Chapter 163

Chapter 163

"Ah!" Shanta's eyes widened as she saw the shadow and let out a low exclamation, "There really is something!"

She turned her head, looking at her captain with admiration, and asked, "Captain, how did you know Lin was hinting that there were followers of an evil god watching him?"

Lingfei Ge's team was hiding in a small building not far from the entrance to Mushroom Street.

In a room on the third floor facing the street, the three of them hung from the ceiling by mechanical spiders, positioned in a blind spot that would be overlooked by anyone observing from outside.

Lingfei Ge was stretching his wrists. The force Shanta used to restrain his wrists earlier wasn't heavy, so after he regained consciousness, she didn't use healing magic on him.

But the birdman Skalan always felt something was off with his wrist. As he twisted it, he explained, "Lin's hint wasn't about there being followers of an evil god watching him."

"Not?"

"Lin meant for us not to go too far," Lingfei Ge said.

Yan Tang nodded in realization.

Shanta crossed her arms, pondered for a few seconds, and then asked, "Because his intention to drive us away was too obvious?"

"Our initial mission was actually just to assist in protecting Lin's brother, Luo An White." Lingfei Ge tapped the mechanical spider with a wrench and explained, "The shift to tracking the demon's movements had already exceeded our duties, but since we were the closest to Mushroom Street, it could be considered an emergency measure."

If the demon was truly in Mushroom Street, killing him was more important than protecting Luo An, who was under the responsibility of another team of judges.

"After the demon was killed, although no direct orders came from above, according to the principle of proximity, Lin's safety officially fell to us," Lingfei Ge continued, "but secretly, there must have been another team. This was to prevent the demon from being a mere decoy, thus increasing the forces around Lin."

"Lin himself must have understood this, so his insistence on driving us away seems strange," Lingfei Ge said.

Shanta looked like she had learned something.

"Lin plans to see if the demon was indeed used as a decoy, right? If the Aberrant Cult has prepared a backup plan, they wouldn't miss this opportunity when Lin is alone with only a machine terminal," she said, but then added thoughtfully, "But I think his safety is more important; there's no need for him to personally set the trap, right?"

"A ritualist on the front line is a target, and Lin's fighting habit is like that," Lingfei Ge tapped the mechanical spider again, and a cannon barrel extended from its body, "and he also wants to prove something."

He loaded a flare into the cannon barrel.

Lingfei Ge's tone was full of admiration as he said, "He wants to prove that he won't leave the front lines."

***

The shadow, used as proof, was actually very cautious.

When the first gap appeared in Aiper's protection, he didn't make a move.

Not only did he not act, but he climbed around and merged into the shadows beneath the feet of the police officers guarding the perimeter.

When the second gap appeared in Aiper's protection, he finally moved, flowing from the shadows beneath the police officers' feet into a bag of mushrooms discarded on the street, then into the drainage channel, and emerging from the other side of the street.

At this point, he was only five or six steps away from Lin, who stood under a lamppost.

For a professional, these five or six steps could be covered in a blink. Without hesitation, the shadow leaped out and pounced toward the lamppost—

Then, just a hair's breadth from Lin, it retreated even faster than it had leaped out.

"Bang!"

An Evil-Bane Slash struck the ground beside Lin. A Saint Light Knight, holding a gun with both hands, emerged from behind the corner, shouting, "Lin! Get out of the way! It's a Shadow Walker!"

The blindfolded black-haired ritualist seemed startled, his grip loosening, and the thick tome fell directly to the ground.

At this moment, the Shadow Walker hiding in the drainage channel realized he was exposed. He tried to retreat into the darkness, but against a Saint Light Knight, a counter to his profession, he couldn't get away.

The Shadow Walker jumped out of the shadows, brandishing a pitch-black dagger, and deflected three shots enhanced by the Evil-Bane Slash with a series of clanks.

By now, the Saint Light Knight had reached him, discarding his gun and drawing a beam-like longsword, which he swung down at the Shadow Walker.

The sword, filled with the power of light, clashed with the cracked shadow dagger, sparks flying. To avoid being caught in the crossfire, Lin, who had been standing under the lamppost, had to keep retreating.

"Lin!" The Saint Light Knight's teammate arrived, shielding Lin from the battlefield, saying, "Move over here—"

Here, on the opposite side of the street, where several red-uniformed police officers, caught off guard, stood.

A second shadow seized the opportunity as Lin backed away, turning his back to them.

It darted out, aiming to merge into Lin's elongated shadow as he moved away from the lamppost.

Just then, a sound of shattering glass echoed, and a flare exploded above the battlefield, illuminating the agile figure of the second Shadow Walker as it left the shadows.

Shanta pounced from the ceiling, transforming into a river of blood that engulfed the second Shadow Walker, preventing it from retreating into the shadows.

The Saint Light Knight's teammate was taken aback, but he was well-trained and raised a circle of flames around Lin.

Clearly, he was an elemental mage.

"Let's fall back!" he said, prioritizing Lin's safety.

As for where to retreat, it was naturally to the prop modification shop where the judge was located.

Lin seemed to agree, nodding and stepping toward the broken perimeter line affected by the battle.

He lifted one foot, but before it touched the ground, the concrete beneath his other foot suddenly cracked!

Beneath the ground lay a neatly arranged utility tunnel with layers of electrical wires, telephone lines, water pipes, and sewage pipes!

To prevent Shadow Walkers from entering, even the utility tunnels were lit 24/7. But Mushroom Street was in a slum where light bulbs burned out quickly. The light bulbs on the street were regularly replaced by believers of the Dragon of Light, but the ones in the utility tunnels were only replaced during maintenance!

Before the elemental mage could react, a Shadow Walker leaped out from the ground along with the debris.

This was already the third Shadow Walker, but seeing the unyielding darkness in the utility tunnel, the elemental mage knew there were other shadow-walking professionals below.

Another one, perhaps even two.

Have the Shadowblades of Spire City been mobilized in full force?!

The elemental mage roared inwardly, ignoring the dagger of the nearby shadow walker and first threw a wind rope toward Lin to hold him and prevent him from falling.

But this tactic utilizing the utility tunnel was something the shadow walkers had long prepared for. As the third shadow walker leaped out, the darkness within the tunnel began to flow, like mist ready to engulf the ritualist who had stepped into the void.

Then.

The darkness paused.

It wanted to quickly consume the ritualist, but for some reason, its movements toward the ritualist became increasingly slow, so slow that after ten seconds, it had only moved three centimeters.

The ritualist, too, should have taken advantage of the darkness's sluggish movement to escape, but he remained suspended in mid-air, the only action he could take was to mouth words at the darkness.

"I promised," he said with a silent smile, his bandaged eyes facing the darkness, "not to leave a single one."

"!" The darkness immediately tried to retreat.

It tried to withdraw itself, but the withdrawal was even slower than when it approached the ritualist.

Like an insect trapped in resin, it was now unable to move forward or back, unable to escape.

At this moment, the holy knight who had swiftly dealt with the first shadow walker finally arrived at the edge of the broken road.

Just his approach caused the darkness to dissipate, revealing two shadow walkers inside, their faces filled with terror, yet unable to move.

"A Ritualist's glue ritual?" the holy knight, who had never worked with Lin before, asked in surprise, "When did you set it up?"

Shanta was also surprised, but she held her tongue. The young blood knight used her blood to bind her opponent, forming her shape from the river of blood, donning a crimson cloak, and teasing Lin, who stood motionless while conducting the ritual: "Wasn't your act of dropping the secret letter a bit too fake?"

Seeing Shanta approach, the holy knight turned to assist his teammate, addressing the elementalist: "Huh?"

Fake? They hadn't noticed anything? Lin had always been silent, and they truly thought he was scared.

Shanta, having seen how Lin had pretended not to violate school rules back then, found his acting just now to be utterly fake. She clicked her tongue and threw out two ropes made of her own blood to bind the two shadow walkers in the tunnel, but as soon as she got close, she realized she, too, was caught in the viscous air.

This ritual affected friend and foe alike.

Shanta quickly stopped and asked Lin, "Do you want to end the ritual first?"

Ending the ritual would be their last chance to escape. The two shadow walkers, now like specimens in amber, perked up mentally, though their expressions remained frozen in fear.

The black-haired ritualist, who had been similarly immobilized, finally moved.

He turned his face in a certain direction, his lips curling slightly upward.

Two pistols flew from that direction.

They seemed to be held by invisible hands, each aiming at the foreheads of the last two shadow walkers.

These guns were known to everyone in Spire City.

The last two shadow walkers paled, knowing they couldn't escape.

Wearing a white lab coat and a white suit, Hui Cui Dover stood at the entrance of Mushroom Street.

His tightly furrowed brows made the judges want to kneel before him and confess their mistakes.

Lin, released from the ritual and supported by someone's telekinesis, returned to the ground.

Surprised by Hui Cui's tense demeanor, he asked, "What happened?"

"The Shadowblades were likely hired by the Aberrant Cult to create chaos around you," Hui Cui said without hiding anything.

I know, I saw the demon and the Shadowblades make the deal in my flashback. Otherwise, why would I have been fishing just now?

Lin thought, then said aloud, "Alliances between evil cults are quite common."

Too common, so why are you so nervous?

"Creating chaos is to implant the Seed of Desire within you," Hui Cui's frown deepened, "The demon doesn't know who received the seed; all that remains on him is an empty wooden box."

"Hmm..." Lin tilted his head, "Ah?"

Lin knew about the wooden box; he had traced the demon's eyes and witnessed firsthand how the demon had received the box from his contact.

He had carefully reviewed the demon's entire life up to the moment of death, so he could swear under the name of the Mirror Eye that this gray-haired demon had never opened the box.

Moreover, the Seed of Desire cannot move on its own before being implanted in a person's heart.

It couldn't possibly have escaped from the wooden box on its own, right?

***

"That's how it is," Du Wei's mentor said, "I gave him an empty wooden box.

"But the court doesn't know it's empty; I even imbued it with desire magic. They will assume the Seed of Desire has already been delivered to someone in Spire City, or even that it has been implanted in the heart of the Apostle's beloved, because the ritualists of the Spire City Court have such a precedent.

"This is evidence delivered to them using the life of a high-level professional. Who could guess it was an empty box?

"Suspicion, division, and rejection will push the ritualist connected to the Dream God to the other side, and Hui Cui Dover cannot agree, leading to a rift with the Dream God...

"How does this plan sound? Grand High Priest, do you think the Goddess will elevate me to the rank of Apostle?"