The moment Shadow Blade Lynn rushed into the abyss, the familiar gray mist rushed over her face.
The surrounding light suddenly dimmed, leaving only eerie green specks of light occasionally flickering in the fog.
Those specks drifted unpredictably, like countless eyes peering from the dark, floating close and far with a strange rhythm.
Beneath her feet was an endless abyss, and above her head was an equally endless gray darkness.
There were no directions, no reference points.
There was only mist.
The suffocating mist, identical to the one in her memories.
Shadow Blade Lynn's soul light flickered slightly, rippling with fine tremors.
That deep-seated fear surged up once more, coiling around her consciousness like cold tentacles.
She forcefully suppressed her emotions and locked her gaze ahead.
Lin Gui was sitting on his staff, slowly floating downward.
His posture was stiff, his eyes slightly vacant, and his pupils seemed covered by a gray haze.
Shadow Blade Lynn sneered coldly.
This fellow had lost himself after all.
The nightmare woven for him by the Voiceless Abyss had likely dragged him inside long ago.
She drifted forward.
Fine then.
Before going too deep, she would drag him out.
Lest he actually die here and force her to wait another few hundred years.
Shadow Blade Lynn reached out to grab Lin Gui's mage robes.
Just as her fingers were about to touch them...
Lin Gui leaned sideways, deftly dodging her.
He turned his head, his eyes clear and alert as he looked at her.
"What are you doing?"
Shadow Blade Lynn froze.
Then she fumed angrily, "Taking you crazy bastard out, of course!
"I don't want to wait another few hundred years for the next soul mage!"
After speaking, she suddenly realized something.
Her pale blue eyes stared fixedly at Lin Gui, her pupils shrinking slightly.
"How are you still conscious?!"
Incredulity filled her voice.
"Clarity couldn't possibly defend against the overwhelming mental confusion in this place!"
Lin Gui looked at her somewhat unraveled expression.
He raised an eyebrow slightly.
"What is your chanting time for Clarity?"
Shadow Blade Lynn replied subconsciously, "Twelve seconds."
Lin Gui nodded in understanding.
He pointed at himself.
"Mine is..."
"...zero seconds."
"Chantless casting."
Shadow Blade Lynn raised an eyebrow.
"You're saying you can use chantless casting for the Novice soul magic..."
"...Clarity?"
Lin Gui nodded.
He raised his hand and waved it lightly.
A surge of soul force rippled out from his fingertips, spreading like ripples and washing over Shadow Blade Lynn.
Shadow Blade Lynn could clearly sense it...
That was Clarity.
And indeed, there was no chanting whatsoever.
It was cast instantaneously.
Her mouth parted.
For a moment, she was at a loss for words.
After a few seconds of silence, she looked at Lin Gui with an odd expression.
"Are you brain-dead?"
"To waste so much energy on a mere Novice spell?"
She paused.
"Even though it's soul magic, it has zero practical combat use."
Mages were the most complex of all classes.
Lower elemental magic of five elements, middle elemental magic of three types, upper elemental magic of two types.
Plus categories like soul magic, each corresponding to thousands of spells.
No mage could master every spell in their lifetime.
Only when confirming that they could no longer advance in rank would they delve deeply into the strongest magic they possessed.
Thus, this was the first time Shadow Blade Lynn had ever seen...
...a mage who specialized in researching Novice magic?
Yet Shadow Blade Lynn had to admit...
...this fellow's brain-dead behavior truly proved immensely useful here.
Lin Gui didn't reply, opting instead to keep descending.
Shadow Blade Lynn frowned slightly, then followed closely behind.
If he could truly barely withstand the mist rather than losing all his senses outright...
Perhaps he really could venture deeper inside.
And maybe...
Shadow Blade Lynn floated in front of Lin Gui.
Using soul transmission, she spoke to him:
"As we go deeper, the density of the mist will become higher and higher."
"No matter how powerful your Clarity is, if you don't find the Demon King along the way, you won't be able to hold out."
"The thickening mist will cause sensory loss, confusion, and eventually complete loss of self, dragging you into nightmares."
She paused.
"I can help you."
"And protect you when you lose yourself."
Lin Gui didn't answer.
He continued floating downward.
Just when Shadow Blade Lynn thought he had lost himself...
His voice came through:
"What kind of help?"
The corners of Shadow Blade Lynn's lips curled up.
"Help me find something."
The floating staff Lin Gui rode came to a sudden halt.
He turned his head and looked at Shadow Blade Lynn's exquisite face.
His eyes were filled with speechlessness.
"Do you want me to die?"
He paused.
"Even Roger and Gusion were suppressed by that monster."
"And you want me, a High Rank mage, to snatch something from her?"
His voice held helplessness.
"Do you have some kind of misunderstanding about the rank of High Rank mage?"
Shadow Blade Lynn looked at him indifferently.
"It isn't that thing."
She paused.
"It's something I dropped back when I fought Hant."
"You don't need to change your route."
"Just cast your Clarity on me whenever I sense its presence..."
"...and I will go retrieve it myself."
Lin Gui looked at her.
"And what if you don't come back?"
Shadow Blade Lynn smiled.
It was hard to tell whether her smile was self-deprecating or something else.
"Then consider me dead."
This time, Lin Gui didn't refuse.
He agreed straightforwardly.
Seeing this, Shadow Blade Lynn raised her hand, her soul light rippling faintly.
Several invisible secret arts drifted from her fingertips, sinking into Lin Gui's body.
The first landed deep within his soul, like a thin film coating the surface of his consciousness.
The second dispersed throughout his limbs and bones, bringing a slightly cool sensation.
The third slipped into his ear canal and vanished.
Lin Gui could feel it.
The auditory hallucinations in his head—those noisy, chaotic whispers—were diminishing.
It was as if they were being insulated outside.
Though he could still hear them, they were no longer so clear, no longer so... aggressive.
He looked at Shadow Blade Lynn.
Shadow Blade Lynn withdrew her hand, her soul light somewhat dimmer than before.
"I've done everything I can."
She paused.
"The rest is up to you."
Lin Gui nodded.
Gripping his staff tightly once more, he continued floating downward.
The abyss seemed endless.
Time lost all meaning here.
An unknown amount of time passed.
The surrounding mist began to thicken.
It was no longer light as gauze like when they first entered, but seemed to gain substance.
The grayish-white mist surged slowly, clinging to the cliff walls and brushing against Lin Gui's body.
It felt like countless invisible hands caressing, probing.
At first, it was only auditory hallucinations.
Voices resounded in his head, one after another.
Familiar and unfamiliar.
Gentle, sarcastic, mocking, abusive.
Those voices intertwined, rising and falling like an endless clamor.
Lin Gui remained expressionless, continuing downward.
Then, tactile sensations began to appear.
It was clearly just mist.
Clearly, there was nothing around except the cliff walls.
Yet Lin Gui's skin felt distinct, piercing pain.
First came burning.
Like being roasted on a fire, his skin charring and cracking inch by inch.
Then came freezing cold.
Like falling into an ice cave, his blood threatening to congeal.
And then came the pain of impalement.
Like invisible daggers stabbing from behind and thrusting out through his chest.
Every stab was terrifyingly precise.
Every stab was terrifyingly vivid.
Lin Gui could feel the tearing of skin as blades stabbed in.
He could feel cold metal traveling through his body.
He could feel blood gushing out along the blades.
Yet none of this was real.
He looked down at himself.
His mage robes were intact.
His skin was intact.
There was no fire.
No ice.
No daggers.
There was nothing.
Only mist.
Yet those pains were real enough to drive one insane.
And the most terrifying part was:
He had lost his actual sense of touch.
He couldn't feel himself sitting on his oak staff.
He couldn't feel the slight cool sensation from the staff.
He couldn't feel his posture, his breathing, or his heartbeat.
If his sight hadn't still allowed him to see his surroundings,
Lin Gui truly would have believed he was standing in a sea of fire.
Or trapped in some tragic battle,
having his chest stabbed over and over by an ambushing assassin.
He paused for a moment.
Taking a deep breath,
he raised his hand.
And began to chant.
He needed to set Spatial Coordinates.
Every time he went deeper by a certain distance, he had to set one.
Only then would he have a path to follow when returning.
His chanting echoed in the silent abyss, faint as if it could be swallowed up at any moment.
A shimmer lit up at his fingertips and fell onto the cliff wall behind him.
The coordinate took shape.
Lin Gui continued downward.
The loss of his senses continued to intensify.
Touch was the first to disappear completely.
He could no longer feel his body.
It was as though he were left with only a pair of eyes, floating in the endless darkness.
Next was smell.
He couldn't smell anything at all.
No decaying scent of the gray mist.
No damp smell of the rock walls.
Nothing whatsoever.
Then came hearing.
Those noisy auditory hallucinations gradually receded into the distance.
Not that they had vanished,
but they were insulated far away.
All Lin Gui could hear was...
...his own heartbeat.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Growing louder and louder.
Finally...
...vision.
The rift before his eyes vanished in an instant.
All light, all shadow, all gray mist, all rock walls.
In that split second, everything disappeared.
Leaving only darkness.
An absolute, endless darkness that swallowed everything.
Lin Gui stopped.
He floated in the dark.
No directions.
No reference points.
No up or down.
Not even his own body.
He was like a speck of dust, abandoned at the end of nothingness.
Inside his mage robes' pocket,
Shadow Blade Lynn watched all this quietly through the glass bead.
She looked at Lin Gui's motionless back.
Looked at his rigid posture.
Looked at his gradually unfocusing eyes.
She knew.
His Clarity and her secret arts had both lost their effect.
He was only one step away from completely losing himself.
Shadow Blade Lynn's soul floated out of the soul bead, drifting in front of Lin Gui to silently observe him as he was now.
On his pale face, his eyes had unfocused to the point of almost losing all clarity.
He floated in the dark like that, motionless.
Like a soul-less empty shell.
Shadow Blade Lynn did not make a sound.
She knew that at this point, any external interference was meaningless.
To survive in the Voiceless Rift,
to traverse through this place...
High-rank perception magic? Useless.
Tremendous power? Useless.
Formidable equipment? Useless as well.
The only thing that could let someone survive...
...was a sense of direction.
An inexplicable instinct that let one know which way was up when completely lost.
Shadow Blade Lynn watched him quietly.
She was weighing her options.
She didn't know what that "magic independent of conventional forces" Lin Gui had set up at the exit was.
If that thing actually worked,
he should still be able to find direction.
If that thing was useless too...
then he had only instinct left.
And could a person who had lost all five senses find their way relying purely on instinct?
Shadow Blade Lynn didn't know.
But she would soon find out the answer.
If Lin Gui's next step wasn't downward—
if he didn't continue deeper along his original trajectory—
then it would prove his magic was equally useless.
When that time came, she would forcibly carry him away.
Of course...
they were already too deep in now.
Even Shadow Blade Lynn couldn't guarantee she could get him out safely.
In her current spirit state, she could indeed largely avoid the sensory deprivation caused by extreme mental confusion.
Because spirits had no five senses.
They felt no pain, no cold, and wouldn't be fooled by false tactile sensations.
However,
she could not avoid that terrifying nightmare weaving.
That acted directly upon the soul.
It was far more lethal than any sensory deprivation.
So if on the way back she felt her abilities reach their limit—
if she felt those nightmares beginning to erode her consciousness—
she would abandon Lin Gui here without hesitation.
Coldness flickered in Shadow Blade Lynn's eyes.
She looked at the figure standing frozen in the dark as if looking at a piece she could discard at any time.
Kid, don't blame me.
This was your own choice.
Thinking this, Shadow Blade Lynn shrank back into Lin Gui's mage robes.
Then, under her observation, Lin Gui moved.
He didn't continue deeper along his trajectory.
Instead, while chanting that spell so bizarre it didn't even sound like magic, he drifted outward toward the surroundings.
Shadow Blade Lynn watched him float around slowly in all directions like a headless fly while chanting his spell.
A hint of strangeness flashed in her eyes.
Was this... losing himself?
The cavern diameter at the third entrance of the Voiceless Rift was about thirty meters.
The surrounding rock walls loomed in and out of the dark, occasionally illuminated by the faint magical light on Lin Gui's body.
Revealing rugged outcroppings and deep fissures.
And Lin Gui was making baffling moves inside this modest space.
First, he floated straight to the left.
His chanting didn't stop, his lips moving as he uttered syllables devoid of any rhythm.
Thump.
His shoulder collided with the cliff wall.
Loose gravel rustled down as a cut opened on his shoulder, dark red blood oozing out and soaking his robes.
Yet as if feeling no pain, he kept chanting.
Then, he turned to the right.
Floating over.
Thump.
Another solid collision.
His forehead struck a protruding rock. Blood flowed down, trickling past his brow bone and over his cheek before pooling at the bridge of his nose and dripping off.
He still didn't stop.
Chanting, turning, floating again.
Shadow Blade Lynn raised an eyebrow.
Watching him crash directly into the cliff wall until he was battered and bleeding, she sneered in exasperation.
I actually fell for your bizarre magic trick.
I thought it could guide you and grant you the ability to enter this forbidden land.
Now it seems I overestimated you.
She shook her head, her soul light rippling as she prepared to act.
Just as she was about to drag this little mage out like a headless fly...
Suddenly...
...Lin Gui froze.
He hovered motionless in midair, less than a meter from the cliff wall.
The chanting stopped.
Then, he slowly turned around.
His movement was very steady.
Very slow.
Yet it carried a sense of certainty impossible to ignore.
He floated toward the center of the cavern.
Shadow Blade Lynn froze.
She watched Lin Gui arrive precisely in the exact center within the pitch-black void lacking all reference points.
And then...
...he continued deeper downward.
Shadow Blade Lynn frowned.
Along the way, she quietly watched Lin Gui.
Descend a short distance.
Stop.
Begin chanting again.
Then float toward the edges.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Four collisions.
Four different directions.
Every collision was solid, creating new wounds each time.
Yet every single time, after finishing the collisions, he could precisely return to the center point.
And then...
...continue deeper downward.
Shadow Blade Lynn's brows knitted tighter and tighter.
She looked at that blood-soaked figure continuously repeating this bizarre process.
Suddenly, she realized something.
This kid...
He wasn't lost.
He was... measuring?
Mapping... the Voiceless Rift???
Rate on N.U.
