“The Royal Capital Temple of the Saintas Kingdom...”
When these words reached Jiang Lin's ears, his fingers gripping the Eight Extremities Holy Sword paused slightly.
He did not immediately sheathe his sword, nor did he let down his guard. He simply maintained his stance, his gaze lingering on Hawke's face for a moment.
The other man's aura, after dropping his disguise, indeed resonated faintly with his Apostle Brand.
It was a resonance that only those of the same system could perceive—as subtle as the touch of a needle, yet more than enough to verify authenticity.
“Can you reveal your Apostle Brand a bit more?”
Jiang Lin spoke, his tone steady.
Hawke fell silent for a moment, then raised his left hand, palm facing up.
A very faint golden light seeped from beneath the skin of his palm, forming a tiny rune brand about the size of a fingernail.
The brand bore the unique patterns of the Righteous God system—an interlocking structure of a hexagram and arched curves, a mark belonging only to the apostles of the God of Holy Light.
Jiang Lin also raised his left hand. With a slight stir of his mind, he partially revealed his own Apostle Brand.
The two golden runic glows met in the dim mine passage, flickering slightly in a natural reaction like two magnets drawing close.
This time, Jiang Lin could confirm that it was indeed a genuine brand of the Righteous God system. It could not be faked, nor could it be replicated by any secret cult methods.
“When did you come in?”
Jiang Lin put away his Eight Extremities Holy Sword, no longer maintaining his offensive stance.
“Three months ago,” Hawke said, sliding his shortsword back into its scabbard. He did not let down his guard completely, his gaze still fixed on Jiang Lin's face. “A bit earlier than you.”
“You came from the Royal Capital?”
“Yes. I took a mission to investigate the movements of high-ranking members within the secret cult.” Hawke paused, as if weighing his words. “Where... did you come from?”
Jiang Lin did not answer immediately.
He quickly calculated in his mind.
He was probably still considered a student of the Saint Brilliance Magic Academy, right?
“From the Saint Brilliance Magic Academy in Clearwater City,” Jiang Lin said.
Hawke's expression shifted slightly, as if he had heard something familiar.
“...Jiang Lin?”
He was surprised that the other party recognized him just from hearing that.
And the other party's current strength was at the 4th-Rank peak.
At the same time, he was from the Royal Capital Temple and was highly proficient in disguise.
With these clues, a certain name leaped into his mind.
“Big Guy?!”
Jiang Lin withdrew his hand, the glow of his Apostle Brand fading back into his chest.
He looked at Hawke, scattered fragments of memories from Boulder City to the Royal Capital Temple flashing rapidly through his mind.
Big Guy's face overlapped with the plain, average face before him—one so ordinary it would disappear in a crowd—giving him a subtle sense of incongruity.
“What about you? Whose face is that?”
“Someone I killed in the past. I don't remember his name. The secret cult shouldn't be able to trace it.”
Hawke nodded, pressing no further.
He looked down at his left hand. The extremely faint Holy Light brand on his palm had completely vanished, returning his skin to its normal appearance.
“The mission I took is for external intelligence gathering and potential threat assessment. Simply put, it's to observe if there are any talented prospects within the secret cult who are worth winning over, or who need to be strangled in the cradle.”
He paused, his gaze lingering on Jiang Lin's face for a brief moment.
“The Bishop is very interested in you, which is why I approached you.”
“And what have you observed?”
“Sacrificing twelve colleagues on your third day after joining, and then coming back to spin a story without even batting an eye—such a person is indeed rare even within the secret cult.”
There was a trace of complexity in Big Guy's tone.
Big Guy straightened up and jerked his chin toward the sunken area behind Jiang Lin.
“The altar you set up—are you planning to wipe out the whole group in the mine?”
“Yes. Eleven cultists, four demons, and those three preparatory Holy Son candidates. One of them is at the 6th-Rank early stage. The harvest after sacrificing them should be quite good.”
“Then how do you plan to lure them over?”
Jiang Lin squatted down and used the tip of his sword to draw a rough layout of the mine's interior on the gravelly ground.
“That group is in the chamber at the end of the main channel. We didn't alert them when we retreated just now. But if someone appears in their line of sight, they will definitely give chase.”
He looked up at Big Guy.
Big Guy squatted down opposite him, his gaze falling on the crude diagram.
“You mean, I should be the bait?”
“Not just you alone.”
Jiang Lin shook his head.
“The other three are still waiting at the fork. Go back and tell them that I found a passage ahead that can bypass to the side of the chamber, allowing us to catch them off guard. Bring them this way.”
“And then?”
“Then, along the way, I will 'accidentally' activate the altar's warning rune. The group in the mine will definitely chase us. Facing enemies from all sides in the ensuing chaos, we can wipe them all out in one go.”
Big Guy remained silent for two breaths, seemingly running a quick simulation of the plan's feasibility in his head, before nodding.
“What about Selene and the other two?”
“It's perfect,” Jiang Lin said flatly. “Four people went out on a mission, ran into a demon ambush, and only two survived after a bitter struggle. This story is much more believable than all five returning in one piece.”
Big Guy asked no more. He stood up and patted the dust off his knees.
“I'll go bring them over. Wait here.”
He turned and retraced his steps along the passage. His pace was slightly faster than before, his footsteps quickly fading into the distance between the narrow rock walls.
Jiang Lin watched him disappear around the corner of the passage, then turned and walked back to the sunken area to recheck the rune lines of the altar.
The engravings were intact, with no breaks.
The dark red crystals were embedded snugly, fitting perfectly into the grooves on the base.
Squatting down, he reinforced the magic essence guiding circuits at several key nodes to ensure there would be no deviations when activated.
Having finished all of this, he retreated to the corner of the passage, leaned against the rock wall, and maintained his Space Perception at its maximum range.
The magnetic field interference deep within the mine was still strong, but he had already grasped its patterns.
It weakened near artificially smoothed rock walls and strengthened in naturally formed passages.
His perception of the main channel area was much clearer than that of the side paths, which was enough for him to track the group's movements.
After about fifteen minutes, footsteps echoed from deep within the passage.
It was not just one person, but the steady, unhurried pace of four people approaching at even intervals.
Big Guy walked at the front, followed by Selene and the other two candidates.
Their expressions were completely normal, with no obvious wariness or suspicion. Clearly, Big Guy's story had not caused any waves.
Jiang Lin stepped out from the corner and gestured to them.
“This way.”
The four followed him as he turned into the narrow side path, walking down a sloping path for about the time it took to drink a cup of tea.
Big Guy walked in the middle of the group, with Selene behind him and the other two candidates bringing up the rear.
The side path grew narrower, the rock walls on both sides almost brushing their shoulders.
The air became damp and heavy. Occasionally, tiny water droplets fell from above, making distinct tapping sounds in the quiet environment.
“How much further?”
Selene's voice came from behind, carrying a barely perceptible hint of tension.
“Almost there,” Jiang Lin said without looking back. “The open area ahead is the best spot.”
He was not lying when he said they were almost there.
After barely a hundred paces, the passage suddenly opened up, and the sunken area appeared before them.
On the ground, the simple black altar glowed with a very faint dark red light in the dimness, looking like a crouching beast.
Selene paused in her tracks.
“You set up an altar here?”
“Just in case,” Jiang Lin said, turning to face the four. “If those people in the mine really chase us, this thing will come in handy.”
As soon as he finished speaking, his left foot silently stepped onto an inconspicuous protruding rock near the base of the altar.
It was one of the activation nodes he had set up in advance.
A dark red light surged from the base of the altar, rapidly spreading along the hidden patterns he had laid out on the ground, completely sealing off the entrance to the sunken area.
“You...!”
Selene took half a step back, her right hand already pressing against the hilt of the shortsword at her waist.
“Drake, what are you doing?”
The other two candidates also gripped their weapons, their expressions shifting from confusion to wariness.
Yet, Big Guy did not make a move.
He stood where he was, his hands hanging naturally at his sides, his expression abnormally calm.
Jiang Lin did not answer Selene's question.
He raised his head, his gaze passing over the heads of the four toward the entrance of the side path.
There, a thick, dark red energy barrier had silently risen, completely isolating the sunken area from the outside world.
The altar's defensive mechanism had been activated, meaning the activity space of the group in the mine's chamber was mostly compressed.
Immediately after, a dull vibration echoed from deep within the rock beneath their feet, as if something were moving through the strata.
Then, a series of rapid and chaotic footsteps came from the direction of the side path.
Sure enough, the people in the mine had been drawn over by the magic essence fluctuations of the altar's activation.
A dozen figures appeared at the entrance of the side path. Leading them was a dark-red-skinned demon wearing dark leather armor, unabashedly releasing his 5th-Rank peak aura.
His gaze swept over the altar ahead and the figures standing beside it, his lips curling into a dangerous smile.
“An altar? Perfect. Saves us the trouble.”
The cultists and demons behind him drew their weapons one after another. Dark red light flickered and clashed in the narrow passage, bathing the entire space in a twilight glow.
Selene's face turned pale in an instant.
She drew her shortsword, but did not know which way to point it.
Behind her were a dozen menacing enemies; in front of her was her crazy teammate who had just activated the altar.
“Drake...!”
Her voice carried a faint tremor.
Jiang Lin did not look at her.
Standing beside the altar, he pressed his right hand into the groove at its top. With a slight stir of his mind, he channeled a wisp of magic essence into it.
The rune lines on the altar's surface instantly lit up. Dark red light surged from the base, extending in all directions along the hidden patterns he had laid out.
He looked up at the 5th-Rank peak demon and spoke.
“You came just in time. This saves everyone a lot of trouble.”
The demon's footsteps paused slightly.
He had clearly sensed some sort of incongruity, but the pause lasted less than a breath.
The cultists behind him had already poured into the sunken area, the gleam of swords and blades rising and falling in the dim space.
Chaos erupted in an instant.
“Drake! What on earth are you doing?!”
Selene's voice was filled with anger and a trace of fear. Her shortsword was drawn, its tip pointing in Jiang Lin's direction.
But her gaze darted back and forth between the enemies and her teammate, clearly at a loss as to which side to prioritize.
The other two Holy Son candidates had also gripped their weapons tightly, but their positioning clearly leaned toward Selene's side, isolating Jiang Lin on the opposite side.
Only Big Guy stood in place, his hands hanging naturally at his sides, his expression too calm to reveal any clue.
Jiang Lin did not answer Selene's question. He lifted his left hand from the top of the altar, spread his fingers, and made a grasping motion toward the crowd pouring into the sunken area.
Golden points of light burst from his palm like dandelion seeds scattered by the wind.
They drew fine trajectories in the dim mine space, covering the entire sunken area.
“This again!”
The 5th-Rank peak demon's pupils contracted sharply. He had seen a similar move before.
From the residual aura around the altar ruins in Anvil Town, he had analyzed the characteristics of this energy fluctuation.
He stopped abruptly, raising his left hand to unfold a dark red shield in front of him, attempting to block the falling points of light.
But the people behind him did not have his reaction speed.
The cultists and low-rank demons were hit instantly.
Some dropped the weapons they had just raised, some collapsed directly to their knees, and others clutched their stomachs with flushed faces, letting out muffled groans from their throats.
The entire sunken area seemed to have been put on pause as over a dozen figures simultaneously lost their ability to fight under the shroud of the golden rain of light.
Selene was also hit.
The moment Jiang Lin raised his hand, she had instinctively taken a step back, but the coverage of those light points was too wide. A few points landed on her shoulder and arm.
Her body suddenly stiffened, her face turning pale in an instant. The shortsword slipped from her fingers, clattering sharply against the stone floor.
She bent over, her knees pressing against the ground as she struggled to maintain her balance.
But the completely uncontrollable urge surging from deep within her abdomen made even breathing difficult.
The other two Holy Son candidates were not spared either.
One slumped directly onto the ground, while the other stumbled against the rock wall, sliding down to curl into a ball.
Big Guy was also hit by a few points of light.
The moment the light points touched his body, he felt that familiar and indescribable impact. But in that exact instant, he caught Jiang Lin's gaze.
Those eyes, disguised to look like an ordinary person's, gave a rapid wink in his direction under the reflection of the golden light.
...
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