The cold metal pipe, the only piece of driftwood in the dark night, radiated a bone-chilling coldness.
Lin Mo's entire body silently hung upon it, like a gecko.
His breathing was long and steady, his muscles taut, perfectly suppressing every slight tremor, ensuring he made not the slightest extra sound.
His back had long been thoroughly soaked with cold sweat.
That brief, one-second brush with death had felt like a round trip to the gates of hell.
The suffocating sensation of his heart being squeezed by an invisible hand was only now slowly receding.
But he had bet correctly!
He bet that these sentinels, which lacked intelligence and only acted based on instinct and programming, would only lock onto the "coordinates" of the first sound, and would not perform dynamic tracking!
He used the subsequent, fainter footsteps to successfully create a fraction of a second of displacement time for himself—enough to change Life and death!
This was a game of psychology and wits, and he had temporarily gained the initiative.
In the darkness below, the two Shadow Sentinels, after a moment of confusion, returned to their previous state of erratic wandering.
Their massive bat ears subtly fluttered, continuing to patrol this silent territory with invisible sound waves.
The alert was temporarily lifted.
Lin Mo adjusted his breathing, but the solemnity in his eyes did not relax in the slightest.
He knew that every step in this three-hundred-meter corridor was a trap, and every step was a test.
The "water drop" just now was an accident, and no one could guarantee that a more fatal random event wouldn't happen next.
He glanced at the distant silent gate shimmering in the darkness, and the solemnity in his eyes was slowly replaced by a trace of frantic fervor.
The poison has not yet made its appearance.
The shadow has just begun.
This trial is becoming more and more interesting!
He did not rush to act, but instead continued to lie dormant on the pipe like the most patient hunter, calmly observing the movement patterns of the two sentinels below, as well as... the position of the third sentinel.
According to the previous hint from the mysterious consciousness, there were three sentinels in this corridor in total.
Lin Mo raised his perception to the limit, and finally, about a hundred meters ahead, he caught the third "shuffling" friction sound.
Unlike the previous two, this third sentinel was almost motionless.
It was entrenched on the only path leading to the silent gate, like a silent statue of Death.
Its sound wave perception range seemed larger than the previous two, and the frequency of its diffusion was faster, almost completely sealing off all the path ahead!
This was a deadlock.
A deadlock that seemed impossible to pass using normal Stealth methods.
Lin Mo's brain, like an overclocked processor, began to churn frantically.
Force his way through? Impossible.
In the unobstructed hundred-meter passage, the slightest sound would lead to instant lock-on, followed by teleportation back to the starting point.
This was his first chance.
But if he failed again, he would face a tenfold death penalty!
Wait? Even less possible.
This third sentinel was like a rock, showing no intention of moving.
He had to think of a way—a way to break the stalemate, a method that went beyond the conventional!
Lin Mo's gaze, like the most precise scanner, slowly swept over every detail in the corridor.
The pipes and stone beams on the walls, the uneven textures on the floor, even the subtle air currents...
Suddenly, his eyes fixed on his character skill panel.
[Poison Blade], [Venom Spray]... These skills would all generate noise, large or small, upon release, making them absolute taboos.
But... who said skills must be used for attacking?
A crazy and bold idea, like lightning slicing through the night, suddenly exploded in his mind!
Sound... the sentinel's weakness was sound.
So, what if I could... proactively create a sound?
A sound far away from my body, realistic enough to deceive them!
Lin Mo's heart began to pound uncontrollably.
He knew that if this idea were put into action, it would be a huge gamble!
Win, and the world was his; lose, and he would be eternally damned!
He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the excitement and tension in his heart, and began to repeatedly deduce every detail of the plan in his mind.
Distance, angle, force, timing...
The trajectory of the [Venom Spray], its flight speed, and the decibels of the sound it might make upon hitting the wall...
Countless data points flowed, collided, and reorganized in his mind, finally forming a nearly perfect plan of action.
He slowly slid down from the pipe, the entire process silent, landing lightly on the ground like a feather.
He lowered his body again and began a new round of even more breathtaking Stealth toward that death zone!
Ninety meters...
Eighty meters...
Seventy meters...
He stopped when he reached a shadowy corner about sixty meters away from the third sentinel.
This distance was the limit of how far he could advance.
One step further, and he might enter the sentinel's constant sound wave scanning range.
This was the spot.
Lin Mo slowly raised his head, his gaze piercing the endless darkness, accurately locking onto a section of the wall about forty meters away to his front right.
There was a slightly protruding rock there.
That was his chosen "bullseye"!
He half-knelt on the ground, leaning back slightly, and deeply inhaled a breath into his lungs.
[Venom Spray]!
There was no glorious skill light, no system prompt sound.
Lin Mo merely compressed and condensed the poison energy within his body in an extremely subtle manner, and then abruptly opened his mouth!
"Pfft!"
An extremely faint, almost imperceptible sound of something cutting through the air rang out.
A small mass of dark green, concentrated poison, only the size of a fingernail, flew silently toward the deep darkness, tracing an incredibly precise parabolic arc, as if it had been given Life.
Time, at this moment, seemed to slow down infinitely.
Lin Mo could even clearly "see" the posture of the venom tumbling through the air, and the trajectory of its imminent arrival at its destination.
Success or failure hinged on this one move!
"Plink."
A crisp sound, like a water drop hitting the ground, suddenly echoed in the silent corridor!
The sound was not loud, even fainter than the previous accidental water drop.
But to the sentinel's god-like hearing, this was undoubtedly a clap of thunder in the night!
Almost the instant the sound rang out, the third sentinel, which had been like a statue, had its massive bat ears suddenly tremble, and its entire body, composed of shadow, instantly turned toward the direction of the sound!
A sound wave several times stronger than before shot out like radar, wildly scanning toward that wall!
Now!
This was the fleeting, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity Lin Mo had been waiting for!
The moment he sprayed the venom, his body transformed into an arrow released from a bowstring!
He pushed his Agility attribute to the limit!
He shot toward the nearby silent gate like a black lightning bolt skimming the ground, without raising the slightest whisper of wind!
Fifty meters!
Thirty meters!
Ten meters!
By the time the sentinel's sound waves finished scanning the wrong location and it turned its attention back to the front, Lin Mo's fingertips had already touched the cold, hard stone door!
He succeeded!
Using his talent, his intelligence, and the large heart that dared to dance on the tip of a knife, he had perfectly tricked this arrogant Shadow Overlord!
"Creeeeak—"
The ancient stone door opened immediately.
Lin Mo did not hesitate, flashing through the opening and rushing into the world behind the door.
"Rumble!"
The stone door slowly closed again.
The world behind the door was no longer pitch-black darkness.
This was a much wider circular stone chamber.
Embedded in the dome of the chamber was a massive crystal emitting a faint purple light, illuminating the entire space in an eerie violet hue.
And in the center of the stone chamber, that hoarse, cold consciousness echoed in his mind once more.
"Very good, Inheritor.
Your wisdom and courage have earned my recognition."
"You are qualified to begin the second trial."
"Poison is the soul of the 'Thorn of Shadow.'
An excellent assassin must not only know how to use poison but also how to... recognize poison, and even... control poison!"
Following the cold voice, the ground beneath Lin Mo's feet suddenly began to tremble violently.
"Crackling..."
The ground split open from the center, and a massive circular poison pool, filled with shimmering, bubbling, bizarre liquids, slowly rose from the earth.
A terrifying aura, a hundred times denser than the outside air and mixed with thousands upon thousands of Deadly Poisons, rushed toward him!
"Second Trial — [Pool of Ten Thousand Poisons]."
"Jump in."
"Survive in the pool for ten minutes.
Or... become part of the pool itself."
"The trial begins."