The night wind swept across the plain, rustling the waist-high weeds with a sound like ocean waves.
Three miles outside Fengyue city, the Windmill Mill.
The enormous wooden windmill blades let out a teeth-grinding creak in the night wind.
In a small thicket less than 500 meters from the mill.
Ailiya emerged like a pitch-black ghost, silently stepping out from the shadow of a dense oak tree.
She lightly touched her toe on a thick branch without making a sound.
She pulled her black hood slightly lower, her ice-blue eyes calmly watching the mill standing under the moonlight through the gaps in the leaves.
‘I have arrived.’
Ailiya closed her eyes and sent the message to Graves cleanly through the mental link.
Almost instantly, Graves’ somewhat hurried voice came through the mental link.
‘You finally came!’
Graves eagerly reported credit in his mind, his tone full of undisguised excitement.
‘I have good news! That bitch who betrayed me, the intelligence agent of our Night Owl, has been successfully caught by me! She’s tied up right now in the first-floor hall of the mill!’
‘Oh?’
Ailiya raised an eyebrow slightly.
So smoothly?
Based on her previous assessment of that woman, the other party was proficient in strange survival methods like the substitute paper doll and was extremely cunning—yet she was caught just like that?
‘Hurry in! This woman’s mouth is tough. I think only you, with your… ahem, extremely unique methods, can pry her mouth open!’
Graves urged urgently through the mental link.
Ailiya didn’t answer immediately.
She stood on the branch, silently activating Eagle Eye Art.
Her vision instantly zoomed in, taking in every detail around the mill.
The periphery of the mill seemed calm, but Ailiya keenly noticed that around the half-open wooden door, the grass’s trampled trails were extremely unnatural.
More importantly, on the second-floor window, though no figure was visible, there was a faint trace of magical fluctuation.
Ailiya sneered inwardly.
‘Is that so? Good work.’
Ailiya’s tone in the mental link remained as flat as still water, as if she hadn’t noticed any anomaly at all.
‘But the smell inside is too awful. I don’t like it.’
‘Now, bring that woman and get the hell out of the mill. Walk to the wheat field 100 meters outside.’
Ailiya gave the order, her tone carrying an irresistible authority.
Suddenly, the mental link fell into a dead silence.
Graves didn’t answer, nor did he act immediately.
One second, two seconds, five seconds…
‘U… understood.’
Creak—
The heavy wooden door of the abandoned mill slowly creaked open.
By the bright moonlight, Ailiya saw Graves walking out with a limp, his left hand gripping the iconic shadow demon gun and his right hand dragging a thick rope like a dead dog.
At the other end of the rope, tightly bound, was a woman with disheveled hair, wearing torn, tight leather armor.
She was the Night Owl intelligence agent who had used the substitute paper doll to escape from the warehouse before.
Now, head lowered, face unclear, she was being roughly dragged by Graves, stumbling out of the mill.
The two walked step by step down the gentle slope and arrived at a wheat field about 100 meters from the mill.
Waist-high yellow dry wheat stalks swayed in the night wind.
‘I’ve brought the person out.’
Graves stopped, standing in the middle of the wheat field. He looked up at the surrounding darkness, his voice a little tight.
‘Where are you?’
Ailiya remained hidden on the branch in the thicket, completely motionless.
She didn’t even change her breathing rate, just coldly watching this clumsy act.
‘Graves, listen.’
Ailiya’s icy voice exploded in the depths of Graves’ soul with an irresistible, terrifying pressure.
‘Now, forget about the person in your hand.’
‘Raise your magic gun, aim it at the windmill mill behind you. Use your strongest attack and completely destroy that damn building.’
Standing in the middle of the wheat field, Graves’ body suddenly trembled violently.
But the power of the contract was absolute.
The moment Ailiya issued the forced command, Graves’ physical body had completely slipped out of his control.
Under the stunned gaze of the bound woman.
Like a stiff puppet, Graves slowly but extremely firmly turned around.
He let go of the rope.
He steadied his hands and raised the heavy shadow demon gun.
He even uncontrollably pulled out several high-grade magic crystals from his tactical pouch and loaded them all into the gun chamber.
The muzzle pointed directly at the seemingly quiet windmill mill 100 meters away.
Ready to fire.
VWOOM—
Black as ink, shadow magic surged wildly from Graves’ body, recklessly pouring into the gun chamber!
The surrounding air let out a piercing shriek under the terrifying magic surge.
“You’re insane?! Stop right now!”
The woman tied on the ground screamed and struggled desperately, trying to stop Graves.
BOOM—
A beam of light as thick as a bucket, pitch-black and radiating destructive energy, instantly tore through the night sky!
The massive recoil sent Graves flying several steps back. The gun barrel even turned slightly red and soft from overheating.
He fell heavily into the wheat field, panting heavily.
Accompanied by a deafening, earth-shaking roar, the windmill mill, like paper, was instantly pierced by the beam!
Violent chain explosions blasted inside the mill, fire soaring into the sky!
Countless flaming wooden fragments splattered in all directions.
The four-story mill collapsed in an instant, transforming into a blazing hellish ruin.
After the dust and black smoke scattered in the wind.
“Cough cough cough… ptoo!”
Three figures emerged extremely disheveled from the burning wreckage.
Their night clothes were torn and tattered from the explosion. One person even had his left arm twisted unnaturally, clearly suffering serious injuries from the sudden devastating strike.
“Cough cough… damn Graves! Cough… you two-faced scumbag! What the hell is the meaning of this?!”
A tall, thin man with dual blades pointed angrily at Graves in the distance, roaring while spitting out dust.
“You wanted to kill us all?!”
“Idiot, don’t fucking yell at him! This only means one thing…”
The black robe mage beside him, face dark, ground his teeth and swallowed a mouthful of blood, speaking viciously.
“This coward betrayed the organization long ago and became someone else’s dog!”
“He’s been in cahoots with that woman all along, just putting on a show for us.”
The black robe mage trembled with rage.
“Him dawdling to bring the person out 100 meters was just so we three would be completely exposed, with no cover, right in the best firing range of his magic gun!”
“We’ve been made fools of!”
“Shut up! Enough bullshit.”
A cold, piercing voice cut through the chaotic ruins, instantly silencing the two arguing men.
The one on the far right, who hadn’t spoken before, was an extremely short, hunched man with eyes as disgusting as a venomous snake.
Though he was also covered in dust and soot, he was the least injured of the three, with only a gash on his shoulder from a fragment.
He didn’t bother with the traitor Graves lying on the ground in the distance, nor did he glance at the bound intelligence agent on the ground.
He just twisted his head sharply.
Those eyes, glowing with an eerie, sickly light in the night, like a vulture locking onto prey, fixed deadly on the distant, quiet, dark thicket.
That was where Ailiya had hidden all night, thinking she was completely unnoticed.
“You rat hiding in the dark…”
His voice echoed across the open field with a chilling certainty.
“I’ve already… locked onto your position.”