Before Li Wei could give an answer, what made him break into a cold sweat first was a sudden drop where the floor vanished beneath his feet.
There was no warning sound, but something far more dangerous than an alarm: "visual blindness."
The floor, no longer visible, seemed to be in endless motion, making them feel dizzy. The light that had previously allowed them to outline the contours of this empty "cage" was now completely useless.
It was an isolated Space where only each other's breathing proved they still existed.
Yet intuition told Lin Xiu and Li Wei that they had not actually moved at all in terms of physical Space; this was simply a psychological warfare game played by Yuyu Yiyi's group.
"When people lose their vision, due to the Coriolis effect, they lose their accurate sense of direction. No matter how far they walk, they will ultimately just end up circling in place."
————————
"Ah~ after months of deployment, we finally got some harvest after all—"
A magnetically rich male voice pierced through the darkness, unfurling like a touch against the fingertips, startling both Li Wei and Lin Xiu.
"Who is it?!"
The white-haired Witch took two steps back, quickly increasing the distance to avoid a sudden ambush by the enemy.
Hearing Li Wei's voice, the boy realized how far away from her he had now positioned himself. The pitch-black darkness was like an invisible set of thorny vines, choking throats and tripping feet.
"Master was right indeed. You really can camp out and catch a big one here. Let me see~ Oh~ it's a pair of young lovers trysting in the dark~ Tee-hee."
Another voice, sounding like a young boy, came from behind Lin Xiu, the sound waves echoing endlessly as they collided against the walls.
It instantly brought to mind a creepy, vengeful ghost.
"Li Wei, what's your status right now?" Lin Xiu paid no attention to the remark whatsoever; he cared more about Li Wei. This was also the first phrase that popped into his head.
After all, without activating the Demon Eye, he truly couldn't tell what was going on.
"I'm fine. What about you?"
"Other than not being able to see a damn thing, I'm doing alright."
The casual banter between the youth and the maiden was a complete provocation to the two unknown, lurking ambushers.
"Hmph, since you're lovers... then there's no need for us to introduce ourselves. Let's begin the prelude to tonight's slaughter!"
Let us call this man with the magnetic voice the Magnetic Man. Listening to the "flirtatious" dialogue between Li Wei and Lin Xiu, he grew increasingly disgusted by the intruders before him—the more intimate they were, the more they deserved to die.
Even though their arrival ought to have been his honor.
The Magnetic Man threw hundreds of deformed needles and threads toward Li Wei's location—(fibers far exceeding modern industrial materials in quality, whose activity and physical-chemical properties could achieve an effect approximating the wave-particle duality of light).
Needless to say, this was merely a corner of the modern magic research conducted by Yuyu Jiaye.
The threads intertwined and wove together, as if intending to pierce the target before them and then chop and stitch them up like a ragdoll.
On the other side, the young boy's magic revealed his position to Lin Xiu from all directions as if through teleportation, but in the pitch-black darkness, who could possibly capture that slightest fraction of a difference?
"Fear stems from the unknown, an innate, primitive instinct of biological self-preservation."
"How can this be..." When the young boy's night-vision goggles finally located the youth, he found himself plunging into fear instead.
Who was the unknown? Who was the prey?
The answer that should not have been wrong was completely reversed.
The youth standing before him not only showed no signs of fear, but even had the corners of his mouth upturned in a sneering smile.
In an instant, his own position had been locked onto.
———"I know where you are. Who do you think you're fooling?"
This was precisely what the young boy himself read from the youth's terrifyingly crimson left eye while in night-vision mode.
Cold sweat poured down.
Was that... the "Ran Family Demon Eye", or... the "Eye of Blood Terror"?
Was he "Lin Joseph"?! No wait, shouldn't that old fogey be in Gaul?
By the time the young boy wanted to convey this crucial information to his master, the Magnetic Man, it was already too late...
———Because on the other side, the battle had ended two minutes ago...
Faced with the modern magic interlacing and piercing toward her, Li Wei impatiently took out a dagger hidden in the inner layer of her short skirt that looked like a collector's item—Jiaoxin.
It was a magical artifact she had spent a year crafting herself, following a Grimoire left behind by her father.
Although it couldn't compare to the one in the old fogey's hands, as a weapon that had swept across the world for so long while bridging antiquity and modernity, a dagger was the ultimate sharp tool for a magician who walked both paths.
Li Wei gently tossed "Jiaoxin", and the edged dagger shot out magical blade qi as if dancing.
In a short span of time, the Magnetic Man's proud deformed needles and threads were broken into dozens of fragments.
Of course, it wasn't over yet. The white-haired Witch knew that poisoned as she and Lin Xiu were, they couldn't afford a protracted battle; they needed to thoroughly explore the bottom of the entire abandoned building and leave as quickly as possible.
The enemy before her had to be dealt with using full force.
Whether killing them or knocking them out, they must never become a stumbling block. —This was the Witch's style: clean and decisive.
The Witch's pupils, pure blue like the ice of the Arctic Ocean, slowly turned deep blue, and finally halted when they reached the threshold of purple.
Night-vision magic—a combination of the night-vision functions of animals like cats and modern ophthalmological laser-reflection technology.
Faster and more accurate than ancient spells.
"Did you think I couldn't see you? I'll give you a chance to run—want it or not? Hehe."
Li Wei's mischievous teasing made the white-robed scientist, now completely defenseless before the hunter, feel both painful and desperate.
"Not ordinary night-vision magic, right... Miss Witch... I am already at your mercy..."
Li Wei was extremely experienced in combat, always able to exploit weaknesses with a "playful" approach. Clearly, she knew the person before her far too well.
The magnetic voice remained unchanged. The moment Li Wei looked at him, his feet had already been locked in place.
A magician is not born with a Demon Eye, but through magic, effects similar to a Demon Eye can be achieved.
Night-vision magic is like that, and binding magic is as well.
Yet it was ultimately just an "imitator", failing to reach the high-end caliber of a Pupil Master. Precisely because of this, Aiminh had admonished Li Wei to be cautious around Pupil Masters.
"Then... farewell, Mr. Yuyu's assistant—Dr. Philos."
"Jiaoxin", which had been floating and wandering in mid-air, rubbed against the Witch's hand like a pet, and then instantly thrust toward the Magnetic Man's heart.
Slash!
Fresh blood gushed from the wound, but the moment it splashed onto Li Wei's face, it was completely repelled by a magical reflection.
Only...
Li Wei could feel that "Jiaoxin" had not pierced straight through his heart; after breaking through the sternum, it had been forcibly suppressed by physiological magic, stopping at the very last millimeter after the impact force was buffered.
He was in a state of complete shock, with lingering consciousness still controlling his body's nerves.
"Master!"
The moment the young boy realized Lin Xiu's identity was extraordinary, Philos had already been beaten to the ground by the Witch.
Looking at the Magnetic Man with a dagger stabbed into his chest, the boy flew into a complete rage. With a sudden dash, he materialized right in front of Lin Xiu and unleashed a surprise spinning flying kick.
A kick?
The youth understood the flaws of close-quarters combat better than anyone, and didn't even condescend to use his Demon Eye to retaliate. He merely took a slight step back, using a sufficient gap of space to parry the incoming kick with his Tri-facet Military Dagger.
Just a slight 90-degree rotation.
Losing his balance, the unwilling young boy used vortex magic to generate a rebound force against the ground, buying himself room to counterattack.
"A child should be reading books instead of engaging in these sneaky, shady businesses with madmen."
The moment the boy pushed off the ground to spring back, he saw something that most closely resembled a wild wolf hunting in the dark night.
His sense of smell among the five senses captured a scent that had already penetrated his mind.
Those crimson pupils would also be a terror he would never forget for the rest of his life—even though this fear ought not to have belonged to him in the first place.
Clang!
Knocked aside by a single punch from the youth, he closed his eyes.
"Why did you have to meddle in our affairs... Wouldn't it have been better to just stay and do research with your older brother and father?"
Not until the childish voice spoke mature words did the youth and maiden realize something.
This child might not actually be a child—
Could he be a test subject... a cyborg? Or a genetically modified boy? Or perhaps a defective killing machine?
Yet there was no need to dwell on such things at this moment.
The enemy had fallen, and they should rightfully be able to move forward without any scruples.
However, the maiden had something on her mind that she wished to settle right here—
The Witch gently pulled out "Jiaoxin", and without any pretense, walked up to the youth, as if wordlessly declaring, "I am a magician too."