Chapter 5: Brave Niu Niu Fears No Difficulties

As the carriage continued deeper inside, the originally white fog gradually began taking on an extremely unsettling purple-black hue.

A pungent smell resembling rotting flesh mixed with greasy spices even drifted faintly through the air.

The two cat-girl maids, both extremely sensitive to abnormal magical fluctuations, nervously hugged each other together.

One of the cat-eared maids spoke in a trembling voice.

“Young Master, t-this place looks like the depths of the Mist Forest. The magical fluctuations here also feel really strange. We didn’t bring any guards this trip… should we stop first and figure out where we are?”

Luo Lin also sensed something was wrong.

The Mozart family’s carriage always traveled along official routes.

How could they possibly end up in this creepy place without even a proper road?

He immediately shoved open the front partition window of the carriage and shouted toward the coachman outside.

“Mr. Brown! What kind of driving is this?! Why are we getting farther and farther off course?!”

Outside the carriage, there was only dead silence.

The only sound was the crunching noise of horse hooves stepping over dead branches and rotting leaves.

Just as Luo Lin was about to kick open the carriage door, the coachman’s formerly honest voice drifted in.

Only now, that voice had become incomparably hoarse and sinister, like fingernails scraping against glass.

“Off course?”

The coachman let out a chilling laugh.

“Not at all, Young Master. Isn’t this the fastest road to the underworld?”

Boom—!

With a loud explosion, the two high-grade Windblade Horses pulling the carriage suddenly let out miserable shrieks.

Immediately afterward, the entire carriage violently overturned forward as if it had smashed into an invisible iron wall!

“Ahhh!”

The two maids screamed as they tumbled into a heap.

Luo Lin was also violently thrown against the carriage wall, leaving him dizzy and disoriented.

The carriage completely fell apart.

When Luo Lin shook his spinning head and kicked open the shattered carriage door before crawling out of the wreckage—

The sight before him caused his pupils to shrink violently.

Within the dense purple-black poisonous mist, the formerly honest-looking coachman had already torn off his disguise.

He wore a pitch-black robe stitched from the fur of some unknown creature.

Beneath the hood, twisted black veins covered his face, and on his right cheek was a fang tattoo radiating a violent aura!

Another cultist of the Demon God of Wrath!

“Die, Luo Lin!”

The black-robed cultist wasted no words.

His movements were clean and decisive.

His withered fingers suddenly spread open as a violent mass of black magic shot toward Luo Lin’s chest like a venomous snake!

Luo Lin’s heart instantly rose into his throat.

He was a completely magicless “Null Mage.”

Facing such a murderous magical attack, he didn’t even possess the speed necessary to dodge!

At this life-or-death moment—

“Young Master, run! I’ll hold him off!”

A furious roar exploded like thunder from the ground!

The originally clumsy-looking Niu Zi suddenly erupted with astonishing speed.

Like a mountain of meat, he threw himself directly in front of Luo Lin and fiercely crossed his arms before his chest, forcibly blocking the deadly black magic!

Luo Lin froze.

Immediately afterward, wild joy exploded within his heart!

Could it be?!

This usually dumb and gluttonous fat Niu Zi was actually a hidden peerless expert secretly arranged by the Grand Duke to protect him?!

Right!

That explained everything!

The original owner had been such an idiot, constantly causing trouble everywhere.

So how had he managed to survive all the way to eighteen years old completely unharmed?

Obviously because he had a hidden bodyguard pretending to be weak beside him!

Brother Niu!

Beat his ass!

It’s time to reveal your true power!

Luo Lin screamed encouragement crazily inside his heart.

The next second—

Boom—Crack!

That mass of black magic lightly collided against Niu Zi’s crossed arms, producing an ear-piercing sound of bones shattering.

“Ow ow ow my dear mother—!”

Niu Zi didn’t even last half a second.

His enormous body flew like a kicked ball at ten times the speed he had charged in with.

He drew a beautiful parabola through the air while spraying blood everywhere before finally smashing into a gigantic ancient tree over ten meters away with a loud bang.

Niu Zi rolled his eyes back and spat out a huge mouthful of foam before instantly fainting.

Purple poisonous mist churned around them.

The ecstatic expression on Luo Lin’s face completely froze.

His mouth opened wide enough to fit an ostrich egg.

A cold breeze blew through, carrying several dead leaves.

Luo Lin’s fantasies shattered into pieces alongside the crisp sound of Niu Zi’s breaking bones.

This guy was a genuine combat-power-five weakling!

He had absolutely no hidden strength whatsoever!

He was simply fat enough to withstand a beating!

The black-robed cultist glanced disdainfully toward Niu Zi embedded in the tree before slowly approaching Luo Lin.

Cruel green light flickered beneath the hood.

“Now, it’s your turn.”

At this utterly hopeless moment—

Luo Lin’s shoulders suddenly began trembling strangely.

Immediately afterward, an extremely abrupt and wildly arrogant burst of laughter exploded through the silent poisonous forest.

“Ahahahahahahaha—!”

Luo Lin laughed so hard that he bent forward and backward, tears even spilling from the corners of his eyes.

The black-robed man stopped walking.

His brows furrowed tightly beneath the hood.

He had carried out countless assassination missions before.

People facing death either knelt and begged for mercy, rose in desperate resistance, or collapsed into despairing tears.

But someone laughing like a lunatic while standing on death’s doorstep—

This was his first time seeing such a thing.

“Your death is imminent. What are you laughing at?” the black-robed man asked coldly while black magic gathered in his palm without being released.

Luo Lin stopped laughing and raised a hand to wipe away the tears at the corner of his eyes.

The arrogant expression on his face instantly transformed into one of incomparably sincere and passionate admiration.

“What am I laughing at? I’m laughing because I, Luo Lin Mozart, finally have the honor of witnessing the magnificence of a true divine apostle today!”

Without hesitation, Luo Lin raised both hands high into the air in a standard surrender pose.

His voice trembled with excitement.

“Big Brother! Honestly, I’ve long disliked that damned Creator Goddess Serah! Your cult—oh no, your Holy Church! The teachings of your Holy Church, that ideology about breaking social classes and releasing one’s true power, are exactly the truth that a useless trash without magic like me has always desperately pursued!”

The black-robed man was so stunned by this shameless speech that his brain short-circuited for half a second.

“Stop trying to stall for time.”

The black-robed man sneered.

“Someone paid a great price for your life. You will die today no matter what.”

“I know! Even using my toes to think, I know it was Saul’s people who hired someone to kill me!”

Luo Lin’s brain spun like an overclocked turbine engine.

His survival instincts had been pushed to their absolute limit.

He directly sat cross-legged on the ground, adopting a “we’re on the same side” posture as he launched into rapid-fire persuasion.

“But Big Brother, think about the math here carefully! Killing me will only earn you one payment from your employer! But once I die, the Mozart Grand Duke will absolutely go insane! The entire Holy Church State’s knight order will turn this entire forest upside down! What will you gain then? Endless pursuit!”

“Stop trying to stall for time.”

The black-robed man sneered again.

“Someone paid a great price for your life. You will die today no matter what.”

“I know!! I know, Big Brother!”

Luo Lin lowered his voice like an old scheming fox.

“But if you keep me alive, I’m the sole heir of the Mozart Grand Duke! The resources I can mobilize and the information I can access are worth ten thousand times more than a corpse! As long as Big Brother spares my life, I, Luo Lin, will become the Holy Church’s most loyal undercover agent within the Holy Church State!”

The black-robed man fell silent.

The green light beneath his hood flickered violently.

Clearly, Luo Lin’s perfectly logical analysis of gains and losses had shaken him.

A dead son of a Grand Duke was merely money.

But a living and controlled son of a Grand Duke—

That was an achievement reaching the heavens!

“You truly are willing to serve the Holy Church?” the black-robed man asked, his tone easing slightly.

“More genuine than real gold!” Luo Lin patted his chest in assurance.

“Good.”

The black-robed man laughed sinisterly.

“Since you wish to prove your loyalty, half a month from now will be Princess Alice’s coming-of-age ceremony. I want you to use your childhood-friend relationship to drug her black tea.”

“No problem! What kind of drug? Poison or aphrodisiac? If it’s an aphrodisiac, I don’t mind personally helping out!”

Luo Lin agreed instantly without even one second of hesitation.

The black-robed man became thoroughly satisfied with Luo Lin’s utterly bottomless playboy behavior and completely lowered his guard.

“I can spare your life.”

As he spoke, the black-robed man pulled out a pitch-black pill emitting a foul odor from his robe and walked toward Luo Lin.

“But first, you must swallow this Heart-Eating Pill.”

“Of course, of course. If I don’t take poison, how can you trust me under your control?”

With a flattering expression, Luo Lin stepped forward and actively stretched out his right hand to receive the poison.

Five steps.

Three steps.

One step.

At the exact moment the black-robed man placed the pill into Luo Lin’s palm—

The flattering smile on Luo Lin’s face vanished without a trace.

The right hand he had stretched out never intended to receive the poison.

Instead, at an inconceivable speed, he violently rubbed against the spatial ring on the ring finger of his left hand!

Clang—!

An incomparably sharp sword cry suddenly exploded forth!

A gorgeous longsword swirling with cyan winds appeared in Luo Lin’s hand without warning.

The Windflower Sword!

This was an epic-grade magical weapon prototype that the original owner had once spent tens of thousands of gold coins buying from the black market in order to please that green tea Laura!

Embedded within the sword hilt was an extremely rare top-grade Wind Crystal.

Inside it was stored a full-power attack equivalent to that of a Master-level wind mage.

Its greatest characteristic was—

It required absolutely no magic from the user.

As long as the mechanism was activated, it could instantly unleash its full power!

Luo Lin had no magic.

But he had a brain!

“Go die, you stinky cultist who never bathes!”

Luo Lin crazily slammed the switch on the sword hilt.

Gripping the Windflower Sword with both hands, he viciously slashed upward toward the black-robed man’s face at point-blank range!

Boom—!!!

The highly compressed Wind Crystal instantly exploded!

A terrifying cyan tornado over three meters wide erupted violently between them like a gigantic meat grinder!

The violent wind blades instantly shredded half of the black-robed man’s cloak into pieces.

Along with a miserable scream reaching the extreme, the black-robed man himself was blasted flying by the hurricane while blood sprayed wildly through the air!

As for Luo Lin, he didn’t even spare a glance at the result of his attack.

The moment the Wind Crystal exploded, he borrowed the recoil force generated by the hurricane and shot backward over ten meters like a ground-skimming marmot.

He grabbed the back collar of Niu Zi, who was still embedded in the tree trunk, and yanked hard.

“Off we go!”

Luo Lin hoisted the over-two-hundred-pound Niu Zi onto his shoulders and exploded with every ounce of strength in his body.

Without turning back even once, he sprinted wildly deeper into the poisonous mist forest!