Real Mount and Blade Game

Without the influence of this crimson demonic light, the grotesque skeletal monsters born from the power of the abyss, though their soul fires still flickered with an eerie green necromantic light, clearly lost their ferocious unified will and their fearless sacrificial fervor.

The chaos is escalating!

Instead of charging towards the barrier, they circled in place, collided, and emitted incomprehensible hisses.

Immediately afterwards, as if receiving some kind of instinctive retreat signal, or as if driven by some kind of deep fear coming from the core area behind, these monsters began to turn around!
The incredibly fast hunting skeletons turned first, running on all fours like wild dogs as they fled in the direction the black mist was receding; the massive aggregate monsters emitted low, chaotic friction sounds as they clumsily moved their bodies composed of countless tiny skulls; even the seemingly clumsy arthropod skeletons brandished bone spikes and quickly retreated into the increasingly sparse gray mist.

The once bustling and noisy frontline battlefield, filled with the roar of death and the clash of weapons, fell into an eerie stillness in a very short time.

All that remained were abandoned bones and remains, remnants of burning vines, and the guards on the ramparts, who were on high alert but also somewhat bewildered.

The gray, hazy fog, a common occurrence in Long City due to the undead calamities, spread again, replacing the suffocating abyssal blackness.

Shen Mu stood on the watchtower, his cold gaze fixed on the gray core to the west, which was rapidly returning to calm, beneath the mithril helmet covering his visor.

He could clearly sense that the giant eye that opened in the darkness had not disappeared, but rather had completely concealed its abyssal essence, like a primordial beast that had been satiated after a good meal and was now lying in wait, its patience for hunting becoming even purer and more deadly.

The soldiers watched the rapidly receding tide of monsters below, their tense nerves not relaxing, but rather their minds filled with doubts.

“My lord? They…” The knight captain stepped forward, his voice heavy with concern.

This bizarre retreat was even more chilling than the frenzied attack just moments before.

"What has receded is the filth of demons, what remains is... pure nourishment of death." Shen Mu's voice was like clashing ice shards. He raised his hand, pointing into the depths of the gray mist: "The abyss has temporarily withdrawn its claws, but the necromantic power of this land has not dissipated; on the contrary..."

He paused slightly, and Captain Legolas's expression changed drastically as he connected with Shen Mu's senses:
"...On the contrary, it was compressed and purified by that core will! The gray mist became 'thicker,' and the death became 'pureer'! That thing... it's preparing for the next devouring!"

All the officers felt a sudden sinking feeling in their hearts.

They knew that the creation of the abyss had been born.

It no longer needs inefficient sacrifices; it chooses to retreat temporarily in order to bring all of Longcheng's last and purest death power under its control, like a predator crouching in the center of a spider web, waiting for the next... even more deadly hunt.

Beyond the walls, a deathly silence descends once more, shrouded in gray fog.

However, this deathly silence was even heavier than the previous surging black mist, containing an infinite killing intent that could freeze one's soul.

Shen Mu stood on the newly built lookout platform, its cold iron armor reflecting the thin gray mist.

The brief period of dormancy did not bring him any relaxation; on the contrary, it felt like an invisible bone spur stuck in his heart.

The terrifying entity lurking in the heart of the city will not bring peace to the Elf Forest until it is eliminated.

He surveyed the perimeter of the ramparts, his cold commands ringing out like the hammer blows on an anvil: "Reinforce! Dig! Let it take root, plant it deep within!"

The order was quickly transformed into a storm of action.

Under Shen Mu's will, the Elf Forest, this bridgehead, began a deeper and more thorough transformation.

Sergeant Rhodok directed the conscripted laborers and engineers to dig deep trenches around the fortified walls, the bottoms of which were filled with sharpened, oil-soaked hardwood stakes.

The excavated soil was used to fill the gaps in the damaged thorny vines and was mixed with the spiritual soil containing natural vitality. New thorn seeds were sown on them by the wood elves and, with the help of the power of faith, they visibly sprouted and grew.

Inside the fortifications, it wasn't just the warehouses and barracks that were reinforced.

One after another, the massive and deep underground ballista pylon bases of the forest fortress were built, constructed from huge logs and solid rocks.

Their cannons are thicker, their connecting root barriers have deeper life channels, and they draw on a greater amount of energy.

The spear at the top, no longer a crossbow bolt, resembles a small battering ram. Beneath the burning elven runes on its surface, new anti-magic and holy light guiding patterns are etched—a "gift" prepared for that hidden being.

Shen Mu even used a massive amount of faith power to construct several small but more concentrated altar nodes around the ancient tree at the core of the barrier.

These nodes act like energy pumps, drawing upon the power of faith day and night and transmitting it through the root network to every inch of the barrier's "skin," thus elevating its defensive capabilities and resistance to purification from evil to new heights.

The entire Elf Forest Fortress is transforming from a temporary fortress into an impregnable steel forest wall, deeply embedded in the dead land of Long City, becoming a wedge firmly driven into the edge of this deathly land, ready to meet the counterattack of the core existence.

Having completed his initial inspection, Shen Mu turned his gaze back to the outside of the fortress. His brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.

The gray fog still lingered, but it was so thin...

It was far less oppressive and heavy than the "shroud" feeling during the previous siege, and even less intense than the initial outbreak of the undead scourge.

Thin as a tattered veil, it seemed as if some force had brutally torn it apart and drained its essence. Sunlight managed to pierce through with difficulty, staining the ruins with a morbid pallor.

"This fog... is far too weak." Shen Mu's voice didn't express much doubt, but rather sounded like he was confirming a cold, hard fact.

Legolas, the wood elf captain who had been standing by, frowned, his emerald eyes filled with confusion and vigilance: "My lord, this is unusual. The forest is also feeling weak. The gray mist... seems to be drying up, or rather, being greedily 'sucked' by something deeper within. Its dissipation has not brought life, but has instead made the deathly aura that the forest senses even more... condensed and dangerous."

Shen Mu's fingers tapped lightly on the cold armor, producing a faint metallic tremor.

"Behind the withered fog often lurks something worse. Spread out your eyes and ears. Tell your rangers to carefully infiltrate the depths of the gray fog, closer to the core than ever before. Do not disturb, but observe. Find out what monsters lurk behind this unusual weakness."

“Yes, sir!” Legolas bowed with his hand on his chest, then quickly turned and left.

Soon, elite squads of Wood Elf Twilight Rangers and Forest Rangers, skilled in stealth, silently disappeared into the thin gray mist, like streams flowing into the sea.

Time flew by amidst the intensive construction and high alert; two weeks passed in the blink of an eye.

The fortifications were being reinforced, the trenches were being deepened, and thorns were growing into menacing, thorny ramparts. The thick barrels of the new Senmu Fortress ballistae gleamed coldly in the sunlight.

The soldiers took turns on duty, training, repairing armor, and sharpening their blades. Although their eyes still held a wariness of the unknown, their tense nerves relaxed slightly during the long period of relative calm. The world outside the barrier seemed to confirm Shen Mu's guess—and also seemed to confirm the caution or apprehension of that abyss-created being.

The core area, which once pulsed like a heart and could even condense phantoms to launch mental attacks, has fallen into absolute silence.

The thick, inky black mist, reeking of abyssal sulfur, remained firmly coiled in the heart of the city, like a venomous snake that had completely retreated, never once surging towards the Elf Forest.

It was as if the huge, menacing crack in the ramparts, along with the forest of new crossbows behind it and Shen Mu's cold, unwavering will, formed an invisible warning line.

The surrounding area was only shrouded in the usual gray fog.

The scattered undead wandering among them are like worker bees without their queen, few in number and slow in movement.

Most of them were rotting zombies and low-level skeletons, with one or two black bone skeletons wandering aimlessly, but they were quickly picked off and eliminated by the fortress patrols or the wood elf sentries in the shadows.

This area, which had been repeatedly cleared out, presented an eerie and oppressive desolation.

It was as if the creature of the abyss was so busy accumulating power that it didn't even bother with the outer defenses.

However, this excessive calm weighed heavily on Shen Mu and all the generals' hearts like a heavy stone.

The calm before the storm is often the most suffocating.

The heavy silence was broken not by the expected army of black mist, but by the elven vanguard that had been deployed.

One evening, several wood elf scouts, covered in dust and still carrying the lingering scent of gray mist, were urgently brought before Shen Mu.

The elven captain leading the group, Kaliborn, a veteran hunter who had experienced many bloody battles, had an expression of disbelief and shock on his face.

"My lord! We've made a major discovery!" Caleborn's voice was tinged with a hurried breath and a hint of bewilderment: "We risked approaching the edge of the core area, and although we didn't venture deep into the black mist... we discovered... traces of battle! A large-scale battle!"

The moment those words were spoken, the atmosphere in the command room froze. Everyone held their breath, their eyes fixed on the elf captain.

"Continue." Shen Mu's voice remained cold, but a sharp glint flashed in his iron-gray eyes.

“It’s…it’s the black mist and the gray mist!” Kaliborn took a deep breath, as if trying to calm the shocking scene: “Right outside that area completely swallowed by the black mist! We witnessed firsthand the fierce battle between the skeletal monsters corrupted by the abyss and the uncorrupted Black Iron Skeleton Guard! The abyss’s aura and the pure power of death clashed and annihilated each other! Both sides fought fearlessly, suffering heavy casualties! That scene…it was almost like…it was like…”

As he spoke, he seemed unable to find the right words to describe the bizarre battle that was taking place inside the lair of the undead.

The command room was deathly silent, save for the heavy breathing of the crew.

Doubt, like cold vines, instantly entwined in everyone's hearts.

The minions driven by the abyss's creations, and the core undead forces of Long City... have actually turned on each other?!
Shen Mu slowly turned around and looked once again at the dark outline of the western core area, which was isolated by black mist.

The corners of his cold lips seemed to curve into a barely perceptible, extremely chilling arc.

The fortress appears to be safe.

Shen Mu stood at the highest point, looking down at the bloodstained leather armor of Kaliborn and the other wood elf scouts, and the lingering horror on their faces.

The scene at the edge of the core area, clearly described by the elf captain, was like a piece of sharply defined ice thrown into Shen Mu's already gloomy lake of thought.

“Internal strife… Abyssal corruption and the original dead spirits…” Shen Mu repeated Kalyborn’s description in a low voice. His iron-gray eyes under the visor were sharp as knives. They were not looking at the elves, but pierced through the thin mist and locked onto the desolate black domain in the west.

The previous doubts suddenly found a foothold.

That black mist... that unusual sense of "withering"... that dormant silence at its core...

This is by no means a harmonious coexistence of the power of the abyss and the power of the undead, nor is it a simple fusion.

The message brought back by Kalyborn—the brutal battle between monsters born from the abyss and the Black Iron skeletons imbued with pure death power—revealed a deeper, more brutal truth.

“Legolas.” Shen Mu’s voice remained cold, yet it carried a penetrating power that revealed the essence of things. “What you brought back… was not just the aura of battlefield wreckage, was it?” He slightly raised his hand, signaling the elven captain to hand over something deeper.

Without hesitation, Caleborn took out a palm-sized container woven from special vines and ancient leaves from his personal pouch. The inner wall of the container was covered with gray-black frost crystals.

He carefully opened it, and a mixed aura, far richer and more contradictory than the remnants of the battlefield, wafted out.

The biting cold of the dead seemed to freeze the souls.

The suffocating stench of the abyss, carrying the sweet stench of sulfur and rotting flesh, assaults the brain, threatening to awaken the most primal rage and destructive desires within.

These two auras did not blend together, but rather were like two venomous snakes strangling and biting each other, bursting out with heart-palpitating energy turbulence at the microscopic level, and the subtle hissing sound seemed to make even space groan.

Shen Mu closed his eyes, and his powerful spiritual energy, like the most precise probe, extended into the container.

This time, the perception was no longer blurred.

He "saw" it clearly.

That seemingly uniform black mist was not, in essence, a unified creation. It was more like a filthy rag soaked in different kinds of blood and grime.

The most active and greedy entity, constantly devouring the surrounding gray mist energy, was a kind of abyssal demonic energy that he had once felt in the phantom explosion—so pure it was terrifying.

It was filled with the will of chaos, plunder, and destruction, and its power level far exceeded any projection of the abyss that had been encountered before, almost approaching the aura of some kind of... primordial origin.

What entangles with it and is forcibly drawn into it is the original deathly power of Longcheng—cold, silent, and possessing the orderly qualities unique to the undead. (End of Chapter)