In moments, the whole wheatfield which was previously ripe for harvest, was being burnt to ash.

“Hey! What do you guys think you’re doing!?” several guards screamed as they ran towards the dark mages.

The dark mage turned around while taking out a round artifact. He smirked and crushed the artifact in his palm, releasing a large amount of nauseous smoke.

Cough! Cough!

Cough! Cough! Cough!

The guards started coughing uncontrollably. They couldn’t do anything when they heard the dark mages move.

“Let’s go!” the dark mage yelled to his companion.

By the time the smoke cleared and the guards recovered, the dark mages were already gone.

“Dammit!” one of the guards cursed, then looked at the burning wheatfield. Panic and terror descended on his face.

This is bad. Really, really, really bad!

The guards were so distracted by the burning wheatfield, that they didn’t notice another figure move behind them.

A young man with short, black hair, was wearing an eyepatch, and dressed in black robes fitted to his lean body. Behind him, a spear-wielding young man appeared, but his face was half decomposed, indicating that he was an undead.

“Jin Tong,” the young man whispered, and the undead readied his spear.

“Kill them!”

Jin Tong moved like the wind. The guards were taken by surprise and Jin Tong had pierced his spear through one of them before they even registered what was going on.

The guards were all steel body martial artists, whereas Jin Tong was a commander class undead – they were no match for him.

Within moments, Jin Tong had killed all of them. He turned to face Henry, and stood upright, digging his spear into the ground, and ready for his new orders.

Henry ordered Jin Tong to spread their bodies out over the place. While Jin Tong was doing that, he created signs of a battle by leaving some scorch marks, craters, etc.

“There’s a fire! Hurry!”

Henry began to hear the distant cries of guards rushing towards the fire.

‘Almost done,’ he thought to himself.

Henry reached into his storage pouch and took out something unexpected – a human hand cut off at the wrist! He threw the hand some distance away and appeared satisfied with himself.

Finally, he quickly scanned his surroundings to make sure no one was looking, before leaving with Jin Tong, disappearing back into the shadows.

The next morning.

“What in Iva’s name… HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN!?”

Cedric Ironheart was standing next to three dead bodies, in front of a large wheat field that had been completely burnt to the ground.

Several guards who were further away had noticed the fire and rushed to the scene last night, only to find dead bodies and a burning wheatfield. They did their best to try and contain the fire but it was useless.

Unfortunately, Cedric had briefly left the town on some urgent business for that night, else he might have sensed the fire and come to put an end to it. So, when he arrived this morning and was informed by panicked guards that one of their town’s major food sources was destroyed, he rushed here immediately.

There was nothing they could do to restore the field.

More importantly, Cedric looked at the dead bodies and the remains of the battle. He knelt next to one of the corpses and focused on its wounds. It was emitting a small, dark aura.

‘Dark mages!’ They dared to enter his town? ‘I swear on Iva’s name, not a single one of them will leave this town alive!’

The only problem was, he had no idea how to go about finding them.

Suddenly, a guard interrupted him.

“Lord Cedric! Please have a look at this!”

Cedric turned his attention to the guard and noticed him holding a dismembered hand. With his sharp senses, he noticed a ring on one of the hand’s fingers.

Immediately, Cedric snatched the hand from the guard and took out the ring. The inside of the ring was engraved with a particular design - a black and white snake coiling around each other.

‘The Hidden Venom Cult!?’ There was no mistaking it. This was the symbol of the Hidden Venom Cult. ‘But what were they doing here?’

Cedric’s expression darkened. The Hidden Venom Cult was a large organisation led by thirteen mage emperors. If they attacked in full force, or even with just a few mage emperors, then they could overwhelm him and his entire town. Luckily, the cult mostly operated in the shadows and their leaders rarely made a move personally unless it was for something extremely important.

Still, this was not good news for this. He had to find out what the Hidden Venom Cult were doing in his town.

Furthermore, the wheatfield had burnt down!

There was no doubt that some people would have seen the fire.

As soon as news of the destruction broke out, mass hysteria and panic would begin. People would begin hoarding food, causing prices to rise due to the sky-high demand and low supply. Fighting and chaos would soon ensue. If aid wasn’t promptly provided, it would only be a matter of time before food ran out, and people started literally dying on the streets.

It would be hell.

At this moment, another guard interrupted his thoughts.

“My lord, it seems that this is the work of dark mages,” he said respectfully.

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“Wow, thanks for letting me know, I would have never guessed,” Cedric replied sarcastically. He was in no mood for nonsense now, however the guard’s next words got his attention.

“No, lord Cedric. I heard of two cultivators who recently came to our town,” the guard continued. “They are apparently from the human settlements near the Beast Woods which was discovered to have been destroyed by the demon tides. But according to their story, it was actually the work of dark mages.”

Cedric stared at the guard, a fierce glint in his eyes.

“If that’s true, could it not be possible that those dark mages were also involved in this incident?” the guard asked.

Cedric thought for a moment and then came to a decision.

“I want to meet these two individuals. Find and summon them to my manor at once!”

“As you command, lord Cedric,” the guard replied with a bow, before leaving.

…

At the same time, Drake’s party were now in the hunters guild, looking through the mission board.

After some deliberation, they chose a mission. There were some orc sightings in an area close to town, and the mission was to investigate and eliminate them. The report mentioned sightings of some servant class and a few warrior class orcs.

Drake had fought a few orcs back in the Jain village. They were an oni race which were particularly difficult to kill due to their incredible healing abilities. The only way to kill them was to destroy their heart and brain at the same time.

The party got the mission assigned to them and then left on a rental carriage as before. They hired a slightly larger carriage this time so they could all travel comfortably.

Yesterday, after attempting over 60 pill refinements, out of which a pitiful 4 succeeded, Drake practised his rank two martial techniques late into the night.

Speaking of which, the second half of his Twelve Star Body Transformation Arts, listed three rank two martial techniques. These were crescent slash, finger thrust, and freeze palm. The first was a slashing attack, the second a piercing attack using one finger, and the third was a palm attack that could temporarily stun opponents.

Although Drake was talented in martial arts, it would still take him some time to master all of them, so he still couldn’t use any in battle.

Due to his tiredness from last night, Drake took the opportunity in this carriage ride to rest. The others also didn’t have much to talk about and chose to observe the view to take their minds off the bumpy ride.

Soon, the party arrived at their destination and exited the carriage.

They had travelled in the opposite direction to the forest and were now in a hilly area. The grassy plains rose and fell across the landscape, tracing out mini hills which were scattered everywhere.

Drake activated his acute sense, and Blaze and Helen unsheathed their swords, while Sylvia readied her bow. The group slowly made their way up a hill.

Sylvia could summon wind elemental pixie spirits for scouting, so she sent a few out to scan the area. She had also summoned rank two sword and armour artifacts for Helen using wind and earth elemental runes, to increase her battle strength, which Helen was extremely happy and grateful for and was now using.

Her armour contained the ‘earth wall’ and ‘mud mire’ runes, whereas her sword contained the ‘wind blade’ and ‘piercing gust runes’.

Drake activated his acute sense, paying close attention to his surroundings, and any signals from Sylvia in case her pixies spotted some orcs.

“Wait!” Sylvia whispered.

Everyone paused. They were close to the peak of the hill.

“There are two orcs behind that hill,” she said, pointing to a hill adjacent to theirs. The others couldn’t see any orcs, so they deduced that it must be on the other side, obscured from their view.

“Let’s go there then,” Blaze suggested, but he was interrupted by Sylvia.

“No need,” she said. She poured mana into her ring artifact, but instead of the usual mana arrow, a fire arrow appeared. She readied the arrow and aimed at the sky.

Breathe… she told herself, inhaling deeply.

She poured mana into her bow and activated one of its runes.

“Seek,” she whispered and released.

The fire arrow shot into the sky, flying over the hill, before shooting towards the orc on the other side. The orc was caught by surprise and tried to block the arrow with its club. However, it was just a servant class oni so the arrow tore through the club and pierced through the orc itself, right in between its eyes, before setting it on fire.

The servant class orc’s regeneration wasn’t strong enough to withstand the fire from a rank three artifact and soon, its whole body was destroyed, killing it completely.

The orc’s screams echoed across the hills, and a large number of birds fled into the sky.

Without waiting, Sylvia readied another fire arrow and took aim at the sky.

“Seek!” she whispered again, and the arrow shot forward.

Soon, the cries of another orc echoed across the hills, joining the first.

Blaze, Drake, and Helen looked at Sylvia, stupefied.

“How… what… how…” Helen wanted to ask something but her shock prevented her from properly formulating a sentence. The others were equally flabbergasted and looked towards Sylvia for an explanation.

Sylvia chuckled but decided to explain. “My ring is a rank three artifact,” she said, holding her finger up for them to see. “It can summon a fire, wind, or mana arrow. And my bow…” she withdrew her finger and brought her bow up instead, “Is another rank three artifact. It has three abilities - decimate, rain, and seek, which could be applied to any equipped arrow.”

The group were still looking at her in shock and Sylvia continued her explanation with a smile.

“Decimate, which you might remember me using against the pseudo-commander class demon monkey, enhances the strength of the arrow multiple times, making it extremely powerful. Rain multiplies the number of arrows upon release, and finally, seek,” she said with a smirk, “Locks the equipped arrow onto any target I can see and won’t stop until it hits them. Even if I just see them through my pixie spirits, as long as they aren’t too far away, it will still seek them.”

‘What the hell!?’ Drake thought. ‘Wasn’t this a bit too ridiculous?’

“What do you even need us for?” Drake finally managed to form and say those words. The other two nodded vigorously in agreement.

By combining the two artifacts, the versatility of attacks she could launch, was just insane!

Sylvia laughed in response but then became serious.

“Incoming,” she said, looking in the direction where she had just shot her arrows.

Everyone stopped and focused their attention in that direction as well.

A large number of heavy footsteps and battle cries could be heard echoing from the distance. Soon, a figure was revealed running towards them from around the hill. The next second, dozens of orcs wielding clubs, sticks, and poles appeared one after another following the first orc.

All of them were running towards their party, who were still standing near the top of their hill. Even though the two groups were separated by some distance, with their speed, the orcs would reach them in less than a minute.

“All of you stand your ground and get ready,” Sylvia ordered, before preparing another fire arrow. “I will get as many of them as I can first.”

She took aim towards the sky and released.

“Rain!” she whispered, and the arrow shot into the sky, instantly multiplying into dozens.

The arrows literally rained fire upon the orcs, killing and severely injuring a large number of them.

Sylvia didn’t stop and took aim again.

“Rain!” she said, releasing another fire arrow which again multiplied into dozens.

However this time, the several warrior class orcs in the horde sprang into action. They were wielding large, wooden poles, which they spun rapidly with all their strength. Given their huge muscles and immense physical might, they spun the poles so fast that it generated powerful winds, deflecting a lot of the arrows, making this volley much less effective.

“Tst,” Sylvia cursed, but then took aim once more, this time focusing on a warrior class orc specifically.

“Seek,” she whispered, and the arrow shot forth rapidly. The orc couldn’t dodge or deflect it, and the arrow pierced through its chest and set the orc on fire.

However, the regenerative abilities of the warrior class orc were stronger than the servant class orcs. The orc rolled across the ground, roaring in pain, which soon put out most of the fires, allowing it to quickly heal and get back again.

“Decimate!”

The unlucky orc which had just gotten back up was taken by surprise by Sylvia’s most powerful arrow. This time, the fire was far more powerful than before, and it could not put it out so easily. Its heart and brain were soon destroyed by the fire and it died.

The horde was much closer now, but the fall of the warrior class orc spread mild panic among the others. The remaining warrior class orcs sprang into action. They released their auras to intimidate the others and caused them to fall in line.

But this was enough for Sylvia.

“Rain!”

Another large volley of fire arrows crashed down upon the distracted orcs. The warrior class orcs which were busy controlling the horde were unable to defend in time, causing a large number of them to die again.

By the time they got close to the party, over half of the orcs had died!

The warrior class orcs were furious!

They glared daggers at Sylvia, seeing her as their mortal enemy, and charged. They were too close now for her to shoot them down, so she stepped back.

“It’s up to you guys now,” she said softly.