As for Cheng Ming, he had already arrived at the center of the formation before them. He had carved up a path for Gu Xiaoyue and the others. The core of the formation was an ordinary looking gravestone. It looked very old, and Cheng Ming's methods were simple -- he sent a punch right at it.
With that punch, Cheng Ming's fist was immediately split open. The gravestone only had a mild crack on it. However, he was elated, as the extreme hardness of that stone meant that there was definitely something strange about that. It meant that Gu Xiaoyue's guess had been correct; that was the core of the God Sealing Array.
So, Cheng Ming took out the shield on his back, and started hitting the gravestone with it over and over. His shield had just been changed just for the sake of the tournament, so the quality was very good. After a few dozen hits, there was somewhat of an effect. The scar on the gravestone got larger and larger, but Cheng Ming's shield was rapidly getting destroyed.
Finally, the shield could no longer endure it, and the whole shield did not seem to have any spot that was undamaged. Cheng Ming did not mind, and threw the shield away before he continued to use his fists. This time, his fists had a faint golden glow to it. The energy he used was the best he had, but he could not hold onto it for too long.
However, Cheng Ming no longer cared about all that. Each punch he made was with his full force. Even though the golden glow protected his fist, it used a lot of his energy.
The gravestone continued to crack.
Gu Xiaoyue and the others finally arrived through the energy storm. The price they paid were heavy injuries on An Luo and Chen Dao. The two of them had basically used their bodies to protect Gu Xiaoyue, who did not have any ability to advance by herself.
However, their powers were limited, and when they arrived at the core of the cemetery, Chen Dao could no longer hold back and he spat out mouthfuls of blood. His face was an abnormal red hue, and he forced out a smile. "Gu Xiaoyue, the next part is all on you. You can't leave Xiao Lin stranded!"
An Luo opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but his physique was even worse than Chen Dao's. Before he could even speak, he collapsed to the ground. Chen Dao was not much better off either, but Chen Dao's talent was stronger, so it allowed him to hold on for a fraction longer.
Cheng Ming's condition was not much better; he did not even have the energy to look at the two other injured students. His entire body was filled with serious wounds, and his outer coat had already turned into a cloak of blood thanks to the energy storm. The golden glow on his arms was gradually weakening. He looked up with a tired face and told Gu Xiaoyue, "There's only a little left. Stand back for now!"
Gu Xiaoyue nodded and followed his words.
Cheng Ming took a deep breath, stood up abruptly, and raised his right fist; the dim golden light once again became radiant again. With a shout, he slammed into the gravestone that was already full of cracks. After a few seconds, the gravestone finally fell.
After the light faded again, Cheng Ming collapsed to the floor, but his physique was quite good, so he was not in as bad of a state as Chen Dao and An Luo. He still had some strength, and he was incredibly curious as well, so before Gu Xiaoyue came up, he looked around, trying to see what the core of the formation was.
"Damn!" Cheng Ming was dumbfounded.
Gu Xiaoyue moved forward. Even though she did not know much about the God Sealing Array, with her intelligence, her understanding of the formation was better than anyone else. Hearing Cheng Ming's exclamation, she got more worried. After all, she could not guarantee that she could actually do something.
Yet, when she walked to the broken gravestone and looked into it, Gu Xiaoyue was stunned for a moment as well. Through the gap was a sealed room that could only fit in one person. In the room was a counter, and on the counter was a computer?
Computer?
That was right, it was a computer, a notebook laptop to be precise. There was also an obvious Lenovo brand logo on the computer.
"Hey, what's that? Are we in the wrong place?!" Chen Dao had forced himself to take a few steps forward, and could not help but curse at the strange sight.
They had spent all that thought and effort looking for the core of the formation, wanting to use that formation to reopen the passage. Even if it were just for a moment, they still hoped that they could allow Xiao Lin to come back.
"No! There's no mistaking it! This is it!" Gu Xiaoyue regained her calm. "I saw books related to this in the library before. High-leveled magical arrays require very high levels of knowledge, and controlling them is immensely hard. So, a senior thought of a way to use calculators to handle the various important points in magical formations. It's basically like coding, using codes to control the whole magical array…"
"Hold on!" Chen Dao stopped her, awkwardly saying, "We don't understand what you're saying at all. Just tell us, will you be able to handle the formation?"
Cheng Ming merely nodded, not understanding anything as well. High level knowledge like that was something they had never heard of before, and only Gu Xiaoyue had interacted with it before thanks to her frequenting the library and her intelligence.
"Yes! I can do it!" Gu Xiaoyue answered very quickly and resolutely, "If it is a magical formation, I might need to rely on my luck, but if it's coding…"
Before she even finished speaking, she ran inside the room in the gap. She did not have the time to explain in detail, but Gu Xiaoyue's confidence on her face already gave Cheng Ming and Chen Dao the answer. They exchanged a glance, and both dragged their wounded bodies over, lying down next to the fainted An Luo and the gap.
They still did not know what had happened to Asabanor, or if there would be any other undeads turning up to disrupt them. However, even if there were, unless they died there, no one would be able to disturb Gu Xiaoyue. Even though it had just been a year, at some point, they had already treated Gu Xiaoyue as a friend that they would fight to the death with.
In the dark room, there was only the glow of the laptop. On it were various numbers and symbols rapidly flashing. Even though it was a traditional Lenovo computer, there had already been complete changes. For instance, the keyboard was completely different, and the alphabets on it had all been swapped to basic magical symbols.
"I can do this! I can do this!" Gu Xiaoyue mumbled, her eyes flashing in determination as her nimble hands started to rapidly type away on the keyboard, the clear sound of tapping reverberating around the narrow room.