Time trickled away in the silent standoff.
Lin Gui was waiting, but Caesar below was clearly running out of patience.
The Holy Church of Light's delegation was only visiting the Royal Capital for two days.
At dawn tomorrow, the Saintess had to set off to return to the Holy City, where the headquarters of the Holy Church was located.
Whether the assassination succeeded or failed, everything had to be settled tonight.
The perception of a High-tier Transcendent assassin was by no means an empty boast.
They might not be able to directly see through the 【Shroud of the Gloomy Night】.
But they could sense subtle anomalies in the environment.
An unnatural stillness in the air, imperceptible deviations in the settling of dust, or even a gut feeling of being watched.
Caesar and his men were clearly no longer content with just waiting.
They began to search the area silently using highly sophisticated methods.
There were no large movements, no fluctuations of energy.
They were like ghosts blending into the environment.
Utilizing the shadows of rocks, the blind spots of abandoned mine carts, and tiny bumps on the ground.
Step by step, they shifted and probed.
Their presence was concealed to the absolute limit.
Their footsteps were lighter than falling feathers.
Even their heartbeats and blood flow seemed to slow down to a near standstill.
This search was more like testing the “integrity” of the environment.
Searching for any potential discordance.
At first, Elvia and Theia did not sense anything unusual; the mine remained dead silent.
Only Lin Gui suddenly knit his brows.
His sharp gaze swept toward the western side of the mine, where a large pile of abandoned mine cart wreckage lay.
The terrain there was complex, with twisted metal frames casting large, overlapping shadows—an excellent hiding spot.
“They've started moving,” Lin Gui said, his voice low and certain.
Elvia and Theia both looked at him in confusion.
In terms of concealment, Lin Gui was indeed formidable.
But in terms of pure perception, Theia, as a Ranger, was exceptionally gifted.
In the wilderness, she could always detect traces of demons dozens of breaths before Lin Gui did.
Right now, even Theia hadn't sensed a thing. How did Lin Gui notice?
“Intuition,” Lin Gui replied without explaining further.
It was not based on magic or physical senses, but rather on his experiences traveling alone through forbidden zones like the Red Clay Desert.
An almost beast-like instinct forged on the brink of life and death.
An early-warning intuition that made his body involuntarily tense and his hairs stand on end whenever danger or movement drew near.
He couldn't explain how it worked, but this intuition had pulled him back from the brink of death countless times.
“Get ready to move, Theia,” Lin Gui quickly instructed.
“I'll mark Caesar's position for you in a moment.”
“Your task is to incapacitate him immediately, stripping him of all combat capability.”
“Don't give him a chance to activate his artifact.”
“Remember to close your eyes in a bit.”
Theia nodded solemnly without asking any questions.
Her slender figure slipped down from the rock where she was hiding.
Under the protection of the 【Shroud of the Gloomy Night】.
Sheltered by the complex terrain, she crept silently toward the direction Lin Gui had indicated.
Her movements were light and precise.
She bypassed several trickily angled trigger traps that Caesar and his men had hastily set up but had not yet had time to fully conceal.
Eventually, she arrived at a spot nestled between several massive stone pillars.
The view here was relatively open, allowing her to quickly rush into most areas of the mine.
She looked back and nodded toward the rock where the others were hiding.
Then, she tightly closed her eyes and perked up her ears.
Up on the rock, Elvia couldn't help but ask Lin Gui in a low, curious whisper.
“How do you plan to force those top assassins to reveal themselves? And how will you precisely mark Caesar's position?”
“You should know that an assassin's methods for disguise—changing their body shape, voice, and even scent—are no worse than the 'Thousand Illusions' on a half-demon's face.”
Lin Gui's gaze remained locked onto the area below.
“You'll find out in a moment.”
He turned to look at the Saintess beside him.
“Miss Saintess, cast that spell toward the air.”
Saintess Eve nodded slightly, her hands gripping her staff.
She began to softly chant a complex, lengthy incantation.
Her voice was ethereal and solemn.
As she chanted, an extremely tiny speck of light began to condense above her palm.
The chanting lasted for a full minute.
As the final syllable fell.
She suddenly flung her right hand toward the empty air in the center of the mine.
The speck of light, compressed to its absolute limit, shot out from her hand.
The instant the speck of light left her palm, Lin Gui willed it.
The effect of the 【Shroud of the Gloomy Night】 instantly covered it, making it almost invisible during its flight.
At the same time, two Transmission Stones appeared in his hand.
He spoke rapidly into one of them.
“Theia, get ready. Listen carefully for the direction of Caesar's voice that I'm about to mimic.”
Almost at the same moment his voice fell.
The speck of light, wrapped in the 【Shroud of the Gloomy Night】 as it flew to the center of the mine, suddenly exploded!
There was no deafening roar, only an explosion of pure, absolute light.
In an instant, the entire dark mine was illuminated as bright as day.
Every corner, every crack, was ruthlessly filled by this intense light.
The High Rank Light magic, 【Flash】!
This open No. 2 Mine lacked sufficient cover.
The light had nowhere to dissipate, making its blinding intensity far beyond the ordinary!
Almost simultaneously, from several different shadowy corners of the mine.
Viper, Black Scorpion, and Cold Face, the three top-tier assassins of the High-tier Transcendent rank, were revealed.
Even with their wealth of experience, they had never expected such an unheralded, wide-range blinding light attack.
Their concealment relied on shadows and the environment.
Under this burst of light, which was comparable to a Holy Light spell, their figures were instantly exposed.
They instinctively shielded their eyes with their arms, their movements falling into a fatal stiffness and confusion.
Now was the time!
Lin Gui picked up the Transmission Stone belonging to the mage Valk and activated it.
The sound, connected through the Transmission Stone, rang out directly from the target's chest.
Almost at the exact same moment.
Below, Caesar had just barely recovered a sliver of vision from the blinding light.
From his chest came his own voice.
“Cough, cough! What happened?”
Whoosh!
Theia moved!
Her closed eyes had spared her from being blinded by the intense light.
Relying entirely on the sound location sent by Lin Gui through the Transmission Stone.
Her figure transformed into an arrow released from a bowstring, lunging at incredible speed directly toward the source of the sound.
Which was Caesar's hiding spot!
The moment she dashed forward, the dust kicked up by her rapid steps escaped the protection of the Shroud of the Gloomy Night.
However, it was this brief settling of dust.
Boom!
Swish!
Whoosh!
Three powerful, cold auras suddenly erupted.
Viper, Black Scorpion, and Cold Face, who had barely recovered from their blinding confusion, were driven by their combat instincts.
Following the briefly sensed sound of the dust, they launched a thunderous assault.
Viper's dagger dragged a faint green afterimage, stabbing directly at the back of the heart where Theia had just appeared.
The angle was tricky, and it was laced with a lethal poison that could seal a throat upon drawing blood.
Black Scorpion's dual spikes were like a venomous scorpion swinging its tail.
Slashing from left and right toward the path Theia might take, the energy fierce.
Cold Face flung out several nearly invisible transparent threads.
Silently wrapping toward Theia's limbs.
Intending to restrict her movements.
Every strike was fast, accurate, and ruthless, carrying the absolute determination of a High-tier Transcendent assassin to deliver a one-hit kill!
But they all struck empty air.
Enveloped by the 【Shroud of the Gloomy Night】, Theia completely vanished from both their perception and sight.
In just two short seconds, all these fatal attacks had missed.
The three reacted extremely quickly. Realizing they had missed, they did not linger in battle at all.
Their figures immediately retreated violently, preparing to blend back into the shadows.
However, a shrill scream caused their movements to suddenly freeze!
“Ah!”
It was Caesar's voice!
Looking toward the sound.
Beside the pile of mine cart wreckage where Caesar had originally been hiding.
Theia's figure had appeared at some point.
The dagger in her hand was pressed firmly against Caesar's throat.
The cold blade had already sliced his skin, drawing a thin line of blood.
As for Caesar himself, his two arms were twisted at unnatural angles, his face deathly pale.
He had clearly been instantly crippled during that lightning-fast clash.
He slumped to the ground, completely stripped of any ability to resist.
An assassin's burst power was the strongest among the warrior classes, but because of this, their own defense was the weakest.
Theia raised her head, her icy gaze sweeping over the directions where Viper, Black Scorpion, and Cold Face might be hiding.
Her clear, cold voice echoed through the empty mine:
“If you don't want your boss to die, all of you get out here!”
Rate on N.U.
