Above the mage

Chapter 270 [Merging into Stone]

The hunter guards led the way, with God, Grant, and Catherine following closely behind.

"The few people we caught were just following orders and knew very little about the inside story, so the interrogations over the past few days haven't made much progress."

Here, Grant was explaining the situation to the two men, "The main problem is that we haven't been able to get any information about their origins, and we can only confirm that they are not from our Zhenbing tribe."

"Fortunately, Elder Lanwen was often away hunting, traveling all over the country and had a wide range of knowledge. He happened to know where the ice worm originated, so I used this clue as a breakthrough and eventually discovered some useful things."

"The region where the ice worm originated is no longer a popular campsite due to its even lower temperatures. However, after some investigation, I discovered that two years ago, your Snowfield Guardians hunted down a fourth-tier Frost Giant there."

"The one leading the team is your Ryan Inquisitor." Grant paused, seemingly waiting for Catherine's reaction.

However, Catherine's face was hidden behind a mask, making it impossible to discern her emotions at that moment.

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

"However, didn't you recently commission me to investigate which members of your sect have been in the area near the Snowflake clan, and whether there have been any unusual occurrences in that area recently?"

"Coincidentally, the people I sent out to investigate and gather intelligence have also made some progress." He smiled mysteriously and looked quietly at Catherine.

Now Catherine could no longer remain calm; her curiosity was piqued, and she eagerly pressed on, "What did you discover?"

"Eight hundred miles from the Snowflakes' camp, there once stood a fourth-tier frost troll, but it is no longer there."

"Frost trolls are leyline creatures with a strong sense of territory and an extreme aversion to migration," 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 sure enough, they found some signs of battle and some human bone remains."

"It's highly likely that this frost troll has already been killed."

"The Frost Troll is also extremely powerful among fourth-tier leyline creatures; ordinary fourth-tier mages would be no match for it."

"There aren't many people with the strength to kill a Frost Troll. They are all important figures from several large tribes. They generally don't leave their tribes easily, and they value their lives highly. So why would they travel thousands of miles to that place to kill a Frost Troll?"

"It seems that only you Snowfield Guardians could do something like this."

"But even among your Snowfield Guardians, the one who can kill a fourth-tier Frost Troll seems to be the skilled Inquisitor Ryan?"

"These two coincidences in a row should be enough to start suspecting him."

"Therefore, I reported this matter to Zhan Mu, since it has already reached this level and is beyond my ability to investigate further."

"The War Mother summoned us for a meeting today; she must have gained something new," Elder Grant asserted.

Catherine fell into deep thought.

Gao De's heart tightened. Although there was no substantial evidence, his intuition told him that there was a high probability that this Judge Ryan was the mastermind behind the murder.

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

Now, two more things point to Judge Ryan.

More importantly, Catherine and Loych were originally hunters.

And since Inquisitor Ryan is the leader of the hunters, the mastermind behind this incident happens to be someone who is extremely familiar with Loich's methods.

From this perspective, it's like adding another bargaining chip, making Gaode even more suspicious of this Ryan Saint Judge.

While pondering to himself, Gao De's eyes darted around as if he were lost in thought.

Suddenly, he raised an eyebrow, as if he had discovered something, and snapped out of his reverie.

Then, in an instant when no one noticed, a mysterious golden symbol silently appeared deep within Gaode's left pupil.

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

In Phoenix, magic is naturally prioritized for Ice Jade Wutong, and secondly for the War Mother.

Therefore, as the War Mother of the Zhenbing tribe, Sunafa's residence is actually located in the heart of Phoenix, not far from the Ice Jade Phoenix Tree.

They first passed through three checkpoints, then circled a short street, and finally reached their destination.

On both sides of the short street are several large houses, which are the residences of the high-ranking ice-born shamans of the Zhenbing tribe. The exterior walls are made of dark gray stone blocks, and the roofs are covered with thick white snow, making them look solemn and dignified.

As they passed one of the gray stone houses, a chilling ice blade silently emerged from a seemingly ordinary wall that no one had noticed.

The surface of the ice blade was covered with a thin layer of frost, exuding a chilling aura that seemed poised to freeze everything around it at any moment, its power self-evident.

In the blink of an eye, just as the ice blade was about to break through the wall and reach God, Catherine, who had been talking to Grant, had already cast a spell first.

A bolt of lightning, as thin as a thread, burst forth from her fingertips without warning.

The lightning streaked across the sky, leaving a dazzling trail, and struck the wall with overwhelming force.

With a loud bang.

In the blink of an eye, the wall made of gray stone collapsed instantly under the intense electric shock, scattering debris and filling the air with smoke.

Fragments of the wall fell like raindrops, striking the ground with a crisp sound.

As the gray stone wall collapsed, a figure fell out of it.

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

After the figure fell out of the gray stone, it first spat out a mouthful of blood and then fell directly to the ground, seriously injured and even having difficulty getting up.

His face showed pain and shock, clearly not expecting the current situation.

"Merge into the stone!" When Gao De saw this, he didn't associate it with Sun Wukong, because this was a spell he had learned in the course "Understanding General Spells".

The Three-Circle Transformation System spell, [Merge into Stone].

After casting [Melt into Stone], a mage can enter a stone object or surface large enough to completely contain their body, and merge themselves and all their equipment with the stone for the duration of the spell.

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

Minor damage to the stone will not harm the caster, but if the stone is partially damaged or its shape is altered (to the point that it is no longer suitable to contain the caster), the caster will be expelled from the stone and will suffer extremely high blunt force damage.

When the stone is completely destroyed (or its material changes), it will also expel the caster from the stone and cause blunt force damage.

When pushed out of the stone, the caster will be thrown to the nearest unoccupied space from where they first entered the stone and fall to the ground.

This explains why the opponent was already half-dead as soon as they revealed themselves.

The gray stone where he was hiding was completely destroyed by Catherine, and he instantly suffered extremely severe blunt force trauma due to the backlash of the spell.

All of this happened in an instant, before Grant could even react—one second Catherine was talking to him, and the next second she suddenly cast a spell to smash the house, and then the next second a person appeared out of the house.

Catherine had already walked up to the figure.

Clearly, it was yet another completely unfamiliar face.

The other person was still vomiting blood and their body was convulsing violently.

He glanced at Catherine's icy gaze, then looked down at his own badly injured body, knowing that he was doomed and had no chance of turning things around.

"How did you find out?" He moved his lips, wanting to know how he had been discovered.

【Melt into Stone】As a concealment spell of the third ring, once cast, it completely merges with the stone, leaving no trace. Only magical means can detect it.

Low-level spells don't include any spells for detecting creatures, while high-level spells consume a huge amount of resources.

Who would cast high-level spells and wander around aimlessly if they had nothing better to do?

Therefore, under normal circumstances, the concealment ability of [merging into stone] should be almost perfect and impossible to be detected.

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

Unfortunately, Catherine wasn't prepared to explain to him.

But at that moment, black blood and white foam suddenly began to come out of the man's mouth. Then his head tilted to the side, his body went limp, and he became completely still.

Catherine frowned, and upon closer inspection, realized it was the same way Thomas had died.

"Another time, poison was hidden in the teeth. The moment it was exposed, the poison was already crushed in the teeth." Grant walked over at this moment, his voice low and his eyes flashing with anger.

In Phoenix, someone was actually planning to commit murder in the street right in front of him. How could he not be furious?

In contrast to Grant's anger, Catherine remained unusually calm.

"Please, Elder, take his body back. I still have a great use for him," she said.

A thought struck Gao De: he realized that Catherine was about to cast her strange spell that briefly revived the corpse.

"Okay." Grant nodded, and then instructed the hunter guards ahead, "Go and call a few people to clean up the scene."

Gao De caught a glimpse of this scene but didn't say anything.

The attack occurred on the way to see the War Mother, and he was the target of the attack. However, Gao De did not suspect that the hunter guard who was leading the way was a problem.

The reason is simple: just now, in the core spiritual land of Phoenix, Flora did not sense the malice emanating from the other party.

Grant only calmed down after the hunter guard returned with his men and cleaned up the "assassin's" body on the ground.

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

Gao De and Catherine nodded.

The three set off again.

How did you find him?

At that moment, Catherine's voice echoed in Gao De's mind.

This is exactly the question that the "assassin" asked Catherine earlier.

Catherine didn't answer just now, firstly because there was no need to answer, and secondly because the person who discovered the "assassin" was not her, but Gao De himself.

Just like the assassin's incomprehension, Catherine still can't figure out how God, who is only a first-circle mage, discovered the other party.

Even she didn't notice?

"I have better eyesight," Gao De smiled slightly, giving a vague but truthful answer.

He realized long ago that Catherine, though seemingly powerful, had inadvertently fallen into the other party's trap.

In this situation, if he relies too much on Catherine's abilities, he will eventually ruin himself.

Catherine is a protective shield, indeed able to shield him from some major storms.

However, if one becomes too reliant on this protective umbrella and loses the necessary vigilance, trouble will inevitably ensue sooner or later.

Even protective umbrellas have defensive vulnerabilities.

Therefore, as long as you leave home, Gaode will continuously use [Detection Magic+] to keep an eye on your surroundings.

It was this action that led Gao De to discover the almost invisible, faint magical aura that had just flashed across the gray stone wall.

How could magical light appear on the stone wall?

This is a discovery that defies common sense.

But when Gaode looked again, he could no longer see any magical light.

If it were someone else, they might just let it go and think they were seeing things—even if they didn't think they were seeing things, with the ability to conceal themselves by "merging into the stone," it would indeed be very difficult for ordinary people to notice anything amiss.

However, Gaode Maps is an exception.

Because in addition to having the [Detection Magic+] skill boosted by Feng Lingyueying, he also possesses the second-tier Mandela Magic Eye.

Sensing something amiss, God did not hesitate to open his Mandela Eye and use [Insight] on the gray stone wall where the magical light had been detected.

Under the powerful influence of the Mandela Eye, [Insight] detected the flowing energy traces. Combined with God's own knowledge, he instantly made a judgment—someone had used [Melt into Stone] to hide within it.

He immediately relayed this discovery to Catherine using the [Communication] spell, and only then did the rest of the story unfold.

Beneath the ice-jade parasol tree.

A surge of magical energy began to emanate from Donald's hands.

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

"Elder!" The elders of the conservative party saw this and instinctively spoke up, trying to stop Donald's actions.

Their voices were filled with obvious worry and tension.

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

He's clearly trying to kidnap Flora!

Donald himself made no attempt to hide his intentions.

Because when the strength or status is roughly the same, that's when careful planning and various schemes, both overt and covert, are needed to leverage each other's strengths.

Gaode, on the other hand, is just a weak outsider.

Why would there be any need for planning for such an existence?

Given the vast difference in strength between the two sides, directly seizing the property, while seemingly barbaric, is actually the most brilliant strategy because it is the most efficient.

Donald ignored the obstruction from the conservative elders.

A ruthless glint appeared in his eyes, and the fluctuations of magical power gathered in his palm, forming a transparent ripple.

With a flick of his wrist, Donald sent the transparent ripple hurtling toward Flora, who was hiding on the branch of the Ice Jade Sycamore tree.

However, something completely unexpected happened.

Just as the transparent ripple was about to approach Flora, the leaves of the Ice Jade Phoenix suddenly trembled violently, emitting a dazzling ice crystal light.

These rays of light quickly coalesced into an ice wall, blocking Flora's path.

The surface of the ice wall shimmered with a cold light, like an indestructible barrier that neutralized the ripples.

Donald's mouth gaped open, momentarily stunned.

A flicker of disbelief crossed his eyes; he clearly hadn't expected this.

The Ice Jade Wutong is called the Guardian Tree for two reasons: first, because of its mystical nature, and second, because it truly possesses the power to protect.

Donald never expected that the Ice Jade Wutong, the guardian tree of the Zhenbing tribe, would one day help outsiders to deal with him, the Great Elder of the Zhenbing tribe!

(End of this chapter)