117. A Clue Discovered!

The silver moon hanging in midair slowly faded away. About half a minute later, a man and a wolf emerged from behind the gray dunes. The silver wolf Canis was covered in thick, luxuriant fur, making its already massive body—far larger than that of an ordinary snow wolf—appear even more powerful. On closer inspection, threads of silver light could clearly be seen glimmering between the layers of fur. As it walked, its coat trembled faintly, lending it an air of elegance and beauty.

Teresa saw it clearly. Those glimmers were plainly energy Canis had been unable to absorb completely. Much like the little wolf and little eagle when they absorbed the soul energy of the Void Demons, Canis could only take in part of the residual energy; the rest could only disperse across the surface of its body. Unlike the two puppet beasts, however, Canis was a living magical beast. Its biological instincts urged the energy to merge into its flesh and fur, partly transforming its body and partly using that flesh-and-blood form as a place of storage. Once Canis found time in the future, it would still be able to continue digesting the energy stored within its flesh and coat.

In that respect, magical beasts with living bodies were, after all, far superior to artificially created alchemical puppets.

Compared with Canis’s “overfed” appearance, Pedia seemed much calmer. Yet with Teresa’s keen perception of spiritual power, she could still sense that Pedia’s spiritual force had become far denser. Human beings were naturally many times more adept than magical beasts at absorbing and utilizing energy.

As Pedia approached step by step, Teresa noticed that his brows were faintly furrowed. He did not seem pleased by the improvement in his abilities. Instead, he appeared to be worrying about something.

“Big brother, what’s wrong? Is something amiss?” Teresa asked.

“There are some side effects.” Pedia’s swordlike brows drew together as he spoke. “I feel that a fragment of a contract has appeared in my sea of consciousness. It doesn’t affect my main consciousness, but neither can I force it out.”

“A fragment of a contract? How did that happen? A contract with whom… Ah, the Night Demon?!”

Pedia had evidently reached the same conclusion, so even after hearing such a startling conjecture, his expression did not change in the slightest.

Teresa, by contrast, was far more troubled by the situation. She reached out and took his hand.

“I’m going to initiate a spiritual resonance. Big brother, relax.”

As she spoke, Teresa closed her eyes and sank wholly into her sea of consciousness. Guiding her spiritual power like an advancing tide, she sent wave after wave toward Pedia—

Within the world of consciousness, Teresa felt her central awareness completely dissolve, merging entirely into her spiritual power. Each strand of spiritual force was like a tendril extending from herself, allowing her to “see” everything with absolute clarity and precision, without the slightest obstruction.

If Teresa’s spiritual power was water, then Pedia’s was rock—steadfast and weighty.

As the “water” drew near the “stone,” ripples spread between them. Teresa suddenly felt herself enter a completely unfamiliar world. All the energy moved according to rules utterly different from her own. Every particle of energy was like a tiny soldier, gathering into ranks and formations, advancing along its prescribed route with perfect order, walking the same path again and again without ever growing weary…

Teresa could not help but be infected by the world’s discipline and solemnity. Like a rising tide, she flowed into it, following the established course onward and onward…

Suddenly, an aberration appeared before her “eyes.” It hovered at the edge of the energy stream like a leaf missing half its surface, allowing countless currents of energy to pass by its sides while it remained utterly unmoving.

Teresa knew at once that this was the target she had been seeking.

At the mere movement of her thoughts, the surrounding energy split into more than a dozen forces. From above and below, from the left and right, from front and back—in ten directions—they closed in on the aberrant presence, instantly wrapping it tightly—

The Book Spirit watched Teresa and Pedia nervously, her heart filled with unease. Attempting a spiritual resonance without the aid of a special magical device was dangerous enough, to say nothing of the unstable factor within Pedia’s sea of consciousness.

The more she thought about it, the more regretful she felt. Restlessly, she drifted back and forth through the air, already calculating the emergency measures she would need to take should any number of abnormal situations arise.

She was still lost in anxious speculation when she suddenly sensed Teresa’s spiritual power concentrating with tremendous force. Startled, she immediately focused all her attention on them.

A strange expression slowly appeared on Pedia’s face—at times joyful, at times anguished, at times resistant, at times submissive. As his expression shifted, the center of his brow slowly began to bulge outward from within, as though something were struggling desperately to break free of his body. The swelling rose and subsided by turns, causing everyone around him to share in its uncertain fluctuations.

After this had happened several times, the Book Spirit could bear it no longer. She spun forward and stopped before the center of his brow. Taking advantage of the instant it bulged outward, she pointed with her index finger. The energy throughout her body condensed into a single point and pierced straight through his brow.

In the next instant, a milky-white object the size of a bird’s egg shot out from the center of Pedia’s forehead!

☆☆☆

The little boat had been sailing across the sea shrouded in gray mist for so long that no one knew how much time had passed. At last, traces of reefs began to appear across the previously empty waters, proving that land must be nearby.

Led by the “Gray Bird,” the little boat moved smoothly and nimbly through the increasingly dense reefs. Before long, it drew near a stretch of land covered by a thin layer of dark soil—

With a dull thud, the boat ran aground.

The “Gray Bird” seemed to possess a mind of its own. Upon realizing that it had become stranded, it grew excited and was just about to accelerate away when, before it could even move, a tremendous force struck it down from the air. With a sharp slap, it crashed onto the ground, then seemed to be flattened beneath an invisible foot, spreading out and sinking into the black mud.

At the same time, a semitransparent figure faintly appeared above the “Gray Bird.” The left foot of this person was planted firmly on the creature, which had already transformed into a mass of gray vapor. He ground his foot against it several times with considerable force, finally destroying it completely.

Once the “Gray Bird” vanished, Lambert, still in his half-shadow form, raised his head and gazed toward the distant sea barely visible through the haze. A smile curled across his lips.

“So you were hiding here,” he murmured. “What a bunch of cowards hiding in their shells…”

As he spoke, his figure gradually faded until it disappeared completely.

This was not the first time Lambert had hunted Night Demons. He possessed abundant combat experience against those disgusting creatures that occupied human bodies and took on a half-demon, half-human form. Naturally, he was equally skilled at identifying and tracking them. Thus, the loss of the “leader” did not slow his progress. If anything, it made it easier for him to remain concealed and ensured his safety.

Lambert strolled casually across the island. His relaxed appearance made him seem less like a hunter pursuing Night Demons than someone taking a leisurely walk through his own garden.

Then, all at once, he twitched his nose. His eyes lit up, and he immediately quickened his pace. After rounding a barren, low ridge, the scene before him suddenly darkened—

More than twenty “people” were gathered behind the ridge. All of them were dressed like fishermen, but their skin was gray and their eyes rolled white. Some crawled on all fours; others sprang from place to place. Not the slightest trace of humanity remained in them.

These were Void Demons—or, more precisely, humans who had been corrupted by Void Demons.

They were undoubtedly the culprits behind the countless disasters inflicted upon Anya Village, the very group of Void Demons Lambert and Anya had waited three days to find and spent three days searching for.

Yet Lambert’s attention was not on the Void Demons. It was not even on the Night Demon that had already undergone partial transformation. His gaze passed over those hideous creatures and settled on a black rift a hundred yards behind them—

Countless streams of gray vapor slowly poured from the black rift, spreading in every direction. The dense haze blanketed the sea, cutting off the light of day as well as humanity’s path of counterattack.

It was a spatial rift—an extremely stable one.

What delighted Lambert even more was that the spatial fluctuations revealed by the rift were exactly identical to the “coordinates” Twilight had given him. There was not the slightest difference.

Genuine joy rose from the depths of his heart. The smile at Lambert’s lips grew broader, the light in his eyes brighter, and his gaze toward the Night Demon and the Void Demons increasingly gentle.

His mood was excellent.

No—his mood was wonderful.

It was absolutely magnificent.

Two blades of light silently appeared along Lambert’s arms. He let out a strange laugh, then leapt down like a hawk diving upon its prey, crashing into the group of Void Demons in an instant—

Before the Void Demons could react, a vast expanse of silver light had already enveloped three of them. After a rapid succession of slicing sounds, three wisps of gray vapor rose from within the silver radiance. They struggled in the air for no more than three seconds before three white chains twisted around them, tearing them apart in an instant.

In less than a second, three Void Demons had been utterly destroyed.

What an astonishing result.

The Night Demon leading the group reacted at once. Its half-human, half-demonic head reared high, and it released a shrill cry sharp enough to shatter glass. Only then did all the Void Demons spring into action.

Some retreated, some advanced, some launched direct attacks, while others harassed and distracted him. They even coordinated with one another, providing mutual cover.

More than twenty against one.

Faced with such a grossly disproportionate assault, Lambert only grew more excited, more frenzied, the harder he fought. And the more fiercely he battled, the more he seemed to gain the upper hand.

Silver blade-light wove densely around him in a seething mass. He was like a meat grinder: wherever he went, one Void Demon after another was sliced into pieces, its soul destroyed. Wounds continued to multiply across his body, yet he seemed like an iron man who knew neither pain nor injury. Under the assault of more than twenty Void Demons, he forcibly tore open a breach in their ranks and charged straight toward the Night Demon.

The creature before him was tall and lanky, with long arms and legs and a body that gleamed black from head to toe. Yet Lambert still managed to flash it a radiant, sunny smile. He even raised his bloodstained right hand and waved at it with astonishing ease.

“Hi.”

The word had scarcely left his lips when Lambert teleported directly in front of the Night Demon. Two long blades came crashing down upon its head, carrying the weight of a thousand measures! (To be continued)