Jilie Snuofu hurriedly stepped forward to support Baruke and then urged him.

"Half a year?" Upon hearing this, Baruke's expression changed drastically.

Jilie Snuofu thought Baruke felt this time was too long.

"This is still based on your formidable constitution. In fact, with the injuries you had at the time, if it were anyone else, that person might have died long ago, not even lasting until Gao De cast the spell to keep you alive, let alone surviving."

"Your abdomen was pierced by the fangs of the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf, and even your internal organs were injured. After you killed the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf and passed out, the surrounding snow wolves further aggravated your injuries. If not for your mount protecting you..."

When Jilie Snuofu said this, Baruke suddenly realized that he hadn't seen any sign of Ryan since he woke up.

His heart sank slightly, "Where is Ryan?"

"Ryan, Ryan!"

He called out Ryan's name anxiously, but received no response.

Seeing Baruke's reaction, Gao De felt his heart tighten and informed Baruke of the news in a low voice: "Ryan sacrificed himself to protect you..."

"How could... how could..." Baruke, who hadn't been broken by the pain throughout his body, seemed to be broken by this news at this moment, instantly becoming listless.

He couldn't believe that such a brave and fearless Ice-Maned Tiger could have sacrificed itself. Even before losing consciousness, the last sound he heard was Ryan's powerful, resonant roar.

"After you traded injury for life, killed the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf, and fell into a deep coma, those snow wolves swarmed you, wanting to kill you to avenge their leader. Ryan fought the pack alone to protect you, but there were simply too many snow wolves, and it couldn't handle them all..."

Gao De recalled the shocking scene he had seen on the hillside, his voice becoming much hoarser.

Even ants can kill an elephant if there are enough of them, let alone wolves.

If not for Ryan's sacrifice at that time, Baruke would have long since been dismembered by those crazed snow wolves, and perhaps even his bones would have been crushed to suck out the marrow; it would have been impossible for him to be lying here talking like this.

Ryan traded its life for mine... Baruke, who hadn't changed color even when facing the pack of wolves, had tears streaming down his face instantly.

He cried silently, just shedding tears, weeping silently.

Gao De and Jilie Snuofu were both speechless, not knowing what to say to comfort this iron-willed man.

After a long time, Baruke wiped away his tears and said in a hoarse voice: "I cannot lie here for half a year; I still have very urgent matters to attend to."

Jilie Snuofu's expression changed, and he said anxiously: "You must rest and heal! What urgent matter could be more important than your own body?"

Baruke shook his head, sighed slightly, and then said slowly: "Actually, there is a hidden truth behind this beast tide; it was not purely natural."

Upon hearing this, Jilie Snuofu's expression changed instantly, "Not natural... then it was man-made?"

Baruke didn't know if it was because of the constant pain in his body or something else, but he frowned deeply, "Yes, there are indeed traces of human manipulation behind this snow wolf tide."

"First, although it is normal for beast tides to appear on the snow plains, Chief, you should also know that within a single area, beast tides do not erupt simultaneously. For example, if there are traces of a snow hyena beast tide in this area, then a snow wolf beast tide would not appear; these beast tides are generally rotational."

"But this time, during my reconnaissance nearby, I discovered that almost all gregarious predatory creatures showed signs of forming beast tides."

"This is very contrary to common sense."

"Furthermore, the spirits of these predatory creatures have become abnormally ferocious and are almost impossible to soothe, but in a normal beast tide, the emotions of predatory creatures are actually mainly hunger, not ferocity."

"These do not conform to natural laws, nor do they conform to the situation of naturally formed beast tides," Baruke's brow was even more deeply furrowed at this time as he stated his conclusion: "Behind this stands a mage proficient in beast taming."

Jilie Snuofu's heart stirred, "Do you know who it is?"

Afterward, he suddenly realized: "The mages of the Snow Plain Guardians have always been the most skilled at beast taming on the snow plains... could it be?"

Baruke nodded slightly, his face somewhat unsightly, "Yes, this mastermind should be a mage from our Snow Plain Guardians..."

"What is the point of doing this? What benefit is there for him?" Jilie Snuofu clenched his fists, suppressing the emotions in his heart, and asked again.

"In recent years, news has been circulating within the Snow Plain Guardians that some members have secretly mastered necromantic spells, which are listed as forbidden... perhaps this is the purpose of this person pushing the beast tide." Baruke's expression was solemn.

"Forbidden necromantic spells?!"

"Yes."

At this moment, even Jilie Snuofu's expression became serious.

Because this was a very serious matter.

The Necromancy school is one of the eight major schools of magic.

But among the eight major schools, Necromancy has actually long been at the very bottom, considered the weakest school of magic.

But this is not because necromantic spells are ineffective.

Necromantic spells manipulate the energy of life and death, can grant creatures extra life force, or extract life energy from others, and can create undead creatures, or even alternative "resurrection."

Therefore, necromantic spells have actually always been the most mysterious and bizarre school among the eight major schools of magic; they should never have fallen to their current status.

The reason for this is very simple: those necromantic spells with the most powerful combat capabilities have long been strictly prohibited and sealed.

Especially the act of using necromantic spells to create undead creatures, such as 【Manipulate Corpse】, is absolutely a forbidden art.

Because, to create undead creatures, one first needs "fresh" corpses.

For this, some people will inevitably take risks to commit slaughter, leading to chaos.

Therefore, high-circle mages quickly reached a consensus to list all necromantic spells with unstable factors as forbidden arts and to view the practice of forbidden arts as a serious criminal offense.

According to Gao De's understanding, necromantic spells can actually be approximated to "demonic cultivation techniques" in Xianxia, whose power is unquestionable, but they are too "cruel."

After prohibiting the "cruel" part, it is equivalent to cutting off one's own arm, naturally becoming weak.

"A long time ago, there were always mages from the outside entering the northern realm to practice forbidden necromantic spells. I didn't expect that even the people of the northern realm have started now... and it even comes from the Snow Plain Guardians." Jilie Snuofu muttered.

In the outside world, once a mage is discovered to have mastered forbidden necromantic spells, official law enforcers will use the greatest force to take these mages down.

But in the northern realm, there is no so-called law enforcement organization, so naturally, no one will come out to "meddle in other people's business," and doing these things has a bit of a lawless feel to it.

Moreover, in the northern realm, tribes are wiped out every day; even if a necromancer goes on a rampage and slaughters one or two tribes to practice forbidden arts, it won't cause any ripples.

This has led the northern realm to be long regarded as a "holy land" by those necromancers practicing forbidden arts.

This is also one of the reasons why the people of the northern realm are extremely repulsed by outsiders.

"I must take this news back and report it to the sect, letting the sect take action to find the mastermind as soon as possible; otherwise, if it drags on, I don't know how many more tribes will be implicated." Baruke said extremely seriously.

Jilie Snuofu naturally knew the seriousness of this matter, but he still shook his head and said: "It's not a question of whether I let you or not, but whether you can do it now."

"Let alone returning to the sect, within at least a month, it will be difficult for you to even get up. If you don't believe me, try getting up again and see if you can succeed."

Upon hearing this, Baruke, unconvinced, wanted to crawl up.

But his body was like a broken piece of porcelain; even though it had been stitched and glued together, it couldn't withstand any tossing, and it would collapse if he exerted even a little force.

After trying three or four times without success, he finally gave up powerlessly.

Is there really no other way?

Baruke felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

Then, he turned his head to look at Gao De, who was standing to the side, and suddenly thought of the "character" the other party had displayed during the few days they spent together. A thought flashed through his mind, and the light of hope suddenly brightened.

He is a member of the Nature Sect, after all.

"Gao De..." Baruke called out.

"I'm here." Gao De thought Baruke needed something and hurriedly leaned forward to respond.

"Can I ask you for a favor?"

"Ask me for a favor?" Gao De realized instantly, "You want me to help you take this news back and report it to the Snow Plain Guardians?"

"Yes," Baruke nodded seriously, "I know this matter has nothing to do with you, but I really can't find anyone else to help right now."

The Snuofu Clan had just encountered a beast tide, and the reindeer, which were the tribe's most important food source, were few and far between, making it difficult to even survive this winter.

With them unable to even protect themselves, Baruke naturally couldn't ask them to help with this matter.

Looking at it this way, only Gao De could help.

"Where is your sect headquarters located? And how far is it from here?" Gao De thought for a moment and asked the key question.

"The Snow Plain Guardians headquarters is very far from here, but our sect actually has a branch established four hundred kilometers away. You just need to find this branch. As for the location of the branch..." Now it was Baruke's turn to be in a difficult position, not knowing how to describe it.

This was a very realistic problem.

Gao De was an outsider, not familiar with the northern realm like him, and even less familiar with the Snow Plain Guardians.

At such a long distance, and on the snow plains where there were not many buildings or people, wanting to let Gao De find the branch with just a few words was tantamount to a fantasy.

"Wait a moment..." Jilie Snuofu, who was to the side, also saw the difficulty Baruke was facing at this moment.

He thought for a moment, rummaged through a box in the tent, took out a piece of animal skin, and handed it to Baruke.

"The tribe's situation is very bad right now, and we are severely short-handed. I really can't leave, nor can I spare any manpower; otherwise, given the great kindness you have shown to the Snuofu Clan, this matter should be helped by us Snuofu."

"Now, this is all I can provide."

Gao De subconsciously glanced at that piece of animal skin.

He saw that it was meticulously drawn with many complex lines using charcoal and pigments, and there were also some special symbols and markings.

His whole body trembled, and he realized what this animal skin was: it was exactly the map of the northern realm that he had been seeking, drawn and marked by the Snuofu Clan!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 243 =====