“Sorcerer Ivan, do you need help up there?”
The two little ones often quarreled and disputed, but their good relationship wasn’t false either. Scented Butterfly became anxious upon seeing this and looked at Ivan expectantly, Ivan gestured with a wave of his hand. Discover stories at empire
Only then did Scented Butterfly catch up.
Ivan could sense that the strength of the two undead creatures opposite wasn’t strong and was within the coping range of the two little ones.
The figures in the thick fog revealed their true nature. At first glance, they were two Centaurs, but on closer inspection, they were undead creatures stitched together, their upper halves being the darkened torsos of humans, the lower halves the carcasses of deer, draped in ragged armor, holding rusty iron spears, their entire appearance was exceedingly rough and ugly.
‘Vine Entanglement.’
Scented Butterfly, catching up from behind, took the initiative to act first.
Two vines burst from the ground and wound precisely around the forehooves of the front creature, causing it to trip and become unstable.
The Wind Moth’s body had expanded to its largest, with its tail sweeping across perfectly in time.
In a short while, the two undead creatures fell to the ground, their dry, rotting flesh scattered everywhere, with not much blood, which was dark and thick.
“No big deal, ha—-“
The Wind Moth had just let out a proud laugh when a series of dense clattering sounds came from ahead.
One could judge from the sound alone that there were quite a few enemies. In a few seconds, one figure after another materialized in the fog, revealing quite a large force ahead, with a number difficult to estimate, and resembling the two creatures they had just encountered.
Its laughter stopped abruptly.
These undead creatures were weaker than the pair of them, but not so weak they could be easily handled. The Wind Moth might not understand the concept that two fists can’t beat four hands, but it wasn’t stupid.
“Retreat!”
Hearing Scented Butterfly’s words, the Wind Moth shrank its body and scurried back to the sorcerer’s side in a whiff of smoke.
Ivan didn’t blame them. Knowing to retreat when outmatched was good; it’s the truly obstinate ones that die the quickest, and that would waste a perfectly good transformation.
As the approaching undead creatures got closer, he cast the spell ‘Thorny Jungle.’ The next second, numerous vines burst from the ground, covering a forty to fifty-meter radius in front. Part of the vines acted as tripwires, while others wrapped around or stabbed at the unstable undead creatures.
The undead creatures immediately became entangled, with black blood splashing everywhere.
Under his control, that area turned into a deadly vine belt; any undead creatures that came close were dragged over and crushed.
Scented Butterfly couldn’t help but marvel at Sorcerer Ivan’s prowess. Compared to his, her vines seemed childishly simple, almost embarrassing.
“Let’s go.” With the last undead creature down, Ivan declared it was time to venture further.
“Don’t you want the loot?” the Wind Moth asked, surprised.
“It’s a good thought, but let’s skip it this time. A pile of rotten flesh that’s been dead who knows how long—there’s hardly any loot to speak of.”
These undead creatures didn’t possess any element cores; they were merely stitched-together carcasses, painted with mixed blood, reliant on special environments to maintain mobility, and would fall to pieces if they left this place.
“What a shame.” The Wind Moth shook its head in mock sorrow.
“Stay on guard, everyone. There must be a high-level undead creature or other being that stitched them together somewhere around here,” Ivan cautioned. These stitched-together creatures had to have come from somewhere, and the most likely explanation was that someone had created them.
“Understood.”
Hearing this, the Wind Moth and Scented Butterfly instinctively moved closer to him, feeling safer by the sorcerer’s side.
The trio advanced a bit further when suddenly, the mist in front of them thinned to a translucent veil, opening up their view to reveal a castle near the mountain peak.
The castle didn’t seem large or tall but was built very anciently and exquisitely, with an old banner still hanging on the wall, unmistakably the royal banner of the Tidal Empire’s Royal Family.
After a moment’s examination, Ivan guessed the so-called relic’s nature: it was likely a tomb built into the mountain, with the castle serving as the residence of the Tomb Guardian, which for some reason had become a playground for undead creatures.
At that moment, the castle’s gate was wide open.
Bold and fearless, Ivan led the two little ones straight towards the entrance of the castle, passing through the gate and into the interior, continuing toward the main hall at the castle’s heart.
“There seems to be someone over there.”
“Not someone, a Dead Spirit Flower. Don’t those flowers look like pale human faces?”
“They do.”
“These flowers are called ‘human face flowers.’ The blood concocted from crushed human face flowers can be used to create undead creatures. The stitched Centaurs we saw earlier were likely made from this substance.”
This isn’t the Moon Pincer Peninsula, the concentration of energy particles isn’t high here. If there was anything Ivan couldn’t handle, he wouldn’t have the leisure to explain a few things and definitely wouldn’t bring two little ones here.
On both sides of the road leading to the central hall, human face flowers were planted not far away, like pale faces lying on the ground staring at them, causing Wind Moth and Scented Butterfly to turn their heads for another look more than once.
Inherently insects, they became more aware of many things after gaining Spiritual Wisdom, which consequently increased the number of things they feared, making them feel involuntarily frightened now.
After a while, Ivan led them to the front of the castle’s central hall, where faint lights were visible inside.
“Halt, sorcerer.”
Accompanied by a hoarse shout, a figure slowly emerged.
Another Undead Centaur, smaller than the previous creatures, dressed in a full suit of armor with the emblem of the Tidal Empire, the armor included a tightly fitting helmet and a face guard.
The quality of the armor was remarkable, exuding a sense of finesse and luster.
This Undead Centaur was not a stitched-up creation; from the looks of the armor, one could tell she had been a petite woman in life.
What seemed even stranger to Ivan was that this Undead Centaur exhibited fluctuations of spiritual power, apparently at the level of a 3rd Class apprentice, truly a peculiar existence.
He sensed around and found nothing but a few creatures of the same kind as before, no other people were present.
“Sorcerer, this place is merely a graveyard to store bodies, there is no wealth or treasures, nothing you seek.” Outpowered, the undead creature had no choice but to lower its head.
“Who are you?” Ivan asked.
“As you can see, an undead guarding the tomb for the Royal Family of the Tidal Empire.”
“Are you also a member of the Tidal Empire’s Royal Family?”
“Yes.”
“Why do you have the appearance of a centaur?”
“The Royal Family has always had the bloodline of the Centaur Royal Family.”
The Undead Centaur was wary of his power; whatever Ivan asked, it answered, allowing him to learn a great deal.
Back when sorcerers ruled over the Tidal Continent, the Royal Family of the Tidal Empire had no place to flee. Some of them escaped here and took shelter under a natural fog array.
They did evade the slaughter for a time, but the good times didn’t last long—the sorcerers cast a curse directly following the bloodline, killing with a vicious spell, causing every survivor of the Royal Family to fall victim to it.
Under the curse, those with weak strength died on the spot, and the powerful could only wait for death. Some thought of a way to continue their bloodline, which was to have children. In their minds, not everyone born later would fall victim to the curse.
So, a few were born under these circumstances.
They underestimated the tenacity of the curse; the new-borns inherently contained the power of the curse in their bodies, although much lighter than their parents’.
It was still a lethal curse, and the only fate awaiting the new-born was death.
Then some thought of a way to learn and control the sorcerer’s power, so they managed to acquire the Meditation Method and brought it back to this castle, to be taught to the new-born with sorcerer’s aptitude.
This girl named ‘Helen’ was one of them, but she died before she could break the curse.
Not knowing whether it was decades or centuries later, Helen found herself an undead creature with the memories of her past, and she has been living in this place ever since, occasionally killing intruders. Later, human face flowers mysteriously grew here, and she figured out a way to create low-level undead creatures.
“How tragic!”
After hearing her story, Wind Moth and Scented Butterfly couldn’t help but look at this Undead Centaur girl with sympathy.
Ivan, however, noticed that Helen showed no emotional fluctuations when telling this tale, as if she was talking about someone else’s story. He guessed that the undead creature was no longer the person from before, but a new undead born with the memories of the past.
“One last question, do you know the Knight Breathing Method practiced by the Royal Family?”
“I know, there’s a Tidal Treasure Tome here that records the entire Breathing Method practiced by the Royal Family.”
“Miss Helen, let’s make a deal. I will repair the outer fog array for you, and you give me the Tidal Treasure Tome. How does my proposal sound?”
“Good.”
Though Helen found it odd that a sorcerer needed the Royal Family’s Breathing Method, she quickly agreed after pondering for a moment, realizing her strength was far inferior to his.
Ivan was pleased with this arrangement and took the opportunity to study the fog array here.
Twenty days later, he left the desolate castle with a metallic codex, bidding farewell to the strange Undead Centaur girl.