Chapter 443: Ambush

Saul stared intensely at the figure opposite him, he was not hiding the murderous intent in his eyes.

Near the bow of the airship, close to the cabin entrance, two people were walking slowly.

One of them was supporting the other.

The one Saul was watching was the one being supported.

He was wearing a long cloak. When the wind blew, it clung to his body, revealing an unusually thin figure.

The man appeared to be in poor health, constantly covering his mouth as he coughed, occasionally even retching.

The other person held his arm, speaking to him with a look of concern.

Saul kept his gaze fixed on them, not at all worried about being noticed.

After devouring a new batch of Veiled Crystal Essence, the Nightmare Butterfly, Penny, had grown stronger. She could now influence others’ perception and awareness to a certain degree.

Even if Saul were to stare at his target for a full day, as long as the latter’s strength didn’t surpass Saul’s mental power, he would remain oblivious.

“Brother Saul, I’ve confirmed it—that’s Gudo! Ha! He never expected this, did he? No matter how well you disguise yourself, a soul body can’t lie!”

Penny fluttered her wings, dancing in front of Saul’s eyes.

Back under the Wizard Tower, she had once clashed with Gudo to buy Saul some time, though she had ultimately been driven out of his soul body.

Now, seeing Gudo again naturally made her bristle with disgust.

As for Saul, there was no need to mention it. Poisoned, hunted down, and with Keli’s death still unavenged.

He had been sulking over Gudo’s escape, but who would’ve thought—he’d run right into him on an airship today.

Saul took a step forward, walking steadily and purposefully toward the drastically changed Gudo.

Beneath his feet, semi-transparent gray tendrils undulated along the deck like smoke, spreading in all directions.

After the battle at the Wizard Tower, Saul gradually discovered that his Soul Fishing ability could now split into multiple strands, just like Little Algae.

Although each strand weakened with further division, even a single one was now far more powerful than before.

These tendrils slithered quietly to every corner of the deck, then began encircling Gudo from the outside inward.

Their movement was careful and discreet.

Not only that, but Saul also extended both his mental power and magic along the tendrils of Soul Fishing, layering a new Third Rank spell—Shadow Bind—on top of them through a secondary resonance.

This spell allowed Saul’s attacks to blend into the surrounding shadows, making them even harder to detect. At the moment of activation, it would also induce a dizzying effect, increasing the odds of Soul Fishing landing successfully.

Ahead, neither the disguised Gudo nor the man supporting him noticed the encircling attack.

Elsewhere on the airship, there were no other First Rank wizards. Even if there were some advanced apprentices, under the combined veil of Nightmare Butterfly and Shadow Bind, none could perceive the ambush unfolding.

The smoke-like tendrils crept ever closer to the pair nearing the cabin entrance.

In Saul’s vision, tendrils were even extending along the walls of the passageway, their tips all aimed precisely at the two. Everything was set. The clear sky and the clean deck would soon transform into a prison of shadows and smoke the moment Gudo stepped into the final ambush zone.

But just as Saul’s trap was closing in and the fatal blow was about to be unleashed, a white blur suddenly dropped from the sky.

It was shockingly fast, piercing through the last gap in Saul’s encirclement just as it was about to close—hurtling straight toward Gudo and his companion.

Someone else was intervening?!

Saul narrowed his eyes, immediately surging his mental power—his shadows and tendrils, already primed, launched toward the center in a furious assault.

But Saul’s attacks were not built for speed. Even though he triggered the trap as fast as he could, the white blur was still a second faster… and pierced into the brain of the man beside Gudo!

At the same moment, Gudo, whose body had been tightly wound like a spring, reacted instantly to the assault. His lower abdomen and arms exploded.

From the explosion surged black smoke shaped like savage beasts, tearing through the air without regard for friend or foe. Even the man who had been helping him was attacked.

The unfortunate man screamed in both voice and soul, his agony disrupting part of Saul’s attack.

“Soul Toxin!” Saul immediately recognized the black beast-like mist erupting from Gudo—it was the enhanced version of the soul toxin that had nearly melted him once before.

Although its form had changed, the threat remained the same.

Saul hadn’t launched a direct frontal assault precisely to avoid alerting Gudo and triggering his toxic defense.

Even Saul found Gudo’s poison a troublesome foe.

He promptly recalled his tendrils, leaving only Shadow Bind behind to prevent escape.

By then, Gudo’s companion had already collapsed to the ground in convulsions, a thin layer of frost spreading across his entire body.

Saul looked up, and finally saw the attacker in the sky.

It was a man with snow-white hair and wings made of ice crystals slowly fanning behind his back.

Two massive blue-white spell formations floated above his head and beneath his feet.

These formations had completely masked his killing intent and magical presence before he struck.

Now that the concealment was no longer needed, Saul clearly sensed the waves radiating from his body—this man was a Second Rank wizard.

A completely unfamiliar Second Rank wizard, with none of the traits of those from the Western Regions!

“Could he be from another territory?” Saul wondered.

While Saul was still wary of this stranger and refrained from acting, Gudo suddenly split into several identical clones and fled in four directions.

One of them was headed straight for Saul and Captain Harry.

But the Second Rank wizard in the sky didn’t plan to let Gudo escape. Several white ice spears formed around him again.

“Trying to drag others down with him?” Saul thought. He could dodge instantly, but Captain Harry behind him wouldn’t survive.

Saul stared at the incoming Gudo clone. His eyes narrowed slightly, and he immediately noticed a few distortions in the figure’s outline.

“That one’s fake.”

Having confirmed it, Saul didn’t try to intercept. A black tendril stretched from behind his neck and wrapped around Captain Harry’s waist, flinging both of them to the side.

The ice spears struck the fake Gudo, piercing clean through his body and into the deck.

The moment they hit, they exploded with a loud boom, turning into countless fine ice needles and scattering in all directions!

A transparent Soul

Armor spell instantly formed in front of Saul.

Clatter!

The Spirit Armor didn’t last long—it shattered like glass under the barrage of dozens of ice needles.

But the momentum of the ice needles had already weakened—they no longer carried the speed of the initial blast.

The black tendrils split again, forming a wall in front of Saul.

Thud thud thud… thud thud thud…

The ice needles embedded themselves into Little Algae’s clones, sinking in only halfway before their energy ran out.

Little Algae’s main body began to rattle—

ka-ka-ka-ka

—like a person drenched in freezing water.

A second later, the clone broke apart, fracturing with visible cracks before shattering to pieces.

Captain Harry, who had yet to fully register what had happened, suddenly lost the strength in his legs. If not for the tendril still holding him by the waist, he would’ve slumped to the floor.

But worse was yet to come.

The Gudo clones fleeing in all directions turned out to be entirely fake.

Every ice spear pierced through an illusion and detonated on the deck.

Where once was an intact ship, now there were four gaping holes. The entire airship began to shudder.

“Lord Saul!” Captain Harry, who had moments ago been frozen in fear, suddenly steadied himself. “Can you send me to the engine room? If this airship crashes at this altitude, no one but you will survive!”

Saul nodded and had Little Algae toss him down the passage into the cabin.

He, however, kept his eyes locked on the old man in the sky.

At that moment, the elder’s gaze turned to Saul as well.

His eyes were like murky sewage, radiating a foul, chilling stench.

“A third First Rank wizard?” the white-haired elder sneered. “A tiny airship with three First Rank wizards aboard? Looks like you’re with them. In that case, you can all die together.”

The killing intent he unleashed turned summer into winter—Saul’s skin immediately erupted with goosebumps.

All around, passengers who had not managed to flee in time instantly turned into ice sculptures, frozen solid.

And in Saul’s mind, the dark-red diary began flipping pages with a

whoosh whoosh whoosh

.

(End of Chapter)

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