After going into the sea, I met the witch.

This time, with his "upgraded weaponry," he will surely avenge the great grudge of being shattered by the [higher-ranking] Bloodclaw Dragon!

However, just as Ryan was about to reach the North Gate, a sudden voice made him stop in his tracks.

The sound did not come from any individual creature nearby, but from [Mask #7 Overturning].

"Qingling No. 5: Urgent SOS! I have discovered a very important and valuable piece of information concerning the underground labyrinth. I am being chased by several unidentified men in black robes, whose strength is in the third tier. (Location shared)!"

Ryan stood in the shadows under the eaves, his brow furrowed slightly.

He had just met Qingling this morning, and he never expected that this very "frank" female knight would make such a big discovery in just half a day.

"An underground labyrinth..."

Ryan pondered for a moment and decided to go and take a look.

There's still some time before midnight, so there's no need to rush. Besides, having just acquired a new weapon, he admits he's a little "itchy" to use it.

The "Location Sharing" function of the [Overturning Mask], which is stained with "Holy Water Drops", can provide a general direction and distance. According to the display, No. 5 Qingling is located about 5 kilometers to his southwest.

"It's not that far."

Ryan turned and ran quickly in the southwest direction.

……

The city of Santos is divided into a central area, an inner city, and an outer city where the poor live.

At this moment, in the southwest area of ​​the outer city, a figure hidden in the darkness sped through the alleyways.

She was very fast and landed silently. Under the cover of shadow, not only normal people, but even professionals below the third level would find it difficult to detect her.

However, behind her, three figures dressed in black robes followed closely. The shadow that was enough to obscure the perception of a third-tier superhuman was nothing to them.

In the alley, Qingling's face was slightly pale.

The three men in black robes appeared so suddenly that she had no time to react before she was struck on the back. The eerie spiritual energy emanating from their hands was like a leech, constantly draining her spiritual energy and causing her to feel weak, powerless, and dizzy.

In this situation, Qingling dared not linger and decisively chose to escape.

What she didn't expect was that the shadows had no effect on the three men in black robes, preventing her from escaping.

Worse still, the strange spirits that invaded her body caused further erosion symptoms as she used spiritual energy. To completely get rid of these strange spirits, she had to stop and do everything she could to eliminate them.

But now, she simply cannot stop.

"Hopefully the rest of the 'Temple of Collapse' will arrive soon..."

Qingling can only pin her hopes on this now.

There are only three overturned masks stained with the "holy water droplets": one of herself, one of Green Tide (number 4), and one of Purple Wind (number 7).

The moment she was invaded by the eerie spiritual force, she sent out a "distress message".

Qingling wasn't sure if the two would come to her rescue after receiving her "distress message," even though she had specifically mentioned "obtaining valuable information about the underground labyrinth."

"If we wait just one more minute and no one comes to our aid, we'll have no choice but to fight to the death!"

Qingling gritted her teeth.

Four minutes have passed since she fled, and five minutes is her estimated bottom line. If it exceeds five minutes, her eroded body and spirit will not be able to withstand the consumption of a counterattack.

To Qingling's surprise, she neither waited a minute for help nor received any support. Just a dozen seconds later, her body went limp, and she rolled several times on the ground before crashing heavily into the wall.

“What’s going on?!”

Breathing became difficult, her whole body went numb, and she could hardly move. The mere act of slightly raising her head exhausted all of Qingling's strength.

Looking inward, she belatedly realized that the strange spiritual energy that had invaded her body had unknowingly formed a peculiar pattern during the process of erosion. Under the influence of this pattern, her spiritual energy fell into a state of inertia, and the change in spiritual energy affected her body, making her body feel weak and sore.

"Heh heh... You run pretty fast... But you're really resilient. You actually lasted more than four minutes against the 'Heart-Devouring Seal,' which is enough to render a third-tier professional powerless in three minutes..."

"Truly remarkable..."

"Unfortunately, you saw something you shouldn't have seen..."

As they spoke, the leader of the black-robed men walked to Qingling, who had fallen out of the shadows, and reached out to lift her up.

Qingling tried to struggle and resist, but she found that her consciousness was gradually becoming blurred. Not to mention moving, even staying awake was an extremely difficult thing.

In the end, she could only watch helplessly as she was lifted up, and then a large amount of black mud-like substance emerged from beneath the feet of the three men in black robes.

That was not a shadow, but some darker, deeper substance.

The black-robed figure carrying the green bell gradually sank, as if swallowed by the black mud.

At this moment, Qingling's heart sank to the bottom—if the man in black robes had returned the way he came, she would have had a chance to wait for reinforcements, but now, with this strange way of moving...

As her toes touched the black mud, a strange thought popped into Qingling's mind: if Zifeng had agreed to team up with her this morning, would her fate have been different?

Admittedly, the reasons she gave to Zifeng this morning about forming a team came from her heart, but in reality, she didn't tell the whole story. If it was simply for a sense of security, she could have easily found a few professionals who were slightly weaker than her to cooperate with.

The real reason that prompted Qingling to invite Zifeng was that during Zifeng's battle with Lüchao that night, she sensed a certain inexplicable will in Zifeng's eyes. It was this that made her, who always acted alone, suddenly decide to invite him to join her team.

Assassins always travel alone, don't they?

Unfortunately, there are no more "what ifs"...

The erosion of the "Heart-Eating Seal" caused her consciousness to gradually sink.

In the final moment before her vision went dark, she vaguely saw a fierce sword light, and then she completely lost consciousness.

……

In the alley.

The black-robed man, who was sinking into the black mud, suddenly changed his expression.

In his haste, he disregarded the green bell he was carrying, raised both hands, and a vortex-like spiritual shield formed as dark spiritual energy surged forth.

The moment the shield was formed, a domineering and ruthless sword light suddenly descended.

When it first appeared, it was still dozens of meters away, but in the blink of an eye, it flew over and slashed hard at the dark vortex shield.

"Boom--!"

A terrifying shockwave swept through, and in an instant, the walls on both sides of the relatively narrow alley collapsed and crumbled, and smoke and dust rose up.

The black vortex shield in the black-robed man's hand shattered into countless points of spiritual light, while he himself retreated ten steps in succession. Each step left a deep footprint filled with black mud on the ground, and bright red blood dripped from the edge of the mask on his face, exploding into blood as it fell to the ground.

The other two men in black robes standing behind him were unharmed due to the protection of their shields, but they were also badly injured by the shockwave, and their black robes were damaged to varying degrees.

"Damn it!"

A low, guttural curse came from one of the men in black robes.

All three of them looked toward the end of the dark alley, where a figure was walking out step by step.

"Tap tap... tap tap..."

The clear sound of footsteps reached the ears of the three, each step feeling as if it were pounding on their hearts.

The three men in black robes did not make any rash moves, because they sensed an indescribable sense of threat emanating from the approaching figure.

The feeling was as if they were not facing a person, but a bloodthirsty behemoth that was patrolling its territory at night, slowly baring its ferocious fangs. If they dared to make the slightest move, they would be met with a merciless attack.

Ryan walked up to Qingling, who had been abandoned by the man in black robes, and shook his head helplessly as he looked at the "honest female knight" whose face was covered with black veins and who had fallen unconscious.

He bent down, lifted Qingling to the side against the half-remaining wall, and then stood up to look at the three men in black robes not far away.

He originally thought the support would be him and Qingling fighting the black-robed man together, but he never expected it would turn into him fighting three people by himself.

"I'm under a bit of pressure..."

Ryan twisted his neck, saying this, but there was no sign of retreat in his eyes. Instead, a fierce fighting spirit ignited within him.

"...Ahem...Are you her accomplice?"

The leader, a man in black robes, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and looked coldly at the middle-aged man who had suddenly appeared and was holding a greatsword (his face was simulated by a mask).

Ryan did not respond to the leader of the black-robed men, but instead carefully examined the three of them, and clicked his tongue: "A spirituality I have never seen before, but it instinctively makes me feel disgusted and abhorrent."

"What do you know?" The leader of the black-robed men sneered, but did not explain. "Attack him together, take him down, life or death is irrelevant."

Although the man in black robes couldn't understand why a professional who he perceived as merely a first-tier cultivator could unleash such a powerful sword strike that made him wary, in any case, now that the middle-aged man with the greatsword had appeared here, there was only one outcome for him: death.

To ensure absolute success, he disregarded his pride and called upon his two companions to launch the attack.

The moment the sound faded, the three launched their attack simultaneously.

The leader of the black-robed figures, let's call him Black Robe Number 1, made a grasping motion towards Ryan. In the next instant, the black mud that Black Robe Number 1 had dropped earlier suddenly shot up around Ryan, forming sharp black mud spikes. These black mud spikes did not attack Ryan, but instead formed a "spiky cage" around him.

At the same time, the second black-robed figure appeared behind Ryan, and a misty black spiritual energy surged in the palm of his right hand as he struck out.

As for the third black-robed man, he appeared beside Qingling. They knew very well that the middle-aged man with the greatsword's purpose was to rescue the female knight. Therefore, as long as they took the female knight hostage, regardless of whether the three of them could defeat the middle-aged man with the greatsword together, they would be invincible.

One person controlled the situation, another launched a sneak attack from behind, and a third took a hostage. Although they did not communicate verbally, they formed a perfect team when they acted.

However, just as the black-robed man number 3 was about to touch Qingling's body, a sense of crisis suddenly surged into his heart.

This sense of crisis was so intense that it even reminded the third man in black robes of the despair and fear he felt when he encountered an adult black bear in the wild as a child.

dead!

will die!

The intense fear forced the third man in black robes to abandon his plan to take Qingling away and turn to leave.

But it was too late.

With a deafening roar, the "spiky cage" constructed from black mud spikes shattered, and Ryan broke free, slashing down at the number 3 black-robed man with his greatsword, which was brimming with surging white spiritual light.

The night wind howled, the air twisted, and the greatsword left behind violent ripples visible to the naked eye wherever it passed.

The intense sword wind pulled at the body of the black-robed man number 3, making it difficult for him to escape.

Although there was not much spiritual energy surging on this seemingly rough and primitive greatsword, when the shadow of the approaching greatsword was reflected in his pupils, the number 3 black-robed man felt his body and mind tremble, a struggle of the life instinct.

Since we can't escape, let's fight!

A ruthless glint flashed in the eyes of the third black-robed man. Black spiritual energy surged in his hands, forming a pitch-black vortex shield. At the same time, his gaze fell on the second black-robed man behind the greatsword-wielding middle-aged man, who was raising his palm to strike.

"If you can even manage to block it once, you'll be dead once you're hit by the 'Heart-Eating Seal'!"

The black-robed man number 3 thought viciously, trying to suppress the panic in his heart.

A series of thoughts were just fleeting.

Then, the pitch-black vortex shield made contact with the black and yellow greatsword.