Chapter 96 - Exposed
Parts of the wall behind Lin Yun fell down as the light shone.
Immediately after, Lin Yun felt the ground shivering under his feet.
‘What…’ Lin Yun’s eyes became round. What could create such a situation? What could cause an earthquake to occur in the cave?
It didn’t take long for Lin Yun to come up with the answer.
‘Bone Devil!’
‘This is definitely the Bone Devil waking up, what else could create such a big movement in this black wasteland? I celebrated too soon, I was so happy after getting that staff… So the damn Bone Devil woke up to cool me down…’
Lin Yun almost broke into a run. But a mere Great Mage in his current state was but a dish in front of a Bone Devil. If he was too slow, he might lose a few body parts. If he didn’t take advantage of the Bone Devil’s momentary torpor after just waking up, would he have to just wait for death?
‘No!’ Just as Lin Yun was about to move, he realized his mistake. The more anxious he was, the faster he would lose his mind. The Bone Devil was awakening outside. If he thoughtlessly ran outside, wouldn’t he run into it? The Bone Devil wouldn’t have to do anything, Lin Yun would be serving himself up for breakfast.
‘This isn’t like last time…’
Last time he had been able to rely on Elemental Incarnation and the sea of fire to break away from the Bone Devil. He didn’t have sufficient preparation this time. If he couldn’t break free from the Bone Devil in under an hour, wouldn’t he become stuck in the Bone Plane?
‘This is no good, I can’t run outside.’
Lin Yun controlled the Light and quickly searched around the cave before finding a narrow passage on the other side and immediately rushed into that passage.
Lin Yun wasn’t planning to get away through this route. That would be almost impossible. An underground cave like this could lead anywhere, whether to the surface or to a dead end. If Lin Yun could choose where the path led, he would definitely choose to escape to the surface, but he couldn’t be that lucky.
Lin Yun only planned to hide in that passage, waiting until the Bone Devil disappeared before looking for a way to return to Noscent. As for where that path led, it didn’t matter to Lin Yun.
After going through the passage, Lin Yun stopped controlling the Light and had it float two meters in front of him while he held the magic staff with his now empty right hand.
Besides the Sage Chapter, the most powerful item in Lin Yun’s hands was that Spiritual Magic Staff, even if the spirituality of the staff was still slumbering,
Lin Yun could clearly feel the mana coming from the Burning Spirit Tree in his hand pouring into the Elemental Amber continuously. That feeling could be compared to a beautiful note of music. It made people unconsciously feel intoxicated. But this time, Lin Yun had no time to appreciate its beauty. He quickly took out the Sage Chapter, storing two Fire Arrow spells in a row.
Lin Yun relaxed when he saw the two Fire Arrow symbols. The thousands of Soul Fires he had harvested truly weren’t wasted. Those Soul Fires were already enough for two Fire Arrow Spells to be upgraded to Ultimate Spells.
These two Ultimate Spells were the last card Lin Yun prepared. If the Bone Devil followed his aura into the cave, then Lin Yun would have to do his best with what he had. Under normal circumstances, Lin Yun’s current strength wasn’t enough to contend with the Bone Devil. He could only rely on the narrow terrain as well as the two Ultimate Spells stored in the Sage Chapter.
After finishing his preparations, Lin Yun stopped and took a deep breath as he calmly waited for the final outcome.
There were only two possibilities right now.
The Bone Devil could return to its slumber after going crazy for a while, or it might sense the aura of a living being and follow Lin Yun into the cave.
The first would naturally be the ideal choice for Lin Yun. The second would mean that he would have to put his life on the line.
The seconds ticked by as the cave continued shaking.
But Lin Yun’s expression gradually darkened. He could hear them, the footsteps of the Bone Devil slowly getting closer. Those heavy footsteps echoed in Lin Yun’s head. Each step would put more pressure on his mind.
Then, a world-shaking roar echoed, making the entire cave tremor.
‘Fuck…’ Lin Yun cursed.
He knew that the Bone Devil had found him. That roar was filled with anger at someone infiltrating its territory, but it was also filled with the excitement of discovering prey. It was the same roar as the previous time.
Lin Yun looked at the passage in front of him, then once again at the empty cave, and after thinking for a short time, he decided to go a bit deeper. He hoped to make it harder for the Bone Devil to track him by putting some distance between them, and he also planned to used the narrow passage to help him if he had to go all-out against the Bone Devil.
After all, he had two Ultimate Spells in hand. He didn’t have the power for a fight against a Bone Devil.
‘Strange…’ Some doubt appeared on Lin Yun’s face after walking a few dozen meters in. The pathway was too smooth compared to the outside. It didn’t look naturally formed… it seemed man-made. Sure enough, some traces of ironware could be seen on the surface of the walls.
‘Could the Black Tower’s High Mage have carved it?’ he wondered.
‘…No way, a High Mage wouldn’t have that kind of physical power.’
It would appear that the walls had been carved by alchemy puppets.
But if it had been done by alchemy puppets, then why couldn’t he find the remains of such puppets outside? Even if this was the Bone Plane with its abundant death energy, alchemy puppets couldn’t have eroded to nothing in just a few hundred years.
‘Could it be that there is still more if I go deeper?’
Lin Yun decided that in any case, going deeper inside was the best solution to avoid the Bone Devil. If he really found those alchemy puppets and found a way to reboot them, he might be able to use them to dig an alternate path to the surface.
With these thoughts in mind, Lin Yun went about thirty meters deeper. At that time, the Bone Devil seemed to have found the source of the aura of a living being and was now going through the precipitous slope, slowly entering the cave’s depths.
Heavy footsteps, a sinister roar…
Hearing both put huge pressure on Lin Yun’s mind, but he forced himself not to look back. Among the undead, Bone Devils were very sensitive to humans. Just the act of turning around might actually give away his exact location.
Lin Yun continued walking along the narrow passage, and just as he was wondering how much farther it would go, it became more spacious.
Afterwards, Lin Yun saw a figure that was wearing plate armor and holding a lance!