Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

"Nyx Regime!"

Mo Fan finished setting up the Dark Formation. This time, he did not place the Giant Shadow Spikes inside it. He only covered the entrance of the ancient castle with darkness.

The darkness loomed over the ancient castle. The sky was already occupied by the strange birds, preventing sunlight from coming in. Now, the whole place was pitch-black, making it difficult to identify directions...

"Blessing: Enhance!" Nanrong Ni cast a spell that Mo Fan had never seen before.

Mo Fan's Nyx Regime only managed to cover two-thirds of the entrance. Its coverage was not wide enough to encapsulate the whole place. After all, Mo Fan was still familiarizing himself with the Advanced Shadow Spell. However, after Nanrong Ni murmured a few soft chants, Mo Fan noticed the coverage of his Nyx Regime expanding. Its aura had grown stronger, too!

The darkness spread across the entrance of the ancient castle. Mo Fan could easily sense the strange birds that went into the darkness crying out in panic. They were struggling fiercely, as if they had fallen into a black mud pool.

"Is that the Blessing Element?" Mo Fan looked at Nanrong Ni in astonishment.

Jiang Shaoxu, Jiang Yu, and Zhao Manyan were looking at Nanrong Ni in shock, too.

The Blessing Element was a kind of White Magic. However, it was rare to find a Magician with it in their country. As a matter of fact, the Blessing Element was rare in other countries too. It was almost exclusive to the Parthenon Temple. Only the Magicians there could Awaken the Blessing Element through special guidance...

No one expected Nanrong Ni's third Element to be the special Blessing Element!

Mo Fan had only learned about the existence of the Element from Xinxia. She once said that she was hoping to Awaken the Blessing Element as her third Element. However, Mo Fan strongly advised against it after he learned more about the Element.

Xinxia would simply become a pure supporting character, meaning that she had no means to protect herself. As such, Mo Fan decisively told her not to Awaken the Blessing Element.

He was very surprised that Nanrong Ni was able to Awaken the Blessing Element!

"The Nanrong Clan has seriously invested in her..." Zhao Manyan whispered to Mo Fan.

"Too bad we won't live for long," added Jiang Shaoxu.

Nanrong Ni glared at Jiang Shaoxu. Would she die if she didn't mention it!

The Blessing Spell greatly enhanced Mo Fan's Nyx Regime. Its efficiency had increased by at least thirty percent. Its terrorizing effect was strong enough to stir up panic among the low-level strange birds.

As their flying patterns and discipline were disrupted, the team actually had a chance of defeating the creatures, despite their overwhelming numbers.

"Zhao Manyan, remember to keep an eye on me, I'm going to slaughter them all!" said Mo Fan when he saw the strange birds colliding into one another inside the darkness.

"It's all you now!"

Mo Fan was protected by three layers of spells. The extra defense was like adding wings to a tiger for Mo Fan.

"Come, I'll crush you all! Lightning Disaster!"

Mo Fan waved his hands in the air. Lightning claws swung wildly and combined into a giant net of lightning, tearing through the bodies of the strange birds. Their feathers began to fall rapidly as the scorched corpses with a burned scent fell to the ground in front of Mo Fan's feet.

"Nanrong Ni, can you enhance my Fire Spell?" asked Mo Fan.

"Sure!" replied Nanrong Ni.

"Alright, Jiang Shaoxu, use your Spirit Ripple to aggravate their fear and drive them to where I'm going to cast the Sky-Flame Funeral!" said Mo Fan.

Jiang Shaoxu nodded. She used all her focus to extend the range of Spirit Ripple to its limit. Since Mo Fan's Nyx Regime already had a strong fear effect, Jiang Shaoxu only needed to intensify the fear in the hearts of the creatures. It was the expertise of a Psychic Magician!

Fear spread through the creatures like a plague, carried at the speed of lightning. The strange birds that entered the Nyx Regime immediately panicked and attacked one another aimlessly, like a herd of cows and goats running wildly in panic and trampling one another...

The birds crashed into one another in the crowded space. They were desperately looking for a sense of security, as if the darkness was full of demons that could tear them into pieces. They would be safe once they managed to hide among their comrades...

"Time to bury you all!"

Fierce flames ignited and turned into fiery clouds after they were tossed in the air. The ground below was a scorching sea of flames. The Sky-Flame Funeral had become a joint funeral for the strange birds, swiftly burning them to ashes!

The fire continued to grow while burning the birds, yet Mo Fan did not receive a single Soul Remnant. The only loot he found was a piece or two of bright-colored, colorful crests.

Mo Fan stored the crests away. They might turn out to be one of the key items to solving the mystery of the strange birds!

The strange birds were intelligent. They knew Mo Fan's Dark Formation was their burial ground. After Mo Fan had killed over a thousand strange birds using the same method, an army of higher-level birds showed up.

The low-level creatures needed powerful creatures to lead them. A thousand strange birds were too insignificant compared to the entire horde. However, Mo Fan's Nyx Regime was almost at its limit.

The strange birds started pouring down like raindrops, using their bodies as weapons. They kept charging into Mo Fan's Nyx Regime. The darkness was actually driven away. As the strange birds fearlessly dove into the Dark Formation and rammed into the ancient castle with blood splattering in the air, the Nyx Regime was greatly affected too...

"Mo Fan, can you hold your ground?" the worried Jiang Shaoxu asked.

"Of course, I can kill more than ten thousand of these assholes!" said Mo Fan.

It was not Mo Fan's first time being surrounded by an army of demon creatures. The situation in the Death Space was a lot worse than this. He did not have an ideal terrain back then, nor was he as strong as he currently was!

"Space Rhythm: Compress!"

A rhomboid appeared above Mo Fan, entrapping more than ten strange birds in an instant. With a buzz, the strange birds were compressed into minced meat, with blood spraying in the air.

"Demon Tree Hand!" Nanrong Ni controlled her Demon Tree to swiftly scatter around the group of five.

The Demon Tree had lots of branches, each with an awareness, who attacked the strange birds that came close. The sharp branches sprang forward and pierced through their bodies.

Feathers were stacking on the water of the ocean below the castle. Fresh blood was smeared on the cliff. However, the number of strange birds that were queuing up while spiraling in the air showed no signs of decreasing.

"Damn it, there are too many of them. We can't possibly kill them all!" Nanrong Ni gasped with a pale face.

They had already tried their best. Even with the violent Magician Mo Fan and his Little Flame Belle's help, they were unable to hold their ground. As more high-level birds showed up, the number of wounds and bruises on everyone's body gradually increased...

"We've been holding on for almost an hour, time to switch," said Zhao Manyan.

"Switch, switch!"

----

Ai Jiangtu and the others were not far away from the entrance of the ancient castle. They managed to find some magic ores to be used as the energy source for the Barrier, yet they did not find anything else useful.

The scariest thing was not just holding the entrance of the ancient castle. The strange birds kept on ramming into the cliff. There was a chance that the whole place would collapse at any second. The team would eventually fall into the water, together with the castle!

They could not help but admit that a horde of strange birds was indeed capable of destroying everything!

"If we don't set up the Barrier soon, the cliff is going to collapse. There's no escape for us."

"Stop talking and help us to guard the entrance!" Ai Jiangtu led the others and switched with Mo Fan's group.

Previously, Guan Yu and the others had estimated that Mo Fan and his group could at most hold the entrance for twenty minutes. To their surprise, they had defended the entrance for an hour. The corpses of the strange birds were already stacking up in piles above the reefs!

They could not help but admit that Mo Fan's strength was rather ridiculous...

Nanyu finally came with good news. The Barrier would be repaired in another half an hour, meaning that Ai Jiangtu, Guan Yu, Zu Jiming, and the rest only needed to hold on for another thirty minutes before they could catch a breather. That being said, no one knew how long the Barrier would last for. Nevertheless, every second counted!

Mo Fan, Zhao Manyan, Jiang Shaoxu, Jiang Yu, and Nanrong Ni went into the castle to rest. They were totally exhausted. Even a troop of soldiers would have had trouble eliminating the horde of strange birds. It was quite impressive that a few students could survive for so long!

"What do we do now? If the strange birds don't leave after the Barrier is activated, we are still going to die eventually. No one can save us now," said Jiang Yu.

"Damn it, what the heck are those things!' cursed Mo Fan.

The lack of soul was clearly the strangest thing about the birds.

It was clearly an emergency, and everyone's life was in danger. The Demon Element might be able to save their lives, but the problem was, these birds did not have souls. If the Little Loach Pendant could not collect Soul Remnants to pay the debt of using the Demon Element, he had no idea what terrible things he would do when he lost control of himself.

The Essence Orb had only filled up by a third. It was obviously not enough to pay the price.

Besides, after using the Demon Element, his cultivation would drop, too...

Anyway, if the Demon Element was not an option, there was nothing he could do, apart from waiting for their death.

"I don't know either: we only went to a place called the Nazca Lines by accident..." said Jiang Yu.

"Is the communication device working?" asked Mo Fan.

"Ours isn't, but there should be computers in the castle, and a generator, too. The only uncertainty is the signal," said Jiang Shaoxu.

Mo Fan rushed to the command center and found a computer that still worked.

It was obvious that the place was not fully abandoned. Even the network was still working. However, if the strange birds destroyed the whole cliff, the castle would still lose its power.

"Lingling, Lingling, quick, I need your help!" Mo Fan sent an SOS message to Lingling.

Lingling always carried her laptop with her. She immediately started a video call. Mo Fan could see the classroom of a middle school in her background.

"Where are you? It looks like a military base," asked Lingling with a confused look when she saw Mo Fan's surroundings.

"I'll send you the location. Help me investigate this kind of strange bird, and this colorful crest that these birds are carrying. They don't have a soul, but they are intelligent. We're trapped inside a castle surrounded by a horde of these birds. We can't hold on for too long..." Mo Fan briefly described his situation.

It was like giving medicine to a dead horse. Mo Fan only hoped that the all-knowing Lingling was able to help them!