Luo Lin continued walking forward, careful not to act rashly, though her pace had noticeably slowed.
She was fully aware that the people behind her were waiting—waiting for her to step onto the empty stretch of road ahead.
She could, of course, pretend to be kidnapped and let them take her to their base… but that was a foolish plan.
Although she was on the verge of becoming a fourth-tier mage, “on the verge” was still not the same as being one.
If there happened to be a fifth-tier mage stationed at their base, she’d just be handing herself over on a silver platter.
But now, Luo Lin had come up with a brand-new idea—wipe them all out.
Since they had disrupted the natural flow of elemental magic in this area, it meant that no information about what happened here could be transmitted immediately.
That also suggested that even if they had some kind of spell to send a warning upon death, it wouldn’t activate in time.
She could completely pass off the locator as something found on the enemy’s body and deliver it to the Defense Bureau.
As for why she hadn’t handed over the locator earlier—at that time, she’d still been looking for a breakthrough opportunity to ascend to the fourth tier.
For mages, every third tier marked a critical threshold.
As for confessions possibly exposing her?
Well, a person has to be alive to give a confession…
In her past life, she had climbed all the way to the eighth tier—no one got there without blood on their hands.
She just happened to leave behind a few romantic entanglements along the way.
Now, with the arrow nocked, there was no turning back.
She had been targeted.
The original plan would have to change.
By the time she reached this point, Luo Lin came to a halt.
A strong gust of wind suddenly swept past, followed by a sharp tearing sound in the air.
The swordsman had already arrived behind her, his hand slowly reaching out to grab her.
Their targets had always been young children—some not even mages—so this swordsman let his guard down.
But what they never expected was that this “one-year-old” little girl was actually a third-tier mage…
Boom!
Luo Lin’s figure burst into a swarm of bats.
The swordsman’s pupils contracted sharply.
“Damn!”
The other two mages also sensed something was off and quickly pulled away.
“Was the intel wrong? That’s impossible!”
One of the mages muttered in disbelief.
Their magical device was calibrated to target children under six years old—there was no way it could have marked someone like Luo Lin.
“Big brother, kidnapping is wrong, you know.”
A childlike, innocent voice suddenly whispered in the mage’s ear.
The next moment, his vision went hazy.
The last thing he saw froze in place—a sweet-looking little girl in a maid outfit holding a giant blood-red scythe taller than herself.
Her scarlet eyes stared at him with icy indifference.
Blood still dripped from the blade of her weapon.
And then—nothing.
His consciousness faded into oblivion.
Luo Lin once again transformed into a flurry of bats, swiftly avoiding the erupting pillar of blood as she charged toward the remaining two enemies.
“Lu Renjia!”
The swordsman’s eyes widened in shock as he stared at the headless body still gushing blood in the distance.
But before he could react, another sharp slicing sound tore through the air.
Close combat was the swordsman’s specialty, though.
He immediately ducked, dodging Luo Lin’s attack, and drew the longsword at his waist to engage her in battle.
The remaining mage didn’t dare show the slightest hesitation.
Chanting rapidly, he summoned spell after spell that streaked through the air like shooting stars—flames, frost, radiant beams of magic lighting up the dark battlefield.
Luo Lin’s eyes narrowed sharply as she sensed the incoming magic.
She gripped her blood scythe tightly, its blade pulsing with an eerie red glow, almost as if hungering for more blood.
With a swift flick of her wrist, her movements fluid and precise, she swung the scythe at an impossible angle, disarming the swordsman with pinpoint accuracy.
The longsword spun through the air and hit the ground with a clear metallic clang.
But Luo Lin didn’t stop there.
Seizing the moment, she swung her scythe again.
It cut through the air with lethal speed, trailing a streak of crimson light.
A scream rang out.
Another corpse collapsed to the ground, blood gushing from the fatal wound and staining the earth a dark red.
Seeing things had gone south, the last mage activated a wind spell in a desperate bid to escape the scene.
But then—another slicing sound broke through the chaos.
The blood scythe spun like a whirlwind, tearing through what was left of the battlefield.
“All done!”
Luo Lin retracted her scythe and pulled out a phone from her pocket, dialing the Defense Bureau.
She cleared her throat—and the voice of a little girl suddenly shifted to that of a boy.
“Hello? Good evening, is this a good time? I have something urgent to report.”
A soft beep sounded from the other end, signaling the call had connected.
Luo Lin deliberately rasped her voice to sound coarse and masculine, urgently describing the situation.
There was a brief silence on the other end before a stern, authoritative voice responded, “Understood, sir. Please stay calm. We will dispatch a unit immediately. We ask that you remain at the scene and cooperate with our personnel.”
Hearing this, Luo Lin felt a wave of relief, though she kept her cool outwardly.
She lowered her voice and cautiously asked, “About the reward money… if everything checks out, can that be processed quickly?”
The question clearly caught the other party off guard.
For a moment, only the faint static of the call could be heard.
After a pause, the voice returned, steady and firm: “Please rest assured, sir. If your information proves accurate, the promised 100,000 gold coins will be transferred to the account you provide. We’ve always honored our word. We simply ask that you fully cooperate with our staff.”
“Got it!”
Luo Lin’s face lit up with delight.
…
Looking at the blood-splattered battlefield, Luo Lin made a few cuts on the bodies for effect, then cast an illusion spell to transform herself back into Lin Luo.
The only difference was this version of Lin Luo wore tattered clothes, and her exposed skin was marked with a few shocking wounds.
She was fabricating the appearance of having survived a hard-fought battle—otherwise, she might attract suspicion from the Defense Bureau herself.
Before long, the sound of an approaching vehicle echoed through the air.
A silver ten-seater van slowly pulled up beside her.
Three Defense Bureau agents stepped out.
Luo Lin immediately recognized one of them—it was the “big sister” who had taken her call.
“This…”
Candice furrowed her brows at the messy scene, then turned her attention to Luo Lin.
“You must be…”
“That’s me.”
Luo Lin nodded.
“I found this on them.”
She handed over the locator she had taken.
“According to what they said, this device leads straight to their base.”
“I see.”
Candice accepted the locator, her expression growing grim.