Seeing Through

"Leave the trash outside to that old fellow. His Wind Demon Domain is still somewhat troublesome. Let's continue. This part here is..."

Pembez pointed at the violently pared-down array-pattern scroll in his hand and continued explaining it to Chen Cheng.

Yet from the tone of his explanation, Chen Cheng could sense the urgency in his heart.

Chen Cheng also reined in his focus. Most of the mages in the academy capable of fighting had remained here to help inscribe the array patterns because of him, and he could not betray their trust.

At that moment, Chen Cheng suddenly felt the same tense urgency he had experienced while conducting research in his previous life. In that state, his mind was exceptionally clear.

All kinds of magical knowledge he had learned over the past half-semester flashed continuously through his mind. Combined with Pembez's explanation of Magic Runes beside him, a new form of Variable Magic capable of activating this Magic Array rapidly took shape in his mind.

The hand holding the quill never paused, drawing one Magic Rune after another across blank pages. Seeing this, Pembez immediately took the sheets and distributed them to the instructors, telling them to inscribe them at once in the center of the plaza.

"Use Mithril to inscribe these Magic Runes onto those high-grade carriers, then arrange them in the center according to the order shown in the diagrams.

"Once that is done, you may head to the various city walls to provide support."

Although these instructors could not understand what these Magic Runes were for, by observing the ones inscribed earlier, they could guess that this was an enormous array pattern.

Seeing how seriously Professor Pempes and the principal treated it, they vaguely felt that this Magic Array might help Hui Dun City survive this crisis.

The many instructors said nothing further and immediately went to arrange for the students to inscribe the Magic Runes.

Meanwhile, Pembez leaned on his staff and maintained the barrier magic that enveloped the entire academy.

Because some trash had suddenly appeared within the city earlier, both he and Adolf knew that the city was not so safe either.

To ensure the Magic Array could safely take shape, one of the two of them had to remain behind in the academy to hold the fort.

And considering Chen Cheng's needs in setting up the Magic Array, Pembez had ultimately stayed behind.

The alchemist atop the cliff calmed his excited heart, then raised his withered old hand and wiped away the dark-red, foul-smelling blood from his forehead.

The wound on his forehead rapidly closed with that single wipe. The newly grown flesh was still as gooseflesh-like as ever.

After the blood was wiped away, it became a perfectly round blood bead in his hand. With a light pinch of his fingers, he ground it into a pile of blood powder.

When his gaze turned toward Coles, he discovered that someone was pursuing Coles, the source of his enormous amount of emotions.

The alchemist pondered for a moment, then used his filthy fingernails to pick up the blood powder in his palm and inscribed a Magic Rune in midair.

Accompanied by his inscription and low muttering, he sent a tracking spell into Coles's body along the thread of emotions.

At that moment, Isabel, who had been following the traces Coles had left behind to pursue him, lost Coles's trail after turning a street corner.

Isabel frowned, then silently recited a tracking incantation. A speck of starlight appeared at her fingertips, illuminating the street before her.

Yet even under the starlight, Isabel could not see any traces of Coles and the other person having passed through.

The sharp instinct for danger she had developed as a former Imperial Guard warrior told her that something had gone wrong. With Coles's shallow strength, no matter how well he hid, the aura he left behind would surely leave some trace.

Yet now she could not find the slightest trace. Clearly, a powerful figure had concealed his tracks for him.

Isabel then recalled how Coles had run out of the academy for no reason, while the academy was currently carrying out something important.

She had no choice but to suspect that the brat Coles was connected to certain people, and that he had run out to tip someone off.

Isabel's muscles swiftly tensed. Battle Aura rapidly circulated through her body, while her eyes became covered in Battle Aura as she sought to see where the danger nearby was coming from.

Yet through her Battle Aura vision, she saw dense, hazy threads crisscrossing the sky over the entire city. The moment she saw those threads, a chill ran down her spine.

But when she tried to see them clearly, an inexplicable palpitation suddenly rose in her heart. Without another word, Isabel gathered all the Battle Aura in her body and punched toward the direction from which the danger was coming.

That Battle Aura-covered punch erupted, blasting out wave after wave of sonic booms. A current of Battle Aura swept forth with her fist, and the powerful wind from that punch scoured the entire street clean of every speck of dust.

After throwing that punch, Isabel did not relax. She immediately chanted an incantation and placed several mental defenses upon herself.

Because what had attacked her just now had been a mental force.

At that moment, atop the cliff, the alchemist withdrew the mental force he had just sent out. He looked at Isabel with slight surprise and muttered:

"A dual cultivator of magic and martial arts. But she is missing a leg, and the Battle Aura in her body cannot complete a full circulation. Even if her realm advances, that flaw in her leg will greatly diminish her combat strength. What a pity, what a pity."

After sighing for a while, the alchemist stopped paying attention to Isabel. After all, she was not an insect he could casually crush to death.

If he truly tried to eliminate her, the commotion might draw Adolf and the others over. Besides, she had nothing to do with his plan.

He merely wanted to ensure she could not find that little fellow called Coles.

The alchemist began shifting his attention toward Principal Adolf, who was slaughtering in all directions within the city.

After sensing the dark aura that had appeared within the city, Adolf rode the wind from the academy toward the source of that sensation.

When he saw the patches of living corpses, fury surged within him.

From a rough estimate at a distance, there were no fewer than several hundred of those living corpses, and every one of them had once been a living, breathing person.

With several wind spells, he directly shredded them all into minced flesh. Then, with a gust of gale-force wind, the minced flesh was continuously ground away until not the slightest remnant remained.

Though Adolf's methods appeared exceedingly cruel, if those corpses were allowed to pile up here, a plague would break out in the city before long.

Moreover, those living corpses carried corpse poison. If ordinary people came into contact with it, they might be infected and turned into new living corpses.

Afterward, Adolf followed his senses and flew toward the Headless Knight. It was precisely that vile creature that had killed so many people in such a short time.

And wherever Adolf passed, every living corpse he could see was cleaned up one by one.

After reducing dozens of living corpses to ashes, he turned a corner and saw the Headless Knight.

The Headless Knight was still repeating its earlier actions, endlessly knocking on that unlucky fellow's door.

But now, hundreds of corpses roamed the streets outside. The commotion caused by those things had long alerted the people inside. Their fear had reached its peak, and no one was about to open the door.

The Headless Knight also seemed to have been programmed. After knocking for several minutes without receiving an answer, it took heavy steps toward the next house.

And Adolf happened to witness this scene.

Though he was astonished that a Headless Knight had entered the city, what puzzled him even more was why it merely knocked instead of directly breaking down the door. He had never heard of Headless Knights being so "reasonable."

Such vile creatures would spare no effort to kill anyone whose living aura they smelled and infect them into living corpses.

The Headless Knight's strange behavior drew Adolf's great attention. Perhaps it was connected to the reason that alchemist had come here.

Adolf did not hurry to act. Instead, he chanted:

"Puchi sweat break ka, grant me the sight to see the true world—Eye of Delusion."

The next moment, as Adolf's magic took effect, restrained five-colored light flowed within his eyes. When Adolf looked through the Eye of Delusion—

Within his vision, he could clearly see every one of those five-colored emotional threads.

And upon seeing those threads, he understood why the Headless Knight appeared so "polite." The alchemist was using this method to harvest the emotions of the people within the city.

Perhaps the massive undead army outside the city, surrounding without attacking and attacking without breaking through, was also meant to make the people within the city feel intense fear for him to harvest.

The path of emotions was also one of the cultivation systems used by alchemists, though this was Adolf's first time seeing an alchemist collect emotions.

And based on everything he saw, what this alchemist needed were emotions such as fear and terror.

But according to what he knew, emotions like fear could not be used for cultivation, because those who cultivated the path of emotions would themselves be influenced by those emotions.

And no one wanted to live in fear every day.

After seeing through everything, Adolf withdrew his Eye of Delusion, then directly summoned gale-force wind and sent it slashing toward the Headless Knight.

What he needed to do now was still to deal with the Headless Knight, this fellow wreaking havoc within the city.

A blade of gale-force wind slashed toward the Headless Knight's back. With its head gone, it should not have been able to notice the blade coming from behind.

Yet the instant the blade of gale-force wind was unleashed, the creature twisted aside in an attempt to evade it.

But the gale-force wind was incredibly fast. Even though it dodged in advance, the arm it had raised to knock on the door was still cut off.

Dark-red, foul-smelling blood dripped drop by drop, and the Headless Knight's severed arm hit the ground with a dull thud.

The wooden door of the household targeted by the Headless Knight was also sliced in half by the gale-force wind. The man hiding inside directly saw the headless corpse, with one arm lying on the ground and foul-smelling blood dripping from it.

The man was so frightened by the sight that he fainted on the spot. The Headless Knight, however, did not bother with the man inside. It picked up the fallen arm and aligned it with its severed stump.

The ragged flesh at the wound, which had still been dripping foul-smelling blood, rapidly writhed. Then the severed arm grew back into place.

Adolf held his staff and looked at the Headless Knight before him, his brows furrowing. He had not expected this Headless Knight to possess such powerful regenerative abilities.

If it came to actual strength, he could crush the Headless Knight. But truly killing such a monster would be exceedingly difficult, especially when they were still inside the city.

Adolf glanced at the crowded buildings lining both sides of the street. This was clearly not a good place to fight.

"O spirit of wind, grant me the power of wind, wuzhi ba kakun—Wind Control."

The next moment, a violent gale swept forth, lifting the street's stone slabs along with the living corpses.

The Headless Knight was likewise swept up by the gale. Adolf then took the Headless Knight and more than a hundred living corpses away from that narrow street.