Chapter 210: Silent Hunt and the Omen of Awakening

Time inside the crystal cavern seemed to lose its flow; only the slow drift of light within those enormous, multicolored crystal clusters marked the quiet passage of time. The dense, inert energy saturating the air soothed the mind, yet carried with it a sense of isolation cut off from the world. They had temporarily shaken off the Scavengers' pursuit, but the shadow of the Devouring Realm's Throat gnawing at them clung like a bone-deep ulcer, coiled beneath that pure crystal tree, silently reminding them the danger had not gone far.

Sister Ai Li carefully settled Priestess Liyana beside a warm, crimson crystal whose gentle heat seemed to slightly ease the pain of the cold, shadowy erosion within her, but the wounds at her ribs and shoulder remained savage, black lines writhing slowly beneath her skin, each breath carrying a restrained ache. She sat leaning against the crystal, eyes closed, regulating her breath, like a crouching leopard—even at rest she kept her vigilance at the highest pitch, her ears catching every unusual sound within the cavern.

Xiang Lingna sat wearily on the ground, carefully examining the cracks along her right arm. Those emerald veins seemed to have grown a little livelier in the cavern's energy environment, sending thread after thread of coolness that mended the damage from earlier overexertion, but full recovery was still a long way off. She glanced uneasily now and then at the eroded crystal tree, then at the unconscious Priestess Liyana, her brows tightly drawn.

Lin Mo, together with Zero, tried to use Zero's badly disrupted link to pull more information from the Gardener about this crystal cavern and the leyline energy well, but with little success—the cavern's natural energy shielding was simply too strong.

Those few crystal-cluster guides had returned to their kin; their halos had grown calm, and together with the other clusters they quietly absorbed the crystal energy, seemingly having dropped their guard entirely. The whole cavern wore an eerie, pre-storm stillness.

Minute after minute slipped past.

Suddenly, Zero's monitoring console, its pale-blue glow, flickered—extremely faintly, at a frequency almost too fast to notice.

"Anomalous spatial disturbance detected." Zero's electronic voice was compressed into an extremely faint sound wave, transmitted directly into Lin Mo's ear. "Source: the direction of the passage we entered. Disturbance signature… non-physical displacement, closer to… short-range shadow leap."

Lin Mo's heart clenched sharply! Shadow leap? Another type of the Doctor's killing unit?!

He immediately gave a silent hand signal. Sister Ai Li's eyes snapped open, a cold flash of light in her ice-blue irises; without a word, her body slid soundlessly into the blind spot beside the entrance fissure like a shadow merging with shadow, alloy short blade reverse-gripped, her breath fading to almost nothing. Xiang Lingna tensed at once too, holding her breath, instinctively drawing closer to Lin Mo.

The crystal clusters inside the cavern seemed to sense something as well; the flicker of their halos grew erratic, emitting faint, uneasy clicking sounds, instinctively shrinking back toward the depths of the cavern—toward the crystal tree.

Several minutes passed. The entrance remained utterly still, the silence enough to make one's scalp crawl.

Could Zero's sensors have erred?

The instant doubt rose in Lin Mo's mind—

The change came abruptly!

In the shadow beside the entrance fissure, the air rippled like water! A twisted figure composed entirely of pitch-black energy, its edges blurred and indistinct, flashed into existence without warning! Like a bodiless ghost, terrifyingly fast, it lunged straight at the nearest crystal cluster—one that was already backing away uneasily! A jet-black, claw-like tendril of energy shot out like lightning, stabbing straight at the cluster's core halo!

The strike was utterly silent, yet vicious beyond measure!

But one figure was faster than it!

In the instant that black claw was about to land, Sister Ai Li moved! As if she had predicted the attack's trajectory long before, she sprang from the blind spot—no longer hiding, but intercepting with pinpoint precision! Her alloy short blade, carrying her full explosive force and will, drew a cold streak of light, arriving first to hack savagely at the base of that energy tendril!

Rrrip—!

A strange sound, like cloth being torn! That energy tendril was actually severed clean through by Sister Ai Li's blade, charged with absolute resolve! Black energy shards sprayed in all directions!

The shadow figure let out a shrill, piercing, inhuman shriek and recoiled violently, its blurred form twisting, black smoke churning at the severed stump!

Strike and miss, then flee a thousand miles! Classic assassin style!

But how could Sister Ai Li let it go! She clung to it like a bone-deep ulcer, her short blade weaving into a sheet of silver light, tightly entangling the shadow figure, every strike aimed straight at its energy core! Her movements were ghost-like fast, even trailing afterimages—she had clearly pushed speed and technique to their absolute limit! The shadow figure seemed to specialize in ambush and assassination; straight combat was not its forte, and for the moment it was forced back again and again by Sister Ai Li's storm-like assault, able only to twist its body to evade, occasionally condensing black energy blades to parry, producing teeth-grinding sounds of clashing energy!

Only now did Lin Mo and Xiang Lingna get a clear look at the thing—about a person's height, with no fixed form, like a constantly writhing, shifting black humanoid shadow, with only two points of crimson light flickering where a head should be, brimming with cold killing intent.

"Shadow Stalker! The Doctor's special infiltration unit!" Zero's identification data flashed in instantly. "Specializes in stealth, assassination, energy attacks; physical defense is weak!"

They had to finish this fast! Who knew whether it had companions!

Lin Mo struck at once, but he did not rashly join the close combat. Instead, with both hands loosely cupped, gentle stardust power swiftly gathered, transforming into several milk-white energy chains radiating the light of order, darting out like spirit snakes from their den, precisely shooting toward the space around the Shadow Stalker—not a direct attack, but weaving into a great net to seal off its room to dodge!

Xiang Lingna reacted as well; steeling herself against the discomfort in her right arm, she focused her spirit and drove the emerald veins, sending a faint yet vitality-laden green beam shooting at the Shadow Stalker! This life energy was a natural bane to its corrupted essence!

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle! The moment the green beam struck the Shadow Stalker, puffs of black smoke immediately rose, making its shriek even more agonized and shrill!

Movement restricted and continuously seared by life energy, the Shadow Stalker's actions instantly developed a fatal sluggishness!

How could Sister Ai Li miss such a chance! Cold light exploded in her eyes; her body spun like a whirlwind, and the alloy short blade, borrowing the force of the spin, became a silver-white lightning bolt tearing through the darkness, and with an unstoppable momentum, drove savagely into the spot on the Shadow Stalker's chest where the crimson light blazed brightest—its energy core!

Pfft—!

Like a balloon being popped! The Shadow Stalker stiffened violently, letting out a wail of uttermost misery, its entire body erupting from the inside out with a blinding black-red light, then exploding with a boom, dissolving into countless drifting wisps of black smoke and shattered energy fragments that quickly dispersed into the air, leaving behind only a sickening burnt stench and the breath of the abyss.

From start to finish, the battle lasted barely a dozen seconds! Fast, accurate, ruthless! Their first time fighting together, yet the three displayed astonishing synergy.

Sister Ai Li dropped to one knee, gasping violently, her temples beaded with sweat. The overload of that explosive burst had aggravated her injuries; the black lines at her ribs seemed to have spread a little more, bringing a piercing pain. Yet a flash of exhilaration crossed her cold eyes, as if tearing apart that lurking venomous snake had vented a fraction of the repression of recent days.

"Nicely done, Sister Ai Li." Lin Mo stepped forward, channeling a wisp of gentle stardust power to help stabilize her injuries.

Xiang Lingna also exhaled in relief, collapsing onto the ground as if drained.

But Zero's console sounded the alarm again, this time with even deeper urgency:

"Multiple similar spatial disturbance signals detected! Appearing at different points around the cavern's perimeter! They are attempting to breach the cavern's energy shielding!"

Not just one—a whole pack!

These Shadow Stalkers clearly possessed some form of short-range group teleportation ability; they were probing their way in from every direction! The one just now had perhaps only been a vanguard sent in to scout!

The cavern's natural shielding could block orbital scans, yet it seemed unable to fully cut off this bizarre shadow leap!

"Prepare to defend! They're coming in!" Lin Mo growled low, stardust power surging once more, his sharp gaze sweeping the shadows in every direction of the cavern.

Sister Ai Li struggled to her feet, short blade held across her body, her gaze as cold as ever. Xiang Lingna forced herself to rally, and the emerald glow lit up once more along her right arm.

Beneath that eroded crystal tree, the coiled black mass seemed to sense the chaos and killing intent outside as well, writhing faintly, as if it had grown more active.

Just then, Priestess Liyana, who had been unconscious all this while, suddenly let out an extremely faint, dream-like moan.

Her lashes trembled a few times, her brow knit slightly, and the dormant dark-purple crystal at her forehead flickered—extremely faintly—once.

The emerald World Tree seed that had been guarding at her side seemed to sense something too; the life-glow it shed rippled gently in response, as if answering.