“Why didn’t you wait until they were touching my face before reminding me? Little Second, you’ve been getting lazier lately.”
Lin Hong spoke with his mind, complaining while further spreading his perception.
However, he sensed nothing out of the ordinary.
[Apologies, Host.]
The response speed of the mysterious panel was surprisingly fast, and it even carried a rare ripple of sincere apology.
[This panel is currently upgrading. We deeply regret and apologize for any inconvenience caused.]
“You can actually upgrade? Tell me more. What kind of new tricks will you have?”
Lin Hong’s eyes flickered as he caught the keyword, immediately pressing for more information.
[The process is not yet complete. As it involves bottom-level logic, it cannot be disclosed. Please await further news.]
“…”
Lin Hong was speechless.
Although the mysterious panel’s response was still formal and rigid, he couldn’t help but feel a hint of smugness from it.
Not long ago, for some unspeakable reason, he had used his mental energy to try and do something unspeakable to the mysterious panel.
The result was that the panel didn’t budge at all, while he was knocked back by a counter-shock that left him dizzy.
Since then, the mysterious panel had become increasingly fearless when communicating with him.
Lin Hong had reason to suspect that the thing’s terror when they first met was all an act, just waiting for a chance to scheme against him.
Footsteps approached, followed by a knock on the door.
Lin Hong opened the door, pretending to be bleary-eyed from sleep as he greeted the two young women.
Standing outside was not only Celestia but also Lovella.
It turned out the former had come to find the latter to discuss some matters.
Now that their discussion was over, they had stopped by to visit him on their way out.
“Thank you for your concern, Your Highness, and Sister.”
“Master Evan’s performance in the assessment was quite unexpected. Please be more diligent in the future.”
Celestia gave a slight nod, her pale gold eyes calmly scanning Lin Hong before she gave a polite smile.
“As you say.”
Lin Hong brushed her off politely.
As he continued to sense his surroundings, he vaguely noticed something abnormal, but the distance was too far to be certain.
Lovella didn’t seem to notice his distraction—or perhaps she was used to it.
She paused for a moment before delivering an important piece of news.
A few days ago, a letter had arrived from Duke and Duchess Wayne at the border.
The situation there was currently stable, so they hoped their two children could visit for a few days for a family reunion.
After all, the family had not been together for two or three years.
This was significant news that caused Lin Hong to snap back to reality.
He was momentarily stunned.
Duke and Duchess Wayne were this body’s biological parents.
The couple guarded the border year-round; they were powerful, highly decorated, and legendary figures with true authority.
Was he about to meet them soon?
‘Crap, is the young Evan not coming back? I don’t want to gain a pair of parents out of nowhere!’
The two women didn’t stay long.
After delivering the news, Celestia took her leave.
Lovella naturally went to see her out and glanced at Lin Hong, signaling for him to join them.
Lin Hong immediately pressed his temples with a weary expression.
“Your Highness, Sister, I got up too quickly and feel a bit dizzy. I won’t see you out.”
Celestia didn’t seem to care, or perhaps she hadn’t expected Lin Hong to join them in the first place.
She maintained her perfect, slight smile and nodded.
“Master Evan’s health is important. Please rest well.”
Lovella glanced at Lin Hong and sighed softly, but she didn’t say much.
She simply told him to rest well before leaving.
Lin Hong watched them go with a strange expression because he could already sense the abnormality spreading toward them.
He hesitated on whether to warn them, but ultimately decided against it, merely attaching a wisp of mental energy to follow them.
Warning them would bring too much trouble.
Those two shouldn’t be defeated instantly, anyway.
He would wait until he dealt with the enemy in front of him.
Whoosh!
A cold light, like the flick of a venomous snake’s tongue, shot out from the shadows.
Lin Hong remained calm, standing his ground.
His right hand brushed out lightly, and with a clink, his fingers caught and stopped the blade right in front of him.
Hiss!
The short blade carried immense force.
Even though it had been intercepted, the power hadn’t been fully dissipated; it continued to vibrate and hum.
An invisible gust of wind erupted, blowing Lin Hong’s hair into a mess.
He spoke in a cold, eerie tone.
“I was wondering… with the Duke’s manor covered in layers of magic and guards, how could several large beasts sneak in?”
“Turns out there’s a traitor in the house. No wonder the maid who knocked on my door earlier was someone else.”
Meanwhile, not far from the bedroom in the magnificent corridor, the two young women walked side by side.
“I apologize for the embarrassment, Your Highness. Evan has always been like this…”
Lovella said with a bitter smile.
Celestia smiled back.
They had known each other since childhood, so she naturally understood her friend’s feelings.
She was about to say something when a sudden sense of discomfort struck her, causing her to instinctively stop.
In her beautiful eyes, tiny flickers of light ignited!
In the next instant, a surge of Radiant Power gathered and took shape.
In the blink of an eye, a holy spear of light was formed.
Celestia hurled it, the tip pointing straight into the shadows ahead!
The strike was fast, accurate, and ruthless.
It annihilated the very dust in the air as it passed, more than capable of purifying the undead and wounding all manner of evil creatures.
However, nothing happened.
The radiant spear plunged into the darkness and then—silence.
It was like a stone sinking into the ocean.
Not even a ripple was stirred as it was swallowed by the thick, viscous darkness.
“…”
Celestia’s expression turned grave.
She felt the Radiant Power that had been flowing through her body suddenly stagnate.
Its efficiency dropped drastically, suppressed by a power of equal rank!
“The light… is being suppressed?” she whispered to herself.
“This is the Veil of Eternal Night.”
Lovella’s expression also changed.
Recognizing the source of the darkness, she immediately pulled a communication magic stone from her robe and crushed it.
However, it was useless.
The darkness was spreading too fast, cutting off all signals from the outside world.
“Hehe… As expected of Princess Celestia and Lady Lovella Wayne. You are quite sharp.”
A low, magnetic laugh echoed from the darkness ahead.
Then, the dense shadows began to ripple as a figure slowly emerged.
It was a very young man with a slender build, dressed in elegant formal wear.
His face was exceptionally handsome, though his complexion was deathly pale.
Most striking were his eyes, which lacked any whites—they were as black as the night.
“Shadow-Blessed…” Celestia’s voice was cold.
….
The connection with his mental energy was severed.
Lin Hong sensed this and glanced toward the corridor.
A curtain of darkness had descended there, eventually solidifying into a dark boundary that separated that area from the outside world.
However, before the connection broke, he had managed to learn of the situation there through that wisp of mental energy.
His expression was strange.
‘Another one favored by a god?’
And the one behind it was another old acquaintance—one of those who had participated in the ambush against him in the starry sky more than ten years ago.
“Master~ being distracted during a fight can lead to a very miserable death~”
A flirtatious female voice suddenly rang out, but it was laced with another sound—like the chirping of insects—that made one’s skin crawl.
By now, the attacker from before had been pushed back, revealing her true form.
It was Isha, the young Evan’s personal maid.
Her face was now covered in strange patterns, and her pupils had vanished, leaving only the whites of her eyes.
Even more horrifying were the pair of insect wings, as thin as cicada wings, which had torn through her clothing and sprouted from her shoulder blades!
Buzz, buzz, buzz—
The wings vibrated, producing a nauseating noise.
Isha rose into the air, a terrifying aura emanating from her body that seemed to bind the surrounding area.
Then, a ring of air exploded in mid-air as she dived down at extreme speed!
“Heehee, which way would Master like to die? Charred to a crisp by flames? Struck into ashes by lightning?”
“Or… eaten clean, bit by bit, from the inside out by my lovely little babies?”
“Isha” laughed.
Her fingernails turned black and sharp, covered in a layer of dark green light, as she lunged directly for Lin Hong’s heart.
Bang!
However, in the next instant, she was sent flying backward!
Lin Hong remained calm.
He took a half-step forward and threw a twisting punch.
The blow sent “Isha” tumbling through the air, breaking two of her bones on the spot and causing her to cough up blood.
“What are you blabbering about? How dare you possess my maid’s body! Give me your life!”
As he spoke, Lin Hong’s figure blurred.
He appeared before “Isha” in an instant and stomped down.
Thud!
The ground of the courtyard trembled slightly.
After the Creation Return to Origin Sutra had entered its second stage, the nourishment of his physical body had become even more incredible.
His strength was immense!
Unfortunately, the stomp missed.
“Isha” dodged and soared into the sky once more!
“You little brat, you aren’t an ordinary human. I misjudged you; the intelligence was wrong!”
“Isha’s” voice was cold.
The pain from that single punch was so intense that she stopped pretending.
Her insect wings sliced through the air, letting out a piercing screech.
“But what can you do? Will you strike me? Your precious little maid is still imprisoned within me, her soul screaming in agony!”
She then opened her mouth and let out a strange, shrill cry.
A bizarre and unpredictable sonic force erupted!
The sound waves were incredibly sharp, turning into visible ripples that spread out in terrifying circles!
Crash, crash, crash!
In the courtyard, decorative plants, stones, and even the building itself began to shatter.
Lin Hong’s expression grew serious.
He could certainly tell that this opponent was not ordinary.
The strange sonic screech seemed to permeate everything, as if it could even tear through a physical body!
It was another mutated ability of the Evil Race that he had never seen before.
However, he remained calm and composed.
He immediately tensed his muscles, and the Creation Return to Origin Sutra surged within him.
His internal pathways accelerated their rotation, generating a secret force that bolstered his body and resisted the sound waves.
At the same time, he flicked his hand.
His spatial ring flashed repeatedly, and the few remaining alchemy gadgets within flew out!
Boom!
Blinding light and shockwaves erupted, colliding with the sonic ripples and forming a brief stalemate!
“Heh, the struggles of an ant. Dissolve into pus and blood under my Master’s power!”
Screech—Gah—
In mid-air, “Isha” let out a sharp, mocking laugh.
The screech from her mouth became even more piercing, as if it could shred anything in its path.
Rumble!
The courtyard was in an uproar.
The air vibrated at a high frequency, creating ripples as if space itself were being sliced apart!
Finally, the dust settled and the turbulent energy died down.
“…Where is he?”
“Isha” was stunned.
The ground below was empty!
There was only the ravaged earth where the sonic waves had plowed through.
The youth’s presence had vanished into thin air!
“Where are you looking?”
A cold, sinister voice whispered behind her head.
The hair on “Isha’s” neck stood up, and she felt as if her scalp were about to explode!
Instinctively, she flapped her insect wings frantically and whipped around, claws reaching out behind her.
But it was too late.
She only had time to see a fist expanding in her vision before….
Bang!
“Isha” felt as if she had been struck by a lightning bolt, and she was sent flying once more.
However, she was resilient.
She flapped her wings desperately in mid-air, trying to regain her balance to counterattack or flee.
But how could he give her the chance?
Lin Hong snorted.
Using mental energy to maneuver his body, he briefly floated in the air.
He then manipulated a burst of air current to move horizontally and slammed his foot down onto her back.
Boom!
The courtyard shook again.
Dust billowed into the air as a shocking, person-shaped crater was smashed into the ground.
In the pit, “Isha” lay curled up, thick black blood continuously oozing from her mouth. She was half-dead, having been stomped to the ground by Lin Hong.
Inside her, the cultist controlling the body couldn’t understand what was happening.
The previous intelligence was wrong—it would accept that the youth wasn’t the E-rank waste the rumors suggested, as plans often changed.
But what was with this physical strength?
Was he even human?
He had remained unharmed within the sonic waves, and with just two punches and a kick—without any magical or combat aura fluctuations—he had beaten her until she was spitting blood simply through raw power.
He was like a human-shaped magical beast!
The pair of wings on her back were completely broken, with several fragments scattered in the distance.
Lin Hong frowned slightly.
Sensing something, he abandoned the idea of delivering a final stomp to finish the thing off.
During their brief clash, he discovered that Isha’s original consciousness had not perished, nor had she ever betrayed him.
Her spirit was imprisoned, but she had never given up; she was resisting and struggling.
The struggle was minute, but it had affected the cultist’s timing, causing a momentary delay that allowed him to get behind her unnoticed.
There was nothing more to be said.
Since she was a victim, he had to do his best to save her.
Lin Hong didn’t hesitate.
He leaned down and picked her up, intending to find a way to force the evil entity out of her body.
In the next instant, with a splat, Isha’s mouth flew wide open.
A black shadow, half the size of a palm and shaped like a hideous monster insect, shot straight toward Lin Hong’s face!