Red-Eyed Skeletal Ghouls – extremely durable skeleton warriors that wander the Blacksnow Tundra in groups, hunting down any signs of life that were unlucky enough to cross their paths.
Disregarding anything more than twenty years ago for the sake of temporal relevance, Zhao Yunxiao noted only eight recorded encounters with these Red-Eyed Skeletal Ghouls, of which only two encounters had resulted in victory over them.
Seventeen years ago, the then-prime disciple of the Azure Dragon Sect had forcibly suppressed the skeletons by summoning a giant spiritual tree. Not only did he succeed in sealing them away, but his actions also resulted in a small change in the terrain of the Blacksnow Tundra.
For the years following that, everyone avoided the spiritual tree whenever they wandered into the Blacksnow Tundra, wary of accidentally releasing the skeletons within. It was not until ten years later that the spiritual tree stopped being spotted by participants, assumed to have finally fallen to the annual terrain change of the Four Symbols Mystic Realm.
Then three years ago, a participant from the Vermilion Bird Sect used a sound-element technique to boost the strength of his party members when facing this same type of skeleton.
Back then, it had been said that the moment this technique started, the Red-Eyed Skeletal Ghouls immediately descended into a state of chaos, as though they had come face to face with the bane of their existence.
Their seemingly invincible aura crumbled in an instant, allowing the participants to slay the skeletons that had been suppressing them until then.
Just like that, a technique that was supposed to provide mere support ended up becoming the greatest offensive technique against these ghouls.
Unfortunately, the party still did not end up finding anything of value from Blacksnow Tundra, so this incident had gone relatively unnoticed, overshadowed by the grand achievements of others.
Even Zhao Yunxiao had only noted it down without much expectation, treating it as just another interesting titbit that only had a small possibility of coming in handy in the future.
And now, three years later, this small bit of knowledge had finally found its use.
Or at least, Zhao Yunxiao hoped that it would work.
In the end, there was no one who had ever repeated that feat, so it had never been confirmed that this was what truly worked against the Red-Eyed Skeletal Ghouls.
But with nothing else to fall back on, this was already the most viable option that he could give to the Wei Group!
***
Under the onslaught of the heavy snowstorm, Zhuang Chan revealed a look of hesitation as her party formed a defensive perimeter around her.
“What are you waiting for?!” Nuo Qianling shouted in irritation. “Stop dreaming!”
“But... are we retreating?” Zhuang Chan felt the corner of her lips twitch.
Just like Nuo Qianling, she had heard the message from the sect administrators loud and clear.
But unlike Nuo Qianling and the others who had immediately moved according to the instructions, Zhuang Chan could not help but feel that the sect administrators had made a mistake.
After all, the Spiralhorn War Tune was a technique that boosted the party’s movement speed in a single direction. This meant that it would only be effective when used for initiating or retreating.
If they wanted to increase their movement speed in battle, there were plenty of other techniques that would be much more useful than this!
To top it off, it was not like the sect administrators had never given the wrong instructions.
Right now, Zhuang Chan was certain that this was one of those times where following the instructions would only land them in a worse spot!
“What are you blabbering on about? Just do it already!” Nuo Qianling snapped back while sending a skeleton flying.
“But it is not a suitable combat technique!” Zhuang Chan retorted. “If I really go ahead with this, it will only end up draining my energy reserves for no reason. At that point, I would no longer be able to even retreat from these skeletons!”
Nuo Qianling frowned upon hearing that.
As the party leader, she naturally knew of Zhuang Chan’s Spiralhorn War Tune since the latter had used it plenty of times to aid the party in the past. Because of that, she had also been feeling a little confused about the instructions from the sect administrators, though she eventually chose to brush it off by telling herself that perhaps she did not fully understand the technique.
But now that Zhuang Chan herself had confirmed the ineffectiveness of the technique in this situation, Nuo Qianling could not help but have her doubts as well.
Could the sect administrators really have gotten it wrong this time?
“So, are we doing this or not?” another party member asked through heavy pants after deflecting the attack from another skeleton. “Either way, we need to make a decision fast!”
“Yeah, I can’t hold on much longer. We need to retreat soon if that’s our plan!” another urged.
“Tch!” Nuo Qianling glanced at the wooden sword in the distance and furrowed her brows. “Just follow the instructions! We’ll do that while waiting for further instructions to come in. I’m sure they will tell us what to do next!”
Quite honestly, she was already feeling rather conflicted about the sect administrators giving them instructions, as this essentially meant that their original plan of keeping things under wraps had gone up in smoke.
But if they could not even get any benefit after getting exposed, then they would really end up being a laughingstock!
Nuo Qianling refused to accept such an outcome!
“But... fine! Let’s gamble on this then!” Zhuang Chan still had her doubts, but decided to trust in her party leader’s intuition this time.
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With that, she quickly retrieved a flute from her spatial pouch and put it to her mouth.
[Spiralhorn War Tune]
Imbued by her essence energy, the sound of the flute travelled far and wide, easily drowning out the loud howling of the winds.
It was a majestic tune that lifted the hearts of others, probably ideal for marking the start of any battle.
But right now, the psychological impact was minimal on the Wei Group.
Indeed, they could feel the familiar sense of their feet becoming lighter. There was no doubt that they would be able to move at a much faster speed if they chose to retreat now.
However, that was not their goal!
But just as Nuo Qianling was wondering what to do next, she was met with the first glimpse of hope.
Raaaahhh-!
The previously silent skeletons suddenly let out bone-chilling roars before charging towards Zhuang Chan. It was almost as though they had turned into completely different creatures!
To most people, witnessing the skeleton’s sudden increase in aggression would have brought them instant regret, thinking that their actions had only made their situation worse.
However, Nuo Qianling did not share that sentiment.
She clearly understood that if things had remained as they were, there was little hope of them ever getting the wooden sword.
Therefore, any change was welcomed, even if it appeared to have only made things more dangerous right now.
At the very least, there being an obvious change suggested that the sect administrators’ message might not be just a useless suggestion.
Now, it was just a matter of determining if this change was truly a good thing for them or not. That was something that they would have to find out for themselves!
“It is having an effect on them!” Nuo Qianling yelled out excitedly. “Hold the line! Don’t let them get to Junior Martial Sister Zhuang!”
As she spoke, a thick layer of ice formed around her right arm, turning into a long spike, which she immediately used to strike at the nearest Red-Eyed Skeletal Ghoul.
[Hail Lance]
Bang-!
Nuo Qianling widened her eyes in surprise as she beheld the result of this clash.
This was not the first time that she had used this technique against the Red-Eyed Skeletal Ghouls, but the outcome was clearly different this time.
Prior to this, these skeletons seemed nigh indestructible.
While the Wei Group members were able to send them back with each strike, these attacks absolutely left no traces on the skeletons’ bodies.
But this time, the same attack that had failed to leave even a scratch on their bodies before actually caused a small crack to appear on the rib of the skeleton!
Nuo Qianling was overwhelmed by excitement and wanted to shout out in joy, but she was beaten to it by her party members.
“It’s working! The attacks are suddenly working!”
“That’s more like it! Let’s do this!”
The situation had suddenly taken a huge turn.
Previously, the Red-Eyed Skeletal Ghouls had been much less aggressive but completely untouchable, leading this battle towards a slow but inevitable outcome.
Now, they had suddenly taken on a much more aggressive posture but were starting to show weaknesses, which meant that the battle was now headed towards a much earlier yet unpredictable conclusion.
The only question now was whether the Wei Group would end up victorious at the end of this quick battle, or if they would fall to the sheer aggression of the Red-Eyed Skeletal Ghouls.
***
Zhao Yunxiao saw the jade tablets vibrating a lot faster than before, and understood that the Wei Group had taken it up a notch in terms of the pace of the battle.
It would appear that the Spiralhorn War Tune had indeed forced the Red-Eyed Skeletal Ghouls’ violent nature to surface.
Now, he could only hope that Wei Group would be able to withstand the onslaught that followed.
But even if they did, that would not be the end of the story.
After all, there were two main issues here that had to be addressed.
The more pressing one was regarding the Red-Eyed Skeletal Ghouls, which Zhao Yunxiao had naturally chosen to resolve first.
And then there was the second issue – the black ice pyramid that was supposedly holding the corpse of an old comrade.
In the face of the second issue, dealing with the Red-Eyed Skeletal Ghouls suddenly sounded like a much simpler problem.
That said, it was not as though Zhao Yunxiao had never heard of anything similar.
In fact, there had been several such encounters reported in the past, where participants came across treasures encased in black ice but were unable to extract them.
There had only been one success story – also accomplished seventeen years ago by the then-prime disciple of the Azure Dragon Sect.
After he had successfully suppressed the Red-Eyed Skeletal Ghouls with the spiritual tree, he similarly came across a black ice pyramid that held an undisclosed treasure within.
Back then, he tried all sorts of methods to no avail. No amount of force could penetrate the black ice, and no amount of heat could melt it.
Despite his initial confidence, the repeated failures still made him feel like giving up. In fact, he was just about to leave when he accidentally discovered a strange way to slowly melt away the black ice.
The eerie red glow in the eye sockets of the Red-Eyed Skeletal Ghouls – that was born from a small flame that could actually force a reaction out of the black ice, causing it to slowly melt away.
The Red-Eyed Skeletal Ghouls were a huge obstacle to obtaining the items encased within the black ice. But at the same time, they were also the key to doing so.
It was fascinating how things were linked to one another in such a mystical way.
However, Zhao Yunxiao was hesitant to share this information with the Wei Group, because even that was not the end of the story.
When the black ice started melting, it released a huge amount of energy that drew in monsters and spiritual beasts from all over the Blacksnow Tundra.
One man against the entire Blacksnow Tundra.
That might not be an entirely accurate depiction of the truth since nobody truly knew all the dangers that lurked within the region, but it was probably the best way to describe what came next.
In the end, even the then-prime disciple of the Azure Dragon Sect had barely managed to emerge victorious, ultimately claiming the treasure after a hard-fought battle.
Zhao Yunxiao felt a headache coming on as he was suddenly faced with a tough decision.
If the Wei Group was already struggling this much against the Red-Eyed Skeletal Ghouls, then should he still tell them of the means to melt the black ice?
Would they be able to handle the consequences that followed?
But if he chose not to tell them of the method to melt the black ice, then wouldn’t that effectively render their struggle with the Red-Eyed Skeletal Ghouls completely meaningless?