120 The Wicked Knight (4000)

"Damn it! I'm going to tear you to pieces!"

Dean's fury was so intense it seemed as though it might erupt from his nostrils.

*Snap.* The earpiece on the other end was crushed into pieces.

Dean took a deep breath, swept a glance at the three anxious subordinates behind him, and spoke quickly.

"The intelligence on the enemy is flawed. Retreat!"

The three subordinates were taken aback. Their captain had just been in a rage, seemingly intent on avenging his brother; they had fully expected a fight to the death. They hadn't anticipated such a drastic change of plans.

"Move!"

Dean waved his hand sharply, and the three hesitated no longer. They sprinted after him, racing away at full speed.

The wind whistled in their ears, and their hair whipped wildly in the air.

Dean kept his gaze lowered, suppressing the burning rage deep within his heart. Though his temperament could be flippant at times, he possessed a sharp mind when it came to critical decisions.

This time, internal intelligence from the Ancient Society had failed, leading the entire team to underestimate the enemy and split into four groups. Relying on superior mobility, the enemy had picked them off one by one. All three other squads had been slaughtered; they were the only ones left.

To continue fighting now would be utter madness. A single mistake could lead to total annihilation.

Therefore, revenge would have to wait.

Dean's priority was to bring the remaining three members of the Ancient Society back safely, not to engage in a reckless battle.

"Captain! He's catching up!!!"

One of the team members trailing slightly behind suddenly cried out in terror. Everyone could faintly hear the sound of hoofbeats echoing through the mist.

Dean whipped his head around. The mist surged violently.

A large, armored hand emerged like a black python, snatching the member who had just spoken and dragging him effortlessly into the fog.

A vortex spun, the gray-black mist appearing like a giant, gaping mouth, unnaturally cold and terrifying.

"Tuss!" Dean roared.

But there was no reply from the thick, black fog.

*Whoosh!* Dean lunged inside.

Within the vortex, the surrounding mist was pushed aside by the rapid movement of the Pale Knight. Dean caught a fleeting glimpse of a tall figure riding a horse in the distance, carrying a dying body slung over its back.

Dean chased frantically, but his speed could not match the phantom steed's breakneck pace. In a split second, Xiunan's figure vanished.

Only the faint, rhythmic sound of hooves remained.

"Damn it!"

Dean threw a punch in grief and fury, piercing through a thick wall and leaving a hole the size of a human head. He took a few deep breaths and quickly turned back the way he came.

On the path, the two remaining members were not quite shivering, but they were as jittery as birds startled by the mere twang of a bow. As soon as Dean appeared, they jumped, nearly bolting in panic before regaining their composure.

The three of them continued to move quickly along the wall.

Though the path was only a few hundred meters long, it felt as painful as a day's hard trek to Dean. Every few seconds, the sound of hooves would echo from the periphery. Through several more attacks, the other two members were snatched away.

He was left running alone, his senses on high alert.

Fortunately, he reached the edge of the mist.

*Clop, clop, clop...*

The sound of hooves returned from behind. Dean’s body tensed; his vigilance reached its breaking point.

*Whoosh!*

A large hand reached out from behind, striking Dean’s back like a whip. He stumbled forward, coughing up a mouthful of blood. Fortunately, the film of Ring Power remained strong enough to deflect the blow.

Dean suffered only minor injuries.

*Hiss... hiss... hiss...*

He leaned against the wall, gasping for breath, and cast a deep look at the churning mist behind him. Turning back, he saw a high school boy on a bicycle staring at him in shock, his eyes darting toward the thick fog.

"..."

Dean said nothing, vanishing into the darkness beside the street like a ghost.

Under normal circumstances, he would have silenced the witness, but Dean was barely hanging on himself; he had no time to waste on killing.

"Whoa! Is that Superman?! So fast!"

The boy stared at the dark alleyway in amazement. The man who had just coughed up blood had moved with the speed of a black lightning bolt.

He seemed to have come out of the mist ahead.

The boy turned back, curious, and inched forward a few steps. Suddenly, the mist before him began to churn violently, like a pot of boiling water.

"This..."

*BOOM!*

A grim knight, mounted on a steed of hellfire, emerged onto the street, wreathed in a massive cloud of fog.

*Neigh!*

The warhorse reared up, its muscles as solid as bedrock, before slamming its hooves back onto the ground.

Two massive craters radiated outward from the impact.

The Pale Knight glanced at the shivering boy, tapped the horse’s back, and instantly vanished, leaving behind only the shadow of a rider who had outpaced all others.

"Damn! That scared the hell out of me..."

The boy’s face was deathly pale. In that split second, his megalophobia had flared up—a behemoth over five meters tall! And with that aura of evil and terror, the boy had truly feared being crushed to death by the knight.

The man who had fled earlier must have been a poor soul pursued by this evil, powerful knight...

"So much sweat..."

He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. His back felt drenched, too. He looked down at the black seat of his bicycle.

It was stained with a pale yellow liquid.

"To hell with it, I wet my pants!"

***

"Phew... I think I've shaken him off..."

On the edge of a bustling street, Dean felt utterly exhausted. This mission had been a disaster.

Four Second-Ring Mystery-Ring Masters and twelve First-Ring Mystery-Ring Masters were all but wiped out. He was the only one left alive.

"Flawed intelligence! His speed is clearly faster than most agility-based supers! The report said he was only slightly faster than a normal person! Damn it, otherwise we wouldn't have been picked off one by one..."

Dean thought to himself as he walked.

A moment later, he thought of his brother.

"Lau, I will avenge you..."

Dean glanced at the neon lights overhead and quickly merged into the crowded street.

Not far away, Xiunan watched Dean’s retreating figure from afar. He flicked a crystal coin in his hand.

The crystal coin was crystal clear, save for a misty red dot in the center that constantly shifted shape.

A Tracking Crystal, produced by the Milodalen School.

A semi-standard supernatural item used to plant a mark on a target and track them via the coin. The range was roughly two kilometers in diameter.

Xiunan was in no hurry. He walked into a nearby convenience store and ordered an iced drink. He took a sip, feeling much refreshed.

He checked the Evolution Points gained from the battle.

[You have gained Evolution Points: 5]
[You have gained Evolution Points: 6]
...
He had gained a total of 52 Evolution Points.
122 + 52 = 174.

Unfortunately, the enemy this time had no sign of that toxic brown liquid; there were no unexpected gains.

Xiunan walked quietly into a corner.

He wanted to try evolving the Pale Knight rune. He had already experimented before, and the fusion failure rate was far higher than that of evolution. For safety's sake, he chose evolution.

With a thought, the evolution prompt appeared.

[Prompt: You may choose one of the following as the target for evolution: Speed, Strength, Defense, Ability: Heavy Armor, Ability: Supernatural Item Mastery, Ability: Glide, Ability: Blood-Red Knight, Trait: Corrupted Energy. Different targets have different success rates and effects.]

[Please make your selection...]

"Not just the basic attributes, but even the abilities possessed by the Pale Knight can be evolved?"

Xiunan murmured to himself.

He began testing them one by one.

In truth, he preferred to evolve Strength, Heavy Armor, Blood-Red Knight, and Corrupted Energy. These four were the most crucial for the Pale Knight's combat power and would yield the greatest effect.

Next, he had to consider the success rate.

Rune evolution had its benefits, but failure could lead to instability. Too many failures could cause the rune to collapse.

Xiunan’s spirit and body were now fused with the Pale Knight rune; he didn't know if he would suffer the same side effects. If the rune collapsed, would he die with it?

He didn't know if that would be the case, but he certainly didn't want to test it personally.

Fortunately, he could invest extra Evolution Points to increase the success rate.

For example, since the Second-Ring rune was more powerful, evolving the Strength attribute once cost ten Evolution Points.

The success rate was 95%. While high, there was still a chance of failure.

By investing one additional point, he could raise the success rate to 99% or 100%. The degree of increase varied by ability; some required only one point to increase the success rate by 10%, while for others, more powerful or special, it took ten points to increase the rate by 1%.

After a moment of thought, Xiunan decided to perform the first evolution on all four attributes and abilities.

Yes, evolve them all first to see the effects.

After all, he had a substantial reserve of Evolution Points.

First evolution:
Strength: Base cost 10, Success rate 95%. Add 1 extra point, Success rate 100%.
Ability: Heavy Armor: Base cost 20, Success rate 90%, requires an additional 4 points.
Ability: Blood-Red Knight: Base cost 30, Success rate 80%, requires an additional 10 points.
Trait: Corrupted Energy: Base cost 20, Success rate 70%, requires an additional 6 points.

This entire set wasn't cheap.

It cost a total of 101 Evolution Points.

The most expensive was the Pale Knight’s strongest ability, Blood-Red Knight, which required 30 points for the base evolution and another 10 to guarantee a 100% success rate.

Totaling 40 points, it accounted for nearly half the cost.

It was truly a drain on his points. After the ordeal, Xiunan was left with only 73 points.

However, the improvements were stunning.

Although Xiunan couldn't transform into the Pale Knight form right now to check, he could feel the surging power within his body. The arcane energy was practically bursting to get out!

He tapped his right hand against the wall, and a spiderweb of cracks spread out. He finished his drink in one gulp.

With a flick of his wrist, the bottle flew in a perfect parabola, traveling over ten meters to land inside a trash can. *Clunk, clunk.* It hit the bottom.

"Cool!"

A young man riding a skateboard nearby gave Xiunan a thumbs up, his eyes filled with admiration.

Xiunan smiled and shook his head, walking into the crowd.

Through the Tracking Crystal, he could perceive that Dean had begun moving rapidly—likely having boarded a car.

***

In the suburbs of Nilodo, the landscape was a flat plain.

A highway ran through it, connecting the port city of Nilodo to other inland cities.

On the road, a black car was speeding along.

One kilometer behind, a horse wreathed in flames raced like a bolt of black lightning. Mounted on its back was a knight in heavy, ancient, and terrifying armor, with blood-red patterns that seemed to pulse as if alive.

...

*Screech!* The car slowed to a halt.

Dean didn't dare delay a second longer. He sprinted along the streetlights; this was an industrial park.

The Ancient Society's base was in one of the warehouses.

As he ran, Dean felt a strange chill down his spine. He stopped to look back, but found nothing. He simply stopped caring and quickened his pace, reaching his destination in five or six minutes.

"Finally here..."

Looking at the familiar entrance, Dean breathed a sigh of relief. He stepped forward, his heart heavy.

The base director was already waiting at the entrance with a group of people. Seeing Dean and the others, they hurried over.

"Dean! Are the others really dead?!"

A scarred man with a fierce face spoke in disbelief, though he seemed more shocked than anything else.

Beside him, a sultry woman in a tight suit rushed to Dean and grabbed his collar.

Her angry voice rang out.

"How did you promise me? Dean... is Lau really dead? How are you going to explain this to Father and me?"

Dean let the woman grab him. His expression was one of shame and pain, his eyes filled with a heavy, decadent despair.

The others around them were watching the spectacle; any serious discussion would have to wait until these two calmed down.

"Sister, I will avenge Lau..."

He stayed silent for a long while before whispering.

"No, you won't get that chance."

A voice drifted from the darkness in the distance.

"Who!"

"Who's there!"

The members of the Ancient Society turned to look, some already instinctively channeling their runes. A thick film of Ring Power covered their bodies.

"Impossible!" Dean turned in disbelief.

His eyes held not just shock, but fear.

*Clop, clop, clop...* The sound of hooves grew closer.

A demonic figure stepped, one by one, out of the deep darkness and into the flickering, dim light.

"A pleasure to meet you all. You may call me the Knight..."