Lin Yu stares at the five attackers, their throats bound by shadow ropes writhing like living chains.

They thrash violently, bodies jerking, as the pressure tightens and breath deserts them.

Lin Yu swings down from his horse, his boots striking earth with deliberate weight, and begins to walk forward.

He passes Nora, Charlotte, and Charles without a glance, their wide eyes fixed on him in stunned silence.

Before he can close the distance, Isolde’s voice slices through his mind, sharp and commanding.

“Quickly kill them.”

Lin Yu halts, startled by the sudden order, and a storm of questions floods him.

Why kill? Why so suddenly?

The five attackers answer in the next heartbeat.

Their skin bursts with a violet glow, their silhouettes twisting into grotesque new shapes.

When the light fades, they stand no longer as men but as scaled horrors, their hands warped into talons, their faces elongated into reptilian maws.

The shadow ropes strangling their necks disintegrate, vanishing as though swallowed by their mutation.

Lin Yu does not waste time dwelling on it.

As the five monsters rush toward him with guttural roars, he summons five whips of shadow that crack through the air.

Isolde’s voice rises again, urgent and forbidding.

“Do not attack them with magic.”

The question of why lashes through Lin Yu’s mind, but before he can ask, the truth answers itself.

The shadow whips strike, only to be absorbed into the monsters’ scaled bodies, their violet aura swelling fiercer with stolen power.

They lunge with claws bared, certain now that he cannot meet them with extraordinary force.

Lin Yu’s eyes narrow, and he clenches his fists.

If he cannot use extraordinary power, then he will fight with his body.

Their strength is close to his own, but against five, he feels no fear.

He moves through them like a storm, his skill turning their ferocity into clumsy flailing.

He smashes one into a tree, swings another by the throat into its companion, and drives fists into scaled chests with bone-cracking force.

The forest resounds with the thuds of bodies hurled into bark and earth, their claws never once grazing his skin.

One by one, he batters them down until the last collapses beneath a brutal strike.

Their corpses remain monstrous, the purple scales and lizard faces refusing to fade into human form.

Lin Yu stands amidst the fallen, his breath steady, the forest swallowing back into silence as though nothing had disturbed it.

Charlotte’s trembling voice cuts through the stillness.

“What are these monsters?”

Lin Yu hears Charles and Nora speaking at once, explaining to Charlotte fragments of the extraordinary world she has never touched.

While their voices murmur behind him, his spirit sense sweeps through the corpses, probing every twisted scale and bone.

I understand what they are. But I need certainty.

Using my original power, I could confirm it. But before that, I should ask Isolde what she knows of them.

His voice flows into the depths of his sea of consciousness.

“Isolde, do you know anything about these monsters?”

Her reply comes lilting, half-teasing.

“Maybe.”

“Do you know or don’t you?” Lin Yu presses, his tone flat.

“The seal damaged my memory,” she says softly. “If only it were broken, perhaps it would return.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I already promised you,” Lin Yu answers. “Six months from now, I’ll go to the Sakar Mountain Range.”

“Six months is too far away.”

Lin Yu pauses in thought, the weight of her words pressing.

“Fine. Two weeks. I’ll leave for the Sakar Mountains in two weeks.”

Her silence lingers, then she asks, almost disbelieving,

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

His decision is not only for her sake but for his own.

The Sakar Mountains are one of the rare places on this island where energy-rich resources still thrive, and he needs them urgently.

Besides, his studies press close—in one week from now, the semester exams begin.

He will finish them, then depart, and return in time for the final examinations next year.

At last, Isolde speaks again.

“They are called Void Cultists. Believers of an evil god not from our world.”

My finding was correct, Lin Yu murmurs inwardly.

He turns, his gaze falling on Nora, her friends, and the servants, their faces pale with terror, their eyes locked on him as though clinging to a lifeline.

“Follow me,” he commands, his voice calm but unyielding.

Then he turns and strides down the forest path, leading them back toward the Ravenworth estate.

While they walk, Nora’s voice breaks the uneasy silence.

“What were they?”

“I don’t know,” Lin Yu answers calmly.

He hides the truth, guarding his identity as a noble child from a small place, for knowledge of hidden things could draw unwanted suspicion.

At the forest’s edge, they halt abruptly.

A translucent wall of force shimmers before them, sealing the path like glass forged of light.

Isolde’s voice ripples in his sea of consciousness.

“The forest is sealed inside an array. To break it, you must destroy the core.”

Lin Yu’s eyes shift into stormy grey, runes flickering across his pupils.

The woven patterns of the array reveal themselves, every thread of energy visible to him, enough to force a gap if he wished.

But as he studies it, his senses spread outward, catching violent fluctuations of battle scattered through the forest.

To maintain his guise, he cannot stand idle. He must aid this body’s father.

Charles speaks respectfully, his voice edged with unease.

“Mr. Weston, what should we do?”

Lin Yu turns his gaze toward them.

“I am going to search for my father. You all may stay here. There is a chance no one will attack you.”

Charlotte squeaks, her voice high and sharp.

“There is also a chance we will be attacked.”

Lin Yu glances at the servants, their hands tight around bolt-action rifles.

“The monsters are not that strong. Guns can kill them.”

Nora steps forward, resolve hardening her eyes.

“I will follow you. I want to find my parents as well.”

Charles straightens and nods.

“Me too.”

Lin Yu inclines his head in acceptance, then turns without hesitation, leading them toward the nearest surge of clashing energy deeper in the woods.

Elise steadies her revolver, aiming at a purple-scaled monster locked in combat with Fred, and pulls the trigger.

The bullet pierces its side, a spray of violet ichor bursting out, yet the beast only growls in fury and presses harder against Fred.

She does not dare cast spells, for every extraordinary attack would only feed the creatures, their strength swelling with stolen power.

Those trained in physical extraordinary paths clash directly with the monsters, steel and muscle against claw and scale, while the rest of the group fire rifles and pistols in desperate rhythm.

Greg, his blade flashing in the dim light, struggles against one of the beasts, his breath ragged.

“Everyone, I can’t hold it much longer—do something!”

Elise swings her revolver toward him and fires three sharp shots, the crack of gunfire echoing through the trees.

The monster staggers, but still it lashes back with snapping jaws.

Elise’s fingers fumble at her coat pocket, and she finds only four bullets left.

She loads quickly, the chambers clicking into place, and fires again, two thunderous shots slamming into scaled flesh.

Others add their fire, and finally Greg surges forward, driving his knife clean through the monster’s neck, severing its head in a spray of dark blood.

One by one, they bring down the remaining three creatures, gunfire and blades carving the forest into silence once more.

When the last body falls, no one cheers.

They only exchange glances, breathe heavy, their silence carrying both relief and the weight of dread.

Before the breath can leave their lungs, the ground trembles and the trees groan, branches cracking under some vast weight.

Something immense is moving toward them.

Lin Yu, already close to where he senses another clash, feels the vibrations deepen, and trees around him topple one after another.

He presses forward, the noise of chaos growing sharper—screams tearing the air, gunshots snapping, desperate shouts scattering.

From the jungle ahead, a figure bursts out, stumbling in panic.

Lin Yu recognises her instantly—Lucy Midbrough, the daughter of a lesser lord.

She halts at the sight of him, breath ragged, and gasps,

“Escape—monster ahead.”

But Lin Yu does not turn back.

Instead of fleeing, he breaks into a run straight toward the danger.

Elise, caught in the monster’s path, scrambles across the ground as claws crash down inches from her body.

They cannot match its strength—the last monster towers above the rest, each strike a thunderous quake.

She pivots to escape, but a crushing blow hurls her against a tree.

The impact steals her breath, pain blooming through every bone, her vision splitting.

One eye remains open, blurred, yet through it she sees a massive leg lift high, the ground shuddering beneath its weight as it descends toward her.

Despair grips her chest, and she braces for death.

But then the forest explodes with a sound like thunder.

A black giant hand materialises and slams into the beast’s flank, swatting it aside, its massive body tumbling across the earth.

Through her half-blurred vision, Elise sees him—Lin Yu, striding into the clearing, his presence cutting through the chaos like light.

Her voice breaks as she cries out to him.

“Don’t attack with extraordinary energy! The monster feeds on it!”

Yet he does not hesitate.

Behind him, a colossal upper body of shadow rises, its form vast and solid, each strike carrying crushing force.

The monster reels, unable to absorb the attacks, for the shadow energy delivers pure physical might.

Lin Yu presses the assault with ruthless precision, each blow breaking scale and bone, until he seizes the beast’s neck.

With a final twist, the sound of snapping echoes through the clearing, and the monster’s head lolls lifeless, its body collapsing into silence.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep