After steering the flying vessel behind a half-collapsed residential building,
Lin Gui and the two girls landed quietly.
The moment their toes touched the dust-covered stone slabs, a small puff of gray mist rose into the air.
As the Blackwater Ruins was an important safe point within the Wall of Sighs, Lin Gui planned to use it as a base before heading toward Avalon.
The location of Avalon had already been confirmed.
It was only about fifty kilometers from Blackwater City.
However, Lin Gui did not intend to simply charge straight through.
The reason was simple: the location of Avalon that Eve had prophesied happened to fall right on the path Shadow Blade Lynn had forged all those years ago.
Shadow Blade Lynn's team was fundamentally different from bounty hunters like Ryan.
Their goal was to completely traverse the Wall of Sighs to obtain the Heart of the Towering Mountain, the divine artifact promised by the dwarven race.
To complete such a crossing, one had to rely on a guide to evade a staggering number of demons.
Even for the absolute top-tier Epic experts, if Transcendent spectral demons gathered in enough numbers, they would still have their hands full.
Therefore, to avoid demon clusters and maximize the use of a guide's life—which was like a flickering candle—Shadow Blade Lynn and the others chose the shortest and most dangerous path.
They had traversed a total of thirteen nests of Legendary and Epic spectral demons.
While the dying could evade most spectral demons, it was not absolute.
Against spectral demons whose ranks reached High-tier Legendary or Epic, a guide offered no protection whatsoever.
This was precisely why Ryan and the others had taken a roundabout route through the Wall instead of cutting straight through to reach Blackwater City.
And just somewhere along the path they had previously taken, near a forest stream at a corner, they were only ten kilometers away from the selection meeting's test site.
Yet, even now, no one dared to cross those ten kilometers.
This was because an Epic High-tier spectral demon was entrenched there.
Serafina the Deathspeaker.
Its presence turned that region into a forbidden zone for the living.
Once, Shadow Blade Lynn had led three Title Rank experts in an attempt to force their way through.
In the end, Woodrow—the barbarian known as the Blood Butcher, whose vitality was the most tenacious and whose defenses rivaled mountain stone—lost an arm there.
As for the other two Title Rank experts in the party, they were covered in blood when they finally escaped.
In the Akara Continent, the Epic Rank was the apex for mortals.
But within the demon-infested Wall of Sighs, especially against a spectral lord of that caliber, even they were not enough.
Avalon was located deep within that treacherous path.
Aside from Shadow Blade Lynn's team, no other bounty hunters had ever approached it.
Consequently, Lin Gui could only use Blackwater City as a base to forge a relatively safe route of his own leading there.
He took out the map and spread it across his knees.
His gaze fell on the point surrounded by a dense cluster of red crosses and skull marks.
That was the predicted location of Avalon.
Lin Gui gave a secret, bitter smile and shook his head.
What kind of city-state would choose such an absurd place for its location?
Wouldn't they worry that one day an Epic spectral demon would go out for a 'walk', stumble upon them, and casually open the entire city-state like a boxed lunch?
Since he had selected Blackwater City as his base, Lin Gui and the girls needed to find a place to stay.
In this dead city, the last thing they lacked was vacant housing.
But before that, Lin Gui had one more thing to do.
He had to figure out exactly what Ryan and the others were so afraid of.
Once he found Avalon, he would still need to return along the same path.
He did not want whatever Ryan feared to become an obstacle on his return journey.
After settling the flying vessel, supplies, and temporary living items in a relatively intact abandoned house, Lin Gui instructed Theia and Eve to stay behind and keep watch.
He then mounted his staff alone and took to the sky silently.
He flew without a sound toward a faint firelight he had noticed earlier from a higher vantage point.
He remembered that the light was located in the central district of Blackwater City, inside a ruined, pointed-roof cathedral.
Lin Gui had heard Blackbeard mention that many bounty hunter groups were stranded in the abandoned city-states within the Wall of Sighs.
Most were stuck there because their guides had died mid-journey under the pursuit of spectral demons.
They had been forced to retreat to these "safe islands," but could not leave because they lacked a new guide.
A single guide could lead at most five people safely through. The more people there were, the greater the risk of uncontrollable variables.
As a result, if a guide died, the extra team members would be trapped there, waiting for other bounty hunters to pass through with a new guide they could follow out.
Under the protection of the Shroud of the Gloomy Night, Lin Gui silently arrived outside the dilapidated arch of the cathedral.
The interior of the cathedral was more spacious than it appeared from the outside.
Several large holes in the high dome allowed thin beams of light to filter down.
A massive bonfire crackled and popped in the center of the clearing.
The firelight illuminated over thirty flickering figures.
Some sat in a circle drinking, while others noisily wiped their weapons.
The most striking figure was a bard holding a lute near the bonfire, her eyes closed as she sang softly.
She was performing a solemn epic.
As she plucked the strings beside the fire, the bard sang in a raspy yet strangely infectious voice:
"He rose with a sword from humble beginnings—"
"Standing alone as the Dark Tide flooded the fields."
"Seven times deep into the demon territories, slaying the false scions of the Demon God."
"The King gave him a crown, a covenant sworn upon the ruins..."
The singing echoed through the hollow cathedral, mingling the desolation of a broken era with ancient valor.
The hunters sitting in the circle fell silent for a moment.
Some bowed their heads and took a deep swig of wine.
Others stared into the fire, their gazes drifting far away.
The poet paused, and the notes of the lute turned low and heavy.
"But the Demon God does not die, the Dark Tide does not cease..."
"The final battle, the rift became a tomb..."
"The Hero was buried, and the Royal Capital turned to ash..."
The song gradually faded, ending in a long, drawn-out sigh.
The bard's performance was incredibly compelling.
The hunters inside the cathedral, men and women alike, were all immersed in that tragic epic.
Their eyes were glazed, as if they were seeing distant battlefields through the dancing flames. No one noticed the movement at the door.
Seeing that no one was paying attention, Lin Gui stopped hiding himself.
He openly pushed open the half-closed, broken door and walked inside.
His boots crunched over the debris on the floor, making a subtle sound.
However, the crackling of the bonfire and the music of the bard drowned out everything else.
He walked straight to a dim corner far from the fire.
He sat down composedly on a dust-covered bench.
Throughout the entire process, not a single person looked up at him.
...No.
There was one person who noticed.
The bard plucking the lute.
Her song did not stop, and her fingers continued to move fluidly over the strings.
But her lowered eyes lifted almost imperceptibly.
She swept a quick glance toward the direction where Lin Gui had entered, her gaze lingering on him for a split second.
A clear flicker of confusion flashed in her eyes, followed by a look of profound meaning.
She did not speak out; she merely made a subtle change to the melody flowing from her fingertips.
The lyrics also shifted quietly, as if responding to the arrival of this uninvited guest.
Rate on N.U.
