Rivers of the Night - Chapter 522

Chapter 522: Trap

“Patriarch, there’ve been several more reported deaths now. The teams are dropping like flies.”

Patriarch Nightingale hardly reacted to the words, his expression gloomy. He was practically standing over the Dark River, scanning the entrances again and again.

He had been so confident that they would come out from here, but they didn’t. Had he underestimated this person? Was he getting external help? Or could he really swim through the Dark River with such ease?

But if they were that powerful, they could wipe out the Sect with a single finger. Why play these games?

The Patriarch couldn’t understand.

The Dark River wasn’t just dangerous because of the currents, though someone beneath the Treading Cloud Realm would certainly die if they let themselves be swallowed up by it. A Gold Mancer in the higher tiers could resist for a short while, but it would only last so long before their Mana ran out and they were bashed into a meaty pulp.

Even so, the main danger was still the beasts.

He had seen them, trapped outside the entrances. They were so numerous, and many of them were in the Treading Cloud Realm themselves. Not only this, but they were Arcane Beasts.

Beasts always tended to be stronger than their human counterparts, and these beasts were even more so, not to mention the fact they had evolved to live in this specific sort of water as well, since this environment had been here for so long.

Patriarch Nightingale didn’t believe even he would last more than a few minutes in the middle depths of the River without dying a horrible death.

They had a talisman of high enough caliber to obscure their Mancy Path. Could it be they also have such a powerful beast ward as well?

Elder Dezend had already concluded that this Demon Chosen must have a Divine Law Talisman on him to be able to obscure his Ice Mancy Path for Dark Mana and evade his detection.

Compared to that, a Beast Ward Divine Law Talisman was more likely than not.

If this Demon Chosen had a Beast Ward Talisman, and all they had to do was manage the currents… was it possible?

Patriarch Nightingale clenched his jaw. No matter what, he had to admit that this Demon Chosen was his superior in terms of talent.

The tertiary entrance challenge was just a weaker version of the currents. He had tried to step into the secondary entrance in the past, only to nearly lose his life. So, he had never tried the primary entrance.

What if the primary entrance was no less difficult than the actual river? He had no way of knowing.

On top of that, now that he thought about it, there was no evidence of the Demon Chosen being attacked by beasts while he was running through the forest either. He should have realized there was something wrong back then.

If that was the case, they were dealing with an enemy that was immune to the beasts they had to deal with, and not fearful of the currents that would kill the majority of them.

Now, he was freely entering and exiting the river, slaughtering them one after another while avoiding the most powerful of them, and there was actually nothing that Patriarch Nightingale could do about it.

The teams that Theron was killing were completely random. There was no rhyme or reason to them, so there was no way to follow his patterns.

Patriarch Nightingale closed his eyes and took a breath.

He chose to take a step back for a moment.

If he was the Demon Chosen, trapped in this situation, with nowhere to go… if all routes off-planet were under lockdown, and the geniuses of three Sects were all bearing down on him, what would he do?

Suddenly, Patriarch Nightingale’s eyes flashed open.

That was it—the vulnerability.

If Theron wanted to make it off-world, the best chance he would have would be sneaking onto the vessels the Resonate Eye and Bronzed Earth Sects were using.

These two Sects had brought so many disciples here, so there obviously had to be a way to bring them all away after all of this was done.

Waiting until they grew impatient was one matter, but what was the smarter way?

These were three Sects that had always been in fierce competition. They had always had conflicts, and it was rare that they worked together like this in the first place.

In that case, what would force a rift?

Exactly this sort of killing.

The more disciples those two Sects lost, whether right or wrong, they would certainly begin blaming the Nightingale Sect for roping them into all of this.

However, just killing disciples by the numbers wouldn’t work. For one, so long as they moved these disciples away from the shore and made Theron have to cross a larger distance, it would stifle his massacre greatly. Until now, they hadn’t lost much.

If he was Theron, he wouldn’t just continue killing normal disciples like this.

First, he would kill random disciples in this fashion in hopes that the Sects would retaliate by spreading themselves thin. Then, he would execute his real plan.

Targeting the Core Disciples.

Those were the losses that the Sects truly couldn’t afford.

The problem was that the strongest forces were all around the entrances. Patriarch Nightingale was overseeing things, but it was the Core Disciples that were manning each entrance.

Being so high in the skies right now, Patriarch Nightingale was well hidden, but it was clear that Theron hadn’t fallen for the bait. As for the other Elders, they were still in the vanguard away from the river, keeping the powerful beasts at bay.

So, the Demon Chosen was hoping that the Patriarch would retaliate to this random killing by trying to change the location of the groups. Once the Core Disciples were more spread out, he could target them specifically.

Once the Resonate Eye and Bronzed Earth Sects started losing these valuable disciples, that was when they would truly begin to form a rift.

In that case…

The Patriarch’s eyes flashed with light.

This time, Theron had finally found his match.

Maybe Patriarch Nightingale wasn’t as intelligent or talented as Theron. But what he had was the experience of an old and wizened man.

For the first time, Theron would fall into the trap of another.