All Caught in One Net!
"Why did everything go dark??"
"It's the middle of the night — it was already dark!"
"No, no — why can't I see even a sliver of light anymore..."
"You might be right. Strange — my Star Motes are completely unsettled, they won't respond to Control at all!"
Under the grip of Night's Dominion, the chaotic students finally realized they had been plunged into a deeply sinister domain.
This was a realm of pure darkness. Not a single point of light was visible in the distance, yet within a certain range, one could still make out nearby targets. It was as though invisible black walls had penned each person into their own tiny, separate chamber — those inside a chamber could see clearly enough, but whatever lay beyond its walls was utterly unknown.
The chaotic battlefield was swiftly divided by Night's Dominion. In that moment, those who had been locked in bitter feuds suddenly understood: in this pitch-black labyrinth, if the Shadow Demon-Beast were spirited away, no one would ever be the wiser.
"Don't panic. This is a large spell formation the school set up long in advance. If I'm not mistaken, this is the high-grade Shadow Element spell amplified countless times over — Night's Dominion. It is an extraordinarily powerful dark magic that transforms the entire battlefield into a dark labyrinth. All non-dark creatures within the field will have their strength suppressed to varying degrees, and a significant portion of their combat power will be diminished. I imagine the school deployed it because they feared those capable of Releasing Intermediate-level magic would cause serious casualties in the chaos," said Song Xia, standing alongside Bai Cangfeng.
Song Xia was among the most powerful of the new students. Among the female Mages, only she could hold her own against Mu Nujiao in a direct contest.
Bai Cangfeng and the others settled down somewhat. But the moment he thought about how the Shadow Demon-Beast might be stolen under cover of this pitch-black formation, his anxiety surged right back. "So how do we find the Shadow Demon-Beast?" he asked.
"When Mo Fan tossed the Shadow Demon-Beast to you, I managed to slip a magic brand onto it. Follow me and we'll find it," Song Xia said.
"Ha! As expected of our brilliant Miss Song — this time, the Shadow Demon-Beast is as good as ours!"
No one wanted a chaotic free-for-all — in a brawl, who ended up with the prize was anyone's guess. But inside Night's Dominion's dark battlefield, each student could fight at their individual best: no cheap shots from the shadows, no risk of being swarmed. So as long as they found the Shadow Demon-Beast and reached the Beast-Taming Cage, the mission was as good as complete.
"Damn that Mo Fan — he'd better hope I don't get my hands on him, or I'll stomp him flat!" Shen Mingxiao snarled from somewhere in the darkness, his face tight with fury.
Beside him, Luo Song was grinding his teeth at the mere thought.
They'd had victory all but secured — or so they'd thought. Now everything had gone sideways, and they didn't even know where the Shadow Demon-Beast was.
"God, what is that smell? Does anyone else smell something? Like absolute cr—"
"I smell it too — ugh, what kind of monster..."
"What monster? You've completely lost it."
"No, I really did see something — looked like some crawling thing with a monkey-ghost face."
...
Darkness blanketed everything. Mo Fan hadn't moved a single step from where he stood.
The Shadow Demon-Beast had already vanished, and this battlefield had been carved into an endless labyrinth of dark chambers...
He had to admit — Night's Dominion was an enormous convenience for the Black Church.
But there was no way Mo Fan was letting them have their way.
This Night's Dominion formation gave the Black Church's agents a protective cover, yes. But it was also a massive dark prison.
Tonight, not a single one of them was walking out of here alive.
For most people, Night's Dominion was a smothering shroud, a suppressive seal that gutted their combat effectiveness. But as a man who wielded the Shadow Element, Mo Fan wasn't suppressed in the slightest — the spell gave him boundless freedom of movement.
What was an impassable wall of darkness for everyone else was Mo Fan's most convenient doorway. With Shadow Fade, he could pass freely through the entire Night's Dominion labyrinth at will.
Mo Fan knew perfectly well that the Black Church's top priority would be the Shadow Demon-Beast. Finding it first was now the most urgent task.
Fortunately, he had already left a mark on it.
He had never actually thrown the Loach Pendant — the one that had absorbed the Earth Sacred Spring water — into the Shadow Demon-Beast's belly. He had simply coaxed the pendant into releasing a single tiny drop of Earth Sacred Spring essence.
As long as that scent lingered, the Black Church would inevitably make their move. The bait had done its work, the net was fully cast, and the school had gone ahead and built this enormous dark cage to trap them all inside... The Black Church, confident under their cover, would gradually peel away their masks and reveal their true faces.
The moment they were exposed, Mo Fan would cut them down on the spot without hesitation.
"Little Loach, it's up to you now — help me find the Shadow Demon-Beast," Mo Fan murmured to the pendant resting against his chest.
The Loach Pendant possessed a remarkable degree of spiritual awareness and could sense its master's intent. A faint glow slowly kindled within it — like starlight softly drawing back the curtain of a pitch-black night.
The glow was dim, but as Mo Fan moved, it steadily brightened... and when he moved in the wrong direction, it faded again.
*The closer I get to the Shadow Demon-Beast, the brighter it glows — and dimmer when I pull away?* He grasped the trick of it almost immediately, and had to resist the urge to plant a grateful kiss on the miraculous little pendant.
Of course, if Mo Fan had known the Loach Pendant was only being so helpful because it couldn't bear to waste a single precious drop of Earth Sacred Spring water, he probably wouldn't find the little thing quite so remarkable.
Guided by the Loach Pendant's light, Mo Fan set out to find the Shadow Demon-Beast.
The labyrinth walls were nothing but scenery to him; he slipped through them effortlessly. Finding the Shadow Demon-Beast should have been simple.
*Strange — why does the direction keep changing?* He frowned at the flickering pendant, a creeping unease settling over him.
He pressed on. But then the Shadow Demon-Beast's direction shifted again.
Mo Fan stopped and held perfectly still, trying to reacquire the target...
And yet the Loach Pendant's glow was brightening on its own, growing stronger with every passing moment.
*I haven't moved at all — so why is it getting brighter?*
**Whoosh.**
A grey streak flashed past him — a leopard-shaped creature barely visible as anything more than a blur, yet the light blazing from its tail was startlingly vivid against the gloom.
"What the — wasn't it tied up?!" Mo Fan's jaw dropped as he watched the Shadow Demon-Beast sprint away, moving far faster than any Gloom Wolf Beast he'd ever seen.
The Shadow Demon-Beast had broken free of its bonds and was already bolting through the labyrinth on its own!
**"Guu-guu-guu~~~~~~~ guu-guu-guu~~~~~~~~~~"**
Moments later, a chorus of eerie calls echoed through the dark — a sound Mo Fan knew all too well.
Black-Beast Demons.
The Black Church had summoned their Black-Beast Demons and were running the Shadow Demon-Beast down in a pack.
No wonder it was sprinting so desperately — it had a horde of reeking monsters on its heels.
"Looks like all I need to do is follow the Shadow Demon-Beast, and I'll catch every last one of them in one sweep!" Mo Fan pressed himself against a labyrinth wall, a cold smile spreading across his face.