Iya Continent: Card God

"Eh..." Linta sighed weakly and sat down on a nearby rock.

The mental energy consumed by this "burning" wasn't much, but the shadow consumed a considerable amount. In order to subdue its opponent, the shadow constantly "died" and regenerated while burning. But the result was ultimately good.

"You liar," Abilgai said with a gleeful smile as he approached.

Linta raised an eyebrow. "A liar? Hmm..."

I roughly understood what the other person meant, but I didn't want to explain, nor was I bothered to.

"It wasn't easy... to kill this guy..." Abirgay said with great emotion as he looked at the burning corpse.

While it's possible for a Bronze Saint to defeat a Silver Saint, it's extremely rare. More importantly, this red-haired Locke isn't an ordinary Silver Saint; he's incredibly strong, extremely cunning, and ruthless. Even someone of the same level might not be able to defeat him. And yet, Linta won—completely won!

“This guy is different from any I’ve encountered before. I can only try to deplete his magic power before killing him,” Linta said calmly.

"Ow..."

A mournful howl rang out, and the white-headed, two-spotted leopard cub ran to its mother's corpse, licking her head with its tongue, filled with sorrow.

Abilgai's eyes flickered, and he said to Linta, "Let's forget about it, let's not catch it."

I couldn't bear to do it, so I captured it and sold it to some unscrupulous person to be its companion.

“I had already discussed it with it and agreed not to arrest it,” Linta said.

"Huh?" Abirgay was stunned, somewhat bewildered.

“However…” Linta’s expression changed, his eyes turning serious. “If I don’t capture it, the other adventurers won’t let it go. Its existence at Sailboat Cliff has long been known. There will be a steady stream of adventurers coming to capture it. Its mother is gone; it’s hard to say whether it can survive on its own.”

Abilgai's heart skipped a beat, realizing the gravity of the situation.

This cub hasn't had time to learn enough survival skills from its mother, and no matter how careful it is, it's no match for human intelligence. It's only a matter of time before humans catch it!

Abirge's hand, gripping the staff, trembled violently, and sweat beaded on it.

He swallowed hard, his eyes firm and sincere as he walked toward the cub.

The young two-spotted leopard was not afraid or worried about the female magician; it could sense that she meant no harm.

Abirgai squatted down in front of the cub and said sincerely, "You will still be in danger here. If you stay here, you will be caught by us humans. So, if you trust me, come with me and I will take you to other safe forests."

Linta understood what Abilgai meant: instead of returning to Sandel City, he would take the cub and head far away from this county.

The young two-spotted leopard looked up at Abiergai, then lowered its head and nodded, letting out a soft howl to express its meaning.

“You…agree!” Abirgay was overjoyed.

Linta gazed into the distance, his eyes darkening slightly, and said, "Then let's hurry. The other adventurers are coming."

Abirgay suddenly realized that the commotion must have attracted adventurers from the mountains. If they came and saw the cub, they might try to snatch it. Those people were indistinguishable between good and evil.

"Linta, you..."

Abirgai looked worried as she gazed at Linta in his current state. She could clearly sense that Linta was still in some danger.

"I'm fine. It's because I'm with you two that I'm in trouble. Hurry up and don't let anyone know that I have a relationship with this cub," Linta said firmly.

"Hmm, we... will we meet again?" Abirgay asked, his heart churning with emotion.

"Probably," Linta replied indifferently.

Abirgai said nothing more, looked at the cub, pointed in a direction, and ran away.

Suddenly, only Lin Ta, the living person who was sitting and resting to recover, remained in the area.

Linta sat quietly, showing no intention of leaving immediately. He couldn't leave yet; he still needed to deal with those who came.

"Eh……"

Linta shook his head with a wry smile.

Before long, several figures rushed over.

Their attire, clad in leather and iron armor, and armed with sharp blades, was that of typical adventurers.

"Here...? What happened?!"

The chaos at the scene, the burning corpses, the dead mother leopard, and the composed Linta all greatly puzzled them.

"I don't know, it was like this when I came," Linta said with a smile.

However, these adventurers did not believe such words.

The battle marks on Linta's body didn't look like he had just arrived; it was more like he had been through a major battle.

“Brother Locke! This is our adventure team captain, Red-Haired Locke!” An adventurer pointed to the still-burning corpse of Red-Haired Locke and said with certainty.

Under the intense flames, Red-Haired Locke's face was completely obscured. However, the double-edged axe beside him provided excellent evidence. Moreover, these were the very people Red-Haired Locke had sent away from this area to create chaos and mislead other adventurers in the mountains into believing they had discovered the leopard beast. Therefore, they were absolutely certain that the dead man was Red-Haired Locke!

"The Silver Locke?" An adventurer who frequently accepted quests from the guild was greatly surprised to learn that it was the red-haired Locke.

He had heard of that guy's strength, but he never expected that he would die here today.

Not only did he die, but the leopard beast died too!

Is it possible...

This young man did it all!

Linta smiled as she looked at the group of people who were looking at her with strange eyes.

"Why are you looking at me? I didn't do it. I was just passing by."

"You! It's you!" The adventurer from Locke's team angrily accused Linta. This adventurer was one of the new recruits who had been brought into the guild. He had been completely intimidated by the other party and was now somewhat hot-blooded.

"How dare you break the guild rules! Aren't you afraid of being punished?!"

The Black Mountain Steel Guild has a rule that adventurers who come to the guild to accept commissions must not kill each other. If anyone is found to be killing each other, the guild will punish them personally to uphold the law.

Such rules are necessary. Otherwise, adventurers from who-knows-where accepting quests would all be vying for the results. They'd sneak in and steal the spotlight while the adventure teams were working hard to complete their tasks, throwing the entire adventurer's guild into chaos. The very existence of a guild is its responsibility to protect everyone's rights.

Of course, rules are rules, but some unsavory tactics still exist. However, fights between people generally don't happen. If one does, the other side will definitely make sure no one sees it.

"Where's the evidence? They say I killed him, where's the evidence?" Linta said with a faint smile.

"You..." The adventurer was speechless for a moment, "Isn't the situation at the scene the evidence!"

"Haha..." Linta laughed, "Well said, two Silver-ranked individuals were killed by me, a Bronze-ranked individual. That's the proof, isn't it?"

These words made the adventurers present realize something.

Yeah, how could a high-level Bronze-rank cultivator possibly kill two Silver-rank cultivators?

"Perhaps... Locke and the leopard were fighting each other and were seriously injured. You came out to pick up the pieces and killed them!" said a relatively experienced adventurer.

Linta chuckled softly, "I killed them, for what? Cubs? Where are the cubs?"

As he spoke, he got up from the stone seat, intending to leave.

The cub immediately brought everyone back to the main point.

The ultimate goal is the young beast. Whether someone dies or not is irrelevant.

Where did the cub go? This person must know!

The adventurers glared menacingly at Linta. They were determined to get something out of him, no matter what.

Linta was very calm and composed; this was exactly what she wanted.

They all turned against me, and I led them by the nose. This way, Abirgay could leave with his cubs more easily.