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"So… what's the plan from here on out?" Ming Hao asked everyone. "We lost our leader already… do we still keep going?"

"That wouldn't be very wise, would it?" Si Ye said, folding her arms. "It is clear the Grey Scourge has already reached here. If we were so easily tricked and trapped by just the beginning of it, if we were to go deeper…"

"But if we fled now, our families' honor would be tainted," Long Lu argued.

"We are all young mages," someone else added — a boy with a pretty cool looking purple armor set. "If even the Ming Family's elder was killed, they won't blame us for running away from an unwinnable fight."

"That sounds good and all, but…" I stood up from the ground. "Do we even have an escape route?"

At this, everyone fell silent, so I continued.

"The spell that the elder used to bring us all here was a Level Three one, but it had been upgraded twice using Upgrade Runes — meaning its power was on par with a Mythic-Tier spell. None of us here are able to do that."

"We could make many small portals, I suppose…?" A girl suggested timidly.

"No, that won't work," Obsidia cut in. "Warp gates are based on the theory of ley lines — hidden connections beneath the planet's surface that link the world together. However, if we use portals in one place too many times, it will cause the ley lines there to become unstable, thus rendering it unusable for a long time."

"In conclusion," I continued, taking it from there. "If we all want to go home, that's a no go."

"What about a Conjoined Release…?" Si Ye said. "That could work, no?"

"Theory-wise, yes," Mei Gui said thoughtfully. "However…"

"How many of us here actually have a Space Element affinity?" I asked everyone. "Raise up your hand if you do."

As expected, only a couple hands went up — 3 or 4 at most.

"Yeah… that's definitely not enough for a Conjoined Release," Ming Hao laughed, slightly self-depreciatingly. "So we're essentially stuck here, huh? There's no signal out here in the wild, and no sylphjays either."

"If we try to run, the Grey Scourge will most likely outrun us," Feng Mian added. "In other words, we're really left with only one chance — to fight it."

"…" The crowd fell silent, knowing what this meant. However, no one complained and threw a tantrum, which saved me quite the headache. It seemed these 'young masters' were different from the ones in Shenzhen. These ones were far more mature.

"Well, in that case, there's no time to waste," Ming Hao declared, standing up straight. "We should start by investigating the next village… ah, what's it called again?"

"Taelis," Long Yi said. "It is not far from here."

Since she hadn't been affected by the fog, she was able to remember the name clearly.

"Alright, anyone with Sky Magic, go ahead and see if you can spot it from up there," Ming Hao continued.

"Obsidia, Lin Luo, go," I instructed quietly. The two didn't like obeying my orders like this, but did so anyway.

*****

Shortly after, our scouts returned. Everyone gathered in the middle of the village again to discuss their findings.

"So? What did you find?" Long Lu asked.

Ming Hao, who had been leading the scout party in the sky, scratched his head a bit.

"Hm… well, it's complicated."

"Complicated?"

"Yeah. There's a nice forest right outside this village, but as we went further, the forest became desolate and barren. We saw another mountain beyond this one, and that should be where Taelis Village is, but I have no idea how we're going to get across the canyon in between."

"The villages must be able to access one another somehow," Feng Mian analyzed. "Are you sure there was nothing to connect them?"

"Maybe there was, but we couldn't see it even if there was," Ming Hao replied. "There was this thick blanket of fog preventing us from getting an exact view on what was below. We tried descending below the fog, but that ended up taking us right at tree-height, which rendered a bird's eye view useless."

Hm… but when Mei Gui and I were in the forest, we didn't see any fog above us… is this entire area an illusion, perhaps?

[Not quite,] Mei Gui interrupted in my mind.

[Woah… scared me there.]

[My apologies, Master, but my assumption is that this place is a fake 'oasis' of sorts.]

[An oasis…?]

[Yes. Imagine this mountain as a desert — the dead trees, desolate land, and such. This village and the forest surrounding it would be akin to an oasis — except that it is fake.]

[But if it's fake, how did we absorb mana from the forest…?]

[Like I said, it is not completely an illusion either. Think of it as if all the lifeforce this 'Grey Scourge' took away has been put into this oasis, providing it life within this wasteland.]

[I see… so this 'Grey Scourge' has powers over life and death?]

[It would seem so.]

"Well… if we can't see it from the sky, looks like we'll have to go investigate ourselves," Long Lu said, standing up. "Let's go."

In everyone's mind, the competition of who could 'contribute' the most was long gone. They weren't separate teams anymore. They were one large group with one common goal:

Survival.

*****

It didn't take long for us to reach the border of the 'living' forest. Beyond it was a desolate land of waste and ash. Burnt trees lay charred, blown away by the harsh wind, and the temperature evidently dropped by about 10 degrees.

The harsh wind blew against our faces, cold and stingy. Everywhere we looked, we could only find greyness, made hazy by the thick fog. Whatever the hell this thing was… it was truly worthy of the name 'Grey Scourge'.

It was like two separate worlds, the village and this. It was hard to believe such two different biomes could exist side by side; one of life and one of death.

"Well… I don't know about you, but that doesn't exactly look welcoming," Ming Hao said with an awkward laugh.

"It doesn't, but… we have to go through this if we want to survive," Si Ye muttered.

"So it's either death now or wait for death, huh?" The boy with purple armor from earlier chuckled. "I'm in."

"Calm down," Long Lu said. "Just stick together and watch all directions. But first… sister-"

"I know."

Long Yi raised her hand and tenderly edged closer to the border of the living forest, then reached out just enough so that her hand was in the grey world outside.

After closing her eyes for several seconds, she relaxed her hand and opened them again.

"No poison."

Ah, so that's what she was doing… she has a Poison Element affinity too, huh?

Long Lu nodded and stepped out first with his team. Ming Hao was second, Si Ye third, and the other teams steadily followed. As for my team, we took last as usual.

Stepping outside the forest, we were all immediately washed over by a horrible sense of dread. A deep, utterly terrifying coldness, seeping through our skins. It was as if many bony hands had wormed their ways into our bodies and were now gripping our skeletons — that kind of bone-chilling feeling.

"Based on what you saw in the sky… how long do we have to walk until we reach the next mountain?" Long Lu asked.

"WHAT?" Ming Hao asked back in a loud tone. Because the wind was so strong, whizzing past our ears, we could barely hear one another even though we were practically right next to each other.

"HE SAID, HOW LONG DO WE HAVE TO WALK?" The purple-armored boy explained helpfully.

"OH, UH… LIKE, A COUPLE OF KILOMETERS?"

"A couple of kilometers in this environment…" Long Lu muttered.

Are you guys doing okay? I asked the girls using telepathy. It has been scientically proven that women are more sensitive to the cold than men, hence why I was asking this.

Yeah… feels a bit cold and creepy, but that's about it… Feng Mian replied.

I'm okay, Master.

The other two didn't respond, but they probably would've said something along the same lines.

"…"

After some thought, I wrapped my arm around Feng Mian and Mei Gui, who flinched and stared up at me in surprise. I hurriedly explained.

If we do this, it'll feel better for all of us. Might as well.

Feng Mian blushed and accepted my embrace, hugging me back. Mei Gui did the same, clutching onto me tightly.

On the other hand… Obsidia and Lin Luo just looked at me with an inexplainable emotion, so I decided to tease them a bit.

What? Jealous?

Rather than immediately deny it like I expected them to, however, they merely snorted and looked away, not even bothering to give me a response.

Well, that's cold. But not as cold as this harsh environment…

After some debate, I took off my cloak and tossed it over to Lin Luo, who caught it by surprise and looked at me in confusion.

Dragons don't need to worry about being cold since they are literal living furnaces, but you're different. Wrap my cloak around you if you don't want to freeze.

… Why would I want to wrap your clothes around me? Disgusting, Lin Luo shot back, eyeing me in disdain.

Take it or leave it. It's your health, not mine.

"…" Lin Luo glanced at the cloak in her hands, then blushed and turned away from me before reluctantly slipping it on.

I smirked. Couldn't resist in the end, huh?

S-Shut up.