Duke Lister jerked on the reins, and the pure white warhorse reared up with a piercing neigh.
"Move! Everyone, move!"
His voice exploded across the wilderness, filled with blatant urgency.
And fear.
A Legendary expert actually had fear in his voice.
"Those madmen will kill us!"
"Run! Everyone, run!"
The troop instantly dissolved into chaos.
The extravagant carriages no longer maintained their neat rows; coachmen lashed the horses frantically. The carriages jolted violently, and screams of women and the cries of children drifted from within.
"Faster! Faster!"
"I don't want to die! I don't want to die here!"
The nobles' shouts rose one after another, mingling with the rumble of wheels and the thunder of hooves into a chaotic din.
Someone leaned out of a carriage window, cursing at the coachman: "You damn bastard, did you not eat today?! Whip them! Whip them harder!"
Others simply pushed open their carriage doors and jumped out, seizing one of the carriage-pulling horses and mounting it to surge forward.
A noblewoman dressed in a lavish gown leaped down from her carriage.
It wasn't to change horses.
It was because her jewelry box had fallen out.
The exquisite wooden box had slid through a gap in the carriage and hit the ground; several gems tumbled out, glittering in the dust.
The noblewoman pounced, crawling on the ground as she frantically gathered the gems.
"Mine! They're mine!"
The carriages behind her came charging through.
"Move! Out of the way!"
The coachman's voice was a scream.
The noblewoman did not move.
She was still picking them up.
Still picking them up.
The wheels rolled over her.
A dull thud sounded.
The carriage continued its charge forward, its wheels stained with blood and shredded silk.
The noblewoman's body was dragged under the vehicle and tumbled a few times in the dust before lying motionless.
No one stopped.
No one even bothered to look back.
The troop continued their mad dash.
Along the way, treasures were scattered everywhere.
Gold coins.
Gems.
Jewelry.
Things they usually valued more than their own lives were now abandoned in the dirt like trash.
Hooves trampled them.
Wheels crushed them.
They were ground into dust.
Lin Gui hid silently behind the gap, watching them flee past him right before his eyes.
One carriage after another, one troop of knights after another, an endless stream like a scurrying serpent in a panic.
He saw many familiar faces in the group.
That high noble who had been so haughty at the auction was now huddled inside his carriage, his face deathly pale and his lips trembling.
That minor noble whose home he had once secretly ransacked with Elvia was now flat against his horse's back, clinging to the horse's neck for dear life, terrified of falling off.
Even...
Lin Gui's gaze fell upon a carriage with the most exquisite carvings.
The curtains were blown back by the wind, revealing a pale face.
Emily.
Duke Joseph's daughter and the Third Prince's fiancée.
On that once-refined face, there was not a trace of color. Her eyes were terrifyingly hollow, like an empty shell that had lost its soul.
She just sat there, motionless, letting the carriage jolt her and the chaos outside rage on.
Lin Gui's brow furrowed slightly.
He watched the fleeing nobles and heard their shouts:
"Run! Those madmen will kill us!"
"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"
It seemed they did not fear the destruction the Dark Tide would bring.
Rather...
They feared another existence.
Before long, the troop passed through the third pass of the Twilight Fortress and sped toward the distance.
The sound of hooves faded into the distance.
The rumble of wheels gradually vanished.
Lin Gui watched them depart until the tail end of the troop disappeared over the far side of the mountain.
Then, he slowly turned his head.
He gazed in the direction Duke Lister and the others had come from.
There was nothing there.
Only rubble, broken walls, and the ruins they had trampled.
However...
Through Lin Gui's Eyes of the Netherworld, several blue figures were revealed.
They were spread across the mountain, some crouching and some lying prone, their gazes fixed on the direction the Guardian Knight had fled.
Motionless.
Like lurking hunters.
In his mind, Shadow Blade Lynn's voice sounded.
Her tone held a trace of an intriguing sneer.
"Hoh, decent concealment."
She paused.
"To be able to hide from a Legendary knight's perception at this distance and follow them the whole way without being discovered... quite interesting."
Her praise was faint, but Lin Gui could hear that it was genuine.
As a former Epic assassin, she rarely complimented anyone.
Lin Gui narrowed his eyes.
His gaze locked onto the figure with the most powerful soul.
That soul's light was more solid and profound than anyone else's in the vicinity.
This soul...
It was Caleb.
A High-tier Legendary assassin.
He was still in the Carter Royal Capital?
Lin Gui narrowed his eyes as he watched him.
Caleb's gaze was fixed on the fleeing nobles in the distance.
There was no pity in those eyes.
There was only a cold calmness, like a predator watching its prey.
Then, he moved.
He did not give chase.
Instead, he raised his hand.
A pitch-black short blade materialized in his palm.
The short blade was entirely black and lacked any luster, as if it even swallowed light itself.
Faint black mist wreathed the blade; the mist twisted and crawled as if it possessed a life of its own.
It was the divine artifact, the Soul-Devouring Blade.
Caleb raised the Soul-Devouring Blade and gave it a gentle flick.
There was no sound.
There was no light.
There wasn't even a single ripple of mana.
But in the distance...
Among the fleeing nobles, the carriage at the very back of the line suddenly came to a standstill.
Inside the carriage, the body of that once-haughty high noble stiffened.
Then, he collapsed silently.
There were no wounds.
There was no struggle.
He simply fell over.
His soul had been drawn out from a distance.
Immediately after, the second carriage.
The third carriage.
In every carriage, a person collapsed silently.
The figures around Caleb also moved.
Those assassins swept down from the mountain, pursuing the scattered troop like ghosts.
Their movements were incredibly fast and light; every time they struck, a life vanished without a sound.
There were no screams.
No struggles.
Only corpses tumbling out of carriages and rolling into the dust.
The nobles who had been screaming just moments ago could no longer even let out a sound.
They just ran.
They ran for their lives.
Then, they collapsed one after another.
Lin Gui withdrew his gaze.
He did not follow to see what would happen.
Caleb's pursuit had nothing to do with him; his objective was to rescue Elvia.
Lin Gui remained in place.
His mana was slowly recovering.
After half a shichen, it had recovered to fifty percent.
He stood up.
He stowed away the Shroud of the Gloomy Night.
Rather than launching the flying vessel, he sat atop his staff and floated forward.
He would be back in the Carter Royal Capital soon and needed to maintain sufficient mana.
Though the threat of the Dark Tide had temporarily subsided, the chaos it incited would surely lead to an increase in human-made calamities.
He needed to stay vigilant.
As he floated along...
Lin Gui witnessed horrifying scenes.
The road was littered with corpses.
They had not been killed by demons.
Instead, their throats had been slit with a single stroke.
Or they had been pierced through the heart.
The killing methods were clean and efficient, clearly the handiwork of assassins.
The blood was still fresh.
Some of it was still slowly trickling out.
Evidently, they had not been dead long.
Lin Gui looked down at the bodies.
They were all people of high wealth or status.
They wore opulent robes and expensive jewelry.
Some still had gem-encrusted rings on their fingers, while others had exquisite gold ornaments hanging from their waists.
The carriages beside them were abandoned, and treasures were scattered all over the ground.
Gold coins, overturned trunks, and trampled silk were strikingly vivid in the dust.
Lin Gui's brow knitted tightly.
Why was Caleb hunting down these nobles fleeing from the Carter Royal Capital?
Wasn't he one of them as well?
Lin Gui suppressed his doubts.
He continued to pick up speed.
Rate on N.U.
