Chapter 1116: Human-Skin Lantern

"Prepare to set out."

After waiting for a while, Li Luo and the others saw that no other teams were coming, so Feng Lingyuan stopped hesitating and gave the order to prepare to enter that "Black Swamp Water City."

The team from the Holy Light Ancient Academy had no objections to this, so all the teams rose with solemn expressions, their eyes filled with unconcealable nervousness—after all, the Black Swamp Water City shrouded in thick white mist ahead truly inspired dread.

The large contingent set off, swiftly cutting through this stretch of forest until they reached the edge of the black swamp.

As they drew closer to this vast black swamp, everyone felt that cold, sinister aura even more intensely. The water surface was pitch-black, making it impossible to see what lay at the bottom. Above the water hung dense white mist—and this mist was no simple thing; it was formed from countless invisible, bizarre insects. So, to avoid inhaling them, everyone wrapped every part of their bodies in phase force, not daring to let their skin come into contact with the white mist.

Moreover, everyone discovered a problem: this swamp seemed to possess a special power that made it impossible for them to fly across, and even when they occasionally leapt, the distance was severely limited.

Under such circumstances, they could only walk across the water.

But gazing at the pitch-black water before them, like an abyss, many people's faces turned slightly pale. Even though those present counted as elite students of the ancient academies, they had rarely encountered such perilous missions.

Someone mustered their courage, approached the water's surface, and leaned in to peer.

On the pitch-black water, their own face was faintly reflected. Then that student noticed that the reflected face in the water seemed to grow clearer and clearer, drawing closer and closer.

Splash!

Just as that student felt something was off, the water surface suddenly burst open. A white shadow shot violently out from the black depths and, like a face-hugger, lunged straight onto that student's face.

Ah!

A shrill scream erupted. That student staggered backward frantically. The others hurried to look and saw that covering his face was a layer of ghastly-white human skin. The skin writhed continuously and seemed to be gradually melting.

But just as that human skin was about to fuse into the student's face, suddenly a streak of holy, radiant light-phase force howled in and landed on the student's face.

Squeak squeak!

That sheet of human skin immediately recoiled as if burned, actually leaping off his face and trying to flee.

But from the shadows, black spikes shot out, pinning it firmly to the ground, no matter how it struggled and shrieked.

Feng Lingyuan glanced over with an icy expression and said, "It seems there really is plenty of filth in this water. If we cross the water like this, I'm afraid we'll suffer considerable casualties."

Li Hongyou furrowed her brow slightly and said, "But it seems this is our only option."

At that moment Li Luo suddenly spoke up: "The Ancient Spirit Leaf seems to be stirring."

Hearing this, everyone's expression shifted. They hurriedly activated the Ancient Spirit Leaf on the back of their hands, and then detected a prompt that had appeared within it.

"Use skin as a lamp, infuse it with light, and you may cross the Black Swamp."

A contemplative look surfaced on Li Luo's face. It seemed this "Ancient Spirit Leaf" was also using them as a medium, constantly probing the surroundings, thereby giving them some important warnings.

Perhaps behind the "Ancient Spirit Leaf," at the place where countless pieces of information converged, there should be powerful experts from the academies probing and analyzing for them, thus providing some assistance.

And although this assistance might not be a direct boost to combat power, for everyone it could still prevent enormous losses.

Clearly the academies were also doing their utmost to help the students.

"Use skin as a lamp? Does that mean we have to use our own skin?" Many students began discussing among themselves.

"What good would your skin be? I think it's talking about this thing." Duanmu curled his lip, then pointed at the human-skin face pinned to the ground, thrashing wildly.

At the same time, he extended his palm. Vigorous phase force flowed out, directly erasing the malevolent aura within that human-skin face. He then channeled wood-phase power into it, and instantly the wood-phase power transformed into branches, forcibly stretching the human skin open. A few breaths later, a ghastly-white human-skin lantern appeared in Duanmu's hand.

This human-skin lantern was extremely unsettling in appearance, because on its surface there was still a twisted, blurred face—no matter how you looked at it, it reeked of evil.

"This 'infuse with light' is presumably referring to light-phase force."

Duanmu's gaze turned toward the Holy Light Ancient Academy's side. After all, when it came to the number of light-phase practitioners, the Holy Light Ancient Academy was absolutely the most among the ancient academies.

"Let me try." Yin Yue Zhiyu, her tone coquettishly willful, strode out on her long legs. Her skin was luminous and fair, drawing the eye amid this cold, sinister atmosphere.

She reached out, directly drawing the human-skin lantern over, and then dazzling, holy phase force surged into it.

Sizzle sizzle!

The moment this light-phase force entered the human-skin lantern, a piercing sound immediately erupted. Holy ripples radiated outward, and the twisted face on the lantern's surface instantly began shrieking in agony as if scalded by intense burning. At the same time, ghastly-white grease came into contact with the light-phase force.

Puff!

The moment the two made contact, everyone was astonished to see a white flame actually ignite within the lantern.

A ring of white firelight spread outward, covering an area of roughly a zhang.

Then everyone saw the cold, sinister white mist drifting nearby actually recoil from the firelight's range as if stimulated.

"It works!" Everyone rejoiced.

Yin Yue Zhiyu, bold and skilled, took the lantern and stepped directly onto the water's surface. Wherever the firelight passed, even the pitch-black lake water became much clearer, and faintly they seemed to see countless ghastly-white things fleeing and hiding in the water.

Feng Lingyuan, seeing this scene, was also amazed. She hadn't expected that igniting this malevolence-tainted human skin with light-phase force could actually have the effect of driving away aberrations.

But immediately she noticed another problem: the firelight of this human-skin lantern had a limited range. By her estimate, it could probably only protect five or six people.

Yet the size of their team here numbered as many as a hundred.

Human-skin lanterns were easy enough to make—just catch some tainted human-skin aberrations. But the problem was that students possessing light-phase power were few and far between.

The Holy Light Ancient Academy's side was better off—not only did they have Yin Yue Zhiyu with her ninth-grade light phase, they also had seven others of other grades.

But on their side, there were only three people who possessed light-phase.

Moreover, the strongest among these three light-phase students was only at the True Seal rank.

This was clearly insufficient to fully protect the Tianyuan Ancient Academy's team across the river.

Duanmu also noticed this situation at this point and said to her, "We don't have enough light-phase. If we force a crossing, there might be casualties."

Those top students among them might have their own means, but the other students did not have such ability.

Deng Changbai suggested, "How about we borrow a couple of light-phase practitioners from the Holy Light Ancient Academy?"

Duanmu curled his lip and said, "They may not be willing to lend any. In a place like this, one more lantern means one more measure of safety."

Everyone fell silent. Although the two sides were now partners, light-phase power now carried too much significance—who would be willing to lend you their light-phase at the cost of increasing the risk to their own team?

"That Wei Chonglou will probably also throw a wrench in the works," Li Hongyou added.

Hearing this, Feng Lingyuan's gaze shot over, and she saw Wei Chonglou standing not far away, watching them with an amused look in his eyes, as if waiting for them to come ask.

Previously Wei Chonglou had clashed with Li Luo, and they had all stood firmly for Li Luo, so Wei Chonglou had certainly noted that against them.

Cough.

While the captains were hesitating, a light cough suddenly rang out, and they looked over to see Li Luo with a smiling expression.

"Everyone, I actually have a Light-element as well."

He extended a finger, and at the fingertip Light-element power condensed, transforming into a brilliant and sacred orb of light.

This radiance was so bright that even the Holy Light Ancient Academy side cast over gazes filled with surprise.