Chapter 400 Misty Snow Bees and Battle

The Heavenly Mage was deciphering the books handed to him by the Blue-robed Female Mage when Roman arrived. "Xueye, aren't you planning to leave here today?" At the Female Mage's reminder, the mage then remembered that today was the day to head to the Misty Forest. He'd been so absorbed in deciphering the spellbook that he'd forgotten all about it.

He closed the book and quickly got some stuff together with Roman's help, then went to the living room, where the Blue-robed Female Mage and the White-robed Cleric were already waiting. "Father, I thought you'd forgotten about going to the Misty Forest today!" Moyu'er pouted at Shaoke and grabbed his arm, wanting her dad to fly with her.

"If your mom hadn't reminded me, I'd have totally forgotten." Shaoke wasn't embarrassed at all; he just patted his daughter's head and told Anling to take her sister flying. Anling didn't want to, but under Shaoke and her mom's orders, she finally gave in.

Since the mages didn't want anyone to know where they were headed, they just mentioned they were leaving at the station and then slowly flew off toward the Misty Forest. They weren't in any rush along the way; at every stop, the Female Spellcasters would buy local specialties to taste or use. Even the Nine-rank Mage, the Blue-robed Female Mage, got in on the action.

It took about a year, but they finally reached the Blue Feather Empire. Of course, after arriving, the mages checked in at the military department, hung out in the capital for a few days, then bought some supplies and headed deep into the Misty Forest. Shaoke kept using his mental power to scan the area to make sure no professionals were tailing them. When they got there, the mage didn't find anything.

The base Shaoke had set up decades ago wasn't far from the barbarian tribe. When they arrived, the mages skipped their base and went straight to the barbarian tribe. The barbarians gave them a warm welcome, mainly because they were happy Shaoke brought them lots of fine booze, flour, and other everyday stuff.

The barbarian Mosan was now the chief of this tribe. In his prime, the barbarian was a solid five meters tall, and the mages floated next to him to chat. "Mage Xueye, I figured you weren't coming this year." Mosan scratched his head and invited the mages into his room. "Are these all your wives? Ha! You're almost catching up to me in numbers."

By now, Mosan had become an Eighth Tier barbarian warrior, but his memory wasn't great on some things. Shaoke had told him plenty of times he only had two wives, but every time he came, the barbarian said the same thing. So Shaoke, like always, reintroduced his family and the Blue-robed Female Mage as a friend.

After some small talk, the tribe threw a big feast. The barbarians caught huge magical beasts and roasted them outside. Shaoke thought these barbarians were really straightforward; they said what they meant without beating around the bush. When he was with the barbarians, Shaoke didn't stick to the old mage rules.

"Mage Xueye, here for those magic materials again?" Mosan tore off a small piece of meat and handed it to Shaoke's daughter Moyu'er, who was everyone's favorite. Moyu'er looked at the chunk of meat, about two or three pounds, touched her little belly, then carefully cut a small piece with a silver knife, seasoned it with the barbarians' spices, and took a bite. Roman and the others got the same treatment.

Shaoke nodded, took a sip from his cup, and said, "How are the Snow Bee Queens? Any new queens pop up in recent years?" At this point, we need to explain the whole Snow Bee Queen thing.

Decades ago, when the mage's skills had reached a certain level, he and the Blue-robed Female Mage talked about coming here to try raising those snow bees and getting the blood of the Snow Bee Queens. So they came here, and with Mosan's help, rounded up seven or eight Snow Bee Queen families and started raising them. Of course, after paying a large sum, the barbarians helped take care of them. The mages would come every few years to collect materials. We won't go into detail here.

Mosan downed a small barrel of liquor in one go, wiped his mouth roughly, and said loudly, "A new snow bee family has popped up in recent years, but their numbers are still scarce, so we can't get enough magic materials from there." Then he hesitated slightly and said to Shaoke, "Mage Xueye, some mages came here a while ago wanting to plunder the Snow Bee Queens, but we stopped them. Lately, though, they come every so often to try to seize them. Lots of our people have been killed."

At this, Mosan's expression darkened, and the dozen or so elders around him laid out the whole story. "Mage Xueye, if we let them keep at it, I'm worried they'll wreck the snow bees' habitat. If that happens, we..." A scrawny elder pulled a feather out of his forehead and rubbed it quickly against his leg.

This elder was a unique Ritualist of the barbarians. They don't believe in any gods, but they can use spells similar to mages, and those attacks are seriously powerful. Each tribe only has a few. Now Mosan's tribe, with nearly a million people, only has three or five. Shows how rare they are.

"I'm sorry," Shaoke said, pulling out a spatial ring and handing it to Mosan. He apologized sincerely and told them he'd handle things from now on. Of course, the mage was fully qualified to say that now. The barbarian ritualist checked the ring and shouted with joy. Then Mosan promised again they'd protect the snow bees' habitat.

After dinner, the mages split up to stay in the newly built barbarian houses. When Shaoke, Roman, and the White-robed Cleric got back to their place, the Blue-robed Female Mage followed. "Mage Xueye, I'm worried the mages who found the habitat are from the military. If so, we should avoid conflict entirely. If they're from other mage families, I think fighting is unavoidable."

Roman nodded, agreeing with the Blue-robed Female Mage. After all, the military wouldn't just take personal property, even though they weren't part of the Blue Feather Empire anymore. But in the Misty Forest, the empire had no control.

"We'll stay longer this time. When we see those troublemakers who messed with my beasts, we'll punish them." Shaoke still had his eyes closed, spinning his black staff fast. Now, the mage wasn't scared of any single group or family. Even against some Tenth Tier Professionals, Shaoke figured he could easily hunt them down if it came to that.

While they were talking, Mosan handed Shaoke a ring with all the honey and blood collected over the years. He used these materials to trade with the mages. Shaoke paid him with books and daily necessities.

Mosan didn't stay long. After handing over the ring, he left quickly because his wives were waiting. Shaoke tossed a bottle of Snow Bee Queen blood to the Blue-robed Female Mage, then gave similar bottles to Roman and the Cleric. Then he took out his Blue Rhombus Flower-shaped spellbook and poured a small bottle of blood onto it. When it was fully absorbed, he put the book away. By then, the female mages had done the same.

The Blue-robed Female Mage stayed a bit longer to chat, then went to her room to speed up the absorption and boost the spellbook's power. Once it absorbed the blood, it'd be stronger and cost less to cast.

At dawn, the mages got up and made breakfast. The barbarians had already left to tend their beasts and train. Their breakfast was an hour earlier than the mages'.

"Let's go. By noon, we'll be there, so we won't need to fix food." Mosan handed off some tribal chores and led the mages toward the snow bees' habitat.

The barbarians move differently from regular warriors. They walk in the air, each step gliding a long way. They're as fast as mages flying, and with good control, it can look cooler than Blink.

Of course, strong barbarian warriors can tear space easily. But Mosan couldn't do that yet; he was still pretty weak. If a barbarian hits Ninth Rank, their power jumps, and killing two of the same rank is easy. But facing special mages takes more work. Ninth Ranks are rare—Mosan's tribe hasn't seen one in tens of thousands of years. But Shaoke felt Mosan could make it if he kept at it.

The snow bees live in a huge canyon. Years ago, Shaoke and the others found a newly split tribe here, so they planted lots of herbs and flowers for them. Over decades, that tribe grew big. The mages also carefully moved dozens of other tribes here. If the canyon weren't so huge with lots of flowers, it couldn't hold so many. Even so, Shaoke figured adding more would be too much.

The mages hid their presence, then landed by the canyon to watch. A dozen tall barbarians walked inside, and the snow bees didn't attack—the barbarians didn't care and even ate their corpses. Mosan said those corpses helped them.

Shaoke never asked how. He'd just heard from Mosan that their tribe raised snow bees long ago, but after some incident, they disappeared. Later, no one did it because they forgot the skill. When Shaoke suggested it again, some old elders found books about how snow bees helped them. So now they were doing what their ancestors did millions of years ago.

The Blue-robed Female Mage watched the snow bees closely and took notes. The others did the same. Shaoke stood aside with his eyes closed, using all his mental power to probe. Mosan grabbed a handful of snow bee corpses and ate them. These were collected bit by bit from the canyon by the barbarians. It wasn't too hard because snow bees often gathered in one spot to bury their dead.

"Take these back and have your ritualist mix them with medicine. It'll work better than eating them raw," Shaoke said, turning his head a bit. He didn't know why the corpses helped, but he'd heard from the ritualist that mixing them with medicine boosted the effect.

Mosan tossed a few more in his mouth, then nodded. He just didn't want his mouth idle. Shaoke gave him a small jar of fine liquor, and he stopped wasting the stuff.

Since Mosan had brought lots of food and the station barbarians had prepared some too, they finished lunch quickly.

"Take me to where you fought those mages," Shaoke said suddenly after lunch. Roman and the others got what he was planning. They were keen to see that fight scene.

Though puzzled, Mosan led them to the battlefield. It was close to the canyon. A patch of forest was wrecked, and the cracked earth still had spell fluctuations, so nothing grew.

Shaoke sensed the lingering magic, then pulled out a handful of magic powder—made from top-grade crystal powders for boosting detection spells. He chanted quickly and tossed the powder into the air. The void burned briefly. After a few breaths, a crystal sheet over a person's height floated up, showing figures. The mages saw Mosan fighting those mages. The images lasted a few dozen breaths, then the mages spoke and flew off.

"These are the guys. They were cocky and tried to kill me," Mosan said, shaking his fist. "Last time, they took some Snow Bee Queen blood." He looked at Shaoke, surprised he could recreate the scene. The battle was short but packed with strong Aura and magic. Most mages couldn't pull that off.

"Our guests are here," Shaoke said, frowning. He put on his black crown and flew up with the Blue-robed Female Mage and the others. They didn't wait but flew slowly toward the newcomers.

Shaoke quickly spotted them with his mental power: five Eighth Tier Mages. After a bit, the Blue-robed Female Mage saw them too. "Stop. This is our territory. Keep going, and you'll die," she shouted.

"We're mages of the Orpheus Family, looking for magic materials. I don't recall this area being granted to anyone," said the lead young Eighth Tier Mage, whose robe had the Orpheus crest. The others didn't, so they were hired hands.

The Blue-robed Female Mage frowned because they didn't stop. Shaoke signaled Anling to attack. The Cleric cast some Defensive Spells on her, then Anling hovered and watched per Shaoke's orders. She wasn't worried—two Ninth-order beings were watching. Moyu'er was held tight by Roman. Meanwhile, Mosan roared and charged. He knew these guys—they'd stolen Snow Bee Queen blood before. This time, he wanted to kill some to show off.

The mages didn't expect such a simple attack and were caught off guard by Anling and Mosan. Moyu'er watched nervously from Roman's arms. The Eighth Tier fight was overwhelming for her, a Seventh Tier with little combat. But Roman let her be hit by the murderous aura.

"Watch your sister fight. It'll help," Roman said calmly. She glanced at Shaoke with the black crown and felt fine about Anling.

The Blue-robed Female Mage also kept an eye on the fight.

Anling fought like Shaoke, using single-target spells. The ancient flame command mages' power shone again. Flames from her staff became spears, Wind Blades, and cutting lines, all fast. Shaoke felt if she had that silver light to calm spatial turbulence, she'd be even faster than him back then.

Mosan fought simply—big axe chopping, white Aura breaking spells. He moved like Blink, stopping the Eight-rank Spellcasters from teaming up. After an hour, one mage barely blocked Mosan's attack but got hit by Anling's spell. He didn't Blink in time, and two of three shields broke. With help, he escaped.

"Everyone, I think there's a misunderstanding," said a Nine-rank Mage, stepping out of a crack in the air after Anling dodged a spell. He blocked two spells aimed at her, then looked at Shaoke and the Blue-robed Female Mage. "This is really just a misunderstanding."

This Nine-rank Mage had the Orpheus crest. He bowed to the Blue-robed Female Mage, then to Shaoke. "Our young ones didn't know this was your territory. I'd like to apologize with a banquet." He paused. "From now on, no Orpheus mage will come here without your okay."

He glanced at Shaoke again, frowned, and waited. Mosan flew back and hovered in front of the mages. Then ten old barbarians showed up, sent by the ritualist to protect their chief.

"They stole our Snow Bee Queen blood. They need to compensate," said the Blue-robed Female Mage, touching her forehead—her crown was taken by the Maple Leaf prince, which bugged her.

The Nine-rank Mage twitched his mouth. "They didn't know it was yours. I'll punish them when we get back." He licked his lips. "Besides, that blood isn't worth much. No need for compensation." As he said that, Shaoke attacked.

He hated wasting time. Right was right, wrong was wrong. Since the guy wouldn't meet his demands, he'd spend some magic to kill the offenders. If he didn't, they'd mess with him again.

A black light shot from the crown, splitting into six beams. The five alert mages couldn't resist and turned to stone on the broken ground. The Nine-rank Mage used a scroll and a magic item to block Shaoke's Death Will attack.

But he still died.

After blocking the crown's stored Death Will, he Blinked away. He planned one more Blink and then tear space to flee. But the Blue-robed Female Mage stopped him—a pale blue mist exploded, trapping the space around him and stopping his Blink. Then Anling and Mosan attacked, but his shields held. Then Shaoke struck again.

He pulled a black pendant from his neck and tossed it into the air. With a simple ancient magic syllable, the pendant suddenly erupted into a black six-pointed star magic array, from which a three-meter-tall figure flew out. This figure formed a black line, easily penetrated two layers of special defensive spells of the still-resisting ninth-rank mage, severed the mage's head, and quickly returned to Shaoke, disappearing into the six-pointed star magic array.

All this happened so fast. The ninth-rank mage's head floated fearfully before Shaoke, with a golden light hovering beside it. The mage's original body had already been completely absorbed by the black shadow. Only at Shaoke's explicit command was the mage's head left for him to conduct some experiments. Of course, that golden light was not something the black shadow could easily absorb.

The blue-robed female mage and Mage Roman were stunned. They never imagined Shaoke could be so powerful. A ninth-rank spellcaster was permanently erased from this continent in just a few breaths. The barbarian Mosan stared at Shaoke, wondering if the mage might cast a spell to turn him into one of those terrifying stone statues. If so, he had no idea how to resist.

Shaoke ignored them and used a minor spell to collect the five black stone statues. Then he signaled everyone to return to the barbarian tribe, as a battle was about to begin. He sensed a powerful presence rapidly approaching. "A tenth-rank professional is coming. You all should go back for now," Shaoke said, embracing the white-robed cleric and Mage Roman before telling the blue-robed female mage to lead them away in the other direction. He would stay behind alone to fend off the tenth-rank being.

The blue-robed female mage hesitated, then tore open space and motioned for everyone to enter. The cleric, at Shaoke's urging, quickly cast dozens of support spells on him before following Mage Roman into the rift, heading to the barbarian tribe. Just after they left, the tenth-rank being arrived.

"Mage, tell me who killed the spellcasters of the Orpheus Family," the figure demanded. He was a warrior bearing the Orpheus Family mark. Obviously, sensing his family member's death, he had rushed here as fast as he could. Unfortunately, Shaoke's answer angered him.

"I killed them," the mage said softly, unconcerned about the tenth-rank warrior before him. He believed killing this ordinary tenth-rank warrior would be easy. Then Shaoke explained in detail why he had done so. The tenth-rank warrior frowned and listened.

If it had been any other ninth-rank being, he would not have wasted time here, but this ninth-rank spellcaster gave him a very strong threat. The murderous aura on Shaoke was impossible for him to miss. Of course, he didn't care how many people the mage had killed. How many tenth-rank beings had not killed many? Now he only cared how long it had taken Shaoke to kill the ninth-rank practitioner.

When he arrived, he sensed no ninth-rank spell fluctuations, which made him suspicious. After Shaoke finished speaking, the tenth-rank warrior cautiously said, "Mage, I suggest you come with me to the Orpheus Family for a discussion. We will surely give you sufficient compensation."

Shaoke shook his head. "I have already received enough compensation. I don't want to go with you and be permanently imprisoned by the Orpheus Family—or have my head cut off to make a staff." He was about to say more, but the warrior attacked him. After five consecutive blinks, the mage temporarily evaded the tenth-rank being, then threw the pendant again. A six-pointed star magic array appeared, and the black figure emerged once more.

Black armor, black spear and shield. Everything was black, except for his blood-red eyes. This thing was created by the mage after he slaughtered hundreds of eighth-rank practitioners. Now, under his command, it began to fight a tenth-rank warrior.

Violent collisions, one after another, without end. The tenth-rank warrior tried every means to attack Shaoke, but the stone puppet perfectly intercepted all attacks. This was because the puppet had integrated the combat experience of hundreds of eighth-rank practitioners and contained a small part of the mage's soul. As battles increased, the puppet's attack experience would grow even stronger.

Shaoke did not cast any spells to attack the tenth-rank warrior; he only activated two layers of special defensive spells to protect himself. He quietly watched the battle, constantly identifying the puppet's shortcomings, planning to use a ninth-rank practitioner's body next time to create a battle puppet. Of course, this was just an idea, difficult to realize.

Although the puppet was sometimes wounded by the tenth-rank warrior, it didn't care. After Shaoke blinked to dodge an enemy attack, the puppet immediately engaged the tenth-rank warrior again, launching a frenzied assault. After long observation, Shaoke found that repeated attacks of the same type had no effect on the puppet. It seemed every attack pattern was remembered by this stone puppet. At that moment, he couldn't help but marvel at the power of the ancient spellcasters.