Unlike Su Menglan, who was currently relaxed, Zhao Lin was absolutely furious.
He could only watch helplessly as Li Zhuang was killed by the specter, dying right before his eyes.
He was completely powerless to resist.
There was nothing he could do.
With a casual swipe of that glinting boning knife, another human life was snuffed out just like that.
And...
It seemed that ever since Zhou Xin, the specter hadn't even bothered to hide its killings from him!
Did it look down on him that much?
After finishing the deed, Zuo Lin'an stood up. Instead of vanishing immediately as before, he turned to glance at Zhao Lin, a bloodthirsty smile spreading across his face.
To Zhao Lin, this gesture felt like a direct message:
“You're the only one left, aren't you?”
“You're next.”
“Wait for death.”
“Let's see if you can find anyone to take the fall for you this time.”
As Zuo Lin'an concealed his figure, Zhao Lin was left all alone.
Standing in place, he stared down at the mangled corpse with a grim expression, lost in thought.
After a few minutes, he suddenly snapped his head up.
Gritting his teeth, he channeled his art of Qi-gazing with all his might.
This time, he wasn't looking for an exit. He was looking for... a person!
He hadn't harbed much hope initially.
He only wanted some psychological reassurance, but to his surprise...
“Huh?!”
He whipped his head around to look at the mine shaft behind him.
There was someone!
Someone was actually there?!
And they were extremely close!
Just a short distance down the shaft.
Was this... heaven's grace?
Zhao Lin knew there had to be something suspicious about someone being this close.
But right now, he didn't care about digging into the details at all.
Nor did he care why this person was trailing so closely behind him.
All he knew was... he could plant another curse seed!
Shoving all other thoughts aside, Zhao Lin felt a surge of joy and bolted backward.
Before long, he ran straight into Su Menglan.
Unlike Zhao Lin's delight, Su Menglan immediately looked wary.
Yet Zhao Lin acted as if he didn't notice and got straight to the point.
“You're Su Menglan, right? I know of you. Do you want to team up and get out of here together?”
Before the other could reply, he sweetened the deal.
“I'm highly proficient in the art of Qi-gazing, so I can locate the exit in the shortest time possible. Besides, traveling in a pair is much safer. What do you say?”
A flicker of doubt crossed Su Menglan's eyes, and he remained cautious of Zhao Lin's sudden enthusiasm.
However, he didn't hesitate for long.
After all, he had already anticipated such a scenario.
He had prepared for the possibility of Zhao Lin discovering him trailing behind.
If caught, he would have only two choices: flee or join forces.
Fleeing was out of the question.
He couldn't identify the correct way out on his own.
Even though traveling with Zhao Lin was incredibly dangerous, he simply had no other choice.
Furthermore, his talent's duration had already expired.
Now was the perfect time to have a teammate.
“Alright, I'll be in your care then.”
Hearing this, the smile on Zhao Lin's face became almost impossible to suppress.
“Great, let's head out then.”
Su Menglan had no idea that with those few brief sentences, he had already fallen right into Zhao Lin's trap.
Walking ahead, Zhao Lin wore an uncontrollable smirk where Su Menglan couldn't see.
Afterward, Zhao Lin led Su Menglan forward as if nothing had happened, smoothly identifying the correct directions whenever they encountered a fork in the road.
Only when he felt that Su Menglan's sense of indebtedness to him had reached the required threshold did he silently plant a curse seed within him.
Once he confirmed that the seed had taken root, he finally let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Wonderful.
He finally felt a slight sense of security.
Only now did he have the mental capacity and time to secretly employ his art of Qi-gazing again.
He wanted to see if there were other surviving players in the dungeon. If they were close, he could use them as backups.
Unfortunately, though the art of Qi-gazing did reveal that other players were still alive in the dungeon, they were all very far away from him.
And as expected, they were still deep within the mine shafts.
In other words, to meet up with them, they would either have to wait in place or double back.
But Zhao Lin would absolutely never do that.
The losses would outweigh the gains.
Since they couldn't cross paths, he could only focus on forging ahead.
Both he and Su Menglan were cultivators, so they traveled at extreme speeds. Guided by the art of Qi-gazing, it didn't take long for them to reach the seventh underground floor.
At that moment, they happened to encounter another path blocked by collapsed rocks.
Su Menglan crouched down to examine them.
“Look here. The cut surfaces of these rocks are perfectly smooth. They must have been sliced by an incredibly sharp blade.”
Zhao Lin climbed to the top, shifting the rubble in an attempt to clear a gap he could crawl through.
“I already knew that. The specter did it.”
“Stop analyzing and get up here to help.”
Hearing this, Su Menglan stopped inspecting. He tossed aside the rock in his hand and prepared to climb up to assist Zhao Lin.
Yet neither of them noticed that in the deep, enveloping darkness of the mine shaft behind them...
A figure shrouded in black mist silently materialized.
This specter was, of course, Zuo Lin'an.
It was now 12:55 PM.
Only five minutes remained until the next hour.
However, his targets this time were not the two before him.
Zhao Lin had to be left alive for him to personally deal with.
Meanwhile, Su Menglan was Fang Tang's prey.
He had merely passed by and stopped to take a look.
Then, concealing his figure once more, he swiftly headed deeper into the mine.
This time, his targets were the three players still wandering in the deepest parts of the mine shafts.
At 1:00 PM.
One killed.
At 2:00 PM, Zuo Lin'an claimed another life.
It was also at this time that Fang Tang's specter body was finally restored.
Looking at her specter body beside her, Fang Tang let out a highly satisfied chuckle. She produced a few rolls of bandages from who-knows-where, likely prepared in advance.
She intended to wrap them around her specter body.
Seeing this, Zuo Lin'an spoke up to remind her.
“There shouldn't be any need for that now, right?”
“Zhao Lin already knows my identity. Since you've been with me from the very start, you'll definitely be suspected too.”
“Besides, there aren't many players left anyway. It seems pointless to keep hiding our identities.”
Fang Tang paused mid-action.
“I guess you're right... In that case, let's forget about it.”
Zuo Lin'an asked, “Are you getting ready to kill Su Menglan?”
Fang Tang put away the bandages, and her specter body faded into concealment as she prepared to leave.
“Yeah, I'm going to kill him directly.”
“But since I've been repelled by him before, if I want to kill him, I'll have to make him trigger my rule again.”
“Once I get there, I'll just call out to him from behind.”
“Zhao Lin might be on guard and won't look back, since he's already guessed we're specters. But he hasn't shared that information with Su Menglan.”
Fang Tang smirked.
“So, killing Su Menglan won't be too difficult. At most, I'll just get frozen by his specter item for a bit.”
It wouldn't be a problem at all.
Zuo Lin'an said, “In that case, I won't tag along with you.”
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