The look on Inke"s face suddenly changed when he heard the voice of the high priest. He took a step sideward and looked at Aska.
Inke was suggesting that it was Aska who made the trouble, and meanwhile was trying to keep the distance between them.
Aska, or Lucien, in fact, caused the conflict on purpose. Lucien knew that the gatekeepers would avoid the magic circles and take him an isolated corner, and there Lucien would have enough time to transform himself into one of the gatekeepers.
The high priest was also a sphinx but all of his four fuzzy legs were wrapped with black shrouds. He was the very one whom Lucien saw beside the Saint"s Gate. Right now, the high priest was staring at Lucien coldly with his pure black eyes.
Lucien felt that the look of the high priest was somehow amusing, but still, he lowered his head, pretending that he was nervous and afraid, "Your Holiness, I just saw a tomb guard violating the rules. He was running around. When I stopped him, he was showing no respect to me. So… so I taught him a lesson on how to behave."
The high priest took a careful glance at Lucien from tip to toe. The look was extremely cold and carried the smell of death.
Lucien controlled his muscles to pretend that he was slightly trembling. He made his heart beat a bit faster, showing that he was feeling anxious.
After carefully checking Aska, the high priest asked slowly, "You used magic?"
His tone was rather flat and emotionless.
"He tried… to fight back… It wasn"t on purpose!" Lucien hurriedly answered in a pretended stammering way. In fact, Lucien did that on purpose to make the high priest notice the magic waves.
If Lucien had just simply left Aska there, within ten minutes, Helges would definitely come to find Fil, and that would be the end of everything that Lucien planned. Thus, he had to find the chance to send "Fil" back first.
Lucien used Transformation and turned Aska into Fil. When he was doing so, he used two kinds of inherent spells of the sphinxes to hide the magic waves caused by Transformation. Therefore, Inke, although he was just around the corner, failed to notice it. Lucien had successfully turned himself into the gatekeeper, Aska, who used magic out of the great anger.
Lucien knew that the magic waves would always be detected by the magic circles in the tomb, and it was part of his plan that the high priest on duty tonight would come to them.
The high priest stared at Lucien"s eyes as if he could see through a lot of things. In Lucien"s eyes, the high priest saw anxiety, nervousness, and the lingering pleasure from giving the tomb guard a good punch.
"Aska, you should not use magic at any time in the tomb unless there are enemies here," said the high priest in the same flat tone, which made him sound like a dead creature, "Come to me after your s.h.i.+ft for the caning."
"Yes, Your Holiness," said Lucien depressively.
"You bring the tomb guard back to his team and leave him to the team leader to decide the punishment…" continued the high priest. "Tell the team leader to come to see me later as well."
The high priest would not let the tomb guard just lying on the floor like that. However, the high priest himself was too honorable to do things like that. Everything went as Lucien wished.
"Yes, Your Holiness," answered Lucien. His mind was full of joy.
After the high priest went back to the Saint"s Gate, Lucien took an angry glance at Inke and said, "Never talk to me again, you coward scorpion."
Inke was about to make some explanation out of his guilty conscience. Lucien"s words p.i.s.sed him off. Inke sneered and said, "Enjoy your caning!"
Lucien had easily ruined the partners.h.i.+p between the two gatekeepers, so he did not need to worry that Inke might find the truth from any further conversations between them. Dragging "Fil" on the floor, Lucien walked back to the hall in a pretty good mood.
...
Outside of the creepy hall filled with many black coffins, Helges roared angrily, "What did you do to him?!"
Lucien threw "Fil" on the floor and answered casually, "This scorpion was not being polite to me. So I taught him some lesson."
"You filthy scorpion! I"m his leader, and if he needs any lessons, I should be the one to give it!" Helges was very angry. He took a step forward and looked directly into Aska"s eyes. He was only about a fist"s distance away from Aska.
"So what? You want to beat me?" Lucien laughed hard, "Tell you what. The high priest wants to see you after your s.h.i.+ft. You are in trouble haha!"
Helges" anger suddenly disappeared and his voice trembled a bit, "What?"
"Haha, enjoy your caning." Lucien borrowed the words from Inke and turned around, behaving in the typical Aska"s manner.
Helges was very upset, but there was nothing he could do. He could only walk back and forth.
"Shall we find a priest to cure Fil…? So he can wake up earlier?" A tomb guard came to him, trying to please Helges.
"You idiot scorpion!" Helges lifted his front leg and kicked the guard hard. Then he bitterly stamped on Fil to release his anger.
No one dared to p.i.s.s off the high priest!
...
In silence, Lucien and Inke stood in front of the Saint"s Gate and started their s.h.i.+ft.
The high priest had also gone back to the stone room and continued to pray.
Time quickly pa.s.sed by, and the tomb became colder and colder. The power of death was boiling and shouting behind the gate as if countless undead creatures were hitting the gate with their pale, skinny arms.
In the silence, Lucien started to consider how he could go through the gate.
Rhine had left Lucien all the information he needed, including the magic circle design of the gate and the spells. Even as a legendary vampire, Rhine could not directly go through the gate.
Lucien secretly used his spiritual power and checked the gate. After making sure that the information he got was correct, he came up with the basic plan. He was about to use the very quick power change happening at the edge of day and night to hide his magic waves.
Everything went well for Lucien, except when Helges and his team patrolled by, Helges stared at Lucien a few times with great anger.
Before the early morning, at the darkest and coldest moment, the gate suddenly became unreal and distorted, as if it had been transformed into a shadow gate connecting to the h.e.l.l!
Under the strong smell of death and coldness, Lucien even could not help trembling slightly.
He was very shocked when he sensed the familiar atmosphere—the atmosphere from the World of Souls!
Although Lucien was not wearing Sun"s Corona, since he had been in the World of Souls and dealt with the senior-rank specters from there a few times, Lucien was sensitive enough to tell!
Lucien had so many questions in his mind:
Did Finks, the King of Sphinx, know about the existence of the World of Souls already? Was that the reason why he chose the place close to the gap connecting to the World of Souls to build his tomb?
Did that mean that the Kuo-toans" altar and Thanos" underground palace also had the gaps nearby?
Did Thanos know about the existence of the World of Souls? Was his death related to it?
Lucien had become more cautious and nervous about the World of Souls. He knew that it was not a good time for thinking too much. He tried to stay focused and waited patiently until the daylight arrived.
On the horizon, a slight touch of orange slowly rose and its divinity and grandeur pierced through the darkness.
As soon as the sun started to rise, a ray of sunlight somehow cast on the apex of the pyramid.
In the tomb, the horrible power of death hitting the Saint"s Gate suddenly retreated like snow melting under sunlight. The power retreated so fast that it caused very strong power waves.
The high priest was completely focusing on the Saint"s Gate, while Inke had seen this so many times, that he was simply looking at the front.
Suddenly, Lucien"s body rippled like water and a creepy transparent figure came out. Under the cover of his sphinx body, the transparent figure silently cast the spell and sneaked into the gate from underneath.
However, in front of the gate, Aska was still standing straight.
The fifth-circle illusionary spell, Persistent Image!
And the fourth-circle spell, Gaseous Form!