Without warning, the giant glowing crystal started to descend from the darkness above. It threw dazzling light around the dark battlefield as it descending slowly downwards, eventually hitting the ground with a resounding thud.

Everyone stared at it quizzically.

The crystal embedded in the ground was far larger than it had seemed up in the air – about twenty people would need to link hands to surround it once. The translucent white walls pulsed gently with light.

The light and warmth it gave off were two things that were incredibly inviting to all the monsters in the mausoleum.

The crowd buzzed.

"What does this mean?"

"Wasn't the crystal up in the sky because it was some sort of a lure for the monsters?"

"That means it is bad that it came down, now, right?"

"Yeah – the reason we came here in the first case is because the light from the crystal seems to repel the black fog somewhat. If the crystal gets attacked by monsters and gets destroyed, our line of sight will shrink from 1000 meters back to 200 meters. We will be seriously screwed!"

The crowd's anxiety spiked.

"What do we do?"

The repelling effect of the crystal allowed the disciples a large s.p.a.ce to coordinate fighting as a group. If their vision was restricted to only 200 meters, they would lose the protection of the wider group of partic.i.p.ants. Weaker battalions would be picked off by the monster waves easily!

Meanwhile, Van was staring at the crystal with a scheming look in his eyes. He didn't know exactly what it did apart from make light and lure monsters, but he still wanted a piece. His poor villager mentality arose once more – letting a treasure go was akin to pulling teeth.

If only it weren't so big, he might have tried to lug it away!

[I could give a nice polished piece to Finn. She can use it as a bedside night-light when she comes to live with me!]

Van's fingers itched. He wondered if his axe would be able to chip a piece off.

A familiar voice suddenly spoke up.

"Congratulations on reaching the fifth wave. This is the first checkpoint of the Monster Mausoleum and as such the difficulty is higher by a level."

The voice paused, but to Van's surprise continued:

"Humanity has survived til this day by standing together in times of darkness. It is Our desire to see this admirable tenacity once more. The first wave will arrive in fifteen minutes. Do not disappoint Us."

With that cryptic message, the ghostly voice faded away. It was the longest it had ever addressed the partic.i.p.ants.

Van mulled over its words. The clearest meaning that he had cleaned was that it wished for them to 'stand together in times of darkness.'

Van inspected the light-giving crystal with his eyes once more before understanding dawned.

[The goal of this round is to protect the crystal! Not only that, the voice is implying that 'humanity' or all of us regardless from what sect we are from, must cooperate to do so. Without the crystal, we will really descend into 'darkness.']

Van cleared his throat and stepped forwards.

Heads swiveled his way.

"The voice is telling us that the only way to pa.s.s this round is for all of us to cooperate and protect the crystal. We are the 'humanity' that must 'stand together' to protect the light and prevent darkness from falling.'"

When Van finished talking, he saw nods of agreement from the listeners. They felt that he had really hit the important points of what the voice had been saying.

"You are saying that the Mausoleum wants us to fight alongside each other? I'd rather fight alongside a donkey than fight with you!" a high-pitched peal of laughter rang through the air. A young dark-haired girl with a contemptuous look on her face emerged from the crowd.

[A donkey, huh?]

Van's face twitched with a not-quite-there smile, "Cordelia," He said softly.

Cordelia's eyes flashed.

"If we cooperate, then I am to be the leader of this coalition!" She snapped.

Daphne flicked her eyes over to the side, "We will be the leaders of the coalition, you mean, sister."

Cordelia was unperturbed. She waved her hands, "Of course!"

Van was smiling serenely.

Cordelia had expected him to fly into a rage, but his serene smiling face p.i.s.sed her off even more than if he had.

"Well? Say something!" She pushed. Her face was serious.

Van shook his head.

 "No," he said while picking his ears.

No!?

Cordelia felt so angry she might puke.

"You don't think the person with the highest cultivation here should lead the defense of the crystal in this round?"

She spread her arms out, addressing the crowd. Obviously, she was referring to herself as 'the person with the highest cultivation' on the battlefield.

Van just smirked.

"Highest cultivation doesn't mean highest skill."

Cordelia laughed coldly, "You think you have the highest skill here?"

Suddenly her aura surged outwards. An invisible wind whipped the robes of the gathered partic.i.p.ants, pressuring them with the weight of her rank of the 7th level of Qi Distillation and her incredible innate skill with the wind element. The disciples in the lower ranks turned pale as her power threatened to cause internal injuries.

At the center of this wind blast, Cordelia and Daphne stood with matching cold faces.

The pale-faced disciples who looked at them with reverence in their eyes. That aura was too powerful! If Cordelia was that strong, her twin would be at least on par with her. The Zephyr Sect had too much firepower in this battlefield!

Despite the admiration in some of their eyes, Cordelia was unsatisfied.

Why?

Because in the outer edges of the cleared zone, Van was standing there serenely, completely unruffled by her aura! It had to be known that the previous top outer disciple of her sect had p.i.s.sed their pants when she unleashed her full aura.

Cordelia grit her teeth.

Ever since she had established herself as the top dog in the Zephyr Sect's outer court, she and her sister had been praised up and down by their tutors and their Aunt. They were idolized by all the disciples in their generation. Van was the first person their age with similar cultivation, who dared to talk back to them and not give them any face!

While Van appeared calm, his eyes were more serious than before.

[Her strength is indeed abnormal for the 7th rank. On her own, she is already powerful, but she has a twin sister too. This could become a big problem if her twin is anywhere near her level.]

Van stared at Cordelia with calculations running through his mind.

[If I have to fight them together… I might lose!]

The gathered partic.i.p.ants looked at each other to gauge the situation. Eventually, they agreed - It seemed that the best idea was to go along with Cordelia and Daphne as the leaders of the defense fifth monster wave! They had a simple line of reasoning: Two 7th rankers were definitely better than just one!

Van did not say anything but the glint in his eyes said it all: he was not satisfied with this result.

The more cautious and detailed-oriented partic.i.p.ants who inspected the Cedar Sect's battalions and the Zephyr Sect's battalions at that moment were astonished.

There had yet to be a single loss for the Cedar Sect!?

 The person who counted the disciple numbers rubbed their eyes and counted again. However, they received the same result – all fifty disciples, which were made of five battalions of ten - were still present. In contrast, the Zephyr Sect had 35 disciples remaining in their five battalions.

They immediately felt consternation. The twins of the Zephyr Sect might be powerful… but this red-haired youth had yet to let a single Cedar Sect member be eliminated!

These people were conflicted yet they did not act in fear of offending the twins,' who seemed like they would abuse the ones who did not agree with them.

Fifteen minutes pa.s.sed. During this time, the battalions of the various groups arranged themselves to surround the large glowing crystal. Cordelia and Daphne were stationed on one side of the crystal, with Van and the Cedar Sect covering the other half of the crystal.

Neither party really wanted to interact with each other more than necessary. However, Cordelia and Daphne were still 'in charge' of all the battalions. 

Next to him, Johnathon tensed.

"They're coming!" he said urgently.

Van nodded, trusting Johnathon's extremely sensitive hearing.

Sure enough, a few tens of seconds later, sleek dark shadows bounded into the open s.p.a.ce.

With yellow eyes and gleaming sharp canines, these panther-looking demon beasts were in the 5th rank. If they were able to coordinate an attack then a group of them would easily take down a partic.i.p.ant in the 6th rank. It was lucky that these demon beasts did not seem inclined to make combined attacks.

The battlefield quickly started to get noisy as the disciples battled against enemies that were in the same rank as them for the first time.

SCREEEECH!

Van looked up and saw an enormous silver bird with a giant wingspan gliding through the sky. When it screeched, the soundwaves that travelled through the air sent vibrations that rattled your ribcage.

With curved metal talons and beak, the Silver Cutter Eagle was an intimidating 7th rank beast. 

Van looked up at the giant silver bird with greed in his eyes.

[Free points!]

However, the Silver Cutter Eagle did not pay Van any attention.

Screams echoed through the battlefield as the Silver Cutter Eagle swooped in and eliminated disciples as if it were picking out tasty worms from the soil. While the panther demon beasts focused mobbing battalions, the Silver Cutter Eagle simply chose a disciple to eliminate before swooping in.

Weng! Weng! Weng!

"Another one bites the dust," Van said, chuckling to himself.

He threw a smirk at the twins in the distance. 

"Partic.i.p.ants are being eliminated because of your inattention - what will you do!?"