What made him feel even more chilled was the contradictory scene conveyed by his soul perception.
These latent auras are extremely violent, like undercurrents of lava, chaotic and disorderly, and full of primitive impulses to destroy everything.
This is consistent with the characteristics of being severely eroded by the Star Heart.
But looking at their external state, they present a completely opposite order.
Those restless souls, as if being pulled by invisible strings, formed extremely neat formations, in rows and lines.
They are hidden in the dark corners of the forest, as silent as crossbow arrows waiting to be strung.
The violent will of the soul and the mechanically strict formation formed a distorted picture that was enough to make one's scalp tingle.
Is this one of Torge's people?
Those dwarves who were tied to the stakes earlier?
That old dwarf...what did he do?
Mark's mind quickly flashed through Torge's words in the cave.
"...We have already been marked by it and will eventually become one with this frost graveyard."
Could this be what Torge meant by "fusion"?
He treated himself and the remaining tribesmen as the last line of defense, or even a trap, and sacrificed them to the Heart of the Star Corpse in exchange for some more twisted power?
He held his breath, suppressing the breath that was about to leak out.
The image of the stubborn and tired old man who still held the last bit of responsibility suddenly became blurred and dangerous.
Don't get close!
Mark made a quick decision.
He didn't know whether Torge could still maintain a clear will, nor did he know whether those queues were controlled by Torge or dominated by the will of the Star Debris Heart.
If he showed up rashly at this moment, the only result would be being torn to pieces by these violent yet orderly things, or being silently swallowed and assimilated by the chaotic star power.
Even with two magical weapons in hand, he didn't think he could escape safely in that situation.
This trap-like pine forest was even stranger than the worst case scenario he had imagined!
Deep in the ice valley behind, the shouts of the pursuers and faint energy detection fluctuations could be heard intermittently in the wind and snow.
The hounds of the Tripartite Church are about to enter this area.
Mark's sharp eyes swept across the unsettlingly silent queue deep in the cold pine forest, without any unnecessary fluctuations in his eyes.
His mission is not to save the doomed Deep Furnace, but to pick up his teammates, Monica, Anna, and Enzo!
Without any hesitation, Mark slowly retreated, his movements as gentle as a snow fox sliding on the snow.
While being alert to the potential perception in the forest, he extended his soul perception as much as possible, distinguishing the soul characteristics of different teams in the chaotic interference, looking for traces that Enzo or Monica might have left.
He needed a position on the periphery that was hidden enough and convenient for observing the overall situation, so that he could watch the storm vortex that was about to erupt with cold eyes.
The moment he exited the edge of the pine forest, his figure merged into the shadow of the crevice again like a ghost, and Xiao Mu also tightened his vigilance. An icy and extremely cold air flow swept over their hiding place.
Not long after Mark quietly withdrew from the edge of the cold pine forest, a new intruder arrived in the northwest rift zone of the Frostwhispering Valley.
There is almost no order of priority, with three teams with completely different costumes and temperaments.
Each of them brought a mage or a person with keen perception to explore the source of energy, tracking the chaotic starlight aura left by the Deepfurnace Dwarves and the cold fluctuations of the Star Heart that were difficult to completely conceal, and arrived at the edge of this ancient pine forest at the same time.
The Black Anvil dwarf first appeared around the corner of the ice cliff.
They were dressed in specially made uniforms that were a mixture of ice-blue metal chain mail and thick fur, with a thin layer of camouflage frost on the surface. Their movements were agile and steady, like pieces of iron peeled off from ice and rocks.
Some time after Mark left, the blasphemous marks on them naturally dissipated, and now they have all been restored through potions.
In front of the team, a dwarf holding an enchanted detection prism suddenly stopped, a blue light flashing in the prism, and growled:
"Right ahead! The energy source and life signs in the forest are abnormally concentrated!"
The Star-Moon Church team cautiously emerged from a relatively open slope on the side.
Monica and Anna were protected in the middle of the team.
They were wearing the thick silver-gray velvet cloaks of the Star-Moon Church, and were surrounded by several detection mages. Starlight flowed on their fingertips and staffs, constantly interpreting the energy field ahead.
They also stopped outside the forest. The mages' detection ripples fed back the dense, violent, yet strangely arranged soul source data in the forest, and the atmosphere instantly became solemn.
The black-robed guards of the Dark Church flowed out silently from the darkest ice cracks like sticky shadows, surrounding a black-robed wizard and Enzo in the center.
In the gaps of the black robe, the dark runes used for detection glowed faintly.
The dark wizard's eye sockets flickered with ghostly flames as he reported hoarsely, "Master Enzo... there are a large number of life forms in the forest that have been assimilated by the chaotic starlight energy... and... their arrangement is extremely regular."
The dark wizard swept his cold gaze across the forest, a hint of greed and vigilance flashing in his eyes.
Enzo gripped the warhammer tightly, his rock-like face expressionless, but a barely perceptible heaviness lurked deep in his eyes.
He did not respond to the dark wizard because he knew that he did not need to respond to what this guy said.
This guy is actually reporting the situation to Salu behind the communication circle!
Three forces, three teams with the same goal but different ulterior motives, met on a narrow road outside this ancient cold pine forest that exuded a dead silence and terror.
In an instant, the wind and snow in the rift valley seemed to freeze for a moment.
The invisible pressure was like a substance, instantly dividing the space in front of Lin.
The ice crystals and runes on the Black Anvil Warrior's armor flowed quietly, and his fingers rested on the weapon's handle.
The bodies of the members of the Star-Moon Church tensed slightly beneath their cloaks, and the light from their detection staffs was steady and ready to go.
The shadows beneath the black robes of the Dark Church seemed even more viscous, and the snake-like fingers of the dark wizards twisted unconsciously in the cold air.
The fragile alliance that had been temporarily formed to pursue the same goal was gone.
None of the senior decision-makers at the fortress were present.
Without the direct confrontation and coordination of Eliza, Saru, and Elder Black Anvil, the three elite outpost teams were now left with only naked rivalry and competitive instincts.
All eyes were fixed on the dead pine forest ahead. The biting coldness and faintly chaotic fluctuations in the air made no one dare to easily step into this disturbing area.
The brief silence was broken by a dwarf commander from Black Anvil's team, who had tangled hair and beard and a slightly metallic luster on his face.
He was one of the confidants who had received instructions from the elders before.
His eyes wandered between his own team and the pine forest for a moment, then he took a deep breath, took a step forward, and shouted directly into the forest with a penetrating voice that was deliberately trying to awaken his fellow tribesmen:
“…”
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