Chapter 1163 371: The Out-of-Control Divine Hall

Just at that moment.

The blood-red light pillar from the distant temple suddenly twisted.

Emitting a sharp cry akin to a baby's wail.

The clouds in the sky began to rotate in a way defying the laws of physics, forming a gigantic vortex, as if heralding some event.

The night rain had ceased, but the air remained damp and chilly.

It felt as though the entire mountain was shrouded in an invisible woe. In the distance, the towering temple stood amidst the city, its spire piercing the lead-gray sky like a massive gravestone. The night wind was fierce, blowing Ian's dark robe. He stood atop a solitary peak outside the city, gazing down at the city submerged in darkness.

Occasional moonlight broke through gaps in the clouds, illuminating the sporadic bloodstains and overturned coffin remnants on the streets.

"It's time to end this."

Ian murmured softly, his voice calm yet cutting as a blade. His eyes cast on the silhouette of the distant building, no longer doubting, only decisive.

"This chaos, woven by arrogant priests and ancient evils, cannot continue." Ian still remembered that he initially came to this era merely to find the materials that Female Titan Claire asked him to locate. Heaven knows why he hadn't found the Eye of the Ra yet, and now he was embroiled in the local "crisis."

Ian didn't have the nerve to watch an entire city perish before him. He could sense that what the temple was brewing might not just be the demise of an entire city.

It might even be all of Ancient Egypt.

Ian didn't know if this was true history, but he felt he wasn't entirely cold-hearted, thus intending to find a way to address the city's impending problem.

"Are you heading to the temple? I... I want to go with you." Cam stood a few steps behind him, face pale, hands clenched tightly around his magic wand, his voice trembling.

Ian slowly turned around, his gaze falling on him.

That gaze was deep as an abyss, seemingly piercing through Cam's fear and anxiety, directly into the depths of his soul. He didn't immediately respond, merely gazing quietly at this once-cowardly, once-hesitant young man who now resolutely moved forward.

A moment later, Ian nodded slightly: "You are no longer that fugitive hiding in the alleyway."

He raised his hand, his magic wand lightly swaying: "Hold onto me."

Without hesitation, Cam reached out and grabbed Ian's arm.

"Apparition!"

The space suddenly warped, light and shadow tore apart, and their figures vanished instantly from the mountaintop. The next moment, they appeared in a barren stone plaza — the edge of the forbidden area south of the temple. This plaza was once used for purification rituals before sacrificing, now overrun with cracks and charred rune arrays, the air heavy with residual magic.

Ian steadied himself, surveyed his surroundings. He attempted to cast Apparition again, his wand lightly tapping the void, murmuring a spell. Yet, the space merely rippled weakly.

As if crashing against an invisible barrier did it disperse.

"As expected." He said coldly, "The core area of the temple is sealed by the 'Space Anchoring Barrier,' any teleportation magic is unable to penetrate. We must walk in."

This wasn't actually Ian's predetermined destination for Apparition because, after all, he had already entered the temple before, logically he should have been able to directly Phantom Shift inside.

However.

He stopped at this location, clearly, there was some magic within the temple preventing wizards from Phantom Shifting inside, and it was a magic capable of hindering even a Legendary Wizard's casting.

As an ancient temple, it indeed held considerable depths. The wind arose, kicking up dust and sand. The two stood side-by-side, took their first steps toward the temple.

The cold wind cut like a knife, splitting the air, emitting sharp whistles. Above the night sky, the aurora danced like ribbons, the vortex spun enigmatically, mirrored on the boundless expanse.

Emitting a deep and eerie faint light.

Ian and Cam's figures were small and solitary against the night backdrop.

"Do you really intend to venture into the temple alone?"

Cam's gaze never left Ian. Watching this companion encountered by chance, his eyes held not merely reverence but something akin to worship.

"Of course."

Ian nodded in response.

They had already crossed a street, arriving at the street where the temple was located.

"We're here."

Ian murmured, his gaze sharp as a blade, surveying ahead.

Cam's face was pale, his body trembled slightly.

It wasn't fear, but sorrow—because he had seen, before the temple's grand gate on the plaza, the sprawled corpses of dozens.

Some wore Dusk Hermit Association's gray robes, others the temple priests' white-gold robes. The foul wind carried a scent of blood, hitting their faces, and when Ian's boot landed on the temple steps it made a sticky sound. Those dark red liquids had already congealed into gelatinous masses, each step felt like treading on some giant creature's tongue.

"Those are… those are our people!"

Cam rushed forward suddenly, kneeling next to the corpse of a young wizard. That person still held a magic wand, eyes wide open, black blood dribbling from the mouth, with a ritual dagger buried in the chest — a suicide.

"I know him, he was a good person."

Cam used his trembling hands to close the eyelids of a corpse — a young man in gray robes, with smoked edges around the blood hole at the temple still exhaling smoke.

"These people were good people, they would rather cast magic upon themselves... "Cam's choked voice was fragmented in the wind, "than become... that kind of thing..."

"Even if his magic wand was destroyed, my companion would rather slit his own throat... those damn traitors!" The young Hermit Association member's hoarse voice, with fingers still stained with his companion's fresh blood, "By Ra, what could they have seen to make even the bravest warriors choose self-extinction?"