Pfft!
The dull squelch of a sharp blade piercing flesh suddenly rang out.
Everyone whipped their heads around, only to see Black Scorpion, who was kneeling on the ground, suddenly stiffen.
He looked down in disbelief at the dark, blood-red tip of a dagger protruding from his chest.
The black runes on the dagger began to writhe, emitting a chilling cold that made his soul shudder.
With great difficulty, he turned his head to look behind him at Cold Face, who had appeared out of nowhere with an expressionless face.
A raspy sound came from his throat. “W-Why...?”
Cold Face's eyes did not waver in the slightest.
There was only a near-martyr-like resolve.
“I'm sorry. Before long, I will personally go down to join you.”
His voice was low and calm, as if stating an established fact.
Before his voice could fade, he violently yanked the dagger back.
As the dagger was pulled out,
an invisible, grayish-white, mist-like substance
was forcibly dragged out of Black Scorpion's seven orifices and his wound.
It let out a silent shriek before being sucked into the dark, blood-red dagger.
The light in Black Scorpion's eyes instantly dimmed.
His body slumped to the ground, completely silent.
After absorbing Black Scorpion's soul,
the black runes on the dagger's blade writhed even more violently.
The chilling aura it emitted suddenly skyrocketed,
even giving off a faint, teeth-grating hum.
It was as if a hungry, ferocious beast had been awakened.
Holding the malicious blade that seemed to have come to life, Cold Face turned his icy gaze toward Viper on the ground.
The moment Viper saw Black Scorpion backstabbed and his soul absorbed, his pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks.
A terrifying thought flashed through his mind, making him understand everything in an instant!
“You... you sacrificed Blood Rat and the others to this dagger just to cripple the Duke?!”
Viper's voice trembled uncontrollably.
It carried both anger and a helpless chill.
Cold Face nodded in silence. Clutching the constantly humming dagger, he took step after step toward Viper.
“I'm sorry, but the minimum requirement to activate it is two Transcendent souls... We're still short of one.”
Wasting no more words, he moved.
The 【Soul-Slaying Blade】 in his hand carried a deathly aura that threatened to devour everything as it thrust straight toward Viper's heart.
The speed and ruthlessness of this strike far surpassed any of his previous attacks.
Wherever the dagger passed, even the air seemed to freeze and tear apart!
Forcing himself to endure the erosion of the poison, Viper retreated rapidly to the side and rear, relying on his Transcendent instincts.
But Cold Face's aura had already locked onto him completely.
The dagger pursued him like a shadow, about to pierce him through!
At this critical juncture,
a tiny particle of light suddenly appeared before Cold Face's eyes without warning, less than half a foot away!
It was 【Flash】.
Lin Gui was repeating his old trick.
Because of the sudden interference from the blinding light, Cold Face's movements stiffened for a split second.
It was in this negligible instant!
Viper seized this fleeting opportunity.
His body twisted at an incredible angle, narrowly avoiding a fatal blow to his heart!
Squelch!
The 【Soul-Slaying Blade】 grazed his ribs, tearing away a large chunk of flesh.
No blood flowed from the wound; instead, it instantly turned a decayed gray, as if his life force had been drained in a single moment.
Viper groaned and stumbled back, his face as pale as paper, already severely wounded.
Before he could dodge further, a black curtain enveloped him.
A hand rested on his shoulder.
“If you don't want to die, don't move.”
His strike missing, Cold Face swept his gaze around, but there was no one in sight.
He was not surprised in the slightest that Viper had been rescued.
Instead, it was as if he had fulfilled some sort of mission.
He whipped around to face Caesar, who was held hostage by Theia, and roared with all his might:
“Leader! The debt of gratitude has been repaid, and I can go no further! I will seek you out again upon the Netherworld Sea!!”
Before his roar could fade, under everyone's horrified gazes,
he unhesitatingly plunged the 【Soul-Slaying Blade】, which was emitting an ominous hum,
deep into his own chest!
“Ugh—!”
Following a muffled groan of pain,
the light in Cold Face's eyes rapidly dimmed, and his body slowly collapsed to the ground.
And the 【Soul-Slaying Blade】, having absorbed the souls of two Transcendent experts,
now seemed to have completely awakened.
It hovered in midair, its dark blade turning blood-red.
The twisted black runes upon it writhed frantically.
A pressure that was more than ten times stronger than before—chilling, deathly, and filled with pure malice—exploded outward, enveloping the entire mine.
Faint black ice crystals even began to condense in the air.
Caesar watched Cold Face fall, a fleeting trace of sorrow flashing through his eyes.
But it was immediately replaced by a morbid excitement.
Feeling the terrifying pressure of the 【Soul-Slaying Blade】, which was enough to instantly kill a Legendary expert,
he turned his head toward the still-dazed Elvia and laughed hoarsely.
“Princess Elvia! You should count yourself lucky! I only sacrificed the Holy Saintess's hair to the artifact!”
“Otherwise... there would definitely be a few more fresh corpses here today!”
Right at that moment, the air beside Elvia rippled.
Lin Gui, Holy Saintess Eve, and the heavily injured, dying Viper materialized at the same time.
Lin Gui stared at the 【Soul-Slaying Blade】 hovering in midair and radiating a terrifying pressure.
Feeling the chilling cold that seemed to lock onto his soul, he furrowed his brows deeply
and said to the Holy Saintess beside him,
“Lady Saintess, pray.”
“Pray that this artifact really uses hair as a medium to lock onto a soul and launch its attack, just as this man said.”
“Otherwise, no one will be able to save you.”
Upon hearing this, Holy Saintess Eve merely smiled faintly.
Her purple eyes were completely calm, even carrying a faint, subtle trace of mockery.
“I do not believe in the gods.”
Lin Gui's eyes filled with astonishment.
A Holy Saintess who didn't believe in the gods?
Meanwhile, seeing that even at this stage,
Lin Gui and the Holy Saintess could still converse so “calmly,”
the unease in Caesar's heart instantly reached a peak, nearly devouring him!
And at the exact moment his unease peaked,
the hovering 【Soul-Slaying Blade】 moved!
It did not pierce the Holy Saintess's chest instantly as Caesar had expected.
Instead, with a sharp hum, it vanished on the spot!
In the next instant—
“Boom!!!”
A rock wall on the eastern side of the mine suddenly exploded, sending stone fragments flying!
“Bang!!”
Immediately after, an abandoned minecart on the western side was torn to pieces by an invisible force!
“Crack!”
A protruding stalactite from the ceiling broke off and crashed down!
In the quiet mine, triggered by these disturbances,
loud explosions began to ring out one after another!
Yet, the sounds of the attacks actually grew more and more distant,
moving further and further away from the Holy Saintess.
The madness and excitement on Caesar's face instantly froze.
“Why?! Why isn't it attacking the Holy Saintess?! Attack! Kill her!!”
Behind him, the dying Viper gave the answer in a weak, guilt-ridden voice.
“It's... the hair... The places the artifact is attacking... all have... the Holy Saintess's hair hidden there...”
As if struck by lightning, Caesar whipped his head around, his bloodshot eyes staring deathly at Viper as he roared in a violent rage.
“Why?! Why didn't you say so earlier?!!!”
Viper smiled miserably, his breath growing weaker.
“I'm sorry... Leader... I couldn't bring myself... to strike at a mage who gave me hope... and... even if I had said it... would you... have given up on this assassination?...”
He panted with difficulty, finally adding:
“There's no time left... Leader... We don't know... just how much... hair he hid...”
“Cleaning it up would take too much time.”
“And even now, we haven't seen who it is that's helping the Holy Saintess hide her tracks.”
The madness, anger, and unwillingness in Caesar's eyes ultimately dissolved into a deathly, ash-like despair.
All of his calculations, all of the power he had gained by sacrificing his comrades,
turned into an absolute joke before those insignificant strands of hair scattered throughout the mine.
It was over.
Everything was completely over.
Rate on N.U.
