Chapter 429 – Undead Raising

Chapter 429 – Undead Raising

Among several mounds of earth, there was an emaciated old man, digging at the ground with his bare hands, one scrape after another.

The dirt caking his fingers was already stained with blood, yet his hands continued their mechanical clawing.

From where Mo Lan and the others watched, the life force within him had nearly been exhausted entirely.

Lilith checked the one-way sound-dampening magic circle, and only after confirming that no sound would carry outward did she speak: “Is that… a human?”

“It doesn’t look like one! Don’t the books say humans look similar to us witches? Young women and witches are supposedly indistinguishable by appearance alone. This person is practically a skeleton, and his hair isn’t even as smooth as egg fried rice. He doesn’t look much like the humans described in books!” Vasida analyzed.

“There’s also Death Force on him—could he be a necromancer?” Sylph said. “Only necromancer witches and necromancers would come into the Black Forest.”

Originally, seeing this burial scene had reminded Mo Lan of her previous life just before death, when she too had buried the other survivors one by one like this, until finally it was her own turn. It had stirred a twinge of sorrow in her.

But listening to her companions’ analyses veer further and further off course, Mo Lan’s melancholy instantly vanished:

“He’s a human—a male human, and a very old one at that. His hair is dry and brittle, and he’s nothing but skin and bones. He’s probably been starving for days. Look, he’s even cinched a grass rope around his stomach! Probably because the hunger became unbearable.

As for the Death Force, it’s not emanating from him—rather, the Death Force in the surrounding environment has been eroding his body. He’s just an ordinary old man with no magic whatsoever.”

Humans in Valen were much the same as humans on Earth. Mo Lan had even seen them in Mo-Pic books before and recognized him at a glance.

“A male!” Vasida’s eyes went wide. “The male humans in 《Anatomical Appreciation Atlases》 are quite good-looking! They don’t look like this at all!”

“He’s old!” Sylph said. “Even we witches grow frail when we enter old age. Without beautifying potions, our skin wrinkles up too, and our backs start to hunch. Humans have such short lifespans—without the aid of magic, a few decades and they end up looking like this.”

“He looks like he’s about to die. The Pathseeking Spell guided us here—is it so we can collect his corpse? Unfortunately, his flesh doesn’t look very high quality anymore. I wonder if his skeletal frame is still any good either.” Lilith said.

“…”

Mo Lan was quite astonished by her companions’ indifference.

Though she herself didn’t advocate meddling in others’ affairs—especially without knowing the full circumstances—her companions were encountering a dying old man for the first time. How could their reactions be like this?

She had a rough idea that it was probably her human experience influencing her again. Curious, she asked them about their thoughts.

“Save him?” Lilith shook her head. “We can’t save him! He’s an ordinary person who walked into the Black Forest—clearly he has a death wish. Besides, his body is already in terrible shape. Even with magic, it would be very difficult to restore him to his prime.

An ordinary elderly human’s body is far too frail. Even if he survived, he’d need someone to care for and look after him. We might save him for the moment, but we can’t keep supporting and caring for him indefinitely!

And the key thing is, we don’t even know what kind of person he is, or why he’s here digging in the dirt.”

Vasida and Sylph nodded in agreement.

Vasida even recited a passage from their textbook: “《The Valen Complete Travel Guide》, the Ten Rules of When Witches Should Not Rescue: do not rescue those of unknown origin, do not rescue those who would put yourself in danger, do not rescue the wicked who deserve their fate… Moira, you haven’t forgotten, have you?”

Mo Lan: “…”

These witches truly adhered to the knowledge they’d learned at the Academy to the utmost extreme—obedient to an almost excessive degree.

But it was a good thing.

“I haven’t forgotten! Let me use the Origin-Tracing Spell to look at his memories!”

The words had barely left her mouth when a muffled thud sounded.

The man in the forest had collapsed headfirst into the pit.

“He’s dead.” Sylph let out a sigh.

“Can the Origin-Tracing Spell read a dead person’s memories?” Vasida asked.

Mo Lan shook her head. “But there’s still Undead Raising and Soul Recall that can be used! He’s just an ordinary person—both spells should work at my level.”

“Better to use Undead Raising. Just raise him and ask about the situation—that’ll do. Using Soul Recall on someone we don’t know is too wasteful, and it has to be paired with follow-up healing measures, otherwise they’ll just die again soon anyway.” Lilith said.

Undead Raising could only briefly reanimate a corpse for questioning, while Soul Recall could actually bring a recently deceased being back to life.

However, Soul Recall had no healing effect. If the cause of death wasn’t resolved, the person would simply die again after being revived.

Moreover, Soul Recall required not just Mana but also a portion of one’s own lifespan as the cost—it was not a spell to be used lightly.

Even though the lifespan cost of using Soul Recall on an ordinary human was minimal, it still wasn’t worth it.

“Those mounds probably have corpses in them too. Let’s dig them all up and question each one!” Mo Lan said.

Corpses could lie too, and mind-reading magic was useless at a time like this. The only reliable approach was to question several of them.

“I’ll do it!” Vasida channeled her Mana and cast the Earth-Turning Spell.

In the blink of an eye, the bodies beneath the mounds were turned up to the surface. Together with the old man’s corpse, there were eight bodies in total—men and women, old and young—all lying stiffly side by side on the ground.

Lilith lowered the flying carpet a bit, and Mo Lan and the others jumped down into the forest to examine the corpses.

“Judging by their condition, even the earliest death occurred no more than three days ago!” Mo Lan said.

“Is there something off about the state of these corpses?” Vasida noticed something strange about the corpses’ feet. She examined them more closely: “The tendons and bones in their feet have been severed.”

Ordinary humans, in a Black Forest saturated with Death Force, with their foot tendons cut.

“They couldn’t have been forced into the Black Forest, could they?” Vasida said.

Upon realizing these people may have been forced into the forest to die, Lilith immediately took the flying carpet to the forest’s edge for a look, and quickly returned:

“There are people patrolling and standing guard outside the forest.”

“A child this small, even here… It’s just… Are humans really this cruel to their young?” Sylph looked at the body of the human girl who was three years old at most, unable to hide her distress.

“Let me ask them what happened!” Mo Lan selected the old man who had died most recently as the first target for her spell, and cast Undead Raising on him.

He had died last, so he should know the most.

Since they didn’t plan to actually use Soul Recall to save any of them, and they might need to take the corpses with them afterward, Mo Lan and the others didn’t bother with any concealment—they only hid the flying carpet.

After the spell was cast, the corpse remained still at first, and they nearly thought the casting had failed.

But in the very next moment, the body that had been lying quietly on the ground suddenly shot upright—bolt straight—sitting up in one swift motion.

The swiftness of the movement was utterly different from how the old man had been in life.