Chapter 603: 424 Second Night_2
Furthermore, the white mist was an evolving talent, initially only capable of blocking sunlight and obscuring the vision of living beings. But as its talent level increased, the mist became extraordinary.
The most basic way it evolved was to fill the mist with undead power, so when the mist appeared, the undead energy within would rapidly heal the skeletons enshrouded in it. Simply put, it provided shelter for the weaker skeletons, and this is why high-ranking undead creatures often have many lower-ranking undead following them.
Besides infusing the mist with undead power, it could also be mixed with toxins, curses, or a range of negative energies that weakened other beings before they even considered entering the mist to engage the skeletons in close combat.
Moreover, many high-level undead tailored their mist based on their surroundings or let the mist adapt to unique environments on its own.
The mission teams deployed by the Imperial Court initially set out with great enthusiasm, but as they neared the location of the skeletons, the area suddenly became enshrouded in white mist.
Once the mist emerged, it completely obscured the vision of the drones in the sky monitoring the situation. Those back at the Kyoto Command Headquarters gasped in shock upon seeing this unfold.
Bare in mind that skeletons are inherently of the undead, devoid of any warmth in their bodies, rendering even the divine artifact from the Bug Race eradication period, the thermal imager, ineffective against them.
Although drones increased their altitude and confirmed that the diameter of the mist-covered area was roughly a hundred meters, not exceptionally large,
because of the mist’s presence, no one knew the condition of the skeletons inside it. Although many had become Martial Artists, very few could achieve the realm of detecting position by sound alone.
This is why, once it was confirmed that entering the mist would result in blindness, all those on the front lines hesitated.
Perhaps members of a Hunting Team, when faced with a challenging mission, would spread out and escape if there was even the slightest chance of survival.
However, the Officials’ soldiers were different. Upon enlistment, facing extremely tough missions, they may initially feel fear, but for the sake of their homes behind them, they would eventually embrace death, obeying orders and jumping into the fire pit without looking back, if required.
Despite these soldiers’ strong discipline, this did not mean that Command Headquarters considered their lives inconsequential; as they approached the site, orders came through their headsets to stop the original mission and switch to surveillance and observation.
Although the mist could block their view, it couldn’t hide the undead vision of the skeletons, who instinctively charged towards the soldiers’ location as they drew near.
The troops ready for a long stakeout nearby suddenly noticed the white mist speeding toward their direction.
As the ground forces felt the mist’s area expand towards them, drones hovering in the mid-air recorded the entire process.
The view from the sky was unobstructed. It wasn’t that the mist on the ground was expanding; rather, like the undead skeletons, the mist was actively closing in on the living.
However, unlike the grand spectacle of the Skeleton Army, no one knew how many skeletons were hidden within the mist due to its cover.
The appearance of the mist marked China’s first bitter lesson on the importance of intelligence amidst natural disasters, for even though the exterior environment was harsh, survivors rarely suffered from a lack of information.
But the emergence of the mist was a lesson for humanity, reminding them that there is always someone greater out there, there is always a higher sky beyond.
Watching the rapidly approaching white fog, the squad arranged by the Imperial Court did not panic; instead, the captain made a gesture to the teammates behind him.
Upon seeing this gesture, a momentary daze appeared in the expression of the teammate in the back, but although he found the command rather puzzling, he still went on to do the work the captain had arranged earlier.
He gently removed the backpack from his back and then took out a cylindrical object, nearly as thick as a forearm in diameter, from the backpack.
With a casual press on the ground in front of him, a small pit suddenly appeared, and he effortlessly placed the disc he had just taken out into the pit. Then, when his hand pressing on the ground lifted away, the originally sunken pit instantly filled up.
Not only was the gap in the pit filled with earth, but any traces on the surface were also erased outright; from the appearance of the hole to the disappearance of the traces on the ground, the whole process took less than three seconds.
After he stood up, he made a ’mission completed’ gesture to the captain, and then the captain immediately led all the teammates to quickly flee from the area.
Although the team assigned by the Officials to annihilate the skeletons numbered only 12, even the weakest member of the squad possessed a Cultivation Level of the Energy Refining Realm, and the majority of the team had reached the mid-stage of Energy Cultivation or higher.
So, when they ran with all their might, their short-term burst speed was not much slower than that of a four-wheeled automobile.
However, before they got very far, the white fog had already covered the location where they had buried the mines, and the drone that had been hovering in the sky had already begun to increase its altitude in advance and retreated from the area as soon as the team member on the ground started burying the bomb.
Hovering in the air, Dong Tianyu, of course, saw the behavior of the members on the ground and the drone in the sky, and thus naturally made the same maneuvers.
Just as the white fog’s center was about to reach the area where the bomb was planted, suddenly a violent explosion erupted from the ground, and the dense white fog was instantly dispersed by the shockwave that accompanied the explosion.
However, the dirt and dust raised by the explosion ended up refilling the void left by the dissipating fog.
When the ash in the air had cleared, Dong Tianyu saw a huge crater on the ground and was surprised to find that what seemed to be a small bomb could unleash such formidable power.
In the dirt of that massive pit, there were plenty of bone-white skeletal fragments mixed in. Without further thought, it was clear that these fragments surely came from the skeletons in the fog just moments before.
Perhaps because the bomb they used was too powerful, at this point, whether inside or outside the pit, the largest skeletal fragment found was no bigger than a palm, with not a single intact skeleton to be seen.
After Dong Tianyu had fully comprehended the situation on the ground with his Divine Sense, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that had initially moved away returned to patrol the nearby airspace. Only after confirming that the surroundings were safe did the members of the Sharp Blade Team come back to the site.
They were not bona fide scientific researchers, so they merely collected some essential items as requested through their earpieces before leaving the area.
Just as Dong Tianyu was preparing to follow the members of the Sharp Blade Team offsite, he suddenly noticed that the drone, which had been patrolling the surroundings, stopped its patrol and simply hovered over the large hole, as if monitoring something.
After observing the behavior of the drone, Dong Tianyu could roughly guess the intentions of the Imperial Court. However, as he was alone and incapable of being in more than one place, he did not stay to observe whether there would be other changes. Instead, he followed above the Sharp Blade Team, which the Officials had arranged to clear out the skeletons, hoping to learn more about the skeletons from their combat.
