Red flipped the lid of the compass open and now saw that it was pointing in another direction to their right.

The boy warned his companions about the changes. “The compass is doing something!”

Narcha looked back at Red. “What?! How?!"

Red shook his head. “I don’t know! It started glowing, and now the arrow is pointed in another direction!”

He had checked the compass in the canyon and memorized the direction it had been pointing back then in the exact case something like this happened. It would have helped them locate themselves in case they got lost in another illusion, but perhaps not surprisingly, the item they had gotten from the imperials seemed to have another use.

“Where is it pointing?!” Reinhart asked over the sound of birds scratching at the barrier.

“There!” Red pointed it out.

It was to their relative southeast and away from the distant mountain they had been walking towards.

Narcha gritted her teeth. “There’s nothing there!”

“There’s nothing in any direction, Miss Valt!” Eiwin shook her head. “Let’s move, quickly!”

No one in the group argued against it. Their running speed was diminished by the fact they needed to stay close together inside the transparent shield, but it was still preferable to being exposed to the birds’ attacks. The beasts were relentless, though, and didn’t stop attacking at any second.

Soon enough, small cracks appeared on the barrier.

Reinhart was alarmed at the sight. “It’s not going to last much longer!”

The cracks seemed to motivate the vultures to double their efforts, and the minor fracture had spread into the entire shield half a minute later.

Narcha gritted her teeth. “What about the compass, kid?! Anything?!”

“It stopped glowing!” the boy said.

“What?!”

Indeed, the compass has stopped emitting light, and now it was pointing in another random direction.

“What happened, kid?!” Narcha asked.

Red frowned. “How would I know?! It has given us a direction, so just follow it!”

His reply didn’t seem to satisfy the woman. “Agh, damn it all!”

After some hesitation, Narcha pulled out a talisman from her bag, holding it in her hand.

“Stay close to me!” she said.

Everyone followed her instructions. Then, right as the barrier surrounding them seemed on the verge of collapse, she activated the talisman. A few seconds later, the first barrier completely broke, much to the joy of the dozens of vultures surrounding them.

However, right as they were about to swoop down and tear their prey apart, another barrier emerged in the place of the first one, and their talons all clashed against it, being deflected.

They cried out in anger.

Narcha had used the barrier talisman they had acquired from the imperials, buying the group even more time.

She looked over at the others. “Let’s be quicker! I don’t have another talisman!”

Despite her words, the group was already running as fast as they could in their awkward formation. At most, they could buy themselves a couple of minutes with this talisman.

Right as the first few signs of cracks appeared in the barrier, Reinhart finally spotted something ahead. “There’s a building!”

“What?!” Narcha didn’t believe him at first.

However, as they got closer, everyone also spotted it. Something shimmered in the air, becoming more tangible the closer they got to it. When they got within a hundred meters of it, it became fully clear in their eyes.

It was a very large temple, seemingly built of black stone bricks. From the side they were looking, there were no windows or openings that allowed them to see into the building, and the construction itself seemed to have no apparent symbols. All they count see was a wide stone gate with two circular rusted handles attached.

Narcha didn’t hesitate when she saw that. “To the door!”

Everyone followed behind her. To their surprise, though, the birds seemed to grow increasingly reluctant to attack them the closer they got to the temple. Once they had reached the doors, the monsters completely ceased their attacks, and instead began to circle the area while observing the group.

This gave them some time to relax and collect themselves - and right as their second shield was getting close to breaking too.

“They’re afraid of the temple.” Red said, watching the vultures overhead. “Or of whatever is inside it.”

It was a common sight for lesser monsters to avoid places where stronger beasts dwelled. It was instinctual behavior for monsters, and this was what the boy guessed was happening.

“Do you sense anything, kid?” Narcha asked.

The boy shook his head. “Not from this position.”

The range of his detection was of roughly one hundred meters, and this temple was at least 200 hundred meters across from this side, and over 30 meters tall with its triangle-shaped roof. It was a massive construction, and even Red couldn’t cover all of it with his crimson sense in one go.

“Let’s move around, then.” Reinhart said as he observed the monsters. “Doesn’t look like the birds are eager to attack and I’d rather not walk into another horde of beasts.”

No one protested against his suggestion. They circled the building, finding similar stone gates on each side. By the time they returned to their original position, Red had yet to detect any fluctuations.

“Really?” Narcha seemed confused. “Are you sure there’s nothing inside?”

Red shrugged. “I can’t say with complete confidence. There are blind spots I might not have been able to detect, but it is unlikely.”

The woman frowned. “If that’s the case, why are those birds so scared of it?”

“Monsters aren’t the only thing creatures like this are afraid of.” Eiwin said. “They may also avoid dangerous natural places, or perhaps there is a formation in place that may keep them away.”

“So, do you suppose this place is safe, then?”

The younger woman shook her head. “I didn’t say that. There might be other dangers here than monsters.”

This seemed to make Narcha even more worried. “What are we supposed to do in that case, then?”

Eiwin gave her a helpless smile. “Just continue being careful, I suppose.”

Narcha gritted her teeth and looked over at Reinhart. “Are you going to open the door or do you want me to do it?”

By this time, the shield they were using had worn off, and the group was back to taking a certain distance from Reinhart.

The knight smiled. “I’m on my way.”

The man walked over to the gate and pushed against it. To their surprise, the door barely moved.

Reinhart turned around and looked at Narcha with a sly grin. “I might need some help here.”

Narcha glared at him. “Just move aside!”

The man did as she said and let the woman approach. She put both of her hands against the double door and started to push. It seemed to take a lot of effort on the woman’s part, but she made quicker progress than Reinhart, and soon enough, the doors were open wide enough to let them through.

Narcha stepped back and wiped the sweat off her forehead. “Gods, why would they make a door so heavy?”

“Maybe it was meant to keep people from going in.” Red said.

The woman frowned. “If they didn’t want people going in, why make a door at all?”

The boy didn’t have a response to that.

Their attention turned back to the building as the group filed in. The place was in pure darkness, and while Reinhart and Red could see, the same couldn’t be said for Narcha and Eiwin. As such, Narcha lit up a torch after confirming with Red again that there was no monster waiting for them in ambush.

They walked inside into a large stone corridor. As soon as the boy looked around, though, he immediately noticed something strange about the place.

“This is not right.” he pointed up. “The ceiling is way higher than it should be.”

The building from the outside looked around 30 meters, and yet here Red felt like the distance to the ceiling was well beyond that. This alarmed the entire group.

“Were we teleported somewhere else? Narcha asked.

“I don’t think so.” Red shook his head. “The outside world is still there.”

Indeed, the door behind them remained open, and the desert and its tornadoes still waited beyond it.

“Another illusion then?” Reinhart suggested.

“Not necessarily.” Eiwin shook her head. “Some extremely powerful cultivators can manipulate space to some degree. Making a space bigger on the inside than it seems from the outside is not entirely unheard of in the world.”

Narcha scoffed. “You talk about it as if it’s common! I’ve only heard of a few places like that before, and they’re all in the holy lands of the Sects!”

The younger woman sighed. “As I said, I don’t know for sure. Whether it’s an illusion or some other thing, it doesn’t matter to us, does it?”

Narcha frowned. “I suppose not…”

The group kept examining their surroundings as they walked forward. The inside was still as devoid of symbols or decorations as the outside, and they weren’t able to derive any clues from the corridor they were walking on. Red also saw no signs of footprints, which came as a relief to his companions.

As they got deeper into the temple, the smell of stale air became even more pronounced.

Narcha rubbed her nose in discomfort. “How long has it been since this place has been opened? No wonder there’s nothing alive in here!”

The corridor continued to lead them well past one hundred meters, over half the length of the temple from the outside, until the group finally arrived in a large circular room. To call it a room, though, would be doing it injustice.

The place resembled an indoor amphitheatre, around a hundred meters in diameter and with steps leading down towards the central platform. The chamber also seemed to be incredibly tall, going well beyond what Red’s eyes could see with his dark vision. But that wasn’t all.

Hundreds of segmented squares made up the walls of this place, all with name-plates on them that the boy had a hard time seeing from the distance. In fact, the more Red looked at it, the more they seemed to resemble drawers.

“This isn’t a temple…” Eiwin said with a shaken voice. “This is a crypt.”

The boy frowned. “What is a crypt?”

She looked at him with a troubled expression. “It’s where people’s remains are buried.”

“Oh…” Red nodded in realization. However, as he stared around, the weight of her words seemed to hit him. “Wait, are those…”

“Graves.” Reinhart was the one to respond. “Every one of these drawers probably has someone's bones inside of it.”

The revelation shook the boy. There were hundreds of such drawers in the room, perhaps even thousands. And from what Red could see, there was something written in all of them. He couldn’t imagine why something like this would be inside a trial.

“Fellow cultivators… Please, help me,” a voice sounded from the center of the chamber.

Everyone’s hands immediately went to their weapons.

“Who’s there?!” Narcha asked with an alarmed tone.

“I’m here, fellow cultivators,” the voice responded. “Don’t be alarmed.”

Something shimmered in the center of the chamber, and a translucent figure appeared out of thin air.

“A g-ghost?!” Narcha trembled.