Caleb casually placed a simple, ancient hourglass on the ground, and the fine sand began to slip away silently.
This was a tool he had specially crafted for training the assassins under his command.
The passage of every single grain of sand was incredibly precise.
“Let us begin.”
Caleb closed his eyes, his tone flat.
“Before the sand runs out, make sure the Saintess appears before me alive.”
“Or, watch me pierce through her chest.”
“Show me what you are capable of.”
Suddenly, as if remembering something, a playful smile curled at the corners of his lips.
He brought up the moniker he had overheard by chance while investigating Lin Gui.
“Do not disappoint me... Black-Feathered Raven.”
Having said that, he stood in place with his eyes closed, as if giving Lin Gui ample time to “prepare.”
Lin Gui did not hesitate. With a single thought, he acted.
He unleashed the 【Shroud of the Gloomy Night】 with all his might, completely enveloping himself and Saintess Eve.
In an instant, their figures and presences vanished without a trace from Caleb's physical perception.
Despite having his eyes closed, Caleb's immense physical perception as a High-tier Legendary expert had already enveloped the entire mine.
Within his standard sensory domain, Lin Gui and the Saintess seemed to have been completely erased from the world.
This concealment was no simple visual trick.
Instead, it near-perfectly masked physical energy fluctuations, mana ripples, sound, temperature, and even light refraction and air currents.
He had previously only heard from Warren that Lin Gui possessed a highly outstanding concealment magic.
Sensing it in person now, calling it “outstanding” was a massive understatement.
This level of concealment was already on par with the secret techniques mastered by many Legendary assassins who specialized in the craft.
In fact, it was even a fraction stronger than his own secret concealment techniques.
Most crucially, Lin Gui, who was executing it, was merely a Mid-tier High Rank mage.
This could only mean that the tier of the magic itself was not particularly high.
The mana consumption was low enough for a Mid-tier High Rank mage to sustain.
The existence of such magic was nothing short of a miracle!
“Truly... a marvelous spell,” Caleb could not help but praise in his heart.
But immediately after, he slightly adjusted the focus of his perception, catching traces on another level.
Within his “vision,” a relatively clear, pale blue soul stood out in the distance like a lighthouse in the dark night.
And scattered around her were hundreds of extremely faint, tiny points of light that also belonged to soul fluctuations.
“Hair?” Caleb instantly understood why Caesar had failed to kill the Saintess.
“It is indeed an excellent way to interfere with the 【Soul-Slaying Blade】's soul-locking, but unfortunately...”
He slowly opened his eyes, a trace of regret flashing through them.
“Unfortunately, to someone like me who can perceive souls, this level of interference is completely meaningless.”
He allowed Lin Gui to remain hidden and move for a full five seconds.
He did not bother to pull out the 【Soul-Slaying Blade】 plunged into the ground.
Instead, he casually drew an ordinary, thin-bladed throwing knife from the leather holster at his waist.
Then, with a casual flick of his wrist, he threw it.
Swoosh!
The moment the throwing knife vanished, the air was torn apart, producing a sharp, explosive screech.
A cold gleam, nearly invisible to the naked eye, instantly shot across the entire mine pit.
It flew with absolute precision toward the core silhouette of the Saintess's soul within his soul perception.
Boom!
A massive hole suddenly blasted open in the rock wall of the mine in the distance.
Debris poured down like a torrential rain.
Immediately after, a sharp, agonizing shriek belonging to a young girl echoed from the billowing dust.
The smile on Caleb's face faded, replaced by a trace of dull disappointment.
“It seems... I overestimated you.”
He took a seemingly casual step forward.
In the next instant, he appeared directly nearly a hundred meters away, right where the scream had originated.
The dust slowly dispersed.
As Caleb looked at the scene before him, the all-controlling expression on his face instantly froze.
It was replaced by a rare, stunned daze.
There was no corpse of the Saintess, nor was there even any blood.
There was only a torn clay doll mixed with hair, lying solitarily amidst the pile of rubble.
“A hair doll... shouldn't be able to confuse my soul tracking.”
Caleb frowned.
Different parts of the human body contain different weights of the soul.
He was not an expert in the field of souls.
Yet, he could still distinguish the difference between the soul weight of hair and that of the actual person.
“Unless...”
He squatted down, reaching out to tear the doll apart.
His fingertips brushed against some still-warm, viscous liquid inside.
He brought his finger to his nose and sniffed.
It was fresh blood.
The daze on Caleb's face instantly transformed into a warmer, more excited smile, and he nearly burst into laughter.
“What a kid!”
He was now absolutely certain that Lin Gui could see souls!
In the realm of the soul, the boy was more than just a little superior to him.
At the very least, Caleb himself could not create a temporary puppet using blood that could rival the soul weight of the original body.
A monster who could see souls, cast soul spells, and possessed such top-tier concealment magic!
“I really... want you under my wing more and more!”
The light in Caleb's eyes was almost greedy.
He decided to stop “playing around” and go all out.
He would completely bring Lin Gui under his command.
With a light tap of his foot, Caleb's figure vanished into the shadows.
Within his soul tracking, five separate soul fluctuations of almost equal intensity to the Saintess suddenly appeared simultaneously in the mine.
They were moving eerily in different directions!
“Heh, a deathbed struggle,” Caleb sneered.
In the next moment, his figure flickered continuously like a ghost throughout various parts of the mine.
Thud! Slash! Bang!
Almost simultaneously, the five clay dolls scattered across different corners of the mine were torn to pieces.
They could not even last a single second before being precisely torn to shreds by invisible attacks.
They were far apart from each other, placed in tricky positions.
But under the absolute speed and perception of a High-tier Legendary expert, such setups were completely useless.
On the other side, in a more secluded corner of the mine, Lin Gui stopped what he was doing.
He had just used 【Soil Loosening】 to gather the loose soil on the ground.
Then, he used 【Growth Acceleration】 to sprout a few tough blades of grass.
He used them like ropes to roughly bind the dirt into a crooked, palm-sized clay doll.
Saintess Eve leaned weakly against the rock wall.
Her face was as pale as paper from excessive blood loss, her breathing so faint it was barely perceptible.
She forced her heavy eyelids open.
Looking at Lin Gui, who had suddenly stopped, a trace of confusion flickered in her violet eyes.
Lin Gui turned his head, meeting her questioning gaze, a faint smile playing on his lips.
“Good news. Those decoys in No. 2 Mine used for baiting have all been dealt with.”
Eve tilted her head slightly, her voice as soft as a whisper.
“Is that... considered good news?”
The bait being cleared meant the enemy was closing in step by step. Was that not bad news?
Lin Gui smiled and did not explain.
The Saintess did not have a deep understanding of soul magic.
Naturally, she could not see the critical information revealed behind this.
That was: Caleb's soul tracking and perception abilities were not that strong.
He could only judge the weight of a soul.
It was far from the level of the 【Eyes of the Netherworld】 he had just acquired.
A realm that allowed him to clearly discern the specific shape, size, and every single detail of a soul.
If Caleb could truly do that, he would not have wasted time destroying those clay dolls.
Instead, he would have followed the disrupted path of the soul tracking directly.
And pounced precisely on their true hiding spot.
In the human body, there are three main vessels that contain soul power.
Hair, bones, and blood.
Among them, blood carries the largest weight of the soul.
Caleb believed that Lin Gui had used a large amount of blood to create a clay doll with a soul weight comparable to the Saintess herself.
In truth, that was not the case.
Lin Gui had only mixed five drops of blood into those clay dolls.
The Saintess's actual soul that Caleb had perceived earlier had already been reduced to an unbelievably low level by Lin Gui through bloodletting.
Of the roughly 4,000 milliliters of blood in the Saintess's body, less than 100 milliliters remained.
Lin Gui's gaze fell back onto the Saintess once more.
Under the vision of the 【Eyes of the Netherworld】, Eve's soul light had dimmed to the absolute limit.
In reality, the current Saintess was already as good as dead.
If she had not relied on her own superb Holy Light healing spells to forcefully cling to life, she would have died long ago.
It was precisely because of this critical state that her soul was unprecedentedly weak.
After leaving Caleb's line of sight, Lin Gui had further drained the little remaining blood from the young Saintess.
By now, the size of her soul was even smaller than that of the clay dolls.
It was also far less than the soul weight Caleb had perceived when he first laid eyes on her.
In the next moment, with a thought from Lin Gui, the mana in his body drifted out like threads.
In an instant, hundreds of clay dolls scattered across the mine seemed to be pulled by invisible strings.
They vibrated slightly, flying over to gather around him.
“Are you... leaving?”
The Saintess asked with a breath as thin as silk, her voice nearly buried in the dust.
Lin Gui nodded, his movements showing not a shred of hesitation.
“I have to lure him out.”
Time was tight, and he had no leisure to explain further.
He quickly activated the temporary magic array he had set up to hide the Saintess, the 【Wall of the Gloomy Night】.
As his comprehension of the 【Shroud of the Gloomy Night】 reached perfection, even without his direct maintenance, this simplified concealment array could operate independently for a period of time.
Just as Lin Gui turned to leave, a cold and weak body suddenly embraced him gently from behind.
Eve forced her arms up, wrapping them around his waist.
She gently pressed her paper-pale cheek against his back, then let go.
She opened her violet eyes, which now appeared exceptionally dazed.
An emotion Lin Gui could not decipher welled up within them.
She tilted her face up, giving him an extremely faint smile that seemed to carry a thousand words, and whispered, “Stay safe.”
Lin Gui was stunned.
Before he could react, Eve's figure had completely merged into the shadows constructed by the 【Wall of the Gloomy Night】 and vanished.
Almost at the same time, a bone-chilling sense of crisis arose.
Without a second thought, the mana in Lin Gui's body erupted.
Activating Levitation, he flew away in the direction opposite to where the Saintess was hidden, bringing a heap of clay dolls with him.
In the very next second after he left the spot, a figure silently appeared where he had just stood.
Caleb had arrived.
The Legendary assassin did not pursue immediately.
He simply stood in place, his dim old eyes narrowing slightly.
His sharp gaze seemed capable of penetrating the rock layers.
Within his unique soul perception, countless thin “threads” belonging to the Saintess's soul fluctuations were extending from various corners of the mine.
They passed through countless extremely faint soul light points and finally pointed toward the boy who had just flown away.
Most of these light points were as tiny as dust.
They were the hairs buried in different corners.
Only from one direction did the incoming soul fluctuation feel slightly stronger.
Yet, it was still incredibly weak, not matching the size of the soul Caleb had perceived from the Saintess's actual body.
“A decoy tactic?”
Sensing Lin Gui moving without any attempt to hide his presence, Caleb hesitated for a brief moment.
The opponent had not used that astonishing concealment magic.
Instead, he was moving toward the exit of the mine, completely exposed to Caleb's perception.
Such an obvious move was clearly intended to lure him out.
However... Caleb truly did not perceive any matching soul presence here.
The Saintess... was not here.
A disdainful sneer crossed the corners of Caleb's lips.
No matter. Once he captured the boy, the Saintess would naturally show herself.
Without the protection of that magic, there was no need for soul tracking.
As long as he blanketed the entire mine with his perception, she would have nowhere to hide.
Without the slightest hesitation, his figure flickered as he rapidly gave chase along the path of Lin Gui's retreat.
On the other side, bolstered by his max-level Levitation, Lin Gui flew at high speed and quickly reached the entrance.
His objective was extremely clear.
To lure Caleb out of the mine and into the open wilderness.
He would use these clay dolls to buy time.
He was confident that the other party would “cooperate” and fall for this glaringly obvious decoy tactic.
The reasons were simple:
First, there was no soul weight inside the mine that matched the young Saintess.
Second, Lin Gui knew Levitation.
If he were truly allowed to enter the wilderness without hindrance, he could continuously ascend using Levitation.
Once he reached a certain height, even a Legendary assassin's attacks would fail to reach above the clouds.
He only needed to hold out for three minutes, and the game would be over.
And Caleb was clearly aware of this as well.
Before this, it wasn't that Lin Gui hadn't considered taking the Saintess and flying far away.
With her replenishing his mana from behind, they could sustain high-altitude flight for a long time.
Perhaps they could indeed gradually shake off the soul tracking that used her hair as a medium.
But he couldn't.
Doing so would completely infuriate Caleb.
The moment he began charging to take off, he would likely face a merciless, fatal strike from the man.
Moreover, above the clouds... was a taboo in itself.
For as long as anyone could remember, the high skies had been a forbidden zone for living beings.
Mages who attempted to cross above the clouds using Levitation had, without exception, all vanished mysteriously.
Lin Gui did not know the reason, nor did he want to risk his life to verify that terrifying rumor.
At this moment, controlling his staff and carrying the pile of clay dolls acting as bait, he rushed out of the mine like an arrow shot from a bow, pushing his speed to the absolute limit.
Behind him, continuous rumbles echoed from deep within the mine.
That was Caleb clearing the path.
Or rather, clearing the traps the rebels had previously laid down in an attempt to block Lin Gui.
Lin Gui was naturally well aware of the traps laid by the rebels.
In just a single second, he activated the traps at the entrance specifically designed to block people, trying to hinder Caleb's astonishing speed.
However, this obstruction was negligible.
Barely five seconds after Lin Gui rushed out of the mine, a chilling killing intent pursued him from behind.
He could even feel the sharp fluctuations produced by the air being torn apart at high speed.
Caleb had caught up, his speed exceeding all imagination!
At the critical juncture, Lin Gui's mind raced as he manipulated a clay doll mixed with the Saintess's blood, slamming it hard into an inconspicuous rocky crevice ahead.
That was precisely the area where the rebel trap team had previously laid an untriggered 【Binding Array】 and explosive runes.
Boom!
The moment the clay doll collided with the rock wall, a blinding magical light erupted.
Countless energy tentacles materialized out of thin air, coiling toward the blurry dark shadow following closely behind.
Immediately after, the laid explosive runes were detonated in a chain reaction.
Flames and shockwaves temporarily engulfed the area.
Did it succeed?
No.
Lin Gui did not even have time to feel relieved.
He saw the raging, chaotic energy torrent being violently torn open by an invisible hand.
A torrent sufficient to swallow a Transcendent warrior was not even worth mentioning to Caleb.
His figure stepped out from it, completely unscathed.
However, for the first time, a trace of urgency flashed in his dim old eyes.
Only two minutes remained.
With just this slight delay, Lin Gui finally managed to completely break out of the mine's vicinity.
He plunged headfirst into the true wilderness.
The moonlight was pale, casting its glow over the desolate, rolling hills.
The night wind howled, kicking up dust and dry grass from the ground, making a whistling sound.
In the distance, the dark silhouettes of twisted, dead trees resembled monsters baring their fangs and claws.
Even further away, the low growls of unknown magical beasts echoed faintly.
Here, there was no longer any cover from the complex terrain of the mine; the space was vast and open.
For Lin Gui, it also meant... there was nowhere left to hide.
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