Chapter 112 Nighttime Pursuit

Perhaps due to having just defeated the ambushers, Shaoke felt the atmosphere of the fleeing group had lightened considerably. The mages began to exchange whispers from time to time, helping each other as they made their way up the mountain.

"There's a message from the military headquarters." Just as Shaoke was keeping close to Mage Roman, the female mage observing the disc on the warrior's back suddenly turned and informed him of this news. This lifted Shaoke's spirits, which had been somewhat irritable and gloomy due to the sudden turn of events. Although he couldn't discern any deeper meaning in the military headquarters' decision to release this message, he knew the other mages would feel the military hadn't abandoned them upon hearing it, thus boosting morale.

"Quiet." A Third Tier Mage walking behind quickly hushed the mages who had started to stir upon hearing the news. "We'll inform you of the details shortly." With that, he hurried a few steps to catch up with Mage Roman and called over the other Third Tier Mage leading the group to discuss the message just received from the military headquarters.

The three mages quickly came to a conclusion. The male mage who knew Mage Roman, a Third Tier mage, stepped forward and addressed the group loudly, "Everyone, the military headquarters has just sent a message instructing us to cross this mountain ridge as quickly as possible. Once we reach the other side, we'll be much safer. As for why this happened, I believe the military will provide a detailed explanation once we return."

"We made the right choice." After hearing the mage's words, Shaoke leaned in close to the female mage and said jokingly. Even so, Shaoke doubted the enemy would leave the other side unguarded, though he expected fewer hunters there.

Sure enough, Mage Roman just shook her head with a bitter smile, signaled Shaoke to be quiet, and continued following the team up the mountain.

Until Shaoke and the others reached the other side of the mountain, they encountered no pursuers or ambushers. After one mage slipped, hitting a rock and injuring his arm, the final leg of the journey could be considered almost perfect.

The wind and snow on this side were noticeably lighter. After some discussion, the mages decided to continue diagonally down the mountain for a distance, as the sparse vegetation and heavy snowfall at the summit would significantly slow down their escape.

The mages still placed considerable trust in the military's message. Since reaching this side, everyone had visibly relaxed.

However, the Third Tier Mages remained vigilant because, via a magic item, they had seen the red dots representing some teams disappear after reaching this side. Although not many teams had vanished, it was enough to keep those in the know appropriately alert.

The mages gradually increased their pace, and the frequency of mental scans was reduced by half. Fortunately, Mage Roman and the other two Third Tier Mages frequently checked the magic item, which eased Shaoke's constant worry about potential oversights.

Nightfall arrived much earlier than usual in this snowy weather. The warriors cut down many branches and built simple shelters between several adjacent trees. After the mages quickly set up sufficient Alert Wards, they huddled inside to escape the wind, snow, and cold.

This time, Mage Roman gestured for Shaoke to stay close to her for warmth. To avoid disturbing the other mages' rest, she whispered, "Mage Xueye, I noticed you kept taking medicine on the way. Is something wrong with your body?"

Listening to the howling wind outside, Shaoke quickly recounted the changes in his Meditation space, omitting and altering some details. Of course, he accidentally omitted the silver light on the array and didn't mention it to Mage Roman.

The female mage frowned in thought for a moment and said, "I don't know what this situation is either. After we return this time, I'll borrow some books to check. I think there might be records of this." Then she nudged closer to the female mage beside her. "Get some sleep early! You look a bit pale."

Shaoke nodded. Mage Roman was soon dragged into dreamland by the exhaustion of the past few days. After several attempts, Shaoke still couldn't fall asleep as desired. The pain in his head grew increasingly intense, forcing him to take medicine again and again, trying to suppress the pain, which was more severe than yesterday.

Finally unable to bear the pain any longer, Shaoke entered his meditation space and began restorative meditation within his mental space, hoping this would alleviate some of the pain.

Upon entering his mental space again, Shaoke found it had expanded further. The silver light on the diamond array flickered even more violently, with streams of silver light continuously coursing through the array, colliding intensely.

In just one day, the number of mental light points in the space had doubled. Although their purity had decreased somewhat, it still excited Shaoke. After all, under normal cultivation time, increasing this much mental power would require over a year of advanced meditation. At this moment, the slight decrease in purity couldn't dampen his joy.

In his excitement, he forgot about this abnormal progress and checked his mana space. Of course, he found changes similar to those in his mental space. The only difference was that the mana space was expanding much faster than the mental space. Shaoke roughly estimated and found the mana space had expanded by a full third.

Feeling the medicine's effect wear off, Shaoke took another dose. Just as he entered his meditation space, he sensed a violent Spell fluctuation coming from beside him. In his panic, he disregarded the turbulence in his mental space and forcibly withdrew from meditation.

By then, the sleeping mages and the only five or six warriors had all been awakened by the spell fluctuation. Seeing this, Mage Roman and another Third Tier Mage immediately used their mental power to probe the surroundings without hesitation.

"Quick, leave here immediately." The mage who had first cast the spell, after releasing a Second Rank 'Confusion Spell', shouted anxiously, "The enemy is already here. Quick, split up and run." With that, he crashed through the makeshift shelter built of wood, grabbed two nearby mages, and fled outside.

"There's an Infiltrator." Mage Roman, who had been probing the enemy situation nearby, told Shaoke in panic. She truly hadn't expected the Desasi Empire to break the rules this time and send Infiltrators to hunt them down.

Shaoke grabbed Mage Roman's arm and, taking advantage of the chaos as the warriors destroyed the shelter, chose a direction and began to flee.

Because Shaoke knew that in such a situation, if there were Infiltrators in the pursuing team, the mages would definitely be infiltrated and assassinated one by one if they gathered to fight the enemy together. So, they could only rely on luck to evade the Infiltrators' pursuit by scattering before the main force of pursuers arrived.

The other mages, upon receiving the information to scatter and flee, didn't immediately grasp the situation. However, they still randomly chose companions and began to flee in different directions, hoping to return to the Bloody Fortress as soon as possible.

Although the night was dark, with the help of the white snow and the female mage's guidance, Shaoke and Mage Roman managed to put some distance between themselves and the shelter. Though they didn't hear screams of death, Shaoke still felt the constant sound of heavy objects falling onto the snow behind them. This made Shaoke, who only knew of the Infiltrators' terror from books, even more worried that they might be the next target.

'Night's Eternal Radiance'. Mage Roman didn't give up on counterattacks while fleeing. Suppressing her fear of the Infiltrator, she quickly prepared this Second-level Spell, which concealed her form and evaded mana detection. She hoped this spell would help them shake off any possible Infiltrator behind them.

While fleeing with the female mage, Shaoke, with his focus heightened, suddenly sensed the presence of his meditation space in this situation. He clearly felt the silver light on the diamond arrays in both his mental and mana spaces begin to leap frantically. The scattered silver light quickly filled both spaces, and the diamond arrays also started rotating rapidly.

The increased mental power, without Shaoke's precise control, slowly drifted forward, swiftly weaving into a net-like structure that moved ahead over two hundred meters in front of Shaoke.

Although Shaoke was very puzzled by this situation, considering now wasn't the time to investigate, and since this mental power provided detailed information about the basic conditions ahead as it swept forward, it actually accelerated their escape.

A black figure suddenly appeared at the edge of the giant net woven by mental power. The figure was wrapped in a layer of white mist, crouching tightly on a tree branch. 'Infiltrator'—the thought instantly flashed through Shaoke's mind.

Shaoke was about to warn Mage Roman, but before he could, the black figure seemed to sense something and abruptly vanished from the branch. Moreover, the giant net formed by mental power could no longer detect the presence of the black figure.

"There seems to be an Infiltrator." Enduring the wind and snow blowing in his face, Shaoke struggled to shout his discovery to Mage Roman, hoping the female mage could prepare early.

Mage Roman nodded but didn't intend to stop and deal with the Infiltrator. Instead, she gripped Shaoke's arm and continued running forward.

After running for a while longer, Shaoke felt the mental power floating outside slowly returning to his mental space. Losing the guidance of the mental net, Shaoke wanted to slow down, but Mage Roman beside him still pulled him along, maintaining their original speed as they fled.

After about half a magic hour, the female mage, panting heavily, signaled Shaoke to stop. "Xueye... what happened to you just now?" She took a deep breath of the cold air sheltered from the wind and continued, "Why could your mental power leave your mental space in that situation?"

Shaoke shook his head with a bitter smile. "I don't know either. I was just trying hard to see the path ahead clearly, and then the mental power ran out uncontrollably." He quickly told Mage Roman about the black figure he had discovered. "Just now, I noticed a figure waiting for us ahead. But when my mental power swept over him, he suddenly disappeared."