Seeing that she had noticed him, Lin Gui did not bother to hide.
He had come here specifically so Ryan and his group could “find” him.
Sitting in the dim corner, he reached toward his waist.
A silver coin then flicked from his fingertips.
It drew a subtle arc through the air, landing precisely in the clay bowl in front of the bard.
With a crisp clink, it collided with the few scattered gold coins inside.
The bard looked down and glimpsed the silver coin, her lips curling into a barely perceptible smile.
She looked up and gave Lin Gui a deep, knowing glance.
Her fingers danced across the strings as the melody and her song suddenly shifted.
A new tale, filled with adventure and wondrous encounters, began to flow from her lips and the strings of her lute.
The beautiful melody and narrative once again filled the entire cathedral.
Yet, just as the song echoed through the air—
A figure darted in through the half-closed doors of the cathedral without warning!
It was so fast that it left only a blurry afterimage and a faint rush of wind.
The moment the figure entered the dim cathedral, they immediately melted into the deepest shadows of a corner, vanishing without a trace.
The surrounding adventurers were still immersed in the imagery painted by the bard.
Only a few seemed to sense something, turning their heads to look around in confusion, but they found nothing.
But Lin Gui's gaze had already sharpened.
His eyes swept across the floor near the entrance—a few drops of fresh blood stood out starkly in the dust.
He then locked his gaze onto the shadow behind a thick, abandoned pillar deep within the cathedral.
Under normal circumstances, given the speed and stealth the person had displayed, their strength had to be at least a whole major rank above his, and they were clearly highly skilled in concealment.
Though Lin Gui's ordinary senses were excellent, it would have been difficult for him to quickly pinpoint such a target.
However, he possessed the 【Eyes of the Netherworld】 granted by the system.
This pair of eyes, capable of seeing through the Shroud of the Gloomy Night, now flickered with a faint gray light.
They easily pierced through physical shadows and visual camouflage.
He “saw” it.
The figure curled up behind the pillar, struggling to suppress their breathing and trembling.
It was none other than the Demon Hunter he had crossed paths with once before in the inn at the City of Bounties—Cass's daughter, Rosa.
Within the vision of the Eyes of the Netherworld, her condition was absolutely wretched.
She had at least four or five deep lacerations on her body, her leather armor was ruined, and blood completely soaked her clothes.
The most severe wound cut diagonally from her shoulder blade to her waist, deep enough to expose bone.
Lin Gui examined her wounds closely, his brow furrowing even deeper.
The edges of those lacerations were clean and even, characteristic of some sharp weapon.
They did not look like they were caused by demon claws or spells.
Instead, they looked more like... wounds inflicted by another human.
Yet, in the City of Bounties, there were only two Legendary Rank experts on the surface.
Blackbeard, and her father, Cass.
With Cass around, who could have wounded her so severely?
And where was Cass himself?
While Lin Gui's mind raced, the bard's song came to an abrupt, unheralded halt.
The strings suddenly fell silent.
At the same time, the sound of orderly, heavy, and stiff footsteps from outside the cathedral clearly reached the door.
The sudden cessation of the song snapped all the entranced hunters awake.
“Bang!”
The heavy wooden doors were slammed open, crashing against the walls.
Sunlight streamed in from outside, outlining the silhouettes of a group of people.
A few eager hunters looked delighted at the sound and quickly went to greet them.
“Is it a new team?”
“Do you have a guide? Take us—”
Before the hunter could finish, an excessively pale hand reached out from the group.
It grabbed the shoulder of the foremost man and gave him a casual shove.
The hunter stumbled back several steps and fell flat on his backside.
He stared up in utter bewilderment.
Figures stepped out of the fog and into the firelight one after another.
Leading them was a young girl with an indifferent face and eyes that were excessively calm.
It was Jesse.
Two men followed behind her.
One was so handsome he barely looked human, a playful smirk playing on his lips.
The other had hollow eyes, radiating a cold, deathly aura.
And the last to enter the cathedral was that squad of “knights.”
Their iron boots clanked heavily against the ground, moving in an eerily synchronized rhythm.
But the gazes of all the hunters were frozen on the blood-soaked figure being escorted between two gray-robed men.
It was Cass's son, Maren.
His hands were bound behind his back, his face was covered in bruises, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
His eyes burned with humiliation and anger, yet he was completely unable to move.
What truly made everyone gasp in horror, however, was what another gray-robed man behind Jesse was dragging.
No, it was not an object.
It was a person.
The man was gripped by the back of his neck with a single hand, dragged along the ground like a sack of grain.
His dark brown hunting attire was tattered and thoroughly soaked in dark crimson.
His exposed skin was covered in hideous wounds, some deep enough to reveal bone.
Most terrifying of all was his right arm, which was twisted at a bizarre angle, clearly broken.
His head hung low, his pale-gold hair matted into clumps by blood and dirt.
His breath was so faint it was almost imperceptible.
But as the firelight flickered across his lowered face,
someone recognized those sharp, cold features, now as pale as paper.
“L—Lord Cass?!”
A sudden cry of alarm rang out, which was immediately swallowed by a dead silence.
Within the cathedral, only the crackling of the bonfire and the heavy, suppressed breathing of the crowd remained.
In the corner, the moment Jesse stepped inside, Lin Gui had already silently wrapped himself in the Shroud of the Gloomy Night.
His figure vanished completely into the darkness.
Controlling his staff, he quietly floated up into midair.
His eyes locked onto the dragged figure below.
It was indeed Cass, the Low-tier Legendary Rank Demon Hunter who had stayed in the City of Bounties for eight years, yet now he was being dragged across the ground like a dead dog.
Lin Gui's eyelid twitched, and he cursed inwardly.
He had only come to confirm something; had he known, he would have left immediately.
Why did he have to run into this persistently haunting crowd again?
Just as Lin Gui held his breath and prepared to slip away silently,
the pale, handsome man beside Jesse below suddenly raised his hand.
A faint, bloody glimmer swirled around his fingertips.
Like a living thing, it slithered and snaked through the air.
In the next instant, the bloody light suddenly veered.
It pointed directly at the shadow behind the massive pillar deep within the cathedral!
“Found you.”
A cold smile curled the corners of the man's mouth.
Maren, who was being held, felt his pupils contract.
He snapped his head up to look toward the pillar, all color draining from his face.
“Sis...!”
He managed to hoarsely cry out a single word before the gray-robed man behind him brutally choked him.
He could only make wheezing, gasping sounds, his eyes bloodshot.
Cass, who was being dragged on the floor, also began to struggle violently.
He forced his head up, his unfocused eyes staring fixedly at the shadow.
A beast-like low growl escaped his throat.
His broken arm twitched weakly, and blood welled from the wound.
Seeing this from above, Lin Gui sighed silently.
He spread the fingers of his right hand and pressed down.
The effect of the 【Shroud of the Gloomy Night】 quietly extended.
Like an invisible twilight, it completely enveloped the curled-up figure behind the pillar.
Almost at the exact same moment,
the bloody glimmer from the pale man's fingertips struck precisely toward the shadow.
However, it ultimately hit nothing but empty air.
It circled the spot blankly twice before silently dispersing.
The cold smile on the man's face instantly froze.
“...Strange. She was clearly...”
He muttered to himself, a flash of astonishment and confusion crossing his eyes.
Just a moment ago, his Blood Tracing spell had clearly pointed right there.
But now the connection was suddenly severed, as if the girl had vanished into thin air.
Jesse also furrowed her brow.
She closed her eyes, and her massive magical perception spread out like a tide.
It swept meticulously over every corner and every inch of shadow within the cathedral.
Behind the pillar, there was absolutely nothing.
No breathing, no heartbeat, no energy fluctuations.
There was not even a trace of lingering blood scent.
It was as if no one had ever been there.
She slowly opened her eyes, her cold gaze turning to the person beside her.
“Modo, what about yours?”
Hearing her, the hollow-eyed Modo twitched the corner of his mouth.
His gaze swept aimlessly across the upper reaches of the cathedral.
In the end, he shook his head, his voice flat.
“My perception only targets my ‘own kind’.”
“In this regard, I am not much stronger than you.”
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