As the carriage continued deeper, the originally white mist began to slowly take on a sickening purple-black hue. In the air, there was even a faint, pungent smell like a mix of rotting flesh and greasy spices.
Two cat-eared maids, who were exceptionally sensitive to mana, huddled together uneasily. The cat-eared maid said in a trembling voice, “Young master, this… this seems to be the depths of the Mist Forest. The mana fluctuations here feel really strange too. We didn’t bring any guards on this trip. Why don’t we stop and get our bearings first?”
Luo Lin also sensed something was wrong. The Morsat family’s carriage always traveled on official post roads. How could it have ended up in such a gloomy, godforsaken place without even a road?
He pushed open the small window at the front of the carriage and shouted at the driver outside. “Mr. Brown! How are you driving this carriage? Why are we going deeper and deeper into the wilderness?!”
Outside the carriage, there was dead silence. Only the crunch of horses’ hooves stepping on dry branches and rotten leaves could be heard.
Just as Luo Lin was about to kick open the carriage door, the coachman’s originally honest and simple voice came through. But now, it had become abnormally hoarse and cold, like the sound of fingernails scraping against glass.
“Off?” The coachman let out a bone-chilling low laugh. “Not off at all, young master. Isn’t this the fastest way to send you to the Yellow Spring?”
Boom!
With a loud crash, the two high-level Wind Blade Horses pulling the carriage suddenly let out an extremely piercing scream. Then the entire carriage seemed to hit an invisible iron wall, and the cabin pitched forward violently under the immense inertia!
“Ah!” The two maids screamed and fell into a heap. Luo Lin was also thrown hard against the carriage wall, dazed and confused.
The carriage completely fell apart. When Luo Lin shook his dizzy head, kicked open the shattered door, and crawled out of the wreckage, the sight before him made his pupils contract.
In the thick purple-black toxic mist, the originally honest coachman had torn off his disguise. He was wearing a pure black robe sewn from the fur of some unknown creature.
Under his hood, his face was covered with twisted black blood vessels, and on his right cheek was a ferocious fang tattoo exuding a violent aura! He was yet another cultist of the Wrath Demon God!
“Die, Luo Lin!” The black-robed coachman wasted no words. His movements were swift and clean. He spread his five skinny fingers wide, and a ball of wild black mana shot toward Luo Lin’s heart like a venomous snake!
Luo Lin’s heart immediately leaped into his throat. He was a “Non-magical Person” without any mana. Faced with such a lethal magical attack, he didn’t even have the speed to dodge!
Just at this critical moment of life and death,
“Young master, run! I’ll hold the rear!” a thunderous roar exploded like a bolt from the blue.
The originally fat and clumsy Niu Zi actually burst out with astonishing speed. Like a mountain of flesh, he leaped in front of Luo Lin, crossing his arms in front of his chest, and firmly blocked the deadly black magic!
‘Luo Lin was stunned, then ecstatic! Could it be! This fat, usually stupid and gluttonous Niu Zi was actually a hidden super expert secretly arranged by Grand Duke Morsat beside me?! Yes! That makes sense! The original owner was so stupid and caused trouble everywhere, why did he survive intact to eighteen? It must be because he had a bodyguard who played the fool!’
‘Brother Niu! Get him! It’s time to show your true strength!’ Luo Lin was cheering wildly in his heart.
Boom—Crack!
That ball of black magic lightly hit Niu Zi’s crossed arms, making a sickening bone-cracking sound.
“Ouch! My dear mother!” Niu Zi didn’t even last half a second. His huge body was like a kicked ball, flying back ten times faster than he came, tracing a beautiful parabola in the air while spraying blood all the way. Finally, with a thump, he was embedded in the trunk of a massive ancient tree about ten meters away, a tree so thick it would take two people to wrap their arms around.
Niu Zi rolled his eyes back, spat out a mouthful of foam, and passed out.
The purple toxic mist around them churned. The ecstasy on Luo Lin’s face completely froze, his mouth open wide enough to fit an ostrich egg.
A cold wind blew, swirling a few dead leaves. Luo Lin’s fantasy, along with that crisp bone crack from Niu Zi, shattered into pieces.
‘This is a pure, genuine weakling fatso! He had no hidden power at all! He’s just fat enough to take a beating!’
The black-robed cultist glanced contemptuously at Niu Zi in the tree, then stepped closer to Luo Lin. The green light in his eyes under the hood flickered with cruelty. “Now, it’s your turn.”
In this hopeless situation, Luo Lin’s shoulders suddenly trembled strangely. Then, in the silent toxic forest, a sudden, extremely arrogant burst of laughter erupted. “Ahahahaha!” Luo Lin laughed so hard he bent over, even tears came to his eyes.
The black-robed man stopped, frowning under his hood. He had carried out countless assassination missions. People either begged for mercy, fought back, or cried in despair before death.
This was the first time he had seen someone laugh like a madman at the brink of death.
“You’re about to die. What are you laughing at?” The black-robed man asked coldly, the black mana in his palm ready but not released.
Luo Lin stopped laughing, wiped the tears from his eyes, and seamlessly switched his arrogant expression to one of extreme sincerity and passionate admiration.
“What am I laughing at? I’m laughing because I, Lorin Morsat, finally have the honor today to witness the splendor of a true god’s apostle!” Luo Lin raised his hands without hesitation, making a standard surrender gesture. His voice trembled with excitement. “Big brother! Actually, I’ve long disliked that damn God of Creation, Selar! Your cult—no, your Holy Faith! The doctrines of your Holy Faith, that idea of breaking classes and releasing original power, is the truth that a useless waste like me without mana has been searching for!”
The black-robed man was stunned speechless for half a second by this shameless talk.
“Stop wasting time here.” The black-robed man sneered. “Someone paid a high price for your life. You are doomed today.”
“I know! I can guess with my toes that it’s Sal and his gang who hired you to kill me!” Luo Lin’s brain was spinning like an overclocked turbo engine, his survival instinct pushed to the limit. He sat cross-legged on the ground directly, posing as if he was one of them, and began to rapidly fire off words.
“But big brother, think about the math carefully! If you kill me, at most you’ll get a bounty from the employer! But if I die, Grand Duke Morsat will absolutely go crazy. The entire Papal State’s Knights Order will turn this forest upside down! What will you get? Endless pursuit!”
“Stop wasting time here.” The black-robed man sneered. “Someone paid a high price for your life. You are doomed today.”
“I know! I know, big brother!” Luo Lin lowered his voice like a cunning fox. “But if you spare me, I am the sole heir of Grand Duke Morsat! The resources I can mobilize and the intelligence I can access are definitely ten thousand times more valuable than a corpse! If big brother spares my life, I, Lorin, will be the Holy Faith’s most loyal mole in the Papal State!”
The black-robed man fell silent. The green light under his hood flickered violently. Obviously, Luo Lin’s highly logical cost-benefit analysis had shaken him.
A dead duke’s son was just a sum of money, but a live, controlled duke’s son—that was an enormous achievement!
“Are you truly willing to serve the Holy Faith?” The black-robed man’s voice softened slightly.
“Truer than gold!” Luo Lin patted his chest in assurance.
“Good.” The black-robed man smiled coldly. “Since you want to prove your loyalty. Half a month from now is Princess Ailisi’s coming-of-age ceremony. I want you to use your childhood friend status to put medicine in her tea.”
“No problem! What kind of medicine? Poison or aphrodisiac? If it’s an aphrodisiac, I don’t mind taking care of it myself!” Luo Lin didn’t hesitate for even a second, agreeing extremely readily.
The black-robed man was very satisfied with Luo Lin’s utterly unscrupulous and profligate behavior, and completely let down his guard.
“I can spare your life.” The black-robed man said as he took out a pitch-black pill emitting a foul stench from his chest, and strode toward Luo Lin. “But you must swallow this ‘Heart-Eating Pill’ first.”
“Of course, of course. If I don’t eat the poison, how can you feel safe controlling me?” Luo Lin went up with a flattering face, actively extending his right hand to take the poison pill.
Five steps. Three steps. One step. The moment the black-robed man placed the pill in Luo Lin’s palm! Luo Lin’s flattering smile instantly vanished without a trace. His outstretched right hand didn’t take the poison at all. Instead, with an incredible speed, he fiercely wiped the ring finger of his left hand across the Space Ring!
Zing!
An extremely crisp sword cry suddenly exploded! A gorgeous longsword with cyan wind flowing around it appeared in Luo Lin’s hand without warning. The Wind Flower Sword!
This was a legendary magic weapon blank that the original owner had once bought at the Black Market for tens of thousands of gold coins to curry favor with that green tea bitch Laura! The hilt was inlaid with an extremely rare top-grade Wind Crystal.
Inside it stored a full-power attack equivalent to a master-level wind mage. Its greatest characteristic was that it didn’t require any mana from the user—just press a mechanism and it would instantly unleash!
Luo Lin had no mana, but he had brains!
“Die, you stinking, unwashed cultist!” Luo Lin frantically pressed the mechanism on the sword hilt, gripping the Wind Flower Sword with both hands, and slashed viciously upward at the face of the unsuspecting black-robed man who was right in front of him!
Boom!!!
The compressed Wind Crystal detonated instantly! A terrifying cyan tornado over three meters in diameter exploded between them like a meat grinder! The violent wind blades tore half of the black-robed man’s cloak to shreds. Accompanied by an extremely harrowing scream, the black-robed man was thrown into the air by the gale, blood spraying wildly!
As for Luo Lin, he didn’t even glance at his result. At the same moment he detonated the Wind Crystal, using the recoil of the explosion, he shot backward like a groundhog skimming the ground for over ten meters.
He grabbed Niu Zi’s collar where he was embedded in the tree trunk, yanked him out.
“Go!”
Luo Lin threw the over 200-pound Niu Zi over his shoulder, summoned every ounce of strength he had, and ran headlong deeper into the toxic mist forest without looking back!
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