"Golo! It's you!"
That day, he himself had been gravely wounded, and the squad of Four Seasons Group members he'd brought along had been killed or wounded to the last man. Only this Golo, who had been knocked unconscious right from the start of the explosion, had survived by sheer luck.
The moment he saw Golo, Wade couldn't help but recall the scene from that day.
The explosion! The shadow! The green mist!
Everything had happened so suddenly that even his girlfriend-secretary, who had always been by his side, had perished in that attack.
"By now, I'm afraid even Golo must be mocking me in his heart?"
Wade shook his head, thinking to himself, then said in a hoarse voice: "Is something the matter?"
"Sir! I've brought your breakfast!"
Golo placed a silver platter on the table. On it were fruit salad and white bread, along with a jar of steaming milk.
"Thank you!" Wade paused for a moment before speaking softly.
"Sir! Please take care of yourself!" Golo bowed slightly, then quickly withdrew.
Wade had no appetite at the moment, but for his own sake—and for his mentor's sake—he still forced himself to walk over to the dining table.
He casually picked up a piece of white bread and broke it open, intending to dip it in some fruit preserve or the like, but just then, a small slip of paper tucked inside the bread caught his attention.
Wade carefully extracted the note and quickly unfolded it.
The paper had been completely blank, but upon contact with the warmth of Wade's fingers, several lines of tiny text immediately began to appear.
"Danger! Headquarters has been infiltrated by Dark Wizards! They're coming for you! Leave immediately!!!"
The tiny text was red, making it extremely eye-catching.
Wade's gaze sharpened. He rose to his feet at once, swiftly casting several detection and isolation spells.
Afterward, he stared at the note in his hand with a peculiar gaze.
"As I suspected, the Dark Wizards' attack was far too swift. They knew our defenses too well, and the Formation Spirit was heavily interfered with this time, rendering it completely useless. There absolutely must be a traitor!"
A look of hatred surfaced on Wade's face. "If not for a traitor, things would never have become like this here. Even... even Teacher Leonel might have..."
His fist clenched tightly, and a few drops of dark-red blood seeped through the bandages.
"I will definitely find you! I'll avenge my mentor! I swear it!"
Determination shone in Wade's eyes. Then, he carefully rubbed the small note in his hand.
"The paper is ordinary parchment, and the hidden text was specifically keyed to my body temperature as the activation password. This must be someone who knows me very well. The fact that they risked coming to warn me means they are fully aware of everything happening here... But who could it be?"
Faces flashed through Wade's mind, only to be quickly dismissed.
"Forget that for now. 'Danger'? Does that mean someone is coming for me? Right here at headquarters?"
Wade found it hard to believe.
*Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!* At that moment, the air filled with the subtle sound of sonic booms. Numerous black needles, thin as ox-hair, seemed to pierce through the void itself. The tips gleamed with a sharp light, raining down towards Wade like droplets.
"It's real?!"
A shield of green vines materialized around Wade's body. Countless needles embedded themselves in it, sending up showers of sparks.
He immediately rolled to the ground!
*Bang!* A black dagger instantly pierced the spot where he had just been. The bench was sliced open like tofu, and even the air was cut, leaving two thin, white trails of compressed mist.
*Hiss, hiss!* From the smooth, cut surface of the bench, the sound of corrosive dissolving was continuous, accompanied by clouds of white smoke. The bench where Wade had been sitting just moments ago was completely corroded away in mere seconds. Not even a speck remained.
Clutching the dagger was a short, dwarfish figure.
The dwarf was wrapped entirely in black gauze, moving with incredible agility. Upon seeing Wade dodge, he immediately lunged like the wind. The black dagger, like the fang of a viper, sought out Wade's openings.
"Formation Spirit! Activate the defensive formations around me!!! And notify the Lightning Corps!" After dodging several rounds of attacks in a sorry state, Wade instantly swept his hand over a ring he wore!
Bang! A cloud of green smoke exploded at the center of the room, and seizing the chance, he immediately roared.
"Command received! Activating B-7 sector defense— DING! Conflicting commands detected, canceling each other out. Your authorization has been temporarily revoked!"
A mechanical female voice sounded in Wade's ear, making his heart sink instantly.
The Formation Spirit's coverage was incredibly vast, encompassing nearly the entire headquarters of the
But now, the enemy had somehow seized control of the Formation Spirit as well! Didn't that mean this headquarters had effectively fallen into the hands of the Dark Wizards?
A wave of enormous panic surged through Wade's heart. All the layers of defense here, rather than giving him any sense of security, now felt like the walls of a cage.
Just then, the green fog in the center of the room dissipated completely. The dwarf assassin across from him flashed a cold glint in his eyes, his entire body seeming to transform into a black tempest that swept toward Wade.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
From outside the room, the sound of rapid footsteps rang out—the alert Wizards stationed outside had detected the commotion and were rushing over immediately.
The dwarf suddenly flung his hand forward, and the dagger within it transformed into a bolt of black lightning, tracing a pitch-black straight line directly at Wade's heart!
"If I weren't gravely wounded! And bound by a curse! This kind of attack..." A flash of defiance crossed Wade's face before he desperately twisted to protect his vital points.
Pfft! The black dagger plunged straight into his shoulder, leaving only the hilt protruding from the wound.
A torrent of blood gushed out, and Wade's face turned deathly pale as he collapsed weakly to the ground.
The dwarf across from him immediately rushed forward, preparing to deliver the killing blow!
"Protect the Lord!" At that moment, the room's door was violently kicked open, shattering into countless wooden splinters. Several Wizards in lightning-emblazoned uniforms burst in.
Seeing Wade crumpled on the ground, they immediately roared, blue and white arcs of lightning crackling to life in their hands.
The electric arcs tore through the air, arriving before Wade in an instant.
Crack! Crack!
The blue-white arcs struck the dwarf squarely, sending several wisps of cyan smoke rising from his body while a acrid, burning smell continued to spread.
The dwarf's body trembled once. Then, with one final glare at Wade—the look of a predator staring down its prey—he suddenly hurled two small black spheres to the ground!
Bang! A massive cloud of black gas spread out, completely obscuring the dwarf's figure. By the time the smoke dissipated, the dwarf assassin had vanished without a trace.
"My Lord! Are you all right? Sound the alarm at once, and notify Lords Xishan and Leilin!"
The
Half an hour later, Wade had been moved to a different room, and his wounds had been treated. But as he sat there silently surveying his surroundings, a faint sense of dread rose from the depths of his heart.
The assassination attempt left him with a deeply unsettling feeling.
Here, at headquarters, an assassin had managed to sneak in without any resistance—and the formation spirit's activation had been suppressed! What did that mean?
"Who was it? The thief who stole the formation spirit's backend permissions? Or was it simply Xishan? Leilin? Or perhaps the two of them working together…"
Wade kept his face blank while his thoughts churned ceaselessly.
"No! Headquarters has become far too dangerous. Too many enemies are hiding here that I know nothing about. And if the note was telling the truth—that this place has been infiltrated by Dark Wizards—then my situation is only going to get worse…"
Wade glanced around. Several Wizards were patrolling back and forth—guards that Xishan had urgently dispatched after the attack. But now, Wade could almost sense a malicious gleam in their eyes, and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.
"No! I have to leave here as quickly as possible! The best option is to link up with the Academy's investigation team!"
A look of steely determination flashed through Wade's eyes…
"What? Wade has disappeared?!"
Leilin stared at Xishan in front of him, his face full of shock.
"How did you manage to screw this up? Something this simple and you still couldn't handle it! Now he's definitely suspicious of us!" Before Leilin stood Xishan, the three-eyed Wizard, whose complexion was looking rather grim.
"With the formation spirit's permissions suppressed, even a fool would know something is wrong with the two of us. And if he reports this to the Investigation Corps…"
"That's impossible!" Leilin shook his head.
"The Secret Realm gate has been under our control the entire time. I've personally reviewed all recent entry and exit records—there are no anomalies. Besides, communication between the Secret Realm and the outside world is even more unstable. The other signal towers are all non-functional, unless you use our specialized communication wizard formation here. Unfortunately, your permissions and mine combined are more than enough to block everything, turning him into a bird in a cage!"
"So! His only real option is to flee to another White Wizard territory!" Xishan added coolly.
"Indeed! Quite a bold decision!" Leilin nodded.
The Ganges Secret Realm's area was extremely vast, and the distances between each entrance were even more remote — one had to traverse several extraordinarily dangerous regions.
The difficulty of this journey was such that even during Vade's peak, it would have been questionable, let alone in his current cursed state.
"This is the mess you caused! You go deal with it!" Xishan said with some impatience.
"I know! Actually, the current situation is exactly what we hoped for, isn't it?"
Leilin stood up, still talking as he went: "Resman has already been reassigned, and Vade's fate is unknown — in any case, for the next few days there's no way he can contact a single outside Wizard. So the entire Ganges Secret Realm headquarters is now ours..."