After a peaceful night of rest.
The next day, after Lin Gui's mana had fully recovered, the team set out once more.
Today, they would enter the Whispering Forest.
Compared to the open vistas of the Molan Hills.
The forest environment was complex, with a greater number of demons that were also more powerful.
Simply put, the Whispering Forest was far more dangerous than the Molan Hills.
Of course, for Lin Gui, who was maintaining his Shroud of the Gloomy Night.
As long as he didn't run into some High-tier Legendary big shot.
There wasn't much difference between drifting over the hills and drifting through the forest.
Elvia leaned against the front, giving Lin Gui directions.
Watching the sky demons that were close enough to touch yet flew over their heads as if blind.
She couldn't help but criticize.
"Seriously, isn't this concealment of yours a bit too ridiculous? Are you sure you're just a High Rank mage? Not some Epic old monster pretending to be young?"
"I wish I were, but unfortunately, I'm not."
Lin Gui replied flatly, skillfully maneuvering the wooden raft around the towering trees.
Under the guidance of Theia from afar and Elvia from up close, the raft twisted and turned through the woods.
Suddenly, Theia let out a low cry: "Stop!"
Lin Gui immediately steadied the raft, frowning as he looked around.
Within his perception, there were already three distinct Hero Rank demon auras.
This was by no means a suitable place to stop and hide.
He looked doubtfully at Theia, who was standing on the wooden crate and gazing into the distance.
With her emerald eyes fixed on something far off, Theia spoke to Lin Gui without turning back.
"Go up a bit higher!"
Lin Gui did as she asked.
Actually, when they arrived, he could have just flown directly over the forest canopy.
But if he did that, Elvia wouldn't be able to identify the ground landmarks to determine the Golden Route.
Lin Gui also didn't dare to fly recklessly.
If they drifted right over the nest of some Legendary or Epic demon, things would get ugly fast.
The wooden raft rose slowly, putting distance between them and the Hero Rank demons below.
With a light hop, Theia leaped onto the tip of the tallest nearby tree, shielding her eyes with her hand as she looked into the distance.
Before long, she jumped back onto the raft and looked at Lin Gui with a strange expression.
"Lin Gui, guess what I saw over there?"
Lin Gui gave her a look that said, "You're really trying to keep me in suspense at a time like this?"
Without waiting for him to guess, Theia couldn't hold it in any longer, her eyes glowing slightly as she spoke.
"Gold coins! I saw so, so many gold coins! And a huge pile of jewelry!"
"Huh?"
Following the direction Theia pointed, Lin Gui urged the raft over.
Reaching an open meadow within the forest, he saw a vast amount of gold coins scattered across the ground.
At a rough glance, there were likely over ten thousand.
Not to mention the many red and green gemstone ornaments mixed among them.
After moving closer to take a few looks, Theia's excitement instantly vanished.
Lin Gui's eyebrows also shot up as he looked around vigilantly.
It was too quiet.
There wasn't a single demon, which was abnormally strange.
And... in the middle of the meadow, there was actually a group of people!
A few ordinary people, dressed in clothes that were once magnificent but were now tattered and filthy, were huddled together in fear, looking at their surroundings with dread.
"It's a trap."
Elvia reached a conclusion in a flat tone.
"These people are probably the family members of Caran nobles who escaped when the demons surrounded the city."
"Their Transcendent guards most likely abandoned these burdens."
Her analysis was cold yet realistic.
Ordinary people would severely slow down the migration speed and consume precious supplies.
More importantly, they couldn't perfectly execute concealment orders like trained warriors.
A single scent or an uncontrollable noise could expose the entire team.
Not everyone possessed a near-perfect, all-encompassing concealment like Lin Gui's Shroud of the Gloomy Night.
"Let's go," Elvia urged.
"We're still far from the Withered Rift; you don't want to spend the night in the forest, do you?"
Seeing that Lin Gui didn't move, she couldn't help but mock him.
"What? Has our 'kind' Mage Lord developed some sympathy for these noble lords' families? Do you want to save them?"
She deliberately emphasized the word "kind," her tone full of sarcasm.
Theia also looked at Lin Gui with a trace of doubt.
Back in Audo Canyon, Lin Gui had indeed risked himself to save the City Lord's daughter and her group.
But this was different; it was an obvious trap, and they didn't even know who the enemy was. Acting rashly would be far too dangerous.
As the core of the team, Lin Gui's decision affected everyone's life and death.
Lin Gui didn't speak, but he didn't leave either.
Instead, he manipulated the wooden raft to rise further and began searching the area around those people meticulously.
Calculating the distance, he gradually expanded his perception range outward.
Finally, in the shadow of a dense thicket in the distance.
He discovered a small demon hidden so well it nearly blended perfectly into the environment!
Lin Gui's brow furrowed.
"What did you find?" Theia asked.
"To set a trap like this, their intelligence isn't low—at least a High-tier Hero Rank."
Lin Gui's voice was deep.
"There's nothing in the sky, and there are no ambushes in the surrounding trees."
"There aren't many types of demons that specialize in invisibility and concealment."
"And to be able to control the range of a trap so precisely, using those humans as bait."
"With the power distributed in a perfect circle..."
He paused, a flash of realization appearing in his eyes.
"In that case, the fellow who set this trap is most likely hiding underground."
"And I just happen to know of a demon that fits all these characteristics perfectly..."
"Even the style of using greed and sympathy to set a trap is identical."
"It's a Brain-Digger Demon."
"A cunning and cruel High-tier Hero Rank demon that especially loves to suck out the brains of intelligent beings—specifically, brains filled with intense emotions."
"A Brain-Digger Demon?" Theia and Elvia looked blank.
"Who cares what kind of demon it is!" Elvia said irritably.
"Even if it were an Epic demon, what does it have to do with us going to the Royal Capital? We just need to go around it! You don't actually want to save those people, do you?"
She leaned toward Theia's ear and lowered her voice.
"Hey, half-demon, talk some sense into this idiot bleeding heart!"
"Tell him more about the rotten things these nobles did in Caran to disgust him, so he'll mind his own business!"
How did Elvia know for sure that those family members weren't good people?
It was because she came from the top-tier aristocratic circle herself and understood the nature of these people all too well.
Nobles in the Golden Age were a bit more restrained because the wilderness was safe and commoners could create a lot of value.
Now, in the City-State Era, the wilderness had become a place of certain death, and the value of commoners had plummeted.
In the eyes of the nobles, allowing them into the cities to scratch out a living was already an act of immense grace!
Give up profits? Not kicking these city-state parasites out was already considered "merciful" of them!
In this environment, aside from a few rare outliers, Elvia had never seen a noble who didn't view commoners with contempt or subject them to abuse!
That even included herself, though she wasn't as blatant as others.
After all, she was royalty; she had to maintain some appearance.
Theia frowned, shooting a dissatisfied glance at the woman who was only egging her on while saying nothing herself.
Though she hated how Elvia called her "half-demon" all day long.
She had to admit the other was right.
Theia coughed, recalling the clothing and faint features of those family members below, and quickly found matching faces in her memory.
She began to speak in a flat tone, describing only what she had seen with her own eyes:
"That old hag in the purple dress—last winter, just because her carriage splashed a bit of mud on her dress, she had her guards beat the driver's young son to death in the street."
"That blond kid huddled over there—last month, he was racing his horse through the street and knocked over an old woman selling fruit, scattering them everywhere."
"Thinking she was in the way, he rode his horse directly over her... the old woman didn't survive the night."
"And that man in the silk waistcoat—his factory tore apart over a dozen workers. To save on compensation, he led men to push the workers' families out into the wilderness..."
Theia's tone lacked any real fluctuation; in her view, these occurrences were far too common in Caran.
The deaths of commoners were half due to hunger and cold, and half due to offending the nobility.
Rate on N.U.
