Lin En’s figure finally disappeared into the morning mist at the edge of Fallen Leaf Village.
Behind him, the thunderous joy and the wave of adoration still echoed in his ears.
He could even clearly sense, within that sea of fervent faith, the purest and warmest point of light—that belonged to Anna.
He took out the Peace Talisman from his chest, the rough hemp rope still carrying a lingering warmth.
His fingertips gently traced the simple lines on the talisman, and Anna’s clear eyes, filled with sincere blessings, seemed to appear before him.
“Burning oneself to light the way for others… What a foolish yet… dazzling choice.”
He muttered softly.
He remembered the resolute expression Anna had when she prepared to burn her own life to save others without hesitation.
Lin En tightened his grip on the Peace Talisman, the last trace of hesitation in his eyes turning into cold determination.
He had to find the Hall of Life!
Save his mother!
As he delved deeper, the noise and morning light behind him were quickly cut off.
Towering Ancient Trees stood like silent giants, their twisted branches weaving above into a dense, impenetrable net, completely blocking out the sunlight.
The light quickly dimmed, the air grew damp and cold, filled with a cloying scent of decay and unknown plants.
The vibrant hope of Fallen Leaf Village contrasted sharply with the oppressive silence here, forming a vivid and unsettling opposition.
At that moment, his powerful mental senses caught a chaotic commotion ahead—a clash of metal and giant claws, the rough roars of humans, the deep bellows of beasts, and a short, desperate scream.
These shouts of turmoil were particularly jarring in the dead silence of the forest.
Lin En didn’t hesitate.
Wind Magic, Lightwind Technique—activated.
In a few leaps, he silently stood on the branch of a massive tree that would take several men to encircle, coldly overlooking the battlefield below.
It was a clearing in the forest, violently swept clean.
A mercenary company of more than ten was being cornered by three giant beasts.
The leather and metal chest armor on them were still decent, but now covered in savage claw marks and dried blood.
Their formation was barely holding, held up only by a burly man wielding a Tower Shield.
The man glared fiercely, and each time he blocked an attack from the monsters with his shield, his rock-like body trembled violently.
Veins bulged on his shield arm, the webbing of his thumb already split, blood streaming down his arm.
He was at his limit.
Their enemies were three massive bears, their bodies covered in a kind of fungus.
These bear-shaped monsters were as large as heavy wagons, their entire bodies coated in thick, rock-hard gray-white fungal armor.
The mercenaries’ long swords, when striking them, could only send up a few feeble sparks.
Every swing of their claws carried a heavy gust.
Two mercenaries already lay in pools of blood, life or death unknown.
There was no hint of pity or sympathy in Lin En’s eyes.
Like a calm battlefield analyst, his mind completed a biological model of the targets in an instant.
“Surface Biosymbiotic Fungal Armor, extremely high physical resistance, conventional physical attacks ineffective.
But at the fungal armor joints of the limbs, the structure is thinner.
The Energy Core is located slightly left of the chest cavity.”
His brain whirled.
He instantly dismissed several combat plans.
“Large-scale energy attack? Like Thermobaric Art? No, too inefficient and a waste of Magic.Against these tough, single targets, it’s not cost-effective, and in such a chaotic melee, you might vaporize the whole squad along with them.”
“Use high-penetration kinetic strikes, perform surgical attacks to first paralyze their movement, then precisely destroy their life core. Choose ice-type Magic, utilize Cryogenic Embrittlement to further weaken the defense at the joints.”
As he finished the decision, the battle below took a sudden turn!
The burly man’s defense was violently smashed open by a Fungus-armored Bear, his body flying like a broken kite.
Another bear seized the opening, its massive paw sweeping down at a young mercenary who’d fallen to the ground, despair etched across his face!
At the critical moment, Lin En moved.
He remained still atop the treetop, not a wasted motion, only calmly raising his right hand.
The moisture in the air condensed and compressed under his will.
First step, paralyze movement!
Before Lin En, six ultra-compressed Ice Lances, each as thick as a finger and half a meter long, appeared out of thin air.
These lances were no ordinary ice—they were formed under extreme cold and high pressure, their density and hardness far exceeding steel, their surfaces mirror-smooth, as if they could swallow light itself.
His Dual Crystal Core processing power went full throttle, assigning different trajectories and flight speeds to all six lances.
“Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh!”
Almost soundless.
Six faint flashes of cold light vanished, too fast for the eye to track.
In the next instant, the three rampaging Fungus-armored Bears all let out piercing, agonized roars!
Their limb joints, knees, ankles, and shoulder blades were precisely struck by the six ice lances.
The high-speed rotating lances bored through the weaker connections in the fungal armor.
Extreme cold energy exploded within the joints, ice mist and flesh bursting into a bloody bloom.
The bones supporting their huge bodies broke instantly, their swinging arms falling limp.
The three fearsome beasts collapsed almost simultaneously, all ability to move lost, left to thrash and howl helplessly on the ground.
The mercenaries, snatched from the jaws of death, hadn’t even processed the sudden reversal when Lin En’s second wave was ready.
Second step, fatal blow!
This time, he conjured only three lances.
But the tips of these three shimmered with a faint, unsettling light—like twisted space.
He had overlaid the “High-frequency Vibration” property of Wind Magic onto the ice lances through complex magical manipulation.
Targets locked: the heart positions in the chests of the three downed monsters.
The three vibrating Ice Spike Sniping projectiles shot out silently.
They buried themselves into the thick chest armor of the Fungus-armored Bears.
No earth-shaking explosion, not even piercing through the body—just three muffled “puff” sounds, like stones dropping into deep water.
But within the monsters, the high-frequency vibration energy stored in the lances erupted like a grinder, reducing the heart and nearby fragile organs to mush in an instant.
The howls of struggle stopped abruptly.
The three enormous beasts lost all traces of life.
The entire battle, from paralysis to kill, was as smooth as a pre-programmed killing machine, lasting no more than five breaths.
On the battlefield remained only three nearly intact colossal corpses—and a group of dumbstruck, frozen mercenaries.
The burly man struggled up from the ground, staring at the small, cold-smoke-emitting holes in the monsters.
A chill shot up his spine, drenching his back in cold sweat.
He couldn’t comprehend what kind of attack could so easily pierce fungal armor and precisely destroy movement and life cores.
This exceeded everything he knew of Mage Lords—this was a terrifying combat method he had never seen.
He immediately tossed aside his battered weapon, dropped to one knee in the direction of Lin En, his voice trembling with awe:
“Barret, leader of the Mercenary Corps of Steel Blade, thanks you for saving our lives! May I ask which… lord stands before us?”
Lin En’s form drifted down from the tree, silent.
He appeared before them, his expression indifferent as he surveyed the battered mercenaries.
At that moment, another group cautiously emerged from the dense forest nearby.
At the front was a young woman in a clean scholar’s robe, her demeanor intellectual.
Several alert guards followed her, clearly drawn by the battle.
The scholar strode quickly to a Fungus-armored Bear’s corpse, crouched, ignoring the blood, and used a silver probe to carefully touch the lethal ice wound.
Her face showed a mix of shock, confusion, and scholarly fervor.
“Heavens…”
She gasped, voice trembling.
“This isn’t ordinary ice. There isn’t a trace of the gentle aura typical of water elements… It’s more like… Crysaliron forced to condense and solidify! This hardness is inconceivable!”
She pushed the probe deeper into the wound, frowning, as if sensing something.
“And this wound… No sign of Alchemical Construct, no potion residue, no magical radiance… How did it pierce the fungal armor? Pure… force?”
She muttered, as if doubting her own knowledge.
“But what kind of power could throw ice with such terrifying penetration?”
She suddenly looked up, as if struck by an even more incredible thought, and focused intently on the inside of the wound, prodding with the probe.
“No, that’s not right… Inside… the organs are completely shredded by an incomprehensible force… But why is there only a tiny hole outside?”
The scholar shot to her feet, eyes blazing with disbelief as she locked onto Lin En.
All her previous composure and intellect vanished, replaced by awe and confusion at witnessing a miracle.
Lin En met her gaze.
Facing this scholar with insatiable curiosity, he replied calmly:
“My name is Lin En.”
“Lin En?”
She seemed never to have heard the name in any trading company intelligence.
“I am Ella, scholar of the Silver Moon Trading Company. The technique you used just now… what was it?”
Ella faltered.
Her mind raced, trying to explain the inexplicable scene before her with all her accumulated knowledge, but every theory seemed hollow.
She could only describe her feelings in the clumsiest way:
“It… it’s both as primitive as throwing and as sophisticated as the highest alchemy… I’ve never seen… Magic like this.”
Ella’s keen magical intuition told her that the power this man wielded surpassed every known Magic system.
She couldn’t understand it, couldn’t explain it, but the sense of shattered reality was burned into her mind.
Yet Lin En gave no response to her analysis or Barret’s gratitude.
His gaze deepened, settling into the strange heart of the forest.
He sensed that the madness and strength of these monsters surpassed natural origin—as if some deeper force had catalyzed and driven them.
He spoke, his tone calm but striking straight to the heart:
“You’d best leave this place. Something in this forest… has awakened.”
Barret and Ella’s faces changed simultaneously.
They exchanged glances, both seeing the gravity in each other’s eyes.
Barret spoke heavily, his voice hoarse:
“Mage Lord… you sense it too? The old adventurers call this sign—”
“Forest’s Wrath.”
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