Chapter 642 - TO THE TEMPLE

THE coat surrounding their bodies automatically disappeared the moment they were no longer in contact with water.  Luo Yan looked around and saw that they were in a forest.  There was nothing special about it.  It just looked like an ordinary forest.  But he should not be complacent just because of that.  Who knew if someone would just appear here and totally disrupt their plans?

So, they shouldn't waste their time here and proceed on to the next step of the plan.

He turned to Shen Ji Yun.  "Brother Ji Yun, let's separate here.  Contact me if you encountered any problems," he said, pointing to the earring he's wearing.

"You as well," Shen Ji Yun said.  "If you encountered something and you think you can't handle it on your own, contact me.  If we didn't arrive as fast as we could, you can teleport out of here."

"But you don't have to worry, Mashter.  We will definitely come and rescue you," said Eclipse with matching thumping on the chest.

Luo Yan chuckled and patted the little boy's head.  "I definitely feel reassured hearing that," he said.  "But you should also not forget what I told you earlier, okay?"

"Yes, Eclipse won't be careless and brash.  He will follow Captain's lead without fail," Eclipse said, making a cute salute.

"Good."  Luo Yan then turned once again to Shen Ji Yun.  "Good luck and be careful."

"You too," Shen Ji Yun responded back.

Then, the four split up.  Shen Ji Yun, Eclipse, and Dusk went south of where they were while Luo Yan went north.  That was because the temple where Beelzebub's body was located and the location of the Dark Saint's palace were on opposite direction.

The moment Luo Yan ran, he quickly wore his Invisibility Cloak.  As he did, he opened the map provided to them by Beelzebub.  Although he had already memorized the path from the lake to the temple, it wouldn't hurt to be more careful.

He only had 10 minutes before the effect of the cloak disappear.  It would take hours of cooldown before he could use it again.  So, it's important that he reached that temple before the 10 minutes was over.

He ran at his fastest speed.  He did not even have time to observe his surroundings.  Under normal circumstance, he would have stopped and looked around.  But time was of the essence right now.  He couldn't afford to just casually look around as if he was on a stroll or something.

But, even so, when he got out of the forest, he still took a moment to appreciate the architectures that appeared before him.  He could see stone pyramids and temples, as well as small residences that were also made of stones.  It reminded him of the architecture of the ancient Mayans.  With intricate stone carvings and stucco statues. 

He suddenly felt regretful to blow up such a perfectly designed place.  But he also soon shook that idea off.  They had already planted all the Mana bombs.  All they had to do was activate it within the day and this place would disappear completely in the map.

Besides, according to Shen Ji Yun, this place was only filled with adult dark mages.  Dark mages weren't really born as dark mages.  They were ordinary mages at first.  Then, they ventured on the path of dark magic.  After being exposed to dark magic for a long period of time, they would transform to dark mages.

Players in Arcadia who picked the Mage job could actually also go to a path of a dark mage.  But it was not as easy as an NPC mage doing it.  There were a lot of complicated process that a Mage must undergo in order to transform to a dark mage. 

Anyway, he was just glad that there's no children NPC here.  Even if they were only made of codes and data, he would still feel guilty if he sentenced them to death just because of what their leader and the rest of their people did.

Luo Yan no longer thought about that and just continued his way towards the temple.  As he did, he noticed that the number of dark mages he saw walking around dwindled.  The closer he got to the temple, the less of them he saw.  Which was kind of a good thing.  Since he'd been running so carefully so as not to be noticed by them.

It's not only the dark mages that lessened, even the number of buildings started to get less and less.  Which should not be really that surprising since it was clearly shown in the map how the temple was isolated in the island.

It didn't take long before he reached his destination.  He looked at the time on his Status Window.  There were still four minutes left before the effect of the cloak wore off.  That's enough time for him to enter inside. 

Once he entered the passageway – courtesy of Beelzebub, of course – it would lead him directly to the room where the body was being held.  Or should he say preserved?  Anyway, according to the archdemon, there were no traps in the room where the body was.  All the traps were located on the way to that room.  And since he would be going there through a secret passageway, he shouldn't worry about that at all.

He stared at the temple and clearly saw the barrier surrounding it.  According to Beelzebub, this barrier was strong enough to keep out people who wanted to go inside without permission.  That's why no guards were assigned to this place.  Luckier for him then.

He looked around to look for the thing that the archdemon had mentioned.  He found it real fast – a statue that was just outside of the barrier.  It was the statue of the Dark Saint. 

Although he didn't know how the other looked like, he was sure that it was his statue.  After all, he saw a lot of the same statue when he was on his way here.  Who else could it be but the person these dark mages considered as 'god'?

He didn't stare much at the face of the statue and just crouched down.  He pushed the very center part of the platform brick where the statue was standing.  The area where he pushed didn't sink.  But he didn't care.  He slid his finger an inch to the left, then two inches down, and finally three inches to the right.

Even though, he was already expecting it, he was still surprised when the land he was crouching on suddenly opened and he fell uncontrollably.  He looked up and saw that the opening was already close, as if it didn't open at all.

Luo Yan did not panic.  Because he was already expecting this.  What he did earlier was to access the secret passageway that Beelzebub told them about.  Once again, he applauded the archdemon for his preparedness.

His fall only lasted for a few seconds before his feet landed on solid ground.  Although his surrounding was completely dark, he could still see a dim silhouette of a narrow corridor. 

He no longer thought much and just ran forward.