Yul steadied his mind, dispelling the faint fear in his heart.
Though the fear subsided, thinking of the message delivered by Rael, he couldn't quite relax.
He watched the elderly village chief, paused, and then slowly spoke, "Rael requests that we increase the number of sacrifices..."
"What?!"
People murmured amongst themselves, showing looks of surprise.
The hunched-back old chief furrowed his brows, the wrinkles on his face deepening with worry.
"How could this be," he sighed.
But in the next moment, his expression swiftly constrained as he turned to those gathered and calmly announced, "Let's follow the rules."
"Yes," the others quickly accepted the reality without any objections.
Then they all dispersed to prepare for the selection ceremony.
Yul also followed and left the cave hall.
"Marz," he suddenly called out with a frown to someone not far off.
"Where are you going?!"
Marz paused in his steps, turned back, and said,
"I'm going to notify the travelers at the dock! The Light of Rael has appeared, Nightmare is sure to come tonight, I have to warn them!"
Having said that, he turned and continued to run towards the distance.
A puzzling look crossed Yul's eyes as he suddenly spoke again,
"Stop, Marz."
Marz turned his head to look at him, with a somewhat confused expression.
"This time, the Light of Rael has appeared ahead of schedule, and the number of sacrifices has also increased... Everything is different from before. It's better for you to stay in the village to avoid any mishaps," Yul explained gravely, but anyone paying close attention could spot an indescribable look in his eyes.
"As for those travelers, one could only say they have bad luck."
"But..." Marz hesitated.
Thump!
At this moment, a two-meter-high bonfire suddenly ignited in the clearing beside the ancient tree.
A group of villagers in pale yellow patterned clothing quietly stood around the fire.
"The ceremony has begun, come with me," Yul retracted his gaze and said again.
Behind him, the orange glow of the bonfire cast his face into shadow. Yul looked at Marz, his lips slightly moving, and said in a deep voice,
"Geyle village can't afford to lose any more people, Marz."
Marz looked up at him, and after a moment, nodded his head and walked towards the bonfire.
Yul behind him watched his figure, his calm eyes reflecting the burning flames.
He scanned the group and walked towards the stooped figure on the very left.
"Village chief," Yul began.
"Do you have something to say?" The old chief looked at him, puzzled.
Yul's lips slightly moved.
Meanwhile, right next to the bonfire, a skinny man with a green leaf headdress just happened to clap his hands against a drum marked with strange beast skins.
Boom.
Inside the Sea Swallow's Meditation Room, Colin raised his hand, clenched his fist, and forcefully knocked on his chest.
The dull sound echoed through the Meditation Room.
His face showed a bit of surprise, then, with a thought, he opened his right palm.
A dim flame suddenly appeared in the center of his palm.
Colin slowly placed his left hand over the flame but did not feel the expected burn; instead, it was just a warm sensation.
This flame was probably around a thousand degrees in temperature, too hot for the flesh to withstand. Obviously, he had used Temperature Resistance Witchcraft.
But in fact, he was now using only one witchcraft.
As he had also broken through his High Temperature Tolerance until it turned gold, he suddenly realized that High Temperature Tolerance was also a type of Defensive Witchcraft.
So he tried to integrate it with the new witchcraft that had combined from both Steel Armor and the Hope Defense Field.
The result was the unnamed Defensive Witchcraft currently bolstering him.
Perhaps it could be named "Steel Temperature Resistance Field," Colin mused.
As he pondered, the characters on the Golden Paper began changing correspondingly.
[Steel Temperature Resistance Field (0/100)]slowly emerged.
Furthermore, the Fireball Technique had also been broken through.
Unlike the Arrow Shooting Skill, the Steel Armor, and other witchcraft, which turned gold on the second limit breaking, achieving their limit.
The Fireball Technique, after the second limit breaking, did not turn gold... this meant that it could be improved even further.
This implied that Fireball Technique had more potential than some other witchcraft like Arrow Shooting Skill.
As he thought about this, Colin walked out of the Meditation Room, intending to return to the main bedroom to rest.
Dang.
But after only a few steps, his brow suddenly furrowed.
Tilting his head slightly, he listened intently.
Dang!
A harsh clashing sound suddenly burst forth, and not just once - it was one after another, relentless.
Dang! Dang! Dang!
It sounded as if a group of large fish were continuously slamming into the Sea Swallow.
"Attention, we are under unknown attack," the mechanical voice of the Sea Demon's Heart announced.
Colin's expression changed, and he quickly made his way towards the deck!
Renee and others noticed the disturbance and came out.
"Master."
"My Lord."
They both cast inquiring glances at him.
"I don't know the specifics, let's go up and see."
Colin answered and continued walking briskly.
At night, the Sea Swallow's Protective Shield would always be turned on, attacks from anyone below the status of an Official Wizard were unlikely to break it.
The Sea Demon's Heart had not given any indication of the Protective Shield being damaged.
Thus, he was not too alarmed yet.
But the next second.
Bang!!
A collision sound far more intense than before rang out.
Colin felt a sinking feeling.
The impact was so strong and heavy that even the massive Sea Swallow began to shake violently.
He couldn't help but quicken his pace.
Soon, he reached the deck.
In the dark sky, the bright moon hung high, with only a few insignificant clouds skirting around it.
The silvery moonlight fell down, illuminating the surroundings, so that Colin didn't need to use any Light Brightness Skill to clearly see everything around.