Chapter 318
Chapter 318: After the War
"Stop worrying."
At this moment, Minlur's booming laugh sounded behind Carter as he patted Carter's shoulder. Afterwards, he looked at Ayrin, Stingham, and Rinloran, and said, "We killed Dias and have secured the Abyss of Evil, and perhaps even the entire Fallen Shadow Valley. We should be happy right now. Also, if anything does come up in the future, look at those children, they will be able to take care of it."
Carter's brows slowly unfurrowed as he took a deep breath and forced himself to smile.
Minlur was correct. They should be happy at this moment. As for the future, these youths would perform even more spectacularly than they did today.
"Hey Stingham, you really looked cool out there today," Carter sincerely shouted towards Stingham.
"Is that so? Haha, I have always been this handsome!" Stingham replied with a chuckle as he happily combed his hand through his hair.
……
Atop an altar within a still hidden away cavern stood a lofty man with an imposing aura and dim yellow pupils. His eyes were like a brewing storm as he watched the slowly dissipating dark purple smoke around him and shouted in a ridiculing, yet pitying voice, "It seems like you all have completely failed."
This sealed altar looked like a palace and was constructed from countless bones. After soaking in the Evil Dragon's aura around them for so long, these bones were no longer white, but purplish red and radiantly shining like crystals.
Directly above the altar was a large hole. The undead dragon which had chased after Ayrin and the others was currently resting there, its head sticking through the hole as its body remained outside.
It was currently motionless, as if it was no longer undead. But countless streams of black smoke continued coursing through and around its bones like streams of blood indicating otherwise. Only the distinct hum had disappeared.
Standing atop the altar below the Undead Dragon's skull was a white haired Evil Dragon Follower whose body was similarly twined with black smoke. They held a white bone spear in their hand.
This Evil Dragon Follower's eyes were bright and spirited, but his skin and hair were pale and white as snow.
Upon hearing the words of the man before him, a look of helplessness emerged on this white haired Evil Dragon Follwer's face as he sighed as if unconvinced and replied, "Rincenzi, if not for the fact that I exhausted all of my arcane particles to release Apocalypse, you wouldn't necessarily be able to defeat me."
"What is the point of saying something this right now?"
The lofty man silently looked at the white haired Evil Dragon Follower for a while. Afterwards, he began slowly speaking, "As long as you agree to my single request, I am willing to not kill you."
"And what is it that House Baratheon requires to be done, for them to take such a risk and allow an enemy to live?" the white haired Evil Dragon Follower cackled, "Shall I take a guess?"
The imposing man slightly furrowed his brows as he replied, "Stop playing such a senseless game. This matter relates to Rinsyi.
The white haired Evil Dragon Follower smirked. They had long since already guessed the intentions of the man before them. "Since you have said such words, I'm assuming that you have already figured out the characteristics of my skills."
"We people of House Baratheon only care about two things, absolute loyalty towards the house and our own interests," the lofty man sneered.
The white haired Evil Dragon Follower nodded in agreement as he asked, "Shall we strike a deal then?"
……
"The dark purple column of smoke has disappeared, and the Evil Dragon's aura is beginning to scatter!"
"Have we finally won?"
Exclamations began to ring out atop the outskirts of Fallen Shadow Valley as arcane masters saw the dark purple smoke enveloping it begin to scatter.
"The main camp of the Evil Dragon Followers has fallen!"
"Victory is finally ours!"
A jovial atmosphere erupted atop Fallen Shadow Valley as arcane masters celebrated within their outposts.
Amid all the celebration, a teacher of Abel Academy was currently reprimanding the team of Abel Academy students atop a plain outside Fallen Shadow Valley.
"You idiots!"
"Could you all not be more embarrassing? If just your attempt to ambush others failed, it would have been alright. But how could you manage to lose the Moon Echo Sabre and Spirit Obstruction Gem?! How could you all let yourselves be robbed?!"
The teacher had an extremely square and righteous-looking face, but his eyes were filled with craftiness.
He was Kelly, one of the most powerful elite teachers of Abel Academy who was known as the Grandmaster of Deception.
The captain of Abel Academy's team, Lotner, and the others wished they could melt away into a crack in the ground and disappear.
"Teacher Kelly…" Lotner stammered, "I have an idea."
"What idea?" Kelly disdainfully glared at Lotner, "Not only have we lost the right to continue in the national tournament, but we have also lost two of the academy's artifacts. I'm afraid that you will not need to continue your duties as captain once we return."
"We can formally challenge them and have them bet the artifacts that we lost and then win them back!" Lotner said, grinding his teeth.
"The six of you were miserably defeated by just three of them! And yet you still wish to challenge them?" Kelly looked at Lotner as if he were an idiot and sneered, "Furthermore, the artifacts are already in their hands. What are we going to as chips?"
"That's why… that's why we came to ask Teacher Kelly for help." Lotner and the other members of the team exchange looks as he awkwardly mumbled, "If we had Teacher Kelly's…"
Kelly's eyes abruptly narrowed to slits as he interrupted Lotner's mumbling, "You children wish to borrow my Scriptures of Time and my Blood Sucking Amulet."
"……" Lotner and the others wanted to nod their heads in confirmation, but also didn't dare to do so.
"Perhaps it is a good idea. No matter how useless and idiotic you bunch are, with my Scriptures of Time and my Blood Sucking Amulet, it should be impossible for you all to lose to those brats of Holy Dawn Academy."
Kelly nodded as he glared at Lotner and the others, "But for me to expend so much only to win back some of our school's artifacts… It just seems like such a waste of energy."
Upon hearing Kelly's words, Lotner and the others immediately became excited as they quickly replied, "Don't worry Teacher Kelly, we will definitely think of a way bump up the stakes!"
"Then whatever we win?" Kelly rubbed his chin as a sinister smile emerged on his face.
"It will naturally belong to Teacher Kelly!" Lotner and the others hastily patted their chests in confidence as he replied, "We will only take back the Moon Echo Sabre and Spirit Obstruction Gem. Everything else will be given to Teacher Kelly because we wouldn't be able to win without Teacher Kelly's help."
"Ahahaha, then I will be looking forward to your performances." A minute ago, Kelly had been still swearing at Lotner and the others, but now, he was laughing in satisfaction.
……
As the aura of evil dissipated, the sky above Evil Dragon Abyss began to clear up.
Jean Camus was currently standing within a fissure in the ground in the deepest portion of Evil Dragon Abyss.
In the long and narrow space behind him, hundreds of arcane masters frantically scurried around and dug into the ground as if nothing else was important.
It was a crazy scene.
The area they were currently standing was none other than the area where the bones of dragons were buried within the Evil Dragon's Abyss.
It was a land densely littered with dragon skeletons. And if they were lucky, they might even be able to find a dragon crystal, or even a corpse!
It was because of this area that many higher ranking Evil Dragon Followers would often incorporate dragon skeletons and corpses in their skills.
The arcane energy within the dragon bones had caused the ground here to harden into a layer of abnormally hard dark green crystal.
Yet even still, the arcane masters in the area continued to dig as if their lives depended on it, even expending arcane particles without hesitation.
Of course, Jean Camus was not participating in this excavation.
In fact, the madness of the arcane masters before him caused him to feel a little guilty.
Had they banded together to defeat the Evil Dragon Followers, or to rob them of what they had?
Jean Camus slowly walked away from the area as he continued along the narrow fissure until he reached its end.
He had long since noticed a strange aura emanating from this area. If not for the madness incited by the draconic area which had seeped into these grounds, it was likely that Jean Camus would not have been the only person who noticed it.
Having reached the end of the fissure, a massive cliff appeared before Jean Camus.
This cliff was speckled with cavern mouths of varying sizes from which currents of air flowed out like streams of tears.
Jean Camus' gaze fixated on one of these entrances which happened to be perfectly a person tall.
As he approached the cave, he could faintly sense a strange aura billowing out from within. It was the aura of domain energy!
He hesitated for a moment, and then began walking into the cave.
"Arcane masters have finally broken into Fallen Shadow Valley?"
"I can feel the Evil Dragon's aura dissipating."
Jean Camus had only just entered the cave when a strange, unusually hoarse voice rang out from within.
Jean Camus' face remained calm as a cluster of light emerged from his fingertips and floated out before him, lighting up the darkness ahead.
Before long, he reached the end of the cave, which was not as deep as it had appeared. A strange sight appeared before him.
A rare expression of shock emerged atop Jean Camus' face.
At first glance, it looked like it was an arcane master riding a massive spider.
But it was in fact a single being with the upper body of a thin middle aged man with long black hair and a lower body of a spider about the size of several people. It was one fused entity!
But what shocked Jean Camus the most was that the area around this spider-man was completely covered with strands of shimmering spider silk which released a terrifying domain energy.
The domain felt extremely stable to Jean Camus and seemed like it would last forever if not disturbed.
"Who are you?" Jean Camus couldn't help but ask.
"I am…" The strange long haired spider-man began speaking to answer. But in the next moment, he paused as one of his spider legs began to tremble uncontrollably. "No! It's another trick! You are also one of them, one of those Evil Dragon Followers! Stop your pretending, you are still trying to cheat me out of my taboo skill! It's a shame that your bloodline's aura has given you away!"
"What?" Jean Camus stiffened.
"Stop pretending!" An immense look of hatred and violence emerged on his face as he screamed, "Did you really think that I cannot sense your abnormal bloodline? Other than yourself, the Spider Bishop, who else has such a strange bloodline as you!"
"The Spider Bishop?" Jean Camus became even more puzzled.