Chapter 54#

Temple of the Burning Lamp 25#

A crisp sound of shattering rang out. The bone china bowl split into three pieces in the middle, and the magic potion inside spilled onto the ground.

Eerily, even as it spilled on the ground and became a puddle, it remained red on one side and black on the other, like a grotesque artistic rug.

“You’re crazy!” the Empress screamed. The Scholar’s expression changed greatly, and he took a step forward. The others also looked surprised and anxious as they looked at the magic potion on the ground.

But their reactions were not the greatest. Under the hoods of all the surrounding black-robed figures, the pitch-black shadows suddenly jumped. The sky was overcast with thick clouds, and the cold wind suddenly howled. A long, thin black shadow lunged out of the old man’s hood, its mouth full of fangs open as it attacked Yu Feichen.

Yu Feichen kicked over the pile of firewood. The wood, carrying a blazing flame and light, tumbled forward, forming a scorching wall of fire. The black shadow retreated reluctantly when it touched the intense light.

The Empress knelt on the ground, scooping up the dripping magic potion with her hands and putting it back into the pitch-black cauldron.

At the same time, all other black shadow tentacles extended from the monks and nuns. However, the length of the long tentacles was limited, and they could only leave the body within a two-meter range. For a moment, one dark tentacle after another shot toward the center, subtly fitting the radial pattern of the sun totem.

However, while the sun was originally brilliant and bright, it was now dark and evil—a black sun.

The sundial’s pointer moved slowly, the sun continued to sink, and the sky was pale. The beam of light tilted, and the circular atrium was half black and half white.

Bai Song was on the edge, retreating in a panic. He drew his sword with one hand, cutting off a tentacle that attacked him, and blocked the howling cold wind with his elbow with the other hand. He tried to open his eyes and shouted: “Isn’t it still daytime! How did they start moving!”

“Are you a fool!” Qiu Na also just understood the key to it and shouted in the wind: “Why are they wearing black clothes—under the cloaks, aren’t they just shadows!”

Once those pitch-black hooded cloaks stood under the light, they became places where shadows bred, allowing them to survive even under strong light! The monsters were hidden in the shadows and also hidden around them, omnipresent in this temple.

“I—” Bai Song cursed and called out in despair: “Brother Yu!”

The fire from the firewood pile temporarily blocked the shadow monsters’ attack for Yu Feichen. The Empress was trembling all over, still vainly picking up the magic potion. Those liquids were mixed with the dust on the ground, as turbid as the pupils of a dying person.

The Scholar questioned him: “What on earth are you doing!” After saying that, he panted angrily several times and then pointed his finger at Ludwig: “And you! Why didn’t you stop him!”

Faced with the Scholar’s overbearing accusation, Ludwig said nothing.

He just stood silently behind Yu Feichen.

Yu Feichen: “…”

He stepped forward, looked directly at the Scholar, and said: “I knocked over the potion bowl, and instead, it triggered an attack from the monsters. Don’t you think something is wrong?”

The Scholar’s expression fluctuated.

At this moment, Qiu Na escaped the monster’s attack and stood in the safe zone surrounded by the pile of firewood. She said, panting: “Yeah… that medicine is so eerie, can it really save the Holy Son? Maybe if the Holy Son drinks it, he’ll die! To be more extreme, this medicine represents life and death, what if it turns the Holy Son into a monster in the shadows too? Then won’t humanity be completely defeated?”

The Empress scooped up another handful of medicine and sneered: “Didn’t you just agree with my statement?”

Qiu Na replied: “That was then. I only know one thing: what the villain doesn’t want to see is what we should do. They want the Holy Son to drink the medicine, so we won’t let him drink it.”

“I think the Lord’s wife has a point,” Bai Song said, constantly swinging his sword and fighting the monsters in a disheveled manner, finally returning to the safe zone: “I also found a clue. That old man turning into a monster started from the shadow. But, but the Holy Son doesn’t have a shadow! To contaminate him, it might be necessary to use this strange magic potion! We’ve been looking for ingredients, and instead, we’ve become accomplices to the shadows.”

Yu Feichen listened to the two of them analyzing the event back and forth. Although it was a hundred thousand miles away from his thoughts, to be able to analyze calmly under such circumstances was also valuable.

The Empress scattered the turbid magic potion back into the cauldron. The medicine liquid, once again in the pot, still had red and black opposition, but it had already lost its original eerieness and mystery. Even if the effect still existed, it would probably be greatly reduced. The expression of victory that had been on the Empress’s face before had also vanished like the once clear medicine liquid, revealing an expression of gloom and loss.

She tucked her disheveled hair behind her ear and said: “After many people’s summaries, in worlds where NPCs clearly issue tasks, as long as you complete the tasks step by step, you can leave.”

Bai Song: “But what if we complete our task but kill the Holy Son?”

“Impossible.” The Empress said: “The dungeon will not lead people to a dead end from the beginning. The magic potion is definitely the way to save the Holy Son. Other than it, do you have any other way—”

She pointed to the Holy Son, who had been pierced through by the candlestick: “To bring someone in this state back to life?”

“But if it’s really as you say, why do the shadow monsters want to piously resurrect the Holy Son of Light?”

The Empress smiled mockingly. Things had reached this point, and it didn’t matter who deconstructed first anymore. She was also too lazy to fool people with that boring story from before—she might as well tell the truth and enjoy their expressions of regret.

“That’s because although this temple uses the sun totem, it’s also a temple symbolizing shadows.”

Following her narrative, the fire from the firewood reached its end, the dark curtain pressed closer, and the monsters screamed and lunged. At this point, shadows didn’t matter anymore. Bai Song took his sword and stood in front of Molly and Qiu Na with a chivalrous spirit. Yu Feichen and Bai Song stood back-to-back, protecting the Pope. The Scholar quickly looked around and found that no one was protecting him, who was also a weakling. He gritted his teeth, grabbed a piece of firewood, and fought the monsters.

But the monsters were pervasive shadow tentacles, mixed with countless mind-boggling illusions. Yu Feichen and Bai Song still couldn’t completely protect everyone. A tentacle took advantage of a gap and attacked the helpless Molly.

Seeing that Molly’s neck was about to be wrapped, Ludwig somehow managed to snag a burning blood-red candle from the chaos and thrust it in front of her.

For shadow monsters, light was an insurmountable barrier. Even this weak light made its momentum stall for a moment. In the next moment, Yu Feichen’s long sword cut it off cleanly.

The Scholar waved the firewood with one hand, but it was haphazard and he was barely holding his own. Qiu Na cursed “Useless!” and dodged out of Bai Song’s protection range, turned around, and kicked the Scholar into the safe circle. Then she grabbed his firewood, and the burning end of the stick hissed as it repelled the nearest monster.

This extremely decisive action left Bai Song stunned: “You’ve practiced?”

Qiu Na: “Cut the crap!”

She played holographic competitive games, not a keyboard warrior equipped with only twenty-six letters.

The only one who didn’t make any movement was the Empress. She was still half-kneeling on the ground, mechanically collecting the magic potion. The pitch-black monster hands with fangs and spines whipped and wrapped around her over and over again, leaving countless fresh blood marks on her, but it didn’t affect her movements at all, as if she were unaffected. Instead, the gray-clothed male attendant behind her, who hadn’t been attacked, was trembling imperceptibly, his face turning paler and his figure swaying.

So that’s how it is. The male attendant isn’t a living person, but some strange spell used to bear damage for her. No wonder she could break out of the darkness in one piece.

Amidst the sounds of intense fighting, the Empress continued to speak: “I came out of the residence and didn’t encounter much danger along the way. Instead, the closer I got here, the more monsters there were. Why do you think that is?”

Others were either fighting or trembling. Only the Scholar had time to argue with her: “Because they are all concentrated around the ceremony site.”

The Empress sneered: “In all worlds, there are only two reasons why people believe in gods: either they are grateful to the gods, or they fear the gods. The people of the Shadow God believe in the sun because they are both grateful to it and fear it. After all—where there is light, there is shadow.”

Having spoken this crucial sentence, without looking at people’s reactions, she said to herself: “Knight Commander, you guessed right. The clue I found in the Holy Son’s residence was indeed the word ‘God.’ Thanks to this word, I thought of going to the library to read myth-related texts and learned of the existence of the God of Shadow and the God of Light.”

“Where there is light, there is shadow. Shadow reflects the greatness of light. So these two gods coexist and restrain each other. If shadows want to survive in this world, they cannot let light disappear. So they will inevitably protect the Holy Son. If something happens to the Holy Son, they will also give all their strength to heal him. So the resurrection potion is a true resurrection agent, definitely not anything else. Similarly, for the living people of this world, only if the Holy Son lives do they have room to survive. The Holy Son is the equilibrium point between the two camps of light and shadow.”

The Scholar suddenly realized: “So that’s it, it’s so simple, why didn’t I think of it! The things here are too eerie, and the task was too pressing, interfering with our thinking.”

The battle gradually became intense, but the Empress didn’t care about anything. Her tone was cold as she continued to speak.

“Humans and monsters alike need light. As long as the Holy Son is resurrected, light will still be light and shadow will still be shadow. Living people can live, and monsters can also live. This is the ultimate goal of our task, and also the only way to keep this world in balance and prevent it from collapsing further… the only way out. We were originally very close to success, but unexpectedly someone thought they were clever and ruined everything. Hah… even monsters understand this logic, yet you didn’t think of it.”

The truth was out, but the way out had disappeared. The Scholar was terrified, and his gaze toward Yu Feichen became even more distorted with hatred.

Bai Song also forgot to counterattack and said blankly: “What she said makes a lot of sense, Brother Yu, are we in trouble…?”

In the gap while Bai Song stopped and the Scholar was in a daze, a strange hand-shaped monster crawled out from the gap between them, its six fingers with black claws grabbing down toward the Scholar’s head!

Instinctive fear made the Scholar’s heart jump, and the sound of howling wind from the right side of his head made alarm bells ring in his mind. He immediately reacted and dodged toward Bai Song, who was standing beside him in a daze!

In this way, the monster moved along its original trajectory, hitting not him but Bai Song. And Qiu Na was busy dealing with the monsters on her side, and the Knight Commander was busy saving the Pope; no one could spare a hand.

At this moment, Yu Feichen was indeed busy. There were too many monsters in all directions. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a vague, thin human figure emerging behind Ludwig. Before he could make any other reaction, he turned back, grabbed Ludwig’s shoulder and back, pulled him up from the ground, and swung him around half a circle to leave the monster’s attack range.

Suddenly, Ludwig pulled his left arm in and hugged him back. A cold, faint scent brushed past Yu Feichen’s nose, and Ludwig’s silver hair brushed past his ear.

He only saw a flash of silver light, and when he turned back, Ludwig had already thrown a silver knife with his right hand from the angle of holding his shoulder.

The silver knife was the one that had been quenched in salt during the first ceremony. It was decisive and at a tricky angle, directly piercing through that thin figure and pinning the hand-shaped monster firmly to the ground with a “thud”—just now, it had almost grabbed the crown of Bai Song’s head.

The crises on both sides were resolved. Yu Feichen set the Pope down. As he left, the cool silver hair brushed past his ear and neck again, and soon, the cold scent was once again replaced by the omnipresent smell of blood.

Ludwig’s hand also slid down from the silver armor on his shoulder, and when it reached the wrist, he grabbed it with a pull, leading Yu Feichen to avoid an attack from the right and, in passing, turned around to pick up the silver knife.

Yu Feichen felt as if something still remained on his ear and neck, and the strength of the grip remained on his wrist. He looked at Ludwig, seeing that he was lowering his head slightly, focusing on wiping the black liquid off the silver knife with composed movements.

This person is good—his level of composure exceeds everyone’s, he doesn’t drop the ball, his strikes are ruthless, and his intuition and combat awareness are very strong. He also doesn’t mind the scent on his clothes and hair.

He’s just too lazy to move.

At this moment, a scream came from the Scholar’s side. Yu Feichen looked over—it turned out that when he pushed the hand-shaped monster to Bai Song, he himself had dodged to a further place in his haste and was grabbed by the throat by a distorted humanoid monster and dragged into the nearby edge of darkness.

The pitch-black semicircle was like a giant mouth opening, swallowing all light and also swallowing the Scholar’s figure. A few faint calls for help completely disappeared and were replaced by a hair-raising chewing sound.

That was the end of being dragged away by a monster. Everyone instinctively gathered in the middle and then looked at their own shadows in unison.

Then they were horrified to find that their shadows all emitted a malicious thick black—in the intense battle just now, they only had time to protect themselves and couldn’t care about protecting their shadows. Even Yu Feichen’s shadow was like that.

Except for Ludwig, whose shadow was clean and had nothing in it. Even when he hugged Yu Feichen just now, he didn’t get stained with that thing.

The Empress looked indifferently toward the direction where the Scholar disappeared and said: “He was too stupid; even if he could survive this world, he wouldn’t be far from death.”

After saying that, she smiled: “Of course, you’re not considered stupid. You have great talent and could have gone a long way, but unfortunately, you made the wrong choice and are ruined here.”

Yu Feichen held his long sword in front of him to block a four-legged shadow monster, saying calmly: “Are you talking about me?”

After saying that, he pulled out his sword and stabbed it into the tentacle on the top left, his smooth movements not affected in the slightest.

At this time, a wisp of black mist rose from the shadow and spread up from under Bai Song’s feet. His voice was trembling: “Yu… Brother Yu. What should we do?”

“Don’t be afraid.” Yu Feichen said calmly. After saying that, he looked up at the sky. The pale sky became increasingly dim. The short day had passed, night was coming, and the “wellhead” in the center of the sky had already closed to the size of a pinhole. Light was like a slanted white line, abruptly drawn on the pitch-black background, dividing the canvas in half.

The monsters completely gave up on the magic potion scattered on the ground and only attacked these people crazily to take revenge.

Yu Feichen’s expression remained unchanged. His long sword made a whistling sound as it pointed diagonally, the tip of the blade resting on the Holy Son’s fragile neck. This action clearly told those creatures in the darkness: if you come again, I will kill him completely.

The knight with blonde hair and snow-white armor should have represented light and mercy, but Yu Feichen’s entire body emitted only startling indifference. Coupled with his icy expression and movements full of threatening meaning, his cold aura almost overwhelmed the shadows.

The fatal throat was being held, the black mist stopped spreading in an instant, and the surrounding monsters also reluctantly stopped their movements, moving slowly and threateningly around.

Ludwig walked through the crowd to the Holy Son. He gently pushed aside the red-haired boy’s snow-white robes, glanced at the wound, and covered the collar again. He then pulled back his sleeve, revealing several burn marks. Finally, his cold white fingers stopped on the pitch-black candlestick and slowly pushed the large iron candlestick outward.

A dull, thudding sound rang out low. The long iron spike slowly pulled away from the Holy Son’s flesh, and large amounts of blood gushed out. The pain of the raw extraction made the body under the Holy Son’s white robe tremble.

The shadows suddenly became irritable, and the Empress also said in a hoarse voice: “He’ll die!”

True, death was a predetermined outcome. But living things always want to live for one more moment.

Beside them, Qiu Na said: “…What are you going to do?”

Bai Song: “Maybe waiting for death. He’s come to terms with it.”

Yu Feichen looked at the Empress. At this moment, her long hair was disheveled, she looked disheveled, and the gray-clothed male attendant beside her had borne damage to the extreme, unexpectedly becoming translucent, as if he would dissipate at any time.

He suddenly spoke: “Your deconstruction makes a lot of sense.”

The Empress looked up at him.

“But,” he said coldly, “since the Holy Son’s survival is the only way to maintain balance and is the result that both the Light and Shadow sides want to see, originally—why would someone want to kill him?”

On the crystal bed, the bloodless corners of the Holy Son’s lips suddenly curved into a slight arc.