Chapter 252: Chapter 237: Blade of Decay
The place appeared to be an abandoned hall. Broken pillars leaned or lay toppled, and the ground was covered in a thick layer of grayish-white dust.
Deeper inside the hall, several twisted skeletons lay scattered across the floor.
"Careful. Someone’s been here," Ian said, his voice low as he lightened his steps.
Gaga landed on his shoulder, its small eyes warily scanning the area.
"The shadows are moving... moving in many places, caw."
The light at the end of the corridor grew even dimmer.
Ian stopped at the corner, his right hand hanging naturally at his side.
Thirty-six Floating Crystal Cones hovered silently inside his cuff.
He didn’t use his eyes.
His Spiritual Perception had already spread out like a spiderweb: thirty meters ahead, fifty meters, one hundred meters...
The winding path of the corridor, the writhing Memory Material on the walls, the faint traces of Energy left on the ground.
All this information coalesced in his mind, forming a clear, three-dimensional map.
’Five people. Three are at the Liquefaction stage.’
Ian transmitted the message to Gaga through their Soul Link, his tone as cold as iron.
’Two are in a shadowy alcove to the left. The three Liquefaction-level practitioners are at the fork up ahead, in a fan formation. They’re setting up an array.’
Gaga crouched on his shoulder, its feathers bristling slightly as a dark light glinted in its mismatched eyes.
"It’s the Withered Council, caw... That Death Qi feels exactly the same as what was in the Underground Palace."
Ian didn’t respond. His gaze fell to the ground.
The grayish-white dust had been deliberately smoothed over. In a few inconspicuous corners, a viscous, dark-green liquid outlined the beginning of a Rune.
’Soul Shackles.’
’A simplified version of the Tier Two Curse Binding Witch Array. Once triggered, it instantly forms invisible Spiritual Chains that temporarily imprison the target’s Soul.’
’Combined with an attack, it’s a trap that’s almost guaranteed to kill.’
"They know I’m here," Ian murmured.
Ever since he’d entered the corridor, he’d felt a faint but persistent sense of being watched.
His opponents clearly had some way of tracking him. They were also extremely patient, having selected an ambush point well in advance.
’But the question is...’
’What makes them think a simplified version of Soul Shackles could trap me?’
A cold smile touched the corners of Ian’s lips.
He raised his left hand, his fingers curled into a loose fist.
A black dot the size of a rice grain appeared silently above his palm.
The air around it began to warp. Light was pulled toward the center of the black dot, collapsing and creating a faint lensing effect visible to the naked eye.
’Gravity Collapse Ball, miniature version.’
’Maximum casting distance: five hundred meters. The collapse radius is fully adjustable and can be compressed to the size of a pinprick for extreme Penetration Power.’
Ian didn’t opt for maximum power.
That would cause violent spatial tremors and might trigger some unknown reaction within the ruins.
What he wanted was precision, lethality, and silence.
’Gaga, you take the two on the left.’
He commanded mentally, ’Ten seconds.’
’Got it, caw!’
With a single beat of its wings, the black Raven’s body instantly merged with the shadows on the wall and vanished.
「At the same time.」
Ian raised his right hand, his fingers splayed.
Three lines of Energy, each as fine as a strand of hair, burst from his fingertips!
Two were an icy blue, so intensely cold that frost crystals formed in the air as they passed.
One was a fiery golden-red, so violent and scorching that the surrounding temperature spiked.
The instant they left him, the three lines spiraled together, transforming into a slender, pale purple beam that tore through the dead air, shooting straight for the fork in the path one hundred meters away!
There was no warning, no charge-up time, not even the faintest precursor of an Energy fluctuation.
’Frost Ash Beam, Extreme Compression Mode!’
A five-thousand-meter range, now used for a mere hundred.
It arrived in an instant!
At the fork in the path, three Withered Wizards hid in the shadows.
Their leader was an emaciated, middle-aged man whose face was covered in dark gray markings.
These were the marks left by prolonged exposure to Death Energy.
His name was Mars, deputy captain of the Blade of Decay. He was at Level One Liquidation Peak and specialized in Curse and Binding.
At that moment, his palm was pressed against a Rune Node on the ground, slowly infusing it with dark-green Energy.
"Captain, the target has entered our detection range."
The young Witch on the left spoke in a low voice. She held a ghastly white Skull, its eye sockets flickering with an eerie green Soul Fire.
"He’s fifty meters past the corner. He’s stopped."
"He’s hesitating."
The burly man on the right grinned, revealing teeth that had been corroded black by venom.
"The Soul Shackles are laid. The moment he steps into the core zone, he’ll be a fish in a barrel."
Mars didn’t smile.
His gaunt fingers drifted over the Rune as he sensed the subtle changes in the flow of Energy.
’It’s too quiet... The target stopped too cleanly, and he’s positioned right at the edge of our detection range.’
’It doesn’t feel like hesitation. More like... observation?’
"Something’s wrong," Mars suddenly snapped.
"Prepare to—"
Before he could finish his sentence, a pale purple beam of light sliced through the darkness like the Grim Reaper’s scythe.
’So fast!’
Mars’s pupils shrank as he instinctively dove to his left.
But he wasn’t the beam’s target.
PFFT!
The malicious grin on the burly man to the right froze on his face.
He looked down at his chest.
A thumb-sized hole had been punched clean through it. The edges of the wound were as smooth as glass—one half was crusted with frost, the other charred black.
It wasn’t bleeding. The dual energies of ice and fire had utterly annihilated the flesh at the moment of impact.
"Ugh..." The burly man opened his mouth, trying to say something.
The next second, the flesh around the hole began to simultaneously freeze and burn.
Frost spread inward, freezing his organs into ice crystals. Then, flames erupted from within, instantly vaporizing those same crystals!
BANG!
The burly man’s upper body exploded, erupting into a chaotic slurry of red and white mixed with ice fragments and Ashes that splattered all over Mars’s face.
"Enemy attack!"
The young Witch screamed and rolled backward as the Skull in her hand erupted with a ghastly green light, a Bone Shield materializing before her.
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