What a blessing... the Skeleton Nightmare is truly the ultimate mode of transportation in this steep terrain and icy environment."

Since (Gangnir) had reached an agreement with (Zheng Zha) for full cooperation in battle, he felt free to tease Zheng Zha playfully.

Zheng Zha was genuinely the most carefree among them. Seated on his skeletal warhorse, he didn't sink into the snow at all; on the contrary, no matter how steep the terrain, nothing could stop him. He was the only one patrolling freely around the team.

As Gangnir spoke, everyone indeed looked at Zheng Zha with envy. Even Zheng Zha felt a bit self-conscious, so he tugged at the reins, leaping and weaving restlessly across the cliffs.

... "Everyone hurry up! Look what I've found!" While patrolling, Zheng Zha suddenly cried out in surprise. Instantly, everyone looked toward him anxiously, though the expression on each face was rather odd.

... "Although we want to get over there, don't you think that request is pushing it a bit too far?" (Zhan Lan) said, exasperated yet amused.

Zheng Zha was standing on a cliff platform on another peak. If the others were to reach him, they would have to traverse several valleys. So, although it looked close, the team simply couldn't cross over.

Zheng Zha snapped back to reality, and then he shouted loudly: "Here... I found corpses here, twelve of them, all frozen solid. Fortunately, the snow isn't heavy enough here to have buried them all..."

(Gandalf) answered loudly: "Perhaps it was an herb-gathering team. There is the Snow Lotus, a spiritual herb found on snowy peaks. Some wizards pay a high price for this ingredient. Since Snow Wolves haunt this area, they usually gather in teams. Those people probably ran into a blizzard before they could finish gathering, and froze to death there."

Zheng Zha's face turned ashen. He urged his skeletal warhorse and leaped into the air, jumping directly from a distance to rejoin the others.

He murmured to the veteran members of the other Reincarnation Squads, "They... they are wearing our clothes, and judging by the wounds, they were killed by sharp weapons!" The veteran members were momentarily stunned. After a few seconds, every one of them gasped. Their clothes—that phrase defined their identity, as people coming from the real world, or the veteran members of Reincarnation Squads, had attire vastly different from the inhabitants of this world. Based on clothing alone, it was sufficient to confirm who those people were.

"The East American Team? Or the Divine Squad?" Gangnir asked with a frown.

(Nios) shook his head: "It couldn't be the Divine Squad. After all, all the captains of the original teams have joined the Divine Squad, and their numbers are barely over a dozen. Twelve people have died here. Even if there were members of the Divine Squad among the dead, the majority of them would absolutely be from the East American Team. And in such a massive world, the odds of two randomly appearing teams colliding within a few days is nearly impossible. So I suspect all twelve are members of the East American Team."

"Why?" most of the veterans asked blankly.

"Why?" Nios sneered, pulling out a chocolate bar from his pouch. "Many reasons. Perhaps they looked down on the newcomers, or didn't want other teams to gain an advantage, or internal power struggles within the team, or maybe the captain himself is a pervert. In short, there are too many conceivable reasons. However, I would prefer it to be an internal struggle within the East American Team, leading to mutual slaughter..."

(Chu Xuan) also nodded: "Yes, only if they kill each other is that most beneficial to us. Zheng Zha, go check again in detail, and bring back four or five corpses, ones with different fatal injuries..."

Zheng Zha nodded. The flexibility of his skeletal warhorse was evident again. In a matter of minutes at most, he returned from the other side carrying four corpses. As Zheng Zha went to retrieve the bodies, Gandalf and the others actually stopped, some even gathering around Zheng Zha to examine the bodies.

"A slash wound. This one was killed by a sharp, circular blade or an oddly shaped weapon. Judging by this, the blade of this weapon is actually curved. And this one has a gunshot wound, pierced straight through the chest by a long spear. Yes, these four corpses were killed by these two types of weapons, respectively."

(Aragorn) stated confidently after examining the bodies. Compared to those like Aragorn who had received systematic weapons training, the veterans of the Reincarnation Squad were indeed far inferior in terms of weapon knowledge. Not only him, but eventually even the Human Knight (Boromir) voiced the same conclusion, confirming the nature of the deaths of these four.

"...The other eight corpses have the same wound patterns. Only one is an exception; her entire head is missing, and we haven't found where the head is." Zheng Zha exhaled.

The faces of everyone in the Reincarnation Squad kept changing, especially Nios, whose face was livid as he chewed his chocolate. "It's a pity. Everyone had better pray that our three teams do not have to fight the East American Team. Otherwise, most of us might end up dead... This isn't an internal power struggle within the East American Team; it's their own veterans slaughtering their newcomers. And they have more newcomers than any one of our three teams combined. I even suspect all twelve of these dead are veterans. In other words, 'Main God' considers the East American Team, with only three veterans, to be stronger than any of our three teams. The three members of that team can only be described as unfathomable."

Carrying the anxiety about the existence of the East American Team, everyone continued on their journey, climbing further up the mountain path. The snow grew deeper, and along the way, the group encountered several packs of Snow Wolves. However, whether it was because this team was too large, or because the Snow Wolves knew better than to provoke them, these massive, bull-sized Middle-earth Snow Wolves dared not engage. They avoided the team from afar, giving way on the snow plains.

Gradually, the mountain path grew steeper, and a blizzard began to howl around them. Everyone carefully hugged the mountain wall to advance. Except for Zheng Zha, who remained completely unaffected, everyone else was impacted by this display of natural power. The team's speed was slowing down considerably.

(I wonder if we can cross this mountain. I could actually carry two people across to the other side each time. If we forgo the underground tunnel and choose to climb over this cliff instead, could that alter the plot and yield a large amount of reward points and side quests?) Zheng Zha looked at the endless blizzard in the distance, then down at the group moving slowly on the mountain path. The snow had already reached their waists; any higher, and the Dwarves and Hobbits would be in grave danger.

Just then, a solemn and majestic sound began to spread from the sky—the voice of an elderly man chanting a spell. The spell was difficult to decipher but possessed a distinct melody.

"That's Saruman!" Gandalf roared immediately. As his cry sounded, the solemn voice instantly became clearer, echoing throughout the entire mountain range like the voice of a god or a giant.

As his voice resonated, the blizzard intensified. Even the quiet skeletal warhorse beneath Zheng Zha snorted, seemingly wary of the sound. Gandalf, without hesitation, immediately began reciting another spell. After about ten seconds, Gandalf's chant finished first.

The Dwarf, (Gimli), immediately asked, "Did you win? Is that wizard not your opponent?"

"No... He is the Arch-Wizard, a secondary god... He is a far more powerful wizard than I am. I can only pray my protective shield can withstand the might of his magic..." Gandalf murmured, raising his staff while shouting: "Zheng Zha, hurry to my side!"

Before Zheng Zha could react, a bolt of lightning suddenly struck down from the sky, landing dozens of meters away from him. A violent explosion erupted there, followed by a second bolt, a third bolt... Dense lightning began to pour down like rain. Startled, Zheng Zha spurred his horse and leaped instantly next to Gandalf. As the lightning aimed toward the others, a semi-transparent protective shield appeared around them. The fierce explosions impacted the shield, causing it to shake violently, but it successfully blocked the direct strikes of the lightning.

Everyone looked up. The range of the lightning attack covered the entire mountaintop and slope. Lightning bolts as thick as a meter crashed down with a pa sound, followed by violent explosions resembling bombs. Everyone felt as if their eyes were being blinded. The surroundings were dense with lightning; it was as if they were being bathed in a rain of electricity. If Gandalf's shield hadn't been desperately holding up against the bombardment, or if this lightning hadn't struck a large area instead of targeting them specifically, they might all have died here, even with Gandalf's protection!

When the last bolt exploded on the snowy mountain, this hellish scene finally ended. Only then did the survivors dare to open their eyes. The mountain path they were standing on had been completely buried by fallen snow and rock. Gandalf's shield had blocked this debris, but the surrounding areas outside the shield had been ravaged beyond recognition. Especially the path leading up the mountain, which had been blasted to pieces by the lightning. Apart from the broken path leading down to the cliff, the group had no way left to ascend.

The power of this lightning... it was terrifyingly immense. An area spanning several thousand meters had been scoured by the lightning—such terrifying, overwhelming power.

Leaping to

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