NOVEL NEXT chapter 12
12. What Truly Constitutes Erasure
Lin Nuo was entangled by the man in black, but fortunately, he was battle-hardened and managed to cleverly dodge the assailant’s strikes with his agile skills.
It seemed that before he could kill the protagonist, he had to save his own life first.
The best way for a support to protect the shooter is to annihilate the opposition, and the best way for a villain to protect himself is to kill the opposition.
Lin Nuo swiftly retreated to one side, and the man in black pursued him. The man in black, familiar with the terrain, saw Lin Nuo’s direction of retreat and knew that Lin Nuo was trying to confuse him by circling around a row of large trees. With his rich experience, he anticipated Lin Nuo’s emergence and swung his blade.
Indeed, Lin Nuo burst out from behind the tree trunk, and the blade struck him from the side.
The assassination, concluded.
However…
The blade passed right through, but there was no blood.
“An afterimage?!”
He realized, but by then, someone had emerged from behind him.
“Goodbye.”
The longsword, swung down.
The man in black, dead.
Lin Nuo, not reassured, stabbed him a few more times. Now, he was certain the man was gone.
“Too weak.”
Lin Nuo sheathed his sword and kicked the fallen man in black to turn him over, searching his clothes.
“Hmm? What’s this, the Demonic Cultivation Sect?”
Lin Nuo pulled out an iron badge from inside the man’s clothing, bearing the emblem of the Demonic Cultivation Sect.
“No wonder, the celestial dragons, the white fog, it was all your doing. I bet you’re also behind the beast rampage in Fenghai Forest.”
Lin Nuo sneered. The Demonic Cultivation Sect was a notorious sect of the demonic path, known for forging demonic weapons, taming beasts, and practicing forbidden demonic arts, a villainous sect that plagued the world.
When Lin Nuo had first turned to demonhood, he joined the Demonic Cultivation Sect as a minor demon disciple. Only after his power advanced did he leave to operate independently. His relationship with the sect was neither that of an enemy nor an ally.
With the Demonic Cultivation Sect involved, things couldn’t be better. Once he, Lin Nuo, killed Su Kexin, he could just pin the blame on them.
They might as well be called the Scapegoat Sect.
Lin Nuo also found a mysterious disc on the man.
“Well, well, you have one too? Hmm? It seems different.”
Comparing the two discs, Lin Nuo noticed that the man’s compass only had four green dots: Zhou Jianhu, Zhao Yueqing, Liu Shuqin, and Su Kexin.
His own compass, however, showed seven green dots, including himself.
The green dots on the man’s compass were moving, while his own compass had frozen; the dots were still.
“So that’s it. When the white fog appeared, our compasses stopped working. The real displays are all in the hands of these Demonic Cultivation Sect members. Have Lei and Xu Yudong vanished from this world?”
Lin Nuo had felt something odd about their green dot locations before, and now, looking at the man’s compass, their dots were gone.
“Never mind them, I must catch up with Su Kexin.”
Following the dot on the compass, Lin Nuo pursued Su Kexin, when suddenly, four men in black appeared, surrounding him from four directions.
Their hands joined together, their gazes fierce.
“The murderer of Number Seven has been identified.”
“The Demonic Binding Array is ready.”
“Channel spirit.”
One spoke, and all four joined hands, pointing their fingers to the ground, channeling spiritual power. A black Demonic Binding Array pattern emerged beneath Lin Nuo’s feet.
The Demonic Binding Array was a demonic trapping formation, binding the limbs of anyone caught within, making escape difficult.
“Annihilate.”
The four channeled their spirit again. With a boom! The entire array exploded violently, igniting fierce flames.
Swift and decisive, no dawdling.
“The target offers no resistance, certain to perish, continue the mission.”
The man in black was about to leave when, through the thick smoke, he could still see Lin Nuo at the center of the fireworks.
He was unharmed, not a scratch on him.
“How can this be…”
The man in black was greatly surprised. Their four-man Magic Confinement Array should have been able to trap and even kill cultivators above the sixth spiritual level. The young man before them seemed to have a spirit not exceeding the third level; he definitely shouldn’t have withstood the bombardment of the Magic Confinement Array.
But now…
They discovered a small circle around Lin Nuo that the fireworks hadn’t burned.
Since they had started using the Magic Confinement Array, they had never failed, always hitting their mark.
Lin Nuo shrugged his shoulders, a cold laugh escaping him: “The four-man Magic Confinement Array, decisive in action, solid in foundation, just lacking a bit in intensity.”
“How is it possible… How are you unharmed…”
The men in black couldn’t believe it. The central circle of the Magic Confinement Array was untouched, which was completely illogical.
“The magic array is connected. As long as I cut off a part of it, it becomes useless.”
Lin Nuo said coldly, leaving the men in black baffled. They were trapped, unable to move hands or feet, how could he still cut the array?
The only possibility was that his cultivation was exceptionally high.
“You’re hiding your true power,” accused the man in black.
“You’re overthinking it,” Lin Nuo sneered. “I simply understand the Magic Confinement Array better than you do.”
The man in black thought Lin Nuo was spouting nonsense. A cultivator from the Xuan Yun Sect who had never even touched demonic techniques, claiming to understand the essence of the Magic Confinement Array?
Nonsense, utter nonsense.
“The plan has changed, continue with the assassination mission.”
The four men in black dispersed again, running around Lin Nuo, trying to distract him.
Lin Nuo drew his sword once more.
“Let me teach you what true annihilation is.”