Chapter 003: The Statue

“Du Fan—”
A roar that was truly earth-shattering. Aldas’s combat energy burned fiercely, a mix of earthy yellow and silver light, surging upward to create waves of pressure. His originally blackish-white hair turned completely silver. If not for the traces of blood on his face, he would have been extremely handsome.

Waves of pressure radiated from Aldas. Several students from Roland Academy felt their bodies go weak under this pressure, as if they were flocks of sheep running across the grasslands and encountering fierce lions.

Aldas waved his hand again, causing the blade in his hand to grow several feet longer. The angrier he became, the calmer his mind stayed. His blazing combat energy rushed forward with his swing, hitting the transparent wall.

“Boom!” A loud explosion echoed. The defensive magic “Crystal Wall,” created using several magic scrolls, developed cracks on its surface before finally disappearing with a soft shake.

Du Fan, who was running through the bushes, suddenly stopped. He opened his mouth slightly and spat out a mouthful of blood, his face turning extremely pale.

Frowning, Du Fan took out the last bottle of holy water from his storage ring and poured it into his mouth without looking. After a while, once the holy water had spread throughout his body, he sighed lightly. “This Aldas is actually this powerful. I really underestimated him.”

Recalling how he had pretended to be something special in front of such a person, even Du Fan, who was usually bold, couldn’t help but break into a cold sweat.

After staying in the forest for a while, faint voices came from deep within the jungle. Finally, Feray appeared before Du Fan. Seeing Du Fan’s pale face, he exclaimed in shock, “Lord Du Fan, what’s wrong with you?”

Du Fan waved his hand. “I’m fine. It’s just that the magic array I set up was destroyed, so I suffered a mental shock. As for you, have you prepared everything I asked you to?”

Feray nodded. “Everything is ready. But can those things really deal with the people from Roland Academy? Even I could sense what that pressure represented just now.”

Du Fan smiled gently and said, “Feyre, you need to understand one thing: in the face of absolute power, all wisdom and skill, all schemes and tricks, appear utterly powerless. But when we’re not facing absolute power, wisdom, skill, schemes, and tricks are often far more important than force.”
Feyre nodded thoughtfully, though it was unclear whether he truly understood.
Du Fan looked at him with a smile and said, “Feyre, your strength is much greater than mine. Anything I can do, you can do as well. It’s just that you often don’t put in enough effort. If you get the chance in the future, take some time to reflect on what I’ve said now—it might be of some help to your future achievements.”
Feyre murmured “Hmm” and was about to say something, but his expression changed suddenly.
Du Fan’s face also turned grim instantly. He clapped his hands and sighed, “I didn’t expect them to be this fast. I underestimated Aldas after all. Feyre, go to the lake now and make final preparations. As for this side, let me handle it.”
Feyre opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but after being glared at by Du Fan, he dared say nothing and quickly retreated.
Du Fan watched his retreating figure and sighed again. After a moment, he took out a crossbow arrow and a small tube of arrows from his storage ring. After hesitating for a while, he took out a small bottle of black liquid. Gently opening the cap, a faint fragrance spread from the bottle.
Yet Du Fan knew that this scented black liquid was the Corpse Rot Poison carefully prepared by Chenchen. It was said that once it touched flesh, within seconds, that flesh would turn to air. It was somewhat ridiculous for a holy and noble priest like Du Fan to use such a sinister and vicious substance. However, how devout his faith really was was doubtful, so he had no qualms about using this poison.
That bastard swindler even dared to target the Holy Church—what else wouldn’t he dare to do?
Burying the bottle in the soil, Du Fan stuffed all the arrows into the bottle’s opening. After glancing around a few times, he slowly drew out his Phantom Wand. The small and exquisite wand was waved in the air for a moment, and after Du Fan recited several long and complex magic spells, the poison in the small bottle began to boil, then adhered to the tips of the arrows.

Du Fan was very satisfied with this outcome. He stuffed all the arrows back into the quiver at his side, then jumped onto a nearby tree and took a fighting stance, a shadow passing through his eyes for a moment. After a while, he suddenly smiled lightly, his laughter filled with endless mockery: “It’s about time… for it to happen, isn’t it?”

Oldas’s mood was as gloomy as the sky above him. Although they had finally entered the valley and reached the dense forest within after breaking through several of Du Fan’s magic arrays, he felt no joy at all. Though he knew that crossing this forest and stepping onto the blue-brick path would lead them to the solemn and majestic divine palace, he was even more aware that compared to his first visit, the path that could once be crossed in an instant was now countless times more difficult.

What worried him the most was that, despite trying his best, he couldn’t sense the presence of anyone else in this valley. Right now, he wasn’t afraid of others—he was afraid that the people of the Holy Church might have already entered the palace, just as that bastard Du Fan had said. Although the palace wasn’t easy to enter, the Holy Church had countless talented people, and Saint Nicholas was extremely mysterious—who knew what divine powers he possessed? All of this made things even more confusing, yet here he was, forced to play a game of cat and mouse in this forest.

At the thought of this, Oldas grew even angrier. Just then, cries of alarm came from afar. With a casual wave of his hand, he blocked off the barrage of arrows shooting toward the group. Glancing angrily in the direction from which the arrows came, Oldas cursed inwardly. He knew there was definitely no one there. Along the way, that damned Du Fan had already shown him what real traps looked like.

Turning to look at the people behind him, Oldas couldn’t help but sigh slightly. Though they were all elites among elites, they were still too inexperienced and lacked combat skills. Several of them had already been killed by Du Fan’s magical attacks, and along the way, several more had fallen into traps due to carelessness.

Although those low-level traps weren’t inherently terrifying, falling victim to one of them would cause the person to collapse on the spot. With Oldas’s keen eyes, he could immediately see that the true danger of those traps lay in the various strange poisons attached to them. Even someone as experienced as him couldn’t recognize more than a fraction of those poisons, let alone know how to counter them.

To make matters worse, in order to hurry along, he hadn’t brought any divine mages or even any magi this time. After all, those who were poisoned had no other choice but death.

Thinking of this, Oldas grew even more resentful toward Du Fan. The usually graceful and refined man had cursed Du Fan countless times in his mind. Unfortunately, having been raised under strict discipline since childhood, Oldas didn’t even know how to curse properly. After repeating those curses dozens of times, he not only failed to kill Du Fan but also ended up confusing himself.

“Senior…” Kris, who was walking ahead, frowned and glanced back at Oldas, not knowing what to say.

Oldas glanced over and saw several stones placed in the dense forest, their shapes and postures eerily lifelike. But when he got a closer look at what appeared to be heads, he was almost driven mad with anger.

On those two stones was Oldas’s face on one and Emily’s face on the other, both in the exact pose Emily had used when she pushed Du Fan down. That pose had been widely known in the streets and alleys of the capital for so long that Oldas naturally recognized it.

Just one glance made his chest ache. Discarding all his years of grace and composure, Oldas didn’t hesitate—swinging his long sword, he unleashed his combat energy to shatter the stones into powder.

But with his strike came a series of “crackling” sounds from all around. The people from Roland Academy paled and looked in that direction.

This time, wooden frames emerged from all sides, each equipped with chaotic, random blades, making it impossible to figure out how to defend against them.

With just one glance, everyone’s faces turned pale.