The Witch Hunter System

Chapter 1229: Extracting Information

In a dark, shattered star region beyond the boundary wall of the Dead Lands, the Azure Wanderer cruised through the void. On the silent bridge, an oppressive feeling permeated the air.

Evidently, Vaan’s group had given up all thoughts of entering the Dead Lands.

Compared to three hundred years ago, danger within the Dead Lands had clearly increased by several levels. Any prior knowledge the Proud Ember Tribe had or remembered was no longer useful.

"Sigh..."

Occasionally, Empyrean Oceanheart would cast her sensory spell to spy on the Dead Lands. However, the situation remained unchanged.

Despite moving several light-years from their last location, numerous swarms could still be discovered within the new shattered star regions of the Dead Lands.

Each swarm, always brimming with Undying Fiends, knew neither hunger nor fatigue, and was capable of delivering catastrophic results to the world of the living.

The sheer military prowess of these easily invoked dread and horror in the Proud Ember Tribe.

In Divine Lord Vaelith’s opinion, the Dead Lands wielded more than enough power to bring an end to the world. Yet, even now, it was still hidden away from the outside world, still silently accumulating its strength.

Perhaps the time wasn’t right, or the Outerworlders weren’t confident enough yet.

Divine Lord Vaelith only knew that the day the Dead Lands decided to unleash its immense horde of horror would mean it had complete confidence of sweeping the world with a decisive victory.

’How can we even fight this?! Do we even stand a chance?! Why is there such a dreadful thing in the world?!?’

Although the bridge was silent, Divine Lord Vaelith’s heart was screaming with anxiety and concerns.

In the past, he could only concern himself with the safety of his own tribe. Now, after seeing the bigger picture, he worried for the rest of the world.

If they died, then maybe they could still reincarnate and start anew. But if the world were gone, then what then?

Suddenly, Empyrean Oceanheart’s eyes lit up. .

"There’s a small group of patrols ahead. Not bad. This patrol group is quite small. It won’t consume much effort and energy to suppress it," Empyrean Oceanheart said, breaking the silence.

"Oh? That’s quicker than I had anticipated," Vaan commented, pleasantly surprised.

It seemed their previous encounter with the patrol attack on the Proud Ember Tribe was just a coincidence. There were most likely more patrol groups venturing outside the Dead Lands than they had anticipated.

They might even be...

Just as Vaan thought of something, Empyrean Oceanheart suddenly exclaimed, "The group of Undying Fiends is attacking another survivor shelter!"

Swish!

The Azure Wanderer immediately accelerated as Empyrean Oceanheart manipulated the vessel to reach their target sooner. This time, without Seraphina’s plea, she intended to save the survivors.

’Sure enough!’ Vaan thought.

Once could have been a coincidence, but twice?

Consecutive coincidences were very unlikely.

Vaan suspected the survivor shelters outside of the Dead Lands had never been successfully hidden from the Undying Fiends. The Undying Fiends simply didn’t bother them, regarding them as livestock, rearing numbers for their undying army.

In other words, the patrol groups sent out to attack the survivor shelters implied that the time was ripe for harvesting.

’You can run, but you can’t hide...’ Vaan recalled this famous phrase.

Indeed, the entire Umbral Edge was practically the Outerworlders’ playground, their territory. To evade their notice was quite unlikely. As such, nowhere was truly safe in the Umbral Edge. ᚱÂΝǑꞖËŞ

Once marked, perpetually monitored Vaan had this feeling.

As such, he urgently needed to establish the Divine Soul Kingdom and construct his Grand Reversal Spell.

Unfortunately, the vast Dead Lands stood between him and the Grand Unity Human Clan.

If he wanted to reach the Grand Unity Human Clan, he only had two choices. Either he took the long route around the Dead Lands or found a safe passage through it. Neither choices were ideal, but they were the only choices he had.

The first option would require spending much more time in the Umbral Edge, navigating through more void regions of unknown perils, which ultimately lowered his chance of survival.

On the other hand, the second choice required traveling through the perilous Dead Lands, which saved a lot of time.

Although choices were good, the second choice was somewhat better if a safe passage could be discovered.

As such, Vaan hoped to extract some crucial information from the Undying Fiends regarding this matter and set the travel path before focusing on his priorities in the Astral Soul Realm.

...

Boom boom boom!

The moment the Azure Wanderer arrived in the local system, the situation ahead came into view. The battle between survivor shelter and the Undying Fiends Patrols had already erupted in full swing.

Like the Proud Ember Tribe, the Undying Fiends gave the survivor no warning before launching a preemptive strike, attacking relentlessly, intending to wipe them all out.

However, the patrol group was evidently smaller than the previous group, but the survivor shelter was also smaller than the Proud Ember Tribe. As such, the intensity and struggle were roughly on par.

Swish, swish!

Two figures immediately took off from the Azure Wanderer, and within minutes, the supposedly desperate battle ended in the blink of an eye. The Undying Fiends were mostly wiped out, saved for a selected few.

The Ashstar Outpost Survivors were naturally stunned, but even more so, overjoyed, by the unexpected reinforcement.

While Seraphina interacted with the Ashstar Outpost Survivors, Vaan’s potent Soul Power burrowed into the hollowed souls of the few Undying Fiends he had captured. In an instant, he immediately detected traces of another being’s Soul Imprint.

Indeed, the Undying Fiends were just mindless puppets controlled by another being.

However, Vaan didn’t wipe out the weak Soul Imprint to claim ownership of the captured Undying Fiends. He simply isolated the Soul Imprints to avoid alerting the original controller.

What a joke.

Although Vaan didn’t know how many controllers there were, each one undoubtedly controlled countless Undying Fiends in the Dead Lands. If he carelessly wiped out their Soul Imprints and alerted them, he could expect multiple swarms converging on their location.

That was not something Vaan and the others desired.

He only wanted information, not trouble.