Chapter 173 Death Omen

With the human-skin umbrella in hand, Suren's detection range expanded several times.

As soon as he emerged from the chessboard space, he immediately sensed several powerful soul fires nearby. Unsurprisingly, they were the Lu Ying military officers from the mountain stronghold.

Fortunately, he had prepared in advance. Suren used his old trick, wrapping himself in a shroud for invisibility and controlling a zombie as bait.

Sure enough, as soon as the zombie appeared, several figures flashed, and it was immediately cut into three pieces by two silver-armored warriors wielding greatswords, attacking from the front and back.

The recent encounter with that 'Roxie Rubio' had taught Suren a vivid lesson.

He now knew that when encountering professionals with powerful backing, he needed to be extra careful. They might have some kind of strange binding artifact. The abilities of professionals in this world were bizarre, and he couldn't afford to be careless.

This wasn't just Suren's guess; he had deliberately extracted the hunchbacked old man's memories and knew the identities and some of the methods of the people behind him.

These guys were all instructors from the "Lu Ying Royal War College."

Although their transcendent ranks weren't too high, they had rich combat experience and curses that enhanced their combat power. A real fight would be very troublesome.

Moreover, military personnel were good at combined attack techniques. They had tactics prepared to deal with various professionals and cooperated well. Even if Suren went out in mechanical armor, he wouldn't gain any advantage.

Suren didn't plan to confront them head-on. Taking advantage of the opportunity, he flashed directly into the dense forest.

...

Although the shroud could completely shield his aura, the subtle movements of his travel still couldn't fool those fourth-tier professionals.

After creating some distance, Suren decisively deployed his eight-armed spider spears and began to run wildly through the forest.

The people behind him naturally chased relentlessly.

Despite wearing heavy armor, these guys weren't slow. They also had some advanced alchemical implants.

The closest one chasing him, a bearded man in golden griffin armor, was named Shandru Haimer, nicknamed "Wily Sword."

This guy launched several sword energies "swish, swish" through the air. They were tricky and sharp, cutting down giant trees in the forest like harvesting wheat.

If Suren hadn't been perceptive and able to use spatial flashes, he would have been cut into pieces long ago.

There was also the guy with golden wings flying in the air behind him, "Metal Angel" Rachel. His main combat implant was a golden version of the "Thousand Killing Wings." The metal feathers could be fired like a storm, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

Fortunately, wing implants weren't so useful in the primeval forest. Flying low, there were trees and obstacles everywhere, and the speed wasn't necessarily faster than two legs. Flying high, the dense canopy blocked the view.

There was also a golden javelin accelerated by wind elements that flew in the blink of an eye like a cannonball, blasting giant trees into pieces...

And a returning flying axe...

None of the people behind him were weak.

But the good news was that not all of them were good at chasing.

This kind of explosive speed wasn't sustainable either.

Suren, on the other hand, had spatial displacement and eight-armed spider spears, giving him a desperate speed when running away.

Since they hadn't caught up with him in a short burst, the people behind him had no chance of catching him.

If they really couldn't think straight and split up to chase him, he wouldn't mind taking them down one by one.

They obviously knew this and didn't give him the chance. They were well aware that someone who could kill the fourth-tier hunchbacked old man Roxie was capable of killing any of them.

Eventually, after chasing him through the forest for a while, Suren successfully shook them off.

........

At the same time, in another part of the forest.

This place was a mess, with signs of battle everywhere.

The grass and trees had been burned to ashes in large patches, and some stumps still had strange, unextinguished black fire on them. A thick, burnt smell filled the air.

Yuta, in her white wolf form, was also covered in burns, panting heavily, her eyes fixed on the depths of the forest.

They had just experienced a life-or-death battle. If she hadn't protected them, Aku and the other boys would have died here.

The hellhounds ran no slower than they did in beast form, and they were good at tracking, making it impossible to shake them off.

Fortunately, all five hellhounds were suddenly pulled back to another plane, giving them a breather.

Aku didn't dare to look his sister in the eye and was bandaging and treating the other two companions who had been seriously injured.

Yuta's blue eyes were filled with worry. She looked at Aku and the others and said, "This place isn't safe. You should go back to the Holy Land first."

"Okay."

The boys lowered their heads and responded, a look of shame on their faces. Not only had they failed to rescue anyone, but they had also lost several companions. This time, they had caused a big problem.

They hadn't expected that Mr. Suren would come to save them.

But the enemies were too strong, and they couldn't help but worry.

Aku asked, "Sister, will Mr. Suren be alright?"

Another black bear boy also asked, "Yeah, Sister Yuta, that Mr. Suren..."

Yuta interrupted them, "The sudden disappearance of the hellish creatures means that the contractor has been killed."

Even as she said this, a hint of worry flashed across her face.

After all, she knew that there were still several equally tricky enemies in the stronghold not far away.

Yuta didn't blame them too much, only saying, "You will be the hope of our Daru tribe in the future. Remember to think twice before making any decisions."

Although this time's price was a bit high, it was a good thing to have a lesson.

The boys didn't dare to meet her gaze directly. "Understood, Sister Yuta."

Yuta was still worried and didn't say much more. "You go back first, I'll go take a look!"

With that, she rushed into the dense forest without hesitation.

.......

Having shaken off the pursuers, Suren slowed down.

The greatest danger in the forest had never been humans. The monsters and strange creatures were the more deadly existence, and they were everywhere.

He didn't dare to continue moving at high speed in an unfamiliar environment. That would only attract the hunters of the jungle.

Suren held the black umbrella in his hand as a walking stick, walking leisurely.

With the umbrella's sensory enhancement, the soul fires within a kilometer radius were all within his awareness. He didn't have to worry about being suddenly attacked by something.

He hadn't felt it carefully before, but now he could fully appreciate the wonders of the black umbrella.

Having it in his hands was more real than the information he saw with the Eye of Omniscience.

"This [Rune Human-Skin Umbrella] is really a good treasure..."

Suren sighed inwardly, playing with the black umbrella in his hand, becoming more and more fond of it.

Although he hadn't tried to use the umbrella's [Night Domain], he sensed that the umbrella's curse backlash wouldn't be too much of a problem for him. This damaged sealed object would greatly increase his strength!

He thought that after trying it out a few more times, he could immediately use it in actual combat.

As he walked, Suren was pondering the effects of the black umbrella when he suddenly sensed a soul fire rapidly approaching him.

"Yuta?"

Suren wasn't surprised.

He had a wolf claw with Yuta's real name hanging around his neck, allowing her to confirm his location from a great distance.

Sure enough, after a while, a huge white wolf emerged from the dense forest.

Seeing Suren safe and sound, Yuta's eyes clearly showed a relieved expression. She asked, "Mr. Suren, are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

Suren looked at her burned fur and asked, "Are you alright?"

"Just a few minor injuries."

Yuta had a completely indifferent expression. As she spoke, she slowly transformed back into human form.

She cared more about Suren than herself.

The wounds from her beast form also appeared on her human body. Suren looked at the burn marks on her skin, took out a potion, and helped her clean and treat them.

Yuta wasn't shy and just stood naked, looking at the man in front of her with gentle eyes.

The cool air of the potion soaked into the wound, and the burnt flesh was visibly washed away, with new flesh growing out.

She saw the black umbrella in Suren's hand, and her brow furrowed. The umbrella gave her a very bad feeling.

It was an aura of death that was completely different from the power of nature.

However, thinking that it was Suren's trophy, her brow relaxed again.

Yuta guessed what had happened and said, "It's a good thing you killed the hellhound contractors, otherwise the situation would have been very bad."

Suren nodded, having seen hellish creatures for the first time. He asked curiously, "How strong are those hellhounds?"

Yuta replied, "Very strong. Unlike monsters, a large part of their bodies is made up of fire elements, making them difficult to kill."

"Oh."

Suren listened to her describe the battle, his hands not stopping.

Although they were called [Hellhounds], they didn't necessarily come from the hells of myth.

They most likely came from the "Abyss Plane" or other planes with undead creatures.

The source of the spiritism contract in alchemy was the ancient alchemists' conquest of alien planes, who created the technique to facilitate the enslavement and contract of alien creatures.

Today's alchemists no longer have the ability to conquer alien planes, and what has been passed down to the present has naturally become increasingly rare.

The hunchbacked old man he had killed earlier had found a "Secret Scroll of Spiritism of Undead Creatures" passed down from the Dawn Era in a certain relic, and successfully contracted the hellhounds, an alien plane creature.

Thinking of this, Suren remembered that he seemed to have that secret scroll in his newly acquired storage ring.

He felt that he might be able to try to see if he could contract them.

If he could get a few creatures like [Hellhounds] that were good at tracking, it would be quite practical.

.......

As his thoughts flashed through his mind, Suren had finished dealing with the last piece of bite burn on Yuta's back.

"Alright."

He put away the potion bottle and patted Yuta's upturned buttocks, which were full of elasticity.

Yuta responded with a charming smile, "Thank you."

She took out her clothes and put them on, then looked at the darkening sky and said, "It's getting dark, we need to find a place to rest."

"Okay."

Suren nodded.

Yuta had been to the Gray Wolf tribe and was familiar with the forest in this area.

Before long, the two found a cave.

Because there were enemies in the forest, they didn't light a fire and just ate some dry food.

After a while of intimacy, Yuta fell asleep peacefully on the animal skin-covered ground. Traveling and fighting during the day had consumed a lot of her energy.

Suren was on the side, sorting out today's gains.

A set of incomplete [Silver Armor] and some standard Lu Ying Royal Army officer equipment were the spoils of the ensign he had killed with the ship-slaying blade.

There were also many spare equipment, alchemical bombs, potions, magic cores, and energy crystal cores in the storage ring...

It had to be said that these guys were really rich. The equipment on this one third-tier lieutenant officer was more valuable than that of fourth-tier, or even fifth-tier, pirates.

After roughly counting them, Suren carefully searched the hunchbacked old man's storage ring.

The storage ring couldn't hold much, but what it did hold was valuable.

There were three thick books: "Dark Arts," "Necromantic Mysticism," and "Fourth-Tier Sealing Spell"... and several dark-type spell scrolls. Although they were copies, each one was a masterpiece, probably a benefit from the Lu Ying government.

And the last thin ancient scroll, which looked like a map, was the "Secret Scroll of Spiritism of Undead Creatures."

Judging from the material and the degree of wear, it was an antique.

Suren flipped through it.

He had previously extracted the memory fragments of [Spiritism], so he flipped through it quickly.

In less than a quarter of an hour, he had read all the contents of the secret scroll, and his brain quickly digested it into knowledge he had mastered.

"Can only contract alien undead creatures that don't exceed one's own rank, otherwise it's easy to be backlashed by the undead creatures?"

Suren pondered.

No wonder the hunchbacked old man summoned a third-tier hellhound during the day.

"That is to say, to be on the safe side, I can only summon undead creatures around the second-tier? And it's random?"

Suren pursed his lips.

It didn't seem very useful.

Although he thought it was a bit useless, he still planned to try it.

Casting spiritism not only required this contract secret scroll (coordinate), but also required proficiency in the laws of death or darkness, and a little knowledge of the laws of space.

Now he had them all.

Thinking that there was no difficulty, Suren began to set up a spiritism formation according to the contents of the secret scroll.

The first time was more troublesome and required enough sacrifices.

Suren spent more than 100,000 materials to set up a pentagram formation, and then put a piece of the carrion that guy had eaten during the day in the center of the formation.

As the warlock's seal pinched, the magic circle was activated, and a black light lit up.

The first spiritism contract was like fishing. If the undead creatures in that specific plane valued these "sacrifices" and were willing to take the bait, they would naturally appear in the formation.

Also, because of the constraints of the formation, they would obey some of the contractor's orders.

It was roughly like hiring them.

........

Suren hadn't expected to conjure up anything powerful anyway.

He had seen a lot of alien plane creatures. He had seen a lot of abyssal creatures when he was in Old Lingdun.

Even if some undead creatures appeared, it wouldn't be strange.

However, he never expected that after the black pentagram formation lit up and the plane void connected, he would suddenly feel a strong aura of death coming.

It wasn't a strong aura, but a kind of existence like bloodline pressure.

Suren felt that something was wrong, and his brow furrowed. "Could something go wrong?"

This movement was even greater than when the old man conjured a third-tier hellhound during the day.

But wasn't he clearly setting up a second-tier spiritism formation?

Suren was very certain that the spiritism formation he had just set up was done according to the secret scroll and that there was absolutely no mistake.

Moreover, this technique had extracted soul experience, so there was absolutely no possibility of encrypted misunderstanding.

The technique had already begun to operate, and forcibly stopping it would have a great impact on Suren, the caster. Seeing that the phantom image that lit up in the formation didn't look like a terrifying demon, he patiently watched.

Originally, Suren had prepared himself mentally to see a second-tier lord-level undead monster,

But unexpectedly,

The light of the formation dissipated,

The light and shadow actually slowly condensed into an unremarkable... crow?

"That's it?"

Suren watched as the light of the formation dissipated, one person and one bird, staring at each other.

However, unlike ordinary crows, this one had a halo of black light on its head.

When encountering an unfamiliar creature, Suren naturally threw an Eye of Omniscience at it.

Then, his expression immediately became very strange.

[Death Omen Bird]

Details: Second-tier fledgling, mythical species; also known as 'Bennu Bird', messenger of death in mythology, guide of the underworld, a strange bird that can predict death; this bird feeds on carrion and death aura. As long as the death aura is endless, this bird will not die; this bird contains some information beyond cognition;

Seeing the bird's identification information, Suren realized that he seemed to have summoned a very "special" existence.

But looking at it, this bird seemed harmless?

Suren's eyes turned, and seeing the words "contains some information beyond cognition" at the end, he immediately knew that this bird's origin was not simple.

He immediately thought of something: "Could it be because my comprehension of the law of death is relatively high?"

At this time, probably because of the movement of the spiritism, Yuta next to him also opened her eyes.

She looked at the bird that Suren summoned, then looked at the traces of the spiritism formation on the ground, and asked in a strange tone, "Mr. Suren, did you conjure this?"

"Yes."

Suren nodded.

He was also very curious about what this bird was used for.

The Daru tribe inherited many myths that human civilization didn't know. He thought that Yuta might know something, so he asked, "This is a 'Death Omen Bird'. Yuta, do you know what it's used for?"

When Yuta heard this, she was really surprised. "Death Omen Bird? The legendary guide of the underworld?"

She looked at the crow again, blinked her eyes, and immediately perked up.

Suren was even more curious: "You know?"

Yuta nodded, but then asked suspiciously: "Legend has it that the 'Death Omen Bird' is transformed from the soul of a god. They often accompany the god of death, are proficient in the law of death, are immortal, and symbolize ominousness and death. But... the legendary bird shouldn't look like this."

"This is a fledgling. It should be different when it grows up."

Suren thought and said.

If it weren't for the Eye of Omniscience, he wouldn't have thought that the crow with a halo on its head was a mythical species.

But what Yuta said was no different from the information identified, so he asked again: "What is the specific use of this bird?"

As soon as these words came out, before Yuta could respond, the silly bird "caw~"ed, as if expressing its dissatisfaction with his contemptuous tone.

Yuta said quietly: "That is the legendary bird of death, no living person has ever seen it. It is said that those who have seen it... will be guided to the underworld by it."

"..."

Suren's face twitched when he heard this. Did this mean sending people to the afterlife?

This bird was really ominous...

If it weren't for the spiritual connection with the contracted creature, knowing that it wouldn't harm him, he would have immediately turned his back on it and sent it back through spiritism as soon as he heard Yuta's words.

Yuta also felt that what she said seemed unlucky, and changed her words: "It's just a legend, after all, no one has ever seen it."

Suren instantly felt bad: "That is to say, this bird is still useless?"

He originally wanted to conjure an undead creature to try it out.

But the result was a "mythical species" with a great reputation that seemed to be less useful than the hellhound?

As soon as these words came out, the crow "caw~"ed again, even more dissatisfied.

The corner of Suren's eyes twitched, as if this bird had low intelligence.

Just as he was speaking, the body of the crow in front of him suddenly disintegrated into a cloud of black mist.

Suren was puzzled, but when he looked again, this guy was standing abruptly on his shoulder.

"Huh..."

He made a soft noise and immediately sensed something, feeling surprised: "This bird also understands the law of death?"

What surprised Suren even more was that this bird's level of comprehension of the law of death was even higher than his?

It was like being by a bonfire, letting you clearly feel that the temperature of the flame was higher than your own body temperature!

This seemed to have no offensive effect, but it was of great use to Suren.

It could help him improve his comprehension of the law of death!

Last time, he had died once, which allowed Suren to take a shortcut to understand a part of the law of death.

That kind of method couldn't be used next time.

Suren didn't want a next time.

Now that this bird was by his side, he could clearly feel a slight improvement in his understanding...

"I've found a treasure!"

Suren was overjoyed, and his expression immediately changed.

Seeming to sense something, the crow on his shoulder "caw"ed again, probably a triumphant response.

At this moment, Suren looked at the dark bird again, and the more he looked at it, the more pleasing it became.

Well... so fragrant!