A hand emerged from the void.
The fingers were long and slender, with distinct knuckles.
The hand gripped the edge of the door and gently pulled it shut.
The Shroud of the Gloomy Night faded away.
Lin Gui's figure materialized, his eyes filled with a trace of deep thought.
He had originally only come to see who was monitoring the post office, but had ended up overhearing this unexpected intelligence.
Standing behind the door, he stared blankly through the crack, his brows furrowing slightly.
On the sofa behind him, Elvia hugged her knees with an anxious expression, a shadow lingering over her golden eyes.
"The ones they want to hunt... probably aren't demons, right?"
Lin Gui turned around, his eyes darkening.
"Top-tier or rare demons that could be used as materials for high-end magic experiments won't appear inside the city-states."
"And the backyard of my post office certainly doesn't breed demons."
Elvia was silent for a long moment before she spoke, her voice subconsciously dropping low.
"So... the ones they want to hunt... are humans. What they want to hunt are 'living subjects' for magic experiments."
Human alchemy was hardly a secret in upper-class circles.
To deepen their understanding of magical elements, many powerful mages had dabbled in human experimentation—something strictly forbidden back in the Golden Age.
Ironically, a large portion of magical advancements in the Dark Age stemmed precisely from this.
Elvia's fingers tightened around the blanket over her knees, her knuckles turning slightly pale.
"But... if they intend to use human subjects for experiments, why not use slaves?"
"Why travel all the way here from the Magic City?"
"We'll find out the answer to that soon enough."
Lin Gui walked over to the table.
He narrowed his eyes, staring at the tabletop as if gazing at something invisible.
Then he reached out and pinched an extremely fine, almost invisible strand of hair from the corner of the table.
He raised the strand of hair before his eyes, his gray pupils contracting slightly.
A fine soul thread revealed itself, extending out through the gap in the door like a silent guide.
Elvia looked at him, her lips moving.
"You want to get involved?"
Lin Gui held the strand of hair as he replied, the corner of his mouth arching into an ambiguous curve.
"Of course."
"I'm quite curious myself as to what kind of living subject could cause such a massive stir."
He pulled out the wooden box he had won at the Withered Wood Town gambling house from his storage space.
Made of dark-red wood, its surface was covered in intricate runes.
It was the token the fat guy had put up on the gambling table.
Supposedly, it could be exchanged for anything under the property of the Mage Guild.
He turned the wooden box over, his fingertips tracing the runes on the bottom as he fell into thought.
"Perhaps we might even find that recipient who has yet to be located."
Lin Gui did not immediately set out after the two mages who were taking a gamble.
Instead, he returned to the post office.
Standing before the four open wooden crates, he remained silent for a while, his gaze resting on the scattered wheat grains for a moment.
Then he raised his hand.
Crate after crate vanished into his storage space.
Looking at the grain and herbs stored inside the space, he stayed silent for a short moment before softly letting out a breath.
He turned around and stepped out of the post office.
He wanted to buy some more grain in Withered Wood Town.
However, he received an unexpected piece of information.
There was nowhere selling grain in Withered Wood Town.
Even the granary holding the food supply needed to keep the city-state running refused his high-priced offer.
Even when Lin Gui raised the price to a point where the person in charge felt his palms itch and his eyes glow green with greed, the man still refused to budge—he did not even reject him publicly while agreeing privately.
Before Lin Gui left, the person in charge subconsciously glanced at the towering magic tower, his eyes filled with dread.
Lin Gui seemed to realize why the man would not agree to his offer, his gaze turning slightly cold.
Since he could not purchase grain through legitimate channels, he could only resort to traditional craftsmanship.
Prying open the granary and stealing the grain.
His storage space was stuffed to its absolute limit.
Even behind the flying vessel that had been moved out of the space, several heavy bags of grain were hitched and dragged along.
Once all preparations were made, Lin Gui took Elvia with him and began tracking along the guidance of that single strand of hair.
The fine soul thread extended all the way.
Crossing streets, passing through the city gates.
They stepped out of Withered Wood Town.
And entered the eastern region of the Withered Wood Wasteland.
The fine soul thread extending from the hair would not last forever, but most could provide guidance for at least several days.
And this amount of time was more than enough for Lin Gui to catch up to Marcus and his partner.
Provided they did not die along the way.
No matter how insignificant the Withered Wood Wasteland might seem, it was still a Forbidden Zone.
And Transcendent-level strength was far from enough when facing a Forbidden Zone.
Marcus and his companion had not been gone long—probably less than two hours.
Lin Gui did not directly activate the wind pressure cannon.
The fine soul thread was difficult to see clearly at high speeds, and he also worried that a sudden surge of speed might launch him past them.
Therefore, he simply advanced at the speed of Levitation.
Although the speed was relatively slow, it was practically flying speed when traversing a Forbidden Zone.
After all, protected by the Shroud of the Gloomy Night, Lin Gui did not need to hide from demons.
Those Transcendent mages whose concealment magic was lacking, however, were an entirely different story.
And so—
In less than half an hour of rapid movement, Lin Gui caught up to Marcus and his companion.
The two Transcendent mages were walking on foot across the wasteland, their steps heavy and exhausted.
No overly powerful demons had appeared nearby, so they had not used concealment magic either.
Each bore two massive, bulging packs on their backs that weighed down their shoulders slightly.
The hem of their mage robes had been torn into several slashes by thorns, flapping noisily as they walked.
One of their cuffs was stained with fresh blood, though it was unclear whether it belonged to him or a demon.
Hunched over, they frequently glanced back toward Withered Wood Town, lingering fear and reluctance in their eyes.
The dusty gray city walls were still visible.
Though they had been walking for nearly four hours, they had not even left the line of sight of Withered Wood Town.
Evidently, they had suffered quite a bit along the way.
Upon seeing them again, Lin Gui did not quietly follow behind them.
Instead, he continuously raised the altitude of the flying vessel, soundlessly gliding over their heads and flying toward the general direction of their travel.
Magical tracking was far less effective than soul tracking.
Given Lambert's Mid-tier Transcendent strength, the distance over which he could track a target would not be very far.
Lin Gui hovered high in the sky, looking down as the high-altitude winds gently rustled his robes.
The wasteland was flat and vast, offering an unobstructed view.
Withered yellow grass, exposed rocks, and sparse, dried-up bushes dotted the terrain.
A few groups of demons roamed in the distance, their dark-red scales glinting cold under the sunlight.
Looking closely, Lin Gui found no humans other than the demons.
Lin Gui was not discouraged and took a deep breath.
Gathering his mana, he funneled it into his Eyes of the Netherworld.
A faint halo flickered deep within his gray pupils, like two cold, spectral flames.
The world in his vision shifted colors.
The withered yellow grass faded, and the exposed rocks turned into pale, ghostly bone structures.
On the northern side of the Withered Wood Wasteland, several blue human-shaped soul outlines were mapped out.
Clustered together, they looked like several patches of eerie blue fire, strikingly vivid against the wasteland's gray-white backdrop.
That was presumably the Ross family.
Lin Gui steered the flying vessel, lowering its altitude slightly, and flew silently toward that direction.
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