Zhang Nu selected 12 followers to come along with him.
Nancilia, the Ancient Tree High Priestess and 10 elves of Giantree City.
Nancilia and the Ancient Tree High Priestess are both level 3 Lords.
They're first class powerhouses within Giantree Forest.
As for the other 10 Giantree City elves, they're all either elders or other elites, all of them being top contenders among level 3 Elite units. Some have even reached the strength of pseudo Lords.
Zhang Nu led his squad past the barrier proper and began this adventure.
Zhang Nu noticed that something was wrong the moment that he entered.
The hundreds of enormous trees all around were all wilted and half dead. The ground too is barren of grass or any other life, being dry and cracked like a desert wasteland.
This is completely unlike what it looked like from the outside.
So the barrier even had a beautification lens effect?
Zhang Nu scanned a tree, and information popped up.
[Elven Giant Tree]. A magical giant tree created by elves via secret methods. It has a nearly unlimited natural lifespan and can act as living space for elves as well as energy suppliers for large scale magical formations. However, this tree's life has long since been drained to its limits.
These giant trees are enormous, just like the Tree of Life.
However, they can't actually compare to the Tree of Life. They're basically just the elven version of skyscrapers, their main purpose is just to act as residences.
Of course, since they're big enough, they can also absorb and store plenty of energy from the environment, so they're commonly used as "solar batteries" as well.
The current hundreds of giant trees of the Giantree Forest not only provided living quarters for the elves, but also maintained an enormous seal.
Zhang Nu didn't see any information relating to the seal yet.
Thus, he asked, "What's the situation with the seal here?"
Nancilia explained, "Our tribe has lived here for generations since several thousand years ago, and it's all in order to keep guard over this Giantree seal."
As she said that, she scratched her head.
"The seal really is simply too ancient."
"The seal had already existed here way back when our ancestors first arrived here."
"I'm unsure of what the background is, but based on the tales passed down, the Giantree formation sealed up a portion of an evil god's body. If the seal were to be destroyed, then it would bring forth calamity to the entire Forest."
An evil god's body?"
Seriously?
Before he even had a chance to properly process this information, the Ancient Tree High Priest gave a warning, "Enemies have appeared!"
Zhang Nu had already detected it.
It was dozens, maybe even up to a hundred partially transparent spirits.
They suddenly dove out from the branches and trunks of the trees to launch a sneak attack.
[Undead Elves]. Level 3 Elite... Skills: Death Arrow (D Rank), Blade of Rot (D Rank), Death Wail (D Rank), Undead Self-Destruct (D Rank), etc.
Description: Formerly elves of the Giaintree Forest, due to having been corrupted by evil energy, they turned into evil spirits after death. They are strong at both range and melee, and they retained a small portion of their former intellect.
Level 3 Elite?
Undead monster?
Nancilia gasped, "They're those of my people who died!"
"How did they turn into undeads!"
The undeads didn't all charge at them. A portion of them quickly closed the distance with blades in hand, while the rest remained up in midair while forming bows and arrows to deal with the invaders.
This proves that their intelligence hasn't completely disappeared yet.
"Hah! Worthless tricks!" Zhang Nu spoke calmly, "These elves have suffered. Let us help grant them peace!"
"Yes!"
The Ancient Tree High Priest raised her staff.
A green barrier blocked the Death Arrows.
Before the undead were able to get any closer or do anything else, the Ancient Tree High Priest slammed her staff into the ground with both hands, and a light filled with holy energies immediately blasted out in all directions.
The undead elves, after being bathed in the light, let out a piercing screech before being completely disintegrated.
This is the C ranked spell "Light of Purification". Not only is the area of effect for the skill very large, it can both remove negative status from those within the effect while at the same time being able to cause enormous damage to undead beings, especially the ghostly types.
[You've slain an undead elf. Gold +1200!]
[You've slain an undead elf. Gold +1200!]
[You've slain an undead elf. Gold +1200!]
[...]
When Zhang Nu saw the messages, he couldn't help but nod in satisfaction.
Level 3 Elite monsters are great!
No matter how weak they are, any level 3 Elite monsters will yield at least 1000 or so gold in reward per kill.
After their cast of Purifying Light, it instantly took down around 20 of them, which yielded him around 24k or so in just gold alone.
It's not just great, it's practically a gold mine!
For anyone else, coming here would be a major mistake.
But for him, finding a zone this high leveled is not easy!
These past few days, due to having wildly expanded his army, he spent a huge amount of gold. Thus, he'll need to properly make up for his spendings with this gold mine here!
Nancilia and the other elves had come back to themselves as well.
The Demon King is right. Although they used to be their brethren, they're already dead now. Rather than leaving them to continue to be controlled by evil, it's better to instead release them from this existence and grant them peace!
Thus, under Nancilia's lead, the ten elves all acted as well and destroyed these undead elves in only a little bit.
While these undead elves are level 3 Elites in terms of power, they're not actually especially strong among level 3 Elite units in terms of power either. Thus, one can't consider them to be particularly strong, and in fact, one can even say that they're rather weak, relatively speaking.
Yet, of those here, the 10 elves are all at least top ranked among those Level 3 Elite units.
The young city lord Nancilia and the Ancient Tree High Priestess Gu Yi are even level 3 Lord units.
The former is a major contender among those strongest level 3 Lord units. The latter has great abilities especially effective against ghosts, necromantic beings. It can even act as support and help those on their own side to heal and recover.
In this situation, Zhang Nu didn't even need to personally fight at all. He could just leave his subordinates to help him grind the mobs.
Thus, they dove into the depths of the Giantree Forest while at the same time clearing out the undead that tried to pop out from everywhere. That said, it didn't take much time or effort before they wiped out hundreds of enemies.
[You've slain an undead elf. Gold +1200!]
[You've slain an undead elf. Gold +1200!]
[You've slain an undead elf. Gold +1200!]
...
The gold numbers continued to rise.
In just a little bit, while the Demon King hasn't fought at all, he had already earned around 1.45 million gold.
Zhang Nu kind of had no words.
A land of calamity? More like heaven!
While the undead elves have very strong attack power, their defenses are actually extremely fragile and lacking in strength, making them easily killed. Then there's the fact that they're quite numerous as well.
Zhang Nu has never seen a place like this before.
For him, the more that comes at him, the better.
Of course, Zhang Nu didn't dare to get careless either.
He knew from his information message that this location is a level 3 Overlord zone.
That means that this place has at least one level 3 Lord unit to stay on guard. Against beings like that, even for Zhang Nu, it's not something that he can be careless about. This is also why he decided to purposefully hide his strength.
Otherwise, if this information gets leaked, his opponents would then have the chance to prepare for it.
At that point, it wouldn't be nearly so easy to deal with them.
At this moment, in the center of the Giantree Forest, a crystal ball floated in the center of a dilapidated temple.
The figures shown through the crystal ball was that group of people constantly trying to kill those undead and are pressing arduously towards the deepest place in the Forest.
"Chief!"
"They've already fallen into our trap!"
"The elven haired elf is an immature Elf Queen-to-be."
"She's definitely the current leader of the tribe, but her strength isn't as great as we imagined!"
Two undeads with only bones left and wearing huge cloaks were currently speaking to a black robed elf who was currently sitting cross-legged under the crystal ball.
That black robed elf was completely withered and covered in wrinkles. His eyes were completely crimson and had dark spots all over his face. One could tell that he was not a living person with just a look.
"It's been three hundred years."
"Has our race really become this weak?"
"Even an elf queen only has this much power?"
The black robed elf spoke emotionlessly, "That said, they've come at just the right time. By draining the blood of a King, I will be able to recover back to my peak status. In addition, by watering the seal with a King's blood, it can speed up the awakening of that great one below."
"But..."
A skeleton couldn't help but speak up, "They also have a draconian among them. Since the start, he alone hasn't fought at all. Even now, we still have no idea what he's actually capable of."
The black robed elf was utterly dismissive toward those words.
"No matter how strong he is, he's at most a level 3."
"Although my strength can't compare to back when I was at my peak, I'm at least utterly confident in my ability to handle anyone within the realm of level 3."
The two skeletons found that reasonable.
Even that elf queen is only so strong.
She isn't even any stronger than the two of them, which is far lacking compared to the chief.
Besides, it's only a dozen or so individuals.
There's no way that they'll be of any threat no matter how strong they are.
Just how strong coult that strange draconian be? Right now, the entire Giantree Forest is under their control, so a mere dozen individuals can't possibly do anything. They'd be able to crush these intruders even if they were to simply pile on them with numbers!
Given that, there's no need to worry.
They can simply open up the defensive lines and allow the intruders entry.
The moment they get in deep, there's no way that they'd be able to escape.
Of course, this requires that they manage to get here with their lives in the first place. There are several terrifying beings waiting for them on the way here still, so it's unknown if they could even successfully get here in the first place.
Should that happen, then they'd definitely regret it.
All they can do is regret having underestimated their foes.
How could they have brought so few people to try to tackle the forbidden land?