The further they walked in the passage, the dimmer it became. The surrounding temperature was also constantly dropping. It was still Spring in the New World, so the temperature was not high, but it would absolutely not drop to that degree.
After Chen Dao coughed a few times, he complained again, "I remember that the New World should at least be over ten degrees right now, so why is it so cold?"
"Because of all of the death energy," Xiao Lin said. He was more sensitive toward death energy than the others, and his eyebrows furrowed deeper and deeper because of it. Death energy was an incredibly cold and sinister energy, and the waves of undead had already caused him to realize something. Normally, being able to summon an undead army of such a scale meant that there would definitely be an incredibly dense death energy nearby.
However, the grave was a venue both the British and Dawn Academy had chosen, which meant that the high-ranking members of both sides had repeatedly made sure that it would not exceed the level of danger that the students could handle.
What had Asabanor done to the grave?
Everyone had a dark shadow looming over their hearts because they had already verified that the resurrection tower had lost its effects. No one wanted to die because of that.
Thankfully, the undead army had stopped appearing behind them, but that mysterious fog was speeding up. Xiao Lin knew that Asabanor had probably gotten impatient, and was using that to urge them forward.
Even though they were frustrated, they could only increase their speed.
Time seemed to slow down. Even though they had nothing like a watch, everyone could feel that they had already been walking around in that narrow, cold and dark corridor for too long.
"Is it an illusion?" Cheng Ming frowned.
"No." Xiao Lin shook his head.
"It might be a feat of time or space magic, bending time or space to change the location. No, that's not right. Space and time magic would cause very strong fluctuations in space and time, and no matter what, the place we're in is still a graveyard. With my perception, I would definitely be able to feel it," Gu Xiaoyue mumbled, but quickly fell deep in thought. Even if she was quite intelligent, the situation in front of them had still exceeded her scope of understanding.
"It's astrology! It's an astrology spell!" Xiao Lin might not understand it that much, but Gu Xiaoyue's words caused him to think of something. He remembered something Song Junlang had told him before: that Asabanor was a famous Astrologian, and that profession was equal to an astronomer on earth.
"What does that have anything to do with our situation?" Chen Dao asked.
"No, I don't know." Xiao Lin continued shaking his head. He felt like he was missing something, but he had way too little information. Ever since the new dean was appointed, there were too many restrictions on him, so he did not know as much as he used to know.
"Basically, we should just continue moving forward!" Chen Dao gave his conclusion helplessly.
That was fine; there was no need for complicated thoughts at that point.
The end of the passage would probably just end up with a battle. No matter what plots the opponent had, as long as they won, everyone would be able to leave!
Xiao Lin forced the doubts in his mind aside, and once again focused himself. He could not afford to be distracted at all. Even though Xiao Lin was just Bronze-ranked, he still had his own trump cards. Furthermore, with the information he had, Asabanor wasa still just in a spirit state after leaving the blood moon, and his powers were limited.
If they faced off, Xiao Lin was confident that he could defeat Asabanor, but he could not afford his energy to be depleted by an undead army before that.
No matter how long the passage was, there was still an end. After an unknown amount of time, everyone's vision started to brighten, causing them to shut their eyes before reopening them in alarm. After that, they quickly got back into formation, but the sight before them completely stunned everyone.
In front of them was an incredibly empty cemetery; there were countless coffins and gravestones. Some of them were exposed while some of them were half buried in the ground. The passage had disappeared the moment they stepped out of the entrance. Of course, they were not shocked because of that. Even though the space distortion was a high-leveled spell, it had been within their expectations.
The real reason they were shocked was that, above the cemetery, in the dark night sky, a blood red moon was hanging in the air, looking incredibly strange and sinister.
The moon was incredibly huge, much larger than normal. Everyone could vaguely see three spots of light, that looked like stars, on the blood red moon. One of the stars seemed to glow in a blue light, and behind the blue light was a burning orb that looked like a ball of fire. The third spot seemed to be dim, but was surrounded by the red glow.
The three spots seemed to form a straight line, and completely aligned with the blood moon, which shocked them immensely.
"Welcome. I've been waiting for you for a long time." A low voice was suddenly heard, and all of them had goosebumps. The voice was way too close, as if someone was talking right next to them. Almost immediately, Cheng Ming's sword aura flared and Chen Dao's flame magic shot out, shooting right at the empty night sky.
With the explosions that followed, An Luo quickly attacked as well, but they were quickly stopped by Xiao Lin. Xiao Lin narrowed his eyes as he had already noticed that, in the empty space, the black figure that floated in the air still looked very vague, but it was obviously the high priest of that fallen kingdom.
It was Asabanor.
"It's useless. He's currently a spirit, a form of pure energy. And he seems to have protection spells, so don't waste your strength," Xiao Lin said lightly, completely at ease.
The fact that Asabanor dared to stand in front of everyone so openly meant that he was definitely prepared. They did not know what he did, but the earlier onslaught of attacks merely passed through his body, not causing any harm.
"You stray dog, you actually dared to come unto Dawn Academy's territory. Are you not afraid that you'll lose your life here?" Xiao Lin mocked as he walked forward, shielding everyone.
He had noticed Asabanor's words. It was only 'you', and not 'all of you'. The meaning behind it was obvious -- the opponent's goal was only Xiao Lin in the end, and the others were merely unluckily pulled into this. So, Xiao Lin hoped that he could shift Asabanor's focus on himself.. In the worst case, he could at least gain some time for the others to run away.