When Lin Jie and his group climbed over the broken stone wall and officially stepped into the castle's inner court, the surrounding world suddenly fell silent.

The roar of waves crashing against the cliffs became distant and muffled, and the sound of raindrops hitting the ground was no longer crisp, transforming into a faint, rustling noise like sand grinding.

Ackerman's troops, who had laid a tight net around the perimeter and even stationed hidden sentries at every blind spot on the cliffs, had actually left a massive vacuum in the core area of this castle.

But this didn't make Lin Jie feel relieved.

On the contrary, every muscle in his body tensed up.

Because this place was too clean.

There were no footprints, no litter, not even the decaying smell typical of ruins.

The scattered stones on the ground, the broken arches and pillars, all exhibited an eerie sense of neatness, as if someone meticulously wiped down these shattered walls and debris every single day.

"The stones here are not right."

Julian stopped walking.

He crouched down and, using the light from Lin Jie's storm lantern, carefully examined a paving stone beneath his feet.

It was a piece of black basalt, its surface smooth as a mirror.

"What's wrong?" Lin Jie asked in a low voice.

"This is not randomly collapsed ruins."

Julian's finger traced along the edge of the stone. "Look at this angle. And the direction that collapsed pillar is pointing."

Julian looked up, his gaze darting rapidly between the seemingly chaotic piles of stones around them, as if connecting some invisible constellation.

"This is a geometric array."

"A labyrinth lock structure belonging to the Celtic Druidic tradition, lost since the 5th century AD."

"The collapse position of every stone was precisely calculated."

Julian stood up and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"Ackerman's men aren't stationed here because they simply don't need to be."

Lin Jie nodded.

"Evelyn."

Lin Jie looked at the team's technical expert.

"Look below."

Evelyn nodded. She pressed the knob on the side of her Echo Goggles, pushing the mithril circuit's power to maximum.

The grayish-white structural x-ray vision unfolded before her eyes once more.

In her sight, the layers of rock in the ground peeled away.

Those complex geometric arrays transformed into glowing lines.

And at the endpoint of these lines, directly beneath the ruins of the castle's main building, appeared a vast expanse of black nothingness.

"Found it."

Evelyn's voice was somewhat dry.

"Right under our feet, about thirty meters deep."

"There's a huge underground cavity. The shape... is very regular, like an inverted bowl."

"But the entrance is blocked."

She pointed towards a collapsed area ahead.

It was piled high with rubble and didn't look particularly special.

But in Evelyn's vision, the gaps between that rubble were filled with a strange substance.

"That's not stone, nor is it soil."

Evelyn frowned, trying to describe what she was seeing.

"It's... a transparent, gelatinous substance."

"It has no fixed form. Like a large mass of solidified glue, or some kind of high-density energy aggregate."

"It's sealing the only passage leading underground."

"And its structure is extremely stable. Ordinary physical attacks would probably have a hard time breaking it." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Transparent gelatin.

Several thoughts flashed through Lin Jie's mind.

This didn't sound like an alchemical product; it was more like some UMA's secretion.

"Let's go take a look."

Lin Jie made a hand signal.

The five of them maintained a combat formation, cautiously approaching the collapsed area.

William walked at the front, gun at the ready.

Marcus brought up the rear, holding his battle-axe.

Though weak, Silas still summoned a spiritual hound to provide flank security.

As they delved deeper into the ruins, the surrounding fog began to thicken.

Lin Jie felt his movements becoming somewhat sluggish, a resistance similar to walking through water.

The air grew viscous.

"Stop."

Lin Jie suddenly barked in a low voice.

He halted abruptly, simultaneously reaching out an arm to stop Julian behind him.

"What is it?"

Julian asked nervously.

Lin Jie didn't answer.

His gaze was fixed dead ahead on a broken pillar about ten meters away.

In the shadow of that broken pillar stood a person.

No.

That wasn't a person.

It was a blurry, gray human silhouette with edges that flickered like jagged static.

It had no facial features, no texture of clothing, just an outline that looked like it had been hastily sketched with a pencil on rough paper.

It stood there quietly, seemingly unaware of the intruders' arrival.

But the instant Lin Jie stared at it, the silhouette suddenly moved.

Its movements were extremely stiff and utterly illogical.

It raised its right hand and made an incredibly swift horizontal slashing motion.

"Whoosh!"

Even from ten meters away, Lin Jie could feel a sharp, murderous intent from that motion.

But, nothing happened.

The silhouette merely swiped its hand through the air, then returned to stillness.

Like a malfunctioning holographic projection.

"Is that... a guard?"

William lowered his gun muzzle; his Zulu's Gaze hadn't detected any emotional fluctuations from that silhouette.

That thing had no soul.

"It looks like some kind of residual image."

Julian analyzed.

"Maybe it's a combat trace left from the Round Table Knights' civil war? Recorded by the special magnetic field here?"

Lin Jie remained silent.

His intuition was screaming warnings.

Beneath this "harmless" appearance lurked a lethally discordant sense of wrongness.

That motion was too real; the angle of force carried undeniable "aggression."

If it didn't possess the ability to harm, where did this aggression come from?

"Let's test it."

Lin Jie picked up a piece of rubble from the ground and aimed at the patch of air the silhouette had just slashed through.

"Swish."

The rubble flew out.

It traced a parabolic arc, accurately passing through the space in front of the silhouette.

The rubble hit the ground with a crisp "crack."

"Seems like just an illusion."

Marcus breathed a sigh of relief, his grip on the battle-axe relaxing slightly.

"If it were a physical entity, that strike should have deflected the stone."

Lin Jie frowned.

Was he really overthinking this?

He decided to move closer for a better look.

He took a step forward.

Two steps.

Three steps.

When he reached a position about five meters from the silhouette, a sudden change occurred.

The silhouette moved again.

This time, it made a thrusting motion.

As if holding a spear, stabbing viciously forward.

Still silent.

Still no physical feedback.

Lin Jie stopped walking.

He warily scanned his surroundings, certain no physical attack was coming his way.

Only the sound of rain filled the air.

"Lin, watch out!"

Evelyn suddenly shouted from behind.

Lin Jie instinctively tried to step back.

But he didn't feel any threat approaching.

Until three seconds later.

"Rip!"

A sound like tearing cloth exploded beside Lin Jie's ear.

Followed by intense pain.

Lin Jie felt as if a red-hot scalpel had slashed viciously across his left cheek.

Blood welled up; a wound appeared out of thin air on his face.

And the location of the wound was precisely along the extended trajectory covered by that silhouette's earlier "horizontal slash" motion.

But how was that possible?

That silhouette had slashed from over ten meters away.

And it had happened several seconds ago!

"Fall back!"

Lin Jie clutched his face and violently retreated backward.

His mind raced, trying to parse this bizarre scene.

The attack had taken effect.

But it didn't happen at the moment of the "action."

Nor did it happen at the moment of "contact."

It happened at a completely misaligned point in time.

"Lin Jie! Your shoulder!"

William exclaimed. Lin Jie looked down.

A circular hole had suddenly appeared in the fabric over his right shoulder, as if pierced by a spear.

Blood stained his trench coat.

That was... the earlier "thrusting" motion!

Similarly delayed in effect, similarly ignoring distance and physical contact.

"Don't come over!"

Lin Jie roared loudly, stopping Marcus who was about to charge forward to help.

"This thing isn't right!"

"Its attacks are delayed!"

Lin Jie stared fixedly at the gray silhouette still standing in place.

At this moment, several more equally blurry figures emerged from the shadows of the ruins.

Some were swinging swords, others brandishing hammers, some making strange grasping motions.

They were like a group of mime actors performing with invisible props.

Putting on an absurd slaughter show in these rain-soaked ruins.

"I understand."

Lin Jie wiped the blood from his face; the icy sting made his thoughts clearer than ever.

"This is a UMA."

"A creature that can 'delay' actions."

Julian's face turned deathly pale.

As a mystic, he immediately grasped Lin Jie's meaning.

"You mean... time delay?"

"Not exactly time."

Lin Jie looked at the seemingly empty area ahead, actually filled with lethal traps.

"It's the separation of action and result."

"Normal physical phenomena are: swing sword, blade contacts object, causes damage."

"That's a continuous process."

"But this thing..."

Lin Jie pointed at the silhouette.

"It slices off the destructive force generated by the sword-swinging action, like cutting sausage."

"And stores it in the space in front of it."

"It doesn't need to actually hit you."

"It just needs to leave the 'concept' of a slash in that space."

"When you walk into that area, or when that stored result reaches its release time point."

"Damage erupts out of thin air."

This was a predator living in the cracks of time.

They only need to lay a net woven from countless "delayed damages" along the necessary path.

Then wait for prey to crash into it themselves.

Or wait for time to pass, letting those damages seek out their targets automatically.

Lin Jie got injured earlier because he walked into the attack range of the first horizontal slash.

Although the silhouette had stopped moving by then, the destructive force of that slash still lingered in the air, waiting to be triggered.

And the wound from the thrust was due to delayed eruption.

This meant the ruins before them were a minefield.

A death field filled with invisible blades and sword glares, ready to slice you to pieces at any moment.

"How do we fight this?"

Marcus's palm gripping the axe handle was slick with sweat.

Facing this kind of invisible, intangible attack that you didn't even know how to dodge, even a battle-hardened warrior like him felt a deep sense of helplessness.

"You have no idea when it will strike, nor when or where that strike will take effect."

"There must be a pattern."

Lin Jie's eyes turned sharp.

He activated his Mental Staircase, accelerating his thoughts.

The world slowed down in his vision.

He began re-examining the motions of those silhouettes.

The amplitude of each motion.

The force of each motion.

And... the time difference between the end of the motion and the eruption of damage.

The first "horizontal slash," delay before eruption was about five seconds.

The second "thrust," delay before eruption was about three seconds.

There must be a variable here.

"Evelyn."

Lin Jie called out.

"With your goggles, can you see those stored attacks?"

Evelyn bit her lip, desperately adjusting the goggles' parameters.

"I can't see the attacks themselves."

"But I can see 'stress distortions' in the air."

"In the space in front of those silhouettes, there are many lines like cracks in glass."

"Those lines are slowly moving, deforming."

"Tell me the locations!"

Lin Jie picked up several pieces of rubble from the ground.

"Three meters left front, height one point five meters, there's a horizontal crack!" Evelyn shouted.

The rubble in Lin Jie's hand flew out instantly.

"Crack!"

The rubble shattered at that location, as if hitting an invisible chainsaw.

"Verification successful."

Lin Jie said coldly.

"The attacks they store aren't invincible. They're energy clusters."

"As long as we detonate them early with external force, or avoid them, these shadows are toothless tigers."

"But that's not enough."

Lin Jie looked at those silhouettes continuously making new motions; they were creating more "mines."

If they didn't deal with the source, this area would soon become an impassable death zone.

"We have to charge through."

Lin Jie took a deep breath.

The boots on his feet began to grow slightly warm.