"Shh!"
Gubo quietly walked to the window, and the room fell silent again. Only faint breathing could be heard.
"Get ready."
Gubo extended an arm and whispered.
The three of them swiftly reached the window and looked down through the darkness at the swaying figure approaching beneath the streetlights.
Before they knew it, an oppressive, unknown atmosphere had spread through the air.
It seemed that some terrifying thing could break this suffocating silence at any moment!
Amid the unease that made it hard to breathe, Reilo also looked out through the window. Just then, Gubo quietly extended a hand and wordlessly shielded Reilo behind him.
The unintentional gesture left Reilo stunned.
The frail, slightly stooped old figure standing before him seemed to tower like a mountain. His rough palm instinctively protected Reilo behind him, and the wisps of resentment buried deep in Reilo's heart instantly melted away, vanishing without a trace.
"Mentor..."
Reilo felt deeply ashamed of his gloomy complaints earlier, and his eyes grew moist before he realized it.
His earlier behavior had been just like that of an immature child. After achieving a little success, he had gone seeking praise and acting spoiled, then complained when he was not satisfied. He had been completely unreasonable.
From the perspective of a high-ranking scholar, what about his rudimentary education was even worth paying attention to?
Just as Reilo's thoughts churned chaotically, the lone figure walking down the street had reached its end, yet the target waiting to take the bait still had not appeared.
"Didn't it take the bait?"
Liuyan frowned and muttered, looking toward Gubo.
Just as the two men were frowning impatiently, three shadows suddenly appeared, perfectly concealed within the darkness. They silently crept toward the lone figure.
"Heh heh, it came after all!"
Gubo suddenly let out a cold laugh. His spirits rose instantly, and his figure flashed before Reilo's eyes before disappearing without a sound.
Reilo's eyes swept around the room nonstop, but he could not find any trace of his mentor.
Downstairs!
Three pitch-black figures quietly approached the lone passerby.
Under the light, the pale skin occasionally exposed by the passerby revealed that he was an extremely rare albino. He was carrying a wine bottle and staggering along.
One of the shadows suddenly sped up. In a flash, it lunged at him!
"Meow!"
Just as delight appeared in the eyes of the ambushing shadow, believing its attack was about to succeed, the passerby suddenly meowed and transformed into a black cat, nimbly escaping!
At the same time!
Beside the ambushing shadow, an aged palm silently reached out and seized the back of its neck.
"Got you! You little thing. Heh heh!"
The icy voice made the captured shadow's pupils contract to pinpoints.
After Gubo seized the back of its neck, the shadow suddenly twisted its body with unbelievable flexibility. Its head spun a full one hundred and eighty degrees, and its mouth opened to an astonishing extent as if splitting apart, exposing rows of pale teeth. A trace of bloody light welled up from deep in its throat, as though an extraordinarily terrifying death struggle was about to erupt!
"Let's die together!"
Crack.
However, as the sound of its cervical vertebrae snapping rang out, the shadow with its monstrous maw was in the hands of the scholar studying Evolution's Profound Meaning. Like a specimen on a Dissection Table whose central nervous system had been severed, its body went limp and collapsed.
Gubo gave a cold laugh and casually tossed the corpse aside before turning to sneer at the other two shadows.
The once-stuffy old scholar had now transformed into a terrifying shadow killer!
The two shadows were startled. Once they realized what had happened, they halted before turning and fleeing without hesitation, their movements smooth and fluid.
"Stay right there."
Behind them, a shadow stood silently atop a streetlamp. It was Mentor Liuyan!
Caw, caw, caw...
A huge mass of astonishing black smoke poured from Liuyan's wide sleeve and shot into the sky. The dense smoke then split into wisps, transforming into hundreds of black crows. In an instant, the vast street and sky were covered by them, and their chaotic cries of "caw, caw, caw, caw" rang out.
An indescribably cold and ominous silence spread across the empty street in an instant.
The crows sometimes turned into intangible wisps of smoke, darting through the air at incredible speed. At other times, they became corporeal and spat out gray smoke spheres. The two shadows were completely trapped by the flock, struggling desperately yet utterly outmatched.
Seeing this, Gubo's stern, aged face revealed a cold smile.
"Hmph. You dare run wild in the Grand Natural Sciences Academy? There's no need for the Church's judgment. I'll personally send you to meet the God of Light!"
His body seemed to be protected by an invisible magnetic field. Then Gubo gradually transformed into a mass of black shadow and rapidly drifted toward the two men.
The two masked men trapped by the crows clearly showed signs of panic.
Knowing they had nowhere left to run, one of the shadows facing Gubo as he drifted over in shadow form suddenly chopped off one of his own arms. He raised it with his other hand as if he felt no pain, muttered a spell, and began a mysterious sacrificial ritual.
At the same time, the severed arm transformed into an astonishing mass of thick blood energy. It flowed down from his head, about to become a blood robe covering his entire body.
"Hmph!"
Gubo's aged figure let out a cold snort. Using an unknown method of control, he instantly froze the shadow. Even the blood robe about to descend came to a stop.
Silently, a pale palm reached out and tore apart the incomplete blood robe with overwhelming force. The figure immediately let out a shriek unlike any human sound.
"Ah—roar..."
Then, a bizarre scene appeared!
As if ignited by an invisible flame, the masked man's body began to burn from within. The area touched by Gubo's fingers rapidly evaporated and spread, and in an instant, his body turned to ash. Yet the black clothes on him remained completely undamaged and lightly fell onto the shoes on the ground.
In the darkness, the onlookers peering from the surrounding streets cried out in horror after being startled by the sounds.
Elsewhere.
A black crow spat out a skull-shaped smoke sphere that pounced onto the face of the last masked shadow still struggling desperately. The shadow's facial veins bulged at once, and black blood vessels rapidly spread across its body. Then, like an ice block, it stiffened and collapsed with a bang.
From the moment the shadows attacked the prey disguised by Jiahei to the moment Gubo and Liuyan appeared, the battle had been resolved in only a few breaths, and one enemy had been captured alive.
In high spirits, Gubo returned from shadow form to human form.
"Heh heh. Let's see what kind of monster is beneath the mask. The Grand Duchy hasn't publicly executed a Witcher in more than a decade!"
Step by step, Gubo approached the masked shadow paralyzed by the crows' ghostly flames. His aged face wore a smug smile as he bent down to uncover the mask.
Suddenly!
"Mentor, be careful!"
From the third floor, Reilo seemed to have noticed something. He shouted in alarm without regard for anything else, warning Gubo. His hoarse voice rang out clearly through the empty, silent night.
Gubo reacted and transformed into shadow once more, instantly appearing more than ten meters away.
At some unknown point, a shadow leaning on a spine-white bone staff had appeared beside the corpse whose neck Gubo had twisted. Without seeing him with one's own eyes, it was almost impossible to sense his presence. After silently taking away the corpse, he looked toward Gubo with blood-red eyes, let out a sinister cold snort, and waved the bone staff.
At the same time, a skeletal hand more than ten meters wide suddenly appeared above Gubo's head. It locked down the space below and soundlessly descended like a hand swatting a mosquito.
Boom!
The previous instant had been silent; this instant shook the heavens and earth.
Nearly tangible sound waves erupted outward. With the skeletal palm at the center, the bluestone pavement of the street cracked inch by inch. Although the street was broad enough, the impact still reached a marble building on one side. Cracks spread through it, and terrified screams came from within. Then, with a rumble, the simple, unstable fourth floor instantly collapsed.
"Help..."
Calls for help and cries of terror descended into chaos.
The momentum of this battle had clearly exceeded Gubo and Liuyan's control. Though Reilo's warning had allowed Gubo, once again in shadow form, to narrowly evade the attack, the only captive they had just taken alive was completely crushed into minced flesh beneath the skeletal palm, merging with the shattered stones and mud.
The phantom skeletal palm vanished.
Gubo drew a deep breath and stared solemnly at the suddenly appearing shadow—the mastermind who had destroyed the corpse. If Reilo had not warned him, he would almost certainly have been ambushed.
"Meddlesome."
The pair of blood-red eyes suddenly looked toward the three-story building. A pale, withered index finger pointed in that direction as the figure spoke in a sinister, low voice: "Death Touch."
Bone-chilling terror!
This was a fear Reilo had never experienced before.
It was as if an endless, bottomless darkness lay beneath his feet. The surrounding cold spread toward him, completely locking onto him, trying to crush and devour him. All he could see was a patch of blackness gradually drawing closer. Cold sweat had already soaked through Reilo's back.
Gulp, gulp, gulp.
At that moment, Reilo seemed to hear his own heartbeat. His thoughts became exceptionally clear, while fear spread through his entire body with the adrenaline. His heart nearly roared aloud.
Move! Run! Get away!
The mastermind who had suddenly appeared had actually chosen Reilo as his target.
Gubo was shocked and furious. He flashed into shadow form to rescue him, but it was too late. The black point of light was actually a pitch-black fingernail, which shot toward Reilo's chest!
"Hm?"
At the same time, the red-eyed Witcher seemed to sense something and let out a doubtful sound.
Death Touch was not a consumable spell that sacrificed the fingernail itself. It was a death spell that gradually refined and upgraded the nail by having it continuously absorb the souls of living beings.
This Death Touch fingernail of his had sacrificed the souls of countless living beings and had long since developed a spirit. Yet just as he was about to casually sacrifice this squeaking little thing, he suddenly lost his connection to it?
"Ah! Ah! Ah..."
After a brief moment of astonishment came boundless agony. Reilo let out a heart-wrenching scream.
The Star Core Necklace on Reilo's chest suddenly shattered, releasing a strange white light. Under its influence, the pitch-black fingernail of Death Touch rapidly melted. Countless translucent, howling skulls broke free and scattered in all directions, instinctively crying out in pain.
"No!"
"No!"
Two anguished roars rang out from the mouths of the red-eyed Witcher behind the scenes and Gubo at the same time. One screamed in agony over the scattering souls, while the other did so because of Reilo.
Amid a dazzling burst of white light, the scattered souls were completely devoured without even managing a groan.
After receiving the souls' nourishment, the white light sank into Reilo's bloody chest and vanished. Everything returned to normal.