Chapter 120: dark sun contamination
Unlike Bell-Moonshadow and Vivian, who were on high alert, Jia Na was staring intently at the red text on the quest panel, her internal alarm bells ringing loudly.
“Afu, is there any trace of dark sun contamination in this shadow rift?”
“Yes, and it's very strong! Although the other party is hiding it perfectly, Afu would never mistake this smell!”
This shouldn't be the case. According to the bounty intelligence from Black Bone Forest, the remnants of the Dark Sun Church should be hiding deep within the Mist Forest. Could it be that Black Bone Forest did this on purpose?
Her heart trembled slightly, and then Jia Na shook her head, denying this conjecture. After all, in the Wizard World, Jia Na didn't believe Black Bone Forest would make such a principled mistake.
The Dark Sun Church is a common enemy of all transcendents. Coupled with the fact that the other party had just finished sacrificing the low-level apprentices of Black Bone Forest, the two sides are in a life-and-death struggle. Black Bone Forest couldn't possibly do this. That leaves only two possibilities: The first is that the intelligence transmitted by Black Bone Forest is incorrect. The Dark Sun Cultists are not hiding within the Mist Forest at all, but are hidden outside;
The second is that the Dark Sun Cultists used some means to teleport from inside the Mist Forest to the outskirts of the forest. Moreover, they deliberately found an extremely hidden rift as a hiding place.
But coincidentally, this rift was found by the three of them. "Is this the power of 【Luck】?"
Looking at the 【Luck】 attribute on the quest panel, which was significantly higher than usual attributes, Jia Na felt an indescribable complexity in her heart.
“Boom—”
While Jia Na was contemplating, the other side was already in a heated battle.
Especially Vivian, who fully utilized the turret advantage of an elemental Wizard Apprentice, unleashing large areas of Frost Witchcraft as if they cost nothing. Although the consumption of magic power was huge, the effect was also remarkable, with several Rotten Bristle Hounds already frozen in ice.
In contrast, Bell-Moonshadow's shadow Witchcraft was less lethal to the Rotten Bristle Hounds, which were also Shadow Creatures, due to their similar attributes,
compared to Vivian's elemental Witchcraft.
“By my will, I command you, summon—Flame Guardian.”
Firelight suddenly appeared, and the High Temperature was scorching. Before the other two could react, another completely new, roughly half-human-sized fire-ball-like elemental creature was summoned by Jia Na.
“Yan Yade, don't let them get close here.
Upon receiving the command, the Flame Guardian immediately bypassed Bell-Moonshadow and Vivian, puffed out its cheeks, and vigorously sprayed a breath of Flame, quickly dealing with two Rotten Bristle Hounds in conjunction with Bell-Moonshadow's shadow restraint.
“Jia Na, how many contracted creatures do you actually have?”
With the Celestial Sparrow standing on Jia Na's shoulder, the Hundred-Eyed Mirror Demon floating behind her, plus this newly summoned Flame Guardian, Jia Na's combat power on this side suddenly surged to six.
“Seal your hearing!”
Having no time to answer Vivian's question, while the Flame Guardian was showing off its skills, Jia Na immediately cast 【Siren's Chant】.
“La la—la la la——
The charming sound waves once again worked wonders on the low-level Shadow Creatures. Under the interference of mental hypnosis, the movement speed of the Rotten Bristle Hounds became increasingly sluggish.
Seeing this, Bell-Moonshadow condensed two shadow blades in her hands and, like a ghost, quickly rushed out of the range of the protective barrier,
constantly harvesting the Rotten Bristle Hounds.
“Bell, don't chase!”
Seeing the slaughter gradually showing a one-sided trend, several Rotten Bristle Hounds directly turned into shadows and escaped into the rift. Seeing that Bell-Moonshadow was still preparing to chase after them, Jia Na immediately sent a voice transmission to stop her.
“What's wrong?”
Bell-Moonshadow, who received Jia Na's voice transmission, retreated back to Jia Na's side while controlling the 【Wizard's Hand】 to pick up the shadow magic cores dropped by the Rotten Bristle Hounds.
“We should probably head back now.”
Go back?
After removing the magic power sealed in their ears, Jia Na's words made Bell-Moonshadow and Vivian couldn't help but show confused expressions.
However, looking at Jia Na's extremely calm eyes and her unusual demeanor, the two miraculously didn't ask any further questions and chose to "obey" in unison.
“Then let's go. This trip wasn't in vain; we earned over ten credits in one go.”
Gently taking Jia Na's arm, while suppressing the confusion in her heart, Vivian, who had always been extremely cooperative, also followed Jia Na's words.
Crunch—crunch—
In the quiet night, there was still only the sound of footsteps stepping on broken branches. Not speaking the entire time until the three left the range of the Mist Forest, Jia Na once again used telepathic communication to ask the Hundred-Eyed Mirror Demon:
“Are those prying eyes still there?”
“They are gone now, Master.”
Huff, she gently exhaled. Only after receiving confirmation from the Hundred-Eyed Mirror Demon did Jia Na's tight nerves finally relax slightly.
“Are you okay, Jia Na?”
“Shh—”
Although the Hundred-Eyed Mirror Demon had clearly stated that the surrounding prying had disappeared, to be safe, Jia Na still made a shushing gesture to Vivian.
It wasn't until they truly walked into the range of White Coral Academy and Jia Na confirmed they were safe that she suddenly pulled the two people beside her and whispered in a voice only the three of them could hear:
“The people from the Dark Sun Church should be hiding in that shadow rift just now.”
“!?”
Their pupils constricted slightly. Vivian and Bell-Moonshadow, who had already found Jia Na's behavior a bit unusual, both saw disbelief on each other's faces.
“But according to the message from Black Bone Forest, that group of Dark Sun Cultists clearly fled deep into the Mist Forest. Are you saying they escaped?”
“I'm not sure why they appeared there, but my contracted creature can sense the aura of dark sun contamination from that shadow rift.
The Celestial Sparrow, as a Holy Light elemental spirit extremely sensitive to negative attributes such as contamination, Curse, and plague, has so far,
never failed to detect contamination.
To some extent, the Celestial Sparrow's sensitivity and extreme aversion to 【Contamination】 even surpasses several First-Level Wizards within Turin.
Of course, this is also because the First-Level Wizards within the three Wizard organizations of White Coral, Black Bone Forest, and Mist Tower mostly master Laws that are biased towards dark attributes.
And for the Dark Sun Cultists, who have no magic power fluctuations within their bodies and are extremely skilled at camouflage, as long as they hide within the Mist Forest, which is full of dark attribute particles, they won't be easily discovered.
“This is a quest worth a top-tier apprentice Witchcraft tool—and we actually stumbled upon it!”
Vivian, who had never doubted Jia Na's words, couldn't help but get excited after just thinking about it.
“But what should we do next? Should we find outside help?”
“Yes, we need to find outside help.”
“Then who should we find? A few Third-level Apprentices I know are mostly deep in the Mist Forest. It might be too late to call them back now—”
Several names quickly flashed through her mind, but in the end, Vivian still couldn't find a suitable candidate.
Besides being inconvenient to contact, Vivian also didn't want to share Jia Na's primary Credit with others for nothing.
“Vivian, you're thinking wrong. The outside help we need to find isn't a senior apprentice, but our——”
“Principal.”