Compared to the preceding four layers, the fifth layer of the Bone Demon realm seemed superficially similar, yet the damp, greenish mist here was significantly thicker, conveying a chill that pierced straight to the marrow of one's bones. We made camp on the open ground near the entrance to begin our rest and reorganization. Bai Ling, Big Baldy, and the other key members gathered to discuss the approach to the mission.

“Our directive is exploration: zones five through nine, located in the southeast quadrant of this fifth layer,” Bai Ling spread the map flat upon a small makeshift table. “I heard Brother Xia is operating in that vicinity as well.”

“That’s wonderful, we’ll find Brother soon,” Xia Na exclaimed with delight.

“Don’t celebrate too early,” Fang Rou cautioned. “There are five full sectors remaining; we have no idea which one the Young Master is actually in.”

“True, it’s all down to luck now,” Big Baldy admitted.

“…” Xia Na’s spirits immediately dampened.

“Don’t worry. Since we’ve made it this far, we will certainly find your brother,” Bai Ling assured her.

“It’s just that the monsters on the fifth layer are rumored to be incredibly powerful,” Bai Zhan noted.

“Indeed.” Bai Ling nodded, her expression grave. “In short, everyone must be extremely cautious.”

Long Xin and I exchanged worried glances. If Bai Ling and Big Baldy were this tense, the monsters on the fifth layer must be exceptionally formidable. Yet, I genuinely struggled to imagine anything more potent than the Skeleton Archers from the fourth layer.

After a brief respite, the party set off again, heading southeast. For safety, the frontline warriors continued to brace themselves behind their massive shields, advancing cautiously. After all, none of them had fought on the fifth layer before, making necessary vigilance against the unknown paramount.

The main thoroughfare revealed no immediate anomalies, but despite that, everyone maintained tight formation and proceeded with utmost care. An entire morning passed without encountering a single undead creature, suggesting that the advance teams had already scoured the area, leaving nothing for our follow-up group. This situation persisted for two full days, until we finally reached the designated coordinates on the map: Sector Five, Southeast Quadrant, Bone Demon Layer Five.

Before us lay a vast plaza dissected by five diverging paths! According to the mission log, these five paths represented the remaining unexplored search areas. However, none of us knew which path led to Xia Na’s brother.

“Which one do we choose?” Bai Ling and Big Baldy looked toward Xia Na with a hint of helplessness. This mission now involved not only exploration but also finding her brother, causing everyone to subconsciously look to her for direction.

“This one, this one…” Xia Na hesitated, gazing at the five gloomy tunnels, a look of confusion on her face. She clearly had no idea where to go. “Goddess Mafu, please bless me, let me find my brother,” she murmured, closing her eyes and occasionally whispering incantations too faint for us to catch. Then, she suddenly tossed her Demon-Slaying Blade high into the air.

With a thud, the blade landed, its tip pointing directly at the fork corresponding to Sector Seven.

“Goddess Mafu protects us.” Xia Na pointed firmly at the Sector Seven passage. “This is the one.”

“Good heavens, it actually worked,” Dong Guan exclaimed in disbelief.

“Heh,” Bai Ling chuckled. “Do you have a better method?”

“That’s true,” Dong Guan conceded. “Maybe she actually guessed right.”

The party proceeded down the Sector Seven path.

Since this map territory was entirely unexplored, caution was the default setting. The frontline Zhan Tang warriors still held their large shields high. As the main contingent advanced deeper, the surrounding green fog grew noticeably denser.

“Something isn't right here,” Big Baldy muttered, his expression tightening as he surveyed the surroundings.

“Why is the fog getting thicker the further we go?” Bai Ling asked, peering into the dense vapor that had almost coalesced into a single mass.

The green mist thickened relentlessly, until it seemed to gain sentience, twisting into eerie, vortex-like clusters. One swirling mass followed another, encircling them, eventually forming phantom beasts with grotesque, menacing visages.

“Ah! What is happening?” Dong Guan cried out in shock.

Everyone else shared his tension. This sudden manifestation of fog was deeply suspicious, certainly boding no good.

Roar! Even the Holy Covenant Beast, which had been guarding Xia Na, let out a string of uneasy cries.

In the blink of an eye, the scenery transformed utterly. The green fog dissolved, replaced by patches of dense woodland, open grassland, muddy swamps, deserts, and bogs. Within the shadows of the trees, countless hideous monsters flitted about, emitting sharp, grating screeches as they lunged toward us.

Slash! Ah! A scream suddenly tore through the air—a few warriors at the front rank had plumes of blood erupting from their chests as they collapsed. Where their chests had been, there was now only a mess of indistinct, reddish-green putrefied flesh. The fallen warriors uttered only a few agonizing cries before falling silent.

“It’s the Undead Phantoms, conjured by the Corpse Qi!” Xia Na exclaimed in alarm.

“What?” Bai Lan gasped, horrified. “Undead Phantoms?”

“This is the territory of High-Level Undead!” Big Baldy stammered.

“Undead Phantoms! High-Level Undead! Corpse Qi!”

Innumerable terrifying legends immediately flooded everyone’s minds.

Life and death are eternal opposites; every living creature fears the approach of death. And Corpse Qi emanates from the Realm of Death, being one of the signature magic skills utilized by the Lock-Life Asuras—the High-Level Undead.

Legend claimed that High-Level Undead differed vastly from common undead. They possessed extremely high intelligence, potentially surpassing that of humans. These powerhouses from the Undead Kingdom were absolute destroyers; terms like slaughter, bloodshed, and brutality were insufficient to describe their horror. If Skeleton Spearmen and Skeleton Archers were the mere minions of the Undead Kingdom, then High-Level Undead were their commanders—there was no comparison between the two.

Records in the Ranger’s Handbook stated that the Undead Phantoms of High-Level Undead were magical attacks formed from the unique Corpse Qi endemic to undead beings. This magic directly assaulted the victim's nervous system, inducing terrifying hallucinations where reality and illusion blurred; those lacking strong nerves could even be scared to death.

But that wasn't the most horrifying aspect of the Undead Phantoms. In high concentrations, the Corpse Qi possessed a terrifying corrosive property. Once it touched living flesh, it would reduce a person to a pool of bloody water—that was the true killer. In the world of the Rangers, only the Taoists' Ghost Shield could resist this lethal corrosive attack. The Warrior class’s Body Protection Aura and the Mages’ Magic Shields offered no effective defense against this encroaching undead magic, unless one was an exceptionally powerful master whose Aura and magic cultivation were formidable. I rapidly recalled every piece of information I had regarding Corpse Qi.

“All Taoists, release the Ghost Shield at full power!” Bai Ling ordered, though visibly shaken, she reacted swiftly.

“Yes! Ghost Shield! Full coverage release!” Bai Lan roared.

Countless hideous monsters, claws extended, rapidly closed in. Long Zhan and I gripped our weapons tightly, feeling our hearts threatening to burst from our chests. Frankly, in all my years, this was the first time I realized how cowardly I could be.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Streams of gentle blue light descended overhead—the Ghost Shields cast by the Taoists. The blue radiance enveloped the surroundings like an enormous shield.

Almost simultaneously! Countless Undead Phantoms slammed into the blue light barrier!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Amidst violent reverberations, concentric rings of distorted ripples appeared between the blue light and the green mist, as if the very space was being torn apart, creating an atmosphere of suffocating pressure and bone-deep cold.

All incoming Corpse Qi attacks were deflected by the massive Ghost Shield.

But immediately following this came a series of piercing whistles.

“Not good! Arrow Volley attack!” I shouted in alarm. The sound was all too familiar; not just me, everyone reacted instantly.

“Brace shields!” Bai Ling bellowed.

“Roar! Yes!” The warriors holding the great shields instantly jammed the shield corners deep into the ground, raising the shields vertically with maximum speed to form an impenetrable wall.

Thud! Rumbled! Streaks of grayish-white elongated objects tore through the air! They slammed violently against the shields.

The sheer impact forced the front-rank warriors backward several steps uncontrollably, and the shield corners, digging into the earth, carved deep, alarming gouges into the ground from the violent friction.

Several warriors who hadn't braced properly were knocked flying backward, shield and all. The arrows that passed through them directly pierced the bodies of several Mages. One Mage, despite his potent Magic Shield withstanding the impact, was thrown five or six meters before crashing down with a thud, his condition unknown.

Heavens, what force was that! I couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath. That level of power was almost comparable to the giant Ballistae mounted on the city walls.

In the blink of an eye, over twenty warriors and more than a dozen Mages fell.

Everyone was deeply shaken. I anxiously searched for Long Xin and Dong Guan among the chaos.

They appeared safe, though both were ashen-faced, clearly still reeling from the sheer shock of such a bloody and brutal scene.

“There are Enhanced Skeleton Archers within the Undead Phantoms,” Big Baldy declared, aghast. Legend stated that these creatures, unlike standard Skeleton Archers, possessed terrifying strength. The force behind the arrows shot from their massive bows exceeded human comprehension—a horrifying undead mutation resulting from millennia of continuous evolution. Their appearance rate was nearly one in ten million, which was why they had been almost forgotten by the heroes of the Ranger World.

But no one expected these creatures, existing only in legend within the Ranger’s Handbook, to appear, and worse, in large groups. It was no wonder Big Baldy’s voice cracked with terror.

“Dual bracing shields, form the Crescent Guard formation,” Bai Ling stated, suppressing her fear. “Everyone, take cover behind the shields!” Although the arrow volley was horrifying, I sensed that the number of Enhanced Skeleton Archers hidden within the phantoms wasn't overwhelmingly large—certainly fewer than a hundred. However, their destructive power was immense. The experienced Bai Ling clearly understood this. In fact, the frontline warriors already realized that a single person couldn't withstand the Enhanced Skeleton Archers alone.

“Yes!” The frontline warriors swiftly rearranged their formation. The large shields, previously lined up in a single row, now formed an inverted ‘U’ shape. The positions behind the shields, which previously held one person, now held two, the only way to absorb the impact of the powerful arrows and protect the Mages and Taoists nestled in the center.

Even without seeing them, everyone understood the current strategy of the High-Level Undead: using the Undead Phantoms as cover while the hidden Enhanced Skeleton Archers launched their assault. The situation was dire.

In just two breaths, another wave of powerful arrows tore through the air. This time, however, the prepared warriors were less chaotic. Though the Enhanced Skeleton Archers’ shafts struck with crushing force, the presence of two warriors bracing each shield, leveraging the ground anchor points of the shield corners, managed to block this volley.

But under the cover of the Undead Phantoms, we were utterly blind to the movements of the surrounding Skeleton legions, yet those legions could attack us at will. Clearly, we had been outmaneuvered by this unseen High-Level Undead. Furthermore, its tactics were brilliant; at least for now, we had no immediate countermeasure.

“Retreat back to the fork,” Bai Ling decided instantly. Facing such a sudden, powerful foe, she knew that forcing a push forward would result in catastrophic casualties. However, a deluge of arrows swept toward them again. Simultaneously, urgent, dull booming sounds echoed from behind.

“Damn it, we’re surrounded,” Big Baldy exclaimed in shock.

Though unseen, that low booming was all too familiar—it was the group charge of the melee-focused Skeleton Hammerers, Spearmen, and Axemen, and their numbers were astonishingly large.

Everyone’s hearts plummeted. If those melee units reached them, their sheer power would overwhelm any defense.

“Dao Tang Squad Three, guide the Mages using Mind Revelation to attack,” Bai Ling instructed calmly. “Zhan Tang, form a Circular Guard formation; everyone inside! Move toward the rear right corner!” Attacks from the mist seemed to come from all directions, but based on the sound of the arrows tearing the air, the volley attack was definitely originating from the front. The rear and left were occupied by an alarming number of melee Skeleton troops. Our only option was to move toward the wall corner on the right, the west.

Under these circumstances, only the Taoists' Mind Revelation could provide guidance. Mind Revelation used special psychic techniques to sense the surrounding bio-energy fields, rendering the illusions useless. Bai Ling’s experience was clearly profound.

“Yes! Change formation.” Bai Zhan roared. “Squad Two, fall back, defend, form a Circular Guard.” Soon, a contingent of warriors carrying large shields moved to the rear. The entire group was now protected within the ‘O’ shape formed by the shields. The Mages, guided by the Taoists, launched attacks toward the approaching melee skeletons. Though unseen, thanks to the Taoists' precise psychic sensing, the Mages' spells covered an area fifty meters out. Explosions roared continuously, and through the noise, we could occasionally hear muffled shrieks—I knew the Mages’ bombardment had hit their targets precisely.

While attacking, the entire main contingent rapidly shifted westward to avoid being encircled by the Skeleton legions.

However, after moving only a short distance, we discovered a thick wall ten meters ahead—there was no path forward. Surrounded by swirling mist, we couldn't discern the situation, but caught between the Enhanced Skeleton Archers and the overwhelming numbers of melee Skeleton troops, we would surely perish if a solution wasn't found immediately.

“Vanguard Hall! Break through the Enhanced Skeleton Archers! We must eliminate that damned High-Level Undead!” Bai Ling, with no other recourse, chose the direction of the Enhanced Archers as the breakthrough point. The melee units blocking the rear were simply too numerous. “Magic Hall Squad Two, cover the Vanguard Hall! Bai Lu, Bai Shuang, support the Vanguard Hall to locate the High-Level Undead!”

“Yes!” Two figures immediately stepped out from the Dao Hall and ran behind us. “One hundred and twenty meters ahead, the magic fluctuations of the Undead are strongest!” shouted the Scarlet Moon Taoist named Bai Lu.

“Roar! Raise shields!” Big Baldy roared. “Follow me!” He lifted his great shield and charged forward. The saying goes: strike the leader to subdue the followers. If they could destroy the High-Level Undead, the Undead Phantoms would dissipate entirely, ending their current passive defense.

Long Zhan and I carried a great shield together and charged toward the direction the arrows were raining from. As we rushed forward, countless golden or blue lights descended from above, enveloping us—it was the Ghost Shield and Holy Armor cast by the Taoists. Everyone felt a surge of morale and quickened their pace.

Sharp whistles, violent impacts, roaring explosions—countless powerful arrows smashed against our sturdy shields. The force shoved Long Zhan and me back several steps uncontrollably. Everyone in the Vanguard Hall experienced the same thing. This terrifying impact was unimaginable unless experienced firsthand.

It felt like comparing a normal person’s strength against a large truck; one felt on the verge of being shaken apart. The shoulder pressed against the shield surface felt close to fracturing. Even with Long Zhan and me bracing the shield together, the impact was hard to neutralize. We could only advance a few steps before being violently repelled.

“Seventy meters ahead, cast Bursting Flame!” Bai Shuang’s clear voice cut through the mist, providing Mages providing cover with accurate targeting coordinates.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Numerous flares of fire instantly appeared, accompanied by strange, muffled cracking sounds. Despite the obscuring fog, the Mages could not see the Enhanced Skeleton Archers, but their wealth of combat experience, coupled with Bai Lu’s precise psychic sensing, allowed them to pinpoint the exact location of the Enhanced Skeleton Archers.

Countless Bursting Flames erupted like heavy strategic bombs in the swirling fog. Even through the dense mist, we were guided by the dazzling flashes of light—that was indeed where the Enhanced Skeleton Archers were positioned.

As violent roars sounded, the previously dense arrow rain suddenly thinned out.

“Now is the chance, charge!” Big Baldy roared.

“Yes!” All the Vanguard Hall warriors unleashed astonishing speed.

Under the cover of the Mages’ firepower, the Vanguard warriors seized a brief window of opportunity, charging toward the blazing locations at near hundred-meter sprint speed.

The Mages’ covering fire never ceased. We exploited this gap to close the distance. Dozens of tall Skeleton Archers were rapidly retreating, continuously firing powerful arrows at us. But behind us, the following Mages were equally busy; dense Bursting Flames rained down like a torrential storm, preventing the archers from taking steady aim, thus significantly reducing the power of the arrows they loosed. Compared to our near-full-speed charge, the retreat speed of the Enhanced Skeleton Archers seemed sluggish. In an instant, we closed the distance to within ten meters. Initially, we couldn't even make out their shapes, but guided by the Mages’ fire, we finally saw the legendary Enhanced Skeleton Archers. They resembled ordinary Skeleton Archers, except their entire skeletal structure wasn't the usual deathly white, but a sickly green glowing with an eerie luminescence.

“Kill!” Big Baldy roared! His Hellfire Battle Axe swept out like a gale.

Among all Skeleton legions, the Skeleton Archers had the weakest close-combat capability. Even the Enhanced versions could not overcome this inherent weakness. Now that we were upon them, it was our turn to dominate.

“Ah! The High-Level Undead is moving fast toward the front-left!” Bai Lu cried anxiously. “Chase it quickly!” As she spoke, she flung a Soul Fire Charm.

Whoosh! Thud! With a burst of sound, a streak of brilliant, fiery red light flashed in the front-left of the mist. In the illumination of that light, we could see a blurry skeletal form running swiftly.

“Chase! Chase!” Bai Lu gasped. “I have locked onto it with a psychic tag, but we only have five minutes.” Clearly, that last strike had exhausted all of Bai Lu’s spiritual energy, and she nearly collapsed to the ground.

"Starlight, Dragon War, Third Brother! Follow me and chase! Everyone else, eliminate the archers!" The huge bald man quickly retracted his large shield and took the lead, charging toward the dazzling fiery red beacon in the mist.

Dragon War and I simultaneously lowered our great shields and gave chase, with Fang Rou quickly catching up behind us.

The other warriors from the Vanguard Hall lunged toward the dozens of reinforced skeleton archers.

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