Chapter 52: 52 Dilan Is Still Running for His Life Today

Lead clouds hung low, and several peals of thunder rolled across the sky.

A figure in black robes crouched beside a corpse split in two, its withered fingers roughly tearing open a cargo sack.

After a thorough search, the robed figure simply grabbed the last half of the sack, shook it violently, and dumped everything onto the muddy ground.

The other attackers gradually gathered, dumping the contents of the other three sacks as well.

Eight figures in black robes crouched on the ground, searching intently as if looking for soybeans in a pile of rice.

Yet they still had not found what they sought.

The one in the center angrily crushed a crystal in his hand, causing the other robed figures on both sides to step back, whether to avoid the flying shards or the leader's wrath was unclear.

"Not here... not here... not here, not here! Why is it not here?"

The suppressed voice carried anger, yet the words spoken were not human language.

"The intelligence cannot be wrong; these lowly humans could not have discovered the anomaly so quickly. Something must be amiss!"

"My lord," a robed figure nearby stepped forward and cautiously reminded, "could it be on the corpses?"

"Then why are you still wasting words here? Go find it quickly!"

"Yes, yes!" Several robed figures scattered in fear to search the other three corpses.

Ten minutes later, all the attackers returned to the initial ambush site, staring at the blood-stained arrow on the ground.

The leader picked up the arrow and whispered, "Avina?"

One of the robed figures immediately knelt and hurriedly pleaded, "Lord Lakus, I swear that arrow absolutely pierced his heart!"

"Then how do you explain this?" The arrow pressed against Avina's forehead, as if it would pierce her at any moment.

Avina dared not move a muscle, trembling as she begged for a chance:

"It... it must be that he had some other means of survival. I can track him! Please, my lord, let me atone for my crime!"

After a brief yet suffocating silence, the arrow stabbed into the dirt before Avina.

"Chase! If you do not retrieve what the one above demands, you will wait to become a blood beast."

Hearing the words "blood beast," not only Avina but all the other robed figures shivered and hurriedly replied:

"Yes!"

————

Drizzling raindrops fell into the forest; Dilan's soles sank into the rotting leaf litter, and every step he took stirred up sticky mud.

He leaned against a large tree, bent over panting, trying to calm his heaving chest.

After sprinting continuously for over ten minutes, his stamina was nearly exhausted.

Turning into a half-mushroom man had not improved his stats, but his heart did not hurt much anymore.

There was no sign of any movement behind him; perhaps he had already shaken off those attackers, or maybe they hadn't even noticed he had run away?

Dilan found a small slope with some cover and planned to take shelter from the rain there.

In fact, the raindrops hitting Dilan's face felt quite comfortable, but getting his clothes soaked would be unbearable.

Besides, he still had this book in his hand...

Right, this book!

Dilan brought the book close, gently stroking the wrinkles on the cover.

What exactly was written in this book?

As Dilan thought this, he naturally opened it.

Blank—blank—blank—

On the leather pages... there was nothing?

Dilan quickly flipped through the pages to the end, yet could not find a single note.

So, is this a brand-new book with nothing written in it?

I ran without even dropping it, all that effort was wasted.

Thinking this, Dilan suddenly noticed that a line of delicate small characters had appeared on the page at some point.

【Not going to keep running? You'll be caught!】

After reading the words clearly, Dilan instantly felt a chill run down the back of his neck.

This world indeed had no shortage of high-level magical artifacts with a certain degree of intelligence.

For example, magic rings that could autonomously cast shields, or golems capable of identifying whether someone was an intruder.

But almost all possessed only vague or relatively low-level intelligence.

Yet when a creation could converse with you at length, one material must have been used in its making—

A soul!

Although soul artifacts were not necessarily equivalent to evil, given their cruel method of creation, their makers were likely not kind-hearted people, making the possibility of dangerous artifacts naturally higher.

In an instant, several terrifying stories related to soul artifacts flashed through Dilan's mind.

He immediately wanted to throw it away.

But that line of words made him very concerned.

What did it mean?

Were those robed figures still chasing him?

Finally, Dilan opened the book again, but the words on it had changed!

【Six minutes left】

"What does 'six minutes left' mean?" Dilan asked the book directly.

As soon as he spoke, the previous writing vanished, and a new line of characters appeared.

【Five minutes left; they will reach here soon】

!!!

Daring no delay, Dylan rushed into the rain and continued his flight.

He was unsure whether the book was deceiving him, but the situation now was that it was better to believe it existed!

The rain beat against his body, soaking his clothes, yet it could not wet the book in his hand; no water stain could soak into its pages.

While running, Dylan opened the book and wanted to ask something else, only to find a line of text already there.

【This way you will not escape; run toward the southeast.】

Dylan now had no other choice; he quickly identified the direction and fled toward the southeast.

He did not know how long he had been fleeing when, just as his strength was about to be exhausted, Dylan's feet suddenly gave way.

"Waaaaah—"

His entire body suddenly lost weight, tumbling as he fell into the deep pit beneath him...

————

"Is that it?"

Beside the deep pit, the black-robed man called Lacus asked from behind.

Avina stepped forward two paces and confirmed:

"Yes. Although we do not know why the prey suddenly abandoned its rest and chose to keep running,

judging by his footprints from this last stretch, his stamina was already at its limit; he likely stumbled and fell in a daze."

Turning his head to look at the deep pit before him, Lacus leaped in without hesitation, and the other black-robed men followed closely behind.

At the bottom of the deep pit, Lacus landed lightly, and not even a single ripple was stirred up by the edge of his boots.

The landing postures of his subordinates were not so elegant; several of them smashed mud pits into the ground, but fortunately, no fool dared splash mudwater onto Lacus's robe.

Before the black-robed men appeared a natural cave.

These natural caves in the wild are far inferior to the caves within the dungeon in terms of size and depth.

Therefore, there is no need to worry about the prey burrowing into one and becoming difficult to find.

Moreover...

In the puddle at his feet, a streak of blood drew Lacus's attention.

It was not just in one spot; the streak of blood extended faintly into the cave—apparently, the prey was injured when it fell.

Relying solely on this scent of blood, Lacus could track the prey himself.

His scarlet tongue slowly licked over his canine teeth: "Little bug, wasting so much of my time; I hope your blood is not too unpleasant to drink."

(End of this chapter)