Hao Yun could clearly see on the system screen a relatively intact zombie corpse, within which residual black energy had been detected. These energies were densely intertwined throughout the entire body of the zombie, resembling meridians, and after circulating within the zombie's body, they all returned to the solid black sphere located in the zombie's head.
Subsequently, the sphere released energy back into the zombie's body, flowing in this manner continuously. However, these black energies were also diminishing as they flowed. It was estimated that before long, these energies would completely disappear, and the zombie would enter a state of permanent death.
"So, from the analysis results, these zombies do not possess autonomous action capabilities. Instead, their actions are driven by this black energy. Otherwise, this zombie, whose head has suffered no damage, wouldn't inexplicably be paralyzed here, right?" Hao Yun asked Dao Lao.
Dao Lao nodded appreciatively at Hao Yun's analytical skills and then said, "According to the system's detection results, this black energy does not belong to the mold spirit energy. In fact, as soon as we arrived on this planet, I immediately conducted scans, but I found no traces of mold spirit energy."
"So, the energy within the zombie bodies is the dark magic energy of the Dark Elf people?" Hao Yun inquired.
"That's correct. These energies originate from dark magic, and it's a relatively advanced form of dark magic in the mortal realm. Logically speaking, only creatures with advanced civilizations in the mortal realm would possess this level of dark magic. Hmph, judging from the current situation, it's obvious that the beings living here do not possess the ability to wield this level of dark magic. So, there might be something fishy going on. Who knows, the existence of this dark magic might be related to mold spirit energy and Elianna," Dao Lao said with a cold snort.
At this moment, Hao Yun noticed that when Dao Lao mentioned Elianna's name, there was an undisguised expression of disdain and dissatisfaction in both his expression and speech, which was completely different from his attitude when discussing Elianna in front of Judge Yan and Master Gu.
Hao Yun and Dao Lao continued to move towards the forest below the slope. Not only did they encounter many relatively intact zombie soldiers along the way, but they also discovered that the positions where these zombies appeared were significant. All the zombie corpses seemed to be concentrated in a certain area.
Because, if the adjacent zombie corpses were connected together, Hao Yun and Dao Lao always found that there were approximately twelve zombies positioned equidistantly between head and tail, forming a unique symmetrical pattern. Some groups of zombies formed a circle, some formed a fan shape, some formed a sword shape, and so on.
"If I'm not mistaken, judging from the positions of these zombies, they should be forming different attack formations based on commands, and launching attacks on targets in this manner," Dao Lao said, pointing to a pair of zombies lying on the ground, forming a crescent shape.
By now, with encouragement from Dao Lao, Hao Yun had slowly overcome his fear of zombies. And with the disappearance of this fear, Hao Yun became more and more eager to manipulate the zombie corpses at close range to retaliate against the psychological shadows that the zombies had brought him since childhood. However, considering the need to avoid getting infected with toxins from the zombie corpses, lest he contract some strange disease, Hao Yun dared at most to use a spear he picked up from the ground to poke at the zombie corpses from about two meters away. He didn't dare to handle the zombie corpses as casually as Dao Lao, flipping them over with his hands.
Alas! It seemed that eliminating the psychological shadows brought by zombies since childhood was not something that could be done in a short time! While Hao Yun used the spear to examine the corpse of a zombie, he looked at Dao Lao with envy as Dao Lao effortlessly picked up a zombie's body and threw it aside, so he could examine the corpse of an elf warrior that had been crushed under the zombie's body. To be precise, he was examining the marching pack carried on the back of the elf warrior who had already turned into a skeleton.
"Hey! What a pity! In such a big marching pack, there isn't even one valuable item," Dao Lao said with disappointment after emptying the contents of the marching pack and inspecting them thoroughly.
"Dao Lao, come over and see what this is!" At this moment, an excited shout came from not far away, indicating that Hao Yun had discovered something interesting.
Upon hearing this, Dao Lao's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly trotted over to Hao Yun's side, looking in the direction indicated by Hao Yun. Then, Dao Lao saw a severed zombie head. Above the head, pointed out by Hao Yun's spear, there was a very conspicuous circular mark.
Since these zombies were named "brainheads," without exception, they all wore sturdy helmets with neck protection functions. However, even so, the zombies would still be scrapped in battle due to head injuries. But no matter how severe the impact on these zombie heads, their helmets remained attached to their heads as if they were part of them and never fell off. It was because of this that Hao Yun and Dao Lao had walked all the way here without noticing that the foreheads of these zombies were marked with a seal.
Dao Lao tore off a piece of cloth from the clothing of a nearby corpse, wiped away the black unknown mucus on the zombie head, and then carefully examined the seal. In the center of the seal was a long-faced skull pattern, which, combined with the skeletal remains at the scene, matched perfectly with the real skull of an elf.
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Surrounding the skull pattern were a series of symbols that were incomprehensible to the eye. In fact, these symbols looked more like a form of writing. But for Hao Yun and Dao Lao, who had long achieved barrier-free language communication in the mortal realm with the help of the system, these writings were beyond their realm of recognition. So here, they tentatively regarded these writings as some form of symbols. Surrounding this circle of symbols was a wave-like pattern. Overall, it looked as if the emblem of the skull pattern was glowing.
"Could it be...?" Dao Lao murmured uncertainly as he looked at the symbol on the skull.
Dao Lao then selected several zombie corpses and, with considerable effort, managed to pry off their helmets relatively intact. As expected, Dao Lao also found the same mark on the heads of these zombies. At the same time, Hao Yun and Dao Lao also discovered that there were four sturdy metal bars embedded in the helmets in four directions. These metal bars were the reason why the helmets were difficult to remove once worn by the zombies. As for how these zombies managed to put on these one-piece helmets, Hao Yun and Dao Lao really had no idea.
Because the head of the zombie whose helmet Dao Lao had just pried open was relatively intact, Dao Lao could now clearly see that the circular wave-like pattern branded on the top of the zombie's head was actually composed of twelve different wave patterns. From this, Hao Yun and Dao Lao could confirm that their inference about the zombies being grouped in sets of twelve was correct.
"If the circle of waves represents twelve zombies, then what does the skull-like pattern in the middle represent? Could it be that the skull represents a necromancer? Does that symbol mean that every twelve zombies need to be controlled by a necromancer using some kind of secret technique?" Hao Yun speculated.
As for why Hao Yun thought the term "necromancer" was more appropriate than "death mage," it might be because of the recent popularity on the internet in China in the past few years about videos of necromancers raising zombies, as well as various seemingly well-founded textual and graphic evidence that inspired him.
"Necromancer?" Dao Lao raised an eyebrow. "Well, that's a fresh term. Hmm, I agree with your speculation. But so far, we haven't found any bodies resembling necromancers either."
Dao Lao gestured randomly at the surrounding battlefield and continued, "You should have noticed too. Except for those large monsters that should be running naked, all the bodies on the field are wearing one of two distinct styles of armor. For example, those wearing bright silver armor, their armor and weapons are carved with patterns resembling petals and elegant curves, prominently featuring a cross pattern composed of four leaves. Judging by their armor, these soldiers likely belong to the Luminous Elf race, who advocate white magic."
"On the other hand, the zombie soldiers wearing dark silver armor, their armor is adorned mainly with sharp beast horns and fangs, accompanied by sharp, pointed willow leaves as decorations, giving them a highly aggressive appearance. Combined with the dark energy detected within them, they are most likely Dark Elf zombies who favor black magic."
"However, as for the side wearing dark silver armor, apart from those zombie soldiers, we haven't found any other types of life forms. This is actually very strange. Could it be that within every twelve zombies, there's one with autonomous thinking abilities? And then the other eleven zombies are fighting under its command?" Dao Lao speculated, stroking his long white beard.
If it was indeed as Dao Lao speculated, the Dark Elves not only could create zombies but also could use zombies to command other zombies in battle. If they could also recover the bodies of soldiers from both sides who died in battle and turn them into zombie armies, did this mean that the Dark Elves could completely rely on zombies to launch a war against the Luminous Elf race, while ensuring minimal losses to their own forces, inflicting sufficient damage on the living forces of the Luminous Elves? Then, the battle here would be truly terrifying for the Luminous Elf race.
However, amidst his concerns, Hao Yun still expressed doubts about the true combat capabilities of the Dark Elves: "Look at the situation here. Even if the Dark Elves have so many zombie soldiers and so many large monsters, aren't they all ending up dead here in the end? If we judge from this point, it seems that the Luminous Elf army is not entirely powerless against the Dark Elf zombie army. Perhaps the combat power of the Luminous Elf race is even higher than that of the Dark Elf race?"
Dao Lao nodded noncommittally, indicating that this possibility also existed.
"In any case, the situation on the Elven planet is not as calm as the scenery here. Perhaps there are battles of similar scale erupting here all the time. Therefore, in our upcoming actions, we must be more careful to avoid being drawn into their battles. If we must be drawn in, it must only be under the most necessary circumstances," Dao Lao advised, preparing for the worst.
Many areas on this slope bore the marks of battle. Therefore, after inspecting the battlefield leading to the forest, Hao Yun and Dao Lao walked along the slope corridor paved with wildflowers and grass, carefully avoiding the various corpses that occasionally appeared in the grass ahead. Soon, they descended the slope and arrived at the boundary between the grassland and the forest located at the bottom of the cliff.
Speaking of which, the boundary between the grassland under Hao Yun's and Dao Lao's feet and the forest ahead seemed as if it had been specially trimmed, clear and distinct. The forest ahead almost grew in a straight line, growing within the grassland in front of them, with towering giant trees standing like a wall in front of Hao Yun and Master Gu. From their vantage point, they could see the dense clouds in the forest. The seemingly gloomy environment in the forest formed a sharp contrast with the green grassland bathed in sunlight outside.
However, for Hao Yun and Master Gu, who were looking for a secluded place to make adjustments, the gloomy environment and dense fog in the forest were perfect. So, without much hesitation, the two of them quickened their pace and headed towards the forest ahead.
But just as Hao Yun and Master Gu were about to reach the edge of the forest, a series of oppressive trumpet sounds, "Woo-woo," suddenly rang out from the forest, instantly breaking the surrounding silence. Then, three squads of Elven cavalry, dressed in silver-white armor, emerged simultaneously from three positions in the forest in front of Hao Yun and Dao Lao.
These cavalry were fully armed, holding shining spears in one hand and carrying curved swords and long shields on their backs. Their mounts resembled a cross between deer and horses, with two long, curved horns protruding from their heads. These mounts were also clad in silver-white battle armor, making the already upright and handsome Elven cavalry appear even more majestic and imposing.
Of course, among this group of riders, there were also several female Elven cavalry. Although the faces of these female riders were mostly hidden within their helmets, Hao Yun could still confirm without a doubt, based solely on their eyes, noses, and mouths exposed outside the face mask, that these female Elves were all undoubtedly goddess-level beauties.