I Live on the Land in Global Games
Chapter 563 - 546: Phantom of the Cold Deer

Chapter 563: Chapter 546: Phantom of the Cold Deer

The Little Cold Deer Illusions were indeed formidable, even deceiving her Biological Recognition Spell. If not for the fact that Mu Ying’s Magic Mark had to land on a physical body, she wouldn’t have noticed at all.

But once she realized that all the protected Little Cold Deers were fake, the bunch of illusions seemed very false to her.

Mu Ying observed for several days in a row but still could not find where the real Little Cold Deer were.

However, she did get a clear understanding of the Cold Deers’ daily activities.

The level 11 Cold Deer leader and three level 10 Cold Deers would usually stay near the camp in Luoxia Mountain.

Those three level 10 Cold Deers always guarded around the Little Cold Deer Illusions, and even if they sometimes left for a while, only one would leave at a time.

Seeing the degree of their meticulous protection, no one could guess that they were guarding a virtual illusion.

Additionally, the 26 level 9 Cold Deers would go out at irregular intervals every day, sometimes alone and sometimes in groups.

Typically, those that went out alone were the ones that had performed a Divination the day before.

Previously in Luoxia Town, there were continuous heavy snow for months, and the Cold Deers prophesized that ice and snow would bury Luoxia Valley and the Snow Domain would gradually expand. They warned humans to prepare in advance and adapt quickly to living in ice and snow. Claiming to be friends of humanity, they did not want lives to be lost in vain and were willing to help humans by providing food and teaching them survival skills in the Snow Domain.

Luoxia Valley was indeed buried as they said, and the Snow Domain kept expanding, but none of this was actually prophesied by the Cold Deers—it was caused by them.

Although the prophecy about being buried in ice and snow was indeed the work of the Cold Deers themselves, they did possess some precognitive ability.

However, it wasn’t the ability to predict natural disasters and fortunes as they boasted, it was merely a Divination Technique.

The Cold Deers often provided food to humans who were short on supplies, using the Spell Hero Banquet.

Legend has it that if one gets lost or encounters danger in the Snow Domain, a sincere prayer can summon the Snow Mountain Guardian God, the Cold Deer, to receive assistance.

This was also one of the reasons why the Cold Deers were deified.

After all, such beings that seemingly wore a halo of the Holy Mother, going wherever help was needed, giving selflessly, were indeed rare.

Some people, after being saved, became utterly convinced of the Cold Deers’ miraculous powers, while others, seeing an opportunity for gain, also pretended to respect them and worshipped them like gods. As a result, the Cold Deers had very high reputation among the players in the Snow Domain.

But in reality, the so-called assistance summoned by sincere prayers was actually obtained by the Cold Deers through Divination.

The Cold Deers could perform Divination once a week, using the Snow Domain expanded step by step from the Ice and Snow as a medium.

This allowed them to randomly predict events that might occur in a certain location of the Snow Domain within the next day.

Sometimes they could indeed foresee that someone would encounter danger at a specific time and place.

The Cold Deers made good use of these divination results. Sometimes they would warn the relevant person before the danger occurred, or sometimes they would lie in wait under the snow, only appearing after the person fell into danger and prayed on their knees, seemingly emerging just in time to save them from distress.

Other times, if several Divinations in a row yielded nothing of value, the Cold Deers would follow human tracks, secretly create danger, and then conveniently appear to play the savior.

After such a long period of operation, it was not surprising that players unaware of the truth were deceived.

Mu Ying called this the Cold Deers’ daily mission to consolidate their reputation.

Each time the Cold Deer went out alone, it was playing the role of a savior, embarking on missions to consolidate its prestige.

As for those in pairs, threes or groups of five to ten, they were all headed to deserted places to wield their Ice and Snow magic.

The Cold Deer’s association with omens of good or bad luck and their territorial expansion had a certain connection among the players.

Legend had it that Cold Deer would occasionally appear beside devout humans, offering them delicious delicacies or imparting Secret Skills, and sometimes leaving behind warnings.

These warnings often stated that certain areas were recently unsuitable for humans to approach, and if ignored, would result in a bloody disaster.

Of course, there were those who did not believe the warnings and deliberately went to check them out, but anyone who went never returned.

Over time, people chose to stay away from the danger zones predicted by the Cold Deer.

As for why those people never came back, it was of course because the Cold Deer had killed them.

The so-called dangerous places were merely the Cold Deer’s chosen Spell Casting grounds.

The Cold Deer had never attacked in the presence of people, always appearing white and sacred, kind and generous. Players only knew that they came and went without a trace in the snow, walking without leaving footprints, unaware of their formidable combat strength.

Mu Ying tracked the Cold Deer and witnessed a series of their cunning maneuvers, feeling that the Cold Deer were the true masters of deceit and manipulation of hearts. Compared to them, she was much less accomplished, her forte at most being ambushes.

Since she hadn’t found the hidden Little Cold Deer yet, Mu Ying was still not acting rashly. Seeing the Cold Deer making fools of players, she refrained from taking action.

About a week later, she finally noticed something amiss at the Cold Deer’s main base.

After searching the Snow Domain and returning, she suddenly realized that the three Cold Deer guarding the Little Cold Deer Illusions had been switched out.

To the naked eye, they were still the same three level-10 Cold Deer, but the Magic Marks she had placed on them were gone.

In her Perception, however, the three Magic Marks were located deep in the rarely visited Luoxia Mountains.

Mu Ying followed the marks and only saw a valley blanketed in snow, with nothing visible to the eye, yet her Perception told her that there were three moving Magic Marks in the valley.

Magic Marks could only be placed on something with a physical form. If there was nothing moving in sight, then the problem must be with her eyesight.

"Another High-level Illusion!" The moment Mu Ying realized this, the empty valley below her eyes revealed its true form.

Twenty Little Cold Deer were frolicking in the valley, overseen by three adult Cold Deer.

The Magic Marks she had placed were on these three adults, which looked exceedingly similar to the three adults outside. Without the Magic Marks, it would have been nearly impossible for the naked eye to distinguish the two sets of deer.

This time, as she attempted to place Magic Marks on the Little Cold Deer, she succeeded without any issues.

Thus, it seemed that even before Luoxia Valley was buried, the Cold Deer she saw weren’t the only ones; three level-10 Cold Deer had been hiding deep within Snow Mountain.

Having finally found all of them, Mu Ying began to ponder her hunting plan.

One level-11 leader, six level-10 Cold Deer, twenty-six level-9 Cold Deer, plus twenty Little Cold Deer.

That was no small number, and the intelligence of the Cold Deer was no less than that of humans. Their physical strength and Magic-like abilities could not be underestimated either; she had to think carefully about how to capture them all in the safest and most foolproof way.