"That's..."
Darlenlay watched the several streaks of light chasing each other not far away, feeling her entire body tense up. "Soul-slaying Cultists!"
What had appeared before Darlenlay were none other than wizards of the Soul-slaying Cult.
They all wore wide-sleeved robes of blood red, with an inverted silver cross emblazoned on the back. A white skull sat at the very center of the cross, its eye sockets filled with a void-like darkness that seemed to sneer at Darlenlay.
This was the standard attire of Soul-slaying Cultists, and from these wizards, Darlenlay could sense powerful traces of elementalization. "At the very least, they're all wizards with semi-elementalization or above. And that leader... he..."
Almost at the same moment Darlenlay was observing them, the Soul-slaying Cult leader suddenly turned his head. A pair of eyes that seemed to radiate terrifying silver light made Darlenlay's legs go weak, nearly collapsing to the ground. "A s-second-rank wizard! A powerhouse with materialized spiritual power!"
"Don't worry! It's fine!"
Just as Darlenlay was about to crumple to the ground, her shoulder was seized and her body lifted by a tremendous force. Then, Leilin's gentle voice reached her ears.
There seemed to be a powerful, reassuring quality in Leilin's voice, pulling Darlenlay back from the icy grip of fear that had frozen her limbs.
"Thank you!" Darlenlay glanced at Leilin beside her and suddenly felt much more at ease.
In her view, with someone as unfathomably powerful as Leilin standing beside her, perhaps they could even escape from the Soul-slaying Cult safely?
With her mind calmed, Darlenlay finally had the spare energy to take in other details.
At the very front, the wizard being chased by the Soul-slaying Cultists was a young man with sky-blue eyes and brown hair. Nearly materialized energy particles overflowed around his body, boosting his speed and deflecting attacks.
"Peak first-rank! A powerhouse with at least 75% elementalization! Who is he? And why is he being hunted by the Soul-slaying Cult?"
A flicker of confusion passed through Darlenlay's eyes.
"You can't escape!"
At that moment, the Soul-slaying Cult's second-rank wizard let out a sharp shout. Silver spiritual particles converged, forming a silver whip dozens of meters long yet impossibly thin.
Crack!
With an elegant flick of his wrist, the silver whip straightened in an instant, its tip lashing directly toward the back of the wizard still fleeing ahead.
"Fallen Star Pendant!" The young wizard screamed frantically, and a layer of dark crimson light suddenly surfaced around his body, vaguely coalescing into the shape of an illusory suit of armor.
Crack! Bang! Dull impacts rang out from behind as the dark crimson illusory armor shattered. The young wizard's face flushed red.
But the silver whip was momentarily halted as well, giving the wizard the chance to sprint toward the entrance of Imbole town—directly toward Leilin and Darlenlay.
"Did you think a mere mid-tier Magical Item could save you?"
Watching his seemingly decisive strike slip through his fingers, the second-rank wizard's expression grew even darker. Twisted skull phantoms began to materialize around him, radiating an aura of despair and profound dread.
"My lord! Sir, let's go quickly!" Darlenlay, facing the fleeing wizard head-on, could almost make out every pore on his face, along with the horde of Soul-slaying Cultists behind him whose eyes blazed with blood-red light, appearing utterly frenzied. She grabbed urgently at Leilin's sleeve.
"Go? Why would we go?" Leilin smiled faintly. He had only used the soul bloodline summon without personally intervening to rescue the other party because he wanted to test the young man's strength and luck.
Now, having tested him, this young one's strength was passable, and his luck was quite remarkable. Leilin nodded to himself in approval.
This young wizard still fleeing was naturally the Farell family bloodline Leilin had sensed—likely a branch descendant of one of his siblings. From the young man's facial contours, Leilin could even faintly trace resemblances to Viscount Farell, or even to himself.
"So Damiang has already encountered him? He even gave my Fallen Star Pendant to him!"
Leilin rubbed his chin. The Magical Item that had just manifested as the dark crimson illusory armor was precisely the exquisite dark crimson cross pendant hanging from the young man's neck, adorned with tiny gemstones—none other than the mid-tier Magical Item Leilin had crafted himself on the South Coast: the Fallen Star Pendant!
After advancing to the second rank, mid-tier Magical Items no longer held much effect for him, so he had entrusted the Fallen Star Pendant to Damiang, hoping the latter would pass it on to an outstanding young wizard of the Farell family.
It seemed Damiang had completed this task quite well.
"Mr. Leilin, could it be... the person you've been waiting for is him?"
Darlenlay pointed at the wizard fleeing toward them with sudden realization. "He's a member of your family—that's why you came here specifically to rescue him?"
"Something like that!" Leilin raised an eyebrow, then turned his gaze toward another direction in the sky, a playful smile touching his lips. "It's really getting lively here today!"
"You can't escape! The Soul-slaying Cult has never failed to kill someone it set its sights on!"