Chapter 285: The Correct Path

"Forbidden necromantic magic!" Su Su Su Nai Fa's already cold-as-frost expression turned two degrees colder after seeing this scene.

Necromantic spells that revive the dead into skeletons or zombies are considered an untouchable red line, an absolute forbidden magic, whether inside or outside the northern realm.

In fact, necromantic spells, especially offensive necromantic spells, are mostly based on "evil and strange" effects such as draining life and creating undead creatures.

Heroes use martial arts to break the law.

Although people with crooked minds, no matter what school of magic they master, may use what they have learned for non-righteous purposes.

But necromantic school spells undoubtedly have greater potential harm.

Therefore, after high-circle magic users at the top of the pyramid discussed it, they simply cut it all off, listing these necromantic school spells as forbidden, not allowing magic users to learn and master them.

This is also the reason why necromantic school spells have always been extremely weak among the eight schools of magic—the powerful necromantic school spells have all been banned.

But history has proven time and again that "forbidden magic" is just like "forbidden books," only to be repeatedly banned.

Therefore, even though forbidden necromantic magic has fallen to the point of being a street rat that everyone shouts to beat, it still survives as tenaciously as wild grass, repeatedly banned but never extinguished.

Skeletons are the lowest-level undead creature group, but they are further subdivided according to different types and strengths.

The most common are skeleton warriors composed of the skeletons of ordinary humans or other humanoid creatures, usually equipped with simple weapons and shields made of white bones.

This kind of skeleton looks creepy, but it is actually clumsy and fragile; even a well-trained militiaman could defeat multiple skeleton warriors.

This level of skeleton only forms a certain threat by relying on quantity advantage.

A higher-level skeleton monster is the skeleton mage.

Corpses that were once magic users, after being revived by necromantic magic, become skeleton mages.

While skeleton mages possess stronger power and tougher bones compared to skeleton warriors, they can also release some basic spells mastered by the corpse before death, and even have specific traits according to the magic user's cultivation method.

The skeletons appearing in the camp at the moment are all skeleton mages, and they are all "sourced" from the ice-descendant magic users of the northern realm.

It is visible to the naked eye that on the pale bones of these skeleton mages, there are dots of blue light representing frost.

This makes them have a relatively high resistance to ice-elemental spells.

Ice-descendant magic users who hunt on the snowfield all year round may not be able to compare their discipline with military magic users who have undergone strict training all year round.

But in terms of combat literacy and the ability to deal with sudden situations, they are not inferior at all, especially in encounter battles where they are even more at ease.

After all, hunting on the snowfield, sudden attacks by earth-vein creatures are common things.

So after experiencing the initial panic, a hurried and impassioned horn sound immediately rang out in the temporary camp of the Enduring Zhenbing tribe's army.

The ice-descendant magic users who were not attacked reacted quickly, began to cast their respective spells, and entered a combat state.

For a time, ice and snow were mixed in the camp, a violent wind was blowing, and various blue magical lights flickered.

All kinds of ice-elemental spells poured down like a rainstorm, launching a fierce attack on those skeleton mages.

A Third-Circle ice-descendant magic user located in the center of the skeleton group moved his hands quickly.

Instantly, a huge ice wall rose from the ground, isolating a large portion of the skeleton mages, winning valuable spellcasting time for other ice-descendant magic users.

The other ice-descendant magic users protected by the ice wall had no more worries and quickly cast offensive spells.

I saw that where the skeleton mage clusters were dense, ice cones rose abruptly from the ground, inserting into the gaps of the skeleton mages' bones, stringing them up.

Subsequently, many sharp ice cones shot toward the skeleton mage group like arrows.

Although these skeleton mages had relatively high resistance to ice-elemental spells, facing such dense attacks, they were ultimately difficult to resist.

The bodies composed of bones shattered and disintegrated, and the green phosphorus fire flickering in their eye sockets also extinguished.

"The casting distance of necromantic magic is limited; the necromancer manipulating these skeletons must be hiding nearby."

Here, Su Su Su Nai Fa did not participate in the battle to wipe out the skeleton mages, but decisively began to look for the necromancer's location.

Don't look at the necromancer being able to create a sea of skeletons, with great momentum, but as long as the necromancer is killed, all the skeletons he created will be like shells that have lost their souls, quickly collapsing into piles of scattered white bones, no longer able to constitute a threat.

And the distance for a necromancer to manipulate skeletons is limited.

This means that the necromancer manipulating these gloomy skeleton armies must be hiding in some dark corner not far from the battlefield.

Su Su Su Nai Fa understands this point, so the target is clear; compared to slowly wiping out these numerous skeleton mages, it is better to directly kill the necromancer behind the scenes.

This is the fastest way to end this battle.

Gao De turned his head to look around upon hearing this.

It is night now, the night is like ink, the light is dim, making everything hazy and difficult to identify.

But for Su Su Su Nai Fa, this certainly doesn't count for anything; a Second-Circle spell 【Darkvision】 is a problem that can be solved.

The problem is that in their camp, ice-descendant magic users and skeleton mages are fighting together, extremely chaotic.

And the white snow is everywhere, providing perfect shelter for the lurker.

As long as the other party disguises slightly, wanting to quickly and accurately locate that necromancer in such an environment in a short time is undoubtedly extremely difficult.

But Su Su Su Nai Fa is not worried about this.

Li~~~ The next moment, a high-pitched and impassioned long cry came from her tent.

Subsequently, a silver-white light shadow, like lightning tearing through the night sky, suddenly darted out from the gap in the tent, its speed so fast it was staggering.

That light shadow instantly drew a beautiful arc in the air, circling toward the higher and farther sky.

That is Su Su Su Nai Fa's magic hunting falcon, Cang Lan.

Hunting falcons are naturally good at scouting.

And Cang Lan is an exotic species, its scouting ability is terrifyingly strong, able to capture the weakest fluctuations and abnormalities.

It flew into the high sky to overlook the battlefield, and while looking down from a high position, it could also ignore the interference of the chaotic environment, finding the target faster.

Just as Cang Lan began to search, a deep voice sounded as if it came from the abyss, clearly audible even in the noisy and chaotic camp:

"Su Su Su Nai Fa, no need to trouble yourself to find me."

Gao De and Su Su Su Nai Fa turned their heads almost at the same time, their gazes like torches, locking onto the direction the voice came from.

A large mass of black mist surged there.

"There's a big thing!" The few ice-descendant magic users at the edge of the black mist screamed, their voices trembling slightly, but still trying their best to issue a warning. Their voices had just fallen when that mass of black mist seemed to be torn apart by an invisible force, and a hair-raising behemoth rushed out from it.

Its body was huge, like a prehistoric giant elephant running wildly, but its skin was shriveled, covered with grayish-white rotten flesh, its whole body emitting blue smoke, exuding a disgusting stench.

The giant beast's eyes were empty and godless, but its speed and momentum were terrifyingly amazing.

With just a loud bang, the ice wall constructed by the Third-Circle magic user was smashed to pieces under the impact of this behemoth, turning into countless splashing ice chips.

And the speed of this behemoth was not affected in the slightest, continuing to gallop toward Su Su Su Nai Fa's position with unstoppable momentum.

Every step it took, it could step out a trembling rhythm on the snow surface.

Logically speaking, with its huge body and terrifying weight, it should have sunk into the snow layer.

But on the four feet formed by its rotten flesh, a layer of light blue magical light was flickering.

It had been blessed with buff spells, so it could walk on the snow as if on flat ground.

Any ice-descendant magic user blocking the giant beast's path, no matter what spell they cast, hitting the giant beast's body, was so small and powerless, like an egg hitting a rock, futile, and couldn't cause half a ripple.

Subsequently, the giant beast directly knocked them flying.

Some magic users rolled in the air, accompanied by the screams of broken bones; others were thrown directly to the distance, falling heavily to the ground, life or death unknown.

"Zombie Behemoth!" Su Su Su Nai Fa's gaze turned cold, and she said softly.

Zombies are an undead creature one level higher than skeletons.

And the Zombie Behemoth is an extremely powerful kind of zombie, possessing amazing strength, defense, and recovery ability, and is an extremely tricky existence on the battlefield.

On top of the Zombie Behemoth's head, a figure in a black robe stood proudly, with a strange smile on his face, as if everything was under control: "Su Su Su Nai Fa, kill you, and the army of your Enduring Zhenbing tribe should retreat, right."

"Rian..." Su Su Su Nai Fa's gaze narrowed slightly, tightly locked on the figure on top of the Zombie Behemoth's head.

"Are you the only one coming? What about the other Fourth-Circle magic users?" Saint Xi En stood on the rapidly charging giant beast, looking down from above, coldly saying.

After Tang Nade died, there were still four Fourth-Circle ice-descendant magic users left in the Enduring Zhenbing tribe.

However, this time marching on the Icefield Temple, only one of the four Fourth-Circle ice-descendant magic users came, Su Su Su Nai Fa.

This was Su Su Su Nai Fa's decision.

According to her, the Guardians of the Snowfield had a total of only three Fourth-Circle magic users, and they were not necessarily all at the Icefield Temple.

And for her, even if all three Fourth-Circle magic users were there, or even doubled, she could easily suppress them.

This is the confidence of a pure-blooded ice-descendant.

"My King, you retreat first." Su Su Su Nai Fa did not answer Rian's question, but while instructing Gao De, she took down the huge ice bow 【Blizzard】 from her back.

The next moment, she took a deep breath, one hand tightly gripping the bow body, the other pulling the bowstring.

Subsequently, a deep blue light lit up on the bowstring.

The deep blue light quickly turned into fine ice crystals, glowing like bright stars in the night sky.

These ice crystals rotated and condensed in the air, finally turning into a crystal-clear ice arrow exuding bone-chilling cold.

Whoosh! With a crisp sound of breaking through the air, the ice arrow, like an arrow leaving the string, tore through the long sky, shooting toward Rian.

Seeing this, Rian's mouth hooked into a calm and unhurried smile, as if he were not afraid at all of this attack launched by the magic weapon held by Boreas himself.

Hot and bright flames, as if summoned by some mysterious force, suddenly surged out from his body, quickly circling around him, forming a flame shield shining with orange-red light.

The ice crystal arrow shot by Su Su Su Nai Fa using 【Blizzard】 accurately locked onto Rian, but at the moment it was about to touch the flame shield, it seemed to encounter an insurmountable barrier.

The ice arrow collided with the flame shield, making a "hissing" sound, just like ice and snow meeting hot lava, quickly melting from the arrowhead, turning into a wisp of light smoke, and dissipating in the air.

However, that flame shield also extinguished completely after blocking this ice arrow.

Boom! Rian actually manipulated the Zombie Behemoth to brake violently.

That intense movement immediately stepped out a small snowstorm.

"Worthy of 【Blizzard】..." Rian, who stopped the charging momentum, looked at Su Su Su Nai Fa, his face had already changed slightly, feeling surprised by Su Su Su Nai Fa's blow just now.

Compared to Rian's surprise, Su Su Su Nai Fa's expression became incomparably solemn: "【Flame Shield】 is only a Fourth-Circle spell; it is impossible to block the arrow of enduring ice..."

"Indeed, you are far more powerful than I imagined, Su Su Su Nai Fa. The 【Flame Shield】 cast by rank-up spellcasting could only block one of your arrows." Rian's gaze wandered between Su Su Su Nai Fa's face and the 【Blizzard】 in her hand, his tone carrying a hint of "appreciation."

"Rank-up spellcasting..." Su Su Su Nai Fa took a deep breath, hearing this, she already understood everything, "You are already a Fifth-Circle magic user."

Looking around, she couldn't see anyone other than Rian.

This shows that Rian came alone.

Daring to break into the Enduring Zhenbing tribe's camp alone, the Fifth-Circle magic user level is Rian's confidence.

"Unexpected, right," Rian looked at Su Su Su Nai Fa with a smile, extremely proud, "The first and only Fifth-Circle magic user in the contemporary northern realm is actually me."

"You changed your cultivation method." Su Su Su Nai Fa, as a pure-blooded ice-descendant, has an extremely keen perception of the ice element, and now, she can no longer feel the existence of any ice-elemental power on Rian.

This is not reasonable, because even the magic users of the Guardians of the Snowfield are basically ice-descendants, and their power is closely related to the ice element.

"Yes," Rian nodded, his face without the slightest hesitation or reluctance, "What I am practicing now is "Necromantic Rituals," and it is precisely it that helped me break through to the Fifth-Circle."

"Possessing ice-descendant bloodline, yet becoming a necromancer." Su Su Su Nai Fa's voice carried a hint of coldness; Rian had not only betrayed the teachings of the Guardians of the Snowfield but also betrayed his own bloodline.

"What do you know?! Su Su Su Nai Fa, ice-descendant bloodline is just a useless thing!" Rian's voice carried a hint of excitement; he seemed to be touched in his pain by Su Su Su Nai Fa's questioning, "The path I chose is the most correct path!"

"You are the last pure-blooded ice-descendant of this generation. You must know that in the past, with the power of the ice-descendant bloodline, the lower limit of a pure-blooded ice-descendant should at least be the Fifth-Circle."

Rian's words carried a hint of regret, as if thinking of the former glory of the ice-descendant clan, "After you fully awakened the ice-descendant bloodline, your magic user level rose to the Fourth-Circle in just two years, but another full three years have passed, and you are still at the Fourth-Circle."

"What does this explain? This explains that the power of the ice-descendant bloodline has declined to the point where the upper limit is only the Fourth-Circle!"

"The ice-descendant bloodline was indeed powerful in the ancient era, reaching its peak, achieving the powerful ice-descendant clan, but since the ancient era, the ice-descendant bloodline has begun to decline."

"To this day, the ice-descendant bloodline is a dead end from beginning to end. To go further, one must abandon the ice-descendant bloodline and seek other methods."

Rian's words carried a hint of sarcasm, mocking Su Su Su Nai Fa's stubbornness and ignorance: "It's just that you are accustomed to the powerful power of the ice-descendant bloodline and cannot make up your mind to abandon everything you currently possess, so you can only mark time in place."

"Wanting to take a step forward means that some things must be discarded."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 286 =====