202: Chapter 202 Shadow Blade Lurks, Deadly Intent

Lin Qi's words echoed in the vast, empty crater, stirring up a few hollow reverberations.

Then, there was a deathly silence.

The thick, dark red mist above continued to flow unhurriedly.

Aside from the occasional gust of wind, there was no response at all.

It was as if his words just now were merely talking to the air.

Lin Qi spoke no further.

He remained in a cross-legged sitting posture, the Bloodline Qi Crystal in his hand emitting an enticing warmth.

But a thread of his mind was already firmly locked onto a position about two hundred meters away diagonally above the crater.

The space there had an extremely subtle distortion.

Ordinary people couldn't distinguish it with the naked eye at all, and even using System detection would only show that everything was normal.

But under Lin Qi's Martial Intent Insight, that distortion was as conspicuous as a firefly in the dark night.

He knew a big fish was hiding there.

An enemy much more troublesome than all thirty-plus Li Family Death Soldiers combined.

From the first moment he stepped into this Dragon Tomb, he had felt a gaze.

A gaze as cold and obscure as a venomous snake flicking its tongue, trailing behind him at a constant distance.

That person's stealth skills were terrifyingly high.

Had Lin Qi not completely relaxed his mind and allowed his blood-qi to settle the moment he finished off those Li family trash, he probably wouldn't have caught that tiny leak of presence.

An expert.

A true assassin.

Lin Qi didn't expose him then, instead pretending to be completely oblivious.

He deliberately strolled across the wasteland, intentionally sought out this Blood-Qi Mineral Vein, and even purposely put on an act of being ecstatic after finding a Treasure Trove, preparing to Cultivate on the spot.

All of this was a performance for the fellow hiding in the shadows.

A qualified hunter must have enough patience.

More importantly, they must know how to set the perfect trap for their prey.

Now, the snake has entered the hole; it's just a matter of when it will take the bait.

...

Meanwhile.

In a spatial rift several hundred meters away from the crater.

The ace assassin of the Shadow Blade Alliance, Ying Wan, was completely blending himself into the dark red mist.

He was like a ghostly shadow, his body color indistinguishable from the surroundings, his breathing and heartbeat adjusted to an extremely slow frequency.

This was the unique talent of his awakened S-rank class [Void Walker], Spatial Concealment.

In this state, he was the air, he was the mist.

He had heard Lin Qi's words just now perfectly clearly.

His heart skipped a beat.

Detected?

Impossible!

He was the top ace of the Shadow Blade Alliance; the number of Prodigies who had died by his hand was at least eighty, if not a hundred.

In terms of stealth and assassination, there were no more than three people in the entire Federation who could definitively surpass him.

What right did this LV.1 Blank Slate in front of him have?

But the facts were right there; the other party's words were clearly directed at him.

Ying Wan didn't move.

Through his special class talent, he had witnessed everything that happened just now.

Lin Qi shattering the shield formation with his shoulder.

Crushing bones with his fingers.

Dismantling over thirty second-advancement elite death soldiers into a pile of parts like he was taking apart toys.

Those scenes of pure physical violence made even a top assassin like him, who was used to life and death, feel a chill crawl up his spine.

This kid's Physical Body was simply that of a monster.

In a head-on clash, he would definitely not come out on top.

But he had more confidence in himself.

Especially in this godforsaken place where all Systems were suppressed.

Other people's skills, Laws, and equipment had all become useless decorations.

Yet his [Void Walker] class characteristics could still exert a faint effect.

Such as his current environmental Spatial Concealment, or short-distance, silent Spatial Leaps.

In the Dragon Tomb where everyone had regressed to being "Mortals," these residual privileges of his were divine techniques.

They were his capital for assassination.

He quickly calmed down.

No, that kid didn't really find me.

He's bluffing.

He must have sensed he was being watched but wasn't sure of my exact location, so he spoke up on purpose, trying to force me to reveal my position through a mental fluctuation.

What a cunning brat.

Instead of moving, Ying Wan suppressed his presence even more thoroughly.

He looked at the youth sitting cross-legged at the bottom of the crater, looking at the red crystal in his hand that radiated intense energy fluctuations.

A silent, cold sneer curled at the corner of Ying Wan's mouth.

Want to bait me out?

Fine.

I'll play along.

As a top assassin, patience was his strongest weapon.

He was like the most cunning and sinister venomous snake, quietly lurking in the dark, waiting for that one-shot-one-kill opportunity.

He knew very well that the absorption process of such high-energy crystals could never be smooth sailing.

At a certain critical node of absorption, the practitioner must be fully invested, with mind and spirit in total unity, unable to afford the slightest distraction.

At that time, the practitioner's defenses are at their weakest and most unguarded.

And that would be the best moment for him to strike.

What he was waiting for was that very instant.

A perfect moment that would allow him to appear silently behind the target and use a poisoned Void Dagger to slit that seemingly indestructible neck.

...

Longya Academy, the highest-authority remote monitoring center.

Countless complex data streams flickered on the massive circular light screen.

In the very center of the screen was a simulated 3D map of the Dragon Tomb, but only some blurry energy light points were moving on it.

Instructor Su Qing stood before the console, silent.

She wore a tight black combat suit that perfectly outlined her explosive and eye-catching curves; her long hair was tied high, revealing her smooth neck and exquisite jawline.

But her expression at this moment was the polar opposite of her hot figure, cold enough to form ice.

Her gaze was deathly locked onto one light point on the screen.

That light point was brighter and more dazzling than all the surrounding points, currently stationary in an area on the outskirts of the Dragon Tomb.

That was Lin Qi.

Out of all the students she had brought, he was the only one who still showed such a strong life reaction.

Just then, on another small screen beside her, a detector representing special Law fluctuations suddenly emitted a faint hum.

An extremely weak shadow frequency, almost impossible to capture, appeared out of nowhere on the map.

Then, it began to move extremely slowly toward the brightest light point where Lin Qi was located.

Instructor Su Qing's brow immediately furrowed.

"Elder Mo, what is this?"

Elder Mo was hunched over a pile of instruments, wearing reading glasses and holding a small notebook, frantically recording various fragmented data transmitted back from the Dragon Tomb like a madman.

Hearing Instructor Su Qing's words, he jerked his head up and leaned in close to the small screen.

With just one look, the color instantly drained from Elder Mo's usually lazy face.

The pen in his hand fell to the floor with a 'clack'.

"Oh no! This aura... this unique shadow frequency..."

Elder Mo muttered to himself, a look of wariness appearing in his cloudy old eyes for the first time.

"It's the Shadow Blade Alliance! It's the aura of their top ace, the [Void Walker]!"

He snapped his head around to look at the grave-faced Instructor Su Qing.

"Their signal can't be wrong. That kid Lin Qi is in real trouble this time."