CHAPTER 144: CHAPTER 56 TOUCH OF THE EVIL GOD _2

"But all of this is not the biggest threat. Green Skins, Beastmen, and undead creatures just live in the forest ecosystem. Generally, their small forces only go out to raid and won’t capture cities, at most destroying a few villages."

"The greatest threat is those cultists, bandits, and Beastman Warbands. These people will very actively gather in large numbers to plunder everywhere, even massacring cities. Their range of movement is extremely wide, and they are cruel and cunning. Encountering them is unfortunate for any civilized human."

However, whether by great luck or misfortune, the group marched all night without encountering the legendary raiders.

Only a few scattered evil spirits tried to mix into the crowd, all torn to pieces by the undead under Audrey.

This became the main income from the night’s blast fall, providing Lin Rui with as many as four Knight’s Heart Recruitment Scrolls. The Judgement Knight Order set from the Church of Light now had two more sets. Soon, all Elite Knights would be fully equipped with complete sets.

Besides the evil spirits, the army also cleared hundreds of hidden monsters along the way, blasting a few Elite-level equipment pieces for Lin Rui.

Among them, there was a fine-level necklace with Charm +2 and Wisdom +2. After Audrey put it on, adding her upgraded attribute points, her Charm had reached as high as 66 points, soon able to activate the next tier of the Empress’s Contract.

Traversing the forest is an extremely dangerous task but also one with a high probability of rewards, filled with the romantic notion of exploring the unknown.

The sun rose, the sky brightened, the darkness of the Blood Maple Forest was dispelled, yet it did not welcome light. Sunlight penetrated the blood-red maple leaves, and the entire forest was enveloped in a hazy scarlet, as if shrouded in a faint blood mist.

Lin Rui thought that with the break of day, the harvest was over when he saw Hood running excitedly over, shouting: "Lord, Lord, I just discovered, in the north, there’s an intense battle, a group of cultists is besieging a Mountain Giant."

Such a situation where two tigers fight and the third gains the benefit, Lin Rui naturally didn’t want to miss. He immediately said, "Let’s go take a look."

Lu Weite quickly stopped him: "Lord Lin Rui, for a caravan, the fewer issues, the better. Besides, if you take all the troops over, what if the caravan gets attacked?"

"It’s fine, since I’ve said I’ll guarantee your safety, I won’t break my promise. You rest in the camp for six hours, and then we’ll continue. I’ll leave the Heroic Spirit and undead troops here to guard the camp, only taking the Knights with me."

With Lin Rui’s orders, more than three hundred undead immediately spread out, patrolling the surroundings in teams, making the area look like an undead nest.

Audrey, having arranged the undead, immediately clung to Lin Rui: "Lord, I want to go too, I want to go too, to see if we can find any high-level summoning materials."

Lin Rui nodded, then took all the Knights and followed Hood toward the front of the forest.

After walking less than ten miles, everyone saw the intense battle scene.

The dense forest greatly shrouded the noise of the battlefield, and the thick shadows concealed all the lurking figures, making it a perfect ambush site.

Everyone from the Golden Pansy Domain hid in the shadow of the leaves, looking at the battling sides.

Audrey excitedly grabbed Lin Rui’s arm and said: "Lord Lin Rui, that is a Tier Four Rare Mountain Giant. You must control your strength, don’t smash it into pieces again. I haven’t played with such a big monster yet."

Lin Rui was very helpless, why does something normal seem filled with ambiguity when this sand sculpture speaks?

Then Lin Rui looked at the Mountain Giant on the battlefield, a Tier Four Rare monster! If you don’t count the Burrow Lord from the Burial Ground of the Dead, this is the first Rare level monster Lin Rui has encountered in this forest apart from Audrey.

This monster is over fifty meters tall, taller than most trees by a shoulder. If it lay motionless on the ground, it would appear like a quiet hill. Yet how its opponents found it is unknown, but the enraged Mountain Giant was wielding a giant tree three meters thick and over forty meters long, sweeping through the middle of the battlefield.

Its opponents were over a hundred cultists dressed in black and purple robes, surrounding it from all sides.

But among the cultists, only the leader was Tier Four Elite-level, the rest were all Tier Three, clearly not opponents for this Mountain Giant.

As the Mountain Giant swept the battlefield with its massive tree, dust and rocks flew, and the cultists’ bodies were shattered into countless pieces scattering everywhere.

Lundestadte frowned deeply, saying: "Lord, there’s something peculiar. These cultists know they can’t win against the Mountain Giant this way, yet they keep charging forward, there must be some conspiracy."

Audrey poked Lundestadte’s youthful cheek with her finger: "Little Knight, aren’t you tired of looking so gloomy every day? No matter what conspiracy they have, just push through from the front. If you win, turn them all into undead, if you lose, just run away, come back later to fight them again. Sooner or later, you can turn them all into undead."

Lin Rui turned to glance at these two Heroic Spirit-level soldiers, one with late-stage Chūnibyō, filled with melancholy for the world, believing himself to be the Knight of Justice destined to save the world from demons, ready to shout, "I am bone of my sword, blood tide like iron, heart like glass, undefeated across countless battlefields, alone here, forging a sword on the hill of swords," type lines with over-the-top Chūnibyō aura.

The other was a quirky-minded, loneliness-fearing chatterbox funny girl, treating summoning zombies and skeletons as partners, a sand sculpture.

In any case, they contrasted heavily with the terrifying battlefield atmosphere.

Lin Rui thought that instead of idling, they should do something useful, saying: "Watch a while longer, if there’s no turning point, Audrey, cast a Weakness Skill on the Mountain Giant. Lundestadte, go up and use Radiant Slash to lower the Mountain Giant’s Life Value. Help them balance the combat power."

Audrey suddenly pointed to the battlefield, excitedly saying: "It’s coming, it’s coming! The turning point is here, Daddy! It’s truly terrifying."

Lin Rui immediately looked toward the battlefield and was equally shocked. What on earth did these cultists summon?

The scattered corpses on the battlefield had been sacrificed by the magic array, and in the middle of the strange, cryptic array, a mass of twisted, malformed, unclean objects, pale grey clumps pulsated and expanded, spawning creeping malformed monsters.

Just looking at it made one’s mind collapse, and one’s scalp tingle.

Lin Rui didn’t have time to react when Hood suddenly let out a wailing scream beside him, his eyes blood red, skin cracking inch by inch, skull rapidly deforming, with tentacles growing, his whole body festering, tumors covering his entire being.

"Ding, your subordinate, Elite Raider Hood, has died, transforming into a chaotic evil seed."

You mutate by just looking? Really unreasonable!

Watching Hood mutate and twist, losing his human form completely, Lin Rui finally understood why in this world, skeletons represent human sanctity!

No wonder they say, as darkness descends, the soul’s will is the most steadfast weapon for humans to resist strong enemies.

If without extremely high will, one would collapse before the fight even began.

Fortunately, the other Knights were only slightly startled, not collapsing.

Lin Rui pointed at Hood, and ten frost aura quickly shot out from his back, instantly freezing and obliterating the mutated and twisted Hood.

Audrey, with her heart still palpitating, patted her magnificent chest and said: "Facing the Chaos Demon, the average will of ordinary people is too weak, directly distorting and driving them mad. Thankfully, thankfully, my will is robust."

Lin Rui, enduring discomfort, looked at the malformed monstrosity on the battlefield, opening his Attribute Panel.

[Touch of the Evil God]

[Level: Tier Five Level 12]

[Talent: ???]

[Attributes: ???]

[Evaluation: Relatively dangerous]

Tier Five super unit!

This is the absolute elite that directly determines the battlefield situation and decides victory in one blow.

At this moment, this Touch of the Evil God had already started fighting the towering Mountain Giant. Although the Mountain Giant was larger, it simply couldn’t handle the eerie and terrifying attack method of the Evil God’s tentacle.

Lin Rui decisively ordered, saying: "Launch the attack immediately, all Knights go cut down the cultists. Audrey, coordinate with me to deal with this Tier Five monster."

"Yes, my Lord!"

The Knights immediately launched a fierce charge, shining with golden light as they rushed toward the approaching cultists of the Evil God.

Hood’s previous scream had already drawn the attention of these Evil God cultists, and they were now surrounding, weapons raised, intending to clear anything alive.