Chapter 1124: Human Skin Lanterns

"Prepare to set off."

After waiting for a while more, Li Luo and the group discovered that no other teams were coming. Therefore, Feng Lingyuan gave the order to prepare for their advance into Black Swamp City.

There was no objection from the Hallowed Coruscation Ancient College's teams. With unconcealable nervousness in their eyes, everyone stood up. They looked forward with serious faces. The city enshrouded in thick, white mist was a truly terrifying place to behold.

The army marched on and passed through the forest speedily. Soon, they arrived by the side of the black swamp.

As they got closer, they could feel an uneasy chill in the air. The water was so dark and murky that one could not see through the surface. Above the water was the thick mist, and it was not ordinary either. On a microscopic level, it was made up of countless insidious worms! To protect themselves from it, everyone had to surround themselves with resonant power to prevent any contact between their skin and the "mist."

Furthermore, they noticed another problem. There seemed to be some kind of special power around the swamp that made it impossible for anyone to fly across. Even if they tried to jump, the distance was severely restricted.

It seemed like their only choice was to walk on the surface of the water.

𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

The faces of quite a number of people turned pale as they looked at the pitch black water in front of them. Even though they were all elites from ancient colleges, it was uncommon for them to participate in such a dangerous mission.

One of the guys rallied up his courage and approached the water slowly. He stretched out his head to peer inside.

His face was faintly reflected in the pitch black water. Slowly, the student noticed that this reflection appeared to become clearer and closer.

Just as the student was finding it strange, the water's surface broke apart and a white figure shot out. It directly pounced onto the student's face and wrapped around it.

"Argh!"

The student gave a horrified scream as he hurriedly retreated. Everyone looked over anxiously. There was a layer of pale human skin covering his face. It seemed to be slowly corroding his flesh.

Just as the human skin was about to fuse with the student's face, a ray of light resonant energy shot towards him.

The human skin was scorched by the light energy. It fell off the student's face and attempted to escape in a hurry.

However, black arrows shot out and pinned it tightly onto the ground. It screamed and struggled frantically, but it could not break free. Feng Lingyuan stared at it coldly. "It seems like there are plenty of corrupted creatures in the water. If we walk across the surface, there'll likely be a lot of casualties."

Li Hongyou frowned a little. "But that seems to be our only option."

At this moment, Li Luo suddenly interrupted them. "Look! Something's happening to the Ancient Spirit Leaves."

Everyone's faces changed. They activated the Ancient Spirit Leaves on the back of their hands to check out the new message.

"Use the skin as a lantern and infuse light energy into it. You'll be able to cross the black swamp."

Li Luo fell into deep thought as he looked at his leaf. It seemed like the Ancient Spirit Leaves were using them as mediums to inspect their surroundings and provide them with possible solutions.

Behind the countless messages was likely an expert from the college that was analyzing their situation and assisting them.

Although the assistance was not direct, it would still help to prevent many unnecessary casualties.

The college was clearly trying their best to aid the students.

"Use skin as a lantern? Are we supposed to tear off our own skin?" Many students began discussing the newly obtained information.

"How's your skin going to help? I think it's referring to this thing over here." Duan Mu curled his lips a little. He pointed to the human skin that was struggling ferally as it was pinned onto the ground.

He stretched out his palm, and huge waves of resonant power surged up. The corruption in the human skin was erased when he activated his wood resonant power. The wood resonant power transformed into branches and stretched out the skin. After a while, it turned into a lantern.

The lantern made of pale human skin was extremely grotesque. There was still a blurry and twisted face on it, and it looked eerie from every angle.

"Infusing light energy into it must be referring to using your light resonant energy to power it."

Duan Mu's eyes turned towards the students from the Hallowed Coruscation Ancient College. When it came to people with light resonances, the Hallowed Coruscation Ancient College was definitely the top amongst all the ancient colleges.

"Let me give it a try," Yue Zhiyu said in a charming voice. She stepped up with her long legs. Her skin was white, and she captured everyone's attention in the cold atmosphere.

She stretched out her hand, and the human skin lantern flew over to her immediately. Next, holy resonant power poured into it.

A sharp noise exploded in the air when light resonant energy entered the lantern. There were pulses of holy energy, and the twisted face on the skin looked as though it was being exorcized. It let out a painful cry when horrifying, white lipids came into contact with the light resonant energy.

Soon after, everyone was shocked to see that a white flame had lit up within the lantern.

The white flame slowly extended to a radius of a few feet.

The chilly, white mist in the surroundings rapidly retreated from the range of the white flame.

"It's working!" Everyone was elated.

Boldly, Yue Zhiyu took a step onto the water surface with the lantern in her hand. When the lantern light shone onto it, the pitch black water turned a lot clearer. One could faintly see numerous white objects moving out of the way in the water, as if they were escaping from something.

Feng Lingyuan was surprised to see this as well. She never would've guessed that infusing light resonant energy into a corrupted human skin would keep the Others away.

However, she quickly noticed another problem. There was a limit to the range of the lantern. Based on her estimate, it could only keep five to six people safe.

But there were hundreds of them here.

Making human skin lanterns would not be too hard as they just needed to lure out and capture more human skin Others. However, the number of students with light resonances was a limiting factor.

It wouldn't be too big of an issue for the Hallowed Coruscation Ancient College. Apart from the ninth-grade light resonance of Yue Zhiyu, there were seven others with different grades.

Unfortunately, their side only had three people with light resonances.

Moreover, the strongest student out of these three was only a True Seal-grade.

This was clearly not enough to ensure that all the teams from the Heavenly Origin Ancient College made it across the swamp.

Duan Mu had also noticed the problem at this point. He turned towards her and said, "We do not have enough students with light resonances. If we force our way across, there may be a lot of casualties."

Top students like them would be able to protect themselves, but many other students likely wouldn't survive.

Deng Changbai suggested, "Why don't we borrow two students with light resonances from the Hallowed Coruscation Ancient College?"

Duan Mu pouted. "They may not be willing to lend. In such a place, having another lantern would mean another layer of security."

Everyone turned silent. Although both sides were cooperating, the significance of a light resonance was too great at the moment. Who would be willing to risk their own team's safety and lend them a light resonance user at this point?

"Wei Chonglou is likely to interfere if we ask," Li Hongyou said.

Feng Lingyuan looked over when she heard this. She noticed that Wei Chonglou was standing not too far. He was looking back at them playfully, as if he was waiting for them to look over.

Wei Chonglou had an argument with Li Luo earlier, and they all had stood on Li Luo's side. He would surely keep that in mind.

"Ahem."

As the team leaders were contemplating over things, a light cough came out. They turned around and saw Li Luo smiling at them.

"Everyone, if you need light resonance energy... I have that too."

He stretched out his fingers, and resonant energy gathered on his fingertips, forming a radiant ball of light.

The light was so dazzling that even the students from the Hallowed Coruscation Ancient College looked over in surprise.