Howling Wind Canyon

Jiang Lin tested his movement with 【Phantom Step · Shadow Wind】.

In the next instant, his figure vanished from the spot like a phantom, reappearing dozens of meters away.

At the same time, Jiang Lin looked back and saw that his previous self was still sitting cross-legged on the back of the yak.

It only began to slowly dissipate after three breaths had passed.

This was the afterimage that 【Phantom Step · Shadow Wind】 could leave behind.

As long as he remained in one spot for at least half a second, a highly realistic phantom would be left behind the next time he moved.

Furthermore, its presence and magic essence fluctuations were identical to his own.

If an opponent did not pay special attention, there was a high probability they would be deceived by this phantom.

This would allow him to seize a significant opening.

Of course, he could also choose not to activate the specific magic formulas that left behind phantoms, only using them suddenly during combat.

Doing so would likely produce an unexpected effect.

Watching this scene, Old Man Rekton had already become somewhat numb.

What he just witnessed proved one thing.

This seemingly young youth had actually mastered a super-tier skill—one with a learning difficulty comparable to a king-tier skill—in less than a day!

And looking at the youth's relaxed expression, it seemed his proficiency was quite high despite having just learned it.

Was... was this guy really human?

However, Jiang Lin soon calmly returned to the back of the yak and resumed his meditative breathing.

It was as if nothing had happened.

Old Man Rekton only experienced a brief internal shock before suppressing his amazement and continuing the journey.

Time passed silently in the quiet atmosphere.

In the blink of an eye, several more days went by.

It had been six days since Jiang Lin's last breakthrough.

As he sat cross-legged on the yak, his aura suddenly shifted!

The effect of Breath Concealment vanished, allowing his true level to be exposed to everyone's perception.

【Level】: 22 → 23

Feeling the change in Jiang Lin, Old Man Rekton turned his head to look once more.

After these few days together, he felt his previous estimations of the youth's strength were fairly accurate.

But he never expected the boy to suddenly exhibit the fluctuations of a level-up.

If the boy were truly a high-level powerhouse hiding his strength, would he really be in the mood to put on such an act?

Now, the old man was thoroughly confused.

He could not understand what he was seeing at all.

What exactly was going on?

Could he really be just a 2nd-rank?

However, his doubts would never be answered.

After all, Jiang Lin had already told the truth, but the old man simply could not believe such a fact.

...

The caravan moved along a gentle slope as the chill in the air grew increasingly bitter.

The sparse coniferous forest was gradually replaced by jagged black rocks, and the road became rugged and narrow.

In the distance, between two peaks that stood opposite each other like the fangs of a gargantuan beast, a deep rift became visible—the mandatory pass to the Frost Kingdom, "Howling Wind Canyon."

"Howling Wind Canyon is just ahead!"

Old Man Rekton's voice sounded somewhat hoarse in the wind. He turned his yak around and shouted to the caravan:

"Everyone, stay sharp! Not only is the wind strong in the canyon, but there have been bad rumors lately! Guard team, tighten the formation! Scouts, move three miles ahead to lead the way! Everyone else, keep close, maintain your distance, and do not fall behind!"

Jiang Lin remained cross-legged on the yak, slowly operating his three breathing techniques.

The Frost Wolf Caravan's line tightened at Old Man Rekton's command, resembling a drawn bowstring.

The heavy thuds of the yaks' hooves sounded muffled on the gravel road, and the wheels groaned as they rolled over the frozen earth.

The peaks on both sides towered into the clouds, their rocky walls a steely blue and devoid of vegetation.

At the canyon entrance, the howling of the wind was already audible—a sharp hiss, like the friction of countless blades.

The caravan slowly entered the canyon.

The light dimmed abruptly.

The towering rock walls sliced the sky into a narrow, lead-gray line, and the mountain masses cast massive shadows, plunging the canyon floor into a gloom akin to twilight.

Here, the wind had taken on a physical form.

Violent air currents surged from the depths of the canyon, carrying fine ice crystals and grit, lashing at everything like invisible whips.

The carriage covers flapped loudly, the yaks snorted uneasily, and the caravan members had to lower their bodies and squint just to see.

The heart-pounding sound of the wind caused Jiang Lin, who had been resting with closed eyes, to open them.

This was no longer a simple howl; it was a screeching cacophony of wails, moans, and roars, as if invisible ghosts were sobbing while darting between the rock walls.

He had never seen such exaggerated wind power before.

"Keep the formation! Do not stop!"

Old Man Rekton's voice came in snatches through the gale, but his figure on the yak remained as steady as a boulder, his single eye sharply scanning the path ahead and the rock walls on both sides.

The caravan struggled forward through the canyon.

The wind was simply too strong. Every step the yaks took was heavy, and the wheels frequently slipped on the gravel.

The guards had to allocate some men to help the drivers stabilize the vehicles.

Jiang Lin observed the surroundings silently.

Through the enhanced perception of his limit-broken 【Phantom Step · Shadow Wind】, the airflow patterns inside the canyon appeared exceptionally chaotic.

They collided and swirled repeatedly between the rock walls, forming countless vortices of various sizes.

The wind speed at the center of some vortices was enough to instantly shred ordinary leather armor.

But for Jiang Lin, these changes in the air currents were clearly visible in his mind.

Because of this, he noticed a certain unusual 'noise' beneath the natural wind.

Under the shrieking of the gale, there seemed to be a rhythmic, faint 'hissing' sound, like something circling on the distant ground or rock walls.

This sound was almost entirely masked by the wind. Had Jiang Lin's perception not been significantly strengthened, he might have dismissed it as a resonance of the gale.

"Something is wrong,"

Jiang Lin shouted to Old Man Rekton.

Hearing this, Old Man Rekton signaled the caravan to slow down, his single eye scanning every corner of the canyon like a hawk.

Soon, the 'hissing' grew clearer, seemingly approaching along the side of the cliff.

"Everyone, on alert!"

Old Man Rekton growled, drawing the heavy greatsword from his waist. The blade reflected the dim light, flowing with an earthy yellow magic light.

The caravan guards immediately tightened their formation, shielding the wagons carrying important goods in the center, their spears and swords pointed toward the source of the sound.

The yaks stepped uneasily in place, letting out low, nervous snorts.

Just as Old Man Rekton finished speaking, several gray-white shadows suddenly shot out from the shadows of the rock wall ahead!

They had no wings, yet they glided with exceptional stability through the violent air currents, appearing like fallen leaves lifted by the wind—silent and swift.

By the dim light, Jiang Lin saw the appearance of these creatures.

They were nearly two meters long, with slender and light bodies covered in fine scales that looked like ice crystals, glinting with a steely gray luster from the wind erosion.

Their heads were narrow, and their tiny, bean-like eyes flickered with a ghostly ice-blue light.

Most striking were their backs—several pairs of translucent, fin-wings extended from both sides of their spines, vibrating at an extremely high frequency and producing that 'hissing' sound.

These fin-wings resonated perfectly with the surrounding air currents, allowing them to maintain precise flight paths in such chaotic winds.

"They are 'wind-etched lizards'! Rank-4 creatures ranging from transcendent-tier to elite-tier! Watch out for their wind blades and poison stingers!"

Old Man Rekton clearly recognized these creatures, his voice heavy with gravity.

Wind-etched lizards were unique predators of Howling Wind Canyon, usually living deep within rock crevices and using the gale as cover to hunt passing creatures.

Not only were they extremely fast, but they could also manipulate wind power on a small scale, making them one of the monsters a caravan least wanted to encounter in the canyon.

Almost the moment the caravan spotted them, the fin-wings of the three leading wind-etched lizards beat violently.

"Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!"

Dozens of translucent wind blades with pale green edges condensed out of thin air, tearing through the sky and shooting toward the leading wagons of the caravan!

These wind blades were not large, but they were exceptionally solid. Wherever they passed, even the chaotic air currents were briefly 'sliced' open, producing ear-piercing shrieks.

"Shields up! Defend!"

Old Man Rekton roared, swinging his greatsword. His earthy yellow sword qi met the wind blades like a thick wall.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Most of the wind blades were intercepted and shattered by the sword qi, but a few managed to break through the defense.

"Thud! Thud! Thud!"

The iron-rimmed wooden shields blocked most of them, but several guards were still slashed by the aftershocks, their blood splashing in the gale.

To make matters worse, the wind-etched lizards did not stop.

They turned and dove nimbly in the wind, continuously releasing wind blades from different angles, as if weaving a lethal green net.

At the same time, their tails tilted up quietly, and tiny, hair-thin stingers with a ghostly blue luster emerged from the gaps in their scales.

"Tail stingers! Watch out!"

An experienced guard shouted.

Though the stingers were small, they contained a neurotoxin that caused paralysis. Being hit meant losing the ability to move in a short time, which was a death sentence in this dangerous place.

The caravan was forced into a defensive position.

The guards struggled to defend with their shields, but there were at least seven or eight wind-etched lizards, and they held the aerial advantage with tricky attack angles.

The yaks were startled by the wind blades and stingers, becoming restless and causing the caravan's formation to loosen.

A sharp light flashed in Old Man Rekton's single eye as he prepared to intervene personally.

Right then, a golden figure leaped from the back of a yak, moving like a streak of light against the wind, heading straight for the circling pack of wind-etched lizards!

It was Jiang Lin.

He did not draw his sword, nor did he radiate dazzling holy light or sword qi.

However, at the moment he leaped, a faint, almost invisible green aura appeared around his body.

In the next instant, a bizarre scene unfolded.

Jiang Lin's figure seemed to suddenly 'blur.'

Though the violent air currents rushed at him, they naturally split and flowed around him within three feet, as if he had become a part of the wind itself.

Several wind-etched lizards locked onto him simultaneously. Their fin-wings vibrated rapidly, and dozens of wind blades interlaced into a net, sealing off all his evasion routes.

Yet Jiang Lin simply tapped the void with his toe.

The movement was minimal, but he precisely stepped into a gap no larger than a fist created by the intersection of two wind blades.

"Whoosh!"

His body moved as if it had no weight, 'sliding' through that gap. Every wind blade brushed past his clothes without even touching the outer layer of his constant-temperature protective suit.

Immediately after, Jiang Lin pointed his right hand like a sword, a speck of eight-colored light condensing at his fingertip.

He did not use obvious moves like eight-colored sword qi or holy light. Instead, he combined his mastery over wind trajectories from his limit-broken 【Phantom Step · Shadow Wind】 with his pure physical strength and a sliver of highly condensed 【eight-colored sword qi】.

"Puff!"

His finger pierced through as if it were rotted paper, precisely striking the area behind the head of the nearest wind-etched lizard—the weak point where the skull met the spine beneath the scales.

The sword qi entered.

The wind-etched lizard's tiny eyes widened, and the ghostly blue light in them instantly faded.

The fin-wings on its back stopped vibrating, and its stiff body was swept away by the gale, crashing sideways into a rock wall. It exploded into a cloud of ice-blue blood mist with a 'bang.'

A rhombic crystal, roughly the size of a thumb and pale green with faint air currents swirling inside, tumbled from the shattered head. Before it could hit the ground, Jiang Lin snatched it with his left hand and stored it in his spatial ring.

Everything happened in a flash.

The other wind-etched lizards had not even reacted to their companion's death before Jiang Lin's figure 'blurred' again.

Operating 【Phantom Step · Shadow Wind (limit-broken)】 at full power, he seemed to transform into a wisp of wind with its own consciousness, weaving through the violent currents, dense wind blades, and poison stingers.

Every movement was perfect to the extreme, stepping into the gaps of the wind and the blind spots of the attacks.

The caravan members only saw a faint golden phantom drawing an unpredictable trail in the air. Every time he paused, a wind-etched lizard's vital point was pierced, and it fell screaming.

"Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!"

The pack of wind-etched lizards was completely enraged. The remaining six vibrated their fin-wings simultaneously, churning the surrounding air into a miniature storm.

Dense wind blades and ghostly blue stingers poured down like a torrential rain, covering almost every inch of the area where Jiang Lin was.

However, Jiang Lin's figure 'dissipated' entirely at that moment.

It was not invisibility; rather, his aura, movements, and even his sense of existence had perfectly integrated into the surrounding violent flow of wind energy.

To the caravan members, he seemed to have suddenly turned into dozens of overlapping, flickering phantoms, swaying and flashing through the gaps of the wind blades and stingers.

Where was his real body?

Even the wind-etched lizards' perception, which was extremely sensitive to the wind, became confused, and their attacks became disorganized.

Meanwhile, the real Jiang Lin appeared behind a wind-etched lizard like a ghost.

He pressed his right palm lightly against the third segment of its spine.

The holy light was restrained, allowing only pure vibration to penetrate.

"Crack!"

The crisp sound of the spine breaking was masked by the wind.

The wind-etched lizard's body stiffened and fell.

Jiang Lin snatched the second rhombic crystal with his left hand.

Without stopping, his figure vanished again.

Next was the third, then the fourth...

By the time Jiang Lin's finger pierced the head of the last wind-etched lizard, there was no sound in the canyon except for the howling of the gale.

The battle, from beginning to end, had lasted no more than ten breaths.

Over a dozen rank-4 wind-etched lizards were completely wiped out.