Three weeks had passed since Lin Gui's departure from Shield City.
Outside the Wall of Sighs, at the fourth observation node.
This was a high rocky platform with an expansive, unobstructed view.
In the distance, the legendary “wall” stretched across the horizon, bridging the earth and sky.
It was not built of brick and stone, but was an endless, thick, and viscous wall of grayish-white mist.
It towered into the clouds, extending to the very limits of vision on both sides, as if slicing the entire world clean in half.
The interior of the mist wall was hazy and shadowed, showing no clear details, only a chaotic expanse of grayish-white.
A continuous, low, and mournful sighing echoed in the wind, layering over itself as if thousands of people were weeping in one's ears at the same time.
Yet looking toward the sound, the edge of the mist wall was completely empty, with nothing but wild grass swaying in the wind and bare, exposed rocks.
Lin Gui stood at the edge of the platform, closing his eyes to focus for a moment.
When he opened his eyes again, his black pupils had turned a cold, pale gray, with faint glimmers of soul light swirling within.
【Eyes of the Netherworld】 activated.
His vision suddenly shifted.
At the seemingly empty edge of the mist wall ahead, where the sighs originated, countless translucent, twisted “things” were slowly wandering.
They vaguely resembled human silhouettes, but their limbs were bizarre, with inverted joints, and they held spear-like weapons condensed from withered branches, bones, or pure shadow.
Their faces were blurry and indistinct, with only black-hole-like mouths opening and closing from time to time, emitting that never-ending sighing.
They had no physical bodies, looking like dirty smears of oil paint on the air, ugly and eerie.
Lin Gui closed his eyes, shutting out the unsettling sight.
He turned around and looked toward the center of the platform.
Eve was kneeling there.
Her hands were clasped in front of her chest, her soft short hair fluttering in the mountain breeze, her eyes tightly shut, her long eyelashes casting faint shadows on her pale face.
Beneath her knees, an intricate magic circle about two meters in diameter was emitting a soft, milky-white glow.
The lines and patterns of the array were ancient and sacred, flowing with fluctuations of some higher-level power.
On several key nodes of the magic circle, some items were carefully placed: a leather notebook with worn corners, a faded old linen shirt with patches on the shoulders, a few carefully bound locks of short dark brown hair, and even half of a hard, blackened root of some plant.
Lin Gui had tried to analyze this magic circle, but he gave up after looking at it for only a moment.
What drove it was not mana, but another, more obscure and sublime energy—perhaps the so-called “divine power.”
He had secretly operated his breathing technique to try and capture or sense this power, but had found nothing.
Even Eve, who had used it for years, could not explain exactly what form this power took.
It seemed to exist somewhere between “being” and “nothingness.”
When Eve cast her Prophecy, Lin Gui could not sense any energy fluctuations either.
Invisible and intangible, there was naturally no way to “absorb” it, nor would the system include it in his rewards.
Through the magic circle, Eve was prophesying the location of Avalon.
Eve could not predict the target's location based on a name alone.
She needed a physical medium, preferably items with a strong connection to the target.
For example, items related to someone from Avalon.
Lin Gui didn't even know what Avalon actually looked like, much less possess items belonging to a so-called “local of Avalon.”
But he knew of one person who was very likely in Avalon.
The knight who had been taken away by the white-haired Demon King, Roger.
If Roger had not reached his destination, then the location prophesied through these items would not be inside the Wall of Sighs.
Fortunately, Eve's guidance pointed clearly inside the wall.
And judging from the results measured at other nodes... Roger was very likely still alive.
Time passed quietly.
The mountain wind howled, carrying the endless sighing from the other side of the mist wall.
Suddenly, Eve's body trembled slightly.
Her clasped hands slowly parted.
She extended an index finger, pointing straight toward a certain direction deep within the mist wall.
Her arm was somewhat shift, her fingertip steady without a single tremor.
“In that direction,” she said softly, her eyes still closed.
“Don't move.”
Lin Gui immediately stepped forward and took out the surveying tools he and Theia had bought at a dwarven market along the way.
A metal compass with precise scales and a wooden goniometer with adjustable angles.
He knelt on one knee beside Eve.
Carefully placing the compass base flat on the ground, he adjusted the goniometer's sight.
Aligning it with Eve's slightly tensed index finger, he began to record the azimuth and elevation angle data.
His movements were meticulous, as if he were performing a rigorous engineering measurement.
Having finished recording, he quickly spread out the map that marked the locations of the first three nodes.
From the current “Fourth Node,” along the azimuth he had just measured, he drew a straight dashed line with a ruler, cutting through the entire gray area representing the Wall of Sighs and finally intersecting with the other three straight lines.
“Is it okay, Mr. Lin Gui?” Eve asked softly, maintaining her posture.
“It's fine.”
Only then did Eve breathe a sigh of relief and slowly lower her arm.
She opened her eyes, a hint of exhaustion flashing in them.
Then she gathered the items belonging to Roger from the magic circle one by one, cradling them in her arms and placing them into a wooden box.
On the other side, Lin Gui's gaze fell upon the map.
Four straight lines extending from different nodes were now clearly visible.
Intersecting in pairs within the area representing the Wall of Sighs, they ultimately converged into two very close points.
This proved that during their mobile observations over the past three weeks, Roger's position had shifted slightly, but within a very small range.
The two intersection points were only a few millimeters apart. Under the map's scale, the actual distance was probably only a few kilometers.
This was highly consistent with the size of a small city-state.
Using a charcoal pencil, Lin Gui carefully circled these two adjacent points.
If nothing went wrong, this was where Avalon was located.
Avalon's direction had been locked.
Lin Gui let out a long breath. The biggest obstacle preventing him from heading to Avalon had been removed.
Now, the only remaining question was how to... cross the Wall of Sighs before them—a place where countless soul demons wandered and which had swallowed countless powerful experts.
If not for Eve, Lin Gui would probably have had to dive headfirst into the Wall of Sighs, searching aimlessly for traces of Avalon.
He turned around, looked at the Saintess who was packing up the items from the magic circle, and said sincerely, “Miss Saintess, I really have to thank you this time.”
Hearing this, Eve raised her head and smiled gently. Leaning against the cold metal hull of the flying vessel, her short pale-gold hair was slightly disheveled by the wind, yet a hint of playfulness flashed in those charming eyes.
“So... how are you going to thank me?”
Lin Gui thought for a moment, the corners of his mouth curving up slightly. “How about I make your favorite crispy fried pork?”
Eve clapped her hands together, a bright smile blooming on her face.
“It's a deal!”
Having packed up all the surveying tools and magic circle items, Lin Gui sat back in the pilot's seat of the flying vessel.
However, he noticed that Eve was still standing where she was, with no intention of coming up.
“What's wrong?” Lin Gui turned to look at her in confusion.
He saw Eve hesitate, her hands unconsciously gripping the hem of her skirt as she looked at him, her gaze more serious than ever before.
“Mr. Lin Gui.”
“Yes?”
Eve took a deep breath and said solemnly, word by word, “I have a very important favor to ask of you.”
Lin Gui raised an eyebrow slightly. Had she seen something else in the prophecy just now? His expression turned serious. “Go ahead.”
Eve raised her hand and gently pressed it to her chest, her expression incredibly solemn, as if she were entrusting her life to him. “Later...”
She paused.
“Please drive slowly.”
Lin Gui: “...”
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