Seeing Through

"Leave the riff-raff outside to that old guy; his Wind Demon Domain is quite troublesome. Shall we continue? This section here is..."

Pembez pointed at the violently edited array scroll in his hand and continued explaining to Chen Cheng.

However, from Pembez's tone, Chen Cheng could sense his urgency.

Chen Cheng withdrew his focus. Most of the mages in the academy capable of fighting were currently staying behind to help him inscribe array patterns, and he couldn't let them down.

At this moment, Chen Cheng suddenly felt the same tense urgency he'd experienced during his research in his previous life. In this state, his mind was exceptionally clear.

Various magical knowledge he'd learned throughout the semester flashed through his mind. Combining this with Pembez's explanations of Magic Markings, new Variable Magic sequences for activating this Magic Array rapidly took shape in his mind.

His hand, holding the quill, continuously drew Magic Markings on blank parchment. Pembez, seeing this, immediately took the pages and distributed them to the various instructors, instructing them to begin inscribing them in the center of the plaza.

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

Once all of this is done, you can head to the city walls to provide support."

Although these instructors couldn't understand the purpose of these Magic Markings, they could infer from the previously inscribed patterns that this was a super-large Magic Array.

Given the importance placed on it by Professor Pempes and the Dean, they had a feeling this Magic Array might help Hui Dun City overcome the crisis.

Without further ado, the instructors immediately went to arrange for the students to help inscribe the array patterns.

Meanwhile, Pembez was using his staff to maintain the barrier magic that enveloped the entire academy.

Because some unexpected stragglers had appeared within the city earlier, both he and Adolf knew that the city was no longer entirely safe.

To ensure the Magic Array could form safely, one of them had to remain at the academy to oversee things.

Considering Chen Cheng's needs for setting up the Magic Array, Pembez ultimately stayed behind.

The Alchemist on the cliff calmed his excited heart and then extended his withered old hand to wipe away the dark red, foul-smelling blood from his forehead.

The wound on his forehead quickly healed as he wiped it, the newly grown flesh still retaining its chicken-skin appearance.

The blood he wiped away transformed into a perfectly round bead in his hand. With a gentle squeeze, he crushed it into a pile of blood powder.

When his gaze fell upon Coles, he saw that someone was chasing the source of his immense emotional surge, Coles.

The Alchemist pondered for a moment, then used his dirt-encrusted fingernails to pick up the blood powder from his palm and inscribed a Magic Markings in the air.

As he etched and muttered, a trace magic was sent into Coles, following the thread of emotion.

Isabel, who was currently tracking Coles's path, lost his trail after turning a street corner.

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

However, even under the starlight, Isabel couldn't see any trace of Coles or the person with him.

Her keen sense of danger, honed from her time as a Royal Guard, told her something was wrong. Given Coles's meager strength, no matter how well he hid, the aura he left behind would still be detectable.

Yet, she couldn't find the slightest trace. This clearly indicated that a powerful individual had concealed his tracks.

Isabel then recalled Coles leaving the academy for no apparent reason, while a crucial event was currently underway within the academy.

She couldn't help but suspect that Coles had connections with certain individuals and had slipped out to relay information to them.

Isabel's muscles tensed rapidly, her battle qi quickly circulated within her, and her eyes were covered by battle qi as she tried to pinpoint the source of the danger nearby.

However, through her battle qi vision, she saw dense, hazy threads covering the entire city sky. Seeing these threads sent a chill down her spine.

But as she tried to get a clearer look, a sudden, inexplicable palpitation arose in her heart. Seeing this, Isabel didn't hesitate. She gathered all her battle qi and unleashed a punch in the direction of the approaching danger.

This punch, infused with battle qi, created sonic booms. A gust of battle qi flowed with her punch, sweeping the entire street clean with its sheer force.

After unleashing the punch, Isabel didn't relax. Instead, she immediately began chanting spells to cast several mental defenses on herself.

This was because the attack she had just experienced was a mental one.

At that moment, on the cliff, the Alchemist withdrew the mental energy he had just projected. He looked at Isabel with slight surprise, muttering:

"Dual cultivation of magic and battle qi, but with a crippled leg. His battle qi cannot circulate properly. Even if his realm advances, his combat power will be greatly diminished due to the flaw in that leg. What a shame, what a shame."

After a moment of reflection, the Alchemist stopped paying attention to Isabel. After all, she wasn't an insect that could be easily crushed.

If he were to eliminate her, the commotion might attract Adolf and the others, and she wasn't relevant to his plan.

He simply wanted to prevent her from finding that young man named Coles.

The Alchemist then shifted his gaze to Principal Adolf, who was wreaking havoc within the city.

Sensing the dark aura appearing in the city, Adolf flew from the academy, riding the wind towards the direction he perceived.

When he saw the swarms of walking corpses, a surge of anger ignited within him.

From his vantage point, he estimated there were no less than several hundred of these walking corpses, and all of them had been living people just before.

With a few wind spells, he directly shredded them into mincemeat. Then, summoning a powerful gale, he blew them away. The mincemeat was constantly eroded by the gale until nothing remained.

Although Adolf's methods appeared brutal, if these corpses were left to accumulate, a plague would break out in the city before long.

Furthermore, these walking corpses carried corpse poison. If ordinary people came into contact with it, they too could be infected and turn into new walking corpses.

Then, Adolf followed his senses towards the Headless Knight, realizing that this fiend was responsible for killing so many people in such a short period.

Wherever Adolf passed, he cleared out any walking corpses he could see.

After he reduced dozens of zombies to dust, Adolf turned a corner and saw the Headless Knight.

At this moment, the Headless Knight was still repeating its previous action, continuously knocking on the door of that unlucky fellow.

However, outside there were already hundreds of zombies parading. The commotion these creatures were making had long since alerted the people inside. Every single one of them was now filled with extreme fear and terror, and no one dared to open the door.

The Headless Knight, as if programmed, knocked for several minutes. Seeing no response, it then moved on to the next house with heavy steps.

Adolf happened to witness this scene.

While he was surprised that a Headless Knight had entered the city, what he couldn't understand was why the Headless Knight was only knocking and not breaking down the door. He had never heard of Headless Knights being so 'reasonable.'

After all, these abominations would relentlessly kill and infect anyone they sensed, turning them into zombies.

The Headless Knight's strange behavior drew Adolf's great attention. Perhaps it was related to the alchemist's reason for being here.

Adolf didn't rush to act. Instead, he chanted an incantation:

"Pū cī cā hàn pò kā, bestow upon me the world of true sight—Eye of Delusion."

The next moment, as Adolf's magic took effect, a subtle, multicolored light flowed within his eyes. When Adolf looked through the Eye of Delusion.

Within his field of vision, he could clearly see the multicolored threads of emotion.

Upon seeing these threads, he understood why the Headless Knight had appeared so 'polite.' It turned out the alchemist was using this method to harvest the emotions of the people within the city.

Perhaps the undead army outside the city, surrounding but not breaching the walls, was also meant to generate intense fear in the city's inhabitants for him to harvest.

This path of emotions was one of the cultivation systems of these alchemists. However, this was the first time Adolf had seen an alchemist collecting emotions.

And based on everything he saw, the alchemist needed emotions like fear and terror.

But from what he understood, emotions like fear couldn't be used for cultivation, because those who cultivated the path of emotions would also be swayed by those emotions.

And no one wanted to live in constant fear.

Seeing through everything, Adolf retracted his Eye of Delusion and then directly summoned a gust of wind, slashing it towards the Headless Knight.

What he needed to do now was to eliminate the Headless Knight, this creature causing destruction within the city.

The blade of wind slashed towards the Headless Knight's back. Since the creature seemed to have lost its head, it shouldn't have been able to detect the blade of wind coming from behind.

However, the moment the blade of wind was unleashed, the creature dodged to the side, attempting to evade it.

But the wind was incredibly fast. Even with its preemptive dodge, its raised arm, which was preparing to knock on the door, was still severed.

Dark red, foul-smelling blood dripped down. The Headless Knight's severed arm fell to the ground with a dull thud.

The wooden door of the house the Headless Knight had been targeting was also cut in half by the wind. The man hiding inside saw the headless, one-armed corpse on the ground, its severed limb dripping with foul-smelling blood.

The man was so terrified by the sight that he fainted. The Headless Knight, meanwhile, paid no attention to the man inside. It picked up its severed arm and aimed it at the stump.

The wound, where the foul-smelling blood had been dripping, rapidly squirmed. Then, the severed arm reattached itself.

Adolf, holding his staff, looked at the Headless Knight before him. His brow furrowed. He hadn't expected this Headless Knight to have such powerful regenerative abilities.

If he were to speak of raw strength, he could easily overpower the Headless Knight. However, actually killing such a monster was extremely difficult, especially in their current location within the city.

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

"Spirit of Wind, grant me the power of the wind, Wuzhibakakun—Wind Control."

The next moment, a fierce wind raged, lifting the cobblestones of the entire street, along with the zombies, into the air.

The Headless Knight was also caught in this gale. Then, Adolf, along with the Headless Knight and the hundreds of zombies, left the narrow street.