Chapter 144: Mysterious Black-Clad Figure

Inside the tower.

Talia, the Human-Faced Flower King, opened her storage bracelet.

Searching for any effective items or potions to stop the bleeding from her wound.

If this continued, before the enemy found her, she might die from excessive blood loss.

Though Transcendents could breathe Source Power and didn't rely on blood for energy,

the circulation of blood in the body provided more than just energy.

Excessive blood loss would gradually cause the body to lose its vitality, and once the body lost vitality, the soul's will would also verge on death and dissolution.

Talia, who was searching for something, suddenly lifted her head, a trace of despair appearing on her pale face.

"I've been found."

Though her soul had suffered some damage, Talia's perception remained very strong.

That peculiar locking method was very subtle, yet she still detected it.

Her current state was terrible.

Even her physical body had begun to weaken.

Being discovered now, she feared the worst.

Before Talia could think too much,

Boom, boom, boom...

A violent pounding sound suddenly erupted.

The entire tower shook violently, as if a herd of highland wild bulls were madly ramming the abandoned tower.

Talia's extrasensory perception was extremely strong; she could clearly feel the spells bombarding from outside, which, if they hit, would inflict fatal damage on her.

After all, as the Human-Faced Flower King, neither her "flower form" nor her current "human form" had ever been known for physical toughness.

Suddenly, Talia's heart grew alert.

No longer caring about her wound, she desperately channeled Source Power to leave her spot and climb up the wall.

The moment she left her spot,

"Bang!" A loud explosion.

Several massive spells, moving so fast that even afterimages were hard to see, tore through the wall, their sharp edges sweeping past where she had been.

If she had been half a second later in leaving, those enormous sharp spells would have easily torn her body apart.

Even though she dodged the spells attacking from below,

the bombardment of spells did not cease; instead, it grew even more violent, hammering the entire tower.

Talia could feel that the direction of the spells changed as she moved.

If she didn't shift her position, the next moment the spells would tear through the abandoned tower's walls again, slicing and killing her.

Just as she moved to another spot,

"Boom!"

The tower wall opposite where she had just been was blasted into a large hole.

The tower was already showing signs of collapsing.

"It's some kind of locking spell. Damn it."

After dodging repeatedly and finding herself always locked on, Talia knew exactly what spell she had been hit with.

"Moreover, the enemy attacking me has such a high single-second overlap."

If Talia hadn't sensed that these blade spells were of the same type, she might have suspected a group of spellcasters were bombarding her.

"Bang!"

At the spot Talia had just desperately moved to, those blade spells tore open another huge hole.

"I can't stay here any longer."

Feeling the tower about to collapse, Talia quickly scrambled toward the window at the top of the tower.

She knew that facing the spellcaster's bombardment outside was more dangerous,

but if she didn't go out, the tower would collapse and she would be buried alive.

Just as she smashed open the window and flipped out, she felt the tower tilt to one side.

In just three or four seconds, a tower ten meters high and three to four meters in diameter had been leveled by the spellcaster.

With a leap, Talia broke free from the collapsing tower and jumped down toward the snowy ground below.

At the same time, he saw the Human-faced Flower King leaping away from the tower.

A smile curled at the corner of Gune's mouth.

"Not slow at all. After all, it's a fourth-tier Flower King leader-level human body, still somewhat stronger than the average spellcaster's physique."

"Pity... you shouldn't have jumped out like that."

The next moment, the scattered magic blades howled toward the Human-faced Flower King.

Talia, who had just left the tower, sensed something was wrong.

She twisted her head in midair to look behind, and her eyes instantly went wide.

A chilling despair flooded her mind.

"This isn't a locking spell... it's a tracking spell."

The next moment, the spells that had avoided the collapsing tower from both sides roared and engulfed the fourth-tier Human-faced Flower King, who had no way to dodge in midair.

There is a great difference between locking spells and tracking spells.

A locking spell only lets the caster clearly know the target's location.

As for whether a distant moving object can be hit, that depends on the mage's judgment, accuracy, and the coverage area of the spell.

A locking spell does not alter the trajectory of subsequent spells.

A tracking spell, however, not only allows the caster to lock onto the target's position but also enables subsequent spells to follow an arcing trajectory, avoiding obstacles to attack the enemy.

When leaping away from the tower, Talia had also used the tower to block spells, buying herself more time.

But her misjudgment directly led to her being caught in a barrage of Gune's spells within less than a second of jumping out.

In truth, her misjudgment was not entirely her fault.

After all, locking spells can be used as soon as they are learned.

Tracking spells, however, require a higher level to be effective.

This means that some spellcasters might learn locking spells.

But very few spellcasters ever learn tracking spells.

After more than twenty magic blades had passed.

The corpse of this fourth-tier Human-faced Flower King was shattered beyond recognition.

Even the most skilled mortician would find it difficult to piece it back together.

Stepping lightly on the snow, Gune approached the Human-faced Flower King, whose body fragments were scattered widely.

After a moment of identification, Gune found the two arms of the Human-faced Flower King.

From the ring finger of its left hand, Gune removed a withered yellow supernatural storage bracelet.

Taking a quick look, Gune couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"So many materials, most of them from the ocean. Did this Human-faced Flower King come from the sea?"

"And dragon blood, dragon scales—these rarer materials. The storage method clearly shows they were self-collected, and the collection technique is quite crude. The dragon blood and scales sold by merchant guilds are all processed materials, ready to use."

"Hmm... it seems this one did come from the sea, and along the way, it probably took part in a hunt for a dragon-type creature."

"Overall, the value of these materials exceeds thirty thousand gold pounds."

"Are all those who come from the sea this wealthy?"

Putting away the supernatural ring, Gune silently tasted a small amount of the Human-faced Flower King's blood.

"This is not the same Human-faced Flower King whose blood I used to open a blood pool last time."

"That means there are at least two Human-faced Flower Kings in this Sugg Ruins City."

"Is it because of that Medusa?" Gune narrowed his eyes.

Then, Gune released five puppet threads and began to gather the Human-faced Flower King's corpse.

The Human-faced Flower King's corpse also needed to be destroyed.

Otherwise, the flower body of the Human-faced Flower King could come and devour the flesh and blood, then recycle them to recreate a human body at a lower cost.

If the corpse were completely destroyed, recreating a human body would cost it much more.

Moreover, Gune could sense from the blood that this Human-faced Flower King had likely just advanced.

Having just advanced and needing to create a human body, it would probably drop in rank.

As he manipulated the puppet threads to gather pieces of flesh one by one,

Suddenly, Gune sensed something.

Then, he looked toward the shadow of a nearby tree.

Unbeknownst to him, a mysterious figure, clad in black robes with even its head wrapped in a black hood, its gender and supernatural profession unknown, had appeared there like a ghost, silent and unnoticed.