Chapter 397: Face Slowly Turning Pale

Lord Nai Ge Li Si worried about those believers; it had been hard-won to have this many, and it would be best if they weren't caught up in it.

"I'll go take a look," Duroken said. A mage capable of casting eighth-tier magic had appeared nearby; it would be hard to feel at ease without investigating clearly.

"Together," Lord Nai Ge Li Si said.

Duroken cast a spell on himself, his figure gradually vanishing into the darkness, then said: "I'll go ahead, my lord keep a vigilant distance behind me."

This was only proper — as a subordinate, one must certainly go ahead to clear danger for my lord; even if an attack came, it would buy those behind time to react.

From this point alone, Duroken was a qualified subordinate.

But Seeing Ange was somewhat baffled, and only after Lord Nai Ge Li Si explained it to him did he understand what was meant, and he immediately accelerated past Duroken: "I go ahead."

This was actually the more reasonable formation, because Seeing Ange was only projected here, whereas Lord Nai Ge Li Si and Duroken were here in the flesh.

But this caution proved useless, because they encountered no one along the way. When they arrived at Desert Town, all they saw was a crowd of bewildered people.

Duroken went over to ask, and learned these were all residents of Desert Town. When the bandits came, they killed anyone in town who dared resist, abducted all the women, and drove the rest out of town.

Those bandits seemed to be searching for something and had stayed here without leaving, until tonight, when a party made up of a mage and followers arrived, cornered all the bandits inside the town, and ordered them to release the hostages.

After the bandits released the abducted women, the mage cast Meteor Fall, smashing the entire small town along with the bandits into a giant crater.

Now, where Desert Town had once stood, only a giant crater remained; every building in the town was gone.

Duroken asked, puzzled: "Meteor Fall is powerful, sure, but the casting speed is too slow — wouldn't those bandits have run?"

An old man who claimed to be the town head said with a bitter smile: "They ran, but they were blocked by that mage's followers and couldn't get away. Some of us tried to beg the mage not to destroy the town, but we were kicked aside by the mage's followers. Sigh, now it's all gone."

"Were the mage's followers that many? Enough to corner all those bandits inside the town?" Duroken asked.

"Quite a few — several dozen," the old man said.

"For example, an assassin disguised as an old man as well as you?" Duroken asked curiously.

The old man's expression changed; his hunched back straightened swiftly, and he glared sharply at Duroken: "How did you spot me?"

Duroken gave a faint smile: "Don't be nervous, I mean no harm. I've had my eye on these bandits for a long time too — didn't expect you to beat me to it."

The old man looked Duroken up and down suspiciously, but couldn't gauge the other's depth, which made him realize the other's strength might far surpass his own.

But this actually made him believe Duroken's words, because someone with the ability to see through his disguise at a glance could not possibly be one of the bandits.

The old man reached up and rubbed his face, peeling off a youthful face, then drew his thumb upward between his brows and said: "Phantom-Face Assassin — may I ask your name?"

"Just call me Jiliguletelakeusiriyerobalivofkisbureite," Duroken rattled off a name at random.

"Alright then, Bureite," Phantom-Face narrowed his eyes and shot Duroken a dangerous look — clearly he too could tell Duroken was stringing him along.

Duroken shrugged and asked, unconcerned: "Then why are you disguised as the village head?"

"To see if any fish slipped through the net. Seems there aren't any now, so Phantom-Face will be off." Phantom-Face brushed his brow again — apparently that was his way of saluting.

As he spoke, his figure slowly faded.

Duroken hurriedly called after him: "Why did you kill those bandits?"

Phantom-Face vanished into the night, but his voice still came through: "Just passing by — took a dislike to them."

Duroken pressed on: "Then you didn't have to blow up the town too — where am I supposed to sleep tonight?"

Phantom-Face gave no further reply, as if he had already left.

Duroken shifted his gaze, fixing on an empty patch of space on another side, and said: "I'm asking you — why did you blow up the town too?"

"Ahem, how did you spot me? It's blown up, so it's blown up — why so many whys? Going house to house to search would be such a hassle; blowing it up is cleaner." Phantom-Face's voice rose from the empty space: "Ahem, this time I'm really going. See you."

Duroken's gaze shifted again, quickly moving to another side, fixing on empty air.

After quite a while, a muttering string of curses rose from the empty space and gradually faded into the distance.

Duroken watched the other depart, and disdainfully curled his lip.

Returning to Seeing Ange's side, Duroken reported everything he had learned, then began analyzing it with Lord Nai Ge Li Si.

"It was probably a passing mage party who took a dislike to what those bandits were doing and wiped them out on a whim. The bandits' corpses were all tossed aside — if they'd come specifically for the bandits, they'd at least have taken the bodies."

Lord Nai Ge Li Si asked, puzzled: "If it was just taking a dislike, then why destroy the town too? That style doesn't look like doing a good deed."

Duroken said: "My guess is that the mage's followers were a very professional team. They didn't want to go house to house through the town hunting them down, so they egged the mage into blowing up the town along with it."

"Didn't you say some townspeople went to plead?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si said.

"The one who said someone pleaded was also part of the mage's party, which is why I say they're very professional — they actually left people behind to lie in ambush, clearly intending to cut the grass and dig out the roots. The townspeople probably never even got to see that mage before the followers intercepted them."

After Duroken's analysis, Lord Nai Ge Li Si immediately had some guesses: "A noble mage who doesn't know the ways of the world, leading a group of professional followers, passing through here, taking a dislike to what those bandits were doing, and casually wiping them out?"

Duroken nodded and added: "Then the followers handle the cleanup, the mage achieves the feat of doing a good deed, leaves satisfied, and later when he goes back to host a wine party he has material to brag about — how he saved an entire town's people."

That really did sound like the style of those noble mages — doing whatever they pleased, with someone else to clean up the mess they made, so they never even realized that their Meteor Fall had also destroyed the townspeople's shelter.

In a desert where the nighttime temperature can drop below freezing, having no shelter is an extremely dangerous thing.

But no matter what, it was still much better than the bandits holding the town — at least the women had been rescued. Everyone began clearing through the town's ruins, trying to find whatever supplies they could.

Just then, Seeing Ange suddenly looked up toward another direction outside the town.

Desert Town sat on the edge of the desert; on one side was the barren wasteland, and the other side wasn't much better — a vast stretch of sparse grassland.

This sparse grassland couldn't be used for grazing, but it grew some mushrooms and rare herbs — it was the pillar industry of Desert Town. But now, from the direction of the sparse grassland, a thick, rich scent came drifting over.

Before Seeing Ange could figure out what this scent was, a Burst Flame spell exploded in the black night. Not long after, a fine steed carrying a female mage in an expensive mage robe burst out of the dark sparse grassland.

Beside the steed ran a man whose tongue was lolling out a great length, gasping for breath — and that face was unmistakably the Phantom-Face Duroken had seen not long ago.

Seeing a crowd of people ahead, the panicked female mage shouted at the top of her lungs: "Run! Run! It's the Undead Tide — the Undead Tide! Aaah!"

Whatever she tripped over, the horse stumbled forward and crashed to the ground, throwing the female mage off, and it could never stand again.

The female mage scrambled up and tried to turn back to check on the horse, but Phantom-Face, who had caught up, grabbed her and kept running forward.

The female mage cried, casting a tearful glance back at the fallen horse, then stumbled forward. After a few steps, she quickly cast a Hasten spell on herself and Phantom-Face, and their running speed suddenly surged.

Running past Duroken, Phantom-Face said, on account of their brief acquaintance: "Run — it's the Undead Tide, a Skeleton Tide. Run."

The rest of the residents had already scattered in a rush; the moment the female mage had shouted earlier, they had fled desperately toward the desert. Even the wounded lying on door planks had struggled to their feet and were limping along for dear life ahead — enough to show the terror of the Undead Tide.

Seeing Ange and the others had never heard of the Undead Tide, and were now staring wide-eyed into the distance. Soon, in the pitch black, two bluish ghostly flames appeared, flickering — like will-o'-the-wisps drifting over a graveyard. But why were there a pair of them?

Before anyone could figure it out, another pair appeared... two pairs, three pairs, four, five, six, seven, eight pairs — from the darkness in the distance, a line of 'ghost fires' suddenly emerged, stretching out to both sides toward an unseen end.

What ghost fires? These were clearly skulls' eye sockets.

As those skeletons moved, behind them appeared another row, two rows, three, four, five, six rows... an endless stream of skeletons surged out of the darkness like a tide.

Seeing Ange couldn't help panicking too — this many? Should they run? Would these things attack a lich?

Just then, Seeing Ange arched his back and let out a soundless howl through his soul.

The soul howl was silent and invisible, spreading slowly outward — only undead could sense it.

The originally fast-rushing tide suddenly slowed; if before it had been running, now it had become wandering, the surging tide becoming a flowing stream.

"What did you do? Why would these skeletons obey your command?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si asked in shock.

Seeing Ange tilted his head and said: "I told them not to run."

Having lost their speed, the undead flood seemed to have lost its destructive power as well; those skeletons shifted from running to wandering, and when they reached Seeing Ange's vicinity, they saw him, then suddenly turned and drifted off to other places at an even faster pace.

Behind the undead flood, a dozen or so necromancers stared at the gradually slowing tide of skeletons, their heads full of question marks: "What's happening? Why did it slow down?"

"Is there an obstacle up ahead? Like a ditch or something? Otherwise why would it slow down?"

"Impossible. We studied the route — there's no obstacle that could impede the sea of skeletons."

"Then why did they stop?"

"Could it be... that there's a higher-ranking undead's territory up ahead?" one mage said hesitantly.

In an instant, all the necromancers fell silent. They exchanged glances for a while, each seeing the others' faces slowly turn pale.