With the arrival of autumn and winter, the cold wind in the central region becomes sparse, and the ancient capital and the area within a hundred kilometers around it are covered with patches of dry grass. Everywhere you look is monotonous gray, having lost its former colorful colors.

After landing at the airport, the group hurried to the Magic Association headquarters in the clock tower.

In a conference room full of a sense of history, senior officials from the Magic Association, Hunter Union, and the military, as well as representatives from local families gathered together to discuss matters.

"Now that everyone is here, please look at the big screen."

Peng Yu, vice president of the Bell Tower Magic Association, looked around at the participants who had arrived, spoke in a deep voice, and then turned on the large screen in the conference room.

A detailed map appeared on the screen, accurately marking the outline of the ancient capital and its surrounding areas.

It was daytime at this time, and the areas outside the ancient capital's safe zone were mostly covered in green or white, with only a few scattered places showing orange. These orange marks were often caused by the demons in the Qinling Mountains who occasionally lost their way and mistakenly entered here.

However, in this area dominated by green and white, a striking black spot suddenly appeared a few days ago.

Black symbolizes an absolute forbidden place!
Members of the Hunter Alliance are often tasked with drawing maps of the distribution of monsters. They use different shades of color to represent the number and strength of monsters.

Green represents safe areas.

White means that demons roam the area only sporadically.

The orange warning indicates that there are demon groups living in the area, which is a high-risk area. Only experienced hunters, special forces or powerful wizards dare to set foot in it.

The red area, namely the bloody area, is a veritable death trap. It is very easy to encounter collective attacks by demons, and their numbers are like a surging wave.

Between red and black, there is a purple zone. Purple represents that this is already the kingdom of demons. Even a super-class wizard will die if he enters.

The purple area is already a demon kingdom. Even the strongest holy wizard would risk his life if he enters it. The black area is an absolute death place for any living being.

The Black Forbidden Zone is not just a Jedi for humans, it is an inescapable death trap for all living things.

Even super-class mages, monarch-level creatures, and even more powerful forbidden spell mages will face an inescapable fate once they step into the black area.

Zhu Meng's eyes were fixed on the conspicuous black spot on the screen. His lips moved slightly and he whispered the terrifying name: "Sha Yuan!"

Even though the senior officials present had anticipated this, when the name "Sha Yuan" was mentioned, their bodies still trembled uncontrollably, with shock and disbelief revealed on their faces that were difficult to conceal.

"Councilman Zhu Meng's judgment is correct. Just as he said, not long ago, our monitoring equipment captured the existence of a Shayuan in the northwest of Yangyang Village. It is the terrifying black restricted area that can change its position at will!"

Vice President Peng Yu's expression became extremely solemn. He continued, "Since half a year ago, the activities of the undead have increased unprecedentedly. Now, even a terrifying existence like Sha Yuan has been detected by us."

"If we can't find out the truth behind all this, then the land we are protecting will inevitably become a real hell!"

In the land of the ancient capital, the appearance of the dead is not uncommon. Over thousands of years, the residents here have learned the wisdom of coexisting with the dead and established a delicate balance.

However, ever since the unrest at the eastern end of the Shawang River, the behavior of the undead here has become unusually restless.

The deathly aura they release at night is stronger than before. The commander-level undead that were rarely seen before now roam under the cover of darkness by more than a dozen each night, and their numbers are still rising. This has made the peace and order of this land extremely fragile, and it is difficult to maintain the original balance.

A large number of undead crawled out of the soil before it was completely dark, and high-level corpses began to wander freely within the range of human activities.

Now, even the pit closest to hell in the world, the Shayuan, has appeared. Isn't this enough to prove that a great cholera outbreak is about to occur? ?

The ancient capital has stood firm after thousands of years of wind and rain, because the undead have been eyeing the city for thousands of years.

The people here have learned how to prevent and resist in thousands of years of continuous warfare...

Now, the boundary between day and night is blurred, the undead are rampant, and the hell of evil has appeared. There must be a reason behind all this!!
The scene fell into silence, and people had their own thoughts. Some were thinking about how to deal with the situation, some were hesitating whether they should evacuate the place, and some wanted to seek personal gain in the chaos.

"Shayuan is a black forbidden area. Not to mention us super-class mages, even forbidden spell mages can't deal with it. In my opinion, we should retreat." A representative of a noble family said.

"You actually want to give up the ancient capital?" Another representative of the noble family stood up and slammed the table. "This is our home. Our ancestors have lived here for generations. How can we give up just because a "Devil Abyss" appeared more than a hundred kilometers away?"

"The whole country is mobilizing forces to support the ancient capital, but you propose to abandon and evacuate the people at this time. Are you playing tricks on us, the reinforcements coming from all over the place?" A middle-aged man who came to support showed obvious displeasure on his face.

Damn it, I came all the way from the west to support the ancient capital, and as soon as I arrived I hurried to attend the meeting, but these old guys said right away that they wanted to abandon the ancient capital and prepare to evacuate.

What a deal!

If they are going to give up at the very beginning, then what are they doing here?
"I tell you clearly, if you want to evacuate, you have to pay!" The middle-aged man slammed the table and said firmly:
"I am here to help you deal with the undead crisis, not to help your families retreat and protect your wealth!"

"You can evacuate, but every second of evacuation will be calculated according to my payment. As a super-class magician, my fee is one hundred thousand per second!" the man said with a sneer.

"The evacuation will only take one or two days, and will cost more than 10 billion at most. If you families share the burden, it will only be more than 1 billion." Another wizard who came to support also said with a smile.

"I think evacuating is a good choice. After all, you can earn more than 10 billion for free. I support your evacuation."

"However, since the super-class magician charges one hundred thousand per second, the high-class magician will be charged twenty thousand, the mid-class magician five thousand, and the beginner magician one thousand. If everyone has no objection, we can start the evacuation operation now." The mage continued.

As soon as these words were spoken, a few noble families who wanted to agree to evacuate suddenly became quiet, and the representative of the noble family who had just proposed the evacuation also shut his mouth obediently.

The number of people coming to support the ancient capital this time is ridiculously large. If they were to evacuate by the second, these noble families would probably go bankrupt!
"Cough cough!"

On the side, Vice President Peng Yu couldn't stand the ridiculous talk of charging by the second. It was simply a blatant act of extortion.

Peng Yu cleared his throat and said solemnly: "The ancient capital will not choose to evacuate for the time being, so everyone can rest assured."

"I hope so." The middle-aged man snorted with a hint of dissatisfaction.

Everyone present knew what Peng Yu meant by "temporarily". That is, as long as the situation did not deteriorate further, Gu Du would not consider the option of evacuation.

However, if the situation takes a turn for the worse and threatens the survival of the ancient capital, then the evacuation plan will be put on the agenda. The mages who came to support did not completely rule out the possibility of evacuation. What they found difficult to accept was that the decision to evacuate was made in a hurry when the current undead threat was not serious enough to endanger the safety of the ancient capital.

They were thinking of evacuating before even a monarch-level undead appeared? Then weren't these super-class mages here in the ancient capital to serve as evacuation bodyguards for these noble families?
Zhu Meng stood up and said to Peng Yu, "I'll take a few people to Yangyang Village to check on Sha Yuan's situation."

"But Shayuan is a black restricted area..." Peng Yu was a little worried.

"It's just a long-distance observation. I will be extra careful." Zhu Meng waved his hand and explained, "Since the appearance of the Shayuan in the Shawang River half a year ago, the undead in the ancient capital have become restless. If we want to quell this chaos of undead, we still have to go to the vicinity of the Shayuan to take a look."

"I'll send some more people to assist you." Peng Yu thought about it for a moment and felt that what Zhu Meng said made sense, so he nodded in agreement. At the same time, he assigned several high-level mages to go with Zhu Meng.

"I will go with Councillor Zhu Meng." said the military commander in military uniform.

"If you leave, what will happen to the north city wall?" Peng Yu frowned, looking worried.

"Just let someone from Nancheng District replace me. There's no need to cause so much trouble." Military commander Lu Xu said impatiently.

"But..." Peng Yu still felt something was wrong.

"Don't say buts anymore. I majored in wind magic and minored in earth magic. If there are any problems, I can get them out of here. No one is more suitable to go to Shayuan than me." Lu Xu waved his hand with a firm attitude.

"Okay." Seeing this, Peng Yu had no choice but to agree.

"Do you need to send another super-class wizard to help you?" Peng Yu looked at Zhu Meng and said.

Including the captain of the palace guards, Councillor Zhu Meng will have three super-class mages with him on this trip to Shayuan, plus several high-level mages. This strength can be said to be very luxurious.

"No, three super-level ones are enough." Zhu Meng waved his hand and shook his head to refuse.

He turned around and cast his gaze towards Xu Mu who was eating melon seeds in the corner, and said, "It's time to go. Stop eating."

"So fast?" Xu Mu stood up in surprise and casually put the melon seeds and fruits here into the storage space.

"I thought your meeting would take a long time."

"It's just a small meeting, not that troublesome. We will continue it when we come back," Zhu Meng explained.

"This young man is..." Peng Yu looked at Zhu Meng with some confusion.

"I have found helpers, and time is running out. I will take action now." Zhu Meng responded.

"Be sure to proceed with caution!" Peng Yu warned.

……

……

After leaving the Clock Tower Magic Association, they quickly headed towards the south wall of the outer city wall.

There were nine people in the group, including Xu Mu, Councillor Zhu Meng, Military Commander Lu Xu, Chief of the Palace Guards Wu Pingjing, and five high-level mages.

The group rode on a flying creature summoned by a wizard and quickly headed towards Yangyang Village.

"This sky is really dark." Xu Mu looked up at the sky, only to see a haze covering it. It was only four o'clock in the afternoon...

Although the days are short and the nights are long at this time of year, the sun shouldn't set so early.

"It may be due to the bad weather. Don't worry too much. As long as there is sunlight, the death energy cannot condense and the undead will not appear easily." Military Commander Lu Xu comforted.

"If we go to Yangyang Village, I know a friend there. He is very powerful. If we run into trouble, we can seek his help." Xu Mu said while stroking his chin, as if thinking about something.

The flying summoned beast was extremely fast, and the group soon arrived near Xianyang. Looking from afar in the air, they could clearly see the huge black pit!
Although it was still several kilometers away from the cave, the strong aura of death was already clearly discernible and could not be concealed even from a long distance.

When approaching the Shayuan, out of concern for possible unexpected situations, they gave up flying and chose to walk instead.

The group walked forward slowly. Just after taking a few steps, a low-level zombie suddenly emerged from the ground and fiercely attacked everyone.

The corpse emerged from the ground next to Xu Mu and attacked him first, but Xu Mu did not use magic and just threw a heavy punch.

The punch was so powerful that it directly knocked the corpse's head off. The head rolled on the ground for several times before finally coming to a stop.

"A rotten corpse that hasn't even reached the slave level dares to attack me." Xu Mu muttered with disdain.

"The deathly energy here can actually remain condensed even in the sunlight!" Facing the rotten corpses that suddenly appeared and launched an attack, Zhu Meng and the others looked extremely serious.

According to common sense, even the most intense death energy will gradually dissipate under the sunlight and will not be able to gather into a shape. Once the death energy cannot gather, it will be difficult for the dead to appear in the world.

But at this moment in the land of Xianyang, the concentration of death energy has reached a point where even the sunlight cannot dispel it. Even those insignificant low-level corpses can break through the limit and attack them.

Boom!

Rumble!
The ground began to tremble without warning, and dense and dull footsteps were heard in the distance, as if a large number of heavy objects were approaching this side.

Crackling!

Is that the sound of electric current? Is someone using lightning magic?

Everyone looked towards the source of the sound with doubts.

(End of this chapter)