Rivers of the Night

Theron's palm collided smoothly, his blade hitching back.

These disciples were powerful, but Theron realized something quite odd about them the moment he started his attack.

Their understanding of combat, their fighting skill, and their experience on a battlefield were highly limited. Not only did they have no idea how to coordinate with one another—their cooperation only making them about half as strong as they would be normally—but even in a one-on-one setting, when flustered, they had no idea how to read and respond.

Theron had been taking a chance by attacking them like this, half expecting to sustain some injuries in exchange for a quick victory. But in the end, he didn't suffer a single wound. They were almost…

Pathetic.

The chest of the disciple caved in, and his eyes went white.

All five fell to the ground, but Theron didn't stop moving.

First, he dispelled the Dark Mana spell he had cast earlier. It was an incredibly simple spell and its only function was to act as a sponge for noise.

He knew from the moment these disciples didn't sense that, that they were doomed. To be Dark Mancers and not even detect the usage of a mere Bronze Resonance technique was absolutely worse than just sheer incompetence—they almost deserved to die.

However, Theron hadn't killed them just yet. They were just incapacitated.

Either way, thanks to that spell, the shouts and noise from this region were completely stifled.

The spell was so weak that had they used Mana to amplify their voices into a technique of some sort, it would have easily blasted through. But they didn't even do that much.

They knew that their patrol location was close to one another, so as long as they sent out some word, they would be able to alert everyone that the target was here.

Unfortunately, they made a mistake.

Theron's actions didn't stop. He checked their storage devices one after another and found some rope.

He wasn't surprised by finding this rope. Earlier, he had checked Zhou and Huwen's storage bags to see if there was anything ubiquitous across the disciples that he should be wary of.

He had found two things of note.

The first were odd crystals that seemed to have concentrations of Dark Mana. From his geology research, they could probably be used to quickly replenish Mana in short order or be used as the power for formations and things of the like.

The second were brittle yellowed papers that seemed to store one-time-use spells.

These were the two things that could be the most direct danger to himself. But there were many other miscellaneous things that caught his attention, like this rope.

It would have been fine if just one of the two had it, but both of them did.

The moment Theron saw this, he believed that it was Sect-issued equipment. As for why that was, he wasn't sure just yet. But he slotted it away nonetheless.

Regardless of the reason, though, this rope would come in handy right now.

Theron zipped around, tying all five of them up and then launching them up and over his back. He piled them up like slaughtered pigs over just a single shoulder and then leapt up.

The combined weight of the five wasn't even 800 pounds. Even before his body upgrade, Theron, even as a Water Mancer, was more than capable of hauling such weight. Now, it was practically as light as a feather to him.

His body control remained so immaculate that he didn't even leave a dent on the ground. As for the scene just now, it looked as though no fight had happened at all.

The assassin's tenets were deep. From analyzing crime scenes to cleaning them up.

And to make it out of here, Theron would make sure to stretch them all to the limit.

**

Elder Dezend had only just begun to send out his ripples when there was a sudden alert.

GONG. GONG.

A messenger rushed into the hall, and everyone looked toward him instantly.

"Deaths!" the messenger breathed out. "Elder Lotus has noted five deaths. An entire group has been wiped out!"

He had only just finished speaking when another voice came as a second messenger rushed in.

And then a third.

And then a fourth.

There was a flash, and just minutes later, Elder Lotus rushed in.

"There's a pattern, elders. The Demon Soldier is carving out a bloody path to escape! They seem to be taking the approach of speed."

BOOM!

Grand Elder Macie stood to her feet. Her patience was already as limited as it could get, but now she couldn't hold back any longer, even if she wanted to. The enemy was right here—she couldn't wait.

This time, the Patriarch didn't stop her.

They would all be moving with full force this time.

"Go."

…

Theron dashed through the forest, his body running backward in an odd gait. But his breathing was controlled and focused.

Every so often, he would kill a group of five over his shoulder, timing it perfectly, and then tying them up in a tree, leaving them dangling in a mass of five.

When he killed the last group, he accelerated backward even faster, his body moving like the wind.

He crossed through the forest and made it to the bottom of the mountain, his body still running backward.

And then it came—a violent sweep of pressure.

Theron's toes planted into the ground hard as it swept over him, and all of his backward momentum became forward momentum in a single go.

He rushed forward and toward everything else as though his life depended on it. With a swipe of his hand, Dark Mana coated his face, obscuring it from vision.

The moment it disappeared, however, he about-faced and dashed away as fast as his legs would allow him, his gaze looking as dark as ice in the depths of a blackened ocean.

He moved with a decisive flare to his actions, rushing toward the gates of the Nightingale Sect, and without a single word to the guards that were still on duty, rushing out.

"Hey!"

"Stop right there!"

Theron didn't listen.