The final particle of gray-black dust representing the Black Dog's existence dissolved into the puddles on the floor of the underground excavation hall, and the "Symphony of Fear" composed by over forty miner grudges that had entangled them for days came to an abrupt halt.

The suffocating negative spiritual force field that had shrouded the corners of the mine receded rapidly, like thick fog pierced by sunlight.

They had won.

This thought surfaced in Lin Jie's mind, immediately followed by a wave of immense exhaustion that instantly overwhelmed him.

The [Serene Heart] in his hand could no longer be held tight, clattering to the ground with a metallic clang.

The scene before his eyes began to blur, finally plunging into complete darkness.

He didn't know how much time had passed before he regained consciousness to a sensation that was gentle yet carried a cool, damp touch.

He opened his eyes to find himself lying with his head on William's lap.

The proud noble hunter, Ethan, was kneeling beside him, carefully wiping the blood and grime from his face with a clean, damp linen cloth.

Ethan's movements were gentle and focused, a stark contrast to his previous aloof and elegant demeanor.

"You're awake."

His once immaculate and expensive hunting attire was now tattered and stained with mud and the marks of gunpowder.

His short golden hair was soaked with sweat, sticking messily to his forehead.

The man had shed the refined composure of high society, revealing a raw authenticity tinged with weariness and the smell of gunpowder.

Lin Jie struggled to sit up, only to find his body utterly weak and limp.

The "divine strike" that had channeled his entire will had taken a far more terrifying toll on him than he had imagined.

William's deep voice came from above his head. "Don't move."

He placed a large hand on Lin Jie's shoulder.

"Your mental energy is severely overdrawn. Rest a bit, and you'll recover soon."

Lin Jie obediently lay back down, turning his head to look at William and asking the question that concerned him most.

"Your mark..."

A look of confusion appeared on William's face.

He slowly raised his hand and looked at his palm, where something he couldn't see seemed to have once existed.

He shook his head, his voice carrying a note of lightness. "I don't know."

"Just as that UMA turned to dust, I felt something heavy that had been pressing on my mind go 'snap'."

Lin Jie pressed, "It's gone?"

William shook his head again. "I don't know if it's gone."

"I can only say I can't feel it anymore. That bone-chilling, parasitic feeling that constantly reminded me 'my time is up' is gone."

"My body feels like it's mine again."

Though not a definitive answer, it was enough to bring Lin Jie a sense of relief.

"We'll have someone from the Association check you when we get back, just to be safe."

Ethan looked at Lin Jie, his eyes filled with genuine emotion. "Alright, since you're awake now, I believe there are some things I must say."

The proud nobleman stood up from the ground.

Then, with impeccable and solemn aristocratic etiquette, he bowed deeply to Lin Jie, who lay on William's lap, and to William, who sat beside him.

For the first time, he announced his full name, that surname representing prominent glory in British high society. "I, Ethan Archibald Redgrave, hereby offer my most sincere apologies to both of you for all my previous foolishness, arrogance, and discourtesy."

He lifted his head, his gaze frank and sincere.

"I once thought so-called 'hunting' was merely an elegant game of using superior strength to crush weaker creatures."

"I believed all threats in the world could be eliminated with more expensive bullets, more precise traps, and colder calculations."

"I even once believed that the combat style you insisted upon, relying on 'information' and 'teamwork,' was an inefficient approach full of compromise and uncertainty, chosen only by the weak."

He smiled a self-deprecating smile, filled with profound self-reflection.

"But this experience has taught me a lesson."

His gaze turned to William. "Sergeant William, you shielded me from a fatal curse with your back when I was at my most vulnerable and in need of protection."

"You proved to me that the resilience of a person's will can indeed transcend life and death."

Then his gaze finally settled on Lin Jie, filled with heartfelt admiration.

"And you, Mr. Lin, the sharpness of your 'wisdom' far surpasses any Grotesque Armament I have ever seen."

"You maintained absolute calm amidst chaos and despair. You could accurately find that hidden path to victory from the most tangled and complex clues."

He extended his hand, stained with gunpowder and dirt. "I retract my previous views."

"It has been my honor, Ethan Redgrave's honor, to fight alongside the two of you."

This brutal hunt had, unexpectedly, earned them the friendship and respect of a proud hunter.

Lin Jie reached out and shook his hand firmly.

He smiled and said, simple yet powerful, "We are comrades-in-arms."

After a brief rest, they began to clean up the battlefield.

They were in no hurry to leave, deciding instead to first conduct a survey of the area.

The lair of an ancient UMA that had lived for centuries was likely to hold some unexpected and valuable "legacies."

Ethan fired a flare from his [Evening Star].

A small silver sphere of light rose into the air, emitting a steady, intense white light like a miniature sun.

With the hall illuminated, they could finally see the full scope of the battlefield.

Besides the massive vertical shaft, the surrounding rock walls were scattered with rusted tools left behind by the miners from that era, such as broken iron picks, deformed shovels, and overturned wooden wheelbarrows.

At the spot where the Black Dog had finally turned to dust, they found the only thing that remained.

It wasn't the UMA's core, nor was it special material, but a small pile of jet-black, crystalline-looking ash that seemed no different from the surrounding rock and dirt.

Ethan carefully collected this ash using professional sampling tools.

He told Lin Jie that this "spiritual residue," left behind after a high-concentration emotional aggregate was purified by holy attribute energy, was a top-tier core material for crafting alchemical potions that could inflict negative states like "fear," "despair," and "confusion" on enemies.

Just this small pile was worth as much as a low-level Grotesque Armament on the black market of The Underground City.

Lin Jie, however, had little interest in these spoils. His gaze remained fixed on that pile of ash.

He could sense that, mixed within the Black Dog's aura of fear, was another, fresher spiritual residue.

It seemed not to belong here.

A powerful curiosity welled up within him.

He signaled for William and Ethan to step back, then crouched down and extended his right hand, preparing to conduct a "reading" on this pile of ash that had witnessed the end of a legend.

He closed his eyes, focusing the mental energy he had recovered onto his fingertips.

[Reverberation Touch] activated.

The moment his finger touched the pile of black ash mixed with ore dust and spiritual residue, a vast, chaotic "torrent of memories" constructed from over forty different lives flooded over him.

These were the real "fragments of life" of lowly commoners, filled with pain and despair.

He saw a young miner named "John" sharing a reluctant farewell kiss with his pregnant wife before descending into the mine.

He heard an older miner named "Thomas" boasting to his workmates that he would buy his little granddaughter the prettiest German doll in town with this month's wages.

He also felt the irresistible despair brought by the tens of thousands of tons of rock and earth that collapsed from above when the mining disaster struck.

Enduring the impact of this "collective pain," Lin Jie's consciousness rapidly searched and filtered through this chaotic sea of memories.

He tried to find that "anomaly."

Among the over forty souls, mostly local miners, he keenly captured a unique "reverberation" carrying a foreign air.

It was a young Irish lad, probably not even twenty, not a professional miner but a refugee forced to leave his homeland due to the "Great Famine" back home, who had entered this dangerous mine for bottom-level work just to survive.

When Lin Jie focused his consciousness on the fragmented memories of this "Irish lad," a stream of information different from the "mining disaster" itself stabbed unexpectedly into his mind.

He saw the young Irishman, out of fear and unease, pull a talisman he had brought from home from the inner pocket of his ragged clothes before descending into the mine.

It wasn't a cross or a Virgin Mary icon, but a small, crudely carved statue of a weeping woman made of pitch-black wood, with a rough, pagan style.

As the lad clutched this ominous talisman tightly in his palm and prayed, a completely unexpected, unfamiliar voice—belonging neither to the mine, the miners, nor the Black Dog—sounded.

It was a wail.

A long, mournful, piercing wail, carrying immense sorrow.

Lin Jie's body shuddered violently, forcibly ejected from the "reading" state.

His face turned even paler than when he was mentally overdrawn.

William immediately noticed his distress and asked in a deep voice, "What's wrong?"

Lin Jie didn't answer, just stared blankly at the ash in his hand.

The "wail" from another world echoed long and deep in his mind.