Two days later, deep within the Black Demon Forest.
“Ssh—”
A sharp dagger was pulled from the imp's sticky neck, bringing with it a spray of dark red blood droplets.
Lin Gui quickly ducked, shrinking back into the depths of the thick undergrowth.
He nimbly pulled out a handful of dry plant ash and spread it evenly over the corpse.
This suppressed the nauseatingly heavy scent of blood.
The entire process was silent and efficient, like a ghost.
He crouched in the shadows like a stone statue, only his sharp gaze constantly scanning the surroundings.
Only after repeatedly confirming there were no other demons nearby did he slip silently out of his hiding place like a startled wildcat.
The plant ash could only buy him some time.
Before long, the scent of blood would attract more bloodthirsty demons.
Unwilling to be surrounded by a horde of demons drawn to the scent, Lin Gui had no choice but to take a risk and leave the temporary shelter where he had been lurking for three hours.
A journey that was originally supposed to take only a few days to cross had now stretched to five days, and Lin Gui still hadn't made it out.
He was currently trapped tight within this increasingly bizarre Black Demon Forest.
The reason was simple...
Some idiot adventuring party, from who knows where, had banded together to hunt a legendary demon in the Black Demon Forest.
The commotion they caused had stirred up every single demon in the entire forest.
Now, the Black Demon Forest was filled with the sounds of demons on the move.
Sprinting from one shrub to another under the cover of the dense weeds, Lin Gui carried his bulging, heavy backpack as he made one tense relocation after another.
By his ear, a faint, thumbnail-sized magic circle of light blue pulsed and rotated gently.
Under the effects of the High Rank Wind spell 【Wind Listening】, sounds within a hundred-meter radius were amplified and filtered, reaching his ears with crystal clarity.
At the same time, the faint currents of 【Wind Walk】 wrapped around his legs, making his footsteps light and swift.
The sounds of demons scurrying about rang out continuously in his ears.
He relied on the sound of the wind to capture every movement.
Once he identified a brief window of safety, he would immediately sprint forward at full speed.
Sweat soaked his mage robes, clinging tightly to his back.
This continued until he reached a sloping valley.
A mixture of crying, desperate curses, and the grating, horrific sound of something being chewed and torn apart was carried clearly to his ears by the wind.
Lin Gui's heart tensed, and he stopped dead in his tracks.
Worse, just as he was about to turn and change his route, a chaotic and rapid rush of footsteps rapidly approached from behind!
The sounds grew louder and denser, fast closing in on his position.
Lin Gui knit his brows, his teeth clenched.
He knew very well that to certain powerful demons with sharp senses, simply hiding in the grass at this distance was nothing but self-deception.
The sounds behind him suddenly accelerated; the pursuers seemed to have detected him and were charging straight ahead!
It was too late to run now.
In a flash, he lunged to the side.
He rolled beneath the gnarled roots of the nearest giant ancient tree.
At the same time, he reached behind his back and drew his seemingly unremarkable staff.
Suppressing his breath, he pressed himself close to the ground and rapidly whispered a chant.
“Hide at the intersection of light and shadow, blend into the rift of reality...”
The moment the incantation was complete, a paper-thin, constantly fluctuating film of shadow energy welled up from the shadow beneath his feet, quickly enveloping his entire body.
In the next instant, his figure faded completely into the shadow of the ancient tree and vanished, as if he had never existed.
This was his proudest creation—a self-created High Rank stealth spell, Veil of the Gloomy Night.
Almost at the exact second his figure vanished, accompanied by a foul-smelling gust of wind and a slight tremor of the ground, a pack of dark-furred, four-horned, fanged High Tempest Wolf Demons rushed to the scene.
They lowered their heads to sniff, their crimson eyes scanning the surroundings warily as they began to search the area.
Leaning against the tree trunk, cold sweat trickled down Lin Gui's face.
One of the massive, red-eyed wolf heads was so close it nearly brushed against his robe.
With the foul stench filling his nose, Lin Gui closed his eyes, his nerves stretched to their absolute limit.
The Veil of the Gloomy Night was a top-tier concealment spell he had created by combining his previous knowledge of optics.
It was his ultimate trump card and his main reliance when traveling through the wilderness.
It could absorb all energy fluctuations emitted by his body.
This included body temperature, breathing, heartbeat, mana ripples, and even scent.
This made it extremely difficult to be detected by biological senses or magical detection methods.
Its concealment capability was so formidable that even legendary mages in the Magic City had failed to directly sense his presence.
But as powerful as this spell was, it had a fatal flaw.
During its activation, Lin Gui could not make any large movements.
If this pack of wolf demons refused to leave and kept lingering around, Lin Gui would be discovered once his mana ran dry.
Just as Lin Gui was losing his patience and planning to cancel the spell early to make a desperate run for it, a loud explosion echoed from the distance, drawing the giant wolves away.
Lin Gui let out a long sigh of relief, his figure slowly emerging from the shadow of the tree trunk.
If things had dragged on any longer, he would have had to race those wolf demons to see who was faster.
He looked toward the valley where the intense battle was taking place, feeling thoroughly depressed.
The wolf pack had originally been heading there, only stopping because they caught a whiff of his lingering scent along the way.
Incidents like this had played out countless times over the past few days.
If there were only a single disturbance, Lin Gui could have easily slipped through the chaos. The problem was, fires were breaking out everywhere.
With the demons of the Black Demon Forest in a state of total riot, nowhere was safe.
By the time Lin Gui realized the severity of the situation, it was already too late to retreat.
The best course of action right now was to find a safe place and wait for the riot to die down.
Moving silently through the forest, he pushed his perception to its absolute limit, carefully evading all danger.
Before long, Lin Gui found a natural hiding spot.
It was a hollow formed by dense shrubs, weeds, and low trees, offering excellent concealment.
This was much better than the temporary shelters he had found before.
He quickly crawled inside, and as soon as he raised his head, he saw someone huddled inside, hiding.
No, to be precise, looking at the pair of long ears she couldn't hide, she wasn't human, but an elf—a white-haired elf.
“Hello there, human.”
The white-haired elf hugged her knees, tilted her head, and waved at him with a sweet smile.
Her appearance was entirely without warning, as if she had been there all along.
Lin Gui's expression froze. He nodded in response and then quickly backed out...
Not long after, he retreated back inside with an ugly expression.
Outside, a few demons happened to be patrolling past.
The rushing sounds of running demons whistled past his ears.
Lin Gui looked at the elf who had evaded his perception, his gaze wary.
Ever since embarking on the path of a mage, he had specialized in concealment and perception magic.
Although his mastery of perception was not as high as his concealment, he shouldn't have been completely oblivious to a creature at such close range.
Either her concealment skills were on par with his, or she was stronger than him.
Either way, it was not good news for Lin Gui.
Murder and robbery in the wilderness were extremely common occurrences.
“Don't be afraid. I'm a good elf, and a registered green-tier adventurer of Caran City!”
As if seeing through his wariness, the elf pulled out a gold adventure badge and waved it.
She poked her dimples with her fingers and smiled sweetly.
“Besides, do I look like a bad guy when I'm this pretty?”
The beauty of elves was famous throughout the Akara Continent.
In the slave markets, a female elf could fetch an astronomical price, which had given rise to specialized slave-hunting squads targeting elves.
Lin Gui had seen other elves in the Magic City.
But compared to them, the white-haired elf before him possessed an incomparably exquisite beauty.
Her silver hair fell like a waterfall, and her skin was as white as snow.
Even with his guard fully raised, Lin Gui found himself dazed for a moment by her stunning beauty.
Furthermore, she had a pair of red eyes unlike any other elf... The color and shape of those pupils...
Lin Gui blinked. If he wasn't mistaken, those eyes belonged to... the Demon Race.
“Are you... of the Demon Race?”
There was a barely perceptible tension in Lin Gui's voice.
In this world, the Demon Race was synonymous with evil and chaos.
“Of course not~ It's just pink eye, you know, genetic.”
The elf tilted her head, her smile unchanging, her tone as casual as if they were discussing the weather.
Rate on N.U.
