Above the mage!

Chapter 270 [Melting into Stone]

The hunter guard led the way in front, followed closely by Godd, Grant and Catherine.

"The few people we caught were just following orders and knew very little about the inside story, so there hasn't been much progress in the interrogation over the past few days."

Here, Grant was explaining the details to the two people, "The most important thing is that we have not been able to find out their origins. We can only confirm that they are not from our Zhenbing tribe."

"Luckily, Elder Lan Wen has been out hunting for many years, and has traveled extensively. He happened to know where the ice nematodes originated from. I used this clue as a breakthrough point, and finally found some useful things."

"The area where the ice nematodes originated from has long been home to no tribes because of the lower temperatures. However, I had someone investigate and found that two years ago, your Snowfield Guardians had hunted a fourth-level frost giant there."

"The team is led by your Inquisitor Ryan." Grant paused, as if waiting for Catherine's reaction.

But Catherine's face was hidden under the mask, making it impossible to tell her emotions at the moment.

Grant didn't take it seriously and continued, "Of course, this doesn't mean anything. It's most likely just a coincidence. Not to mention, this happened several years ago."

"However, didn't you ask me to investigate the area near the Snover clan some time ago to see which members of your sect have appeared recently, and whether there have been any abnormalities in that area recently?"

"It just so happens that the people I sent out to investigate and collect intelligence have also made some gains." He smiled mysteriously and looked at Catherine quietly.

Catherine couldn't keep calm any longer. Her curiosity was aroused and she asked cooperatively, "What did you find?"

"Eight hundred miles away from the Snover Clan camp, there used to be a fourth-level frost troll entrenched, but it is gone now."

"Frost trolls are earth creatures that have a very strong sense of territory and extremely dislike migrating." Catherine murmured.

"That's right. So the possibility of it migrating to another place is very low. The people I sent out searched the area carefully and indeed found some traces of battle and some human bone remains."

"It is highly likely that this frost troll has been killed by someone."

"Frost trolls are also extremely powerful among fourth-level earth creatures. Ordinary fourth-level mages are simply no match for them."

"There aren't many people who have the strength to kill the frost trolls. They are all important figures in several large tribes. They usually don't leave the tribe easily. Moreover, they value their lives very much. How could they travel thousands of miles to that place to kill the frost trolls?"

"It seems that the only people who can do such a thing are you, the Guardians of the Snowfield."

"But even among you Snowfield Guardians, there is Holy Inquisitor Ryan who is capable of killing a fourth-level frost troll and seems to be skilled in combat?"

"With these two coincidences happening one after another, we should start to suspect him."

"So, I reported this matter to Mother Zhan. After all, this matter has already involved such a level that I cannot investigate it any further."

"The War Mother asked us to come over to discuss matters today. She must have made some new discoveries," Elder Grant asserted.

Catherine fell into deep thought.

Gao De's heart tightened. Although there was no substantial evidence, his intuition told him that it was very likely that Holy Inquisitor Ryan was the murderer behind the scenes.

Originally, Catherine had already proposed that the mastermind behind the scenes was most likely one of the three: Inquisitor Ryan, Chief Quentin, and Archbishop Rune.

And now there are two more things pointing to Inquisitor Ryan.

More importantly, Catherine and Loichi are hunters.

And Inquisitor Ryan is the leader of the hunters. In this incident, the mastermind behind the scenes happens to be someone who knows Loitch's methods very well.

From this perspective, it was like adding another bargaining chip, making Gao De even more suspicious of the Holy Inquisitor Ryan.

While pondering in his mind, Gao De looked around as if he was distracted.

Suddenly, his eyebrows raised, as if he discovered something, and came back to his senses from his thinking.

Then, at a moment when no one noticed, a mysterious golden symbol silently emerged from the depths of Gaode's left pupil.

The place where Sunaifa wanted to meet them was at Sunaifa's own residence.

In the entire Phoenix, magic power is naturally supplied to Bingyu Wutong first, followed by the War Mother.

So as the war mother of the Zhenbing tribe, Sunaifah's residence is actually in the core of Phoenix, not far from the Bingyu Wutong.

They first passed through three checkpoints and then went around a short street before reaching their destination.

On both sides of the short street are several larger houses. These are the residences of high-ring Iceborn mages of the Zhenbing tribe. The exterior walls are made of dark gray stones and the roofs are covered with thick white snow, making them look solemn and dignified.

Just as they were passing by one of the gray stone houses, on a seemingly ordinary wall that no one noticed, an ice blade emitting cold air silently emerged from the wall.

The surface of the ice blade was covered with a thin layer of frost, exuding coldness as if it could freeze everything around it at any time. The power contained in it was self-evident.

In a flash, just as the ice blade was aiming at Gode and was about to break through the wall, Catherine, who had been talking to Grant, had cast a spell first without knowing when.

A line of lightning burst out from her fingertips without warning.

The lightning drew a dazzling track in the air and with the force of thunder, it hit the wall first.

There was a bang.

In a flash, the wall made of gray stones collapsed instantly under the strong electric shock, rubble scattered everywhere, and smoke filled the air.

Fragments of the wall fell like raindrops, making crisp sounds when they hit the ground.

And at the moment the gray stone wall collapsed, a figure fell out from it.

He seemed to have grown out of the wall, and only now did his true form appear as the gray stone crumbled.

After the figure fell out of the gray stone, he first vomited a large mouthful of blood and then fell directly to the ground. He was seriously injured and it was even difficult for him to get up.

There was pain and shock on his face, and he obviously had not expected the current situation.

"Melting into the stone!" When Gao De saw this scene, he did not think of Monkey King, because this was a spell he had learned in the course "General Magical Knowledge".

A third-ring transformation spell, [Melting into Stone].

After casting [Melt into Stone], the mage can enter a stone object or stone surface large enough to completely accommodate his body, and make himself and all the equipment he carries become one with the stone for the duration of the spell.

Once inside the stone, the wizard's presence cannot be seen or detected by any non-magical senses.

Minor damage to the stone does not harm the caster, but if the stone is partially broken or changed in shape (to the point where it is no longer suitable to contain the caster), it will expel the caster from the stone and cause extremely high bludgeoning damage to him.

If the stone is completely destroyed (or its texture is changed), it will also expel the caster from the stone and cause bludgeoning damage.

When expelled from the stone, the caster is thrown to the nearest unoccupied space from where they first entered the stone, and falls into a prone state.

This is why the other party was already in a half-dead state as soon as he appeared.

The gray stone where he was hiding was completely destroyed by Catherine, and under the backlash of the spell effect, he instantly suffered extremely serious blunt force damage.

All this happened in an instant, and even Grant didn't react - Catherine was still talking to him in the last second, how come she suddenly cast a spell to smash the house in the next second, and then how come a person was smashed out in the next second?
Here, Catherine had already walked up to the figure.

Obviously, it was another unfamiliar face.

The other party was still vomiting blood and his body was twitching violently.

He looked at Catherine's cold eyes, then looked down at his own badly injured body, knowing that he was doomed this time and had no chance of recovery.

"How did you find out?" He moved his mouth, wanting to know how he was discovered.

[Melting into Stone] is a third-level concealment spell. Once cast, it completely merges with the stone, and no flaws can be seen. Only magic can reveal it. Among low-level spells, there is no spell to detect living creatures, and high-level spells consume a lot of energy.

Who would have nothing better to do than cast a high-level spell and look around?
So under normal circumstances, the concealment ability of [Melting into Stone] should be almost perfect and impossible to be discovered.

But he was discovered, which he couldn't understand at all.

It's a pity that Catherine was not prepared to explain to him.

But at this moment, black blood and white foam suddenly began to come out of the man's mouth, and then his head tilted, his body went limp, and he was completely motionless.

Catherine frowned and took a closer look. It was exactly the same way Thomas died before.

"He hid poison in his teeth again. The moment he was exposed, he had already bitten the poison into pieces." Grant also came over at this time, his voice low and his eyes flashing with anger.

In Phoenix, someone was actually planning to commit a crime in the street in front of him. How could he not be angry?
Compared to Grant's anger, Catherine was unusually calm.

"Elder, please bring his body back. I still need him." She said.

Goder's heart moved, and he realized that Catherine was about to cast her strange spell to temporarily revive the corpse.

"Okay." Grant nodded and instructed the hunter guard in front of him, "Go call a few people to deal with the scene."

Gao De glanced at this scene and said nothing.

This time he was attacked on the way to meet the War Mother, and the target was exactly him. However, Goder did not suspect that there was anything wrong with the hunter guard who led the way.

The reason is very simple. Just now in the core spiritual land of Phoenix, Flora did not notice the malice in the other party.

Grant didn't calm down until the hunter guard came back with his men and collected the body of the "assassin" on the ground.

"Let's go see the War Mother first," he decided.

Godard and Catherine nodded.

The three set out again.

"How did you find him?"

At this time, Catherine's voice came into Gode's heart.

This was exactly the question the "assassin" had asked Catherine earlier.

Catherine did not answer just now. Firstly, there was no need to answer, and secondly, it was because the person who discovered the "assassin" was not her, but Goder himself.

Just like the incomprehensible thing about the assassin, Catherine still hasn't figured out how Gode, who is just a first-ring wizard, discovered the other party.

Even she couldn't find it?

"My eyesight is better." Gao De smiled slightly and gave an ambiguous but truthful answer.

He understood very early on that although Catherine seemed powerful, she had fallen into the opponent's trap accidentally.

In this situation, if I rely too much on Catherine's own abilities, I will eventually destroy myself.

Catherine is a protective umbrella that can indeed protect him from some storms.

But if I rely too much on this protective umbrella and lose my due vigilance, something bad will happen sooner or later.

Because the umbrella also has defense loopholes.

Therefore, whenever he leaves home, Gaode will cast [Detection Magic +] throughout the whole process and pay attention to the surrounding situation at all times.

It was this action that allowed Gode to discover the almost invisible flash of magical light on the gray stone wall.

How could the magical light appear on the stone wall?

This in itself is an extremely counterintuitive finding.

But when Gao De looked again, he could no longer see any trace of magic.

If it were someone else, they might just pass it by and think they were dazzled - even if they didn't think they were dazzled, with the concealment ability of [Melting into Stone], it would be difficult for ordinary people to notice any clues.

But Gaode is an exception.

Because in addition to the [Detect Magic +] that was added by Feng Ling Yue Ying, he also possesses the second-level Mandela Magic Eye.

After noticing something was wrong, God opened his Mandela Magic Eye without hesitation and [perceived] the gray stone wall that had revealed the magical light.

Under the powerful force of Mandela's Eye, [Insight] captured the traces of flowing energy. Combined with Gode's own knowledge, he made a judgment instantly - someone used [Melting into the Stone] to hide in it.

He immediately conveyed this discovery to Catherine through the [Communication Technique], and then the following events happened.

Under the ice jade phoenix tree.

Fluctuations of magical power began to emerge in Donald's hands.

He was already preparing to cast a spell to forcibly subdue Flora.

"Great Elder!" The elder belonging to the Conservative Party saw this scene and spoke subconsciously, trying to stop Donald's actions.

There was clear worry and nervousness in their voices.

Even Flora could see Donald's ill intentions, so how could they not see what Donald was thinking?

He is clearly trying to snatch Flora away by force!

Even Donald himself had no intention of hiding his intentions.

Because, when the strength or status is almost the same, then careful planning is needed, and all kinds of conspiracies and strategies are needed to leverage the strength of the opponent.

And Gao De is just a foreigner with little strength.

What plans are needed for such an existence?
When there is such a huge gap in strength between the two parties, direct robbery may seem barbaric, but it is actually the most brilliant strategy because it is the most efficient.

Faced with the obstruction of the Conservative elders, Donald turned a deaf ear.

There was a hint of ruthlessness in his eyes, and the fluctuations of magic power gathered into a transparent ripple in his palm.

Donald swung his hand, and the transparent ripple shot towards Flora who was hiding on the branch of the ice jade paulownia tree at an extremely fast speed.

However, something happened that no one expected.

Just as the transparent ripple was about to approach Flora, the leaves of the Ice Jade Parasol Tree suddenly shook violently, emitting a dazzling icy light.

The lights quickly gathered into an ice wall, blocking Flora.

The surface of the ice wall flickered with cold light, like an indestructible barrier that eliminated the ripples into nothingness.

"This..." Donald opened his mouth slightly and was stunned for a moment.

There was a flash of disbelief in his eyes, obviously he had not expected this.

The reason why the Ice Jade Wutong is called the guardian tree is, firstly, because of its magical power, and secondly, because it does have the ability to protect.

But Donald never imagined that the Bingyu Wutong, the guardian tree of the Zhenbing tribe, would one day help outsiders deal with him, the chief elder of the Zhenbing tribe!
(End of this chapter)