103: Chapter 103 The Real Third Sister-in-Law

Honestly, when Lin Muyang first unlocked this God-Tier Aura in his talent list and saw the description of its specific effects, he was somewhat resistant. The effect of this Aura... it really did not play by the rules, and one could even say it was a bit of a mind-bender.

But now, using it to deal with that insidious, cunning, and self-important Chief Court Archmage of India, Lin Muyang felt it was simply perfect!

"Since I cannot kill an old turtle of your level in the short term, I will let you taste a flavor worse than death."

With this thought in mind, Lin Muyang calmly activated this God-Tier Aura—【Orientation Reversal】—which he rarely used in daily life but had an extremely unique effect.

This Aura belonged to the same category of "lifestyle" God-Tier Auras as 【Sudden Baldness】 and 【Diarrhea Galore】. They shared a common characteristic: the activation conditions were relatively loose, and they could take effect on any living target, unlike control-type Auras such as 【Brand of Fear】 or 【Absolute Command】, which had strict requirements regarding mental attributes or level suppression.

With Lin Muyang's current attributes, although he was far superior to Class Transferees of the same level, he clearly still lacked the strength to directly control or suppress the mind or actions of a Nation-Guarding Level Expert.

Therefore, when dealing with such high-level, high-resistance tough nuts, using an Aura that seemed unorthodox but actually struck directly at the weaknesses of the human heart could often achieve miraculous effects, sufficient to deal a heavy blow to the opponent on a mental level, or even completely disrupt their state of mind.

When Lin Muyang locked onto his target with his mind and quietly activated the 【Orientation Reversal】 Aura, the Chief Court Archmage of India hiding underground did not immediately notice any external attack or energy intrusion. His attention at this moment was completely absorbed by another, more urgent, and more alarming matter.

He discovered that after being forcibly "squeezed" back into reality from that painstakingly managed, supposedly absolutely safe interdimensional layer, he felt as if an invisible and tough shackle had been placed around his entire body. No matter how he stimulated his mental power or mobilized the vast, sea-like magic power within his body, all his active skills and talent abilities were like rusted gears, completely motionless, and simply unable to respond to his summons!

"A silence effect?! And such an overbearing, impossible-to-dispel silence?" The Chief Court Archmage's heart surged with stormy waves, and his expression became unprecedentedly grave.

He had only encountered this situation years ago when he joined forces with several peers of the same rank to venture into a highly dangerous mythic grade ruin and faced the ruin's guardian. That time, they had paid a heavy price to narrowly escape.

Apart from that, even when facing human experts of the same rank, he had never encountered a method that could so thoroughly and for such a long time seal all his skills!

Usually, the several high-level spell resistances constant on his body, as well as the "Dispel Curse" and "Purify Anomaly" effects attached to several legendary-grade accessories, were sufficient to instantly dismantle the vast majority of silence and imprisonment skills.

But now, those precious trump cards for saving his life seemed to have failed, showing no reaction at all. This could only mean that the "silence" effect applied to him had an absurdly high priority, likely touching upon some "rule" level, and was by no means comparable to ordinary skills.

"Damn it! Who on earth is this hidden assailant?" The Chief Court Archmage was both shocked and angry, but his rich combat experience forced him to calm down. He could not use his skills, but he still had other trump cards.

He reached into his robe without hesitation, his fingertips touching an ancient scroll with a special texture, inscribed with complex fire-element runes. This was one of the precious collections he had obtained in an ancient ruin, a top-tier magic scroll sealed with the forbidden-level fire spell "Heaven-Burning Fire". It was originally kept as a last resort for life-and-death crises, but he could not care about that now.

"Heaven-Burning Fire, burn away all evil!" The Chief Court Archmage let out a low shout and decisively crushed the magic core in the center of the scroll.

Boom—! The terrifying fire elements exploded like a volcano that had been suppressed for millions of years! Centered on the hillside where the group of Indian soldiers had perished, an area with a radius of over five hundred meters instantly turned into a crimson purgatory!

The sky was reflected into a blood-red color, the ground melted and boiled under unimaginable high temperatures, and the air twisted and steamed, as if even space was about to be burned through by this flame that consumed everything!

The power of this flame was deliberately controlled by the Chief Court Archmage, the violent energy completely concentrated within the borders of India, not a single bit crossing that invisible national border. His goal was clear and ruthless—to use this indiscriminate, full-coverage destructive strike to bury that damned hidden assailant, along with any potential accomplices, in this sea of fire!

"No matter how heaven-defying your stealth methods are, under the baptism of a forbidden-level flame, you will surely be revealed and die without a doubt!" A flash of ruthlessness and a hint of heartache crossed the Chief Court Archmage's eyes, but there was more of a resolution to "solve the problem".

However... in the flash of a second when he crushed the scroll and the sea of fire was about to take shape, Lin Muyang, who was on the edge of the battlefield overlooking everything from a god's perspective, had already "seen" the surging, about-to-erupt destructive energy through the dual perception of 【Energy Detection】 and 【Divine Sight】.

"Holy Hourglass." Lin Muyang's mind stirred, and another God-Tier Aura was instantly activated.

Hum—! An invisible yet incredibly solid force of "Absolute Defense", like the operation of the most precise clockwork mechanism, formed a briefly existing but sufficient-to-isolate-all-damage "invincible" domain around Elabess and Gui Wanwan.

The monstrous flames of "Heaven-Burning Fire" arrived as expected, completely swallowing that area. Crimson tongues of fire licked the boundaries of the invincible domain but could not advance an inch, unable to cause even the slightest bit of damage or influence to the two women inside.

From the outside, the flames were raging, destroying everything; but inside, Elabess and Gui Wanwan could not even feel a trace of heat, still remaining in a perfect state of "Divine Concealment".

Next came several minutes of suffocating flame incineration.

The Chief Court Archmage went from the confidence of a "sure kill" at the beginning, to the tension of the flames continuing to burn without any feedback, and then to shock and disbelief as the flames gradually extinguished and there was still nothing in his vision.

"How is this possible?!"

"Being able to effectively kill those low-level epic monsters means their level cannot be too high, at most level fifty or sixty! How could such ants withstand the power of 'Heaven-Burning Fire'? Even a level 150 expert would be dead or injured if they resisted it head-on!"

What made the Chief Court Archmage feel even more incredulous was that usually when suffering an attack, especially this kind of large-scale, continuous energy attack, the vast majority of stealth and lurking states would be forcibly broken. But before his eyes, except for the scorched, melted ground and the slowly dissipating heat waves, there was nothing. That mysterious assailant seemed to have truly never existed, or... had already been reduced to ashes in this fire, leaving not even a trace behind?

The latter seemed more reasonable, but a strong sense of unease inexplicably rose in the Chief Court Archmage's heart. Because that damned silence status that turned him into a "mute" still firmly existed on him! This indirectly proved that the source of the silence—that mysterious enemy—was very likely still alive and still nearby!

A few minutes later, the flames finally extinguished completely. The hillside area had turned into a shocking expanse of glass-like scorched earth, emitting wisps of blue smoke, yet still, no figures appeared.

The Chief Court Archmage's vigilance was raised to the peak, his mental power acting like the most precise radar, scanning every inch of space around him over and over again, while he also secretly checked his own state, trying to find the root cause of that strange silence effect.

At first, he did not notice the more subtle and profound influence brought by the 【Orientation Reversal】 Aura. It wasn't until his gaze inadvertently swept over the group of Indian citizens and reporters in the distance who had not yet dispersed and were looking over here in fear.

When his gaze swept over several relatively tall, sturdy-faced Indian men among them, a subtle feeling, extremely strange yet carrying a hint of peculiar attraction, like a faint electric current, silently crossed his heart.

This feeling... it was a bit familiar, yet very wrong.

The Chief Court Archmage frowned and subconsciously turned his gaze to several young Indian women in the crowd with good looks and wearing distinctive national costumes, especially one female reporter who was holding a camera with a terrified expression.

The appreciation or instinctive attention that he expected might be there—even a hint of it—did not appear. Instead, there was an indescribable... resistance, and even a faint sense of nausea?

"What is going on?" The Chief Court Archmage's heart skipped a beat, and that ominous premonition, like a cold poisonous snake, coiled around his spine.

He refused to believe it and once again switched his gaze back and forth between the men and women in the distance, comparing and feeling. The result struck him like a thunderbolt, and his face instantly turned pale.

He discovered with horror that his perception of women seemed to have been covered by a thick layer of dust, becoming dull and uninteresting, and even somewhat repulsive. But when he looked at men, that subtle "interest" and "attention" that shouldn't have existed in the first place, like stubborn weeds, were uncontrollably budding and growing in the depths of his heart.

"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible!" The Chief Court Archmage roared in his heart, fine cold sweat seeping from his temples. He had lived for over a hundred years, holding high status and great power, enjoying all the riches, with countless beauties in his mansion; he had always been interested only in the opposite sex, an instinct he had never doubted! How could such a heaven-turning, earth-shaking change happen overnight—no, in this short interval of battle?

This was too absurd! Too unscientific!

In order to further "verify" this terrifying guess, he forced himself to concentrate and recall those thrilling, amorous scenes and feelings of spending time with certain concubines in the past...

"Ugh—!" A strong, physiological sense of discomfort and nausea surged up his throat, making him almost dry-heave on the spot! Those memory fragments that used to bring him pleasure now, when recalled, made him feel incredibly awkward, embarrassed, and even... somewhat disgusted?

"???" "!!!" "What... what has happened to me?!" The old mage hiding underground felt a chill rush from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, his scalp tingling. He was not an ignorant youth and instantly understood that some extremely terrifying change, beyond his understanding, had occurred to him.

This was by no means a natural phenomenon, and it was even less possible that he had suddenly "awakened" to something. Thinking of the silence that had appeared so strangely just now, and the mysterious assailant who had disappeared...

"It's that guy! It must be that rat who hides his head and shows his tail! What exactly has he done to me?!" The old mage was shocked and angry, and boundless fear surged from the bottom of his heart. This kind of method that acted directly on deep psychological and physiological instincts, silent and traceless, made him feel more horrified than any torture or fatal injury!

He did not know if this change was temporary or permanent, did not know if there was any way to undo it, and even less did he know what he would become if it continued to develop!

Compared to the border conflict with the Xia Kingdom before his eyes, and compared to those dead soldiers, his own "abnormality" at this moment had become an overwhelming, huge crisis that needed to be solved urgently! National missions, the dignity of an expert—all became insignificant in the face of the potentially subversive and terrifying changes to himself.

"Must leave immediately! Go back and find the High Priest, find the State Preceptor! They might have a way..." The old mage was in a state of chaos, his face livid. He felt that when he looked at a few Indian male guards not far away, that strange impulse in the depths of his heart was uncontrollably strengthening, which terrified him to the point of almost breaking down.

Even more terrifying was that he also developed some impulses toward the large lizard summoned by the Summoner guard...

Just at this moment, he noticed that the "silence" status that had been following him like a shadow had disappeared without warning. His skills and magic power returned to his control.

But he felt no joy at all; instead, he was even more convinced that the disappearance of this silence was likely "actively" lifted by that mysterious enemy. The other party's goal seemed to have reached a point that made him feel worse than death.

He no longer cared about engaging in any form of verbal sparring with the Xia Kingdom side, not even bothering to offer any polite pleasantries.

Taking advantage of the skill recovery, he did not hesitate to cast Earth Escape, and like a frightened groundhog, he rushed out of his hiding place in a panic, not even bothering to brush off the dirt on his robes, and at the fastest speed, without looking back, turned into a stream of light and fled frantically towards the interior of India, his back looking incredibly disheveled, as if there were prehistoric beasts chasing him from behind.

He only wanted to immediately, right now, find the top healers and mental-type masters in the country, to figure out what exactly had happened to him, and... how to undo this terrible "mistake". As for whether his future life would become "spectacular" because of this... he dared not think too deeply about it at this moment.

And he would never know that the reason the "silence" effect applied to him disappeared was not because Lin Muyang had "let him go", but simply because...

Lin Muyang felt that the matter here had temporarily come to an end. Next, he had more important things to do—having finally come to India, he could not just solve a border crisis and return empty-handed, could he?

Wool, of course, must be plucked from the fattest sheep.

Thus, while the Chief Court Archmage of India was fleeing in a disheveled manner, Lin Muyang, who was in a state of "Divine Concealment", had already taken Elabess and Gui Wanwan, turned his direction, and headed towards the hinterland of India, the core of its prosperity and power—the capital "Old Delhi City", speeding away!

Relying on a terrifying speed of over thirty times the speed of sound, in less than ten minutes, covering a distance of over five thousand kilometers, that huge city, full of exotic customs but also carrying an Aura of chaos and decay, was already visible in the distance.

Lin Muyang hovered thousands of meters in the high altitude, his gaze like the most precise scanner, overlooking the heart of India below.

His gaze soon locked onto the city center area, a huge building that was exceptionally magnificent, heavily guarded, made entirely of some kind of milky white jade, and gleaming in the sun.

Above the main entrance of the building, striking large characters were inscribed in Indian script and some kind of common language: India National Magic Crystal Reserve Bank.

That's right. Since he was already here, he had to bring something back.

The corners of Lin Muyang's mouth slowly curled into a cold arc, carrying an undisguised sense of plunder.