Volume 5: Protracted War Chapter 13: Attracting the Phoenix
I didn't expect to kill the phoenix or even get a divine weapon. I couldn't do it with my current strength. Although I had more than 30 magicians such as Xue Wuxia to absorb my spiritual power in turn, I could use the "Summoning the Dead" as quickly as possible without wasting time waiting for the recovery of my spiritual power. However, each time the "Touch of Death" was activated, 10% of my health would be consumed. I couldn't use it continuously and still needed some time to rest. If there were no restrictions in this regard, as long as there were enough magicians to provide "supplies", I could continuously summon all the powerful subordinates in the "Dead Space", and that would be truly "invincible in the world".
By absorbing the spiritual power of three level 5 great magicians, I can cast "Summoning the Dead" twice, which can summon 24 corpse wizards. In order to deal with emergencies, I dare not consume too much health value, and at least keep 40% of the level for safety. In addition to the sacred beast Phoenix, there are other magic beasts living on Phoenix Ridge. Although most of them are some intermediate magic beasts of level 5 or 6, generally speaking, they are species that are relatively friendly to the sacred beast Phoenix, and there are no overly powerful individuals, but they are still dangerous for players and need to be vigilant at all times. Especially some flying magic beasts, such as wind falcons and hawks, may be relatively weak among their kind, but they have excellent eyesight and are good at finding prey from high altitudes. Their diving attacks are also quite powerful. The attack methods are sudden and hard to guard against. There was a precedent that killed an unprepared great magician player with one blow. It's not like I'm hiding somewhere quietly. I need to constantly activate "Touch of Death" and cast "Summoning of the Undead", which can easily expose me and cause sudden attacks from the air. Also, I have to concentrate on my work and don't have the time to summon Xiaobai to monitor the air. Therefore, safety comes first. Taking into account the protective effects of equipment and skills, my remaining health must at least be able to withstand a powerful attack from those monsters.
More than ten hours passed. After continuous efforts, I have summoned more than 400 carefully selected strong corpse wizards. Due to limited space, I can only summon so many . There is no place for the extra ones to hide. I arranged them to ambush in the bushes and piles of rocks one by one, and adjusted the position of each corpse wizard, strictly ordering them to stand still and try not to reveal any flaws. Fortunately, the corpse wizards are high-level undead creatures and will not emit a foul smell like zombies. Otherwise, although they have hidden their traces, they are still stinking. Even if there is a sycamore tree, how can they attract the phoenix?
Afeng and his men were hiding well, and my behavior was indeed too conspicuous. On the surface, I looked like a lone man, not very intimidating, and was just suitable to be a prey. Therefore, I was attacked several times by Feng Hun and Ji Ying. Thanks to Yun Wuying and other archers with good eyesight who warned me in time, I, a part-time thief, was quite agile. Even if I couldn't completely dodge, I only had some scratches at most, which was not a big deal. Dozens of magicians and archers launched a counterattack at the same time, teaching these guys who wanted to take advantage a lesson. They fled quickly with a wail, and dared not fly down to trouble me again.
The preparations have been made. We were worried that a phoenix would suddenly fly over and disrupt our plan. Now we are trying to figure out how to lure the phoenix over. Based on the experience of other player teams, there are generally two ways to attract the attention of the holy beast. One is to use people, and the other is to use objects. "Using people" means sending a small number of players to provoke the holy beast, launch attacks to provoke the anger of the holy beast, and slowly lure it to chase and enter the ambush area; while "using objects" refers to magic crystal cores that can supply the energy needed for the growth of the holy beast. A large number of magic crystal cores are thrown along the way to attract the target step by step. As for which method is more effective and whether it can be successful, there is no conclusion. It involves many factors that are not under the control of the players. You can only leave it to fate and luck.
However, neither of these two methods is suitable for me. I am not here to kill holy beasts, and I am a poor man. Whatever I do, I usually do it on a small scale. I cannot invest much capital. I do not have the funds to hire a large number of people. Most of the undead creatures are relatively stupid. They are OK for simple fighting, but I am afraid that they will not be able to do such a complex and flexible job as luring the enemy. I am also unable to buy the fire magic crystal cores that the phoenix likes to devour the most. Although the magic crystal cores of level 3 and 4 magic beasts have been extremely depreciated and do not cost much money, the appetite of holy beasts is generally large. These low-level magic crystal cores are not enough to satisfy the holy beasts. It may not be a big deal for a team, but for me personally, it is an unaffordable expense. It seems that I can only wait passively. Moreover, the above two methods are generally used to deal with land-based holy beasts. For a fast-flying beast like the phoenix, its actions are often unpredictable. It is impossible for them to follow the troops that lure the enemy step by step. Its actual effect has not been tested. Even if I follow this, it is still unknown whether I can achieve the expected purpose.
Although there is a phoenix tree in front of our ambush circle, which is a fixed resting place for the phoenix, it is exposed and obvious, and in theory it seems to have more chances than dealing with other sacred beasts, but there are many phoenix trees on Phoenix Ridge, and we don't know when we can successfully "recruit the phoenix". We don't have much time to waste endlessly. If we want to achieve our goal as much as possible, in addition to luck, we must also find another way to attract the phoenix's attention and increase the chance of it landing on the phoenix tree to rest.
So far, apart from completing the "Phoenix Feather" mission and witnessing the power of the young phoenix, I have not heard of any player thinking of attacking the phoenix. They would rather choose to deal with the more powerful Qilin. Compared with the phoenix that can fly and is not easy to attack, the possibility of killing the Qilin by relying on the advantage in numbers may be slightly higher. Therefore, there are no more actual battle examples for us to learn from. Everything can only rely on our own imagination and exploration. No one knows whether we will succeed or fail.
In addition to passively waiting and trying my luck, I had no better way. At most, I could only send some of my men to try to challenge the phoenix and see if I could lure it into the ambush area and concentrate the corpse witch's "death cloud bomb" to try to shoot down a few of its feathers. However, Yue Linglong came up with an idea to prepare hundreds of magic crystal cores to artificially "dress up" the target phoenix tree to increase its attractiveness to the phoenix. This would not cost a lot of money and I could afford it with my financial resources. As long as the design is good and the magic crystal core is placed in a conspicuous place as much as possible, the magic crystal core will emit a faint fiery red light, so that the phoenix can see it with a little attention. In this way, it may stay on the phoenix tree to "eat", and we can take the opportunity to launch an attack.
While I was placing the corpse witch, several thieves who were agile and good at climbing (at least good at climbing trees) ran towards the paulownia tree. Each of them carried dozens of magic crystal cores and climbed up quickly. Xue Wuxia, Yun Wuying, Yue Linglong and other "makeup designers" who thought they had "aesthetics" had already looked at it for a long time and discussed and worked out a plan to "decorate" the paulownia tree. They instructed the thieves on the tree one by one on how to hang the magic crystal cores so that they could be more easily discovered and use limited resources to achieve the maximum effect.
After they finished "decorating", the paulownia tree looked different. There were dots of red light mixed in with the lush green. I specially summoned the blood bat couple to look down from the sky. As long as you pay attention to this area, you will find that the "decorated" paulownia tree is absolutely different. The red dots look very unique. I believe it will be more attractive to the beautiful phoenix.
We have done what we can do. Now we can only leave it to fate and luck. Maybe the phoenix flying high in the sky will not notice this area at all. As long as it does not approach, it will not find our careful arrangement, and naturally it will not land on the sycamore tree to rest and eat. This effort will be in vain. In addition to waiting patiently, perhaps all we can do is pray.
Another five or six hours passed, and occasionally a phoenix would fly by in the sky, but it never stayed for long , let alone planned to land to rest. We could only chat to kill time. Suddenly, accompanied by a clear and long cry, a phoenix came out from the other side of the mountain, gliding leisurely at low altitude, flying towards this area, turning its body slightly, as if it had discovered the unique sycamore tree we had "decorated", circling a few times, slightly folding its wings, and began to glide towards us.
Our efforts paid off, or perhaps we were lucky enough, the phoenix finally landed on the phoenix tree as we wished. This was the first time we observed an adult phoenix at such a close distance. It looked even more beautiful and majestic than the young phoenix we saw that time. It was five or six meters tall, with a more robust physique. Its whole body was fiery red, but each feather was mixed with strands of gold. It had emerald green eyes with golden light, and two long colorful tail feathers. Its elegant demeanor and domineering expression were definitely not something that the young phoenix could achieve. This was the true king of birds.
The phoenix that had just landed on the phoenix tree did not immediately pay attention to the magic crystal cores hanging in front of it, but looked around to assess the surrounding environment. Even as a powerful sacred beast, it remained vigilant. We were all more careful and did not dare to move, fearing that we would disturb the phoenix and cause failure. We had to wait for it to relax, rest and eat in peace, while we were ready to launch a sudden attack and catch it off guard, so as to increase the hit rate of the corpse witch's attack and try to knock down more feathers.
It seemed that it did not find anything unusual. The phoenix retracted its gaze and began to notice the magic crystal core hanging on the tree. It slightly poked its head out to sniff a few times, opened its mouth and swallowed it, and then began to turn to other targets, swallowing them one by one. Perhaps because the magic crystal core was too low-level, the phoenix ate very quickly, and it did not take much time to swallow it. In just a short while, dozens of magic crystal cores had been swallowed into its stomach.
The phoenix has calmed down, and it's time for us to take action. All the corpse wizards are ready. At my command, more than 400 "death bombs" were fired at the unsuspecting phoenix on the branch at the same time, and they were accurate hits. However, as a sacred beast, even if the phoenix's defense ability is not too high, this little damage only made it scream, and the sound was slightly strange. Although its body shook a few times, it quickly stabilized and did not seem to have suffered too much damage. No wonder it is difficult to kill a sacred beast even if thousands of players gather to besiege it. Their abilities are really terrifying.
Of course, it was not easy for the Corpse Wizards, whose attack power was no less than that of some great magician-level players, to attack with more than 400 of them. Perhaps just one round of attack was not enough to hurt the Phoenix, but it would not be unscathed. The dozen or so feathers that fell were the result of the battle. Then the Corpse Wizard launched a second wave of attacks, but the Phoenix reacted quickly and flew away from the sycamore tree, dodging some of the "death cloud bombs". The feathers on its body also spread out, flashing a circle of red light, which stretched and retracted within a range of more than one meter around it. This was the Phoenix's self-defense skill "Fire Feather Body Protection", which offset some of the attacks. The damage it received was estimated to be less than a quarter of the first time, which could be inferred from the few feathers that fell.
The phoenix, suddenly attacked, was enraged. It raised its head and roared, then flew towards the nearest bushes. As its wings flapped, it cast the "flame wall" magic. Several moving fire walls quickly appeared and swept across. All the corpse witches affected were burned to ashes. At the same time, a group of fireballs of varying sizes exploded within a range of four or five meters around it. They were "explosive fireballs". Most of the corpse witches hit were blown to pieces and died tragically on the spot. Fortunately, the phoenix continued to fly at a low altitude. While it was attacking the corpse witches, the fearless corpse witches also insisted on launching attacks. Even at the moment of their tragic death, they still insisted on launching a "death cloud bomb" to hit the huge phoenix. Therefore, although the casualties of the corpse witches were increasing rapidly, phoenix feathers still fell from time to time in the air. I also spent a lot of time thinking about the positioning of the corpse witches. Considering the Phoenix's attack methods and means, the corpse witches were separated by a distance and not densely arranged, so as not to lose too much in one attack. This is why I was unwilling to summon more corpse witches to ambush while there was still time. Although that might give me some advantages in the first two rounds of attack, the losses would be doubled with the Phoenix's counterattack. I just want to get a few feathers and don't expect to kill the Phoenix. There is no need to invest too much. After all, it is not so easy for me to subdue the corpse witches at this stage. I need to launch a "War of the Undead". Even if everything goes well, I will lose a lot of terrifying giant bear knights. I don't want to lose them easily.
