Above the mage

Chapter 797 Guardian Tree

On the morning of the second day after Gao De returned to Phoenix, it was not yet fully light.

Intense magical fluctuations emanated from the heart of Phoenix, specifically from the Ice Jade Phoenix Tree.

It is crisp and pure, carrying with it the feeling of extreme cold.

All the mages around the core area of ​​Phoenix clearly sensed it.

This marks the official start of Sunafa's ring advancement under the Ice Jade Wutong Tree, taking the first step in her journey from the fourth to the fifth ring, a process that had bound her for many years.

The Fifth Ring Road marks a turning point for the monk.

First to fourth-ring mages can only be considered as regular combat reserves.

The Fifth Ring Mage has officially joined the ranks of high-level mages, wielding the power to uphold the orthodox foundation of a duchy.

Looking across the entire continent, having five rings as a stronghold is a hard requirement for a power to be recognized as a legitimate duchy by the nations.

Sunefa activated her Ascension Ring, and abundant magical power began to converge towards her location.

The phenomenon of magic converging is visible to the naked eye.

As Sunefa's contract tree and the guardian tree of the Zhenbing tribe, the Ice Jade Phoenix Tree also devoted all its efforts to assisting Sunefa in ascending to the next level.

The ancient tree trunk trembled slightly, and every ice crystal leaf shone brightly.

It is using its power to gather the surrounding magic, creating a more stable and pure environment for Sunefa's ascension.

The moment Gao De sensed the unusual magical activity, he immediately rushed to the outside of the spiritual land.

The canopy of the Ice Jade Wutong tree was more expansive than before, and the ice crystals at the tips of the branches refracted a faint glimmer in the sunlight.

The entire tree was pulsating slightly at an extremely slow pace.

Within the core area, Sunafa's aura is becoming increasingly strong and stable.

Sunefa's ring upgrade is something outsiders can't really help with.

The task of guarding is also handled by the sixth-tier Ice Jade Wutong.

Even if Gaode arrives, it can only wait quietly and cannot do anything practical.

But it's like when your wife goes into the delivery room. As a husband, there's really nothing you can do, but you can't just stay home and sleep soundly, so you'll definitely be waiting outside the delivery room.

"With such a profound foundation, the Ascension to the Ring is only a natural outcome, Your Highness need not worry." Before long, Elsa also arrived in a hurry, standing beside God, looking at the magnificent and orderly magical tide in the Ice Jade Wutong, and spoke softly.

Gao De nodded slightly, but the seriousness in his eyes did not diminish in the slightest.

Indeed, even without any special skills, Sunefa's strength makes failure highly unlikely.

Not to mention that Gaode also prepared top-tier upgrade potions for her as a backup.

But Gao De always had a weight on his mind.

Sunaf is an Iceborn mage.

The Iceborn mage has been imprisoned in the Fourth Ring for far too long by invisible shackles.

So long ago, the entire Iceborn population has come to accept the fact that the fourth ring is the final destination.

There is a deeper, unknown reason behind this: some force or entity is suppressing the upper limit of the Iceborn bloodline.

Although this time Sunafa has taken a different approach, using the "Green Wood Longevity Scripture" to advance to the fifth ring.

Even so, the blood of the Iceborn still flows in Sunefa's veins.

Gao De couldn't help but worry whether he would also be affected by the dark forces at the Iceborn level.

Therefore, he was still somewhat uneasy.

Just as the concentration of magical energy gathered in the core spiritual land became increasingly abundant and refined.

hum!

A gust of cold wind accompanied by strange, eerie noises came.

Along with it came a chilling aura.

Gao De couldn't help but shiver, looked up in the direction of the sound, and then his expression changed drastically.

The light there dimmed inexplicably for a moment, and the space underwent an extremely subtle distortion.

The distortion was extremely difficult to detect; to describe it, Gaode Maps described it as the feeling of a distant road surface slightly deformed by the heat of a hot summer day.

However, their appearance in the frigid North seems particularly unusual.

Gao De's eyes were fixed on that spot.

The originally clear and pure magic was suddenly mixed with a trace of extremely faint and eerie dark purple turbidity.

This aura does not belong to the elements, nor to any extraordinary system in the mortal realm.

It is cold, twisted, and chaotic, with an eerie sense of emptiness.

next moment.

A dark purple, slender arthropod silently emerged from the void.

The surface of the segmental limb is covered with a sticky, translucent outer membrane.

The distal end of the segment branches into three asymmetrical claws, each claw facing a different angle.

The limb paused for less than a breath after it extended, then suddenly exerted force throughout its body.

A tall, slender, and twisted dark purple figure burst forth abruptly from the empty space.

"A void creature!" Gao De stared at the dark purple figure, a chill running down his spine.

Its dark purple body had no clear head or tail, and was covered with a damp, shiny surface.

It's like the soft tissue exposed when a carapace-bearing creature has had its exoskeleton removed.

Dozens of eyes of varying sizes are irregularly distributed on the sides of its body, each eye rotating and blinking independently, as if staring in different directions at the same time.

The number of segments on the underside of the body is asymmetrical, with five on the left and only three on the right.

This is just the beginning.

In the space surrounding the spiritual land, similar distortions and flashes appeared one after another. The next second, several extremely strange figures suddenly appeared in those spatial folds.

Each one is distorted and different, with huge variations, like all sorts of aliens.

Countless deformed limbs of varying lengths and thicknesses grow haphazardly, resulting in complete asymmetry between the left and right sides.

Some are as slender as blades, others as thick as hammers, densely arranged on both sides of the body.

The eyeballs growing irregularly on the body vary greatly in shape and size.

Some were round and bulging, some were flat and sunken, some had pupils that were vertically constricted like snakes, and some had pupils that were diffuse like mist. Countless eyeballs were spinning wildly.

Although they are very different in appearance, you can tell at a glance that they belong to the same species.

Because their temperament and aura are exactly the same, both extremely eerie, and both are uniformly purple.

The moment these void creatures materialized, they charged toward the Ice Jade Wutong at an astonishing speed.

They move in different ways.

Some glide close to the ground, their limbs moving at an extremely high frequency.

Some leap forward, their bodies briefly contracting and then stretching in the air.

Some of them float in the air with their whisker-like tails, moving forward in a twisted, discordant rhythm.

But their orientations are completely aligned, with their target being Sunifa.

Gaode reacted almost immediately.

He had already taken a step forward and to the side, raised his right hand, gathered his strength, and activated the spell model as quickly as possible.

A fist-sized crimson sphere condensed and took shape in his palm, the flames inside compressed to the extreme, with tiny tongues of fire surging on its surface.

Gaode raised his hand and released it.

A crimson orb of light streaked through the air, leaving a bright trail behind it.

Fireball!

However, his fireball spell, which had been invincible in the gymnastics challenge and even the Unparalleled Magic Fighting Tournament, struck the Void creature at the very front, and a bizarre scene unfolded.

The expected explosive roar did not occur at all.

The moment the rapidly exploding fireball struck the dark purple body, it was instantly enveloped by the ethereal purple power flowing across the monster's surface.

The raging flames were as if they had fallen into a bottomless abyss, and all the fire elemental energy was silently swallowed up by the dark purple aura.

The entire fireball went from exploding fiercely to being completely annihilated in the blink of an eye.

Not even a wisp of residual heat or a trace of warmth escaped.

The void monster was only slightly tilted to the side by half a point due to the weak impact of the fireball.

The soft tissue that was hit remained smooth as ever, without a trace of scorch marks or injury, and even the purple light flowing on the surface did not dim in the slightest.

An imperceptible glint suddenly appeared in Gao De's left eye.

Fine lines spread rapidly along the edge of his iris, like an extremely thin, transparent mesh covering his entire field of vision.

Mandora's Eye, the Insightful Ruler.

His demonic eye swept over these manifested void creatures, filtering out the distorted aura floating on their dark purple bodies, and reaching the core of their energy flow.

Gao De saw those chaotic and dense dark purple energy veins, like a tangled ball of threads, writhing inside the body with an extremely irregular rhythm.

Each pulse carries a clear signal of energy intensity.

He made his judgment almost instantly:

Fifth rank, fifth rank, fifth rank, and all of them are in the late stage of fifth rank.

Finally, Gaode's vision focused on the first void creature to appear.

The energy intensity on the surface of that void creature was completely different from the previous ones, and the density of the dark purple veins was several times that of the former.

Its core area contains a continuous, stable pulsating energy core.

Sixth rank!

Gao De clenched his teeth.

No wonder his fireball spells didn't even cause the slightest ripple when they hit these void creatures.

The late stage of the fifth rank already far surpasses the combat power of the Northern Territory, not to mention there is also a sixth-rank void creature.

Anxiety and disbelief welled up in Gao De's heart.

Gao De had not expected that so many Void creatures would be lurking silently in Phoenix and would suddenly make their move at the crucial moment when Sunefa was ascending to the Ring.

Initially, they assumed that the void creatures' primary purpose was to gather intelligence.

The same applies to the situation that has always been apparent.

The last Void Eye had been lurking in Phoenix for who knows how long, never showing itself or launching any attacks.

Even after being discovered by Master Yang, they fled in panic, prioritizing their evacuation and causing no damage in Phoenix, revealing a probing and dormant state.

This is also the core reason why Gaode arranged for Yan Gang Master and Du Lin Huo to be located in the Vallar Bay area.

This was all to protect Yggdrasil and prevent these void creatures from detecting Yggdrasil's existence.

The importance of Yoghathira is beyond question, so this arrangement is not wrong.

This time, however, these void creatures broke with tradition and materialized collectively.

They risked exposing their tracks and launched a forceful attack on Sunaifa.

They were inserted at the most critical moment of the Sunefaol cyclophosphamide ring.

This indicates that they... or rather, the forces behind them, do not want to see Sunefa advance to the fifth ring.

In fact, there have long been mages in the North who are above the fourth rank.

For example, the necromancer who was once killed by Sunefair, the guardian of the snowfield, and Master Rocksteel and Master Durinfire.

These void creatures did not take any targeted action, nor did they react to their presence.

Why did they suddenly riot and come out in full force just when Sunafa was upgrading to the fifth ring?

Could it be that Sunefa's advancement to the fifth ring is unacceptable to the mastermind behind these void creatures?

Therefore, they spared no expense to prevent Sunafa from being promoted to the fifth ring.

A multitude of thoughts flashed through Gao De's mind in an instant, while at the same time he became increasingly anxious and heavy-hearted.

Even fifth-tier creatures are not beings they can easily withstand, let alone a sixth-tier void creature with such overwhelming combat power.

The sixth-tier void creature at the head had already broken through the magical barriers of the others and was about to reach Sunafa.

Its three long, whip-like tentacles at the tail were raised high, twisting and waving like tentacles, as if they were about to coil around Sunefa, who was breaking through her meditation with her eyes closed.

All the spells landed on this sixth-tier void creature.

Intense magical fluctuations would be instantly enveloped by the dark purple energy emanating from its body, and then completely annihilated and disappeared.

"Ice Jade Wutong!" In this emergency, Gao De did not completely lose his composure, but simply shouted.

The reason he felt comfortable leaving Rock Steel and Dulin Fire in Valar Bay to protect Yugathira was because Phoenix had an extraordinary force at his disposal.

It is the guardian tree, the Ice Jade Wutong.

Ice Jade Wutong's response was almost instantaneous.

The crown of this sixth-tier guardian tree suddenly trembled.

Between the bark veins, a deep blue light flickered and moved rapidly, like a series of startled snakes raising their heads at the same time.

These spiritual lights rapidly circulated, transforming into layers of field barriers that completely locked down the area within a ten-foot radius around Sunafa.

This is the protective ability of the Ice Jade Wutong tree, which severs the inner and outer spaces, isolating all disturbances, magical impacts, physical erosion, and even sound.

After completing its defensive work, Bingyu Wutong immediately launched a counterattack.

The tree's translucent ice crystal leaves suddenly trembled, and tiny fragments of ice elemental energy burst forth from the leaves.

They solidified in mid-air, transforming into thousands of ice blades.

call out!

A barrage of ice blades shot out instantly, aimed at the sixth-tier void creature.

The speed was much faster than Gaode had anticipated.

The ice blades barely produced any noticeable ripples as they passed through the air; only a series of extremely fine, continuous whistling sounds filled the air.

The sixth-tier void creature was also extremely fast, with dozens of its eyes turning towards the direction from which the ice blades were coming at the same instant.

Its three long, whip-like tentacles suddenly retracted and overlapped in front of its body, with the filamentous branches at the ends of the tentacles spreading outwards to form a layer of dark purple, fine mesh that blocked its front.

However, Bingyu Wutong did not concentrate all the ice blades on one point.

The ice blades suddenly dispersed just before they touched the tentacle screen, and even began to curve.

The original dense array dispersed into four groups, with the two wings bypassing the frontal protection of the tentacles and cutting in from the upper and lower sides respectively.

The void creature's limbs couldn't keep up with this change, and the three limbs on its right side were pierced by an ice blade that stabbed in from below.

The dark purple energy, powerful enough to melt everything, was disintegrated by the seemingly ordinary ice blade.

Dark purple gelatinous fluid seeped from the wound, but instead of freezing, it splashed onto the snow, making a slight hissing sound and leaving tiny corrosive pits.

However, some of this dark purple gel dripped down, while some of it solidified rapidly upon contact with air, forming a semi-transparent hard shell that covered the wound.

Those wounds closed immediately at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The sixth-tier void creature let out a low hiss, and with a shudder, it shook out the ice blades that had pierced its body.

Its dozens of eyes were fixed on the Ice Jade Wutong, as if observing its weaknesses.

But the Ice Jade Wutong's attacks did not stop.