……

At the southwestern end of the Trail of the Dead, less than two hundred meters from the oak forest, ghostly humanoids crawled out of the charred black soil.

Their bodies are tattered and dark, and they look a bit like humanoids on the front, but if you look at them from the side, you can see that these "creatures" are not the right width, they are as thin as pieces of paper!

Their faces are made up of large chunks of shadow, as if they have no faces.

These "paper creatures" walk with an unnatural movement, somewhat similar to zombies.

With every step they take, a lump of sparks falls on their bodies.

When the Martian seed falls to the ground.

Soil that was otherwise clean will be stained black.

Gradually.

The end of the mark of the dead also expanded.

When Matthew and the others arrived here, they saw such a picture.

About a dozen pieces of paper creatures are wandering around the end with nothing to do.

But as soon as he sensed Matthew's approach.

As if they had found their target, they suddenly refreshed themselves and rushed over in unison!

Burst!

Rhaegar took the lead, swinging his sword and slashing down a piece of paper creature.

The latter's body was easily torn apart by the two-handed greatsword, and suddenly turned into flying ashes and disappeared into the air.

Rhaegar kept up the good work.

He rushed forward alone, slashing left and right with his great sword, and in a few moments, he killed all the paper creatures that were sparkling!

This scene stunned Matthew and the others.

"That's the trouble you're talking about?"

Rhaegar comfortably put his big sword on the ground, turned to look at Matthew with a smile:

"I don't even need sword oil, I can easily kill them!"

Matthew looked at the scars of the dead behind him, and his eyes were full of doubt.

In a few seconds.

He suddenly changed color and said:

"Come back!"

Rhaegar was not slow to react, and when he heard Matthew calling, he hurriedly drew his sword and took two steps back before turning his head.

This sight made him gasp several times.

But on the scorched earth where the traces of the dead were seen, more than thirty circles glowing with red light suddenly appeared, and on the ground covered by the circles, charred black hands stretched out from inside!

Silently.

A large number of paper creatures emerge from the circle.

Their number has doubled.

What's even more terrifying.

This time, the paper creature that appeared actually had a face, and it looked exactly like Rhaegar!

At this time, even the most nervous person realized that something was wrong.

Rhaegar raised his hand suddenly, and as a result, he almost couldn't hold the sword in his hand:

"My physical strength seems to have been sucked away!"

Matthew struggled to sense the information of the paper creatures.

He didn't dare to open the balanced perception, for fear of further triggering the change of the scars of the dead.

Good thing in a moment.

There is a reaction on the data bar.

……

"Hint: You've encountered the 'Ash Pawns'!

Your companion Rhaegar kills all of the Ember Pawns, and in the process, some of his elements are stripped and copied by the Ash Pawns.

The Ash Pawns will become more numerous and more powerful with the help of the Ash Lords!

A new batch of Ash Pawns have charged at you!"

……

"This is 'Ash Life'?"

Matthew chuckled.

Seeing that the people were about to make a move again, he hurriedly called them to fight and retreat:

"Don't fight with the ashes near the Marks of the Dead, they are immortal and will draw elements from the living to increase the power of the Marks of the Dead!"

Hear Matthew say that.

Only then did the group stop and quickly retreat in the direction of the oak forest.

But even so.

There are also half of the ash pawns who were killed by everyone with tears because they rushed too fiercely.

When the group retreated to the edge of the forest.

I can vaguely see the traces of the dead, and many red circles appear on the ground!

"The numbers are still increasing!"

Rhaegar scolded:

"And why do you become the most of me?"

Between words.

The big sword in his hand couldn't help but slash, and he accidentally wiped out the remaining half of the pawns!

"No more!"

Rhaegar sat on an oak tree.

His face was unusually pale, and sweat was ragingly on his forehead.

"Because you killed the most pawns, and you also sucked the most life elements."

Matthew said calmly:

"I have seen the introduction of this creature in the information given by the Seven Holy Alliance, they are not individual beings, but an extension of the mark of the dead, if the mark of the dead cannot be severely damaged, then this creature called "ash" will accumulate more and more, until we are completely unable to defend, they will march forward, so as to further expand the scope of the mark of the dead."

Rhaegar panted and said:

"Then why didn't you say it earlier?"

Matthew said helplessly:

"You're cutting too fast, far faster than I expected from you."

Lega glared angrily for a while, seeing that a new wave of ash pawns was about to come again, he couldn't help but ask worriedly:

"Can your oak grove stop this monster?"

Matthew shook his head and said:

"I'm afraid not."

In just the next second, one by one, the Silver Moon Zombies crawled out of the entrance between the graveyard and the surface, and they walked steadily towards the fifty or so Ash Pawns that resembled Rhaegar.

"But my undead can."

Matthew said.

As soon as the words fell.

The zombies swarmed up and tore the Ash Pawns to shreds!

After another period of time, the red circles lit up again in the traces of the dead, but this time, the number of red circles did not increase!

"Sure enough, the pawns killed by the undead, because they can't absorb the life elements, the number will not increase."

Matthew breathed a sigh of relief.

As early as the moment he confirmed that the Ash Lord would send troops to hunt him down, Matthew began to prepare for today.

During this period, the information provided by the Seven Saints Alliance was very useful.

The data clearly states that as a semi-deactivated tentacle left in the main material realm of the Void Lord Yucruz, the main realm of the Traces of the Dead is "Ashes".

In this area, the alliance has also conducted in-depth research and summarized data.

Matthew found out after reading.

Ash and immortality are actually two areas that overlap conceptually.

Both cover at least part of "death".

Compared with the immortal realm, the two major elements that are paid more attention to after sublimation are:

"Transcendent" and "eternal".

The Ash Realm embodies the "embers" and "ruins" of the entire universe as it moves towards an unstoppable end of withering.

These two fields are destined to overlap and oppose each other.

Therefore, using the undead against the enemies of the Ash Realm is a good way to do it.

In the history of the Union.

There have also been projects to gather a large number of necromancers to slow down the expansion of the Traces of the Dead.

In terms of specific implementation, the effect of the project was not bad, and for this reason, Baiyan City and Jade Cangting at that time also entered a honeymoon period that was not short.

It was only soon that due to some unknowable factors, the project was inexplicably stopped within the alliance.

Since then, the traces of the dead have never been restrained by seriousness.

In a summary report, an anonymous person in charge made it clear that the failure of the project had nothing to do with the necromancer, and vaguely pointed out that the alliance's infighting was the real reason for the project's suspension.

Of course, this report is also a distillation of Matthew from a mess of information.

The Coalition's information on the Marks of the Dead is very strangely tainted.

The polluters seem to want to cover up some information, but they are not willing to destroy the real information, and they end up bloating it.

It's like mixing 1 concise and good-looking book with 100 garbage works out of order.

It is undoubtedly very difficult for ordinary people to decipher.

Luckily, Matthew has never been normal.

His idea was simple: since the plan had proven to be effective, he might as well continue to follow it.

If you can reap stable happiness, there is no need to be different.

Present.

Matthew manipulated 240 zombies and skeletons, evenly spaced between the southwest end of Traces of the Dead and the middle of the oak forest.

These undead bear the imprint of Matthew.

The Ash Pawns obviously don't have the ability to distinguish between Matthew and Matthew's summons.

They only know how to attack the undead without brains.

Then it was easily killed by the undead.

Gradually.

The situation was brought under control for the time being.

The refresh time of the Ember Pawn has also become very regular-

Within three minutes of each death, a red circle of light will appear on the ground of the Marks of the Dead, within which the pawns will respawn, and after a slow trek of less than a minute and no more than 15 seconds of combat, they will be reduced to ashes and returned to the scorched earth.

The cycle is endless.

"Can't we eliminate them at the root?"

After everyone watched for a moment, Rhaegar asked.

Matthew shook his head:

"This can only be done for the time being, as far as I know, if you want to completely destroy these ashes life, you have to severely damage the scar of the dead itself, which is not an easy task."

"Do you guys have any thoughts?"

He looked at the others.

The number of people who came to Matthew's house tonight was not large, mainly because Zeller went to the South Trade Post to deal with the haunting incident and has not returned, and Li Weiqi has run to Gao Yeling again for some reason, so in addition to Rhaeggar, only the captain of the garrison Brad, Mr. Richard of the Craftsman Protection Society, and the old Fallon of the Veterans Mutual Aid Society are left.

Matthew's gaze was mainly at the two behind him.

The reason why he was willing to spend his blood to invite everyone to eat a mutton feast for three days in a row was that on the one hand, he found that eating mutton and drinking mutton soup actually helped him master the Malicious Transfiguration Technique, and on the other hand, he wanted to turn to the knowledge and experience of these two.

Needless to say, Richard is suspected of being a legendary thief with a wealth of experience.

Old Fallon is also a knight who has returned from purgatory, and he is also rich in experience, and it is suspected that there are still many treasures hidden, so Matthew is naturally willing to associate with him more.

However, the two old foxes were silent in the face of Matthew's inquiring gaze.

Only the bearded man is still seriously thinking about countermeasures:

"If only the undead can hinder the progress of these monsters, then if we just provide Matthew with enough undead to form a human wall and wrap the traces of the dead in it, will this thing never expand?"

Matthew raised an eyebrow and finally smiled encouragingly:

"It's also a way of thinking."

And yet in fact.

Controlling so many undead at the same time is close to the upper limit of Matthew's mental power, but fortunately, the ash pawn is vulnerable, he only needs to give the order to the undead to defend and counterattack on the spot, and there is no need to consume extra mind.

But if it goes on like this for a long time.

He would inevitably feel tired, not to mention manipulating hundreds of thousands of undead people at the same time to envelop the traces of the dead.

That's a complete fantasy.

Come to think of it.

He looked at the two old foxes again with a pleading gaze.

Old Fallon cleared his throat, as if he wanted to say something.

But at this time.

Rhaegar suddenly jumped up from the ground:

"Someone!"

Matthew jerked in the direction he was pointing.

But see under the moonlight.

On the other side of the hill from the Marks of the Dead.

Seven or eight wooden carts rolled down the hillside one after another.

Matthew is sharp-eyed.

He clearly saw that the wooden cart was piled up with the corpses of cattle and sheep one after another!

Thundered!

The carts fell into the scars of the dead, and the corpses on them quickly dried up, and a large number of life elements merged into them.

Suddenly.

A large red circle of light appeared in the center of the scorched earth.

And at the edge of the large aperture, there are hundreds of densely packed small apertures.

……

"Warning: The Ash Samurai are coming!"

……

The top of the hillside.

A figure slowly appeared, it was a man with a fleshy face and fierce eyes.

He waved his hand at the crowd from afar, and then shouted loudly:

"Hey! Greetings to the Silverfrost Brotherhood! ”

"By the way, a couple of words to the guys in your prison - let them stay in their cells, don't think about coming out! The brothers outside already have me as the new boss, and I will take good care of their wives and children, so they don't have to worry about it! ”

"By the way, my name is Setrenk, a scarlet hunter worth a bounty of 30,000!"

Between words.

A dozen figures appeared behind him.

Each of them had a cart, but this time, it was no longer the corpses of cattle and sheep, but the bloody corpses of humans!

Purr!

Trolley after cart drove into the scorched earth.

Matthew could feel it clearly.

The power of the ashes in the scorched earth is getting stronger!

"I'm going to get rid of them!"

Rhaegar said vaguely.

Matthew stopped him with one hand:

"No need."

Rhaegar frowned and said:

"Is there a way you can stop them?"

Matthew winked at him:

"Didn't you notice that we're missing someone?"

Rhaegar turned his head away.

He was surprised to find that only old Fallon was still looking at him with a smile.

Next to the ground.

He also threw a delicate gentleman's cane.

……

I don't know what I ate at night and it was a wild pull, I feel that I was marked by the king of the plague, and the number of words today is less, 3900, to give you a little saving, and let me slow down. The monthly pass will soon exceed 10,000, and at the end of the month, don't forget to vote, thank you.

(End of chapter)