Chapter 374 No Need for Such Trouble

After the chaos, the Luanyun Empire appeared extremely desolate. The once fertile land was overgrown with weeds, and huge cracks gaped open toward the sky like mouths. Occasionally, some birds passed by, but they rarely lingered here, as food was scarce.

After another day's journey, Shaoke and the others arrived at the settlement built by the Blue-robed Mage and some Wandering Practitioners here. The settlement was large, with a flat area in the center of dozens of high mountains, where a small number of civilians lived. The families of the Wandering Practitioners were established on those mountains. Of course, these mountains were not natural but created by mages using spells.

The Blue-robed Mage pointed to a distant mountain peak already covered with trees and said, "Mage Xueye, that is my family's territory. We'll rest there today." She then released a magic signal and led Shaoke to quickly fly to that peak. During the flight, Shaoke sensed dozens of eighth-order or higher scouts detecting them. Once they identified the Blue-robed Mage and Shaoke, they quickly called off their vigilance, seeing it was unnecessary.

On top of the mountain stood a small magic tower, where the Blue-robed Mage resided. Generally, others were not allowed inside. However, young family members could enter and stay for extended periods when studying or reading books. There were dedicated scholars and mentors to explain various issues, maximizing the enhancement of the youths' abilities from multiple perspectives.

Standing at the top floor of the magic tower, the Blue-robed Mage offered Shaoke a glass of clear water. "When we first arrived here, the ground was black, with no greenery at all. Fortunately, one family had cultivated plants capable of improving the environment, so we settled here." She sighed, recalling that when she first came here, despite the battles, the environment was still good, unlike now, which was so barren that even birds avoided it.

"Where is the hostile force? When do we start?" Shaoke took a sip of water and asked directly. He didn't want to linger here over trivial matters.

The Blue-robed Mage shook her head. "I don't know. They often harass us. If they didn't know we have many high-level beings here, they would have already engaged us in battle." She looked out the window, noting the gray sky. The battles two hundred years ago had severely damaged this land, and even now, the wounds had not healed.

Just as they were discussing local matters, a peculiar magical fluctuation came from the air. The Blue-robed Mage frowned and said to Shaoke, "They're here again. Let's go out and see." After getting Shaoke's agreement, they quickly flew out of the magic tower. By then, over a dozen ninth-rank professionals were already floating in the sky. After a brief detection, they located the direction of the enemy's approach. Shaoke instantly tore through space and appeared before the newcomers.

"Outsiders, what are you doing here?" Shaoke activated the black mist enveloping him, and the two strange nine-pointed star arrays appeared in his eyes. He was ready to attack at any moment.

"We just wanted to see the situation here. We are from the Yisage Empire. Have you established a nation here?" A ninth-order warrior raised an eyebrow, then gracefully saluted Shaoke. He had brought a team to scout, believing that once the empire dispatched enough forces, they would completely eliminate these wandering practitioners from the Blue Feather Empire.

Shaoke was dissatisfied with the warrior's words. However, he still calmly replied, "This is my domain. Leave here or face death." Without waiting for the warrior to respond, he suddenly launched an attack. Two black beams shot from his eyes, one enveloping the ninth-order warrior, the other covering the eighth-order practitioners behind him. Everything happened so suddenly. By the time the eighth-order practitioners turned into black statues and fell to the ground, the powerful magical fluctuations gradually dissipated.

Although the warrior was struck by Shaoke's Death Will, his rich combat experience and strong power allowed him to quickly erupt with all his battle aura to resist the black light's binding. Even so, he was frozen by Shaoke's spell. 'Decree of Death Dispersion'—a black light flew out from Shaoke's spell and struck the ninth-order warrior.

The dense aura seemed to vanish into thin air, instantly dissipating. The warrior's body and all his belongings turned into powder under the mage's spell, with only the head intentionally preserved. Afterward, Shaoke collected the two remaining trophies, gathered the golden light in a special crystal box, took the head, and retrieved the seven or eight black death statues of the eighth-order practitioners. The Blue-robed Mage and the other ninth-rank professionals silently watched Shaoke. Fear struck these powerful ninth-order beings at that moment.

They hadn't expected Shaoke to be so formidable. A same-rank warrior didn't even have a chance to counterattack before being killed by this spellcaster. Of course, whether Shaoke's action counted as a sneak attack didn't matter to them. At their level, sneak attacks and open strikes were no different.

"Before, they just came to look around and left," the Blue-robed Mage shrugged, then gathered the others to discuss how to attack the power established by the wandering practitioners of the Yisage Empire here. Only by completely eliminating those people could they safely build their own home.

Of course, the fact that they had killed a ninth-order being from the enemy side was the main reason the Blue-robed Mage decided to attack. The enemy would not let this go without retaliation.

A mournful horn was blown by a female ninth-order warrior. The horn was silver-white, and as it sounded, hundreds of figures flew up from the ground—all the wandering practitioners who had left the Blue Feather Empire. These figures silently hovered around Shaoke and the others. Then, another seven or eight ninth-rank professionals flew up from below. After a brief discussion, the group began to fly toward the settlement of the Yisage Empire's wandering practitioners. They didn't care about their current settlement; if they lost it, they could rebuild. However, cultivating talent and continuing bloodlines would take a long time. But if they could hunt down powerful enemies, all these costs would be worth it.

The space mage who had previously participated in plundering the Violet Family once again took out his teleportation array, allowing Shaoke and the other ninth-order beings to board and be teleported. The eighth-order practitioners quickly flew toward the enemy's direction to support the ninth-order beings as soon as possible.

The Yisage Empire's settlement was not large. It also had several mountain peaks forming a sheltered area, created by their mages. Since this empire didn't have many wandering practitioners, these peaks were much smaller than those of the Blue-robed Mage's group. However, according to the Blue-robed Mage, this was deceptive. Her intelligence indicated that there were still many eighth-order practitioners hidden there, many sent by the Yisage Empire's military, nobility, and merchant families.

As soon as Shaoke and the others teleported in, the first attack came not from Shaoke or any mage, but from the female warrior carrying the silver horn. She put the horn to her lips and blew forcefully. A wave of silver light mixed with strange runes flew out, forming layered ripples. Everything the ripples passed over turned to ash. Shaoke watched as an eighth-order warrior who had just taken off was swept by the ripples, his entire body vanishing, leaving only a golden light floating in the air. After the horn sounded, the female warrior swayed, and a male mage beside her supported her, releasing a defensive spell from a precious magic artifact to protect her. Meanwhile, a summoner in the group began his attack.

This summoner was very familiar with Mage Meigan, having participated in the hunt for the Violet Family back then. Now, he had also found a way to advance to ninth-order being, although the advancement methods for that class had not been available in the Violet Family. But Shaoke quickly dismissed these thoughts; he needed to attack. This time, he chose two area-of-effect spells.

His spellbook had already flown out of his meditation space. As pages turned, complex incantations quickly emerged. A mass of black mist coalesced in front of the mage, which he controlled to quickly envelop a mountain peak. Once the mist fully covered the peak, the mist began a bloody slaughter.