Force them to submit by using martial power?
That would require Theia to utilize her demon energy, and Lin Gui was absolutely unwilling to expose her identity.
Besides, the other party hadn't actually done anything outrageous to them.
Lin Gui couldn't bring himself to kill them over this.
Therefore, only one option remained—
Block their retreat.
Lin Gui's mind raced, and a rough plan quickly took shape.
He looked down at the few people who had already been seized by terror and silently apologized in his heart.
At this moment, the Blade's Edge group had already begun preparing to evacuate.
They discarded nearly all the heavy objects that might slow them down in a state of near-panic.
This included precision mapping instruments and extremely expensive Image Recording Stones and Transmission Stones.
They even threw down their camping tents and a large amount of food and drinking water.
They sought only to travel light and run as fast as humanly possible.
Just as they turned around and started their legs to begin a desperate dash back—
A voice rang out from right behind them without any warning.
It was an incredibly eerie female voice.
The pitch was high and sharp, sounding like fingernails scraping against a weathered metal plate.
Every word was dragged out long and distorted, carrying an inhuman sense of emptiness.
It pierced directly into their minds, making their scalps go numb instantly.
“...Are you... leaving... already?”
The voice was extremely close, as if the person speaking were breathing right against the back of someone's neck.
“!!”
Ryan and the others shook violently, their blood nearly freezing in their veins.
A massive sense of horror washed over them like ice water poured over their heads, causing them to freeze in place instantly.
Cold sweat immediately drenched the fabric on their backs.
But the instincts of veteran bounty hunters were still there.
Almost the instant after freezing, Ryan roared out:
“Defensive formation! Back-to-back!”
The four of them huddled together as a reflex, shielding the guide in the center.
Weapons were unsheathed in unison and shields were raised as their eyes scanned the thick mist with suspicion and dread.
Even so, the hands gripping their weapons were still trembling slightly.
They took a stance to meet an enemy, though they had no idea where the enemy was.
The Priestess girl immediately closed her eyes to focus.
Waves of pale blue magic rippled out from her as the center, sweeping through the surrounding fog.
However, the only feedback she received was emptiness and nothingness.
There wasn't a single trace of life or energy remaining in the spot where the voice had come from.
It was as if the voice had appeared out of thin air.
“I can't... I can't sense anything!”
She cried out in a trembling voice, the last bit of color draining from her face.
It wasn't a person, but a spectral demon that couldn't be perceived.
“Who... Who are you?!”
Ryan shouted while suppressing his terror, though his voice couldn't stop shaking.
That raspy, weird voice sounded nothing like a living person.
Yet the articulation was exceptionally clear and the logic was sound.
They had been inside this wall for years and had never encountered such a 'presence'.
A terrifying thought uncontrollably bored its way into Ryan's mind—
Could it be that the deathly silence along the way...
The collective disappearance of the spectral demons that should have been following them like shadows...
Was all because of... this 'thing'?
Had it driven away or devoured everything along the path?
This hypothesis made the marrow in his bones feel cold.
“Who am I... Hahaha... Who am I?”
The shrill female voice rang out again, the laughter sounding like the mournful cry of a nocturnal owl, sharp and piercing.
There was a bone-deep coldness in the hoarseness, as if it came from the depths of a tomb.
“Listening to my voice... do you still not know who I am?”
Each word sounded like it was being squeezed out of a ruptured throat, carrying an inhuman, hollow echo.
Ryan's pupils constricted.
Before he could speak, the voice continued on its own, its tone suddenly becoming resentful and long-drawn.
“I am... Shadow Blade Lynn.”
As the words fell, the thick mist seemed to freeze for a moment.
Ryan and his teammates sucked in a breath of cold air, their hearts nearly stopping.
Shadow Blade Lynn! The Epic Night Elf who had led teams in and out ten times, only to eventually perish within the wall!
But amidst the shock, Ryan's remaining logic caught a hint of something strange.
He and Shadow Blade Lynn were roughly from the same generation of bounty hunters.
As a mere Mid-tier Transcendent, he naturally could have no connection with a Title Rank expert.
But... Ryan had been at the pledge ceremony hosted by Blackbeard and had heard her speech.
That arrogant, cold tone was something Ryan would not forget, even after all this time.
And the voice of this ghost claiming to be Shadow Blade Lynn now... didn't sound like it at all.
He suppressed his terror and squeezed out a question through a dry throat:
“But... but I remember that Lord Lynn's voice... didn't seem to be like this...”
The moment he finished speaking, the surroundings fell into a dead silence.
There even seemed to be a slightly awkward atmosphere.
But Ryan and the others did not notice this strangeness.
The voice vanished, and the thick mist rolled soundlessly.
The silence at this moment was more unnerving than any answer could have been.
A few seconds later, that shrill female voice rang out again, low and eerie.
But it had gained a few layers of grief and malice that were too thick to dissolve.
“Yes... it's been so many years...”
“I've been soaked in this mist that devours everything for too long...”
“My voice... turned into this form that is neither human nor ghost long ago...”
The despair and hatred in those words was palpable.
It made Ryan and the others' hair stand on end, and they didn't dare ask another question.
Seeing that Ryan and the others were as quiet as cicadas in winter, the voice of 'Shadow Blade Lynn' rang out again.
It carried heavy resentment and endless exhaustion.
“I cannot enter reincarnation... the Netherworld Sea refuses to take me...”
“This mist is my prison.”
The voice paused, then suddenly became urgent and sharp, as if carrying some sort of craving.
“Go forward... keep going forward!”
“Go to the Blackwater Ruins... you must reach that place!”
Ryan's throat felt parched as he asked with difficulty:
“Why... Why? What is there?”
The voice suddenly became cold and forceful, brookng no argument.
“Find the black-haired, black-eyed man...”
“Have him come to the place where my bones are buried.”
“Only he... can break my shackles.”
“Otherwise...”
The voice suddenly elongated, turning into a shrill wail that echoed through the mist.
The thick fog seemed to churn along with it, the coldness biting into their skin.
“Then all of you... can stay here and keep me company.”
That shrill trailing note hadn't completely dissipated yet.
The wailing twisted, stretched, and echoed in the mist.
It seemed to come from all directions, yet also felt like it was right against their ears.
The dead leaves and dust scattered on the ground moved without any wind.
They slowly swirled and rose around Ryan and the others.
It formed a small, eerie vortex of grayish-black energy.
The thick mist was also stirred by some power.
It rolled and condensed before their eyes.
It faintly sketched out a blurred and pained female face.
Then it vanished in a flash.
Upon seeing this, Ryan was scared out of his wits and said with a trembling voice:
“We... we will do as you say. Just... just don't come any closer!”
The instinct to survive overrode everything else.
The teammates picked up the guide, turned their heads, and sprinted wildly toward the Blackwater Ruins.
They no longer cared about saving stamina or maintaining formation.
They only thought about charging ahead to flee the 'ghostly' lowing of the spirit behind them.
They were so panicked that they never looked back.
And because of that, they did not see.
The mapping instruments, Image Recording Stones, and tents they had abandoned on the ground...
Were floating into the air one by one on their own.
As if lifted by countless invisible hands.
They 'flew' lightly after the direction of the retreating group for a short distance.
Then, they vanished into thin air.
Rate on N.U.
