Time trickled away during the silent standoff.
Lin Gui was waiting, but below him, Caesar had clearly run out of patience.
The delegation from the Holy Church of Light was only visiting the Royal Capital for two days.
At dawn tomorrow, the Saintess would have to depart for the Holy City, where the headquarters of the Holy Church was located.
Whether the assassination succeeded or failed, things had to be brought to a conclusion tonight.
The perception of a High-tier Transcendent assassin was certainly no empty reputation.
They might not be able to see through the Shroud of the Gloomy Night directly.
However, they could sense subtle abnormalities in the environment.
An unnatural stagnation in the air, a microscopic deviation in the trajectory of settling dust, or even a gut feeling that they were being peered at.
Caesar and his men were clearly no longer satisfied with simply waiting.
They began to search the area silently, employing exceptionally sophisticated methods.
There were no large movements and no energy fluctuations.
They were like ghosts melting into the environment.
They utilized the shadows of rocks, the blind spots of abandoned mining carts, and subtle outcroppings on the ground.
Inch by inch, they moved and scouted.
They suppressed their presence to the absolute limit.
Their footsteps were lighter than falling feathers.
Even their heartbeats and blood flow seemed to have slowed to a near standstill.
This search was more of a probe into the environment's "integrity."
They were looking for any disharmony that might exist.
Elvia and Theia initially did not notice any abnormalities; the mine remained as dead as ever.
Only Lin Gui's brow suddenly tightened.
His gaze shifted sharply toward the west side of the mine, an area piled with a large amount of abandoned mining cart wreckage.
The terrain there was complex, with twisted metal frames casting large patches of intersecting shadows—an excellent hiding spot.
"They're moving," Lin Gui's voice was low and certain.
Elvia and Theia both looked at him in confusion.
Lin Gui was indeed powerful when it came to concealment.
But in terms of pure perception, Theia, as a ranger, was naturally gifted.
In the wilderness, she could always discover signs of demons dozens of breaths before Lin Gui could.
At this moment, even Theia hadn't sensed anything. How did Lin Gui find them?
"Instinct." Lin Gui did not explain further.
It was not a result of magic or senses, but a beast-like survival instinct honed during his time wandering through forbidden zones like the Red Clay Desert.
It was a warning intuition that caused his body to involuntarily tense and the hair on his arms to prickle when danger or movement approached.
He couldn't explain the logic behind it, but this instinct had pulled him back from the brink of death countless times.
"Prepare to move, Theia," Lin Gui quickly gave his instructions.
"I'll mark Caesar's position for you in a moment."
"Your task is to control him immediately, making him completely lose his combat capability."
"Don't give him any chance to activate the artifact."
"Remember to close your eyes in a moment."
Theia nodded solemnly without asking any questions.
Her slender figure slid down from the rock where they were hidden.
Under the protection of the Shroud of the Gloomy Night...
Using the cover of the complex terrain, she silently made her way toward the direction Lin Gui had indicated.
Her movements were light and precise.
She bypassed several triggered traps that Caesar and his men had set in a hurry at tricky angles, which they hadn't had time to fully conceal.
Finally, she reached a spot located between several massive stone pillars.
The field of vision here was relatively open, allowing her to quickly charge toward most areas of the mine.
She looked back and nodded toward the rock where the others were hidden.
Then, she squeezed her eyes shut and perked her ears.
Atop the rock, Elvia couldn't help her curiosity and asked Lin Gui in a low voice.
"What plan do you have to make those top-tier assassins reveal themselves? And how will you accurately mark Caesar's position?"
"You should know that for an assassin, methods of changing their body shape, voice, and even scent are no worse than the Mask of a Thousand Illusions on that half-demon's face."
Lin Gui's gaze remained fixed on the area below.
"You'll see in a moment."
He turned to the Saintess beside him.
"Miss Saintess, please cast that spell into the air."
Holy Saintess Eve nodded slightly, her hands gripping her staff tightly.
She began to chant a complex and long incantation in a low voice.
Her voice was ethereal and solemn.
As she chanted, a tiny particle of light began to gather above her palm.
The chanting lasted for a full minute.
As the final syllable fell...
She thrust her right hand toward the air in the center of the mine.
That extremely constrained particle of light left her hand.
The moment the particle of light left her palm, Lin Gui had a thought.
The effect of the Shroud of the Gloomy Night instantly covered it, making it nearly invisible as it flew.
At the same time, two transmission stones appeared in his hand.
He spoke quickly into one of them.
"Theia, get ready. Listen carefully for the direction of the voice I'm mimicking for Caesar."
Almost as soon as he finished speaking...
The particle of light, wrapped in the Shroud of the Gloomy Night and positioned at the center of the mine, exploded!
There was no deafening roar, only an explosion of pure light.
In an instant, the entire dark mine was illuminated as if it were broad daylight.
Every corner and every crevice was ruthlessly filled by this blinding light.
High Rank Light magic, 【Flash】!
This open No. 2 Mine lacked sufficient cover.
The light had nowhere to dissipate, and its blinding intensity far exceeded the ordinary!
Almost simultaneously, from several different shadow corners of the mine...
Viper, Black Scorpion, and Cold Face—these three High-tier Transcendent top-tier assassins—were revealed.
Despite their vast experience, they had never expected such a wide-range blinding light attack to appear without warning.
Their concealment relied on shadows and the environment.
Under this explosion of brightness comparable to holy light, their figures were instantly and completely exposed.
They instinctively used their arms to shield their eyes, their movements experiencing fatal rigidity and chaos.
Now!
Lin Gui picked up the transmission stone that belonged to the mage Valk and activated it.
The voice was connected through the transmission stone, ringing out directly from the target's chest.
At almost exactly the same moment...
Below, Caesar, who had barely managed to recover a trace of vision from the blinding light...
Heard his own voice coming from his chest.
"Cough, cough! What happened?"
Whoosh!
Theia moved!
Her closed eyes had spared her from the blindness of the intense light.
She relied entirely on the sound positioning provided by Lin Gui through the transmission stone.
Her figure turned into a speeding arrow, lunging with startling speed toward the source of the sound.
In other words, toward Caesar's hiding place!
The moment she lunged out, the dust kicked up by her sudden steps left the protection of the Shroud of the Gloomy Night.
However, it was during that brief moment the dust fell.
Boom!
Hiss!
Whoosh!
Three powerful and cold presences suddenly erupted.
Viper, Black Scorpion, and Cold Face, who had barely recovered their senses from the blinding chaos, were driven by their combat instincts.
Following the sound of the dust they briefly perceived, they launched thunderous attacks.
Viper's dagger left a faint green afterimage, stabbing straight toward where Theia's heart would have been when she appeared.
The angle was tricky and carried a lethal poison.
Black Scorpion's twin spikes were like a scorpion's tail.
They lunged from left and right to intercept Theia's possible movement path with sharp battle force.
Cold Face threw out several nearly invisible transparent threads.
They silently wrapped toward Theia's limbs.
He intended to restrict her movements.
Each strike was fast, accurate, and ruthless, carrying the resolution of a High-tier Transcendent assassin's one-hit kill!
But they all hit nothing.
Being enveloped by the Shroud of the Gloomy Night allowed Theia to vanish completely from their perception and sight.
A brief two seconds was all it took for these deadly attacks to miss their mark.
The three reacted extremely quickly; upon failing their strike, they did not linger at all.
They retreated instantly, intending to melt back into the shadows.
However, a shrill scream caused their movements to freeze!
"Agh!"
It was Caesar's voice!
Following the sound, they looked over.
Theia's figure had appeared at some point beside the mining cart wreckage where Caesar had originally been hiding.
The dagger in her hand was pressed firmly against Caesar's throat.
The cold blade had already sliced the skin, drawing blood.
As for Caesar himself, his two arms were twisted at unnatural angles, and his face was pale.
Clearly, he had been instantly incapacitated during the lightning-fast exchange.
He was slumped on the ground, having completely lost the ability to resist.
The burst power of an assassin was the strongest among the warrior classes, but because of that, their own defense was the weakest.
Theia raised her head, her cold gaze sweeping across the directions where Viper, Black Scorpion, and Cold Face were likely hiding.
Her clear, cold voice echoed through the empty mine:
"If you don't want your boss to die, come out!"
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