Chapter 419: Murder

Then, Adelo saw a beautiful snowflake…

Nobody knew how many icicles sliced through the air in that instant as a piercing sound rang out, sending a chill down their spines. The crystal-clear icicles painted an ethereal picture against the backdrop of a blood-red evening sun, yet beneath the facade of this ethereal beauty were heart-wrenching cries.

There was originally woodland with short shrubs at the end of the mountain path. It was jade-green, but as the beautiful snowflakes fell on it, the picturesque jade-green was painted with spots of bright red, almost as if a careless artist had splattered paint on his canvas.

The scary thing was that these bright red spots were growing in numbers at a frightening speed, and in a split second, more than half of the jade-green had been covered in bright red…

The word quieted down all of a sudden, and it was as if time stood still at that instant. Everyone was shocked by the gruesome sight as they knew that every bright red spot meant that a life had been lost to the icicles. They were unable to imagine how many people had to have died to the icicles in that short period of time for half of the hill to be painted bright red…

Lin Li was the only who knew that there were 137 of them.

That was the difference between level-18 and level-19. While a level-18 Archmage was powerful, their mental strength was somewhat slower, but this would all change once they reached level-19. Their mental strength was now akin to another eye for them, and an incredibly sharp one at that. They would be able to clearly tell what was going on with just a glance.

In that split second, there were 137 arrows fired at him; hence, Lin Li released 137 icicles.

The arrows fell on the floor just as the icicles pierced their chest.

None of the 137 people ambushing him were spared—all of them lost their lives in that split second.

Such was the power of a level-19 Archmage. Once a mage attained this level, it would be hard to ambush them as their incredibly sensitive mental strength would be capable of detecting and locating anyone harboring ill-intent towards them.

The bandits might have been able to live for another 10 minutes had they not made the first move. They were the elites of the Syer Bandits, after all, and there were over 300 of them. Lin Li would have to take some time to search for them one by one.

Unfortunately, the moment they released their arrows was also the moment they handed their lives over to the Grim Reaper…

It had not taken more than a few seconds from the moment Lin Li stumbled upon the toxic fume trap to the moment the bandits were killed. Everything had happened so quickly that nobody was able to react in time. To put it simply, the greenish toxic fumes had yet to dissipate even when half the mountain was painted a bright red…

It was at this moment that Adelo knew that he had made a mistake, a grave mistake…

Adelo was the one who had interacted the most with Lin Li after the advance party entered the Scar of Death. While everyone held their guard up at first and plotted against each other, even getting into minor conflicts at times, Adelo still had a relatively good impression of this young mage when they left the Scar of Death.

Truth be told, the young mage had put on an impeccable facade in the Scar of Death as he was always calm, while his attitude was never overbearing or cowardly in any sense. However, it was his gentle and friendly smile that’d left a lasting impression on Adelo as it felt like he was meeting an old friend when he was with Lin Li. He never had to worry about accidentally provoking him.

It was that same delusion that led Adelo to think that he would still be magnanimous and forgive Hutton when the ambush happened.

However, the mountain slope painted in red reminded Adelo once again that this was no old friend of his, but a powerful mage who had defeated a Lich!

Adelo finally realized that he was wrong—this young mage was definitely nowhere as gentle and friendly as he seemed to be. Even though he still had a smile on his face, there was not a trace of pity or hesitation in his eyes, and he looked just like a seasoned executioner as he took more than a hundred lives in mere moment…

And the most terrifying thing was that this executioner did not look like he was going to stop after taking those lives. He held the magic staff with the huge gem at the tip and slowly walked out from the toxic fume trap while four Solar Spheres of yellow, blue, red, and green circled around him quickly.

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Once he saw the four Solar Spheres Adelo knew immediately that this young mage was out for blood. Those four Solar Spheres were the ultimate form of the earth, water, fire, and wind Four-element Shields. That was a level-19 Elemental Shield, and purely in terms of defense was equal to at least 10 Source Shields. Only Legendary-level magic or a blow from a Sword Sage would be able to penetrate the Elemental Shield…

However, the Elemental Shield required more than 10 times the mana expenditure compared to a Source Shield. When a mage used an Elemental Shield, it meant that he was about to do something big.

The toxic fumes still had yet to dissipate, but with the Elemental Shield, Lin Li did not even fear Archmage-level magic, much less that bit of toxic fumes. Hence, Lin Li walked right through the toxic fumes without giving them a second look.

“You idiots, what are you waiting for, start… start moving and get rid of this fellow!” Vanskore was scared silly, and only managed to come back to his senses now, yelling wildly while he retrieved his crossbow from his back.

Perhaps it was because of Vanskore’s orders, or the fear of imminent death, but after hearing Vanskore’s yelling, the equally stunned Syer Bandits all came to life at once, roaring. Thousands of arrows sliced through the air as they came flying towards Lin Li like a swarm of flies; at the same time, about 30 mages hidden behind the mountain started chanting…

Unfortunately, none of this held any meaning in front of a level-19 mage…

The four Solar Spheres circled quickly as they formed an impenetrable shield around Lin Li, rendering the swarm of arrows and magic hurled at him useless. The arrows clattered as they fell to the ground, and the magic was engulfed by the shield in an instant while Lin Li continued walking through the toxic fumes and up the mountain amidst the torrential attacks…

“Don’t you dare stand back, all… all of you move at once and get rid of this fellow!”

Vanskore’s yells continued to resonate on the mountain slope, and the torrential attacks continued pouring down on Lin Li, yet none of this seemed to exist to Lin Li.

Then, the gem on the Aether Staff suddenly glowed…

The stunned bandits were unable to react before they were hit by the gory stench of blood, which was then followed by pathetic cries. A bandit who was well-concealed in the shrubs did not even have time to struggle before a blood-red vine coiled tightly around him. Then, it was followed by two and then three vines, until there were dozens of vines coiled around him…

In the blink of an eye, this unlucky bandit was covered in at least a few dozen vines that coiled tightly around him, covering him from head to toe without a single gap. The vines then grew and dragged him over until he was in front of Lin Li.

With a wave of his hand, the vines loosened, and revealed the terrified bandit.

“Syer Bandits again?” Lin Li knew immediately by looking at his armor that it was the bandit group ranked in the top 10 in the Breezy Plains.

“You… Help!” This bandit was unlucky indeed as he had just crawled out from the mess of vines, only to see that it was the scary mage before him. He had got out of the frying pan, only to fall into fire indeed. Thus, he cried for help without thinking twice in the midst of his shock and devastation.

“Shut up.” Lin Li frowned while lowering the Aether Staff in his hand, and with a dull thud, the unlucky bandit fainted on the spot.

After knocking out the unlucky bandit, Lin Li turned around to look at the people wildly attacking him. One of them was a tough-looking man with a crossbow in one hand and a machete in the other, screaming hysterically. Lin Li secretly guessed that he had to be Vanskore, who had been summoning him repeatedly…

“I’m in luck…” Lin Li looked at Vanskore from afar, and suddenly smiled.

Honestly speaking, Lin Li was very happy to bump into the Syer Bandits, who had attacked Black Clouds Town twice. Even if he had not met them here, he would have searched them out in the Dragon Mountains and got rid of this bandit group that dared challenge the authority of the Tower of Dusk.

For a force to become one to be reckoned with, it would have to be done at the expense of getting rid of another in a place like the Breezy Plains. Lin Li already had his eyes on Syer Bandits as they were quite well-known in the Breezy Plains, and did not have a complicated background. On top of that, they were not too powerful. Lin Li could not think of a better target than the Syer Bandits even after racking his brains…

And to add on to that, they had attacked Black Clouds Town twice, and left a terrible impression on him. The Syer Bandits would meet a horrible end, be it for official reasons or his personal vendetta.

This was great—he had not even had the time to seek them out himself, and they came to him instead…

“But there are too many people. It’ll be bothersome for me to do this myself,” Lin Li muttered to himself before retrieving an oil lamp from his pocket…