"How?!?" Su Mian's face burned red with anger when he saw the humanoid wooden figure standing silently in the center of a large stone room. In its hand was the Mana Gathering Staff, an ancient mysterious weapon from the Mortal Realms but barely a level above trash in the Ascended Realms.

"HOW?!?" he shouted once more while looking at the Array Puppet that was carrying William's aura.

Su Mian knew quite a bit about aura despite his young age. His master always told him that aura was one of the few things that no one could perfectly hide, though they can get infinitely close to doing so.

Additionally, aura is a very complicated subject and easily misunderstood. It isn't measured merely by the fluctuations one gives off in the environment, rather the fluctuations the environment gives off while containing one's existence.

Even if a Cultivator goes completely invisible, uses the Illusion Element to increase their stealth, and utilizes other techniques in combination, they can still be discovered and traced. As long as they are acting upon the World, they can be found.

This is because the World, Plane, or otherwise will always remember their existence and react appropriately to anything and everything, which includes the lack of movement. Just like how when a glass ball falls into a bathtub and disappears, even when the glass isn't visible the water level in the bath rises to include the mass of the glass ball.

Just because the ball isn't visible doesn't mean it's not there. This is the same ideology that those who've mastered the technique of tracing aura use, and it becomes even more complex from there.

Each unique Cultivator has their own aura, and it cannot be faked. The City of Great Rouge just so happened to have a record of William's aura, which made locating him extremely easy. Following this, the assassins were able to find William as far as several million kilometers into the wilderness, until now.

Su Mian understood all of this, but that completely contradicted the current situation. If William can't completely hide his aura, how was it transferred to this wooden... mannequin?

He looked at the trackers, wondering if this was part of the reason why they had so much trouble finding him before.

But wait. That can't be right because at the time William was using the Illusion Element to hide from them! As soon as they cleared the Mana Particles, William's aura became clear as day back then!

If he could still so easily fool them, then why would he bother to set something up like this? Why not avoid conflict altogether and just run away?

A dangerous thought crossed Su Mian's mind. What if William's goal wasn't to run, but to fight?

Is this just him nipping the flower in the bud to prevent it from blooming? Dealing with us assassins before we catch him off guard later?

They were forty, and he was one! They were Deity Realm experts, he's an Ascension Realm schoolboy!

Where does he find the courage?

The humanoid figurine suddenly moved, interrupting Su Mian's train of thought. He watched as a flash of speed easily matching the Deity Realm moved across the room. Hints of Wind and Lightning enveloped the wooden figure as its speed increased further, a branch-like arm jutting towards a nearby assassin's throat with extreme accuracy.

The assassin used a large portion of his remaining Mana to create a pure Mana shield, stopping the branch mere centimeters from his throat. He was about to heave a sigh of relief when a diamond-tipped wooden needle jutted out from the end of the branch, piercing a hole in his throat with ease.

William's Plant Element typically doesn't have the killing power of his other Magic types, but that is when he's using it standalone. Clad in a set of wooden armor, using the Wind and Lightning Elements to enhance his movement, and enhancing the needle's damage with his Earth Element, William was no different than the Sun Stone Golem.

Actually, he was much much stronger!

"It's the boy! Quick, trap him before he can escape!" one of the assassins shouted at the top of their lungs after realizing the situation. One of their teammates was on the verge of death after a single exchange, and the wooden statues wasn't a fake, rather the real William!

They quickly broke into their respective groups and targeted William with dozens of precision Spells. Ice to bind his legs, Fire to scorch the wooden armor, and Sealing to restrain him further. Targeted Magic traveled accurately towards William despite his speed, showcasing the assassins' ample experience. Just a tenth of a second and everything would come together, sealing the boy's fate.

The assassins felt extremely dissatisfied while they were trying to catch William earlier, finding themselves tricked and delayed after every turn while their numbers dwindled. Being able to fight back, now, put everyone back at ease.

He's still just a kid, after all. Even if we mess up a few times there's nothing he can do when we get close... they thought as the Spells landed in unison.

Su Mian even felt disappointed, seeing that his target would be severely crippled after hardly a battle. He almost wanted to keep the boy alive and bring him home as a servant. Su Mian could practice his Primary Laws on William every day, using his family's Life experts to keep him barely breathing.

But when the Spells finally landed on William's body, everyone felt that something was wrong.

The Ice, which should have held William in place, only encapsulated the wooden figure and added another layer of armor. A few stiff twitches shook loose the ice wedged within the armor's joints, reenabling William's movement nearly instantly.

The Fire, which should have burned his wooden armor into a crisp, haloed three centimeters around William's body and became his own flaming aura. The fierce flame burned brighter than the original Spell, clashing with and destroying the approaching clouds of Seal Mana.

The nearest assassin to William who was clutching his throat, turned to ash while his valuables were stored inside the boy's Space Ring before anyone could react.

In one move, William had turned their own Spells into his benefit, far exceeding their understanding of how Elements were to be used. Not only had they failed to cause any damage, but their attacks were used as fuel to kill one of their own!

Spell Reversion, while William had only mastered a tiny percentage of its fundamentals, was a lost technique from half a millennium back that Efretta had shown him not long ago. To Cultivators of the Slightveil Plane that were rarely more than a hundred thousand years old, this was like showing off Magic to a mortal for the first time.

After seeing this, how could they not be terrified?

"He's a monster!" the assassins gathered their strength and prepared their strongest escape techniques, merely awaiting an order from Su Mian.

William, standing at one of the edges of the large room, smiled viciously while staring at the next closest assassin's Space Ring.

"What were you saying before? "Trap him!" Was it?" his smile widened seeing that there were no more Space Mages in the group of assassins.

His figure flashed to the side of his next victim, "Sorry, I think you're the trapped ones!"