Chapter 76: Pursuit and Evasion

Green Pearl Forest.

Mage Leonard rode his horse through the forest, twelve Night Watchers dispersed around him, keeping pace with him at all times.

He had been tracking the necromancers appearing in the Territory for over two days; starting from the remains of the Undead discovered in the villages outside the town, the Night Watchers had demonstrated an extremely strong ability to track Undead and Negative Energy.

In these two-plus days, Leonard had found a total of three necromancers, yet it was laughable that these necromancers, when facing the Night Watchers, had actually used Positive Energy rays.

However, this was of no use; Leonard had been prepared for this long ago, and with the help of Magic Scrolls, he coordinated with the Night Watchers to kill them one by one.

Afterwards, the Night Watchers tracked other necromancers from those three, not far from the place Keyaan had prepared for the decisive battle against the Orcs—

But at this moment, the Soul-Draining Array of these necromancers had already been completed, and it was unknown how long it had been running; he was ultimately a step too late.

Leonard felt secretly annoyed, but fortunately, he was still prepared for this situation. Four different elemental Magic Scrolls were used by him in succession.

The four Magic Effects combined into a single Spell the moment they flew out—a Four-Element Storm—crashing straight toward the Soul-Draining Array.

"Run!"

One necromancer summoned a mount the moment he saw Leonard and bolted, while the others seemed to want to negotiate with Leonard, though some were already casting Spells.

It was just that because they did not flee at the first opportunity, their fate was sealed.

Three Spells struck Leonard almost simultaneously, but this Leonard turned into foam in the blink of an eye, leaving no trace; the necromancer wanted to attack again, but the Night Watchers had already pounced over.

In the rush, one necromancer actually failed his Spellcasting and was beaten into a dried corpse on the spot by the Night Watchers, while the others, with no teammates to help block and their respective Spells countered by Leonard, were besieged by multiple Night Watchers simultaneously and were soon finished off as well.

"You don't even know how to run away, yet you dare to come out and stir up trouble?"

Leonard muttered disdainfully, ordering the Night Watchers to quickly search for traces; on the way here just now, he had already discovered the celestial anomaly in the south, and he knew this must have something to do with his teacher and the others.

He had to hurry!

……

On the other side, the necromancer who had escaped, after getting out of Leonard's line of sight, immediately concealed his figure, leaving behind a Phantom to continue fleeing.

His true body cast 【Flight】, took a turn, flew close to the ground, and then continuously cast Spells to clear his scent and tracks, actually allowing him to fly into a village south of Savile Town.

"That was close! But no matter how powerful he is, he would never guess that I would return to the town." After feeling he was out of danger, the necromancer immediately began to disguise himself.

In just a few seconds, he transformed from the previously sinister-looking necromancer into the appearance of an honest and amiable middle-aged Merchant, and carrying the items he had hidden in the village beforehand, he walked toward Savile Town.

The town gate guards stopped the necromancer and asked, "Stop! What's on the cart?"

"My lords, it's meat and vegetables collected from the countryside!"

The necromancer feigned generosity and lifted the cloth covering the cart; the guards took a look, and sure enough, it was fresh meat and vegetables. These days, a large number of country folk had come to the town to seek refuge, but there were always some who could not get in or were unwilling to enter.

However, although the guards relaxed their vigilance, they wanted to fish for some benefits and insisted on holding up the cart, not letting it pass. The necromancer was anxious inside, fearing a mishap, so he fished 10 Silver Coins from his bosom and slipped them into the hands of the two guards without a trace.

"My lords, this batch of goods is urgently needed by the Lao Nier Inn, please be accommodating."

The guards took the bribe and naturally would not make things difficult anymore, waving their hands, "Pass!"

Afterwards, the necromancer paid the tax to the Tax Official inside the town gate, and only then did he drive the cart to the Lao Nier Inn.

……

On this side, ever since Lao Nier had sent the necromancer out of the town, he had been on pins and needles, fearing that this visiting Mage would cause some trouble in the Savile Territory and implicate him.

"Lao Nier, the goods have arrived, come give me a hand!"

Just as Lao Nier was letting his imagination run wild, a familiar voice came from outside the inn, "It's him!"

At this moment, Lao Nier's brain felt somewhat dizzy, casting all his previous wild thoughts to the back of his mind, and he hurriedly went out to greet him, "Boss Kenni, why have you come?"

"What? Not welcoming me?"

"How would I dare not to welcome Boss Kenni." Lao Nier looked left and right, whispering, "Boss Kenni, please come in! I will arrange for people to unload the goods immediately."

Once the two entered the inn, Lao Nier shouted loudly, "Malin, go help Boss Kenni move the goods, double wages for today."

Afterwards, Lao Nier brought Kenni to the room on the second floor where he had stayed before, and once the door was closed, Lao Nier's forehead was instantly covered in fine beads of sweat.

"Mage, I wonder what your instructions are?"

"No instructions, I'll stay for two days and then leave. Don't talk nonsense outside, get out!"

"Yes, yes."

Lao Nier forced a smile and retreated, but as soon as he went out, his face became overcast with clouds.

……

Meanwhile, inside the Green Pearl Forest.

Xia Duo's squad and Dien's squad had already encountered the first wave of defeated Orcs; compared to the four Orcs that Sami and the others had encountered earlier, the current Orcs were clearly not in their right state.

Flustered and fearful, Xia Duo could even feel that they were absent-minded during the fight, and he had no idea what they had encountered before that had caused such ferocious Orcs to change their nature.

Suddenly, the battle situation changed; these three Orcs showed signs of fleeing before the battle had even reached a high level of intensity, which was different from the Orcs encountered earlier.

Xia Duo hurriedly shouted, "Yidimu, stop practicing, finish them quickly, the Orcs want to run."

"Yes!"

Several Long Spears instantly pierced the Orcs' lower limbs, and with a pull, brought out a spray of blood; the Orcs screamed in pain, their will to fight weakened once again, and ignoring Yidimu and the others who were constantly engaging them, they turned and ran.

And this run also marked the end of its life.

The other two Orcs were also finished off one after another.

"Xia Duo, what is wrong with these Orcs? Why does it feel like their combat power is suddenly so weak?" Dien was puzzled.

Xia Duo was equally puzzled; he was only an Ordinary Apprentice, how could he possibly know why these Orcs had suddenly lost their will to fight.

"Don't ask me, I don't know either, but this can be considered a good thing for us. I'll ask about the situation on Sami's side."

Having mastered 【Sending】, and using it in combination with 【Arcane Mark】, it was like having a mobile phone; as long as one wanted to make contact, one could make contact immediately.

And Sami's reply was also very swift—their luck seemed to be extremely poor; since entering the Green Pearl Forest, they had already encountered three waves of Orcs.