I am a mage, with an infinite mana bar!

They were temporarily out of danger, but at the same time, they found themselves in a dilemma.

With Eli's magic, he could only maintain the "invisibility" for a maximum of one hour. During that time, they could barely manage to retreat to the outer edge of the forest.

But that also signaled the failure of their exploration plan, as the Moonshadow Necklace would need at least a week to recharge before it could provide them with sufficient time for exploration.

Without the Moonshadow Necklace, their squad's configuration would make it difficult to explore the depths of the Whispering Forest safely.

"The terrain here is too complicated, and it's not convenient to explore at night. It's unlikely we'll find that guy's hiding place within an hour!"

Liam frowned and said in a low voice, indicating that he was already considering retreating.

Since they couldn't block out sound within the "invisible and shadowless" concealment range, they tried to communicate with body language and eye contact as much as possible along the way, and at this moment they used Lynn's "communication skills" as a bridge to communicate.

Just as everyone was frowning in worry, Urshi bent down and crawled into the bushes beside him. When he stood up again, he was holding a long, colorful snake in his hand.

It was already mid-spring, the weather was warm, and snakes and similar creatures preferred to come out and be active on cool nights.

Eli was so frightened he almost screamed, but managed to cover his mouth in time.

Celine, gently swaying her fluffy tail, licked her lips, missing the taste of snake meat soup.

Lynn suddenly realized something and asked with a hint of surprise, "Animal communication?"

Urshi glanced at him, nodded slightly, then lowered his voice and chanted a few incantations. When he spoke again, he uttered a Universal language mixed with hissing sounds, the original meaning of which could still be vaguely discerned.

"Is there... a creature here... similar to us... that... is abnormally... emanating... an evil aura?"

The colorful snake, which had been struggling desperately, calmed down a bit upon hearing this. It stared with its round, beady eyes, its bright red tongue constantly flicking in and out, hissing as it spoke.

Urshi's expression was so calm and cold that it was unclear what he had heard.

He spoke again, asking, "Where...is he? Please take...us there, for the jerky...food...in exchange..."

As he spoke, he took out a dry food package from his backpack and pulled out a piece of dried beef jerky.

The colorful snake immediately stretched out its head and pounced, taking a bite, but it seemed to have bitten a stone. When it raised its head, its beady green eyes stared blankly at Urshi.

"...I will...soak it in water...to soften it...please lead the way."

As he spoke, he carefully placed the colorful snake on the ground. After hesitating for a moment, it slowly swam along the rock wall in a certain direction.

Animal communication is truly a magical skill in the wild, isn't it? Speaking of which, Ulsey is much more friendly to animals than to people... Lynn chuckled to himself, carefully following his teammates' steps.

With the guidance of the "indigenous people," their exploration went much more smoothly.

More than ten minutes later, the colorful snake led them to a recessed rock wall.

Liam carefully parted the weeds and vines and found a narrow gap, just wide enough for a human of normal size to pass through.

"Thank you..." Along the way, Urshi was trying to figure out how to get the payment, as the dried meat couldn't be softened by soaking in cold water in a short time.

Sirin, being more experienced, suggested chewing it up with her mouth... Of course, the two mages didn't need to condescend to do that.

So along the way, the three of them kept chewing as they walked.

The colorful snake got a piece of soft, mushy meat and immediately began to devour it.

"There shouldn't be any traps at the entrance," Liam, a wanderer with some ability to detect traps, speculated. "It's probably because that eyeball was too powerful, its detection range covering the entire mountain area, which made him careless."

Lynn agreed with him. According to Tana, the forest dwarf they rescued that afternoon, the guy who kidnapped her teammate was mentally unstable and probably couldn't make very meticulous plans.

The traces he left behind along the way also corroborate this point.

The five decided to sneak in carefully, with Liam, the most agile, leading the way, and Sirin, the strongest, bringing up the rear.

They had to squeeze sideways into the crevice between the rocks one by one, which wasn't difficult for the group of people who were either thin or short, but it was a bit difficult for the last one, Sirin.

Her overly voluptuous figure, with its prominent curves, became a huge burden at this moment!

After a rather awkward period of helping, she finally managed to squeeze in.

The men were alright, but Urshi maintained her usual cold expression, Liam chuckled lewdly throughout, and Lynn quietly looked away.

On the contrary, as Eli helped Celine, his face gradually turned red, and even his ears became flushed.

Especially when Xilin, panting heavily from the ordeal, leaned close to her ear to thank her in a soft voice, she was so startled that she took several steps back while clutching her staff.

After they finished packing, the group continued their journey through the winding tunnel inside the rock wall.

The tunnel showed no signs of human excavation; it appeared to be a fissure formed after a natural collapse.

At first it was extremely narrow, but it gradually widened until slivers of bright moonlight seeped out from in front of him. Liam cautiously peered out and discovered that he was in front of a rather spacious and flat valley overgrown with trees and weeds.

"There's actually a valley like this in the middle of the mountain? I wonder how that guy discovered such a hidden place..." he muttered to himself, then immediately turned around and reported the situation to his teammates.

"Did you spot any figures?" Lynn asked him.

Liam shook his head. "The angle isn't right, I can't see clearly."

After a moment's thought, Lynn decided to use "Magic Wave" to conduct a probe.

There is a possibility that the enemy will detect this, but it is less risky than entering rashly.

He tried his best to control his magical power, spreading out with the minimum amount of magic. The invisible ripples slowly spread across the entire valley, but suddenly stopped after only a few meters.

"There's a magical barrier covering that place..." Lynn immediately understood.

Barrier magic is considered one of the more difficult types of magic, belonging to a variant of protective magic.

This indicates that the spellcaster was quite powerful.

"He may have already noticed someone approaching this area, which also means he's inside," Lynn analyzed.

The fact that such a large-scale barrier magic was painstakingly set up indicates that there must be some kind of secret there, most likely the evil ritual Eli mentioned!

They were discovered by the Detective Eye at the foot of the mountain, and apart from that wave of corrupted wolves, they did not see any other enemies.

Either he doesn't control many monsters to begin with, or he can't concentrate on anything right now...

Thinking of this, Lynn sternly warned, "I think the dark magic ritual Eli suspected has already begun!"

Upon hearing this, the expressions of the group all darkened, especially Eli, who was the one who knew the most about these kinds of evil rituals.

The rituals required involved the sacrifice of living beings, either to summon evil spirits or to create terrible disasters like plagues.

Either way, it will inevitably affect the town of Colin!

As the daughter of the Lord of Luoan City, she naturally felt a sense of responsibility to protect the town of Colin, which belonged to Luoan City's territory.

Just as he was about to speak up and persuade his teammates to try to stop the ceremony, he overheard Lynn say:

"We should try to interrupt the ritual. That guy is unlikely to be a senior-level being, otherwise he wouldn't have let a novice-level wanderer escape so easily."