As long as she cast her gaze upon him, and as long as her presence remained within the underground aqueduct range, even through an other-dimensional space, Angel believed he could detect her location.
Angel’s slow steps attracted many gazes, from Grey Merchant’s side and from people like Dox. The emotions wrapped within each gaze were different.
Through Hyper Perception, Angel could vaguely sense their emotions at this moment, even deciphering their general thoughts.
However, Angel didn’t have enough computing power to read everyone’s thoughts. He simply categorized all perceived emotions into three major types: benevolence, indifference, and malice.
Basically, the emotions of Dox and others towards him were benevolent. As for the people on the opposite side like the Grey Merchant, apart from the Grey Merchant showing slight benevolence, the others were generally indifferent, holding neither benevolent nor strong malicious intent.
As for malice... it was originally what Angel was most concerned about. In his mind, "she" would certainly harbor malice towards him, so if he could trace the source of the malice, he might locate her traces.
However, Angel didn’t consider things thoroughly.
The "malice" he perceived on the arena exceeded the total of all benevolent and indifferent feelings combined.
And all this malice came from the Void Magical Creatures. They were howling, roaring, staring greedily at everyone on the arena, drooling.
So much malice left Angel momentarily bewildered.
He thought malice would be the least, so if there was any, it would be the most obvious. But unexpectedly, his Hyper Perception encompassed even the malice from these creatures.
This was quite beyond his expectations.
As Angel walked forward, he contemplated his strategy.
Undoubtedly, the malice from these Void Magical Creatures was a chaotic evil. Most of them lacked intelligence, driven only by instincts for slaughter and devouring.
"She" might want him to take the stage possibly for the purpose of observation, but would it lead to murderous intent?
This was uncertain.
But "she" shouldn’t want to devour him, right?
He hadn’t heard the Wise Sovereign say that she was a cannibal.
Thinking of this, Angel filtered out all malice associated with devouring, viewing him as a snack and food.
After filtering out this portion of malice, the malice from the void instantly decreased by seventy to eighty percent, leaving primarily pure murderous intent.
They may consider humans too small, not even a mouthful, so instead of devouring, they preferred to follow the rules set by the original master, killing anyone who left the arena.
Angel pondered for a moment and decided to filter out another batch of malice, this time choosing "extreme malice."
"She" might have malice or murderous thoughts toward him, but Angel believed he wasn’t on her must-kill list yet; he was in the malice area but not the extreme section.
Therefore, Angel filtered out extreme malice.
With this filtering, the malice from the void diminished further, leaving just under a hundred. A cursory glance could almost pinpoint the sources.
The less intense malice was mostly from smaller magical creatures; they weren’t the main force of slaughter, so their murderous intent wasn’t as strong.
Notably, one whale-shaped magical creature with horns on its head, massive even among void creatures, had very faint malice, almost none, yet externally behaved much like the others, incredibly excited, howling and roaring, looking utterly ravenous.
If not for its drooping eyelids now and then, looking as if it would fall asleep any moment, Angel would have found it hard to differentiate it from other extremely malicious creatures.
"It’s still quite the actor..." Angel mused inwardly.
Not only talented in acting but also well-versed in the art of hiding one’s strengths. Undoubtedly, this whale-shaped magical creature had awakened Spirit Intelligence; otherwise, it wouldn’t have such contrasting emotions.
Angel sighed internally and shifted his gaze away.
Although malice still lingered thickly, he had memorized these sources of malice, with nothing unusual except that acting emperor.
Perhaps... she hadn’t set her sights on him yet?
As Angel pondered, he had already reached the center of the arena.
Perhaps because Angel’s expression was so solemn, appearing very "respectful to his opponent," even though he moved slowly, causing some impatience, no one mentioned it.
When Angel stood still, the Grey Merchant very gentlemanly gave a nod of acknowledgment first and gave a brief self-introduction. He didn’t mention his real name, using the alias Grey Merchant instead.
One could call it polite or cunning.
For even though the Grey Merchant’s self-introduction concealed some truths, the information was essentially genuine. If Angel were to reciprocate, he would likely do the same kind of introduction.
Thus, even if Angel only mentioned his alias, the other side could deduce his identity. And this was the Grey Merchant’s aim.
Of course, Angel could choose not to respond, and the Grey Merchant wouldn’t mind.
However, Angel did reciprocate. Yet, as he introduced himself, the shadow on the ground started to churn incessantly until a humanoid black shadow crawled out from the ground, clinging onto Angel’s body, halting all the abnormalities.
As the dark shadow adhered, Angel’s appearance transformed dramatically. He became almost a size larger, though the enlargement was not of his real body but of ghostly shadows resembling black flames.
Covered in these shadows, Angel’s features became indistinguishable, leaving only those eerie green eyes visible.
Besides that, the most eye-catching aspect of the shadow was the faintly glowing "Blue Lantern Flower" atop his head, swaying gently with the breeze, occasionally releasing small bubbles.
And after the "transformation," Angel, using a hoarse, deep voice, introduced himself: "... Earl Mi."
No matter the Grey Merchant’s reaction, Dox and others were dumbfounded.
Unexpectedly, Angel used this method to introduce himself, claiming to be Earl Mi via Earl Mi’s possession, which somehow... wasn’t wrong?
The self-introduction was merely a minor episode; what truly surprised them was Angel immediately unveiling Earl Mi... Did this mean Angel had a trump card more powerful than Earl Mi?
While everyone speculated, the Grey Merchant gazed at his opponent in confusion.
Earl Mi? Was that his name?
Or was this another alias?
The Grey Merchant searched all his memory but found no similar name. However, soon the name’s authenticity became insignificant to him.
For his opponent had now expanded into a three-meter-tall Shadow Giant.
If it were merely the shadow expanding, it wouldn’t be an issue, but as it grew, his opponent’s aura became increasingly profound, even... vastly surpassing the Grey Merchant’s understanding!