Chapter 609: Ten Targets, One Trap

The road passed between two rocky slopes.

On the right, a slope covered with gray rocks rose toward higher ground. On the left, it led to an open plain where several low hills could be seen in the distance.

The sky was partly cloudy.

Sunlight sometimes passed through the clouds and fell on the rocks beside the road.

The convoy moved at a steady speed.

The advance units were several hundred meters ahead, while the guard groups moved around the central carriages.

Lian was sitting inside one of the carriages reserved for the selected candidates, his eyes half-closed as he examined the flow of the surrounding mana.

At the same time, the rough sound of a communication device came from the front of the convoy.

"Commander, we’ve found something suspicious up ahead."

"Report." The man in charge of the escort immediately replied.

A few seconds of static followed, and then the scout continued.

"There are several damaged carriages beside the road. It looks like a convoy has been attacked."

The commander looked toward the road ahead.

"Any signs of enemies?"

"Not yet, but we’ve found several bodies, and there might be an injured person beside the carriages."

"Distance?"

"About two hundred meters from the main route."

The commander remained silent for a moment before raising his hand.

"All units, stop."

The order was sent to different parts of the convoy through the communication devices, the carriage wheels slowly came to a stop, and the transport monsters halted under the control of their handlers.

The commander headed toward the front of the convoy.

However, unlike what an inexperienced person might have done, he didn’t order all his forces to approach the damaged convoy.

Instead, he called over several members of the reconnaissance team.

"Approach from the right side, and don’t touch the carriages until the area has been checked."

He then ordered the defensive mages to check the surrounding area for any unknown mana flows.

Lian looked outside through the carriage window, and several broken carriages could be seen beside the road in the distance.

One had completely overturned.

A small amount of smoke was rising from the back of another.

Two motionless bodies lay on the ground, and a person wearing bloodstained clothes was sitting beside one of the wheels.

At first glance, the scene looked like the result of an attack by several powerful monsters, but the longer he looked, the more he felt that something was wrong.

He stepped out of the carriage and stood within the area marked off by the guards, the distance was still great, but his enhanced senses allowed him to notice certain details.

One of the broken wheels was several meters away from the main carriage, yet there were no clear marks in the dirt around it showing that it had been dragged or rolled there.

In another area, the broken pieces of wood were scattered almost in the same direction, but the impact marks on the carriage did not match that direction.

Lian slightly furrowed his brows, these things didn’t look like they had been broken here.

He turned his attention to the injured person, who was still sitting beside the wheel, but his behavior was strange.

Every time the scouts moved a little closer, he raised his head and looked at them, yet he neither shouted for help nor tried to make his way toward the main road.

What is he waiting for?

At that moment, Rindo also approached from another part of the convoy, his eyes settled on the injured person before he spoke to the escort commander.

"I suggest that no one gets any closer."

The commander turned his head toward him.

"Do you have a reason?"

"The injured person isn’t acting normally, and besides, the positions of the carriage remains don’t look like the result of an ordinary accident."

"It looks like some of the pieces were brought here from somewhere else." Lian also nodded and added.

The commander looked at both of them for a few seconds before turning to one of his officers.

"Hold the reconnaissance team in place, don’t let them move any farther."

The man immediately passed on the order.

The commander looked at the scene again, he had reached a similar conclusion, and there was a high chance that it was a trap.

In such a situation, his first duty was to protect the ten selected candidates, so he gave an order through his communication device.

"All ten selected candidates, return to the central area, defensive units, take your positions around the outer ring, mages, prepare the main defensive barrier."

Their convoy was carrying ten geniuses from the younger generation, each of whom was very important to the forces they represented, they couldn’t allow even a single scratch to appear on any of them.

Lian looked at him for a moment, it was a reasonable decision, and no one should enter a suspicious area before it had been checked.

The important people would remain inside a protected area, and the defensive barrier could also stop a surprise attack.

However, an uneasy feeling still remained in his mind, and he looked at the broken carriages once again.

If it’s really a trap, why is it so obvious?

Even the escort commander had noticed that something was wrong without much difficulty.

Did the attackers really think that such a scene would be enough to fool a military convoy?

He narrowed his eyes.

Or are we not supposed to be fooled at all?

The ten selected candidates gathered in the central part of the convoy, the defensive mages took positions at four points around them and directed their mana toward the protective formation.

A faint, translucent light appeared around the central area.

First, four pillars of mana rose from the corners, then a protective layer spread between them and covered the entire area where the selected candidates stood.

The main defensive barrier had been activated, and from the outside, everything seemed normal.

The escort forces were in their positions, and the scouts were still examining the suspicious area.

But right at that moment, sunlight fell on a metal piece among the broken carriages.

A brief reflection passed across its surface, then a second and a third reflection appeared, along with several small points of light among the rocks beside the road.

Lian, whose eyes were still fixed on the suspicious area, noticed the change, and he frowned for a moment.

At first, it looked like nothing more than ordinary reflections of sunlight, but when the reflections began moving one after another in specific directions, he noticed an unusual pattern.

Wait...

He activated [True Sequence].

The mana flows around him became clearer, and at that moment, he saw something that made his expression turn completely serious.

The energy of the defensive barrier was not flowing only within the convoy’s protected area., a very small part of it was being transferred through several points in the outer structure toward reflective plates.

Five paths and five connection points, all of them were forming a flow that returned toward the central barrier.

He took a short breath.

No...

He looked at the broken carriages again, then at the defensive mages, and finally at the barrier surrounding them.

The truth became clear in his mind.

They didn’t want anyone to approach the carriages, they wanted everyone to gather inside the barrier.

They wanted to avoid falling into a trap, but they had fallen right into it!

The young Vorhelm immediately turned toward the commander.

"Turn off the barrier! Right now!"

But before his voice had even fully spread through the area...

TANG!

A sharp, ringing sound came from the defensive structure, and the translucent light of the barrier briefly turned darker.

One of the defensive mages stared at his control device in disbelief.

"What...?"

"Report!" the commander immediately shouted.

But before he could receive an answer, the mana lines of the barrier changed direction, and the protective layer that was supposed to keep the ten selected candidates safe from outside dangers began closing inward.

Then, ten separate walls formed inside the central area, each trapping one of the selected candidates in a confined space.

Lian looked at the wall in front of him for a few seconds.

To his right, Roderick was trapped inside another enclosure.

Rindo was trapped several meters away, and Noah could also be seen behind one of the translucent walls.

The defensive mages tried to cut off the flow of energy, but their devices no longer responded.

At that moment, lines of text appeared on the mana panels in the central area.

Names.

Ten names.

The names of all ten selected candidates.

Even the institutions and guilds they represented were listed beside their names.

Lian moved his eyes across the list, and a very faint smile appeared on his face.

Interesting.

"So you were after us from the beginning."

And right at that moment, five black figures appeared among the rocks on both sides of the road.

Five people, each wearing black clothes and long cloaks that moved in the wind.

Their faces were hidden behind dark masks, but what caught the guards’ attention was the symbol sewn onto their cloaks.

A black bird with its wings spread wide, a vulture that seemed to be landing on a fresh corpse.

One of the soldiers instinctively took a step back when he saw the symbol.

"The Black Vultures..."

His voice was barely audible, but the escort commander heard him, and his expression immediately became more serious.

The Black Vultures.

A criminal organization whose name was linked to murder, theft, kidnapping, and illegal missions.