At the same time, six Wizards had just left Barrier Mountain.
Because their mission was to scout and relay messages, all six were skilled in flight and known for their agile minds.
They encountered the first danger of the day.
The initial part of their flight was smooth and without incident.
But as two hours passed and they followed their assigned scouting route a hundred kilometers from Barrier Mountain, an abrupt, excruciating pain seized the entirety of the six Wizards’ minds.
Their defensive Spells were functioning normally, and the scouting magic didn’t detect any enemies approaching.
They couldn’t even send back word of their plight.
All six Wizards plummeted uniformly toward the ground, doomed to crash and die upon impact.
Unfortunately, their misfortunes didn’t end there.
In the midst of their desperate and painful fall, the bodies of the six Wizards began to twist and mutate in midair, their flesh growing uncontrollably and savagely consuming the Wizards’ strength and Magic Power.
Was six unrecognizable lumps of flesh hitting the ground, creating several irregular streaks of blood, turning the scene into something akin to a sinister sacrificial rite.
At that moment, the six mounds of flesh began to wriggle on the ground.
Although they had lost their original forms and consciousness, the ’bodies’ now were extremely resilient, so the disfigured Wizards didn’t die outright.
It was precisely because of this situation.
The Stress Magic embedded within them did not activate, so no word of the team’s total annihilation made it back to Barrier Mountain.
At that time, six birds flew over in a neat formation in the sky.
But within a few seconds, those birds exploded in midair, transforming into six green blossoms of flesh and blood as they scattered and fell.
From that point on, the night was left with only six ’Wizards’ squirming on the ground.
No other signs of life could be seen anywhere.
Further from Barrier Mountain, Bapulor smiled broadly.
At the same time, Ronald and the two others had set up camp outdoors and were attending to their Spells and adapting their condition.
The Magician obsessed with witchcraft saw his Spell take effect.
Of course, he immediately boasted to Ronald:
"Ronald, I’ve dealt with the first wave of pursuers!"
"I assure you they had no chance to relay messages back, and I didn’t even kill these people, foolproof indeed!"
Ronald lowered his head slightly, and the scouting results transmitted by the power of ’Fury’ were just as Bapulor had said, "The emotional fluctuations of those six have become extremely chaotic, good work."
Seeing Bapulor receive praise and then contentedly return to his original place.
Ronald then turned to Catherine:
"Mental contamination led to bodily mutations, eliminating the first wave of pursuers completely. Can you confirm the outcome?"
Catherine fully understood Ronald’s cautiousness at this moment.
So, without many words, she activated her Spell and began to predict the next situation.
The task was simple, and so Catherine was naturally quick in action.
In the blink of an eye, she confirmed the outcome of Bapulor’s actions.
"The results are very good. Barrier Mountain will only notice the condition of these people tomorrow afternoon. As for the pursuers... they will be sent out at noon the day after tomorrow, all of whom have learned Original Spells."
"The day after tomorrow..."
Ronald muttered softly.
Catherine’s predictions were quite logical.
The day after tomorrow, it would be their sixth day entering the "Infinite Negative Number Domain".
At the same time, the outside world would reach November.
To keep them from interfering with the plan to break the seal on that day, sending pursuers at this juncture to entangle the three of them was naturally the best solution.
As for Ronald and the others, their choice was simple and clear.
They needed to kill the Wizard chasing them as quickly as possible, or find a way to avoid the pursuit and draw near Barrier Mountain.
Thanks to a series of Spells cast by Bapulor,
they had not only remained undetected by the first wave of Wizards responsible for surveillance, but even the commoners they encountered in the wild these past few days could not recognize their true identities, hence the likelihood of exposure was very small.
Ronald was analyzing the situation and formulating plans in his heart, while Bapulor in the camp could not admit defeat and sidled up to Catherine.
"Hey, I say, the strongest one, what type is your Complete Technique?"
"We’re all comrades now, so let’s get to know each other, shall we?"
Catherine gave Bapulor a condescending smile.
"You really have no manners, do you? Asking about such secrets related to scholasticism so bluntly; don’t Wizards from the outside world ever want to tear that mouth of yours off?"
"I’m quite popular, everyone likes me a lot," Bapulor sincerely began to explain, "Not only do my underlings within the scholism highly respect me, even the leaders of other scholisms, even hostile forces, rarely come at me directly when they see me!"
Faced with Bapulor’s claim, not a hint of trust appeared in Catherine’s eyes, and her tone was remarkably sarcastic:
"The Wizards out there really must have good tempers, huh?"
Bapulor nodded with satisfaction:
"That’s right, indeed. I also quite like the Casters from outside."
"I’ll introduce you to a few ace Investigators from the bureau when I get the chance, each of them is absolutely top-notch aces!"
The conversation between Bapulor and Catherine continued.
However, at that moment, Ronald suddenly raised his arm, interrupting their conversation:
"Stop, someone’s coming."
The two in the middle of their conversation immediately fell silent, then looked in the direction Ronald was gazing.
In just a few minutes, a small caravan with only two horse-drawn wagons approached from the west, following the night road toward the camp they had set up.
The next moment, a sinister Magic Power emerged behind Ronald.
Ronald immediately spoke up to halt it:
"They’re ordinary people!"
The heretic Magician respected Ronald’s thoughts.
The hint of a Spell that had just appeared was snuffed out instantly, and Bapulor’s expression shifted from serious to a smile.
Meanwhile, on the road,
the man who had just narrowly escaped death approached.
Greeting them with a courtesy from within the "Infinite Negative Number Domain," the man then spoke up:
"Gentlemen, would you care to join us?"
"It’s getting dark now, and setting up camp ourselves could take quite some time."
"In return, I could offer you a meal of dinner."
Ronald smiled faintly like a true traveler and then gestured to one side:
"Of course, no problem, please come over."
"When everyone travels outside, it’s proper to help each other."