Chapter 5 — From Ruins to the Dharma Lord's Throne

The two bright red lights in the darkness came closer, and with them came a heavy hissing sound that made the four people in the team take a step back in unison. When the last creature stepped out of the darkness, Dịch Phàm could clearly see its shape - a beast with a wolf-like body but three times larger, its skin covered with black scales as shiny as volcanic rock, from its mouth a thick, smoking black liquid oozed, corroding the stone floor where it dripped.

"Tà Lang Nham Giáp." Tuyết Nhi gritted her teeth, her voice tense. "A mid-level evil beast, sealed since an ancient war. It shouldn't appear in this area, the seal must have weakened over time."

The two remaining students on the team, even though they were second years in the Main Area, still couldn't hide their panic at the huge, deformed creature roaring in front of them. One of them quickly pulled out a small piece of spirit talisman.

"I will activate the distress signal immediately!"

"There's no time," Tuyết Nhi interrupted, her eyes never leaving the beast that was preparing to rush forward. "It has already discovered us. If we hesitate, we will all be in danger before reinforcements arrive."

True to her words, the Tà Lang Nham Giáp let out a resounding roar, then rushed straight towards the group with an incredible speed considering its massive size. Tuyết Nhi reacted immediately, swinging her arms out, a thick ice wall rose up between the team and the beast.

The impact caused the ice wall to shake violently, cracks spreading across the surface, but fortunately it was able to block the first attack. Tà Lang Nham Giáp growled, took a step back, then used his claws to scratch hard at the ice wall, causing it to shatter into thousands of sparkling pieces.

"You two, stay back and protect each other!" Tuyết Nhi shouted, summoning more sharp ice arrows to shoot continuously at the beast, but its black scales seemed immune to most attacks, leaving only a few shallow scratches on the surface.

Dịch Phàm stood next to her, feeling the Mixed Origin Spirit Root in his body reacting violently to the black, steaming liquid that the beast secreted - a disgusting, unclean feeling, as if it were the embodiment of pure evil. He suddenly remembered what Director Hầu Đạt Sơn once said: Mixed Spirit Root has the ability to purify evil spirits that no evil beast can resist.

"Tuyết Nhi, step back a bit, let me try," Dịch Phàm said, stepping forward.

"Are you crazy?" Tuyết Nhi shouted, but still backed away as he requested, her wary eyes never leaving the beast. "You still can't control your powers!"

"I know," Dịch Phàm replied, his voice strangely calm, even though his heart was trembling with tension. "But I can feel it. The evil energy in this beast's body, I can touch."

He closed his eyes for a brief moment, focusing his entire mind on the strange energy flowing through his veins. Unlike when he tried to summon fire or any single element, this time he let all five streams of energy blend together in a natural, unforced way, like water flowing into a hollow.

When Tà Lang Nham Giáp rushed forward for the second time, Dịch Phàm raised his hand and did not dodge. A burst of iridescent light burst from his palm, not as strong as the explosion during the awakening exam, but much more stable and focused. That beam of light touched the black scales of the beast, and immediately, the black streaks of evil energy began to disappear, turning into white smoke that rose and disappeared into the air.

The beast howled in pain and retreated, the scales where the iridescent light touched it turned light gray, losing its original black gloss. It growled, seemingly bewildered by this unprecedented power.

"Now!" Tuyết Nhi shouted, seizing the opportunity, waving her hands hard to summon a giant ice pillar that penetrated straight into the weakened body of the beast. The ice pillar hit the target, causing Tà Lang Nham Giáp to roar fiercely, his body writhing before falling to the stone floor, turning into a puddle of black ash that gradually disappeared with the wind.

Silence enveloped the ruined hallway for a few seconds, leaving only the group's panting sounds. The two students accompanying him stood frozen, their eyes still filled with fear and surprise.

The Wood spirit student hurriedly ran to check on everyone's condition, small clusters of glowing tree roots gently passed over each person to heal small scratches caused by ice splinters. "No one was seriously injured." He breathed a sigh of relief, his voice still shaking. "But... what just happened was truly beyond my imagination." Spiritual student Kim nodded in agreement, his eyes still in shock as he looked at Dịch Phàm. "I have read many records about the Mixed Origin Spirit Root in the academy library, but I never thought I would see it operating right before my eyes."

"You... what did you just do?" One of the two students stuttered and asked.

Tuyết Nhi regained her icy energy and turned to look at Dịch Phàm with complicated eyes - surprise, scrutiny, and something like reluctant admiration. "What did you just do to that beast? I have never seen evil energy purified in such a way."

Dịch Phàm panted, a feeling of exhaustion spread throughout his body after using energy in a way he had never tried before. "I'm not sure either. I just sensed the evil energy in its body, and tried to... remove it."

"That is the ability to purify evil spirits that the legend of Chaos Origin Spirit Root once mentioned," Tuyết Nhi said, her voice was low, her eyes looked at him as if she were seeing something completely new. "I used to think it was just an exaggerated legend. But today, I saw it with my own eyes." After calming down, the team continued their mission to survey the western area of the ruins, although much more cautious after the unexpected battle just now. They recorded the ancient formations left on the walls, noted the locations of cracks showing signs of weakened seals to report to the academy.

While searching a small corner of a room deep in the ruins - which seemed to have once been an important storage area based on the exquisite decorative patterns left on the wall - Dịch Phàm discovered a pile of rubble containing many metal fragments and precious stones, perhaps the remains of ancient artifacts that had been destroyed long ago.

"We should gather what we can bring back," Tuyết Nhi said, starting to carefully select the fragments that seemed to be the most intact, storing them in a specialized bag. "The academy will pay handsomely for artifacts that have research value."

Dịch Phàm also bent down and began searching through the ruins. His fingers slid through each fragment, until they touched something small, hard, and strangely warm compared to the cold pieces of stone around it. He picked it up, brushed off the thick layer of dust, and realized that it was a small piece of jade, the shape was incomplete as if it had been broken from a larger object, but on the surface was still clearly engraved with a strange mark that he had never seen before.

A warm feeling spread from the jade pendant all over his arm, then spread to his whole body, exactly like the feeling he had experienced when touching the stone wall engraved with the image of an ancient great war earlier — but this time stronger, clearer, as if this object was trying to tell him something.

"Dịch Phàm, what did you find?" Tuyết Nhi stepped closer and saw him standing motionless, his eyes fixed on the small object in his palm.

Dịch Phàm didn't answer right away, just tightened the jade pendant in his hand, feeling his heart beating faster in an inexplicable way. There was something about this object, an invisible connection that he couldn't explain in words, but he knew, without a doubt, that it was more important than any other artifact the team had collected today.

"I don't know," he finally said, his voice shaking slightly. "But I think... this might be what I've been looking for a long time, even though I don't even know what I'm looking for."

On the way back to the meeting point, the group of four students passed by another hallway, where the faint light of the protective formation still flickered on the wall. The leading spiritual student Kim suddenly stopped and pointed to a hidden corner. "Look, there's one more room we haven't surveyed yet."

"It's already late afternoon." Tuyết Nhi shook her head, glancing at the weak light shining through the gap in the ceiling of the ruins. "We should return before it gets dark. After the battle just now, I don't want to take any more risks. That room can be left for the next survey team." The group agreed, quickly packed their things and left the ruins before complete darkness covered the rocky valley. On the way back to the Tinh Quang plateau, Dịch Phàm sat quietly in the magic carriage, still clutching the piece of jade pendant, his mind filled with hundreds of thoughts about what he had just experienced, both about the life-and-death battle and about the strange feeling that the small object in his hand brought.