Shen Man returned ten minutes later.
Lin Yuan was still leaning against the wall, his left hand pressing against the wound on his right shoulder. The bleeding had stopped.
The Nine Rounds of Bone Tempering provided more than just strength and endurance; it also granted a recovery speed far beyond that of an ordinary person.
A thin layer of blood scabs had formed over the surface of the wound. Although it still stung when he moved, he at least didn't have to worry about excessive blood loss.
He heard footsteps and looked up.
Shen Man walked back from the end of the street. The hood of her dark red hoodie was tilted to one side, and the drawstrings were dangling unevenly.
She held the half-spilled milk tea in her right hand, while her left hand was empty. The Blood Eye Cult rune master had not been brought back with her.
“He's dead,” she said flatly, coming to a stop in front of Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuan didn't look surprised.
When that rune master had laughed like a madman earlier, he had already guessed this outcome.
A cult organization of the Blood Eye Cult's level would never allow captured members to live and leak information.
Whether it was some kind of remotely triggered restriction or a suicide mechanism pre-implanted in the body, they simply wouldn't leave any survivors.
“How did he die?” he asked.
Shen Man took a sip of milk tea, her cheeks puffing out slightly.
“The same way as all the other Blood Eye Cult members we've caught.”
“Complete blood reversal, cardiac arrest, and the blood eye mark in the left eye self-destructs.”
“The entire process takes less than three seconds. No healing method can intervene in time.”
She paused, the pearls making a slurping sound in the straw.
“It’s all useless. They die right on schedule, as if someone flipped a switch.”
Lin Yuan remained silent for a few seconds.
An organization that could make its members 'shut down' at any moment possessed a level of brainwashing and control far more terrifying than that of an ordinary cult.
The Blood Eye Cult had been lurking in Donghai City for three years, setting up runes, targeting Su Qingyue, and even having the capability to launch an attack while a teacher from Magic City Academy was present.
And the rune master caught today was merely a pawn in the entire plan.
“What about Su Qingyue?” he asked.
“Handled,” Shen Man said, tilting the milk tea cup toward him.
“You mentioned he sent a rune underground toward the Su Manor. When I gave chase, three Blood Eye Cult tracking runes on the outskirts of the Su Manor had already been activated. However...”
The corner of her mouth curved up with a hint of pride.
“Since we knew the Blood Eye Cult was making a move, how could we just sit idly by? The people you mentioned have already been taken down.”
Leaning against the wall, Lin Yuan felt his tense shoulders finally relax upon hearing those words.
It wasn't because he was worried about Su Qingyue; with a Tier 5 lightning system user like Shen Man around, those few small fry from the Blood Eye Cult in Donghai City couldn't cause any real trouble.
It was because those words meant the entire situation had been under Magic City Academy’s control from the very beginning.
He hadn't been fighting a lone battle. He wasn't the only one who had discovered the cult’s tracks and dealt with them in isolation.
From the moment he wiped away those runes on the outskirts of the arena, or perhaps even earlier, Magic City Academy had already set its sights on the Blood Eye Cult.
He remembered what Shen Man had said to him yesterday at the recruitment site.
“Donghai City hasn’t been peaceful lately, so be careful.” At the time, he thought it was just a generic warning.
Now he understood that she was telling him: We already know, we’re already taking action, just make sure you protect yourself.
“So you’ve been watching them all along?” Lin Yuan asked.
“Not that long,” Shen Man said, switching the milk tea to her left hand and fishing a crumpled tissue out of her hoodie pocket to hand to him.
“About a day before you brought that rune stone back from the wilderness, Magic City Academy’s intelligence network caught onto the Blood Eye Cult’s unusual activities around Donghai City.”
“We originally thought they were just passing through. We didn't expect their target to be the Su family’s S-rank.”
Lin Yuan took the tissue and pressed it against the wound on his right shoulder. A small patch of the tissue was stained red by the remaining blood.
“And so you went with the flow, using the match between me and Su Qingyue as bait to draw the Blood Eye Cult out?”
“It wasn't ‘you,’ it was ‘us,’” Shen Man corrected him, pointing the straw at his nose.
“You filled out the form yesterday, so you’re one of Magic City Academy’s people now. Use your words accurately.”
Hearing this, Lin Yuan’s mouth twitched slightly as he gave an awkward smile. “...Fine, us.”
Shen Man nodded with satisfaction, sucked the last bit of liquid from her milk tea cup, and casually tossed the empty cup into a roadside trash can.
“Actually, it wasn't much of a bait. The Blood Eye Cult was going to move against Su Qingyue anyway. Regardless of that match, they would have found an opportunity.”
Shen Man looked down at him, a trace of a smile in her eyes.
“Unfortunately for them, they made one fatal mistake.”
“What?”
“They happened to target you too,” Shen Man said.
“If they had only focused on Su Qingyue, it might have taken us more time to root them all out.”
“But they got greedy. After seeing your performance, they wanted to take you away as well.”
“An S-rank Ice Phoenix wasn't enough; they also wanted a lightning user with Nine Rounds of Bone Tempering.”
She smiled, a expression completely different from her usual lazy demeanor—it carried the sharp edge of a hunter closing the net.
“The greedy are the first to die.”
Lin Yuan didn't respond.
He remained silent for a moment, then used his hands to push his upper body away from the wall.
The wound on his right shoulder was tugged, making him grit his teeth in pain.
“So the whole thing, from start to finish, was within your plan,” he said. His tone held no blame or dissatisfaction; he was simply confirming a fact.
“The Blood Eye Cult thought they were in the shadows, but in reality, they were the ones being observed. They thought today was an ambush against me, but it was actually you closing the net on them.”
“Pretty much.”
“That rune master didn't know until the moment he died that the only reason he could trap me in that gray mist space was because you intentionally let him in.”
Shen Man did not deny it.
Lin Yuan took a deep breath and then let out a long sigh.
Once that breath left his chest, his entire body seemed to lose its bones. He slid down the wall and sat heavily on the ground.
With his back against the wall and his legs stretched out, he rested the back of his head against the rough bricks and looked up at the sky.
The sky was very blue, the clouds were very white, and the sunlight felt warm on his face.
Compared to that enclosed space shrouded in gray mist ten minutes ago, it felt like two different worlds.
“Teacher Shen,” he began, his voice raspy with the relief of a survivor.
“Hmm?”
He turned his head to look at her, a strained smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “If you had come just a little bit later... I would have pulled off a counter-kill.”
Shen Man was about to tell him to stop bragging, but when she looked down at him, she stopped.
The black-haired youth sat on the ground, his black clothes covered in dust and blood. Although the bleeding on his right shoulder had stopped, a large patch of his clothes was scorched, revealing the reddened skin beneath.
His long spear lay across his legs, its shaft bearing several new marks from the battle.
His face was pale and his lips were somewhat dry, but his eyes were still bright.
“With that look in your eyes, do you really have the confidence to pull off a counter-kill?”
Rate on N.U.
