Leaving the Sanctum, Lin Sheng headed straight to the edge of Shermanton. There, the black mist was a lot thinner than that of Henricqal.
Under the dim gray sky, at the abandoned streets near the sea, Lin Sheng, Tenko Kasumi and the Night Lord had come to an abandoned site corroded by the black mist. The spot was a school.
The building was square with a field in the center, and basketball courts on the side. Under the classroom windows on all four sides of the school building had rusty red stains that looked like bloody tears flowing down the dark eyes. The ground was filled with grayish black mottles, with lime-like white stuff droppings everywhere.
“The density of the black mist here should be the lowest in this area,” said the Night Lord.
“How is it fair compared to the corrosive attack that happened to you last time?” asked Lin Sheng.
“Your memory is as good as mine. And I don’t have that detailed memory.” The Night Lord shook his head. He was just a combination of soul fragments and temporary souls, not the original body of the Night Lord. So his memory was not complete. What he could remember, Lin Sheng could. They had no difference in this regard.
So Lin Sheng decided to cut the cackle. He slowly moved forward, coming to the edge of the sports ground, stopping at the corner near the canteen. The black mist, less than one meter from him, looked like a high wall that surged and rolled in the air. Lin Sheng could barely make out the outlines of the scenery inside.
He looked up and around. Under the protection of the holy light force field, Shermanton was surrounded by towering dense black walls on all sides. Once the holy power was lifted, the entire Shermanton would be reduced to a ghost zone.
Without the protection of the holy light and with just the dragon scales on his skin, he extended his hand into the black mist, trying to feel it out. Very quickly, half of his arm was inside the surging black mist. A sensation of dripping his hand into icy water came to mind. Lin Sheng could feel an enormous amount of energy of not less than Six Wing attacking his hand on the dragon scales. The energy felt endless and enormous, seemingly possessing vitality. It did not just use brute-force corrosive attack. When it sensed that its corrosive method was not working, it changed its tactics, turning its energy into spikes, awls, drills and all. The black mist was determined to use various means to corrode Lin Sheng.
“The extreme limit of Six Wing! That’s scary!” Lin Sheng kept his hand there for ten minutes before pulling back out. Now he saw his hand was full of black tiny spots. But they were all on the surface. Lin Sheng summoned his strength, and the powerful holy power in his body blasted the black spots away.
“Non-Palatinates are not allowed here.” Lin Sheng instructed. He then tried various ways to fight the black mist. First, he used the special ability of the dragon blood, but it was useless. Then he used dark energy. It worked, but just barely. A hundred parts of dark energy could only resist one-part black mist of similar size and density. Chaotic soul power would simply nourish the black mist to make it even denser and stronger. At last, Lin Sheng tried the holy power. The one he had was higher in quality and intensity than the regular Palatinates. But even then, he spent slightly over two parts for one-part black mist.
“Holy moly! This is no joke. It’s damageability and corrodibility are just at the upper limit of Six Wing, but to destroy it, it needs two-part exhaustion for one-part black mist.”
Thinking of the sea of black mist, Lin Sheng started to feel powerless. Without the strength of the Palatinates, anyone entering the black mist could be contaminated any time. But Lin Sheng could probably survive for a long time in the black mist of this density—so long as he had not exhausted the holy power in his body.
“You two stay here. I’m going in to check it out.” Lin Sheng looked back at Tenko Kasumi and the Night Lord.
“Understood. Be careful,” Tenko Kasumi said with a yawn.
Lin Sheng turned around to face the wall of black mist and strode into it.
Black mist scraped past his face as if he had come into a vast blanket of icy cold vapor. Only a few steps into it, he had crossed the threshold into the real territory of black mist. Lin Sheng was the only one with a body glowing in white light in the entire gray school building. He was definitely the most eye-catching one.
“Where should I start?” Lin Sheng slowly left the sports field and came into the canteen where the black mist was equally thick. All he could see was blurry images. As soon as he entered, the first thing came into his vision were a few shadows dining at a table among the sea of silver dining tables. He upped his guard. Anyone who could still enjoy a meal in this canteen was not a normal living person.
Sure enough. Just as Lin Sheng got himself prepared, the few shadows got up and staggered toward him. Then, one came less than half a meter from him. Lin Sheng raised his leg and gave him a good kicking on its chest. He heard something cracking and the shadow fall-sitting on the floor with a deep dent in his chest, blackish, stinky body fluid oozing out from the wound all over the place. Strangely, the dent in the shadow’s chest healed and returned to normal. After that, the person staggered toward Lin Sheng again.
“He doesn’t seem to die!” Lin Sheng pointed at the person with his finger, shooting out a laser-like, pure-white holy light. As soon as the beam penetrated the head through the brow, white electric arcs spread on the shadow’s body. Soon, the shadow dropped back down and crumbled like a leaking cloth puppet.
“This time, it should do the job.” Lin Sheng looked at the corpse on the floor, waiting for a while. After knowing that it would no longer get up, he looked at the other shadows. “There are no black soul-power black threads. I will take a walk around Shermanton, then.”
Wasting no time, Lin Sheng walked out of the canteen. Starting from the abandoned street outside the school, he moved out at speed. He informed the Night Lord and Tenko Kasumi through telepathy and began to circle and patrol Shermanton.
He kept an eye on any lairs of dangerous monsters while trying to see how long he could stand in the black mist. Earlier estimations were just speculation. Once coming in person, he had to get rid of even the slightest danger.
Lin Sheng had thought of forcing his family to move. But once he was determined as the person who had brought about the Black Tide, leaving his family here would be safer than going to Henricqal. This was why he did not insist on bringing anyone to Miga.
After walking around Shermanton for a while and thinking there would not be any danger present, something suddenly caught his attention. He saw something eye-catching in front of an abandoned bakery.
