The Mage’s face grew increasingly pale as his mana completely bottomed out, but the road leading out was finally about to be cleared.
The attacks from the woods suddenly stopped.
The attackers had likely realized they couldn't penetrate the barrier, so they stopped wasting their arrows.
The surroundings instantly fell into a dead silence, leaving only the sound of the Mage's low chanting and the clatter of rolling gravel.
A glimmer of hope flared in Peter’s heart. As long as the path was completely cleared and they broke through, they could escape this desperate situation...
Just then, a figure slowly emerged from the woods.
Clad in a pure white robe, he stood out brilliantly in the dim forest.
The man held that strange staff in his hand, his steady footsteps crunching clearly against the gravel.
He was entirely alone, walking forward with calm composure to stand right before the gap in the earth wall, stopping just outside the barrier.
Peter’s eyes widened in an instant. He was all too familiar with that face.
He had seen it in the Inner Wall's market, in the records of the Information House, and on the portrait the dwarf had brought with her that day.
He had once thought the man was merely an ordinary Healer who relied on the protection of others.
Yet here he was, standing alone and silent before them, radiating an intimidating pressure.
“It's you...” Peter’s voice squeezed out of his throat, trembling with disbelief.
His last shred of hope vanished. This was no ordinary ambush—everything was this man's doing.
The four men sent to tail him, the team Harvey had led out—they had all been slaughtered by him.
The relentless attackers, the endless screams of agony echoing through the woods—it was all his doing.
“You...”
He wanted to speak, but only one thought consumed his mind.
Stall him. Once the path was completely open, they would charge out, crush this bastard, and make their escape.
But Bai Xuan did not give him the chance to finish.
The staff suddenly flew from Bai Xuan's hand, tearing through the air with a fierce howl as it shot straight toward the barrier.
Peter’s pupils contracted, and his body instinctively dodged to the side.
The staff pierced straight through the barrier, whistling past his ear with a draft of wind that stung his cheek.
A shrill scream erupted from behind him. He spun around to see that the Mage had been struck hard in the right arm by the staff, collapsing to the ground.
His arm was bent at a grotesque angle, his staff flying from his grip as the magic shield shattered instantly.
Gritting his teeth, the Mage forced himself not to scream, though his face turned as pale as a corpse.
Reaching into his robes with his uninjured left hand, he pulled out a healing potion, bit off the cork, and gulped it down.
A faint glow enveloped the wound as the fractured bones creaked and popped, shifting back into place beneath his flesh.
Trembling violently from the pain, he still forced himself to his feet and retrieved his staff, staring at Bai Xuan with eyes full of terror.
That staff could fly at him again at any moment; he had to remain on high alert.
With a gentle wave of Bai Xuan's hand, the staff rose from beside the Mage, tracing a smooth arc through the air before landing steadily back in his grip.
Peter froze in place, his eyes locked onto Bai Xuan and the staff.
Gravel continued to trickle down from the gap in the earth wall, and the Mage's wound still throbbed with pain.
The translucent barrier was also thinning by the second.
Peter glared at Bai Xuan, grinding his teeth as a torrent of hatred surged within him.
It was all because of this man that Harvey was dead, the caravan had been ambushed, and the gemstones could not be delivered on time. Everything that should have gone smoothly had been utterly ruined by him.
He wanted nothing more than to lunge forward, snatch that staff, and beat Bai Xuan to a pulp.
Yet he couldn't bring himself to move. Bai Xuan simply stood there, holding his staff and looking back at him with calm, indifferent eyes.
It was the look one gave to a corpse.
The members of the caravan were utterly terrified by that single strike. Even a magical barrier capable of blocking countless arrows had been pierced with ease.
Every eye was fixed on Bai Xuan, staring at the staff in his hand out of sheer terror that he might fling it at them next. Their attention was entirely locked onto him.
Right then, a volley of arrows suddenly rained down from the side, catching them completely off guard.
A guard groaned as an arrow pierced his shoulder, causing his shield to slip from his grasp.
Another guard scrambled to cover him, only for an arrow to pierce his thigh, sending him crashing to his knees.
The attackers in the woods seized the opportunity to close in, the metallic clash of blades echoing from several directions at once.
By the time Peter snapped out of it, two more guards were already writhing in pools of blood.
Bai Xuan remained where he was, completely motionless.
Peter's gaze fell upon him once more, his hatred reaching a boiling point.
“Kill him first!” Peter roared, his voice cracking with desperation.
“Focus fire! Everyone, target the one in the white robe!”
The Mage had already gathered the last of his remaining mana, the tip of his staff glowing with a blinding blue light.
He thrust his hand forward, sending a razor-sharp ice spike hurtling toward Bai Xuan with a loud whistle.
Right behind it were two arrows flying from different directions, aiming directly for Bai Xuan's chest and head.
Bai Xuan tilted his body slightly, letting the ice spike brush past his shoulder to embed itself deep into a tree trunk behind him, instantly coating the branches in a thick layer of frost.
The two arrows whistled past his ears. He tilted his head to dodge one, while raising his staff to deflect the other, the metallic clash ringing out like a clear bell.
Before anyone could react, he flicked his wrist, and the staff flew from his hand once more.
Spinning rapidly through the air with a fierce whistle, it slammed violently into an archer's chest.
The archer let out a blood-curdling scream, flying backward as his longbow slipped from his grasp and clattered into the distance.
The staff drove into the soil, shuddered twice, and then tore itself free with a sharp whoosh, flying right back into Bai Xuan's hand.
The caravan was thrown into utter panic.
They had seen warriors throw axes and hunters hurl javelins, but they had never seen anyone throw a magic staff to kill, let alone have it return to their hand on its own.
“Who... who on earth is he?!” someone shrieked, their voice laced with sheer terror.
Peter remained silent, his eyes glued to Bai Xuan as his mind raced.
That ranged throw was clearly boosted by a skill, which explained its devastating lethality.
And the staff's ability to return on its own was highly likely an enchantment.
But the man was just a Healer. Being able to use a staff to this extent had to be his absolute limit.
He was staying at a distance and moving around, clearly because he was afraid of close-quarters combat.
His weakness had to be his lack of melee capability!
“All you can do is throw that staff around,” Peter sneered, his voice dripping with deliberate provocation.
“Hiding back there and tossing it around like a coward. What's the matter? Too afraid to face us in close combat?”
Bai Xuan looked at him quietly, offering no reply or movement, his gaze remaining entirely undisturbed.
This gave Peter a sudden surge of confidence.
“That dwarf from the blacksmith shop,” he said, raising his voice and enunciating every word.
“Mora.”
Bai Xuan’s footsteps finally faltered.
Peter caught this subtle reaction instantly, and his heart skipped a beat.
As expected, he did care about that dwarf!
“Do you really think she's still safe and sound?” Peter’s voice grew sharper. “Your people killed Harvey. Do you honestly think the Cross family would let anyone connected to you off the hook?”
“The moment you fled Blackcreek Town, our men were already on their way to her blacksmith shop. By now, she has likely been taken away.”
“And all of this is because of you.”
Bai Xuan remained standing there, gripping his staff without moving an inch, but the air around him seemed to drop a few degrees.
Believing he had struck a nerve, Peter pressed his advantage even further.
“You ruined that dwarf, just like you ruined that idiot Barend. Do you think she hasn't realized? Her precious childhood friend died out in the wilderness long ago.”
“You knew the truth all along, yet you never had the guts to tell her!”
Before the words could fully leave his mouth, Bai Xuan moved.
Peter felt a blur of white flash before his eyes, and he instinctively stumbled backward.
But the expected blow did not land on him.
Instead, the staff in Bai Xuan's hand slammed toward the warrior beside him, who hurriedly raised his shield in defense.
Spiderweb cracks instantly spidered across the shield before it shattered completely.
The warrior was sent flying along with the fragments of his shield, crashing heavily into a tree trunk behind him. With a loud crack, the trunk snapped in half.
Peter stumbled backward, tripping over the gravel and falling flat on his back.
As Bai Xuan's silhouette swept past, Peter only saw the staff trace a sharp arc through the air before slamming violently into the Mage.
A mist of blood erupted instantly. The Mage didn't even have time to scream before he was killed on the spot.
A sword-wielding guard seized the opening to lunge from the side, his blade thrusting straight toward the back of Bai Xuan's heart.
Bai Xuan tilted his body slightly, letting the longsword graze past the hem of his robe.
With a backhand swing, he slammed his staff onto the guard's wrist, the sickening crunch of bone and flesh echoing clearly.
The guard let out a blood-curdling shriek, clutching his mangled wrist as he stumbled backward.
As another guard lunged with his blade, Bai Xuan stepped forward to meet him, thrusting his staff forward. The sharp spike at the end of the staff sank effortlessly into the man's shoulder, piercing clean through.
The man's grip loosened in agonizing pain, and Bai Xuan sliced his staff downward, tearing through half of the man's torso.
Blood and flesh splattered, staining the earth crimson.
Another arrow whistled from the flank, but Bai Xuan tilted his head slightly, letting it brush past his ear.
He flicked his wrist, sending the staff flying once more. It slammed into the archer's chest, instantly caving in his ribcage and killing him on the spot before returning steadily to Bai Xuan's hand.
Two Level 5 guards exchanged a glance and immediately flanked him from both sides.
The warrior on the left slashed downward, but Bai Xuan sidestepped the blow, sweeping his staff upward to strike the man's arm.
Blood and flesh exploded from the impact. The warrior screamed, dropping his sword as he collapsed to the ground, wailing in agony.
Seizing the opening, the Assassin on the right lunged from the flank, gripping a dagger as he stabbed straight toward Bai Xuan's waist.
Bai Xuan swung his staff, smashing it directly into the man's knee.
With a sickening crack, the Assassin’s legs buckled, and he collapsed to his knees. The dagger flew from his hand, and he fell face-first onto the ground, unable to rise again.
In mere moments, the ground was littered with the bodies of the caravan members. Some groaned in agony, some wailed while clutching their severed limbs, and others lay completely lifeless.
Only Peter remained, slumped on the ground, his entire body trembling uncontrollably.
Bai Xuan walked up to him slowly, looking down with eyes that remained entirely undisturbed.
“What did you say happened to Mora?” his voice was calm, yet it carried a suffocating pressure.
Peter's trembling did not stop; even his pupils dilated and shook uncontrollably.
He slowly raised his head, his gaze landing on Bai Xuan's face. His lips twitched with difficulty, pulling into a grotesque smile.
There was no anger at being captured in that smile, nor was there the despair of a failed plot.
There was only a profound, consuming terror.
It was a terror born not of the Bai Xuan standing before him, but of the impending nightmare that awaited him.
Bai Xuan frowned, sensing that something was seriously wrong with the man's state of mind.
Peter’s eyes glazed over for a moment, his lips quivering.
He looked as if he wanted to say something, but his throat was locked, preventing any sound from escaping.
His hands clawed mindlessly at the ground, grabbing a fistful of dirt only to let it slip through his fingers.
The loose soil trickled through his fingers, mirroring his crumbling sanity.
“Zane's methods...” he murmured under his breath, his voice so faint it was barely audible.
In the next instant, Peter suddenly became hysterical, as if his most sensitive nerve had been struck.
“You don't know... you have no idea what he's capable of!” he shrieked, his voice laced with utter despair.
Bai Xuan's brow furrowed deeper, his suspicions growing heavier.
Peter didn't even look at him. His glazed eyes stared blankly at the ground, his pupils completely unfocused, as if reliving some horrific memory.
“A genius... everyone in the family said he was the most brilliant genius.”
His words suddenly quickened, his voice trembling with an uncontrollable shudder.
“His Class... it has to do with the undead, but nobody knows! Those experiments of his, those bizarre creations... those things...”
Mid-sentence, his voice caught in his throat. His Adam's apple bobbed violently as if he were trying to swallow something repulsive, and his face turned deathly pale.
Bai Xuan slowly crouched down to meet his gaze, softening his tone.
“What exactly happened to Mora?”
At the mention of Mora's name, Peter looked up. A sudden spark of clarity flashed in his glazed eyes, like a drowning man grasping at a final straw.
He lunged forward, clutching the hem of Bai Xuan's robe with a death grip. His knuckles turned white from the sheer force, his fingers nearly tearing into the fabric.
“I lied to him! I didn't tell him the truth about Harvey's death! I lied to him!”
His voice was high-pitched and shrill, laced with tears. He sounded like a man pursued by a monster, gasping desperately for air.
“This time... intercepting his cargo... that was his most precious possession... I can't escape, and none of you will escape either...”
Bai Xuan did not pry his hand away, simply staring quietly into his eyes.
In those eyes, terror had completely swallowed every other emotion.
A terror that had nothing to do with his own impending death, but was born entirely of a single name:
Zane Cross.
“The things he left behind...” Peter’s voice fluctuated erratically, heavy with absolute despair.
“Outside the town, in those villages... those monsters, those...”
He couldn't bring himself to finish. Letting go of Bai Xuan's robe with a snap, he clutched his head tightly, burying his fingers deep into his hair as his shoulders shook violently.
Bai Xuan frowned, but just as he was about to press further, Peter's entire body suddenly convulsed.
He arched his back violently, as if seized by an invisible, powerful grip.
Rate on N.U.
